Her favorite spot’s on
the opposite side of the park
. A stone picnic table that sets
in
the sun by a small creek that ru
n
s
along the back side of the grounds. She
’s
sitting on top of the table with her back to us and her fa
ce lifted to the sun. Bonnie’s
rambling on about some party at a lake and
Bloom’s
politely listening but from her thoughts I know she
isn’t
interested in the slightest. The lake holds a lot of memories of her
Dad
and as much as she like
s
to spend time with Bonnie and some of her other friends she’s not sure she’s ready.
I stop
to admire her sitting there while Mr. Harris
walks
the rest of the way over. He ma
kes
himself known by grabbing one of his daughter
’
s fries and sitting down next to her. At his arrival Bloom sit
s up and looks
for me. When she
finds
me still standing several feet away she hop
s
off of the table and jog
s
over throwing her arms around me for a hug. She rub
s
my side and then look
s
at my un-bandaged un-injured paw and with her brows stitched together ask
s
Mr. Harris, “His paw’s already healed?”
Swallowing the fry that’s
in his mouth, “Yeah, you did a really good job treating the area last night.”
“I could’ve sworn he’d ne
ed some stitches.” She continues
eyeing my newly healed paw.
“It was late last night when it happened right? It probably just seemed worse because you were so tired.”
Mr. Harris tries to cover.
She looks
over at
him and back at me like she’s
missing something. “Maybe you’re right. It was kind of late.” I c
an
tell she d
oesn’t
buy the answer, she just
doesn’t
want to seem ungrateful
for him checking me out and she’s not
sure why he’
d lie to her so she drop
s
the subject.
Chapter 12 – Bloom
~
Going on with my life
~
I’m
trying to listen to Bonnie talk about the party at the lake while I fe
e
d P
ike his sandwich, but I can’t
stop wondering how Pike’s
paw
healed s
o fast and why Mr. Harris
act
s
like it’s no big deal. I may have been numb to the world th
is
last
year
but that doesn’
t mean I lost my mind. What makes
my suspicions worse
is
that this man who’
s
been like my second father ke
eps
glancing between Pike and myself like
he’s
waiting for one of us to pull a gun on him.
“So are you going to come to the party
Blu
?” Bonnie asks
pulling my attention back to her.
“Sure. When’
s it again?”
“Thursday and don’t forget to bring a couple of poles. We can try to cat
ch a few fish while we’re there
,
”
s
he says
clearly trying to
suppress
a squeal of delight about my agreeing to come.
“I can cover that.”
“Everyone’
ll be so excited to see you. I know some of the guys will be there. They might even throw together a bonfire. It’ll be just like the old days
Blu
. You’ll see!”
I don’
t have the heart to tell her in the old days we would’ve tried to sneak past my
Dad
so we wouldn’t get caught coming in past curfew,
and
Dad
’s
no longer alive to catch us. But I
don’t
want to bring d
own her happiness. So far today’s
been a good day.
The hole in my chest is still there
,
I feel the pain of missing him, but the hole seems to
be getting smaller. I doubt it’
ll ever completely heal
because I’ll
always miss him, but it’ll heal enough that I’ll be able to go on with my life like he would’ve wanted.
Bonnie
realizes I’ve
stopped listening to he
r once again because she stops talking and proceeds
to gather up
our mess from lunch. Mr. Harris’s
already
left;
he must have grown tired of giving me cryptic glances and listening to Bonnie rattle on about the party. Pike
who’s
now full from eating his sandw
ich, mine, and part of
Bonnie’s
is
curled up by m
y feet
looking rather content. I stand
and g
ive
Bonnie a hug bye with the promise I’
ll
see her Thursday then Pike and
I
head
home
.
Billy’s
coming out of the house, his arms
filled with boxes when we pull
in. Sliding out of the truck and holding the door op
en for Pike to follow I holler
, “Do you need me to grab one of those for you?”
Pe
e
king
his head
around the side of one, “
I can handle this. I’m just taking some things out to the shed.”
I watch
him maneuver down the porch steps
then
concede
, “Ok
ay
, but if you change your mind let me know.”
“I will.”
I begin to head inside but turn
back
to look for Pike when I realize he’s
still at the bottom of the steps watching Billy. Billy
notices
too, “He probably needs to stretch his legs after the ride back from town. Why don’t you let him stay out here with me for awhile?”
“Ok
ay
but if
he
gets in the way just bring him back into me. I’m going to go start some laundry.”
“
Ok
ay
,
Blu
.” Billy agrees then turning to Pike says
, “Come on pup before I drop these boxes.”
I watch as they walk
around t
he edge of the house then I head
inside.
Chapter 13 – Pike
~
Rose’s Story
~
I follow
Billy to the back of th
e property where a small shed se
t
s at the tree line. I listen
for the front door closing to signal Bloom
making it inside and expect
him to
start talking as soon as we’re
out of heari
ng range, but he
says
nothing. He s
ets
the boxes down just inside the door of the shed then open
s
the top one and pull
s
out a small album. I watch him as he t
akes
a seat next to the pile of boxes and look
s
through the tiny black book. There
’
s the shadow of a smile across his face but it never reache
s his eyes. I want
to shift so I
can
talk to him but I ha
ve
the feeling he’
ll spill more if I stay
in this form. So I
set
ther
e watching him re-live whatever’s
in that album.
Finally, when he reaches the last page he looks at me and nods. He’s
going to tell me the sto
ry of the she-wolf and he needs
me to listen.
He doesn’t say it but I see
it in his e
yes how important this story is to him. I don’t
realize
how much
it
’s
going to affect me to till he
turns the album to face me and se
t
s
it on the ground open to the las
t page. There staring back at me
is
a face I
’ve
become all too familiar
with since childhood, one that’s
been in my life just as much as my own parent
s
if not more. And she’s
holding a
newborn version of Bloom. I keep
shifting between the woman and child waiting for reality to sink in. The resemblance should’ve been obvious the moment I saw her but
I’ve been
so caught up in finding my mate tha
t it didn’t sink in. But now
it’s
so obvious I
can’t
deny it
even if I want to. Bloom’
s
the daughter of a
shifter
!
Billy
waits
until the realizatio
n shows
i
n my
eyes
then he begi
n
s
, “Rose moved here with her Aunt when she was 15. She never said what happened to her parents and no-one ever asked. She was always so full of life
and so beautiful
.
Bloom
’s
the spitting image of her except she has Michael’s eyes.
People seemed to gravitate
towards Rose
, especially Michael. Except unlike with her other admirers she noticed him back.
”
“
They started dating about a month
after she arrived in town and
stayed together all through
high school. They
were that annoyingly perfect couple. Michael proposed on graduation night and of course Rose accepted. They waited a year to the date to get married. Just enough time for Michael to build this house for them to live in. His
Dad
gave
him the land as a graduation present and we all helped him work on building the perfect home for them. The wedding was beautiful
.
I’d never seen two people more in love
than Michael
and
Rose
.
”
“
He got a
job at the factory and she
started taking classes at the college two towns over. On the weekends we’d all hang out and she’d try to fix me up with some girl she’d met in one of her classes. We were best frie
nds and I loved them both like family
.
”
“
Then
one morning I ca
me out to the cabin to go hunting in the woods. Michael was working and he told me Rose would be in class so I didn’t need to warn her I’d be there. I headed to my favorite spot and wasn’t th
ere very long before I heard
rustling in the trees to my right. I turned and aimed my gun ready to shoot, expecting to see the buck I’d been leaving food
out
to attract. But it wasn’t the buck. It was
a
glorious white wolf. I’d never seen a wolf up close but I knew wolves could be dangerous so I cocked my gun ready to take it out before it could
attack
. The wolf must have heard the gun cock because she turned and stared me in the eyes. I didn’t notice the color I was so concerned with keeping the gun aimed between us. If I’d been thinking I would’ve realized no normal wolf had eyes the shade of emeralds. Then the wolf shifted and there at the end of my barrel was Rose.
”