A week prior to the start of Chapter 11

'We'll be together always, Jayden... my sweet baby...' My mother's voice sounds like liquid gold, but for some reason, her face is obscured, as is the face of the man I assume to be my father; what do they look like? I yearn to know.

All I know is that she lied to me. The next thing I know, I am taken away and shoved into a man's arms, who takes me to his house and uses some kind of metal thingy on my ear. It hurts for a few minutes, then the pain goes away.

Suddenly, I feel hands on my ribs as a beautiful young woman lifts me up, to rest my head on her shoulder. My mother's voice rings through my mind one las time. 'We'll be together always, Jayden...'

I wake up with a jolt, sweat dripping down my now-pallid forehead, down my face. That same dream has been haunting me for years, ever since the year after I started living with Orion and his wife, Athea. That dream brings up a whole lot of questions, like 'Do I have any siblings?' and 'Were those people actually my parents?'

I stare at the clock; it's 3 AM; way too early for me to be awake. There's a knock on the door before it opens to reveal Orion and Athea.

'Wake up, dear... Orion and I have something to tell you...' I switch on my bedside lamp to see Athea sitting next to me on the bed. 'Well, you're in luck; that stupid dream woke me up again, at the exact same moment as last time.'

She grabs my pillow and examines it, as she usually does after I have a strange dream, and says 'We must take him to Cyrus, darling... Surely he'll help him...'

I scratch my head and mutter 'Cyrus; who's that?' Orion places a rough hand on my shoulder and replies 'He's a doctor; Athea and I... we fear that you have some sort of... mental thing happening up here' while tapping his temple to indicate the brain.

'I just really want to stop having that one dream, Orion...'

A few hours later, we are at the courthouse of the Councils, where they meet frequently to talk about God-knows-what. A man steps down from the engraved pedestal he's seated behind and says 'Orion Campbell; what a surprise. What brings you back to the courthouse of the Councils?'

Orion smiles sheepishly and replies 'My, er, son, Jayden, keeps having strange dreams about a cub being stolen from their parents. He'd like to clear it up.' Cyrus snaps his fingers and says 'Patrik, take this young wolf downstairs and... help him...'

Patrik grabs my wrist and drags me down a winding set of stairs into pitch blackness. When I gulp a few litres of air, he says 'Man up, whelp, or I'll throw you down there.'

We continue on for a few minutes before he says 'We're here. Sit at this table and I'll ask you questions about your dream.'

After bombarding me with question after question, Patrik leads me back up the stairs and back to the courthouse. He asked me how long it's been going on, and how he can help; stuff like that.

When we finally arrive back at the house, I have a surprise waiting for me - two people that I haven't seen since I was a baby - my parents. My mother walks up to me and hugs me like a vise.

'Oh, Kade; this is the greatest birthday surprise ever... How did you find him?' He grabs her hand, pulling her away from me, and says 'Searching his name on the Werewolf Database wasn't hard, baby. He's the only wolf with that name.'

***

An hour later, Orion and I sit down outside, out of sight of the hunters, and talk about my parents. 'Kade and Belle and I... we had a little chat about you, Jayden... They want you back, but I wanted to --- to talk with you about it first...'

'Orion---'

'I know what you'll say, Jayden; you don't want to leave. But you must understand something --- something that, perhaps, Athea and I have neglected to teach you... sometimes, things don't go as you thought they would. Your parents want to reunite with you, Jayden... so Athea and I thought we'd let them take you home when the war is over and done with--'

I yell 'No!' before running into the house and slamming the door of the room I share with Gildren and Chandria, locking it behind me. Gildren urges me to sit down and I curl up against his ribs, a tight ball of rancour and despair.

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rancour = anger