The Prodigal Wolf (completed)

Twenty Three

TWENTY THREE

"They're vampire marks."

The statement echoed in the cool, sterile hospital room. Natalia sat with her hands under her legs, to hide their shaking. Her eyes stung with the dry grit of the air around her, she needed to blink, she know she did, but the tears would fall as soon as her eyes closed. She couldn't cry, not yet. Not with Rachel, Tim's mother, crying in a huddled mess in her chair on the other side of the bed. Not with the dozens of eyes peering, watching. Not with Alpha Leo racing across their territory with Adam and other enforcers in tow, chasing the quickly disappearing scent. With Leo busy she was in charge now, like it or not these wolves were looking to her for leadership. She couldn't be weak. Not yet.

"But the scent is wolf," Natalia replied, her voice dry. "Well, wolf like."

"But it also smells like a vampire. A vampire and a wolf....there has been no interspecies matings, have there?"

Natalia looked up at Nacasia with alarm, "Are you insane? Of course not!" Quickly she glanced at the watching wolves, who were looking at the sidhe woman with surprise and disgust. To them such a mating was...immoral. Unnatural.

Nacasia raised her eyebrows in amusement, "Calm young one, it was only a question."

"A dangerous one," Natalia looked her in the eye.

Lady Nacasia nodded slowly, before saying, "Regardless of how it may came to be, this is the work of a hybrid. A female."

"What magic do you know to be able to tell the sex?" a young wolf asked, a cousin of Tim's Natalia believed.

A sly, dangerous smile, promising things beyond the wolf-child's wildest dreams stretched across Nacasia's face. She didn't answer, only turned her attention back to Natalia.

"A hybrid...are you sure?" Natalia asked.

"Positive. I've held my suspicions for a while now, the teeth marks prove it."

Natalia looked back to the unconscious form that was laid out on the hospital bed in front of her. She had been avoiding looking at him, because it made it too real. She knew Tim all of her life. He chased behind her along with her brother, and she chased after Leo. He was the oldest of them all, and always up to tricks. Despite the age difference Natalia and Leo were close, they were forever getting into trouble together. By the time Leo entered high school Natalia was still in middle school, and she still hadn't shifted yet, they began to grow apart. Not for any specific reason. It happened naturally really. Leo's father began prepping him for his eventual succession as Alpha, and Natalia was taken to doctor after doctor, healer after healer, elder after elder for them all to only say that absolutely nothing was wrong. Natalia would hole up in her room with music blasting and a book. Living thousands of lives where everything always works out in the end, ignoring her own story which seemed to be fraying at the ends. One day Tim and Micah wouldn't leave her alone, they just kept on knocking on her door until she opened it. They burst into her room, Micah flopping down on her bed, turning on the small t.v in one corner while Tim took over her computer, laughing at funny videos and they never left. The three of them never spoke about it, but they were together ever since.

Now Tim laid in a hospital bed. He was still. Too still. He barely looked like he was breathing. His usual pink flushed skin was ashen and gray. His neck was wrapped with white bandages, stained red at the very curve of his neck, where the blood was beginning to soak through. Natalia could still remember the gore when they first brought him in, the skin was flapping loosely, not attached to anything it exposed the red flesh underneath. There was so much blood. It looked as though half of his neck was gone.

And Micah...Micah was locked in a cell as his wolf tore his mind apart.

Natalia stood up, nearly knocking the chair backwards behind her. "We need to find the Alpha, we need to have a meeting."

Nacasia nodded, "That would be wise, Beta Natalia."

Natalia fought the urge to shiver, to shake the title from her. It shouldn't be hers. She didn't expect it to be hers. It should belong to her brother, it wasn't supposed to go to her.

Going around the bed she instructed the young healer to notify her if there were any changes before leaving. She was ashamed of the relief she felt as the left the hospital altogether.

"Have you encountered hybrids before?" she asked Nacasia.

The sidhe peered down at her, "It isn't unusual, but it isn't usual still. Stranger things have occurred."

"What do you mean?"

"The Unseelie Queen Cato can morph into a shadow, slithering across floors and walls, hiding in corners where you can never see her. The Dragon Court Crowned Prince is stuck between his dragon form and humanoid. He roams the court halls, massive tail dragging behind him, reptilian feet and hands, a forked tongue slithering out of his mouth and smoke escaping from his nostrils. The Sea Empress, who never leaves her sea mind you, looks like a statue. She hasn't moved in centuries. She sits upon her throne unblinking, not even breathing, still as alive as can be. In the fae world the unusual is usual. You all may have forgotten, tucked away here in your human world, but fae magic is strange without rhyme nor reason, and nothing goes untouched by it, not even you. Truthfully, it's astounding that you are still even alive."

Natalia looked at Nacasia in alarm, her mouth opening to ask an explanation but they were interrupted.

"Beta Natalia!"

She turned to find a young wolf, no more than thirteen at least. The wolf child was breathing hard, unused to such hard running, her cheeks were flushed pink as she gasped.

"Take a deep breath," Natalia knelt down beside the young girl, "there you go."

Once her breath returned to her the girl pushed her brown hair from her face, "Beta Natalia, your brother, he escaped."

"What?"

"Micah is gone. The two guards are being brought back to the hospital now, Dr. Maggie said they need you immediately."

Natalia stood back up, feeling as though the ground was crumbling underneath her. The sky seemed hollow, as though it was being sucked up in a vacuum. She couldn't breath, nor remember why she needed to. "M-my parents?" she asked, voice barely a whisper.

"They were on their way to the hospital as well."

Natalia closed her eyes, reining in her anger, don't shoot the messenger, she reminded herself. "No, I mean are they okay?"

The girl shook her head, "I don't know. They didn't say."

She turned away from the young girl, away Nacasia's sharp eyes. Fighting back sobs she wiped her tears away. When had she started crying?

Alpha Leo, I need you back now.

We're close, I'll be back soon, he replied dismissively.

No, Leo, NOW. Micah has escaped and Lady Nacasia has a theory on what exactly we're dealing with. I need you back now, I'm calling a meeting.

I'm turning back around now.

"Do you remember the meeting howl?" Natalia asked the girl from over her shoulder.

"Y-yes," the girl answered nervously.

"Do it. I'm calling a meeting."

The girl yanked her sweater over her head, kicking off her shoes and pulling down her pants until she stood in there in the leaves in Hello Kitty girl boxers and an undershirt. With a small groan bespeaking just how new shifting was for her, the girl disappeared and in her a place stood a small brown wolf. With large clumsy feet, and too long legs, she was a clunky, disproportionate wolf. The girl sat on her hunches, throwing her head back she let out a long howl, punctuated with three shorter ones.

It was quiet for a second before howls replies from every corner of the territory.

A meeting was called.