Framed

Part 7

10 Years Later

Maximus Whelan and his son Jason stood before the stone carving of a wolf. It was surrounded by a field of wild flowers that were currently slowly bending in the gentle breeze. "Dad, do I really have to be here?" Jason asked as he looked at his father. Every year they came here, every year on two separate days.

Jason didn't remember much about the she-wolf whose grave they came to every year, but he knew that she was the one responsible for killing his grandfather and for saving him, his mother and his father. He found that even though he wanted to hate her, he couldn't. Jason knew everything that Tom Whelan had done to Ruth Blackwell to keep the fact that he was a traitor to their kind, a secret. But still, he was fifteen years old and this was not how he wanted to spend a nice summer day.

"You don't have to be here son, but I wish you would stay. If it wasn't for Ruth, you wouldn't be alive," Jason sighed. "I know Dad. She gave her life protecting you, Mom and me from a Spartan Bear." Max's eyes finally looked up at his son. "She did, but I wasn't talking about that time.

"When you were just a few days from your fifth birthday, you had managed to slip out of the house and into the forest. No one could find you. Ruth had managed to slip past every guards we had posted, taking a few things to eat. On her way out of the territory, she came across a Spartan Bear that had been tainted with forbidden magic.

"She followed it and that's when you stumbled across the bear's path. It was going to kill you but Ruth distracted it as you ran home. She almost died that day protecting you. She didn't know that you were my son, the son that should have been hers."

Jason looked at his father, puzzled by the last statement. "What do you mean "should have been hers"?"

"Ruth was my true mate. You know that your grandfather order me to reject her and I did, because I wasn't a true alpha yet. And I regret it with every beat of my heart. But I'm glad that I have you and your mother, not to mention your little sisters." Max sighed as he slowly stood up and turned to leave. Jason looked back at the grave, his eyes shining a little brighter.

He remembered that day, but he just thought it was a nightmare brought about by the day that Ruth Blackwell died defending his family. He remembered the large wolf leaping from nothing when the bear growled at him. With a shake of his head, Jason followed his father back to the house. It wasn't long before everyone around him noticed a change in the young alpha. He was more patient with others, more caring. No one knew that he strove to be more like the she-wolf that didn't think twice before taking on a deranged Spartan Bear for a pup that she didn't even know.