Running with Wolves Ch. 21

They were interrupted by yet another group of children. This group, however, was larger and on an organized fieldtrip. There were a few strawberry-blonde-colored youngsters who gasped excitedly when they spotted Misty. They erupted in a chorus of "AUNTY MISSY!" and "Aunt Misty!". All four came running over, hugging Misty's legs and reaching up to try and get her to hold them. She laughed and picked up two, placing kisses all over the squealing kids.

"Oh, I missed you! How have my favorite cousins been, huh? Where are you heading off to?"

"We're going to see the chickens!" The older looking one in Misty's arms seemed the most enthusiastic about going to see the flightless foul. His brothers seemed far more interested in the horses and fish. They each tried to speak over one another, trying to explain why they were so excited about their animals of choice. Misty easily conversed with them, bouncing from one conversation to the others without missing any of the information given to her.

As she continued chatting with the four boys, one little girl from the rest of the group turned her attention in Dominic's direction. She stared at him, seeming to be confused until she sniffed her tiny nose at him. Her eyes grew wide with wonder as they stared at one another. Dominic gave a small smile and waved, which seemed to delight the little girl. She giggled and hid behind one of the chaperone's skirt, peaking out only to become overwhelmed with more giggles and hiding again.

Her laughter did odd things to Dominic's wolf. He could feel it becoming excited, and in turn he began to fear it would attack the sweet child that was now playing hide and seek with him. He tightened his hold once more on the beast and after one final struggle, it ceased to try and move.

Misty noticed the strain in Dominic's smile as he passively played his game. She used the children's excitement over their trip to finally get them to move on. They both waved as the entire group began dashing down the hall, three caregivers in toe. The little girl lingered at the corner, her gold eyes locked onto Dominic, but finally she was shooed by one of the women and they were alone.

From next to him, Dominic heard a growl. "Little hussy better keep her paws off."

At first Dominic didn't understand, but when he noticed where Misty was glaring he burst into laughter. "She's six, Misty. Young may be sexy, but not that young." He started back on the path to the Alpha Wing, vaguely recognizing the landmarks. "Besides, I told you I was into older women."

Misty stood glaring at the back of Dominic's head, but as he continued on she huffed and caught up, snatching the back of his shirt and dragging in the opposite direction.

The rest of the walk was quiet. A few individuals stopped to welcome Misty back after her extended absence, others tilted down their heads and continued on with their daily duties. Nothing of consequence presented itself until they arrived at the entrance door of the Alpha Wing. Instead of Pearl, whose presence Dominic had become accustom to, there was a sour-looking man standing guard. He was glaring at his phone, seeming annoyed to be there. When he noticed them walking towards him, he quickly closed out the screen and slipped it into his back pocket.

"Misty."

"Fog."

Dominic was not about to interfere in whatever tension was between those two. He had a sneaking suspicion it would lead to him being punched in the jaw, and he didn't know by whom the throw would be given. He and Misty passed by the new guard without further incident. She grumbled under her breath about him being an arrogant ass once they were out of earshot, but still Dominic did not bite. He had enough shit going on in his life; he didn't want to deal with anyone else's personal drama.

As they finally came upon the familiar trio of doors that led to Dominic and his family's rooms, he was over come with urgency. For him, it had only been a moment since he had left them, but for them it had been two months. How were Ben and Jarod getting along? How far had the relationship between Flint and Garrett progressed? Were they safe? How much had Penny grown? All of the possibilities were rushing through his head, but the happiness he felt at being home overshadowed that. He smiled as he entered the sitting room, expecting everyone to be there.

But no one was.

The sitting room was completely empty of people, but it was more than that. The books and games that were usually lying around were all put away. The blankets on the backs of the couches were laid out perfectly without a wrinkle. The fireplace was clean, and didn't seem to have been used in some time. He didn't even recognize the furniture, and most of the cabinets that had been holding different decorative items were gone. He couldn't even recognize the room anymore.

"Ben?" Dominic walked farther into the room, looking around as if he expected them to be hiding from him. "Jarod? Where are you guys?"

"Dominic, hold on..." Misty followed him in, but he ignored her. Fear was beginning to overtake him. Where was his family?

Dominic gave up on the sitting room; they obviously weren't there. He instead went to check the bedrooms. Maybe they were all in one of them, curled up on a bed to watch a movie on Flint's laptop?

No such luck. As soon as he slammed Ben and Jarod's door open, he could feel that they weren't there, and hadn't been for a while. Both beds were made up like those at a hotel, and none of their stuff was on the bedside tables. Even the bird box and the perch that Ben had been working on were no longer sitting in the corner. "Garrett?!" He ran to the other side of the sitting room, but only found his room to be in the exact same state. It hit him especially hard when he realized Penny's crib was gone. "Samantha?!"

Dominic was in a complete panic now. He slammed his hand against the door jam as he rushed out of his room, but he never registered the pain. His breathing was becoming erratic; the world was spinning. The grip he had been maintaining on his inner beast was beginning to slip and allow it to come forward in response to his fear.

"... calm down!" Two hands shot out and grasped Dominic by his shoulders, surprising him enough he froze instead of retaliating. In that split second he had perfect clarity of what was happening to his body. His nails hurt from growing into claws, the points of his teeth pricked his gums as he clenched his jaw, and hair was beginning to grow thicker all over his body. He was losing control of his wolf.

"Do you hear me Dominic?! You need to calm the fuck down!" The hands holding him shook him rapidly, snapping his head up to where he could see the face of the man holding him. The fear that Dominic had been filled with was washed away by the relief of seeing Ben's panicked face. He was so happy that he leaned down and crushed Ben with a massive hug.

"Whoa, okay. Okay. Everything's fine, Dom. Everything's cool." Ben returned the hug, petting Dominic's filthy hair as he cried into his friend's shoulder. "I'm here. No one is going anywhere."

It was a long time before Dominic was able to pull himself together. He was slightly embarrassed as he lifted himself away from Ben, standing back up to his new full height. Dominic used the back of his hands to quickly wipe away the excess salt water from his cheeks. "Sorry, Ben."

"It's fine." The look in Ben's eyes made it clear things were not fine. They looked tired, as if he had not been sleeping, while his wide shoulders sat in a stiff line leading into a slightly hunched back. It hadn't been since before moving to the warehouse that he had been this troubled.

"What's going on, Ben?" Dominic placed a hand on one stiff shoulder. "Where is everyone?"

Ben's eyebrows scrunched together in anger. He shook off the hand and marched over to a chair, flopping down in exhausted agitation. He waited until both Dominic and Misty were sitting as well. Even then he had to collect himself for a moment before continuing. "I'm sorry, Dominic."

Dominic glanced at Misty, confused by how his friend was starting. "What do you have to be sorry for? I'm the one that freaked out and lost control and ran off on you. You don't have anything to be sorry for."

Ben let out a sharp breath between his teeth. "Bullshit." It was quiet, directed at himself, but before Dominic could affirm his statement his friend continued. "When you lost control, Orion came to us and explained what was going on. We thought you were going to be killed, but he said there was no reason for you to be. You weren't dangerous, you weren't out of control, but you did need to be watched while you were out there. He said as long as you stayed on Five Rivers land, no harm would come to you." There was a catch in Ben's voice. "But then I started hearing rumors."

"What rumors?" Misty snapped. Something about that bothered her.

Ben sighed. "Pecker, that's what we ended up naming the bird. Stupid, I know, but Samantha insisted. Anyway, he was starting to try and jump out of the nest I had made for him. We figured it was time to start taking him outside to try and teach him to fly. At first we would all go, but it was too cold and everyone besides Pearl would stay inside.

"A couple weeks after you disappeared, some of the Patrol that had been watching you came running out of the woods, freaking out. Apparently you had attacked one of them. They weren't prepared for how fast you were, or the intensity of your reaction. You tore a girl's arm up pretty good."

Dominic paled. He had remembered that when he had first woken up. Now he could remember more; how he had heard the twigs snapping around him, how he had waited until they came just a bit closer, and the taste of blood and victory as he had sunk his teeth into the bitch that had stepped too close. He felt ill.

"After that, things started going bad." Ben growled out his words, as if they were leaving a bad taste in his mouth.

Dominic pushed back his own bile to continue the conversation. "What happened?"

"Jarod lost his ever loving mind, that's what happened." Dominic wasn't surprised Ben had started there, but didn't interrupt. "First, he starts freaking out about our room, messing with my shit every time I turned my back. Garrett ended up switching bedrooms with him so I wouldn't end up killing him. Then he starts going nuts on Samantha!"

Dominic almost groaned. He had an idea of where this was going. "Ben..."

"No! I know what you're about to say, Dom, but it was bullshit! Every move she made he fucking tracked. And with Penny, good God, no one was allowed to even touch her. If you picked her up wrong he would snap at you, if you held her he would say it wasn't "how you do it" and practically rip her from your arms. And Lord help you if you didn't fasten the tabs of her diaper just so, because the Penny Police was just waiting to pounce."

"Ben, you know he has issues. We've talked about this, at length. He needs help to keep his impulses in check."

"Yeah, well, you weren't exactly here to help keep him in line." The snide remark cut deep, and Ben knew it. He tried to backtrack. "Dom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it..."

Dominic just shook his head. He knew this was his fault, that the reason everyone wasn't here together was because he had lost control and left them on their own. "What happened next?"

"Dominic, seriously we know it wasn't your fault. I'm just being an ass 'cause I'm pissed-"

"Ben. It's okay. I know you didn't mean to hurt me. Just... tell me what else happened."

Ben looked like he wanted to continue groveling, but he pulled back and instead continued recounting the mess that had erupted after his friend's departure. "Jarod's OCD started to get really bad about a month after you had left. Orion and Sol kept telling us you were fine, that you were still you and would come back, but I..." He let out a deep sigh. "I didn't believe them. Every few days when I would take Pecker out to practice flying, some of the Patrol would be walking around and Pearl would start talking with them. They didn't think I could hear, but I caught enough to know they were talking about you. I told everyone what was going on whenever I could.

"The more they talked, the less they noticed me and pretty soon I could hear more. They were talking about how you weren't coming around. Your instincts were still in full control and Misty hadn't been able to get your human side to come back. They were convinced she would fail and you would go feral and need to be put down."

From beside him, Misty snarled. Her upper lip was up, exposing her elongating canines and her eyes flashed an inhuman gold. "How DARE they. They had no right to speak on my affairs with my mate."

Surprisingly, Ben nodded in agreement. "I didn't take it well, as I'm sure you can guess. I flew off the handle on Sol. She made it clear to everyone involved that her daughter and her Destined wouldn't be social talk anymore. Pearl was taken off as our guard and we were given Mr. Sunshine out there. Guy's an ass, but he keeps his mouth shut."

"That explains why Pearl is gone." Dominic wasn't happy at all with the woman that had been watching over him and his family for the few months they had been there, but she had already been punished by her people. No need to hold a grudge against her now. Looking at Misty, it didn't look like she would hold the same belief. "But what happened to everyone else?"

Ben slouched down a bit, looking both guilty and sad. "I didn't handle things very well after that. The fighting between Jarod and I got pretty bad, and the problems with him and Samantha escalated. Garrett tried to keep us all together, but I got fed up and moved over to the other bedroom across the hall.

"That helped for a little while; got Jarod and I away from each other, but the thing between him and Samantha kept getting worse. He started getting real aggressive whenever the Twins came around. He would glare and say something rude. The more Samantha started hanging around them, the angrier he got. He started lashing out, saying some mean shit to her about "Not being a good mom because she was letting those two assholes near Penny." We all knew it was because he was jealous, and Garrett tried to talk with him about it, but he wouldn't back down. Pretty soon Samantha had enough and snapped at him too." Ben's eyes became bleak. "That was a bad day."

"I'm guessing Blue came out?"

Ben nodded. "Yeah she did. She pressed all the wrong buttons, saying he would never be with her and that the jealous child routine was getting really old. She said if he didn't knock it off she wouldn't let him anywhere near her or Penny again."

Dominic mumbled. "Oh shit."

"Oh shit is right." Ben snorted. "He went off. Like, OFF off. Started saying shit like, "Why would I want to be with a whore like you who doesn't even know who the father of her kid is?" and that he "wouldn't be surprised if Storm and Thunder got rid of her after they caught whatever nasty diseases she was carrying.". I've never seen either of them that pissed. Garrett and Flint couldn't do anything to get them to calm down. I wasn't much help other than keeping them from actually getting at each other. Then the Twins showed up. When they saw Samantha crying, one of them shifted and went at Jarod, but Flint did too and they started fighting. I grabbed Samantha and pulled her into our room. It got real loud, then something happened and everything went quiet. I didn't open the door until I heard Flint screaming."

Dominic's hands began to shake. His fear sparked his wolf, encouraging it to rise up. He flinched as he pushed the beast back, holding onto his thin control. He needed to stay sane if he was going to fix this. Closing his eyes, he prepared for the answer to his question. "Who got hurt?"

"When Flint and Storm had started to fight, Jarod had been right next to them, hiding behind a couch. Garrett had seen him on the ground from where he was and when Flint shifted into his hybrid body to try and get an advantage over Storm, he had seen an opening and crawled over to grab him. Jarod smacked his head when Garrett yanked him into their bedroom, but it was nothing bad. But when they had moved, Storm had been distracted. He left himself open. Flint hadn't meant to hurt him; he had expected him to put up more resistance. He went at him with everything he had and knocked him into some of the broken furniture."

Frozen, Dominic couldn't believe what he was hearing. All of this had happened, in their room, not that long ago. If he had been there, he would have been able to stop this, able to keep everyone on an even keel while they figured everything out. Guilt wrapped him in a cold sweat.

"This is not your fault, Dominic." Misty reached out, petting him on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. It only made him feel worse.

He avoided her hand by standing and taking a step away. "Yes, it is." Balling his fists, he turned to Ben once more. "What happened to Storm?"

Ben fidgeted in his chair. "Some pieces of wood from a broken chair pierced his chest and neck. Orion called Doc Rivers and she patched him up enough for him to start healing on his own. He refused to go to the infirmary; said it would cause a stir and that we had already endure enough of the Pack's cynicism. He's been holed up with his brother and Samantha on the other side of the Alpha Wing.

"After what he did, Flint felt really bad. He only talks to Garrett, and that's because his wolf won't let him shut him out completely. They are living together in Flint's room a few hallways down."

"What about Jarod?" There was no answer. "Ben? Where is Jarod?" Dominic stared his friend down. He was holding something back, something he knew was going to upset him. "God dammit, Ben! Where is he?!"

"I don't know!" Ben was suddenly up on his feet, stomping off as if wanting to run but knowing he can't. His breathing had to be brought under control as he fought the catch in his throat. "The little bastard ran off. Convinced Sol that he didn't have a mate here and that he would be better off in the city. I haven't seen him in two weeks." There was so much shame coming off of Ben, Dominic thought he could actually scent it on him. There was something else to it, something more Ben didn't want to share.

Dominic realized he needed to start mending his group immediately, starting with Ben. He didn't have time to process the pain of finding out his family was torn apart and scattered if he wanted them to come back together soon. "Ben... Whatever it is, you can tell me. You know that. Just tell me everything, and I'll do my best to help."

A single tear fell from Ben's eye. He wiped it away, but a new one quickly took its place. "I did this. This is all my fault."

Dominic quickly shook his head. "No, Ben, no. This is not your fault."

Ben cut him off. "No, Dom. It is. After you left, I was so pissed. You just... disappeared and we didn't know when... or if, you would come back." The tears were really flowing now, his eyes flooded and pointed towards the ground. "I knew my attitude was making Jarod worse. I knew he was falling over the edge. But I pushed anyway, told him we if he wanted to run away like a baby then good for him. We would be better off. You were gone, and I should've just pulled my shit together. But instead I just made everything worse!"

"It's okay." Dominic tried to approach, but Ben was too distraught to accept comfort. He only shook his head.

"No! Everyone is gone, and it's all my fault! Everything is just so fucked up!"

It was clear almost on a daily basis that Ben was the least emotionally controlled person of their group. Anything he was feeling was for all to see, and he had to fight to keep control when feeling intense emotions. The one emotion he was able to hide was self-loathing; something he had in common with Dominic and what brought them together as friends. They both refused to let the other sink.