The Middle Child

Chapter 14

It's been more than three months since Alyson has heard from the boys, and honestly, she's never felt more alone. Though the presence of Kai was a huge help.

His development seems to be going accordingly. He's now completely off the formula and completely relies on meat. Alyson hated having to feed him since it was raw and he got blood everywhere in her room.

Alyson gagged as she cleaned his most recent meal. She's been wondering how she's gonna teach him how to hunt.

Yeah, she knew how to hunt like a human and of course knew how to track animals, she had no clue how to teach Kai to do it. She wasn't a wolf and couldn't help him. She'd been searching high and low for another wolf in the forest but found none. This is gonna throw the whole ecosystem out of whack. Alyson wipes her face as she finishes cleaning the puddle of blood.

She's been taking him to the store so he can pick out treats, food, and toys. She's only been asked once what kind of dog he was. She's simply said he's a Kugsha. She'd been looking at dog breed that he looks like and decided that was the closest.

Alyson had even started working again. She started working at the ice parlour again. It was kind of boring but the lady who ran the shop loved dogs so Kai was allowed to come as long as he wasn't aggressive with the customers. But as it turns out Kai loves children and parents start to bring their kids more often which means more business for Alyson.

Kai was the only thing keeping Alyson grounded in the world. If he wasn't here, Alyson would've lost the will to keep going. Everything reminded her of the pack and reminded her of how they left her. Eventually, though she let her heart go cold whenever she thought of them.

She'd tried multiple times to contact them, and once even went as far to walk to their house. But she froze up at the door and ended up leaving as she heard them inside having so much fun. So she decided it was better not to interrupt and went home. She was hurt they moved on so fast, but it doesn't surprise her as she was just someone's sister after all.

Speaking of which, schools were starting up again. It reminded her of how much she hated school and how glad she was that she graduated and took a gap year. She saw a bunch of college students start to flood in the smallish town. She recognized a few of them from the football teams and her older siblings friend's.

Alyson mumbled a slur of curse words as her eye caught the time, she was about to be late for her shift. She and Kai ran downstairs. She'd told her parents about Kai, leaving out the fact he was actually a wolf, of course. As she turned down the hallway she hit what felt like a brick wall and fell on her ass.

"Oh, sorry about that," the wall spoke and offered her a hand. She warily accepted.

"Who are you?" Alyson asks not recognizing the wall of a man. He was lean and clearly well built, his coppery hair in a styled mess. His green eyes held eye contact with her as he responds.

"Kaden, and you are?" Kaden asks showing off a pearly white smile.

"Alyson, are you a friend of one of my siblings or something?" Kaden's smile grows and he nods.

"I'm Andrew and Nick's, friend. We're all on the baseball team together."

"Oh, okay then. Nice to meet you, Kaden, I've got to go now, bye," Alyson says quickly going around the tall red-head. He made no move to stop her.

Alyson opened the door for Kai and the two of them sped off to her workplace. The parkour was small so only one person was needed per shift, but sometimes the lady who owned it, Miss Jackson, would help out. Today was one of those days.

"Alyson! Glad to see you! Can you take this order to table three please?" Miss Jackson asks. She was on older black women and widowed. Her children all grew up and moved away. So she said screw getting old and die of loneliness, she was going to open an ice-cream parlour. She was kind yet always had a glint of mischief in her warm brown eyes. Alyson loved to be around this little woman.