Second Born Son

I Have Always Known

As I finish mopping the kitchen I go all the way to the back door before setting the mop beside the door and step out to the midday sun. I take my shirt off and wipe the sweat from my face and neck. I look across the field that festivities are held on and enjoy the sun upon my skin. The bird song from the forest gently floats upon the air as I take a deep breath in and out.

'I want to run,' Rian states softly as he comes forward in my mind. I nod and head across the field towards the northeast corner of the territory again.

As we get far enough into the forest I strip off my pants before I let Rian come forward. I felt as my bones were dislocated, reshaped, and relocated to take the form of Rian. We stand 6 and a half feet tall at our shoulder, 6 feet long and about 2 feet in chest girth. Rian's fur was thick, wavy and snow white that assisted in making his ice blue eyes glow.

Rian stretches out his legs and shakes out his fur before he takes off through the forest. He follows the walking trail for about 500 yards before he catches the smell of a deer. Slowing down to follow the trail he crouched on his haunches as he awaits the ability to spot his prey.

A few more minutes down the scent trail Rain finally spots the deer and he crouches down preparing every muscle to spring forward as far and fast as they would allow him to. As the deer comes into 100 yards Rian springs forward closing the distance within a minute before latching onto the deer's jugular and snaps its neck. Rian devours his meal and prances towards the river for a quick swim.

As we get out into the river bank Rian picks up a scent that is deeply familiar but one that we haven't smelt in a while. As we stand there taking in deep inhales of the scent a large white wolf with grey eyes walks out of the bush next to us. Rian whines and pushes himself to his belly as he slowly approaches the wolf with his ears back and licks at their paws submissively.

'Shift,' he says to us through our mind link and I immediately feel the quick dislocation, reshaping and relocation of all my bones, Rian's ice blue eyes darken to the ocean blue of my eye. I look up cautiously at the face of my father who had now shifted back. He was holding a pair of sweat shorts in his hand for me that I took from him gingerly. He nodded to me and turned around so I had my privacy.

Once dressed I wrap my arms around my torso, "I didn't know that you would be here today Alpha." My voice is barely a whisper and holds the most respect when calling him Alpha. I kept my eyes to the ground and waited for him to say what he needed to say. I felt his eyes find the back of my head and braced for any impact from his body knowing I couldn't fight back without the pack killing me.

"Son don't be so tense," his firm hands gently find my shoulders as he pulls and squeezes the muscles, "If I wanted to kill you for something out of your control I would have done it years ago, not on the eve of your 18th. Was that Rian? He's so grown and regal."

I shrink down and side step out of his reach before bowing my head again, "I don't understand Alpha they stated your second born died with their mom. Are you well?"

"Do you find me to be daft boy? Do you not realize that I knew the whole time you were alive as our bond was never severed?" my father asked as he stepped closer and made me look him in the eyes. I slowly shook my head before pushing him away.

"Then why have you not come to see me? Why have you not checked in on me or stopped what the pack was doing?" I asked in a cold tone as I glared at him. His jaw and fists tightened as tears began to well up in his eyes. His eyes glazed over as he and his wolf talked back and forth. I could tell this because when we talk with our wolves one eye is ours and the other eye is our wolf's eye.

A few minutes later his eyes clear, "I have no excuse for not being there when you needed me to be. Although at the same time I was mourning my mate and that I am alive is no easy task either. There were weeks where I tried to starve myself, or refused water, times where I wanted nothing but your mother's embrace. Whitley wanted to protect you in those times but we were too weak to stand. Forgive me Kelton." His voice was thick with raw sorrow, grief and guilt. When he was finished speaking he didn't even look at me, he was staring at his hands as tears rained upon the ground.

'He knew and he didn't do a damn thing about what our pack, our own brother does to us,' I snarl in my mind. Rian sits back in my mind as he watches our father curiously. He took in the thin build of our father that was made of nothing more than skin and bones. His skin so pale it appeared to become translucent in the sunlight showing off stringy veins through his body. He wasn't showing any bones as if he had just enough fuel of his body not to eat itself but he isn't the muscular king we knew and loved, or the one who's portrait hung in the hall of kings.

Rian's voice came out as a whimper as he said, 'That's not our father, it's nothing but a shell of his mind.'