At Dawn, in the Forest

Chapter 14

Dawn still didn't know what council Max was talking about but the forms did make sense now. "Oh and Beta Aiden, the Alpha wants to see you now, not later." And then he finally left.

"I think that's my cue," Aiden sighed. "Make sure to eat that sandwich, I will find you later." And now Dawn was alone with a half-eaten sandwich and a bunch of forms and a pen. She scanned over the documents and there were many questions for her to answer. It overwhelmed her. She looked over her sandwich again and it looked way less appetizing than when Aiden had just made it.

Dawn ignored the food and focused again on the forms. With trembling hands, she picked up the pen. It felt awkward between her fingers. She had a hard time figuring out how to hold it. Finally, she settled on holding the pen between her fist.

Agonizing slowly the pen moved across the paper, writing her name in big block letters. Once done, Dawn was filled with frustration and anger. After everything, she had forgotten how to write properly. She could feel the burn in her eyes. Quickly she tried to dry the upcoming tears. She refused to cry over something so small as writing.

But just as she wanted to move on she faced many more obstacles. The first page required basic information regarding the witness, basic information Dawn barely knew about herself like her last name, birthday, name of the pack she came from, and name of the pack she found refuge in. She settled on skipping those questions and moving on to the next, which were even harder to answer. She had to give a reason as to why her status as a pack member was being questioned, followed by a question to explain that said reason. Then she had to give additional information about the reason and explanation to make her case stronger. On the next page she had to describe how she came to the pack she was currently staying in and a follow-up question about the treatment she got from that said pack. And the list of questions went on and on.

Dawn had no idea where to start. She went from staring at the forms to staring at her sandwich. Slowly she watched as the pesto got fully absorbed by the upper slice of bread and the tomato juice drenched the lower slice.

A couple of hours went by when Max entered the kitchen again. "So, are you done yet?" He asked with a smile, rubbing his hands.

Dawn didn't know how to answer that question, technically she was done with filling out what she knew to write down, but she wasn't done filling out all the questions. She looked at the forms and then back at Max.

When he didn't get an answer Max looked over Dawn's shoulder and scrunched his brows. "Why isn't this filled out yet? I gave you this three hours ago. We need to send this out today, Dawn. Don't you understand how serious your situation is?"

In all honesty, she didn't know. How could she? She was still processing she wasn't held in her familiar cell anymore, and that she was finally free. She didn't understand why people weren't more relieved she was safe and sound again and that she also needed time to give everything a place. She didn't understand why people weren't supporting her more.

Dawn kept quiet and Max sighed again. He did a deep breath in and out and sorted out his thoughts, trying to be sensitive with his next words. "What is the problem, Dawn?" She still kept quiet.

Max shuffled through the papers. "Don't you understand the questions? Is that it? Don't you know how to read or..." He stopped talking. Max settled on the first paper where Dawn's name was written out in wobbly lines as if a toddler wrote it. "You... you don't know how to write?" He asked.

"I know how to write!" Dawn defended quickly. "I am not a child." Max held up his hands. "I guess, I-I just don't know how to write properly anymore," She whispered. "A-and I don't know every detail anymore about my capture and rescue."

Max set down next to her and held the pen in his hand. Smoothly he moved the pen between his fingers and Dawn couldn't help to feel a pang of jealousy. "Well, I can help you write it down and fill in on the details of your rescue, as it was me who got you out of there," He winked. "But about your capture, we might need some help from your family."

"What do you need help with?" Caspian entered the kitchen. He stood unsure in the entrance as if he had been waiting for a better time to enter.

"Some details when your sister got captured. Can you help?" Caspian nodded his head. He walked to the kitchen island and stood on the opposite side of Max and Dawn. "Alright, what do you need to know."

Within an hour Dawn described everything she knew and Max scribbled every single word down. He and Caspian would fill in the gaps where it was needed. She listened carefully to their words. How Dawn had been captured only three weeks after she first shifted. How it was during midday as she, Caspian, and Finn ran through the woods celebrating that their little sister could finally join them on their runs. How they had gotten off track and when she was out of their sight for a couple of minutes her brothers had turned around in an attempt to look for her to only hear a high shrill scream and then no trace of Dawn anymore was to be seen. How the following months their pack and one neighboring pack tried to find any leads, which turned out to be dead ends. How months went by and it just seemed like she had vanished from this earth and how their family decided to stop looking as their hope was torturous. (Dawn had to withhold a scoff, how would they know what actual torture felt like.)

Then Max explained how their pack and two neighboring packs noticed many disappearances over the last six months and the three of them went to investigate. It was when one of the captives managed to escape they got the information they needed and started forming a rescue plan. How Max was surprised to find Dawn at all as they weren't given any information about a young female werewolf being kept where she was. Their inside information said only about huge cells containing five to seven people. There weren't any talks about werewolves being kept separately.

Max words haunted Dawn's mind. A shiver she could no longer withhold ran down her spine. If it wasn't for the escapee she would have never been found. If it wasn't for them she would have died in that lab. She was sure of it.