Thoreau - Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Riding in Mommy Daddy's truck bed was painful and a little scary. Whenever we went over a bump, I slid around in my cage and whacked my elbows, knees, and head a couple of times before I figured out that I should sit with my back against one long side and brace my feet on the other long side.
It still hurt my bum to bounce up and down on the hard plastic floor, though, and it was killing my back. When they fixed me last night, Mommy Daddy tore it up worse than usual, and I half-wondered if that was because they knew I was leaving today.
On the good side, I got to smell fresh air and watch the world roll by. I used to love to run and play outside all day, and I missed it so much!
We drove forever until we finally came to a stop and, boy, was I glad I asked to go to the bathroom before we left!
When Mommy Daddy opened his door, I thought about looking out the holes at the top of my cage to see if my little eye could spy Bubba, but then I heard the voice of a man I didn't know and was too scared to move.
Mommy Daddy greeted someone named Royal Price, then told him he had something that belonged to Bubba and was there to deliver it.
"Emerson is more than an hour away," said the other man. "Do you want to wait or leave it with me?"
"Rumor is that your boys found their luna. Is she available?" Mommy Daddy asked. "I'll only entrust it to an official pack leader. Then I can say with a clear conscience that I did my duty."
It got quiet for a minute, then I heard a door open and a girl talking.
"I'm Luna Posy Briggs of Five Fangs. How may I help you today?"
Five Fangs! This is it! Grinning, I opened and closed my hands really fast over and over. Binda said Bubba was a beta at Five Fangs!
"That child is what you're calling a beta these days?" Mommy Daddy snorted. "Now your acceptance of Emerson makes sense. My, my, how your standards have fallen, Royal."
"You're not the first to dismiss him as harmless. Don't piss him off or you'll discover how mistaken you are."
Ooo! Royal Price said a bad word! My eyes widened. Binda said not to use the p word!
"Luna," Mommy Daddy said, "this belongs to Emerson. I leave it with you to return to him."
I wonder what it is that belongs to Bubba, Tanner.
I waited for a second, then sighed. Sometimes, I worried that my wolf was never going to wake up.
I guess if Bubba kills me, it doesn't even matter.
Then I jumped at a loud clanging noise as someone dropped the tailgate of Mommy Daddy's truck. Next thing I knew, my cage was being dragged along, then carried for a few seconds before it was set down.
Gathering up my courage, I peeped out of the air holes and saw green grass below me and a dark-haired man in front of me. He was making an angry face as he stared at Mommy Daddy, and I shivered. I hoped he didn't ever get mad at me! He looked a lot stronger than Mommy Daddy! One hit would probably knock me out!
Looking past him, I saw a big, fancy house where a tall boy stood on the porch with a pretty girl holding his hand. She had to be the luna, and he must be the beta Mommy Daddy said was a child.
He doesn't look like a child to me. He looks like a big boy. I shook my head with a frown.
"Emerson made his mother promise we wouldn't kill the thing," Mommy Daddy told the luna, "or I would have done so long ago. Tell Emerson it is now his responsibility and he may keep or dispose of it as he wishes. I will bear this burden no longer and wash my hands of it."
With that, he and his wolves got in his truck and left me in my cage there on the grass.
"Mr. Price?" the luna called out. "Is there a shifter in there? I smell one, but neither Lark nor I can sense a wolf."
"Wait there until I look," the dark-haired man told them.
Uh-oh! He's going to see me! What if he hurts me? I thought I was going to Bubba, not strangers!
Sucking hard on my thumb, I whimpered a little as my heart and lungs sped up, then they sped up even more when the dark-haired man suddenly peered through the door grid and looked at me.
"Oh," he said.
"What is it?" demanded the beta.
"A boy. He looks the same age as Archer and Wayne."
Trembling and sniffing back tears, I curled into a ball and pressed myself in the far corner of my cage.
"Hey, there, little buddy." Getting on his knees, the man made his voice soft. "My name's Royal Price. What's yours?"
I shook harder and stayed silent as I watched every move he made. He raised his hand slowly, lifted the latch, and let the door swing open.
"It's okay," he said. "You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. Why don't you come out of there? We can get you something to eat. Would you like that?"
I curled into a tighter ball when Royal Price started to crawl into the crate, but then a shout stopped him.
"No, don't do that! It will make him feel crowded and trapped if you go in there with him. Let's sit on the grass and coax him to come out."
Looking out of the open door, I saw the luna and the beta sitting with Royal Price a few feet away from me.
"Why did the alpha keep calling him an it?" she whispered, but I could hear her.
"Another way to torment, humiliate, demean," the beta told her, and his wolf rumbled in his throat.
That made my eyes go big. If his wolf came out, maybe he'd let me pet it!
"River, don't scare the luna," Royal Price said.
"Me sorry, luna."
Aw. He sounds like a baby! I covered my mouth with my hand so I wouldn't giggle. Now I really want to pet him!
"It's okay, River," Royal Price said. "This is upsetting for all of us, but don't worry. We'll take care of him."
The luna reached up and patted the beta's head, and I pouted. How did he get good boy pats when he was being a bad boy? Mommy Daddy would have whipped him for letting his wolf talk without permission.
"Otay," the wolf said.
Since he sounded so much like a baby, I decided he wouldn't hurt me. Taking my book out of my shirt, I laid it on the floor and crawled to the open door. I knelt just inside the cage, and the luna smiled at me, but didn't move from her spot.
"Are you hungry? Would you like some food? Tyler can make us something."
"I'm not leaving your side, luna." The beta rolled his eyes at her. "Mr. Price can do it."
"What should I make?" Royal Price asked. "I can't cook, but I can make sandwiches."
My ears perked up and I was talking before I knew I was going to.
"Sammich? Peabutter jelly sammich?" I hurried over to kneel in front of the luna, hoping they were serious and not teasing me.
"What would you like to drink with it?" she asked. "Apple juice? Orange—"
"Milk!" Oh, boy! I'm so happy! "Milk with peabutter jelly sammiches."
"Milk it is! All right, Mr. Price, that's our order. Milk and PB and Js. We'll have a picnic right here."
"Not PB and J." I made an angry face. "Peabutter jelly sammich! You promised!"
"Oh, well, yes. Okay. My bad. What's your name, sweetie? "
"Reau," I told.
"Reau?" Royal Price asked. "Like 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'?
Hey! I knew that song!
"Gently down the stream!" I sang. "Mary, Mary, Mary, life is but a dream."
"Okay. Close enough." Royal Price chuckled. "Reau, huh? Well, we have a Crew. Why not a Reau?"
What's a crew? I scrunched up my face in confusion.
"Reau, I'm Posy and these are my friends. He's Ty and he's Mr. Price." She pointed at the beta, then Royal Price, but I already knew his name. "Can we be your friends?"
"Friends? I can have friends?" My eyes opened wide as I stared at her.
"Yeah, sweetie, you can have friends."
"I never had friends before," I told her. "Only Bubba, and Mommy Daddy made Bubba leave."
At least, that's what Binda told me. Mommy Daddy said he left because he was ashamed of me. I didn't tell the luna that, though. I wanted her to like me.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Maybe we can help you find Bubba. Is Bubba what you call your brother?" she asked.
"Yes, yes!"
I clapped my hands so fast, I fell back on my butt, and Beta Ty suddenly hunkered between me and the luna.
"Oh, come on, Ty," I heard her say. "He's an innocent kid."
"You don't know that. We don't know anything about him, luna," Beta Ty growled, making me shiver. "I'd prefer you kept your distance until we figure things out and get Emerson here."
"Emerson?" I scrambled to my knees and slapped my palms on Beta Ty's cheeks. Leaning in really close, I stared into his light blue eyes, which was something I didn't like to do, but I had to see if he was telling the truth. "You know Bubba?! Where's my bubba?"
"He's on his way." Beta Ty leaned back. "After you eat your sandwiches, okay?"
I nodded, and Royal Price got up and went into the house.
"Reau, where's your wolf?" the luna asked.
"Tanner's sleeping."
The luna and Beta Ty looked at each other, then back at me.
"Has he been asleep for a while?" When I nodded, she asked, "How long? Do you remember?"
"Couple of weeks."
"Did your parents give you a shot of something that made him go to sleep?"
I shook my head. The special medicine Mommy Daddy gave me was pills, not a shot.
"I can smell the bane on him," she murmured to Beta Ty.
"Do you think he's lying or just doesn't understand?" Beta Ty looked at me out of the corner of his eye.
"I'm not a liar!" I balled up my fists and made an angry face at him. "Lying is bad manners! Mommy Daddy never gave me any shots!"
"Maybe they gave it to him in another form," the luna said. "How else can it be administered? I only know about the liquid in a syringe."
"A liquid form could have been added to anything and, with his size, it wouldn't take much." Beta Ty's handsome face squinched up as he thought. "I'm fairly certain it can be dried and ground into a powder, which means it probably can be compressed into a pill. Hmm. I'll look into it, luna."
"Sandwiches are ready!" Royal Price called out, and I lost interest in what the luna and beta were talking about.
"Looky, looky, Reau! Our picnic's here," the luna chirped as Royal Price came over with a big tray.
I clapped my hands again, so excited to have my favorite food!
With a happy hum, I scarfed down two whole sammiches before my stomach felt like it would burst. Then the luna handed me a glass of milk.
"How much can I drink, please?" I asked as I took it carefully with both hands.
"All of it, sweetie. We have lots of milk, and we can get more if we run out."
"Wow!" I gave her a big smile. "Thank you, luna."
"Of course, Reau. You will never go hungry here."
That made me happy! So many times, my belly hurt because it was empty.
After I finished drinking the whole glass, I was stuffed full and sleepy and my eyelids kept falling down. With a big yawn, I laid on the grass, put my head on the luna's lap and my thumb in my mouth, and stared up into her dark blue eyes.
With a soft smile, she laid one hand on my hair. It was as yucky and dirty as the rest of me, but she didn't seem to care. She started to hum as her fingers petted my messy curls, and I couldn't stay awake any longer.
It wasn't very long before I heard a familiar voice said a bad word, and I cracked my eyes open to see the one person I wanted to see above all others.
"Bubba?" I whispered. "Bubba, I missed you."
"I missed you, too, Reau. So, so much!"
With a scratchy voice, Bubba grabbed me and wrapped me up in a hug, but I was so tired and weak that I just hung there and tried not to whimper as his tight hold hurt all my ouchies.
"Will you kill me or will you keep me?"
"What?" Bubba lifted his head to stare down at me.
"Mommy Daddy said you will kill me or keep me, and that is okay. Kill me or keep me, just don't send me back. Mommy Daddy are mean, Bubba. They give me ouchies because I'm retarded." Twisting my fists into his shirt, I began to cry. "I'm sorry I'm retarded, Bubba, but I will be a good boy if you keep me. I swear I'll be a good boy."
"You are not retarded," Bubba said through clenched teeth. "That is a bad word. Don't say it ever again. And of course I'm going to keep you. You're my baby brother."
My tears wouldn't stop coming out, and Bubba snuggled me against his chest.
"Emerson!" someone yelled really loud, making me jump, then a scary-looking blond man dropped to his knees in front of us.
"Hey, hey, hey," he whispered. Reaching over my head, he put his palms on Bubba's face. "Whatever's wrong, it's going to be okay. We'll figure it out."
"He's not— They hurt him! And I can't— He doesn't—" Bubba couldn't talk right for some reason.
"Shh, orsacchiotto (teddy bear). Shh." The scary-looking man kissed all over Bubba's face, and my jaw dropped.
They were kissing!
In front of me!
"I can't sense his wolf, Angelo!" I heard Bubba whisper, and I snapped my mouth closed.
I was worried about that, too. I should have been able to feel Tanner even if he was asleep.
"While Mr. Price was making lunch, Reau told us that his wolf, Tanner, was sleeping," the luna told him. "I smell wolfsbane on him, so—"
"How do you know what that smells like?" the scary man asked the luna.
"Because I've been shot full of it before. Many times." The luna lifted her chin and stared back at him. "Anyway, I think someone gave it to him to put his wolf to sleep."
"Then we can give him some nightshade or foxglove to counter it." The man nodded, then smiled at Bubba. "Now, don't you think it's time to introduce me to this piccolo cucciolo (little puppy)?"
Bubba wiped his eyes and nodded.
"Thoreau, meet my mate, Angelo del Vecchio. Angelo, this is my baby brother, Thoreau Ezra Jones. I call him Reau for short. He turned fifteen in March."
"Hello, cucciolo (puppy)," Angelo del Vecchio said with a gentle smile.
"My name is Thoreau, not kootsch-o-lo," I grumbled.
"Oh, I am sorry. It means puppy in Italian. You are cucciolo (puppy) and Emerson is orsacchiotto (teddy bear)."
"And what are you?" I tilted my head, curious as George when he met the man in the yellow hat.
"Emerson did not give me a nickname yet, but you can call me Gelo if you want."
"Jello! Jello is good. I love jello. The cook gives me an extra jello on Wednesdays and Fridays. She is nice and—"
Yuck! Some snot dripped on my lips, so I pulled up the hem of my t-shirt and wiped it off.
That made everyone let out angry grumbles for some reason, and I hid my face in Bubba's chest.
"I'll kill that rat bastard!" Royal Price snarled.
I flinched at his big, mean voice, and Bubba's arms tightened around me.
"Who needs killing?" a man growled from somewhere behind us. "Because after the morning I've had, I'm more than ready to put down a wolf or two."
Looking up, I saw two big, big men hurrying over from the driveway. They were covered nearly head to toe in white dust or dirt, and their eyes gleamed with their wolves. I could feel their moon power and wondered if they were two of the five alphas here.
When both of them squished the luna between them and stuffed their faces in her throat, I laughed and pointed at them.
"Posy sammich!" I giggled.
"Papa, we're handing this matter over to you," said one of the big men. "You can give us a report later. Right now, Mase and I want to eat lunch with our girl."
Squeaking, the luna hid her red face in the crook of the dark-haired one's neck, and the big men carried her into the house, leaving me giggling and everyone else chuckling.
Royal Price, former alpha of Earthshine, Alpha Mason's father: