The Unknown

Chapter 28

My dad follows me up to my room where Luke is standing guard outside my door. I nod at him and he moves to the side to let me and my father into the room.

He is sitting on the end of my bed with one of my old photo albums open on his lap. He looks up when the door opens, "Sorry, it was peeking out from under your bed. Is this your mom and you?"

I walk over to him and look down at the picture that he is pointing at. Dad walks into the room and shuts the door before following me to look at the picture as well.

The picture shows my mother holding a child that appears to be two. The child is wrapped in a towel with mud covering her face and legs.

Dad chuckles, "I remember that day. You wanted to go outside and play but it had been raining that whole day. Your mom told you no, but you were not taking that as an answer. I was in my office doing some work when I heard the backdoor slam shut followed by your mother yelling at you to come back inside. When I went to see what was going on I saw you running in the rain having a good time. Mom had even gone out and joined you in the rain. You were both laughing and having a wonderful time until you tripped and fell into a big patch of mud."

He seems lost in that memory, "I will never forget the way her eyes lit up when she looked at you. God, I miss her more than you know. "

"I miss her too dad."

"We can't change the past, we can only move forward." dad goes to the chair and pulls it over to the bed, "Now please tell me what happened Colton."

I scoot over on the bed so that we form more of a triangle.  I look at my dad and sigh, "Well, I guess we should start at the beginning. Remember the night that mom and I went to the store? The night that the hunters killed mom? Well, they wanted to kill me as well that night and they would have if it wasn't for Colton."

Colton looks nervous but starts to tell his side of the story, "That night I remember my dad getting a call from one of his spies saying that the Luna and her child were seen in a store not too far from our location with no protection. My dad had told me that that night I would go on my first hunt. I didn't want to go but being only seven I didn't have a choice.

"When we got there, I was told to guard the door. I remember hearing an alarm sound and my father yell at me to hurry and follow. When I had gotten outside I saw that the men were chasing after a small animal. At first, I had thought that it was a fox or something. I was told that the wolf that we killed had a child with her and that we needed to find it. I was told to look for it and kill it if I found it. I was also told that this child was a beast not a person, to kill it before it had the chance to kill me. When looking I remember hearing something that led me to that hole that you were hiding in."

Colton stops and looks at me. He takes my hand in his and smiles, "When I saw you I didn't see a beast, instead I saw a small wolf that looked terrified. You were covered in dirt and had tears streaming down your face. I couldn't let my father's people hurt you. Even then I felt like I had a connection to you. When they realized that I actually had no intensions of leading them to you I had gotten beat for weeks. After that night I promised that I wouldn't follow them with their killing."

My father clears he throat to bring Colton's attention back to him, "Thank you for saving my daughter. For that I owe you so much. But please continue with your story. I need to know if you had any part in the events that took place tonight."

Colton nods and continues like he is asked, "I really did believe that my father was killed on a hunt at first. I didn't take place in those anymore, instead I accepted the beatings that came when I refused to go. I was beyond happy when he died, and I found out that I would be sent to live with my adopted mom once more."