Surprise

Chapter 17: Prophecy Child

We did not, indeed, discover a girl lying in wolf shock while in the woods.

In fact, the serenity and scenery of the surroundings was tranquil and void of life altogether.  It was peaceful, yet disturbing in ways.  The silence of anything other than our own footsteps and dead pine needles from the previous winter and the flowing water in the stream where Stella had first discovered me was strange.

My heart pounded as I jogged, trying to keep up with Stella, with much less difficulty than I would have had earlier that week.  As a wolf, I knew the work outs were helping me much quicker than they would a human.  As wolves, our senses and endurance are heightened, making us able to improve easily.

It was in these woods where I thought for the first time about Connor, without my eyes so much as threatening to shed a tear.  “What had I done wrong?  Had I done anything wrong?  Perhaps it was just partially shock that caused him to react in such hatred.”

These were questions that my instinctive side asked, in hopes I’d forgive him.  I knew I would, whether my logical side wanted to or not.  If he asked for it, all would be forgiven and forgotten.

Of course, there was the question that my logical side was dying to ask.  It was the question my wolf side suppressed.  The question that found favor in me never speaking to Connor again.

“Am I better off without him?”

I knew the answer, though I could not quite form the word in my mind.  Part of me knew I could never love someone so closed up and harsh.  So secretive and hateful.  He was the most judgmental person I’d known my whole life, even in Maine.

Yet there was the burning sense that he was vital to my life.  A burning desire for him consumed me, like flames in a bonfire, bright and scary.

“I think we should rest for a minute,” Stella panted as we neared the familiar stream.  She sat down on the boulder that she had been on when we first met.  I remained standing, but let myself lean on Tyler who stood next to me.

Stella handed us water bottles, and we drank thirstily, draining half the bottle.  We had run two miles, looping back around to here.  “How much longer,” I asked.

Stella shrugged.  “Well, I usually leave from here.  The question is do we go the long way or the short way?”

“Long way.”  I wanted to stay here in the woods as long as I could so I could continue to think.

“Short way,” Jack argued.  “I hate these woods.”

I nudged him.  “Just think, Jack; if we take a while longer, the longer we can put off yesterday’s homework.”

He brightened up.  “Alright!  Long way it is!”

I laughed.  Of course, just like all other boys, the best motivation is procrastination.  He walked to the water running quickly away from him and cupped his hands, trapping water in tem, and splashed it on his sweaty face.

“Let’s go!”

Stella stood up and collected our water bottles from us and put them in her small back pack and slung it over her shoulders and began jogging, not saying another word, and Jack and I quickly caught up with her.

I was able to spend the rest of the run sorting out my feelings, though in all honesty it got me nowhere.  I was still confused and just as lost in my own mind when we returned to the circle pack house as when we left that morning.