hybrid on the run #wattys2018

chapter 17. Pack healer (Luke)

We all phase back to human form together and keep our eyes from turning red. The last thing we need is for Ella (alpha wannabe) to get wise and try to kill our true alpha. we all go home to our respective homes, everyone having an alibi. I go straight to bed. In the morning I wake up to the smell of pancakes and bacon as usual, my baby brother cooking breakfast because I overslept again. As Oliver is dishing me out a plate, he tells me that a girl is coming over from outside the pack, and that mom still hasn't come home. It's been 6 weeks since she was last seen. I'm barely listening as he goes on and on about the girl coming over, I'm so deep in thought. That is, until he says that she's human. I explain what happened last year, being careful not to tell him about last night, and that the girl cannot under any circumstances come here. I tell him to go find the girl and fix it before an innocent life is lost. I make sure he doesn't lose hope or begin to think that it's okay to specist. Humans are not bad people. They're just different than us. After breakfast I attend to my mother's usual duties within the pack, which means I have to try and remember all of the herbal medicines my mother tried to teach me. As I'm about to skip out on pack duties and go hang out with Andrew and Ethan, I hear screaming outside. One of the cubs, Harper, got mad and accidentally phased for the first time, her claws catching her baby brother's face in the process. I hear parents screaming. I jump out the window and rush to his side out of instinct. As I get close I can smell his blood and have to hold my breath to keep my eyes from turning red and exposing me. I can see a few others from last night coming out to inspect the situation, hanging back from the crowd as the smell of fresh blood hits their noses. A few of them retreat back into the the safety of their homes. I'm taking the role of pack healer while mother is gone leaving her children to fend for themselves. They carry poor Jaxton into our hut. I can feel my canines grow and sharpen as I fight to keep my eyes from changing. Searching for the medical supplies, I focus on my breathing long enough to calm down. I find the peroxide, some Q tips, thread, needle, and sterilize solution. The others have to hold him down while I peroxide his wounds, and stitch his cheek up. They take him home, and I go to the river for a bath. As I'm watching the blood flow downstream, my eyes change. It isn't until it's too late that I realize that I've been followed. I look up to see my baby brother's horrified face. Just as he's about to run I appear in front of him. I hold him gently but firmly by the arms and look him in the eyes, assuring him that I would never hurt him. I explain everything, being sure not to tell him where headquarters is. I don't want him knowing where it is, or getting any bright ideas. He's too young to fight this war. He's only 11. I assure him that things will get better even if I have to die for him to live freely. There's no excuse for the way that Ella treats the pack or forces them to live. I mean, can you even live one day without running water? I didn't think so, and yet, we aren't even allowed to leave the forest unless it's in secret and Ella is with us. I'm not going to let my baby brother live in a world where he isn't allowed to have any connections with people outside of the pack, especially now that mother is gone. I watch in horror as he takes his antler knife out of his satchel and cuts his finger open. I try my damnedest to keep my shit together, but it's increasingly difficult. I know my eyes have changed when he flinches back for a second then returning back to his original position, clearly determined to stand his ground. He comes closer watching my struggle.
"Stand BACK Oliver! I don't want to hurt you!" He simply replies with an "I don't care" and comes farther forward. I take a running leap into a tree so that I'm wounded in case something happens. I put my back to said tree and get as close to it as my body will physically let me. My breathing hitches the closer he gets, and as I'm reaching the peak of my stress, I find myself praying that some unseen force would bound me to the tree. Before he can get the blood to my face for me to really lose it, vines shoot from the tree and wrap themselves around my hands. This takes us both by surprise, but after the initial shock, Oliver is right back to his dangerous game. He sticks his finger in my mouth, and in the split second that the blood begins to over throw my system, I pray that my entire body bounds to the tree, and it happens. My eyes turn jet black, and I black out.

Oliver's POV

I panick and take my finger out of my brother's mouth before he has a chance to bite it off. This is all too crazy. I want to abandon him, but if I did, what kind of brother and wolf would I be? I would be no better than mom. I run back to the pack as fast as I can, making sure to keep my thoughts hidden from Ella. I run to Ethan and tell him what happened. He gets Andrew and they follow me to where Luke sat snapping at air as if it were a deer during the full moon. Andrew tells me to stay with Luke and Ethan while he goes to get their new alpha. Running back with him is a girl just a little older than me. She's pretty. She brings with her a young skinny girl with really pale skin, washed out blonde hair, and bags about her eyes. She looked almost sickly. She explains that the girl is dying. The alpha did something with her hands and the vines loosened enough for him to move around the girl. He almost drains her, and then he does the strangest thing. He bites into his own wrist, and gives her his blood. He looks her in the eye and tells her to forget what just happened, and licks her wound, healing it almost instantly. He passes out against the tree, and the moment he loses consciousness the vines retract as if they had never even been there. He falls to the ground. The alpha and Andrew take Luke and the other girl away while Ethan takes me home despite my complaints.