Gray Valley

e i g h t y - o n e

"I HEARD THAT MY SON DIED."

"Melanie?" I heard my brother's voice from behind me. "Is that really you?"

"West... " she trailed off and then, looked at me. "Then you are... Weslyn?"

She knew West. She knew me.

I had no choice. With the familiar woman, in front of me, and that name I had no choice but to believe it.

Melanie.

There were a lot of Gray Wolves that had died in the War and she was the mother of one of those Wolves.

But there was only one Melanie I had heard of... Melanie Lachowski.

"You are his mother, aren't you?" My voice was a mere whisper. "Liam... You are his mother."

"I heard that William died in the War."

It took a moment for me to process the situation.

"How dare you?" The mark on my neck began to burn. "You abandoned him for the 13 years. And now, you dare speak of him? How dare you? It was you who abandoned him."

I knew, now, Liam wouldn't and couldn't return to me... That he had abandoned me by no choice of his own. He loved me. He promised me forever. But he had abandoned me. He wouldn't return to me.

Maybe, that was why it got on my nerves that a woman that had not loved her son had abandoned him, by choice, and could return to Gray Valley, now.

"Weslyn-" my brother started.

"West, this is between me and Melanie!"

"I had no choice."

I felt my body burn in response to my anger. "What?!"

"Weslyn... I had no choice when I abandoned him."

"But, you abandoned him, didn't you?"

"I had no choice..." she repeated.

I watched as tears of remorse seeped out her eyes.

"You had a choice, Melanie, and you made it."

"It's not what you think it is," she insisted. "Do you believe a mother would have made the choice to leave her son? No! It's not what you think it is."

"Then, what is it?!" I screamed.

"I had no choice because William isn't my only son."

What?

"What are you talking about, Melanie?" my brother asked from beside me.

"I have two sons and William is only one of those two sons."

I stared at her. 

I had not expected that.

"Liam has a... Brother?" I whispered.

"A half-brother."

West also stared at her. "And where is he, now?"

"I don't know," she hesitated. "My father... My son was born and he took him from me. And I don't know where he is, now, West. I don't know."

"Why would your father take your son from you?"

"He took him from me because he was the son of a Brown Wolf."

"Brown Wolf?" And that was when I remembered what Liam had told me about her. "The son of your Soulmate who was a Brown Wolf?"

She didn't answer. She didn't need to answer.

The expression on her face was enough of an answer.

"But you don't know where that son is, now?" 

"I don't know, now, but I know where my father sent him when he was born."

"Where?"

"My son was sent to the Brown Wolf Pack."

Now, it made sense.

The reason that Melanie ran was her father. But the reason she ran to Gray Valley was to find her son.

It made sense.

But there was only one thing did not make sense.

"Why couldn't you find him when you were in Gray Valley?"

"I couldn't... I couldn't because the Brown Wolves didn't let me near him... They couldn't believe it was possible for my son to be one of them." She glanced up at me. "And your father, Wesley, couldn't help me. He had an agreement with the Brown Wolves. And that was why I couldn't find my son."

There was a pause.

"But... It was enough. I knew that the Brown Wolf Pack was a safe for a Hybrid Wolf. Safe... It was safe for my son. And that was enough. But..."

"The Brown Wolves are now part of the Luna Pack." I could hear my brother talking to her but my mind was distracted. "You can find him, now."

"What?"

It was distracted by the thought that Liam had a half-brother.

"I can find him?"

I turned to her. "If  he was in the Brown Wolf Pack, we can find him, Melanie, what was the name of your son?"

And, though I did not know what I had expected from her, it was not the name I thought I would hear.

"His name was... Blayze."