Filed to story: Cara Nelson The Guardian: Werewolf Book PDF Free
Once we’re outside, we begin jogging toward the forest line. My mother sees some of our border patrols and pulls me behind a tree. When they pass, she moves on until my father’s Gamma steps in our way.
“Where are you going Paige?” He says as my mother stops in front of him and pulls me behind her.
“He banished her, Jack. I can’t let her leave on her own. I won’t. Are you going to stand in my way?”
He looks at my mother then at me before shaking his head. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out some money. “Get as far away as possible. Get on a bus or rent a car but get far away from here as quickly as you can. He may have banished her, but he won’t let you go easily. I’ll you as long as possible.
Cor for
“Thank you, Jack.” My mother says before hugging him quickly. He says something in her ear, but I can’t hear what it is. Then, my mother grabs my hand and we are running again. We’re only a mile or so from the pack borders when the howl goes up. then Immediately, my mother hands me her bag. “Get on my back.” She says, shifts into her wolf. I climb on her back and she takes off. My mother may not have been born an Alpha female, but she has been mated to an Alpha wolf and been a Luna for over a decade. Not only that, but she is determined to keep me safe. She runs as fast as she can.
It’s 10 miles to the nearest human town. My mother runs through rivers and streams whenever possible to help try to throw the pack off our scent. When we are right outside the town, she shifts back, and I throw her some clothes. We run into the town and find the bus station. We find a bus that is leaving in 15 minutes and she buys two tickets.
We get onto the bus and sit in the back, sliding down as low as possible in the seats. It’s not until the bus doors close and we start moving that we both breathe a sigh of relief. We stay low in the seats until we are well away from the city.
Today’s Bonus Offer
At the first bus station, my mother pulls us off the bus and we buy tickets to another destination. This continues through three more bus stations, changing destinations midway through our journey.
When we finally get to a place where she decides we can stay, it’s the middle of the night two days later. I’m exhausted and there is only one motel in this small town. We crash on the bed and I fall asleep immediately. I realize, somewhere in the back of my mind, that my 12th birthday present was escaping from my father, and I know it’s the best present that I’ve ever been given. For today, my mother and I are safe..
Mom decided that we could stay in this small town. She said that we were not on any pack territory and although there are packs around, in this part of the Appalachian Mountains, they stay to themselves.
My mother enrolls me in school and she gets a job at the only diner in town. She finds a place for rent, what the humans call a mother-in-law apartment. It isn’t much, but it is safe and I don’t have to wake up to my mother healing from bruises or worse every morning.
It’s nearly a year before it starts. Every day after school, I go to the diner and sit at the ice cream bar. I do my homework while I wait for my mother to finish her shift. She works double shifts every day, so that we will have enough money in case we ever have to run again.
On this particular day, everything is normal, until suddenly, my mother drops. her tray and doubles over in pain. Her initial cry alerts the owner, who is also the cook. He comes running out and sees her on the floor, writhing in pain.
“What happened?” He asks.
I am already at her side. “I don’t know, she just doubled over and cried out.”
“I’ll call an ambulance, we need to get her to a hospital.” Benny, the owner says. s of
“No!” My mother says. Looking at me, she says, “Sweetie, go get me a glass water, I’ll be okay in a minute.” I can see the effort it takes for her to even get those words out.
“Mom, no, Benny is right.”
Benny looks at my mom and something passes between them. “Go get your mother a glass of water.”
I don’t know what my mother tells Benny, but when I come back, he’s got my mother sitting up. I bring her the water and she drinks it down. “I’m okay. “Paige, I can handle one evening. I’ll call someone in. Go home and rest.”
Mom nods and Benny helps her stand up. “Grace, take your mother home and get her into bed.”
I go collect my things and before I leave, Benny gives me a to-go box for dinner.” Let me know if she needs anything overnight.” He says before I help my mother back to our apartment.
When I get her into bed, my mother takes my hand. “Sit down Grace, we need to talk.”
I sit down next to her on the bed. “Sweetheart, do you understand what happened today?” rs in her eyes um I shake my head, no. She takes my hand and I can see the important thing is, I think you are safe from your father now. I think that he has stopped searching for us.”
She isn’t looking at me, she’s staring at our hands, clasped together. “But, he has taken another lover.” She looks up at me. “You understand what this means?” I shake my head.
She swallows, fighting tears. “It means that your father is cheating on our mate bond. When that happens in a mated relationship, the person being cheated on can feel it. It feels like you are being stabbed with a knife over and over. From what I’ve heard, the feeling continues as long as the cheating continues, meaning every time that your father is with another woman, I will feel it. I can only guess that this will become more and more frequent. I need you to understand because I don’t want you to worry.”
“But what will happen to you?”
She looks down at our joined hands again. “The longer it goes on, the weaker I will become, until one day, my wolf will give up and we will die.”
That conversation with my mother happened five years ago. My father’s infidelity killed her slowly over three years. In the end, I believe my father took another mate. My mother had been getting weaker and weaker, but that last day, her scream of pain was something I will never forget.
It was my sixteenth birthday. My mother had taken the day off to celebrate with me. So many of my birthdays had been ruined by my father, but this one ended up being the worst.
The day had started out amazing. We’d gone to a local river, hiking through the forest. Mom wasn’t able to shift any more, her wolf had become too weak over the years, but we still made the most of our time.
It was while we were having dinner, in the evening, the time when parties and events would have occurred in the pack, that it happened. At first, mother stopped, food midway to her mouth. She had such a strange look on her face, but then it happened. She grabbed her neck where her mating mark was and screamed. I ran to her and held her, used to her ‘episodes’ by now. But this time, it was more than she could survive
She died in my arms, leaving me alone in the world at sixteen.
If it wasn’t for Benny, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I probably would have ended up in the human foster care system. But, I had already started working at the diner, covering for my mother. Mom had told Benny that she had cancer. It’s not something that werewolves get, given their healing power, but Benny didn’t know my mom was a wolf, so it worked.
So, he let me work in her place when she was “sick” and when she passed, he covered for me, letting me continue working for him and making sure that I finished school.
He retired from cooking a few months ago, but he still comes in every day, keeping an eye on me and the diner.
I’m always careful when the buses come through. Lots of transient people hit on me thinking they can have an easy one-night stand or a ‘quickie’ with me. Benny makes sure that I stay safe, but I’m always careful when the bus people, as I call them, come in to eat during their layover.
Several days before my 18th birthday, a giant of a man came in, reminding me of the warriors in my old pack. It wasn’t so much that he was tall, I’m fairly tall for a woman at 5’11”, but he was broad and muscular. He stared at me when he first came in, then disappeared before he ordered food. It was bizarre and I was concerned that he might be a werewolf, but he was a bus person, so who knows.
On my 18th birthday, I wake up, having no intention of celebrating. My birthdays have become something not worth remembering. I didn’t get my wolf, my father banished me and my mother died. Who wants to celebrate a day where these. awful things happen? The only positive is that I am officially an adult by human standards and no one can force me to leave now.
However, all my plans go out the window when I’m in the shower and I hear her.
‘Oh Grace, you’ve been through so much waiting for me. I’m sorry it took so long.
“Who is that?” I say, looking past the shower curtain to see the bathroom is empty.
‘It’s me Grace, your wolf. My name is Maia.’
“I don’t have a wolf. I’m too old to get my wolf.” I say out loud.
‘No, I’ve always been a part of you, but I had to wait before I awakened.’