Chapter 17 Markus

I watched Calyx storm out of the room. I bit back a sigh of frustration. Calyx was going to talk with Ama’s family. I know that it meant he was going to go torture them. A part of me wanted to go as well. He always tried to shield me from what he does. Calyx tries to treat me like I’m several years younger than him instead of minutes. I and Aziz allow them to treat us this way. We believe that Calyx and Zviad have an older brother complex that would drive the world nuts.

Calyx doesn’t understand that I know all about the torture he and Zviad preform. We’ve witnessed the brutality that they unleash. Calyx thinks that because I outspoken and wear my heart on my sleeve, I’m not as ruthless. He’s wrong. I believe Zviad and I are worse. We hide it better. We have to so that way Calyx won’t get suspicious.

We could and have ripped through a pack of rogues with no regret of killing every single one. Calyx would have paused after he was done. We shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

Goddess, we’ve needed our luna for so long. Ama would have been the gentleness to our rough edges. She would have calmed down our anger and been the voice of reason to us. But instead she had been held captive for years by her family.

Great, now Zviad and I are pissed again. He wants to go run and let out some of his frustrations. I want to go join the torture and get in a few hits myself.

‘As soon as they are back, we go for a run,’ Aziz ordered.

‘Agreed,’ I stated. ‘We’ll run the border patrol route and maybe find a rogue or two,’ I growled at the prospect of a good fight.

“Good one?” Rose asked as she peaked an eye up at us.

“I’m fine,” I stated, biting back my anger so that way she would not become scared.

“Not alright,” she whispered. Rose slowly wiggled her way out from between Amalie’s arms. Once she was free, she crawled over her mom and into my lap. Standing on up in my lap, Rose wrapped her arms around my neck. “Not alright.”

“I’m not, Rosebud,” I whispered as I wrapped my around her. I held her tightly. Aziz and I let our anger go as we held her close. “I will be though.”

“You protect us?” Rose asked as she let us go.

“Calyx and I will protect you both,” I agreed.

Rose looked me in the eye and then nodded. I have no idea what she saw or what she was looking for. But I do know that she was content with what she found. “You have wolf?”

“I do,” I stated. I was not sure where she was going with her question.

“Is he good? You good, he good?” Rose asked.

“I am good, little one,” Zviad said as I let him come forwards to speak.

Rose let out a laugh and hugged me again. She then pushed herself backwards and asked, “I see you?”

“Later little pup. The room is too small, and your mom is sleeping,” Zviad stated.

I held back a snicker. My big bad wolf was charmed and wrapped around the tiny pup’s finger. I was kind of surprised when Zviad didn’t disagree.

‘I am,’ he stated with what I knew would have been a shrug if he was human. ‘But I’m pretty sure you are too.’

‘Yea, that’s fair,’ I agreed.

“When will mommy be better?” Rose asked, her tone becoming softer as she looked over her shoulder at her mother’s sleeping form.

“I don’t know Rosebud. Beren is strong, but she got really hurt. It takes time for a wolf to heal their human when they get hurt this much,” I tried to explain. I knew she didn’t understand most of what I was telling her. “But she will be better next time she wakes up.”

“Mommy leave here soon?” she then asked. Rose settled down into my lap and seemed content to watch Ama sleep from the safety of my lap.

“Uncle Will needs to tell when she can leave,” I told her. I believe he was debating about letting her leave in the next day or two. She just needed to finish having her leg healed.

“We go tell him to let mommy out,” she stated, determination dripping from her words. Rose sat up and tried to get off my lap.

“It doesn’t work like that,” I said as I caught her before she could escape.

“No, Uncle Will says she can leave, we leave and go to Uncle Will’s house, all us,” she said as she continued to try to escape. She kept wiggling to squirm out of my grasp.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s not that simple. He can’t just release her from the hospital. Uncle Will has to make sure that she is healing and that Beren is alright too,” I tried to comfort. I decided to overlook Rose’s declaration of coming back to live with me and Calyx. Calyx, Ama, and I would have to have a conversation about that. Don’t get me wrong, Zviad and I would be ecstatic for Ama and Rose to come live with us. We would finally be a family. But as much as I wanted her moving in with us, Ama would need time. Calyx and I would not force her to live with us unless it was her choice.

“We go now,” she stated determinedly. She had a slight growl to her words.

“How about we talk with him later and see what he says?” I countered. “When your mommy wakes up, we can talk with Uncle Will and see what he says.”

“We wake her up now,” she said as she looked me in the eye.

Goddess this pup was stubborn. “Your mom needs sleep. When she wakes up, on her own, we will talk with Uncle Will,” I tell her again, more firmly.

Rose sat on my lap and pouted at me.

I smiled and tickled her sides. She started to laugh and giggle.