The Wolf and The Wolverine Book 2: Death of a Hunter (completed ✔️)

Chapter 6: Reflections of the Past.

The city is burning, why? So many dead and so many more dying. I have to get up, but it hurts so much.  It all feels too real. Come on you can do this, they need you, your team needs your strength now more than ever you can't disappoint them, especially not now. Wait. I've seen this before. AUGH! It hurts to even, be. The smoke is burning my eyes, theres shrapnel in my legs, my lungs feel like they're been trampled. I'm burning up, like I have a fever. I've gotta get through it, gotta help them. Its what He would do, what he'd want you to do, be yourself, helping people anyway you can. To be what they need; their sunshine in the dark of night.

My eyes shoot open as I sit straight up in my bed, a cold sweat covering me taking huge gasps of air. I touch my temples, my hair is sticking my forehead. I don't know wether to get up and leave the room, or go back to sleep.  I lay there staring at my clock, it goes from 3:00 to 4:00 to 5:00. I decide it's just better if I get up. My head is pounding as I sit up once more, I put on a sweater and paced out of my room. By the time I get down the stairs I noticed someone is missing from the couch. Logan. A silhouette of a big man is painted perfectly through the glass of my frosted door window. I shiver and rub my arms a few times before putting on some footwear and attempting to join him. I open the door softly, there he is in the entry way of my house, leaning up against the stone archway, and looking onto the small front yard. With a slightly less discrete manner than before, I slowly open the door and shuffle to him. The gray blue and yellow sky starts to change a little more as I tiptoe to him. He turns his head momentarily out of habit even though he already knows who it is. My teeth start to chatter as I come closer. He puts an arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer to his warm body, and slowly moves his hand down to my waist. My chattering stops, but my shivering doesn't. He pulls me even closer and I, for the first time put an arm around his torso. Comfortably silent, we both watch the sky and see its brilliant color show. Logan let out a tiny yawn, one you could barely notice. "You didn't sleep." I breathed, leaning my head to the side of his chest. He gave a sigh that said no. A comfortable stillness settled between us. Soon, our moment drew worrisome. Logan seemed to sigh every time he looked my direction. "Red." Logan breathed slowly as he clenched my hip.  "I'm not sure if we should tell your folks we're gettin' married." He sighed. My face dropped, knowing where he was going. "Logan,-" he stopped me. "Madelynn I can't bring unneeded harm with me onto your family. They're too good for this, my pain, my troubles. I can't drag them into that." He releases me from the embrace. "Logan, almost every member of my family is a mutant. They can protect themselves." I gently spoke, putting a hand to his shoulder, clutching my sweater closer to my chest. He shifted his eyes around, meeting mine. That gentle ocean blue stare, that could charm any woman stopped on me. "Madelynn, red, darlin'; leave me behind. Do what's good for your family, think of them. They may be mutants, but they don't have enemies like I do." He paused, his eyes are firm, but you could tell the emotions that are hidden just behind them. "Please Madelynn, you're a smart gal. Go get yourself another man, with a safer life. A life without constant death, running, and sorrow." He holds my hand in his. Softly caressing it and placing light kisses on my knuckles. I stare back at him, at his actions. Tears already clouding my sight. I take a hand and put it to his cheek. His rough beard scratching at my palm. "I don't want another man Logan. I've never wanted to play it safe. I've always wanted this. A man like you, and the life I have so far with you. Death, is a painful part of life. An oh-so familiar truth that no one likes to talk about. And you have had the awful misfortune of experiencing it more than any man should." His eyes closed, listening to every word I say. I take my hand and slip it under his chin, propping his eyes to look at mine again. "I love you Logan. No matter how many ghosts, monsters, or people come after you. I'll be there at your side as your strength. You can count on it. I don't want just any man Logan, I want you." We stood there for what felt like years. The sky changing from a light pink and yellow to finally a radiant blue. He took my hand into his again. "Will you feel the same way when those ghosts come to haunt you too?" He mumbled, our foreheads touching. "Of course love. As long as you are with me to face them." As the sky started forming white and gray clouds, we just sat in each other's presence, occasionally changing our positions to were we laid beside each other. He held my arm, and I was tucked in between his bicep and chest, content with listening to the tide of his breathing. We stayed like that for what felt like years, just thinking and enjoying our time together. But something had been knocking on my mind since our run in with the lupine just a few months ago. "Logan." I spoke softly. He slightly grunted, almost drifting off. "I've needed to know something, something since that day in the forest." "Oh yeah?" He questioned. "Mmm hmm." I hummed. "Shoot red." I took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn't think me rude. "What happened to your son?" He was deathly quiet. His body tensed up and his grip on my body tightened. His face was stone cold, no expression could be seen on it, not even by me. "Well he; uh... he." Logan struggled to grab his thoughts. I just laid there, sorry for even asking. "He, was taken, Not long after he was born, my wife at the time, was killed, and he was stolen." I'd never seen him shed a tear for anyone or anything. I felt like a complete heartless hag. "I'm, so sorry Logan. The last thing I wanted was for you to open up such a painful wound." I snuggled in closer to him, waiting for a reply. I never got one. His only action was bringing me closer to him, and lovingly nuzzling my hair.

Morning passed, then afternoon, and so on. Soon we started clearing the dishes from the table once again after a rowdy, hardy, family meal. The kitchen was shut down for the night, the living room was alive with laughter, and dim light from the TV screen. I sat with my back up against one of the arms of the couch. I watched as my dad joked with Logan and Hank, my mom talked and laughed with me and my sisters, us occasionally giggling at what our dad was talking about. "Anything life could throw at me, I could definitely take. Especially if I'm with him." The thought found it's way into the front of my mind, comfortably thinking and watching my family far into the night.