Declan sat at the bus stop alone, staring straight ahead at nothing. He had this look about him that suggested if anyone tried to approach him, they would instantly regret it.

It was funny to him —well, it would have been funny if anything at this point could make him laugh. The bus stop was only a few miles from the apartment, and yet, it felt as though he was worlds away. He glanced back at the direction he’d come from, and he couldn’t help but feel like with every step he took, that he lost more and more of himself.

The bus pulled up in front of him and the driver opened the doors. Declan looked at the man and shook his head slightly. The driver looked at Declan once over. He shrugged and pulled the doors shut and sped off down the road, once again leaving Declan behind. He didn’t really know what had brought him here to this point, but he couldn’t seem to get on any of the buses. He already passed up on four of them, which promised to lead him far away from where he was, and yet, he stayed sitting there underneath the small metal shelter.

Declan didn’t know exactly where he wanted to go, but he knew that he couldn’t stay there. After the ritual had abruptly ended, he had charged Gabriel with the alpha role and left the entire pack in a frenzy. He didn’t want to have to face them because he didn’t know what he could say that could explain anything. One minute he was their alpha because he was the strongest wolf, and the next minute he wasn’t even a wolf anymore. It made no sense to him —he wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened. He had his suspicions that it had something to do with Edmund, and the cure that he had given to Declan earlier in the day.

Declan rubbed his hands gruffly over his face, feeling the callouses itch at his skin. He wanted to scream out at the world —how could this have happened to him? He lived his entire life battling with the people around him, fighting to survive. Now, he’d been turned and forced to survive in a different way. It was through his transformation into a wolf that he became a better man. And now, he was neither —not a wolf, and not a man.

Another bus pulled up in front of him, and again the driver pulled open the doors. Declan looked inside of the nearly-empty bus. He made the decision and pushed himself up from his seat. He entered into the large metal box which rolled along the roads, polluting the air and carrying people from one point to another, with not a care in the world.

Declan inserted his payment and sat down in a seat toward the back of the bus. He observed the scarce passengers as he passed them. A young mother clutching a crying infant to her chest. Her hair was sticking out in every direction around her face. A frazzled bun sat on the top of her head, struggling to control the rest of her greasy strands. Her eyes looked vacant and tired. Declan watched her as the bus moved forward. The child finally calmed down when she acquiesced and pulled her breast from beneath her shirt, allowing him to drink. She breathed heavily as though the expectations of motherhood weighed on her greatly.

Declan closed his eyes and thought back to his own mother. A small woman, fragile in many ways, and yet stronger than most he’d known. He recalled a specific day that he hadn’t thought about for a long time —a day that would change his life forever.

Declan sat at the table in the kitchen, coloring aimlessly with his broken crayons as his mother cooked their dinner.

“We are lucky today, Ducky,” his mother said to him. “I was able to find two squirrels on the side of the road today that were in good shape. We will be having a feast, tonight!”

His mother felt proud and Declan smiled at her, always happy when she was smiling. This is how they lived out here —forced to scavenger for food every day. His mother tried to explain it to Declan once. She said people all over the world lived just like this as a way to save money. There was nothing wrong with it at all. But when the kids at school would point at him and laugh, Declan thought that there must be something wrong with it, or else why would they make fun of him? But he never told his mother about the teasing. When she would ask about his cuts and bruises, he would simply say that he had fallen off of the swing on the playground, or some other story. She had enough to worry about, without him adding to her concerns.

“Is Daddy coming home today?” Declan asked, looking up from his picture.

“I’m not sure, Sweetie,” his mom answered quietly.

Declan didn’t like when his father came home. All it did was upset his mother and she would force him into his room to stay there for hours. He could hear them screaming at one another through the thin walls. Declan would try to hide under his bed, but there was nowhere he could go that would be far enough to carry him away from their noise.

His mother cooked on steadily and the aroma grew in the air and Declan began feeling hungry. He climbed down from his chair and snuck outside to her garden. Her tomato plant boasted many plump, red tomatoes, ready for the picking. He reached forward and plucked one for himself. He sat down in the dirt around him and bit into the juicy fruit, relishing the taste as the juice ran down his chin.

He closed his eyes and rested against the side of the house and took another bite. “I hope that’s good,” a voice called from the side of the house.

Declan’s eyes flew open and he saw his father standing at the edge of the garden, watching Declan. Declan scrambled to his feet. His father approached him slowly, but Declan was frozen in fear and the tomato slipped from his hand, landing in the dirt, half-eaten.

“You stupid boy,” his father growled at him. “Now look what you’ve done! Not only have you stolen from me but now you’ve wasted it! Pick it up, right now!”

Declan reached into the dirt and picked the tomato from the ground. He didn’t want to be in trouble.

“Eat it,” his father demanded. “You started it, now finish it.”

Declan took the tomato and began wiping it against his shirt to try to get the dirt off, but his father yelled again, “Do not clean it! Eat it as it is.”

Declan slowly pushed the dirty fruit to his lips and took a bite from it. As he chewed, he could feel the dirt getting stuck in his teeth and sticking to his tongue. He wanted to spit it out, but he knew the consequences that might bring.

“What is going on out here?” his mother asked, walking toward the garden. She looked at her husband towering over her son. Her gaze then fell upon Declan holding the dirty tomato.

“Your son has stolen from the garden. And what’s more, he carelessly dropped it into the dirt. He respects nothing and appreciates even less. This is your fault for how you coddle him.”

Declan could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, but he quickly brushed away the evidence, knowing all too well what it might lead to.

“I think it’s time that I teach him a lesson about appreciation.”

Declan’s mother walked into the garden slowly and reached for her husband’s hand, very carefully. She pulled him into her arms for a hug and whispered into his ear. Declan could see the pain in her eyes, and he knew that soon, she would have to send him into his room.

His father pulled back and smiled. It was also the worst when he would smile like that. Declan ran inside of the house and slammed his door behind him. The silence stretched on, promising nothing but pain to come.

Seconds dragged into minutes…

The front door opened…

Minutes collided with once another haphazardly…

His father began to yell…

Declan crawled beneath the bed. His mother started to cry. His father yelled louder. “Don’t cry, Mommy,” Declan whispered into the springs which held up his mattress.

A piercing scream lilted into his ears. He clenched his eyes shut. He pushed his hands to his ears, but nothing would stop the sound. The front door opened again. Then it shut. Declan crawled from beneath the bed and quietly pulled open his door. He couldn’t hear anything other than staggered breaths coming from the bathroom.

He walked down the hall and pushed open the door. His mother sat in the corner, but something was wrong. She held her hands to her stomach, but they were red and she had her eyes closed.

“Mommy?” Declan said quietly.

“Hey, Ducky,” she breathed. “Mommy needs your help, okay? Do exactly as I say.”

Declan listened carefully to his mother’s instructions. He raced out of the house to the road and tried to make any car stop, but they continued to pass by him. Finally, a man pulled over to the side and stepped out of his green truck.

“Hey kid, what are you doing out here?”

“My mommy is hurt, she needs help.”

The man stood straight and asked Declan to show him where his mother was. They walked down the side of the road to Declan’s small house that was hidden amongst the trees. Declan pulled open the door and led the man upstairs to the bathroom.

The man’s face instantly changed and Declan started to cry. The man scooped Declan’s mother into his arms and started to run back toward his truck. Declan ran after them, unsure what to do, but knowing that he did not want to be alone. The man placed Declan’s mother into the passenger seat and Declan climbed over her to the back seat. He pulled on his seat belt and closed his eyes the entire ride. The man pulled up at the hospital and started yelling for help.

“Help!” Declan cried softly to no one. “Help her, please.”

People began running up to truck door and pulled it open. They slid his mother out onto a moveable bed and they ran her inside. Declan climbed out of the car, his clothes now stained with her blood. He looked up at the man standing there.

“Thank you,” Declan said to him. Declan started to walk inside, but the man put a hand on his shoulder to stop him for a moment.

“I’m going to go park my truck, okay? You wait right inside there for me. I won’t leave you alone here.” Declan tried to smile, but he couldn’t manage it. His face and body had started to feel numb.

The man turned back to his truck and Declan continued to walk inside. The entire world started spinning before him. He fell over giving into the blackness that had threatened him.

When his eyes finally opened, he was laying on a bed, covered with white sheets. There were wires and tubes connected to him and he started breathing faster. He looked around the room, but he was by himself.

“Help!” he cried out. A young woman came rushing into the room.

“Hi, Sweetie,” she said softly. “It’s okay. You’re alright. You were just extremely dehydrated. Do you know where you are?”

Declan nodded. “Where is my mommy? Is she okay?”

As he said this, the man who had rescued them came into the room. “Hey buddy,” he said. “I’d just gone to check on her. She’s still in surgery, so they’ll let us know how everything went in a little bit, okay?”

“Are you his father?” the nurse asked. The man shook his head and the nurse furrowed her eyebrows together in disapproval. “You cannot be in here, then. Family only.”

“No, please,” Declan cried. “He can’t leave. He rescued my mom.” The nurse looked back and forth between the two of them and finally, with a begrudging sigh, she left them alone in the room.

The man looked over at him and smiled. “My name is Dustin,” he said as he reached out his hand to Declan. “What’s yours?”

“Declan.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Declan. You’re a brave little guy, you know that? Had you not done what you did, we may have been too late to help your mom.”

Declan nodded although he wanted to explain that he hadn’t been brave at all. That it was his mother who had told him what to do.

“Do you know what happened to her, Declan?”

Declan nodded again. “I think my daddy hurt her,” he said softly. “It was my fault because I ate a tomato.”

The man grimaced and Declan was afraid that he’d made him angry. “It’s alright, Declan. You should try to rest now. Let me see what I can find out about your mom.”

Declan closed his eyes as the man had told him. He listened as the door opened and shut. The next time the man came to him, he explained to Declan that the surgery had gone well and that his mother was going to recover. She needed to stay here for a while and the hospital had agreed to let Declan stay there in her room as well, with a police guard until they found his father.

Dustin walked Declan into his mother’s room where she was sleeping. Declan ran to the side of her bed and tried to hug her.

“Alright, buddy, I’ve got to go. But you be good for your mom, okay?” Declan nodded.

His mother recovered quickly and they were able to return home. The police were not able to find his father, but the man never came back after that day. Declan’s mother never met the man who had saved her, but she gave thanks to him every night before dinner.

From that moment on, Declan had this feeling that someone was always watching out for him and keeping an eye on things. Although it was just the two of them, he never again felt afraid.

As he grew up, trouble would find him but he was always able to rise above it. He would never harm another human if there was another way.

When his mother fell ill when he was only fourteen years old, and Declan devoted himself to caring for her full time. Eventually, the disease became overwhelming and she passed away. Declan tried to go on with life, but his mother had been his entire world. He did not know what he would do now. But there, at his lowest point, Declan went out into the woods with the intention of ending his grieving. And there, his life was taken, only to be replaced by a new one.

He never met the wolf who changed him. He had to figure out his life by himself with no one there to mentor him. Declan was forced into a life on the streets as he struggled to find a balance between his new identity and his old one. He eventually started to find others going through the same struggle as him, and so they formed a pack. He was able to secure the apartment for them to make sure that they would have a place to live. They looked to him for guidance and he was there to offer it.

When he became the official Alpha of the pack, he carried forward with his beliefs that humans were not creatures meant for harm. He trained his pack from the beginning, to satiate their cravings with wild game. He showed them how to live peacefully with others. He gave them the freedom to still enjoy humanity, while never forgetting their inner wolf.

Declan had been a true Alpha.

The bus pulled to a stop and the driver announced that this was the last stop of the day. Declan opened his eyes and realized that he was the only passenger still on the bus. He had no idea where he was, but he decided that anywhere was better than the home he’d come to know over the past few years. He climbed off the bus and the driver pulled away.

Declan stood on the side of the road and stared into the thickly wooded trees. He walked forward, painfully aware of the dullness of his senses. As a wolf, he would be able to use the scent of the area to find food and water, or to know whether anyone was around. He would be able to listen; to recognize which types of insects were around. That could help to identify where he might be. But he smelled nothing but the grass, and he heard nothing but the slight whistling of the wind brushing through the leaves.

Despite the changes in his physical being, he still felt a pull toward the nature here. He moved as though he knew exactly where he was going. It wasn’t until the trees thinned out slightly and the fading sunlight peeked through the leaves that he came to understand the familiarity of the place.

He picked up his speed and before he knew it, he started running. Finally, in a small clearing that had grown smaller over the years by the earth around it, he came upon his old house still standing amongst the trees. Declan walked around it, smiling to himself as he recalled the happy memories he’d shared with his mother here. He stopped short when he saw the mound of leaves covering where the garden had once been. Tomatoes had always left him with a bitter taste in his mouth.

He moved to the front door and pushed it open. The creaking enforced the notion that it had been a long time since someone had entered these parts. He stepped inside the house and walked into the kitchen where he’d shared so many meals with his mother. His old drawings still decorated the refrigerator, although they were discolored. He pulled back the chair where he usually sat and took a seat.

Declan dragged his hands through his hair and massaged at his scalp. He didn’t know he would end up here, but a small part of him felt that this is exactly where he needed to be to figure things out. Declan heard the familiar sound of the front door opening, and immediately, he stood to his feet so quickly that the chair fell behind him, clattering to the floor.

“Who’s there?” he called out. A figure appeared in the doorway of the kitchen and Declan could hardly believe his eyes.

“You came back,” the man said as he smiled at Declan. “Welcome home.”

“Declan had been a true Alpha.”