The Secrets of The Reverence Pack

Chapter 9: The Art of Falling Apart

"Shiro!" Geo's voice came in his head. He sounded alarmed. "Where are you? I can't find you anywhere!"

"Something came up," he told him, still running for home. "Grab my back pack from the bench by the forest. It has my keys in it."

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you after school," he said. "I'm heading home early for the day."

He broke of communications with him after that. His mind was too shocked at what had just happened. And the pain from leaving his mate like that was rippling through him. He used it to fuel himself to run faster.

It wasn't until he got onto their territory that he noticed a familiar scent. If it were any other circumstance, he would be happy to find her here. At the moment, though, all he wished was to hide in the deepest hole that he could make.

She still found him, though. Hiroko was always good at knowing when something was wrong. She ran right next to him, not saying a word to him. He knew that she could smell the scent that Jett had left all over him. He knew that she could tell that the curse was affecting him worse than before. He felt like a madman, trying to do anything to ease the pain.

She directed him to one of the small huts that they had scattered around their lands. It was far enough in the forest that no one of importance could smell the mysterious scent coming off from him. Once they were there, she changed into her human form and threw a robe on. Her human form was taller than Shiro's. She had short black hair, with the same eyes that they both had inherited from their mother.

"Change, Shiro," she told him. All he did was whine in response. After losing control, he lost what had grounded him. It wouldn't take long to get it back. But, at the moment, he was weak.

"Please, Shiro," Hiroko placed her hand gently on his head. "Let me take care of you."

Shiro listened to her. She was the only one he could fall back on at the moment. And the only family that he could trust.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. She quickly carried him into the hut and grabbed some supplies from inside. He could barely use his legs at the moment. "I thought you weren't going to be in town until Thursday?"

"Do you really think I would let you go through all of this by yourself?" she asked. The hut quickly filled with an incent that she had lit. It was the best at hiding scents. "Stay there while I start a bath."

He did as he was told. That was all he had ever done his whole life. Following order after order, no matter how he wished he could be free from the clutches of responsibility.

"You are strong, Shiro," his grandfather said. "The Spirit of the Moon shines her blessings onto you."

"But I thought you said that you never know how strong you are until you use it?"

"You already have been, Shiro," the old man knelt down and touched his chest where his heart was. "You have had to learn responsibility at an early age. You are already one of our best fighters, even with how young you are. You have shown your strength plenty, my boy. And that is the reason why the Spirit of the Moon shines down on you. For you are her blessing to us."

He remembered that day. That was just after his thirteenth birthday. It was one of the last things that his grandfather had told him.

"Grandfather lied to me, Hiroko," he said. His body was burning, even without any clothes on.

"Grandpa never lied, Shiro," his sister shook her head. The sound of running water was soothing as it promised some kind of reprieve from this pain.