Chapter 4

Hetty

I'm sitting in the passenger seat if a lime green open back jeep holding a chocolate vanilla swirl ice cream cone, laughing as Eric sings in falsetto along with TSwift. He looks back at me grinning as he pulls the jeep into gear and pulls out of the parking lot.

"So how was school, kiddles?" he grins at me. My smile falls.

"Alright, I guess" he wrinkles his brow.

"Just alright? What's going on?"

"Just normal school stuff, ya know how it goes." He hums.

"Do I need to kick some adolescent butts? Let me know now before I'm a legal adult and can get in serious trouble for assaulting 13 year olds" always so protective.

"It's not that. It's the occupation preparation classes at school. Everyone's already got these big careers planned with their dream jobs. I find it hard to think about a career when all I want is to find my mate and have a few pups. Is that so pathetic?" He just laughs.

"Those are humans. All they want is money, you want more. You want love, a family, and community. That's not pathetic." I roll my eyes

"Easy for you to say. Your path is already set, you're going to be the beta with Casey by your side." He just laughs some more.

"Your path is already set too little one, you just can't see it yet. Give it time." He looks away from the road to smile at me briefly. "You'll find your place, everyone does."

We get back home where mom and dad greet me with bear hugs as I roll my eyes. Next thing I know we're sitting at the dinner table having dinner. How did we get here? The conversation flows smoothly, but I can't remember a single word that's been said. I blink and Eric is no longer Eric. Now he has Eli's face, but everyone still talks to him like Eric. I blink again and Dad's face is now the face of Leo from the forest. What is going on?

Suddenly Dr. Krauft is standing behind Leo-Dad with a gun pointed at his head. I'm so confused, a sob escapes past my lips and I feel hot tears on my cheeks. I look over to mom to ask what's going on, but it's not mom anymore. I don't know who she is.

I startle awake and find I'm staring into green eyes. The same eyes of Not Mom. "Easy girl, easy." She places her palm on my forehead. "Must have been a pretty nasty dream. Howling like that." I feel peace as she stares into my eyes.

I deepen my breath to calm our racing heart. It was just a dream, but why was this lady in it? I'm still in Honour's form, what in the world is going on with us? I whimper and lay our head back down on top of our paws.

"Poor thing, you must be starved. Leo's just gone to get you some food. Do you like steak?" Our tail wags. "You sure are a smart one aren't you?" I roll our eyes. "Did you just..? I must be losing it" she chuckles.

"Jess! What are you doing? Are you trying to lose a hand?" I hear Leo shouting. She must be named Jess. I cook our head at Leo. Didn't he pet us earlier? I look back at Jess and move our muzzle to sniff just below her ear. She's pregnant, I can smell it. I close our eyes and listen closely. Thump thump thump thump thump. Sounds healthy.

I move our nose down to her stomach and take a whiff as a tear slips out the corner of my eye. She smells like Mom did before that night. I keep my nose there for a while before I pull back to see her stunned face. I glance back over to Leo and he's just staring at me while holding a raw steak and a cup of blueberries. Honour would be drooling, I prefer my meats cooked, personally.

I sniff the air, I am starving. When was the last time we ate? Leo shakes away his confusion and sets the food down next to the water dish. I shakily stand up and lay down to eat, our body is really weak right now. We must have run quite a bit after escaping Krauft's 'hospital'.

"Looks like you'll be our guest for the next little bit while we get your weight back up, then we can let you back out to find your family." Jess says while I eat. I stop eating and look at her from the side of our eye. "But what to call you while you're here." She's all smiles unaware of how my heart just shattered. I would love to find my family. I'm just 14 years old, trapped in my wolf form. I don't even know where I am, let alone how to get home nor what I'll find once I do. Honour would know what to do.

I pull back from our food and sit up. I lift our paw till our longest claw is the only one touching the dirt beneath me. I carefully start to write out my name. H-E-T-T-Y. I look up to complete and utter dumb-foundation. We sit in silence for a good while as they process a wolf writing its own name for them.

Leo clears his throat. "Ok. Hetty it is." Jess just blinks as she stares at my name in the dirt floor.

"I'll go get the log book." She looks up at Leo, clearly in shock and she stands and walks away.

"That's some trick you got there. Have anything else you want to add?" He tries to laugh it off. I just shake my head and he shuts up again.

Jess returns with a syringe and a ledger. "Alrighty, first we'll add your name under the serial number for this tracker." She holds up a syringe. "Then we'll inject this just under your skin on your foreleg. Then we'll be able to see where you go, and be able to help you should you ever need help again."

I look down at our leg where Krauft already placed a tracker. Crap, I forgot. He's going to come right here. These nice people are going to end up hurt. I look up in a panic.

"Don't worry, just a little pinch, you'll hardly feel it." She misunderstands my panic. I start nibbling the spot the tracker is just underneath the surface on my leg.

Leo bands down to see what I'm doing. He rubs my leg and stiffens. "She's already got a tracker Jess. Didn't you notice?" She looks confused.

"I guess I must have missed it. They're not easy to find without knowing what to look for." She drops down next to Leo. "We'll get the serial number and find out who it belongs to." She shrugs. "That'll have to wait till morning, we can do this all later." She said before latching the gate before she and Leo disappeared back into the house.

'Goodnight Hetty, see you tomorrow.' I mock them to myself. Oh well. Not much I can do about it for now. I climb back in the cot and close my eyes, ready to see what the morning brings.