Runt (BoyxBoy)

Chapter VII

Arriving back at the Red Wing’s house wasn’t exactly something I was looking forward to. I didn’t want to be there any more than I wanted to remember Raven, but I had to do it. Luckily, when I made my way up the driveway, Perry was on the front porch staring miserably into the distance.

He noticed me and stood up, welcoming me with a pat on the head. “What did you come back here for?” He asked, stripping off his shirt and handing it to me.

I shifted to human form and quickly donned the t-shirt. I waited a moment, catching my breath, before I answered, telling Perry all about the pups and Marble’s eye colour genes; and asked him about family records.

Perry bit his lip and grinned mischievously. “You are so lucky.” He said, making me tilt my head to the side in confusion. Perry chuckled. “Cole’s gone out on a perimeter check with Kite. That gives you an hour or so to get the information you need.”

My mood immediately lightened and I followed my brother inside and up the stairs to Cole’s office.

The room was simple. A wooden desk scattered with papers and the occasional cable that led to his computer stood on the dark green carpet in front of a leather office chair. Behind a desk stood two book shelves, each lined with what appeared to be hundreds of books.

Perry pulled one of the books out of its place. “Start with the family tree,” he instructed, handing me the book. “I’ll look at the list of alphas and alliances with other packs.” He grabbed another book.

I opened the book to the most recent page. It showed Cole, Raven, Kite, Swift and Peregrine all belonging to our father, Alpha Starling Fowler, and our mother, Wren. Another name was scrawled messily under where the elegant scripted names of the first litter. It took me a moment to decipher, but I was pretty sure the cursive squiggle read Jay.

I turned to Perry. “Do we have birth certificates?” I asked, placing the book on the wooden desk.

He smiled softly and nodded, scanning the shelves for a book and pulled out a folder. He handed it to me.

I grabbed it and flicked through the pages until I found the page I was looking for. I had been right. The name was Jay Fowler. When I looked at the date, I didn’t recognise the day itself, but I recognised the year. This person was the same age as me. Could it have been me? I looked up at Perry who nodded, seeming to understand what I was thinking.

I couldn’t contain the beaming smile that broke out on my face as I removed the certificate from the plastic sleeve. “Can I keep this?” I asked, running my fingers over the name. Jay. That was my name. I knew my real name wasn’t Runt. It couldn’t be. But there had always been a cruel little thought in my head that wondered if fate was really so mean and if it really was my name.

Perry grinned again. “Sure. I don’t think Cole will miss it too much.” He joked.

I nodded and picked the family tree back up. Alpha Starling was the son of Cormorant Fowler and -

 

Robyn Fowler,the name of my father’s mother, had a neat line drawn through it and the name Coral Fisher was written underneath it.

I frowned and showed the page to Perry. “That usually means that she was his first mate who had dad, then something happened and she was replaced by ‘Coral’.” He pursed his lips. “I wonder if there are and portraits or photo albums anywhere.” He said to himself, scanning the shelves again and selecting a large scrap book. Perry began to flip through the pages. He stopped turning the pages and stared at one of the photos before laughing.

“What is it?” I asked, standing on my toes to see.

A photo of a fluffy grey wolf cub growling at the camera was pasted onto the page. “Guess who that is,” Perry said, trying to hold back more laughter.

I shrugged, confused at the picture. Was it my father or my mother?

“It’s Cole,” Perry said.

My eyes widened as a smile broke onto my face. “No way,” I breathed, running my fingers over the photo. A short laugh escaped my mouth. I slowly turned the page and found a photo of the litter as toddlers gathered around a baby with hair so fair that it didn’t look like it had any. They were all smiling up at the camera, and the baby was sound asleep.

It seemed that the photos were becoming more and more recent, so I started going backwards. There were photos of my mother and father on their wedding day, as well as pictures of my grandfather and his second wife.

Finally, I reached a black and white photo of my grandfather behind a woman who was sitting on a swing.She wore a simple dress and had long white-blonde hair. They looked so happy. The photo beneath it was of a grey wolf and a slightly smaller white one sitting next to each other. These two photos must have been of Robyn Fowler; my grandmother.

“Do you think I could take this too?” I asked.

“Cole might notice,” Perry smiled and patted my head. “Of course you can take it.”

I smiled and hugged the photo album closer to my chest, before grabbing my birth certificate and leaving. Now that I had answers to some of my questions, I was satisfied. I had to get back to Rowan and tell him the good news.

However, these documents didn't answer one question that I had thought of while looking through the photo album. Everyone seemed happy enough when I was a baby, so why was Cole so horrible to me now?