The White Wolf's Brother

Goodbye, Talon Moon

  I was honestly shocked that Carrie so fully supported my desire to leave the pack and go rogue for awhile. I even told her my reasons for wanting to do that were to find and kill Kane, and she still supported me. For the dozenth time, I wondered why the Moon Goddess had not seen fit to make her my mate. Whoever she did wind up with as a mate was a very lucky guy. 

  After Mom's funeral, it took about four more days to finish getting everything settled, including closing out Mom's and my bank accounts and getting the house sold. I packed away all of our possessions with sentimental value and put them all in a storage unit I rented from one of our pack members. Carrie promised to keep an eye on it and, when I was finally settled and ready for it, she would ship it to me. I ended up selling the house to a young couple who were just starting out and already expecting their first child. They were already excitedly making plans to add on a second story - he worked in construction and he already had his crew out there drawing up plans and ordering material they'd need. The wife was a month along with her pregnancy, but werewolf pregnancies only last about four months. She told him he better have it done before the baby came, because, "I'm not raising my pup in a construction zone!" I hoped they could get it done. They seemed like a lovely young couple. 

  Five days after Mom's funeral, I went to Alpha Shawn to talk to him about leaving the pack. That was just a courtesy, to be honest. I could have simply left the territory,  said the words that severed the ties, and been done with it. But since I hoped to join another pack someday, and I knew they'd want to talk to Alpha Shawn first most likely, I wanted to leave in good standing so that nothing blocked me from doing so. 

  I explained to Alpha Shawn my reasons for wanting to leave - well, most of them. I told him that none of the pack really had much to do with me, aside from Sam's family and Carrie. I also told him that I wanted to find my mate one day, and I had a strong feeling she was not in this pack or I'd have found her already. I wanted to visit other packs, meet new people, and hopefully find the place where I felt I belonged. I conveniently left out the part where I planned to find and kill my biological father for what he'd put my mother through. I knew there was a chance Alpha Shawn might have been able to help me figure out where Kane was, but I didn't know if he still communicated with his family members in the pack. I didn't want word to get back to any of them. I didn't want him tipped off that I was coming for him. 

  After he'd expressed his regret that I wasn't finding what I needed in this pack, Alpha Shawn agreed to fill out the exit paperwork that allowed me to join another pack when I wanted. He warned me about the dangers of going rogue - most pack wolves don't take kindly to rogues and some will even kill them on the spot without finding out their reasons for going rogue. He said that the paperwork from him was an attempt to let pack wolves know I wasn't there to harm them. He offered to let me keep my pack membership and simply travel without going rogue. I did consider it for a few minutes, but something was telling me that Kane would sense I was from this pack and immediately know who I was. I don't know how I knew that, but I just knew somehow. So I respectfully declined the Alpha's offer. I made up some excuse on the spot about wanting to be free and not tied to anything. Thankfully, he bought it. 

  About thirty minutes after I walked into his office, I walked out of his office with papers officially rescinding my pack membership. Per my request, they were dated for the following day. I had a couple of other things I needed to do before I left, and I didn't want any pack members giving me any trouble. Werewolves can tell by scent if another werewolf is rogue or not, and most pack wolves, as I said before, don't appreciate rogues wandering around their territory. Most would've overlooked it since they knew me, but some would've used it as an excuse to hassle me. 

  After leaving the Alpha's office in the packhouse, I went straight over to the butcher's shop. When I found out how sick Mom was, I had told Sam I would be quitting the shop and leaving the pack after my mom passed away. He said he hated to lose a worker as good as me, even though I was only part time, but that he understood. When I walked into the store, Selena and Sam Jr. both ran to me, each of them grabbing onto one of my legs. Jody wasn't there, for which I was grateful. Instead, Emily was manning the front. 

  "Hey kiddos!" I greeted them with a laugh. There was nothing quite like the pure love of a child. They didn't care if you were rich, poor, young, old, etc., they just cared whether or not you spent time with them and were nice to them. The day after the funeral, I had taken a much needed break from packing for a few hours to go over and bake cookies with the pups, just as I'd promised them. It was a memory I would always treasure, and I hoped they would too.

  "Todd! Todd!" they squealed. 

  "Will you come back over to our house and bake cookies again?" Sam Jr. asked.

  I knelt down so that I was at eye level with them. "I'm sorry, guys, but I'm not going to be able to do that," I told them gently. "I'm going to be moving away soon. But I promise I'll call sometimes, and send you guys stuff from different places I visit, ok?"

  Both pups stuck their bottom lips out, which broke my already broken heart more. "Will you ever come back?" Selena asked with a sniffle. 

  I know I probably could've placated them with a "maybe" or something vague about coming to see them when they were older, but I've never believed in lying to kids. They're smarter than most give them credit for, and they eventually figure out that they've been lied to. 

  "Probably not," I replied, putting an arm around each of their shoulders. "I need to go out and find my mate. Do you guys know what a mate is?"

  They both nodded. "Mommy and Daddy are mates, and they said that one day, when we're bigger, we'll find mates too, that the Moon Goddess picked out just for us," Selena told me.

  I smiled. "That's right, you will. And now it's time for me to go and find my mate. Maybe one day, after I find her, maybe your mommy and daddy can bring you to visit and meet my mate. Would you like that?"

  I had spoken to Sam and Emily about that before, so I knew it was ok to ask the pups that.

  Their eyes lit up. "Yeah!" they both exclaimed. They looked at Emily. 

   "Mommy, can we?" Sam Jr. asked her. 

  She smiled at him and tweaked his nose. "Of course we will," she told him. 

  "Yay!" both kids squealed, throwing their arms around me. 

  Emily and I both laughed. I stood up after hugging both kids and went into the back room where Sam was working.          

  He glanced up when he heard me come in. "Coming to ask for your job back?" he asked in his usual gruff tone, but I caught the smile that he tried to hide.

  I laughed. "Not a chance. Still planning on splitting in the morning. I came to steal your mate and take her with me," I joked. Sam laughed at that, and I heard Emily giggle in the other room. I knew she'd heard me - she did have werewolf hearing, after all. It had always been a running joke between us, that I was going to steal Emily away from Sam once I was old enough and leave town. 

  "Seriously, I just came by to say goodbye and grab the few things I left in my locker," I told him. "I talked to Alpha Shawn. I'm officially a rogue as of tomorrow."

  He sighed. He pulled off his apron and gloves and set them aside before pulling me into a hug. "You take of yourself, you hear?" he said gruffly. "You're almost like the little brother I never had. And my kids and wife love you. If I have to tell them you died, I'm gonna kill you." 

  We both laughed at that as I hugged him back. "I love you too, man," I told him. "I know you're just a big ole softie under that gruff exterior."

  "I love you, too, bro," he told me. "But if you tell anybody else I'm a softie, I'll deny it and come hunt you down."

  I laughed. "It's our secret."

  "I heard that," I heard Emily call.

  "You don't count," I called back to her. "You're his mate. You already knew he's a softie."

  She poked her head through the door. "So does everybody else in this pack."

  Sam narrowed his eyes at her. "I am not a softie."

  "Too late, dear, you already said it," she sang out as she walked away.

  He facepalmed and groaned. "Something tells me I'm never going to hear the end of that," he said to me.

  "Nope, you're not!" we heard Emily yell. 

  He closed his eyes and dropped his head. "Take me with you."

  I snorted. "And have your mate come after me? Not a chance."

  I heard a giggle from the front room. "Smart man, Todd," Emily called, "smart man."

  I laughed again, and the though foremost in my mind was how I hoped to find what they had with my own mate one day. That is, after I made sure my dear old dad was dead.