Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
When they’re howled out, Rom and Remy lie down next to their brother with their little heads on their paws and their solemn gazes peering up at me.
Seeing no other course since I can’t exactly console them, I go back to digging their brother’s grave. Only Zeke helps me. Khalil and Thorin decide to watch the pups closely for any sign that they might attack me.
Their vigilance puts me at ease, and Zeke and I are able to complete digging the hole deep enough that there’s no chance of another predator coming along and digging the pup back up.
“Um…how do we do this?” I ask when I stand and dust my hands off. Rom and Remy still haven’t moved away from their brother. Their brother who still doesn’t have a name. One comes to me easily enough, but mostly because I try to convince myself it doesn’t matter. “I don’t want to lose a hand putting Roman to rest.”
“You named them?” Khalil groans and pinches his nose. “Why am I not surprised that you named them already?”
“So what are their names?” Zeke points to the pups who are now growling at Khalil as if they understood him.
“That cutie,” I say pointing to the gray pup, “is Remy. It’s short for Remus. And that adorable lump of fur is Rom. Short for Romulus.”
“As in the brothers from mythology who were abandoned as infants on the shore of a river and nurtured by a she-wolf until a shepherd and his wife found and raised them?”
“Yup. Fitting, right?”
“Sure, but doesn’t the story end with Romulus killing Remus?” Khalil asks.
I roll my eyes skyward. “I didn’t say it was perfect.”
Rom yawns, stretches his body, and stands before lifting his leg and peeing. The stream arches toward Khalil’s foot, who curses and quickly steps out of the way before any can get on him.
The rest of us smother our laughs to avoid startling the pups while Khalil throws Rommy a dirty look.
“Damn, he even has your manners, Khal.” Thorin tilts his head to the side and studies the black pup. “He kind of looks like you too.”
Khalil flips him off and then leans down, quickly grabbing Rom by the scruff. Zeke repeats his action, grabbing Remy the same way and lifting him off the ground. With the coast clear, Thorin lifts Roman from the ground and gently lays him inside the grave.
Thorin and I make quick work of pushing the pile of upturned dirt back inside the hole. Once we’re done and the grave is covered, I sit there for a few seconds and stare at the mound of dirt. I feel like I should say something, but I don’t know what. I never had a pet before, so I have no clue what to do when one dies.
Not that wild wolves should ever be considered pets.
After a few moments of floundering, my lips part and the first song that pops into my head spills free. Khalil, Thorin, and Zeke are all quiet around me as I sing “Over the Rainbow.” It’s times like these when I wish I could be as hardened as them. I wish it didn’t matter so much, but how could it not when death has become a constant companion?
“That was beautiful,” Thorin says when the last note is sung.
“Thanks.”
Zeke and Khalil set the pups back on the ground. Khalil narrowly misses losing a thumb, but Zeke isn’t as quick. Remy clamps his jaw down on his forearm, and Zeke has a hell of time shaking him off.
The moment Zeke is free, Khalil runs the pups off, and I rush over to Zeke. Blood is already running from the punctures in his olive skin. Thorin curses and removes his shirt, tearing the bottom hem away to make a bandage for Zeke’s arm. “We need to get back to the cabin now.”
“What about Meera?”
“Aurelia!” Thorin roars so loudly I jump. The rage in his eyes makes me want to run in the opposite direction. “Enough. This is serious. We don’t know what those pups have, and the wound could get infected.”
Shame courses through me, and if I could slap myself without looking like a nutjob, I would. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course. Let’s go home.”
I start forward to lead the way, but Zeke stops me with a hand on my stomach and pulls me back until I’m by his side again. “I’m fine. The bite can wait.”
“We need to clean the wound before infection sets in,” Thorin argues.
“She can clean me up later. Right now, she wants to find her wolf, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
She can clean me up later. Those words repeat in my head as Thorin and Zeke engage in a pissing contest. Khalil turns out to be the tiebreaker. He pulls me out of the band of Zeke’s arm, leaving Thorin and Zeke no choice but to follow.