24
Tyson
I’m coming up toward the top of the ridge, only now feeling the haze beginning to lift, though just minimally now that I’ve towered over his bones, shifting uncontrollably for at least ten rotations from man to wolf and back, pissing on those bones. In both forms.
I had to get away from them, all of them, and mostly from my emotions. Emotions I haven’t been able to unravel. All I know is I’m angry.
I’ll need another run so I can get it out, then I need to get back to her.
I stood over Cornelius’s remains and felt my lip curl, my fists clench, and then the world vibrated with my anger as I stared at his bones.
If only he was alive so I could kill him, if only I could take back so many moments where I provided for him, where I saved his ass. I stood and in my rage, relived many events throughout my lifetime that I hadn’t thought of before.
How weak he was, how much of an opportunist, as well as the fact that he was obsessed with my mother.
So many little things are clicking into place from things he said, actions of his, memories that flood my mind from my very early childhood. I feel so much fury, so much I don’t know what to do with it.
I need to go back to her. If this were yesterday, I’d say I need to go home and bury myself in her warmth, but I don’t know that it’s an accurate description because I’m angry at my mate, for her wanting to leave, for her words of loathing.
I see a brown wolf standing at the top of that ridge and I halt.
Riley Savage.
He shifts to man form.
I do as well.
“Not interested in talking to you.” I walk past him, ready to shift back so I can run.
“Tyson,” he says. “I’m here for you. What you just set off will summon any of us on the team.”
I stop, turn around and glare at him. “I don’t know what that means, I just know I can’t do this right now.” I move past him and hope he won’t try to follow.
Another wolf, a black and white one runs toward us and stops suddenly, and stares at me. He shifts to man. He’s large, dark-haired, and bearded. He straightens up and thumps his chest when he looks at me.
I turn back to Riley and sigh. “What is he doing?”
“That’s Lincoln. We heard your call. The others will be on their way as well. Well, all but two as they’re too far right now to hear it.”
I didn’t call for anyone. I suspect he knows I didn’t intend to do this.
“I’m guessin’ you have a lot to process,” he says, ”but that… whatever happened in that gorge down there, resulted in you summoning us, your team. When you’re ready to learn more, we’re ready. Our home is your home. Our pack is your pack. We want you there with us. Just come. Test things out. There’s a home there for you and your mate. A community for her to be part of, and so she learns our ways. The house we got ready was your father’s house, where you were born. Your mother ordered it be prepared for your return years ago when you came to the village. She told us she knew in her soul that the day would come, and that woman is never wrong. She moved into an apartment above her clinic. She lives there with Stan, a non-shifter she’s now with. He’s a good man. She…”
“Stop. I won’t do this right now.”
“Fine.” He gives me a look that is filled with wisdom. “When you’re ready, we’re waiting.”
“And if I’ll never be ready? If I want you to leave me be?”
He considers this a minute before responding.
“Your destiny was stolen from you. When you’re ready to take it back, we’re there. And just saying, Tyson, we need you. I need you.” His eyes change briefly and then he straightens. I frown. An odd emotion comes at me and it’s from him. Before I get a chance to attempt to translate it, it’s gone. “Get to know us before you decide. Our uncle that took you from us, that also took us from you…” He gives me a meaningful look. “It was wrong. The longer it goes on, the more all of us lose. That includes the rest of the team. There are aspects of their lives that are on hold.”
He waits and when I make no reply, ask no questions about what that means because my mind is just overflowing already. He shifts back to wolf, turns tail, and leaves me standing there as he heads down into the valley where Cornelius died.
I shift back to wolf and pass the other man standing there, paying no attention but feeling his presence with a strangeness I can’t decipher as I resume my journey home.