Filed to story: Wolf Crying Mate of the Alpha by Jazz Ford
Well, I can’t leave it here, Magnus. I’m going up there with or without your permission,’ she says and grabs onto the first branch.
Fine, but I’m coming with you, only because if something happens to you, I will get the blame for it.’
Nina laughs. You won’t get the blame for my actions, Magnus,’ she says, now on the third branch.
I climb below her in case she accidentally falls. I don’t want her to get hurt.
Uh, yeah I will. I always get blamed for anything you pull.’
Her laugh echoed through the trees as she grabs the tenth branch. It was like beautiful music to my ears.
‘Don’t be so absurd Magnus, you think too highly of yourself. I get into plenty of trouble myself each day, although once upon a time we used to get into trouble together and we had so much fun doing so,’
I laugh, ‘Fun? Anything we did as a child was far from fun, from what I remember,’
‘Well, you remember wrong,’ she says.
I lock down at the ground. We must be at least forty branches high.
‘Enlighten me then,’
Okay, remember the time the laundry overflowed with bubbles and we would play hide and seek to find each other?”
“Yeah,”
‘Well, Magnus, that was your idea to fill the washing machine up with bubble bath and turn it on, and if you remember, I took the blame for it’
I forgot she had taken the blame for it. She had to mop it all up and went to bed without supper. I snuck into her room and gave her a sandwich that night
“And then there was the night we wanted to watch the moon from the roof. We went climbing through May’s bedroom window, but when you tried to open it, it wouldn’t budge. You used such force that the whole window fell out and crashed onto the pavers outs de You went and hid in May’s wardrobe and I took the blame,
She saght, I remember now. My parents would have been so mad at me for wanting to climb onto the roof in the first place, let alone breaking a window in the process of it all. I had run straight to the wardrobe and hid inside and watched through the crack as May decided not to tude and look the blame instead.
Well, I got so much trouble because I wanted to protect you, you were my best friend. I thought it would be fun to play a couple of plants on you in return for a bit of fun, and so we would be even I heard the warriors say the next morning they will need to release some water from the dam You were refusing to have your bath the day before anyway, so I thought it would be funny to have you stand more sleek while the water washed over you I know you were twice the size of most kids, so the water would only reach your waist, but you acted so dramatically that day as if you were going to drown when you could have just stood up and watched a flow past you and you never spoke to me again until now she says giving me a sad look for a moment before looking away.
And then it happened. It all hits me at once, that dreaded feeling but tenfold. That feeling when a hole in the ground opens up and just swallows you whole. Guilt… What have done? She didn’t make the Pack think I was a joke. It wasn’t her responsible for all the pranks. It was me all along.
‘There’s the nest,’ she says, not realising the bombshell she just dropped on my head.
Nina hovers over the nest. I climb next to her as fast as I can. She stretches her hands out to put the baby bird back in its nest.
‘Careful,’ I say, cupping my hands under hers. She looks up at me for a moment, and we lower our hands, gently placing the bird gently back in its nest.
There you go, little guy,’ I say and give it another gentle pat on the head.
The sun is setting, and the moon is rising. It’s a breathtaking sight. We sit next to each other and watch the beauty of it in silence, the comfortable silence. We lean back on our hands and our pinkies touch, but neither of us moves our hand away. I want to apologise to her. I want to get on my knees and beg for forgiveness, just as Josie suggested. Josie was right. I had been a complete dumbass.
‘We should get back to the Packhouse. We are going to get into trouble for being late home,’ she says.
Nodding, I climb down first, a third of the way Nina slips and falls. My hand wraps around her waist as she screams past me and I pull her into the safety of my chest. Her arms cling back around my waist as she shakes from the fright of falling. She looks up at me and I gaze into her eyes. Slowly, our lips draw closer to each other like a moth to a flame. As they are about to touch, the branch cracks from the weight of both of us and breaks. I wrap my arms around her and land on my back, taking the brunt of the fall.
‘Magnus! Are you okay?’
A few sharp pains bolt through my body as I sit up. I scrunch my face. I’ll be fine,’ I say, clearly in pain.
‘No, you’re not fine, here let me help you,’ she says and puts my arm over her shoulder. ‘You should not have done that,’
‘Done what?
‘Take the brunt of the fall, so I didn’t get hurt,
‘It was nothing,
‘Sure.’
We make it back to the Packhouse grounds. Leon and two of his warriors run towards us.
“What happened Magnus, are you okay?’ he says, taking over from Nina, helping to carry my weight.
I’ll be fine, I just fell is all,”
Nina gives me a confused look but says nothing.
“Well, we have all been worried sick about you two,’
“Sorry, Dad,
‘It’s okay Sweetie, I’m glad you helped Magnus home. Go to the dinner table. We will be there in a minute.’
I’d rather just rest my back in my room rather than sit at the dinner table, Leon,’
“Of course,
‘At least in a couple of months when you get your wolf on your eighteenth, you will heal quickly.
‘That’s true, I smile, excited at the thought I will soon have my first shift and get to meet my wolf. I’m extra excited because I have Alpha blood. My wolf will be pure black like my dad’s My mother is a descendant of the Moon Goddess, so she has a pure white wolf.
‘But until then you will heal at a normal human rate,
“Yeah, I know. Can you have the cook bring my dinner up for me please, Leon?
Of course,
Forty minutes later, there’s a knock at my door.
‘Come in,’
It’s Nina holding a plate of food.
‘I, um, wanted to come to check on you and thought I’d bring your dinner,’
Thanks,’ I say, taking the plate and cutlery.
I also wanted to say thanks for, um, catching me from the fall.’
She stands in silence, waiting for my response. I want to apologise to her, but the only word that comes out is.