Wolf Sprite
NINE - Pack Life

It’s been a week since I’ve become a member of Urban Wolves. I still think about my bonding ceremony and smile, laughing about it in my head. It was so informal, and the things that Alpha Marcus told me were such bull I could see right through it.

Alpha Marcus had asked me if I had renounced my bond with my old pack. I must have looked sad because he assumed I had, explaining that you can only be bound to one pack at a time. Which I know is not true. I’ve sat in with dad many times and helped him sign transition papers for pack members who want to leave and go to other territories for university. They’ve never had to disown our pack to do this.

In fact, these members are doubly protected because they must bind themselves with their new pack while they’re there for protection. All it means is that if they decide to visit their old pack at any time, they can come and go as they please. It also means that if anything happens to them, two packs are responsible for them.

Plus, you carry their scent when you’re bound to a pack, so I’m not sure why Alpha Marcus hasn’t noticed that.

I’ve been given my own caravan to live in, which I love. This pack has twenty caravans spread around an outdoor bathroom amenity building. The vans aren’t close together; they’re close, but enough to have your own privacy. Having a caravan park like this so close to the city is strange, but I love it. There are some grassy patches and trees and bushes, giving a more park-like impression.

My caravan is cream at the top with a forest green underbelly reaching the window. It’s caravan seventeen. Inside it has been remodelled, there is a small kitchen in the middle with a wardrobe opposite it. On one side is a double bed with storage underneath, and on the other is a dining table with two bench seats, sleeping two more people if I wanted to. Above the windows are shelves for storage, and on the side of the wardrobe is an arm brace holding a small flat-screen television. I am so in love with my new space, it’s not even funny. And best of all, no beatings!

Alpha Marcus asked me if I wanted to return to school, but I thought not, with the final term being exams. Maybe I’ll go back next year, I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll go to Alpha training after all. I didn’t think it through when I left; I knew I needed to go. I haven’t heard from Calla, not even the occasional whimper, and sadly I worry that I’ve lost her altogether.

So anyway, I’ve been working in the pack restaurant, where they’re training me properly to be a chef. It’s a good job. They serve a range of European food and are surprisingly busy considering what we sell. I’ve learned how to make my own wagyu beef patties; I mean, who knew you needed breadcrumbs to make the meat stick together? And we’re also famous for our pasta.

“I’m just going to take my fifteen,” I smile at Maria, our head chef.

“No problem, honey,” Maria replies. I nod and take the back door out of the restaurant, walking into the ground floor hall of the packhouse. I then walk out of the pack house, out of the caravan park entrance and down the laneway towards the street.

I scoped out the area a few days ago and found an old telephone box on a corner several blocks away. I’ve been putting it off and putting it off, and today’s the day I call home; I call dad.

I look at the price, fifty cents per minute. Well, I plan on being quick, so I shove a two-dollar coin in the coin slot, followed by another dollar, then dial a number I know so well- the direct line to dad’s office.

The phone rings a few times and finally gets picked up.

“Alpha Brent.”

“Dad? Dad, it’s me, Aviary,” I say, wondering how he will respond.

“Aviary! How are you? Hailey says you’re on a school trip doing some extra-curricular work. How is it going?” dad asks happily.

“Dad, I’m not on a school trip,” I say.

“What? Where are you?” my dad says after a moment of silence. He’s not happy.

“Dad, I’m not coming back. I can’t. I’m sorry. Don’t look for me.” I don’t wait for a reply and hang up.

Tears roll down my face, and I can’t help but howl in sadness.

“I love you, dad!” I cry out.

//\\//\\//\\

“How is everything going?” Marcia, one of the pack omegas, asks me a few weeks later.

“Yeah… good, I’m really enjoying working in the restaurant; I love the fast pace,” I say, smiling at her. Marcia is a year younger than me and has already quit school to work in the pack house full-time as one of the housekeepers. We get along well and have started spending our days off together. Marcie’s family lives in the apartments a few streets away, but she often spends time with me in my caravan.

We’re walking up the stairs from the ground floor to the game room with the pool table. It’s been a long day on my feet, and although we hope to play some pool, I’m really looking forward to sitting down.

“Do you think it’ll be busy tonight?” Marcia asks.

“I hope not, but it’s Tuesday, so may….” I begin before I feel a massive pain in my abdomen and buckle over.

“Aviary, are you okay?” Marcia asks, running back down the steps to where I’m buckled over in pain.

“N-no!” I yell, “it h-hurts!”

- Someone, please help. Aves is in pain and can’t move! – I hear Marcia yell through our link.

My Goddess, it hurts. I can’t breathe properly; the pain is so immense. I feel like I did when I woke up after Hailey’s last beating. Just breathe, in 1… 2… 3… fuck! I think to myself, trying to calm myself down.

There is a flurry of activity around me, but all I can feel is the pain. I don’t register being lifted, but I yell at whoever it is to slow the frack down because it hurts. I close my eyes and scrunch them as the pain rolls through my body. I feel a slight pinch in my shoulder, and everything starts to feel heavy, really heavy…

I’m somewhere black, again, but not in pain which is odd. This is a familiar place for me, but without the pain, it feels… different… I open my eyes slowly and register the white ceiling and pale green walls. The smell of chemicals fills my nose, and I notice a tube in my mouth and a needle with a tube in my hand.

Groaning, I pull myself into a sitting position and look around. It seems like I’m in a hospital room if my binge-watching of ER serves me right. I’ve never been in a hospital before, not once after Hailey’s beatings.

I feel the strong urge to use the toilet and look around the room to see if there is a door anywhere. I slowly swing my legs off the bed and walk into the adjoining bathroom to do what I must before returning to the room.

“There you are, phew!” an older lady I’ve seen around the packhouse says, turning as I enter the room.

“I needed to use the bathroom,” I say, needing to explain.

“Of course, come sit down; we need to talk,” she says, smiling at me. I sit back down on the bed, realising I’m in one of those hospital gowns and cover my bottom as I do.

The woman smiles and watches me get comfortable before she speaks.

“My name is Doctor Farrah Hardwick. I’m the pack’s doctor,” she introduces, “I’ve seen you round the packhouse,” she smiles. I nod, agreeing that I’ve also seen her.

“Aviary, can you please tell me about your life at your old pack?”

“What do you mean?” I ask. Farrah looks at me sympathetically, and I can tell she is trying how to word what she is going to say.

“Uh, nothing,” I lie, but she sees right through it.

“Aviary, when you collapsed, we found severe bruising on your abdomen. We wanted to do x-rays, but Calla wouldn’t let us,” the doc says.

“Calla? She spoke to you?” I ask. I still haven’t heard from her since that incident. Farrah looks sad.

“We had to sedate you; you were in such pain. You know you collapsed on the stairs? When I saw the bruises on your abdomen, I ordered x-rays to be taken, but your wolf came out all defensive. She explained she couldn’t heal you as quickly as she would like because of your pregnancy.”

“I’m sorry? What did you say?” I ask, did she just say I was pregnant?

“We did a scan; you’re one-month pregnant, Aviary. Congratulations,” she smiles weakly. I don’t say anything. What can I say? Is my baby alright? Is it healthy?

“Did she? Is she okay, my baby?” I ask. Doctor Farrah nods.

“Your baby is developing like a normal, healthy werewolf baby. Although, we did replace some scar tissue, which we were able to clean up… this tells us you were pregnant with twins,” Doctor Farrah reveals.

“Twins?” I ask. I think about what happened when I woke up from my last beating. I bled a lot afterwards; I thought it was my period, even though it was heavier than usual… this is why. This is why Calla has been absent…

“Calla?” I ask, knowing the answer. Doctor Farrah nods.

“Calla is weak. Her main focus is making sure your pup survives. She’s spending all her energy on that. I don’t know what may happen to her once the baby is born, whether she’ll return or not. I’ve researched, but wolves generally don’t beat pregnant she-wolves up, so this is new… I’m sorry, Aviary,” she says, grabbing a box of tissues from the cupboard beside my bed and handing it to me.

“What happens now?” I then ask, wiping the tears off my face.

//\\//\\//\\

I was in the hospital for a few days before I insisted on going back to work. Having this baby is now my number one priority. I’ve read that there are facilities at Alpha training for mothers and their pups, but I don’t think I could go to Alpha Training with this little one in my stomach. And high school? Forget that.

I should get in contact with Dorian and let him know. He had a family emergency but didn’t leave a contact number or anything. Not even a note saying goodbye. I guess my focus has been getting away from Luna Hailey. It’s not that I don’t want to contact him. I do, but the only way I know how to is to go to Fairyland, and I’d have to pass through Redwood territory to do that. I can’t do that. I can’t go back.

I often wonder if he thinks about me like I think about him.

“I’m sorry, Dorian,” I whisper. I’m sorry.

~

Edited using Grammarly