Book 1. The long dark nights. RE-EDITING

8. Anger management 101. EDITED

Artos laid there on the ground. Almost all of his strength was gone from him. He looked at Hinto. He stood there, looking in his eyes. He saw Talia run to Hinto. She said something to him, Artos couldn't understand, 'cause his ears were ringing. A few seconds later his strength started returning. Hinto walked up to him and said. "You need to manage your anger, else it will get you into trouble." And with that, Hinto ran off into the woods. Artos stood up. Talia walked over to him. "He didn't mean what he said, Artos." Artos looked at Talia.

"Well, my mother taught me to say what I mean and mean what I say."

And now, he ran off into the woods. Of course he ran in the opposite direction of Hinto. He ran his top speed, and as far as he could. When he could go no further, he dropped to the ground. He stayed there for about five to ten minutes before he heard the sound of running. He got up and hid behind a big rock.

He could hear whoever it was getting closer. When they got about five yards from his hiding spot, they slowed to a walk. He smelt who it was. Maria. He stayed completely silent. Maria sniffed around until she locked on to Artos's scent. She jumped up on the big rock.

"Not too good at hiding, are you?"

"Well, I didn't have all that much time to hide."

"Yeah, well, you'll need to practice that a bit."

She jumped off the rock next to Artos. "And, you need to know something." Her voice sounded like she was a little upset. "Our Alpha would never do anything like that if it didn't serve a purpose."

"Maria.."

"Let me finish. You need to fix your anger if you want in. To the group that is."

Artos grinned. "Well..."

"I'm not done. He said that to test how little your fuse was. The way he went away, it seems that yours must be the shortest one probably he's ever seen."

After a minute of awkward silence, Artos spoke up. "Are you done?"

Maria looked at Artos. "Yeah."

"Thank you. Now, first of all, nobody talks about my father like that! I don't care if Himtoe is an Alpha or not."

"Artos."

"Now I'm not done. He had no right to say those things about him!" Artos turned away from Maria.

"All of my family is dead. I looked up to my father as a hero. When he died, mom was very sad. And she wouldn't tolerate any of the actions that he was accused of. I think that when he met ma, he decided to clean up his act. Ma described him as a good wolf who cared a lot about his family. If he didn't care when he was here, then he did change because out there, he actually cared."

He looked at the full moon. A tear slipped from his eye. All the pain from his nine months and twenty-five days of life came to him all at once. News of his father and siblings death. His mothers sickness. His own sickness. His mothers death. Leaving the only place he knew for three months. Mystical powers. Finding out his father was a traitor. Hinto's speech. And now, he hurt deep down inside. Nothing felt worse than the feeling he felt now. It felt like he would die. The pain was excruciating. He dropped to the ground, and started crying cause the pain was so great. All he could do was let the pain pass.

He didn't notice Maria sat next to him. She also had pain written on her face. It was like she could feel the pain as well. And, as he would find out later, she was feeling part of that pain that Artos felt. She dropped down next to him. She laid her paw on his front leg. He felt a little better when she did that.  When he realised what she did, he looked at her. "Whats happening to me?" He asked in a voice he didn't know he had. It sounded as if he had been crying, for he had. "I don't do this. I don't cry. I don't feel this much pain."

"You dealt with a lot in the short life you already lived. Its only natural for something like this to happen when told about.. Ehh.. With all that you were told in such a short amount of time."

"But not to me." He said, his voice regaining its strength.

He stood up. He looked back at the moon. "You made a mistake!" He yelled at it. "I'm not strong enough! I can't protect anyone!"

Maria stood up, and faced him.
"You stop that." She said. "Your family's death wasn't your fault."

"Thats only part of the meaning of what I said." He said.

"What?" She asked, tilting her head.

"Nothing." He said, sitting down.

"Well, either way, you need to manage your anger. In a battle, your anger could get you or one of us killed. It's important to not take your anger out on anyone that you shouldn't. Like the team or Innocents."

He looked at Maria. "Okay." From all that happened today, he was tired. He laid down. Maria laid down as well. They both drifted off to sleep. Artos thought he heard his mother talking to him as he went to sleep. But he was so tired, he couldn't really tell what was being said. Then he slept.

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Another Edited Chapter