Alpha Brothers - the Lonely Brother (book 3)

Chapter 10

Chapter 10
Tarna
I woke to the sound of Malcolm's soft snoring. A smile spread on my face when I looked at him. I hadn't seen him so relaxed before. It was a good look on him.
This had been the first time in at least a year that I had woken up next to a man. Even if nothing happened between us, it still counted. It was nice to share my bed with someone. His body kept me warm when my own body heat didn't.
He groaned awake, rolling so that he faced me. I gave him a tired smile but his attention wasn't on my face. Instead, it was on his hand that combed through my hair. It seemed to calm him as he played with the separate strands, curling them around his fingers and jumping them on his hand, watching it fall.
His eyes finally flicked to me, as he asked, "so Little Wolf, what's the plan? Do I shift and work it out from there."
I snorted at his disbelief of my ability to help him.
"Baby steps," I told him, "you're not goin' to shift today."
He frowned, "but isn't that the whole point?"
I shrugged, "is that how the others tried to teach you?"
I watched as his expression changed. He swallowed and turned on his back, looking up to the cave's roof instead of me. I guess it was a touchy subject. He was the Alpha King's son and yet he was probably one of the most uncontrollable wolves in the country.
"Sometimes. It was mostly, Barclay, Pa's Beta. He would make me shift and when I felt the wolf start to take over, he would attack me."
"How old were you?" I asked.
"Thirteen."
I swallowed, feeling my heart break for the little wolf. My mind instantly came filled with questions that I wanted to ask. How many times would he do it? What did your father do? When did he stop?
"Did it help at all?" I asked.
He shook his head, "it just pissed my wolf off more. The day I attacked Barclay was the day everybody stopped tryin' to control my wolf."
"Well I won't stop," I told him, not waiting a single second as I reached for his hand.
His eyes turned to me, trying to determine if I was lying.
"You might be doin' this for a long time, Tarna. It's goin' to take a lot longer than a few days."
I shrugged, "I'm not goin' anywhere. Are you?"
He was silent but I knew his answer. He wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Malcolm
Tarna led the way through the forest with such ease that I couldn't help but be surprised. I had been going through these trees since I could walk and yet, she looked as if she knew it like the back of her hand. She pushed passed shrubs like they were nothing and weaved around the trees like they were giving her the direction. We had been walking for about fifteen minutes when I was convinced that we were lost.
"Tarna, do you know where your goin'?" I asked, fearing for my life.
She scoffed, "have little faith."
"I would but we're lost."
"We're not lost. It's just up ahead," she told me.
"What is?"
She halted, and pointed through the trees, "that."
I frowned, squinting my eyes until I saw something out of the ordinary. Tarna continued to walk, not caring that I wasn't following. I was still trying to find what she was looking for.
"Are you comin'?" She asked.
I nodded, walking. As I got closer, I realized what she was talking about. It was a fallen Birnam Oak, it's large trunk cracking and branches falling off. Not thinking about it, Tarna jumped on it, not caring that the branch could easily break under her weight and she weighed less than a feather.
Patting the spot next to her, she said, "sit."
"I don't think so."
She frowned, "it's completely safe."
It didn't reassure me.
"Do you want my help or what?" She asked.
"I'm pretty sure I said no at first," I reminded her.
She just rolled her eyes and pattered the trunk again.
"If it breaks, I told you so," I told her, before slightly leaning my body against the trunk.
She stayed quiet, making my curiosity grow.
"So, what's the lesson, teacher?" I asked her.
She smiled and closed her eyes, "I want you to close your eyes and take in all the smells around you."
I looked at her numbly, knowing that she couldn't see me, "meditation, really? I thought you had more brains than that."
"Not meditation," she snapped, before going back to her still state, "it's about feelin' everythin' around you. Bringin' your wolf to the surface through the senses. Now, close your eyes."
I rolled my eyes, but did as she told me. I focused on my sense of hearing and smell as well as touch.
I felt the rough bark under my hands as well as the cold, wet moss that was growing on the trunk and the soft earth under my feet. I could hear the quiet sounds of a crossbill in the trees above me, I could hear the rustling of the leaves and even the steady heartbeat of my Little Wolf. All I could smell was her. The sweet, oaky smell of the forest seemed to consume her and soon the forest became her.
Before I had even realized, I had opened my eyes to the forest. My whole body became a numbing state that it felt like I wasn't in control anymore.
"It feels awesome, doesn't it?" Tarna asked, bringing my attention to her and her cat-like grin.
"Awesome, isn't the word that I would use, but aye. It feels good to feel nothin'," I admitted.
"I love doin' this," she told me, "When I'm tired of my wolf thoughts or my human thoughts, I come here and just," she sighed, "Unfocused."
I nodded, "I get a bit like that sometimes."
"How do you unfocus?"
"I listen to my siblings," I admitted, "it's nice to focus on their issues than my own sometimes."
"It must be lonely," she said.
"That's why they call me the 'Lonely Brother'," I told her making her giggle a little.
"Right, I forgot about that."
I nodded, knowing that she had probably heard the story of the Lonely Brother.
"Does it bother you?" she asked, "The fact that everyone knows almost everythin' about you."
More than bothered me.
"It's not the fact that everybody knows everythin' about me. It's the fact that they can use that information to make opinions about me o-or they can use it against me. It doesn't matter either way but –."
"It annoys you," she buttered in before I could say that it didn't bother me, "I can see it and hear it in your voice. It annoys you that people think that you're this some kind of monster but they don't know a single thing about you. Well, the important things."
"Like what?" I asked, finding myself interested.
She shrugged, "I'm still tryin' to sort that out for myself. You're a hard one to read Malcolm Patterson."
I chuckled, nodding, knowing it was true.
"You don't know the half of it, Little Wolf."