Chapter 133 - Star - What To Do With The Boys
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Star
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Julian was a little disoriented when he woke up. He was laying on the bed with a blanket draped over him and he was staring at us with fear and fascination in his eyes. Like the others he was a little frightened to see the new faces that were staring at him but he was calmer when he saw the rest of us.
"Artem? What happened?"
"What did it seem like?" Artem countered Julian's question with one of his own. He most likely wanted to know what the boy remembered before he told him what had happened.
"It feels like I've been asleep for a long time. I know I wasn't hurt and I couldn't have slept that long normally so I don't know why."
"Anything else?" Reece asked him, causing Julian to jump slightly.
"W-well, I remember hearing a voice. One I think I've heard before but it didn't sound like anyone that I know." Julian was clearly afraid of Reece right now.
"Do you remember what that voice said to you? Do you know what it was that it wanted?" Trinity was the one to speak this time, she was easier to accept than the tall and strong Alpha King, not that Julian knew who she was. Still, Julian didn't seem to be afraid of Trinity at all.
"I think it was asking me to let it out. It was like that voice was locked up in a cage. I know I was asleep and all, but to me it felt like I was in this really big building with lots of long hallways and locked doors. It was so strange."
"That's one way to put it. Your mind is like a storage facility so that analogy works well." Juniper was the one to speak this time. "Did you find the voice? Did you find where it was locked up?"
"Yes. After a very long time of searching there was this bright light that guided me to where the voice was. It had grabbed the handle of its cage and pulled. The door wasn't even locked."
"Do you remember what happened after that?" I was curious, his story was getting interesting.
"There was a growling sound on the other side of the door but I wasn't afraid of it. When the door fully opened, that was when I stopped seeing the building."
"What did you see then?" Doc asked him.
"I saw all of you, but I didn't feel like myself. It felt off somehow. I was looking at things differently than I was used to."
"How so?" All of us asked that question at the same time, it was a bit eerie, even for me.
"W-well, it felt like I was on my hands and my feet at the same time, but I wasn't bent over. I was looking at things with more clarity than I am now, and I swear that I was bigger than I am now."
"All of that is true." Artem smiled at him as he inched closer to the scared boy. "The reason why all of this happened to you, Julian, is that you shifted into your wolf for the first time."
"I-I did?" Julian didn't look like he believed it at all. He didn't seem to think that it was a possibility at all. "No, that's not possible. I have the talisman. I can't shift."
"When you went to sleep for that long period of time, the talisman came off. It came off of all of you.You're free, all of the others are as well."
I saw tears of joy in Julian's eyes. It was like he wanted to accept it, he wanted to believe it. If he could shift that would mean that he was not a long lost child but he could grow up, possibly get bigger, and he can be his own person from now on.
"Is...Is that why I am naked?" He blushed while asking that question.
"Yes. You had been wearing clothes, not the ones from before but still clothes. But when you shifted they were destroyed." Doc sounded embarrassed as well. It was like he felt bad for the boy who was naked in front of so many people.
"But, on the plus side, we covered you up." Artem said the words jokingly. "It could have been worse.
It took a little while to get things settled but we eventually moved Julian down the hall with all the others, after he had been given some clothes to wear. There were seven new boys that didn't know who any of us were, and none of them knew who Trinity and Reece were.
The new boys were scared at first, but they soon realized that, Alphas or not, Reece and Artem were not going to hurt them. They were in fact relieved to see that people they were told to fear were the ones most desperate to help them. It helped to cement the fact that they could forget almost everything that they had learned from their families.
We got the boys some food, since they were all hungry, and we got to know the new boys as they ate their fill for the first time. They were all great kids that just needed to be given a chance.
While Doc, Leelin, Uncle Griffin, and Lana were chatting with them I pulled Artem aside to talk to him. We went into the sitting room that was just off of the dining room. He was confused when I pulled him in there and just looked at me with a curious look.
"What is it baby?"
"Artem, we're not sending those boys somewhere else are we?"
"Why would we? They're going to stay here." Artem seemed confused by my question.
"Oh thank Goddess. I don't want to lose them. Any of them. There are enough of us here that we can take care of them all."
"So, you want to become the foster mom to thirteen boys?" He was laughing at me now, a cute smile on his lips.
"If that's how you want to look at it. I was thinking of a very responsible older sister myself, but a foster mom works for me too." I thought about what all of that meant. Sending the boys to regular school. Helping them with work and throwing them birthday parties like the one that was thrown for me. It was all sounding like so much fun and I wanted to have that experience with them.
"I'm not against it. Whatever it is you want to do, Star, I'm right there with you. I planned on them staying here anyway so this doesn't change anything in my eyes."
"Artem, you're the best, you know that."
"I try." He blushed then and looked happy and loving at the same time.
After that the boys were all taken to their rooms. The new boys had been in their prisons for so long that they cried over having been given a bedroom of their own. Artem told them that he was going to go buy them new clothes and toys as soon as he could and that too made the boys cry.
All of us adults went to Artem's office after the boys were settled in. It was time to talk about another matter altogether.
"Juniper?" Reece started the conversation as soon as we were in the room. "There is one more boy that needs to be saved. He is in his wolf form and has been there for months. Do you think you can reach him?"
"Now that I know what to do, I am almost certain that I can. Should we go now?" She started to get to her feet immediately.
"NO!" Reece, Artem, Doc, and Uncle Griffin all yelled at the same time. All of the women in the room aside from Juniper just looked confused.
"What's the matter?" Her head was tilted in confusion at their response.
"You're exhausted." Reece told her.
"Don't overdo it for one night." Artem added.
"We need you to stay healthy." Uncle Griffin sounded worried.
"Don't make yourself sick to save others."
It was clear that all the men were very protective males that didn't like to see women getting hurt.
"I'm fine, really." Juniper tried to protest but then Trinity started in.
"No, you're not. You just don't realize how tired you are. Don't get so exhausted that it affects your babies. You need to protect them as well as yourself now."
Juniper looked like she hadn't been thinking along those lines at all. She hung her head in shame and nodded in agreement.
"Alright, I'll wait."
"We will do this tomorrow morning, before the pack meeting. We will make sure that everyone that this pack has abused has been saved." Reece sounded determined. I could tell he was going to put the fear of the King into the pack. I was now very interested in what was going to happen next. It should make for a good show at least.