Page 331 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“Easy…” I soothed. “Remember me, Samuel? I came to talk to you a few months ago. You showed me some of your art.”
He couldn’t respond as a wolf, but he wasn’t backing away from me or trying to rush around me. He did, however, remove his paws from his nose.
“Yeah, I thought you’d remember me.” I reached for his head, and he winced, his ears flattening, his eyes closing, but when I touched his soft fur, he opened his eyes again. He looked up at me as I stroked his head. “I know you’re scared. And I know that it’s because you probably realized the same thing I did earlier today—you’re going to see things you’ve tried very hard to forget.”
Another soft whine, and he wrapped his tail tightly around him.
“It won’t be a fun experience, and it might be frightening, but I want you to know that your memories can’t hurt you more than you’ve already been hurt. Today will be the start of the rest of your life, and you’ll be able to look forward instead of back. Understand?”
One of his ears lifted. He stared at me, waiting for more.
“I also want you to know I will be there with you the entire time.” I scratched him under his chin. “And that’s very lucky. You know why? Because I’ve already done this. I know the ropes. You’ll be okay.”
His other ear lifted.
“That’s right, Samuel, I’ve got your back. And I’ll keep you safe. Don’t forget, this will help you, and it’ll help the other boys who were kidnapped. It’ll be okay, I promise.”
I continued to stroke his head until slowly, carefully, he got to his feet.
“Atta boy,” Adam said. He and his wife visibly relaxed as he followed Samuel and me to the stone circle.
The two of us sat in the center of the stone circle. Samuel rested his head on my knee, slight tremors racking his body. He didn’t try to leave, though, brave boy that he was.
Night caught my eye. He was grinning at me, and the pride shining in his eyes made my heart race.
I looked at the elders. “Let’s get this started.”
Elder Forsythe nodded. “Of course.”
He and the other two elders stood around us. I took a deep breath in, let a slow breath out, and closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I wasn’t standing in the forest I’d found myself in when I was looking through my mother’s memories. Instead, I was sitting on an old felled tree trunk just behind the tree line that surrounded Kings territory. There was that familiar cast of gray over this world, which wasn’t doing wonders for my vision. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t see through the darkness until it suddenly hit me. I was in the body of a six-year-old boy, a boy who hadn’t had his first shift yet. His wolf side wouldn’t have awakened yet.
Realizing this was like taking a bucket of ice water to the face. I had forgotten how helpless and weak I’d been when I was only human, and that weakness was only compounded by the fact that this body belonged to a child.
A shiver of unease passed between my shoulder blades, but I got control of myself before the vision began to distort.
“Sammy!” a small voice pulled Samuel’s attention. I recognized Trevor Coolie, one of the boys who went missing. I’d helped my mother tutor the flaxen-haired boy. I watched him run toward Samuel from the darkness.
“Trevor!” Samuel slid off the trunk to meet his friend halfway.
The boys hugged, then Trevor quickly pushed him away. He started digging in his pockets. “Look what I got, Sammy!”
He pulled out his hands, revealing fists full of mini dark chocolate bars. Samuel gasped.
“How did you get these?”
Trevor’s answering grin was smug. “I snuck into the dining hall when Glenda wasn’t looking.”
“No way!”
“Yes, way. I told you I was the sneakiest.”
Trevor shared one of his handfuls with Samuel. I grinned. Mom was far too perceptive for Trevor to have snuck past her; she’d probably noticed the boy immediately but pretended not to. She had always been soft with kids, and I imagined she was especially so at this time, when little boys were going missing.
Trevor finished his candy before Samuel, who was still licking chocolate from his fingertips.
“Hey, Sammy, doesn’t this remind you of that story?”
