Broken Wolf

19

"Sneaking out again." I hear as soon as I get home.

"Yes." I answer.

"Are you doing anything dangerous?" The voice asks.

"No."

"I'm not your brother. I think you deserve some freedom. I won't say anything to him... just don't let him catch you." She tells me, and I smile.

"Thank you, Hannah." She nods, and I head to my room. This will be a lot easier with her on my side.

*'*'*'*'*

Weeks turned into months. My grounding only lasted a week. We've been here over a year now. It's been a few months since my injury. Hannah became my partner. Her rules were simple. I let her know when I leave and when I return. She doesn't tell Bane that I'm not sitting at home like a good little puppy.

"Hannah, I'm going out." I tell her about half an hour after Bane leaves.

"Don't stay out too long. Your brother plans on coming home for lunch." She warns me.

Bane has been working with the higher-ups in the pack house and is therefore gone most of the day. I convinced him that I needed to do my schoolwork from home because of my injury, and it was all too easy to get him to agree. I'm currently finished with this school year's assignments and nearly halfway through next year's. I designed a program to auto submit everything on time so I don't have to think about it, and no one knows how far ahead I am. I mean, there's only a couple of months left of school this year anyway. This setup has my days free, and I've been taking advantage of it.

I nod to Hannah with a small thanks as I head out. I swing my leg around in the air with each swing of my crutches. It's fun to see what all I can do now. I move fluidly with them to the point that when I goof off, it almost looks like a dance. Or at least that's what Braxton, the Beta's boy, told me, with a laugh, when he caught me making my way to the woods to train with Ember.

I dropped to my knee and used my good leg to swipe his feet before hopping up and pinning to the ground with the arm rest of my crutch on his neck.

"I don't dance." I remember telling him and seeing him gulp. He stopped laughing at me after that.

"You ready to go, pup?" I hear breaking me from my memories.

"Sure thing, Ember." I smile tossing him one of my crutches and beginning to adjust the other.

"That one, too." He says before I get too far.

I was not looking forward to this. I know at the start he said eventually I'd have to lose both crutches, but I guess I was just hoping he wouldn't push it. I don't want to look stupid.

"Do I have to?" I whine.

"If you want me to train you, yes." He answers already all business. Ember is in trainer mode.

"You won't laugh?" I ask, still feeling insecure. I see a softness cross his face, and he steps forward.

"Why would I laugh?" He asks, placing a hand on my crutch. "All I see is a strong pup and a budding young warrior." He continues tugging at my support. "Everyone looks a bit silly as they learn a new skill. No one is perfect overnight. If anyone laughs at you, I'm confident you can put them in their place. All removing the crutch will do is make you stronger." With that, he steps away carrying with him my crutch that I had let go without realizing. "Come on, pup. Prove me right."

He was right.

I fell on my face. Then I fell on my butt. Then my side. My other side. My butt again.

Eventually, I got the hang of it. The thing that made it work ended up being the same thing I started learning my first day here. The thing I couldn't do with a crutch. Rapid shifting. I can hop on one leg, drop to a knee, I even did a handstand at one point to deliver a kick to Ember's nose, (That required a break until the bleeding stopped) but the most effective method had me using my wolf form to get around and quickly shifting at random to land blows on my opponent.

"The sun is going down." Ember says, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Why do I always zone out for a good fight!" He scolds himself.

It took hours before I was comfortable on my one foot. We were just getting into a sparing match where I was holding my own when he realized the time. It's definitely a compliment when, as strong a warrior as Ember, calls sparing with you a "good fight," but all I can think of is, "Your brother plans on coming home for lunch."

I'm late for dinner as it is, and even if u beat Bane home, I can't explain where I've been all day.

"I'm screwed." I groan to myself.

"You'll be alright, pup." Ember tells me, but even he looks concerned. "You might still beat him home if you hurry. Just say you went for a walk... I mean, you did walk to get out here." He shrugs his shoulder as if to say,"It's not, technically, lying."

"Thanks." I call to him as I pick up my crutches and swing myself as far as I can towards the house. I even had a few seconds where neither crutch nor foot was on the ground. "See you tomorrow if I'm not dead!"