Searching for Always and Forever

Chapter 4

Hope led Grace to their bathroom. They didn't have running water, so she put several pots of water on the stove to boil.

"What happened to Grace?" Riley asked with worry. Hope should've thought of the little ones, but she was too occupied with Grace and as they walked inside, the kids saw all the blood on her.

"Is she hurt?" Jack asked with tears in his eyes.

"She's okay. She is not hurt." Hope tried to calm them down while she was waiting for the water to boil.

"But there was so much blood." Riley started to cry and it made their little brother burst out sobbing.

"Hey, hey..." Hope kneeled beside them and hugged them tight. "It wasn't her blood. She went hunting, and tried skinning a deer... you know how awful she is with hunting." Hope forced a smile as she wiped their tear stained cheeks with her thumbs.

"Yeah, she is really bad at it." Jack chuckled.

"You see? Nothing bad happened." Hope tried to comfort them. Jack was already smiling but Riley couldn't be fooled so easily, she still looked dead serious.

"But it could. Like with mom and dad. What if Grace wasn't coming back? What if you leave and you won't come back?" Riley started to cry all over again.

"That's not gonna happen! You hear me?" Hope told the girl firmly, although she had the same exact fear... she did think Grace wouldn't come back.

"Promise me. Promise me you won't leave me and Jack. I can't take care of him." Riley cried.

"I won't ever leave you Riley. I promise you, I will take care of you and Jack as long as you need me." She kissed the little girl's cheek and hugged her again, then grabbed the little boy and pulled him in the hug too. Luckily he didn't fully understand Riley's fear of abandonment. "Okay, it's late now. Time for bed." Hope smiled and led the kids to their room. She tucked them in, gave them a goodnight kiss, then left to take care of her other sister.

She walked into the bathroom where Grace tried to wipe off the blood from her face. Hope poured the hot water in the bathtub and placed a clean towel and pajamas by the tub.

"Take a bath. You'll feel better after that." Hope said then looked down and noticed the rip in her jeans at her left leg. "Are you sure you're not hurt?" She asked and Grace nodded.

"It's almost completely healed." She shrugged and Hope nodded. Werewolf healing only kicked in when someone triggered their curse... well that's what their parents taught them and it was definitely true for the little ones or Grace. Grace never had fast healing until this day. But Hope was different in this too... She always healed her wounds super quickly. Her mother told her that she was a lucky wolf... Hope believed that, perhaps it happened once in a while that people would heal even before they triggered the werewolf curse. But even now, when Hope gets herself hurt it never lasts more than a few seconds. She heals much faster than her parents ever did as triggered wolves. Her mother never healed from the fatal wounds she got... and she died in Hope's arms. Perhaps she was right. Hope was lucky, not cursed as Hope thought.

Hope left the bathroom while Grace took a bath. She still didn't know the whole story and she really worried something bad did happen to her sister. Grace was upset and in shock when she got home. All she told Hope, before they entered the cabin, that some man attacked her in the woods and she ended up killing him.

Hope cleaned up their little place while Grace was in the bathroom and put some extra wood on the fire. When Grace exited the bathroom, Hope pulled her in front of the fireplace, so her long wet hair could dry faster. Grace sat on the floor in silence, facing the fire. She pulled up her legs, hugging them as she rested her head on her knees. Hope grabbed a warm blanket and placed it on her sister's back, then sat next to her.