Chapter 16 Smell And Guilt

• "Why'd you raise my son, Braelyn?" I asked, somehow managing to hide the emotion those words caused. "What is he like?" I swallowed the urge to smile as her eyes sparkled in amusement.
• "He won't talk to you, huh?" A shit-eating grin curved her full lips before she smoothed it out and shrugged. "Chaos is so smart, Saint. He's stubborn as hell and so prideful that he ends up in a ton of fights. He wins, of course, be- cause he is strong, even though he's smaller than the other boys his age. Chaos is wild and adventurous, and nothing scares him. If you asked me, I would say that he took after his father a lot more than his mother." I hung on to her every word, watching her smile beaming at my son and his stubbornness. "I raised Chaos because I couldn't find you. I looked, you know, but the first year you were just gone. It was like you and the boys had all vanished. I had assumed it would be easier to find a crew of wolves out causing mayhem, but you guys must have stayed hidden for a while. Then, I fell in love with him, and even though he doesn't carry my blood, I treated Chaos as if he were my own, and I've loved him just the same." Braelyn turned, giving me her back as I narrowed my stare on her spine.
• "It would have been impossible to find us considering what you and your father did to us. You sort of hid us yourself, didn't you?" I snapped, watching her attention shift back to me with her dress held in her hand.