The One

Chapter Two

Emerald's POV
    I was bolting over mossy logs and weaving in between trees, knowing I had surprised my brother by trying a different path home. Chase wasn't deterred for long though, he caught up in a matter of moments and now the two siblings were head to head, almost back to the cabin when Chase suddenly skidded to a stop and pricked his ears, I thought he'd fallen and triumphantly howled when I got to the cabin, only meters away.
I turned back and saw my brother looking horrified and shocked, 'Ha!' I linked him, 'finally won to you!' I did a little victory circle chasing my tail, when out of the blue, I sensed mom's overwhelming feelings of fear through the link, which must've been what caused Chase to stop dead in his tracks. I quickly shifted, "Chase! Go see what she's terrified of, I'll grab the knife and rifle, I'll be there soon!" Chase looked at me, petrified, "Go Chase!" I screamed, "mom's in danger!" In an instant Chase's eyes changed from petrified to furious, 'Nothing will get mom while I'm still standing' he linked me, breathing hard, then, in a blink of an eye, he was nowhere to be seen, racing towards our mother, and her provoker.
Knowing mom would have Chase I cleared the steps and threw open the door to the cabin as I rushed inside and grabbed the rifle and a box of rounds from above the door and grabbed my hunting knife, it seemed to gleam in glee at the prospect of cutting flesh. I was off in the blink of an eye, if mom had come across a corrupted wolf, the rifle or knife in hand to hand had proven to me to be a better option than my wolf Moon, I didn't want to risk losing her again.

                                     ***
When Chase came upon his mother, a man was standing over her cowering body, and he smelled her blood, without thought, Chase flew at the man, still in his wolf form, and sunk his teeth into the man's shoulder. 'It's not a corrupted wolf' he quickly linked his sister with relief clear in his wolf's voice.
Both Clyde and Maihra were taken by surprise, but when Maihra realized it was Chase clamping Clyde's shoulder and not a corrupted, she screamed, "Chase, stop it! That's your father!" Chase froze, he loosened his grip on Clyde, and the giant man scrambled away, holding his bloody shoulder.
    Chase shifted, astonishment on his face, "you said dad was dead," Maihra looked away, ashamed, as she explained to her son, "I wanted to protect you, so you wouldn't go seek him, and so that we could figure out why your sister is so different." Now it was Clyde's turn looked as astonished as his son, "What do you mean different and sister?" As Clyde was questioning the pair, a figure burst out of the bushes behind him causing him to spin.  His eyes took in a young woman with wild curls of red, yielding a rifle strapped across her body and a knife ready in hand slinking low to the ground in a crouch, "Mom, are you okay?" she asked tensely, her hazel green eyes changing to purple, "Is that the person I'm going to kill?" the young women gritted out. 'As if, I could easily take her' Cinder scoffed at the teens boldness 'that's our daughter' Clyde scolded. Chase stepped in front of her, tears welling in his eyes, "She lied to us Em, that's our father," the young woman froze, "What do you mean? Our father's dead, that's why we never met him or ever got to be with him, right mom?" She looked at her mother, who shook her head, eyes to the ground, not able to look at her children.
"What," Emerald whispered, she gently pushed past Chase, standing up, and got a better look at this mysterious man before her, injured, 'Chase, did you seriously have to almost kill him?' Emerald linked, Chase responded gruffly, 'he was standing over mom and I smelled mom's blood, what else would you have had me do'. "Are you okay?" Emerald asked Clyde, cautiously approaching him, knife still in hand. Clyde only nodded curtly as he took in the sight of these two teenagers and his lovely mate all alive and well.    
   "I'm lucky your brother didn't go for the jugular, I wouldn't have stood a chance with him," Clyde laughed, which resulted in the group relaxing a bit. "We have a strong son Maihra, and a gifted fearless daughter, I see" he stopped laughing and slowly walked over to his mate, the anger gone and replaced by the loving man she once knew, "I'm sorry for upsetting you, I didn't know this was why, I thought we weren't successful this time, again, and then I thought you left me because we couldn't have pups, I blamed you for so many years, and it wasn't your fault Maihra" Clyde said looking down as his shoulders slumped in defeat. 
Maihra's face was red and teary when Clyde finally looked up and gently raised her chin to look her in the eyes, "I'm so sorry Clyde, I felt something was different from our previous pregnancy and so I panicked and ran," she sobbed, "I didn't know what else to do. She came out something resembling a shaman aura but stronger and minutely different, I didn't want the seer to take her from me" this time Blister was talking for them, after all Maihra's wolf had sensed the pup's power before her.  "Maihra, my dear, I'm just happy to know you're alive and that we were successful, we have heirs to the pack now"