Chapters of a Life (Complete)

Part 21

Nothing but my best would do. That had become my mantra when the lessons seemed tough instead of just pushing on I would stop and take a breath. Allowing myself to regroup and then forge ahead. Life was good. We had continued to travel for two weeks when again stopped early in the day near a large body of water at the foothill of a mountain. "Bo we need to tell you about the next part of the journey" Uncle Liam said.

"Yes sir, I will be there after I get this fire lit," the wood was damp and did not want to lite, but after several false starts and some help of a ruined book it started.

Looking around to locate Uncle Liam I spotted him on the shore and made my way over to him. "Will we be climbing into these mountains, they look so fierce."

Uncle Liam raised his head from the water to take in the vista. "No Bo, we have come to the edge of our pack territory. Tomorrow we will be home."

Home a word that finally had a meaning other than den. I was so excited, but seconds behind that excitement was fear and following that fear were questions 'would they like me', 'would they accept me' 'would they want a runt' 'did they know my parents'. Millions of questions flashed through my mind in a millisecond.

"STOP" was the forceful word that broke my rever. "I can hear your mind spinning and smell your fear and anxiety."

"But what if they don't like me or want me in their pack? What if they hate me? Do they know who my parents are, do they hate them? Do they know I'm a run...." I ran out of words as Grandpa, Papa, and Uncle Sten crushed me in an all-out hug.

"Bo put your fears to rest. There are many people in this world, not all of them will like you. That is not for you to worry about. Just be yourself and those that like you will like you for the right reason and those that don't well they will be missing out on a great person." Atsadi said. We had found Atsadi a while back baking in the sun, he had been wounded but had somehow survived the wound but did not look like he would survive the lack of food or water. Uncle took one look at my face and had Uncle Sten give Atsadi food and water then tossed him on the back of one of the mules. With a short period of time, the food and water did its job and he was well, but instead of moving on he swore loyalty to me, as I was the one who convinced my pack to save him. Turned out he is a puma shifter and although they are mostly solitary it seems his cat and he agreed that I was worth putting up with my pack for.

All I could do was smile, he gave great advice. "Thank you. What else do we need to discuss?" The fire was now hot and I was calm, my tummy was starting to do some talking of its own.

"We will finish this while we eat otherwise you will scare off all the game for miles around." Uncle Liam said smiling. Sometimes it was hard for me to believe that this was the same male who scared me so badly a short time ago. It seemed the closer we traveled home the younger he became.

"Has everyone now got what they need and are you settled?" Uncle Liam was ready to eat and we had not had the easiest of meal preparations, so it was understandable why he was so snarky. A rattler had crawled into camp, then a bear chased a deer through the horses and mules, all the while I had been trying to cook some venison stew which the bear tried to take when he scented the easier meal. It was chaos for several minutes while the snake was captured and killed, the bear was fought and killed, and I managed to keep the stew cooking and not burn it. Although the biscuits did get a little dark. "Alright we will eat then everyone will take care of the meat and clean up while Bo and I talk." With that said we ate in silence, no one wanting to upset the Alpha anymore than he already was.

"I am ready when you are Uncle Liam." I stood up and washed my plate off in the lake. Upon returning it to my things I stood next to him.

He, in the meantime, had handed his plate over to someone else and had stood to stretch out. Glancing down at me he began to move away from the fire. "There are people here who knew your father and many of them hoped that he would join us out here. They will welcome you with open arms, as you are a part of him. Others will ignore you, I doubt anyone here will hate you. So relax your mind and listen. This is the Southern border it goes for many miles to the West as the Eastern boundary is this lake in this corner. When we enter it will alert the pack to our presence, they will send several wolves out to see who we are. At this point, I do not want you to speak."

"Yes, sir."

"Bo from now on you call me Alpha Liam in business settings and everwhere else Uncle Liam. Sir is only when we are around humans, got it?"

"Yes, sr.. I mean yes, Uncle Liam." I said smiling.

"Good, now there are not any new rules just a new schedule and new lessons." At my face, he frowned. "But those will start after you are settled. Happy now?" He looked me in the eye and smirked.

My response was to launch myself at him knocking us both into the water. "We Uncle we do stink and so this is not a bad thing if we are going to be home tomorrow. Who wants to show up smelling this bad?" Our splash and my words caused the others to come round with supplies for bathing.

It took us no time at all to scrub ourselves clean the only downside was our clothing had been trail cleaned and was not as fresh as we now were. At that moment I missed the smell of my laundry fresh off the line. Laundry was hard work to do but I sure did miss it now that I had no truly clean clothes.

"Bed now child, tomorrow is a big day," Papa said tucking me into my mat.

"Night everyone," I said as my eyes floated shut and my mind wandered back to Pack Wolfe and what everyone there was doing.