She rested her head on my shoulder, sighing.
"Thank you for making it better," she whispered.
"Thank you for giving me life," I said. "I love you, baby."
The End
Also by Mila Crawford
Brett - five years ago
I watched as Derrek hovered around the half breed, shock racing through my veins at how my best friend could possibly mate with a bear. I was angry, I was hurt and most of all I was disgusted. The bears had taken everything from me. They had ruined my life and here was my best friend bringing one of them home.
“Who brought the dirty half breed to play?” I said, making sure the menace was laced in voice, my teeth gritted and my words sharp. I knew I sounded like an asshole, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want her, here, her kind wasn’t welcome here.
Derrek stepped forward, trying to block his little mate from me. I knew I was walking on thin ice, but I wasn’t able to think rationally.
“What’s it to you?” He snarled, moving his body completely in front of the little bear, blocking my view.
“Brett, take it easy. They’re a mated pair, and you know we have a peace treaty with the bears up the mountain. There’s no reason—” The Alpha spoke, I should have been quiet, but I wasn’t, I couldn’t be.
“No reason?” My voice was loud, muscles twitching as my wolf clawed its way to the surface. “She’s a dirty little mutt. Her mother is an abomination. They did the right thing abandoning that little bitch in the mountains. She should have died if you ask me. Then we wouldn’t be looking at her half-breed trash. Did you consider the pack when you mated with garbage?” I said, staring Derrek down. The second the words came out of my mouth I regretted them, but my pride wouldn’t let me take them back. The bears had taken everything from me, everything. I knew it wasn’t her mother’s fault, she was a victim just like I had been, the pack should never have abandoned her and left her to fend for herself. But I couldn’t reign my anger in, my own self-pity, was leading the charge and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt like I was on the outside watching it all unfold and I had no control.
A growl tore through the air as Derrek lunged at me, his hands clawing at my shoulders, as he shoved me across the room.
I fought back, but not as hard as I could have, a part of me knowing I deserved the beating I was about to get. Derrek hit me, my body landing in a crash and sending a side table careening across the polished floor. I bounced back, shuttling with all of my force into him until we hit the sofa, both of our bodies rolling over the arm until we were on the floor, teeth bared.
Before I could attack, he throttled his fist into his jaw, using just enough pressure to shake me up, not nearly enough to crack bones. He could have killed me and I would have left him but he restrained himself. Wolves killed for much less when it came to their mates.
“I’ve gone easy on you before now, but in this pack there’s no place for prejudice and disunity,” The Alpha, hurled, making both of us stop and take notice. When the Alpha of a pack spoke with that tone, you listened.
“Get off him, Derek,” The Alpha demanded. Derrek bared his teeth at me and growled.
“If you can’t get into line, Brett, I’ll be forced to take you out. You may talk a big game, but you’re nowhere near strong enough to face me.” The Alpha spoke and I had no choice but to listen.
I can’t even remember what else happened. All I knew is that I had to leave. Leave the pack, leave my sister. Leave everything I had known because if I said I would die from it all.
***
“You don’t have to leave,” my sister said as she reorganized my duffel bag. “Things will cool down.”
I could see the tears trapped behind her eyes. The human wanting to cry, but the Wolf staying strong, keeping her from breaking down. I hated what this was doing to her and a part of me wanted to stay, to tell her that I would never leave and she wouldn't be alone. But I knew that wasn’t possible, not with that Bear mutt living amongst the pack. Her stench was so vile that it was like a noose around my neck, tightening slowly. It was so overbearing that if I stayed here it would kill me.
“I can’t be here anymore, Liv. There is no place for me.”
“What are you talking about? This is your home,” she said, her eyes a golden yellow, a tell-tale sign that her Wolf was right at the surface and angry. “You’re all I have and you’re leaving me. For what? Because you don’t like who Derek mated with?”
“He didn’t mate just anyone. He mated a damn Bear. I’m not living amongst those things.”
“She is half Wolf.”
“That makes it even worse. A Wolf and a Bear making an abomination.”
“Brett, stop being like this. Derek wouldn’t mate with someone who was a bad person. You’ve seen what the Alpha has done. Derek’s family has made so many positive changes. They wouldn’t do anything to hurt the pack.”
“I don’t care. It was all too late. We cannot allow the Bears to come into our home. To accept them, after everything they have done to us. All the Wolves they’ve hurt.”
“That was a long time ago. If Dad managed to forgive them, why can’t you?”
“Because they took away our parents. They left us wide open. Because I spent my whole damn life in hiding.” I punched the wall, the rage in me combusting. I saw the flecks of paint splash into the air as my fist made a perfectly round hole in the wall. I removed my fist and bits of drywall fell at my feet. I looked down at my hand and saw the blood dripping from my knuckles and a small rusty nail dangling from my hand.
“Damn it, Brett. What’s wrong with you?” Liv asked, running out of the room and returning moments later with a first aid kit and a fresh white towel.
“What the fuck is a loose nail doing in there?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know that? Here, bite on that,” Liv said, tossing me the towel.
I caught it with my good hand and put it beside me. “What the fuck do you take me for? I’m pretty sure I can take the sting of some damn alcohol.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, before pouring the liquid mercilessly. I sat there and watched as my sister carefully removed the nail and tended to my wounds. I smiled at how much the whole situation reminded me of my mother. Long, curly, dark brown hair, vibrant golden eyes and a beautiful soul. Liv was all the goodness in the world, just like my mother was before she was taken away from us. “There, it’s all done.”
“Thank you.”
“Brett, can’t we figure something out--like who’s going to take care of you when you fuck up out there?” She asked.
“Me. Who do you think has done it for all these years?”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve had a hand in it. Are you rewriting history?”
Liv rose from her seated position on the floor, the movement so poetic that I knew she was letting the Wolf take hold. That told me that she was having a harder time with this than she was letting on. I hated that she was hurt. She was my kid sister, my partner in crime, the only person in this world that really knew me, all of me.