We explored the area for the better part of two hours. It surprised me to see how much stamina Alexander has. He climbed over the fallen three trunks with little effort and bounces left and right pointing at all the new things. Sure, he had seen trees and plants and flowers before in one of the parks near our home, but nothing compared to the feeling of an authentic forest and I could clearly see it affecting him as much as it did for me.

Maybe not all hope's lost for my little pup to have a wolf.

I even noticed him sniffing the air from time to time, oddly resembling a wolf at those moments, which made my eyes tear up every time. He kept noticing though, observant little child that he was, but I simply told him it's the wind that made my eyes water. 

After a while, he began to move slower, showing signs of tiredness. 

"Come on, baby, let's go back to the house, we can come back tomorrow after Mommy and Nana get back from the grownup thing we have to do." 

He whined a little, but didn't protest when I scooped him up in my arms and started walking back to the house. I'd made sure not to wander of too far, so we'd been going in circles around our house. I didn't want to run into wolves that aren't familiar with me, or worse, rogues, because I had no means to defend myself if that were to happen. 

It didn't take Alexander long to rest his head against my shoulder and not even a minute later I heard his breaths evening out. Poor kid exhausted himself to the point of sleep, how cute. He must have been really excited to be here. Of course, it's his natural habitat, but it brought me hope that maybe the gene was in there somewhere after all.

As the house came into view I quickened my steps as much as I could without waking Alexander up and enter the house quietly. My Mom's busying herself in the kitchen, cleaning and she looked up when I enter. She's about to greet us when she noticed how Alexander was asleep against my shoulder, so instead, she closed her mouth and let it settle into a soft smile. 

I nodded and quickly ascended the stairs to put him to bed in my bedroom. We would be sharing a bed for the duration of our stay, as this was only a two bedroom house, but honestly, I didn't mind having my not so small baby with me for a few nights. 

When I was done putting the little one to bed, I made my way down to my Mom again, who's still scrubbing the kitchen sink as if her life depends on it.

"Mom," I say, making my way over to her and putting my hand on her shoulder. "It's clean, mom, please stop."

Her shoulders trembled and a sob escaped her lips, which she tried to cover up.

I pulled her shoulder to turn her around and hug her. For the first time in my entire life, it felt as if our roles were reversed, me being the one to comfort her and not the other way around.

"It's okay, we're okay, you're going to be okay." I gently rocked her and cooed to her, making sshh-sounds in between. When she's a little calmer, I released my hold on her a little.

"Why don't you go take a walk, Mom, maybe let your wolf out to play? It's not because I can't, that you shouldn't. She must be excited to be home."

She nodded absentmindedly.

"Yes, maybe that will do me good, I could visit our spot." she said softly, more to herself than to me.

I nodded encouragingly and took that sponge that she's still holding onto, from her hands.

"Of you go then, before it gets too dark."

She smiled a little and walked of, but she halted in front of the door.

"I'm really proud of the woman you've become, Cassie, and I'm sure your Dad would be too."

I smiled, bittersweet tears threatening to spill out of my eyes once more today.

"Thanks Mom."

She nodded and left, the words still ringing on in my ears, even long after she's gone.

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Hadn't noticed I'd changed tenses, so I fixed it, sorry for the inconvenience, new chapter will be up soon!