Connell

Chapter Five

~

Connell left us when the sun began to set, saying he needed to go for a run, to let his wolf roam free for a little while. He said he'd be back before dark. I didn't think he would come back us, to me and my Kota. I thought it was just an excuse, an escape to go back home after he realized that we weren't what he wanted.

Why would we be what he wanted?

I still have a sliver of doubt playing in my mind, a nervousness that if he was lying, then what was the truth? He could have left to do anything.

To gather more wolves?

To run and report to his Alpha?

To lead a stray cougar our way, crazed and itching to fight?

The negative thoughts just kept coming, I couldn't stop them from shouting within my mind, thinking of every possible scenario that he could have left us for. Thinking of all but the obvious.

Kota and I quietly sit on our boulder, watching the sun delicately set into the woods, perfectly falling along the horizon. The painted warmth of the sky allows the illusion that the trees are set ablaze, it's a haunting image that I just can't look away from.

Kota keeps firing questions at me, about the strange man with dark blue eyes, about the strange man who talked to him, who petted his bunny's fur. The questions just keep coming, he's so curious, so adamant, he seems to want to know everything. I've never heard him talk so much in my life.

And out of the dozens of questions he's asked me, the only honest answer I could give him was, "Do not call him a strange man, Kota. His name is Connell."

Why? Why? Why? That's all he keeps asking, right up until the sun is no longer in the sky and the moon begins to lucidly shine. That's when I begin counting down the minutes, the measly seconds in my head, waiting to see if Connell would actually return.

But when his time is well up, I give up counting, as almost two hours have already passed after sunset. Connell is nowhere in sight within the darkness, and I almost worry. The thought that something has happened to him leaves my mind just as soon as I realize that he chose to leave us, and that by now, he would most likely not return to us. He does not need us.

Kota asks me where he is, and I look over into the trees.

"Let's head to bed, Kota."

I feebly get up from the boulder, halting Kota's questions altogether and slowly start making my way into the forest. I feel tired, hungry—but most of all, I notice that I'm unusually quiet. I'm bothered. I shouldn't have been so naive. So naive that someone would want us. Actually want us for a pack.

I shouldn't have trusted his words so easily.

I hear Kota quickly following behind me. He senses that my mood is different, that I'm no longer paying attention to him, no longer answering his questions. So he stays silent, moving his little feet faster to fall into step beside me.

He gently reaches up to grab my hand, and my fingers automatically envelop his. We walk into the dark forest together in silence.

~

We continue along the familiar worn out trail, leading us up to the closest place we will ever call home. My bare feet began to ache, I keep stepping on broken twigs, on sharpened little rocks. The soles of my feet are nearly black from all the dirt, and I can feel the soil finding its way into all the tiny cuts. I begin to worry about Kota.