Orion

Twenty Two: In the Woods Somewhere

"I found something in the woods somewhere "

~*~

Doing what he had done took a lot of planning.

Orion wasn't born smart- hell, the pack members were the ones who kept saying that he was, he still didn't think he was. He was just... patient. He'd studied for years, concocting a plan that would benefit the pack. Obviously killing his family wasn't the first choice.  But nothing else had worked. The elders were just as bad as their Luna and Alpha. His father wasn't good at hiding it, but his mom was. Being as self serving as they were was something that was damn near impossible to hide.

Orion also had a feeling that something was going to happen way before he'd decided which way he was going to go about it all. It had been something more than a gut feeling, like he was sick to his stomach for months on end.

Like dread was the only thing he ate at meals, and it just settled inside him, never digesting.

Like someone else was telling him that something bad was coming.

He wouldn't admit that he may have thought the moon was telling him- especially not after she sent him on that wild goose chase to kill something that actually belonged to him.

He'd call it a gut feeling before admitting that to anyone.

Orion was good at a lot of things, but he'd never channeled that energy into something creative... until after his mother had taken up painting.

When he was seventeen he started a project.

She was so at peace when she had a brush in her hand, and she always looked so angelic when she was doing it. She'd started painting when he was ten, and when she started, she was nowhere near even being counted as being good at it. One day Lacey caught her youngest son sitting in the corner of her studio, watching silently.

"You are a very patient young man, Reiley," She'd randomly said to him during dinner. Warren and his father, Jeremiah, were out doing runs, so it was just the two of them,"But you spend too much time with your brother and your father. You're the closest thing to pure that I've got, love. I want you take up something, okay? Anything. That's where I messed up with Warren. I never taught him how to channel his emotions, his rage. Papa too. But you're better. I see the way you look at them because I see it too. I want you to find something. I'm serious. Is there anything you're interested in?"

"No, Momma, there's not."

"Not a damned thing?"

"Not a damned thing."

"Orion!"

He chuckled as she stood up and made her way to him. When she was standing in front of where he was sitting, she brushed his hair from his face, and pressed her lips to his forehead, his nose, and finally both cheeks.

"Try painting."

Why was his mom even talking to him like that at ten years old?

It took him two years to finish his very first painting. That's where the patience came in. Momma was right. It had helped clear his mind. Just like Warren, he still got into fights, he still got mad over the most minute of things, and at seventeen he still hadn't learned to use his words in a healthy way. That painting gave him space to think. His momma didn't even know she was the main reason that he'd been able to clearly focus on his objective...that of which at that point was to kill his father. Not Momma. Not Warren. Just Papa.

After the painting was finished, he taught himself how to build. He watched videos, and read books, and Warren had laughed at him the whole time- Orion wasn't a good reader so it took him a very, very long time to get through all those books... the patience came in there, too. He knew that if he could get through the books, even at his slow pace, he'd be able to get to the good shit. He was a slow learner but he learnerd. And he did.