Wolf-blood

What Happened?

I stepped in and saw Mikey tied up in the center of the tent, looking a bit worse for the wear. He had a bloody nose and bruises everywhere. Orvar was crouched in front of him looking mighty menacing. Orvar clutched the front of Mikey's shirt in his hand, and they were nose to nose.

"Orvar!" I shout, "What the hell are you doing?!"

He turned to face me, and said, "I didn't kill him, did I? He deserves death, for what he did to you, but per your request, I decided to just torture him. For now."

I thought of telling him to back off, but I didn't think he'd take it the right way. I really needed to talk to Mikey alone, but Orvar would just get mad or confused if I told him to back off. Instead, I said, "I never said he wouldn't receive punishment. But I want it to come from me. I want him to see me and feel shame for what he did."

Indie!

Vox...

Sorry, Artio! What do you think you're doing?!

Go with me on this. I've got a plan.

Orvar looked a bit worried and said, "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

He nodded, "Okay." Then he left the tent and I waited until I heard him sit at the fire before I went up to Mikey. He looked hurt, physically and emotionally. I didn't blame him.

"Tell me what happened when I was taken."

"What? No, 'You're a murderer!'? No, 'We're not friends.'? Well, I guess that's a start."

"Talk. Or I bring Orvar back in here."

"Oooohh, is big bad Orvar going to beat me up again?"

"No," I said, and at that moment a bit of dirt near him popped out into dust. "If you haven't noticed, I'm in allegiance with the Earth Mother. I could easily kill you right now. But I don't want to. I want to hear your story about what happened to me that night, because, as of now, I am on the fence about it. Now please, tell me."

"Okay. I don't know all of it because I was still going through my first change, but what I gathered was this..."

Flashback

"Hey, how's she doing?" Marc asked as he sneaked up behind me.

"Oh, you know, it's never good to hear your best friend crying out in pain and not being able to do anything about it. She's right now in her room blasting music to block out his whimpers," I responded with a sad glance in his direction.

He sighed. "Maybe I was too hard on her. She really tried to rope in her wolves, I mean I could see the conflict in her eyes, but I was just so angry. That probably makes me an awful father."

"Don't say that. You're a great father to Indie, and you always will be."

"I'm just so worried about her. I mean, we have to tell her soon. She needs to know."

"I know. I'm worried about her too. But if we tell her, she'll look at us differently, and I don't think I can handle my girl looking at me like that," I replied lamely.

"I don't think I'll be able to stand it either. But she deserves to know the truth."

"Some day. But not today." A whimper escaped from downstairs and I flinched. "Listening to him is almost as bad as listening to Indie. We're practically family after all."

"Yeah, I know. How about we take the Indie approach and go blast music in our room to block out the noise?" my husband suggested.

I smiled. "Alright. The Indie approach it is." We started walking up to our room when we suddenly heard a loud crash and scream from Indigo's room. I panicked. "Indigo?!" I called as I bolted to her room. I opened the door and was greeted by a boy, about eighteen, holding a limp body with a sack over its head. Indie. I rushed forward to pry them apart, but I was hit by something in my side and slumped to the floor.