The Chosen Pair

Chapter 2: Sylvia's POV

This morning I was looking into the forest from the porch built onto the cabin. The cabin is old, small, and relatively unused. My family stumbled across it years ago, it's mostly functional if a bit dusty. On the bright side, the water is still hooked up, so Caiden and myself could take some much needed showers, even if it is cold water. We haven't had running water in over a week and we are grateful for this small comfort. At the very least, it helps distract us from our miserable situation for a few moments.

We have been on the run for the past twenty-years. Our parents were killed this past year, it was our fault, well mine really. We had been sloppy and forgot to cover our tracks, we were too exhausted to do a full perimeter search before falling asleep that night. After a few hours, Caiden and I woke up and snuck off to a pond nearby to wash up, being careful not to wake up our parents. We didn't realize the camp had been discovered until it was too late. We felt the sense of dread before we heard the screams, we ran back as fast as we could, but we only reached the tree-line in time to watch our parents being slaughtered in front of us. In that moment, I felt a peculiar slap inside of my head accompanied with the message,

"Save yourself, save your brother, don't look back, we love you."

I figured it must have been my mother reaching out in her final moments, as I already had the pack connection that allowed such conversation. The slap-like feeling I can only assume means the connection being severed. With our parents gone, the days consisted of my brother and I bouncing from place to place with a list of leads, safe travel routes, the money my parents left behind, along with some very vague clues as to what we are supposed to be searching for.

I just turned twenty-two this past winter, and today is Caiden's seventeenth birthday. While I was looking out into the woods, I was wondering how things had gotten this bad. My parents never told us the full extent of why we're running and why we must continue. Surprise, surprise, the explanation they gave us was vague. All we know is that a lot of bad people want to use me and the power they mistakenly think I possess. This never made sense to me. What power could they possibly think I have to which they could use? If I possessed any shred of power, you'd think I would use it to save my parents. My parents left instructions for us to find a pack that has either been hidden for centuries or destroyed. They also left in their instructions that we are to find a witch named Visha. Unfortunately, they left no information concerning how we are supposed to do either of those things. I know super helpful (cue eyeroll). It's not as if we can march into every town we come across and just ask random passersby if they've seen a witch or a pack of very very hard to find werewolves. Let alone, in the human towns where we would most likely be committed, since most people think werewolves are just myths. Oh! In case I forgot to mention, we are werewolves, hence looking for this essentially extinct pack. So, this leaves Caiden and I traveling town to town going through any archives I can get my hands on, but it is slow going, most o our history gets destroyed sooner or later due to pack disputes. Whoever is the victor can destroy the loser's history and any remaining records, not all victors choose to utilize this, but many do.

Why these murderers think I'm powerful is beyond me. Aside from my wolf's larger than average size, there doesn't seem to be anything special about me as far as I can tell. Not that I've spent much time in my wolf form since Caiden can't turn yet and I refuse to leave him undefended to go on a run.

Caiden pulls me out of my thoughts when he approaches.

"Ready to go Sylvia?" He asks.

"Yes, I'm ready." I sigh to myself, and force my body to move.

We grab our bags and double check the cabinets for supplies. We shove the bags in the truck and hop in ourselves. The truck is definitely a beater, but it's held up decent for the miles we've put on it so far. The sun came out, warming up the day considerably. We turn the radio on low and roll the windows down a few inches to let the fresh air move through, not to mention the slight breeze it would allow as the day heats up. I have the first driving shift while Caiden is assigned navigation duty.

"How does it feel almost being an adult?" I say with a grin as I reach over and lightly ruffle his hair jokingly.

Instead of the lighthearted response I was looking for,

he says, "it seems we've both been adults for far too long now."

I could feel the tension between us, so instead of pushing it further, we left the conversation at that for the next few hundred miles, only discussing the directions. We came to a rest stop a few hours later and we decided to stop to refuel and stretch our legs. I chuckled when I saw Caiden come out of the gas station with a mouthful of jerky and bags of candy overflowing his arms. His face turned a bright shade of red and he flashed me a sheepish smile, which reminds me of what he should look like at this age.

I chuckled to myself and said, "Alright, get back in the car. I still have to show you your birthday present."

"I'm with you ninety-nine percent of the day, when did you have time to get me a present without my noticing?" He asked.

"Guess you'll just have to wait and see!" I replied with a sneaky smile.

"Okay, but we should get a move on. I have a feeling the clerk is going to call his boss and report us as soon as we leave the parking lot."

I start muttering to myself as I finish fueling up.

"So much for a stress-free drive today." I pout to myself.

We both hopped in the truck and continued on to our checkpoint for the night. It's a good thing we stay stocked just for these occurrences, even though they're rather annoying. Now I'll have to get a message to Kate in addition to staying away from any potential eyes.

"Caiden, pick a route that takes us down the highway for an extra forty miles past where we branch off the main roads. We'll backtrack using the side roads."

The cave that would be our stopping point for the next two days is difficult to find when you know what you're looking for, but almost impossible to find when you don't. After branching off the main highway and heading back East onto a remote dirt road for the next thirty-miles, and from there winding through an abandoned forest path for another twenty-miles. The cave itself is situated between two hills. Just on the other side of an embankment on the path, vines and roots camouflage the opening, but once inside it's quite spacious and comfortable. We hide the truck in a grove of fir trees near the cave, they should help camouflage the truck and our scents as well. We grab our travel packs, hike over to the cave and get to work setting up our supplies. The drive definitely took longer than planned due to our accidental run-in, so it's dark by the time we finally arrived near the cave and unpacked the truck. It took twice as long as any past visit to navigate the forest floor without tripping over roots. I'm mentally kicking myself. Maybe if I hadn't been dragging my feet this morning, perhaps we wouldn't be as exhausted and we would still have time to take a nap before hiking out into the woods tonight. We will be in for a long night.

Once we have the cave set up with our sleeping bags and our packs are efficiently repacked in case of emergency, I pull out one of mom's journals. While Caiden is sitting going through his pack settling in, I run my hands over the pages. It's not extremely old but the paper has the feel of something old and delicate, the pages just slightly crinkly without disintegrating in your hands. I let my hands remind me of her voice and close my eyes. The last time I saw her writing I was about ten or so, I was sitting on her lap while she wrote. I asked her why she needed to write everything down, I will never forget what she said at that moment:

"My dear Sylvia, these journals are not for me, they're so you can remember when you need to dearest." She said.

Even though the journals are painful to read, I'm glad she wrote them. At least I can have some small piece of her that I can touch. Plus, something I read in one can help Caiden as well, and now it's finally time for my mother's wisdom to be recognized.

I gained my wolf when I turned eighteen, but now that Caiden and I are alone I need to keep him as safe as possible, which means I can't turn as often as I would like because it would leave him defenseless if I'm off on a run. My mother wrote about a way that one may earn their wolf early in dire circumstances, so I will do my best to help Caiden gain his wolf a year early. My wolf's name is Reed, and much like you'd hear thoughts in your head, I hear her talk to me.

"You're doing the right thing, even if the reasons are tragic," Reed says.

"Soon enough we'll truly be a pack again, even if it is just the two of us." I tell her.

"That still doesn't excuse you from hiding this from him until now."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do? He's just a kid Reed!"

"You could have told him what you found when you found it when you first started snooping through the journals!"

"I wasn't snooping! Mom left them to us precisely to find information. You don't need to give me a harder time, it's already done."

"Fine, I suppose you did the best you could. I still don't agree though." Reed says.

I can almost feel her roll her eyes and swish her tail at me. Sometimes it 's a pain in the ass having a sassy wolf.

Caiden snaps me out of my thoughts and says,

"Now what's this present you have to show me?"

I take a deep steadying breath,

"Come with me, I can't show you here."

He raises his eyebrows but says nothing while I lead him out of the cave. I take him down through the valley and through the trees to the small lake in the forest that has a waterfall just above it. The bank of the lake below is rocky, but still beautiful. It's pitch black and the moonlight casts a shadow over the water. I pull out mom's journal and open it to the correct page. I put it on top of a decent sized boulder, then I pull out my pocket knife and place it next to the journal on the rock. I can tell Caiden is getting visibly nervous,

"What's going on Sylv?" He asks.

"I'm going to help you connect with your wolf early so you can shift if the need strikes." I reply.

I watch his curiosity peak, and he perks up as he out-won his nerves.

"Is this something you want to do? Please consider this very carefully, there are benefits and I'm sure risks may be part of it." I asked.

"Yes, you've been taking care of me for so long and if I can help make us a little bit safer I have to take the chance for you." He answers.

With renewed purpose, I take the knife and slice open my palm, then I take his hand and do the same. I pressed my hand against his and speak the words my mother wrote for me,

"Goddess, ancestors, hear our plea. We are in grave danger and I call upon you to grant our gifts so I may protect my brethren. I Sylvia Nois Clemente Astor call upon our ancient pack to grant Caiden Malyn Clemente Astor his gifts. I swear to uphold the good name of the Astor ancestors. Caiden, today you become a member of this pack. Do you swear to uphold the name of this pack and protect its members so we may protect ourselves and those to come?"

"I swear to protect our pack at all costs." He replies solemnly.

At that moment, I feel the energy surge between us. I release his hand and he immediately begins to transform. I felt the words

"take care of each other" run through my head, but I'm unsure of where they came from. I shake my head trying to clear my thoughts and focus my energy on trying to communicate with Caiden through the pack bond,

"Let's go for a run, it helps with the transformation jitters, wait for me to change and we can run together." I tried to communicate to him.

"Hurry up! My wolf is itching to be let out and I'm not sure I can hold him off much longer."

I chuckled to myself a moment before removing my shorts and shirt, I let my wolf come through to turn and we are off.