Chapter 77

Dylan POV

“That’s the last of the bags!” Adrian stated to Nick as they both helped me carry a dozen trash bags down the stairs and out front. The house was more empty than I’d ever seen it, except for furniture of course.

It was so much more difficult than I ever thought it would be, seeing all my moms things exactly where she left them, thinking she would see and use everything again, Instead she was gone, and it was all my fault. If I’d have just accepted his grace from the start then none of this would have happened, and my mom would still be here.

“Can we go now?” Id barely spoken all day, out of fear of breaking down screaming again, my tears flowed constantly but I was able to bury my dejection down, and get on with my task numbly. I didn’t want to stick around my old home for much longer, I simply wanted to lie in bed and let my despair swallow me… I was never lucky enough to do anything that I wanted.

I looked at the two boys who had helped me and allowed a slight frown to take over my face when neither of them answered my question straight away. Instead Adrian turned and nodded his head at Nick who then placed his hand on my shoulder drawing my attention to him.

“Adrian has said you can have 5 minutes… no one needs to know.” I could have 5 minutes doing what exactly? I stared at my friend who nodded his head and allowed pure sympathy to cloud his features, his eyes quickly darted to his old house and mine widened.

“No!” I shook my head and took a step away from Nick, only to have him close the gap I had just created between us quickly. “I can’t… if the king found out…”

“He won’t find out from us!” Adrian was quick to respond, my fear coursed through me but I couldn’t help but let anticipation slightly replace it. “He needs you.”

The tears that had been released as a steady stream down my cheeks all throughout the day suddenly stopped as I looked at the alpha to be. My mind quickly jumbled with a thousand different questions however the most prominent one was, could I trust him?

Alpha Adrian, the son of the district packs alpha, the one who once stated that all humans were property, the one who used to stare at me for no reason in the schools corridors, nothing but distain and hatred on his face. The one who stood up for me on the odd occasion, one of the only wolves who knew when enough was enough, and helped to enforce that despite his own circumstances. Could I trust this boy, who would soon hold the title of leader in the district?

I didn’t think anything else, I simply nodded to myself, telling myself that I could trust him, telling myself that he would never allow a 6 year old to be hurt. I’d convinced myself stupidly that Adrian was one of the kind ones, and that he had the best interest of everyone in mind. I hoped that he too thought equality among species was possible.

I wasted no time in speed walking to the house next to my now empty one, and knocked on the door rapidly. I waited looking around sketchily praying no one would see me and report me for being somewhere I shouldn’t be. A few minutes went by before the front door opened slowly, and Richard, Nicks dad came into my view, his mouth quickly hung open at my appearance, and he didn’t speak a word when he moved to the side to allow me past. I stepped in and instantly got flashbacks of all the blood that soaked the floor yesterday, it had been completely cleaned up now, but still, it would haunt me until the day I died myself. My sad, tired eyes met the now empty floor space that was occupied by my mothers body, and my tears began to flow once again.

“Dilly?!” I heard my brothers little voice, pulling me from the past and into the present. I turned my body around to see him standing in the doorway to the kitchen. A crayon rested in his right hand but soon hit the floor with a very small sound as he dropped it and ran over to me.

I moved on instinct, and flew my arms out to embrace him, dropping down to my knees so I could hold him closer, tears flowed out of us both as my hand rested on his little head. I held him tight, terrified that if I let him go I’d never get him back. My little brother.

He had grown since we had last laid eyes on each other. He had changed so much except his face remained the same, and his rosy cheeks were still always holding some form of heated hue which just made him seem all the more adorable.

“Freddie…” I whispered, while holding him as close as what was humanly possible. I never wanted to let go. Maybe I could run away with him, we could get out of here once and for all. I just knew we would get caught though, it was better for him to stay as far away from me as possible. “Are you ok?”

Without thinking I made his body pull away from mine and looked at him stood in front of me. My hands went to his cheeks, inspecting him for anything out of the ordinary, and gently wiped away his fallen tears with my thumbs.

“I’m ok.” He wasn’t, he’d changed so much. Before I left he had that beautiful childish innocence to him, because I had sheltered him as much as I could from learning just how bad the world was, but now, I could see him checking over my shoulder, and fear was clouding his eyes, despite the glee he felt at seeing me, he also looked at me the same way strangers did, like I was damaged.

I swear to God I’d be out for blood if I found out he’d been hurt at any point in anyway. Why was he so frightened?

“You’ve stayed out of trouble haven’t you?” I tried to force my tears down, knowing I couldn’t let him see me like that, and sniffed while not taking my eyes off him. I shouldn’t have come to see him, he won’t understand why I’ll need to leave again. “You’ve kept your head down.”

“I’ve been ok, really, Richard has been looking after me.” My eyes widened at the boy in front of me and felt my eyes begin to brim again, god when did I get like this, I never used to cry in front of people, and now here I was doing nothing but. I turned to face Richard, Nicks dad and nodded at him as he too held his tears in. He would never know how grateful I was for him. “Mommy’s gone, isn’t she.”

Nicks dad nodded too in response to my unspoken appreciation while looking at the pair of us with nothing but sympathy and sorrow on his face. I turned back to Freddie and smiled through my tears, I just felt nothing but guilt while looking at him, so instead of reassuring him the way I should have done. Instead of being his shoulder to cry on I broke down right in front of him, I should have been his support but instead he became mine.

“I’m… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. It’s my fault… I killed her. I killed her and now you’re… you’re…” I shook my head while looking at my little brother. I’d let him down, I swore to my dad that I would protect him and my mom. Instead I had killed my mom and left Freddie alone. I buried my face in my hands and sobbed still on my knees in front of the little boy,

“Dilly…” I shook my head at him calling me by my name I didn’t deserve his love or admiration… I deserved everything the king had done and more, I was to blame, I’d killed our mom, I’d killed our dad, Freddie really did deserve so much better than me. “You are a superhero!” What? “That’s what everyone says, and I know it’s true.”

My leaking eyes met my brothers, a superhero? Where on earth did he come up with that? All I had ever done was course trouble.

“You’ve always looked after me, even when mommy couldn’t. And… and Nicky says your fighting for the people who can’t fight. That’s what superhero’s do.” I’m not superhero, I’m just some loud mouthed kid who can’t control their word vomit.

“I’m no hero, Freddie.” He was seriously adamant. If anything I was a villain, everything I ever held dear had been ripped out from underneath me because I couldn’t accept my fate. If I had just have accepted the king mom would still be here.

“He drew this…” Richard drew my attention to him, as he held a piece of paper out for me to see, a crayon drawing rested on it. It was quite good actually. “He’s a little artist in the making.”

On the paper was a drawing of a a girl with dark hair, she had been given muscles, and her hair was tied in a ponytail that sat right at the top of her head, much like a unicorn horn which made me chuckle with tears still flowing. Is that really how Freddie viewed me? He saw me as this amazing, powerful superhero?

On her chest in the drawing, sat a single letter ‘D’ most likely for Dylan, and a red cape flew behind her.

“It’s you!” Freddie stated. “You’re a superhero, and you’re my hero.” I smiled at my brother, and held my arms out for a big hug which he quickly complied with. His arms wrapped tightly around my neck and he squeezed me affectionately. “I’m glad you’re my sister.”

“When did you get so grown up?” I sniffed as I hugged him and chuckled under my breath. Seeing him might have just been what I needed. To knock some sense back into me. If Freddie really thought I was a superhero, then I had to at least try to live up to his title, but how exactly was I supposed to do that when I was so terrified of what the king would do if I stepped out of turn again. He could go after Freddie.

We spoke for a little while, until Freddie went upstairs to do some homework at Nicks request.

“We have to go…” I shook my head and looked at the stairs where my little brother had just said bye from.

“But what will happen to him? I can’t just leave him.” Richard was quick to place his hand on my shoulder and shake his head at me.

“He will stay here with me. He’s safe here, Dylan… erm I mean your grace. He’s safe and happy. I promise I’ll treat him like he’s my own.” He did seem happy, and he had a lot of his things here already anyway after living here with mom, and so I nodded.

“Thank you, so so much. For everything you’ve done for my family. We are forever in your debt.” He would never know just how thankful I was to have him.

“No, thank you for saving me the other day.” I shrugged as my eyes once again filled up. “Dylan, your mother was so proud of you.”

How could she have been after I called her a traitor? I just nodded my head, before finally leaving and trudging back to the pack house and instantly began crying as it came into view.

I was no superhero, I was far too damaged!