Raised By Wolves

Chapter Twenty Three | Calling Doctor Brown

Curled up in bed, May cradled her injured arm against her chest and listened to the rain that hadn't stopped since she got home hours before. Anytime she closed her eyes, she was haunted by the eyes of the wolf that had bitten her. Each time her heart ached and the sense of helplessness that filled her made her arm hurt more. It didn't help she caught a bit of the conversation her dad had been having with Eli about the small group being sent out to hunt down one of the Collectors that was released. May knew what would the outcome would be - more death. For tonight, the shifters would be the monsters Josh and his group thought they were.

"May, are you asleep?" Miranda gently asked, peeking in.

"No." She sighed, not willing to move.

Miranda came and sat on the side of Mays bed, before reaching out and brushing May's hair back from her face. With a mother's touch, Miranda took the sore arm and saying nothing, undid the small bandage, frowning with concentration as the dim light showed barely a scratch. She said it had bled, that it deep and horrible, yet after her shower, Miranda realised most of the blood hadn't been Mays. Dark patches of bruises did cover her skin, some parts of the night so easily washed away and the pain her daughter was in now had nothing to do with her arm at all.

"Don't blame yourself sweetheart."

May's bloodshot eyes turned up towards her mother. "He wanted to die Mum."

"I know, and from what you told us that may have been a gift you gave to him rather than a curse." Miranda held May's hand in hers, wanting to so badly to make everything better for her. "It's not too late if you want to stop this. We can get you away from here. You don't need to keep up this act with Thomas, the pack is onto them now and that's all because of you May. Think of the ones who won't be taken now, the ones we can save."

"I know, but it's hard to do. I wish I could go Mum, but I can't leave until we have Caleb back." Sitting up, May practically threw herself around her mother as she held onto her like a lifeline. "Something is wrong with me. I don't know how to explain it, but it's dark and I know I could have killed Josh today."

As she gently rubbed her daughters back, Miranda just listened as May told her about how she got so angry sometimes she felt as though she wasn't in control of her own body, followed the feeling like she could literally fall apart at any second. Plus there was the constant unrest, the need to just go, as far and as fast as she could - like this wasn't where she was supposed to be. It was driving her mad and with everything going on, being with Josh wasn't the only time she had to make herself fake 'normal'.

"Eli seems to think you're changing May and this really does sound a lot like what your father told me about how he felt when he came back from living in the wild. I'd often find him in his wolf form, he'd lose the battle with the animal and have to let it out."

"I don't have a wolf. It came like it was supposed to then she just, left. Caleb sensed her, well his wolf did. It's why he stopped talking to me." May admitted and then shared what she could with her mother about all of that.

"I'm no shifter, so I don't know what you all go through during this time, but May I don't think she rejected you, either of you at all. I think you rejected her and she's fighting now for you to accept who you are so she can come out."

Pulling away, May looked at her mother as though she was speaking a foreign language and even she forgot how to speak for a second, barely mumbling when she did. "What?"

"You were so worried when your birthday came around about not shifting, I think you talked yourself into not doing it. It's hard enough finding your place in the world, working out who you are and where you belong when you're a teenager. Throw in this life altering event of turning into an actual wolf, there is a lot of pressure on you and-"