The Forgotten Child

Chapter 21

Alyson woke up the next morning to the loud cry of two babies. Alyson let out a mighty huff before getting out of bed and checking on the kids.

She checked on Liza first sniffed her lightly, time to change her diaper. Alyson laid Liza down and changed her with the quickness of having 4 younger siblings. She then repeated it with jasper.

Checking the time, it was about noon. She'd expect the group to be back by now. Alyson's stomach tightened in knots. She bit her thumbnail and started to pace.

Where were they? Shouldn't they be back by now? It's an odd thing for them to be gone this long.

Alyson grabbed the two children and went down to the meeting room to see if anyone was there. Upon entering the room, she felt the chill of an empty room. She shut it quickly.

She raced into the living room and saw the screen was blinking with a message from the elders. She put the children down in the play pin in this room and listened to the message back.

Alyson huffed and sat the two children down for feeding time. Alyson did this or that all day long did a few chores finished unpacking completely. Put some of Hayden's things away. Cleaned dusted did everything around the house to make it look nice. By then it was only like 5 pm.

She fed the children again, cleaned them, played with them, put them down from a nap, then repeated. Until the day was over. No sign of the group showing up.

She did this again for 3 more days. no sign of the pack. She called everyone no one answered. She was sad and angry all at once. She looked at the calendar the supermoon ended tonight and it would be at its brightest and strongest. But the others said it would only take one night to get rid of the need to change.

Did something happen? Every time she asked herself that question it always ended in panic.

Alyson sighed sadly this house seemed barely able to keep everyone when they were all here, but now it felt cold and lonely.

Alyson went downstairs after putting the children to nap time and saw a missed call from the elders.

They left a message saying to call them back as soon as possible, Alyson called them back without hesitation.

"Alyson! thank god we were getting worried!" Grandmother Willow said putting a hand over her heart.

"Where is everyone else?" Darkhorse asked. Alyson shook her head.

"They went out to run around during the supermoon and haven't returned yet."

"They what?" Grandmother Willow asked confused.

"They went out to transform during the supermoon, they said they had to. But they said they'd only be gone for one night it's been almost 5. If they needed to go out all 5 days they should've just told me!" Alyson said disgruntled.

Darkhorse and Grandmother Willow looked at each other confused.

"What do you mean child the supermoon only increases our powers, there is no actual need to transform for one night but a whole week? That is simply unheard of," Grandmother willow said shaking her head. Alyson's stomach dropped and her heart sank.

"Well, not unheard of," Dark Horse said with a worried look on his face, "during the pack wars happened we attacked the week of the supermoon. But we didn't authorize any battles." Darkhorse looked to grandmother willow both their faces looked grim. Alyson's stomach started to do backflips.

"No," Alyson said softly everything starting to click together. The way they were looking at her when they left. How weird they were acting. How much they packed now formed in her mind. They weren't going for a night run. They were going to war.