Forgotten Bloodline

Chapter 10: How? Why?

I was frozen in shock. My brother?! I was an only pup. Plus, my dad died my first month in this world.

I studied this dog up and down, he seemed to be a few years younger than me, but something was sort of familiar on him. A bit of my mother's coat was mixed in his fur, as well as some other males.

"How? I was an only pup." I spoke quickly as I looked at him with startled eyes.

He only smiled as he looked at me with his brown eyes. "For your litter, yes. But, umm." he trailed off as he seemed to lower his flopped ears a little. "My father, was your step father. The. The one you killed." He hesitated to speak as he looked at me with sad eyes.

"M-my stepfather? Your. Your his son? But, I.." I trailed off my words. My body physically relaxed a little but mentally I was on alert for any trickery this dog would try. I tilted my head, sorrow in my eyes as I looked at him.

Aaron nodded as he looked at me with a little bit of a frown. "Yeah, I know. Mom was already two weeks pregnant with me when that happened." He whined a little as he looked at me.

I was ready to just break down in tears. I took his father from him. How could I?

I couldn't help but whimper, my ears lowered as I felt tears forming in my eyes. "I.. I'm so sorry... I didn't... I didn't know." I could feel the tears running down my face as I looked at the ground with my tear filled eyes.

I was caught by surprise when I felt his head on the back of my neck and his shoulder by my head. "Don't be. You couldn't of known."

I looked at him before resting my head against his shoulder. "But, I took away a chance for you to have a father. That wasn't right." The tears just kept coming as I tried to stop them. The more I tried, the more that came.

"Maddie, he was a horrible dog. Mom soon came to realize that."

His words hit me hard. It felt like someone just threw a stone against my heart. I was so quiet as I could not believe it. Mom actually changed her view point of seeing he was the one who hurt me? That I acted out of self defense?

"Mom, changed her point of view?" I lifted my head and rested in on the top of his shoulder.

"Yeah. A week after she threw you out, she got a call from the police and she was told the truth about my dad. He was a known abuser towards pups. He was even accused of murdering a pup out of cold blood but the charges didn't stick."

His words were a shock but yet, a relief to my soul. We got out of the hug and just looked at each other. "But, why didn't mom try to find me? And, how did you know about me and what I looked like?"

Aaron smiled as he sat down, his tail wagging a little. "Mom had so many pictures of you when you were a growing pup. She told me so much about you and how she hoped that you would find your way back to us someday."

That still didn't answer a question that now lingered in my heart. "Why didn't she search for me?" I could hear anger in my own words as I repeated the question.

Aaron frowned as he looked at me, lowering his ears. "She felt like you would just run off from her if you saw her. She didn't even know where to start searching either."

I snarled as I pinned my ears. "That's no excuse! She could have put up posters of a missing pup! She could have at least tried to look for me!" I continued to snarl as I glared at the ground. She could have done so many things but instead, she just sat on her ass and did nothing. Not even put up posters.

"Maddie, she had no idea what to do. She was a pregnant mom who had suffered the loss of her only daughter, witnessing a murder, and would have soon been a single mother of two pups. She had a lot on her mind."