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Chapter 48: The Trophy Son

Once Zaldon was awaken by the efforts of Kel and Julyan combined, he was able to magically transport the group back to the edge of the northern forest, just outside the summer village's gates. They made camp there, and taking Theo aside, Zaldon cloaked him with magic: anyone who looked at Theo would think him a white teenage wolf, not the gray wolf with the intense black eyes whose blood the summer village was so eager to spill. The glamour was strong, and yet, Zaldon insisted on cautioning Theo again and again: he must go in and come straight back to the camp whether his father forgave him or not: there was no guaranteeing that the village council had.

Kel and Keeno, Roan and Zane accompanied Theo into the village. They walked with him through the streets, intent on greeting their loved ones after the long journey. But Roan wanted to go with Theo to his father's hut: he would greet the family afterwards.

So Roan and Theo parted with the group after visiting Kel's hut, where Zalia ran out and pounced on Keeno, begging to know if Enya had been found, practically shaking him as she demanded answers. Keeno gave them to his wife and was kissed all over his face. They held each other and laughed as Kel and Aliona watched in amusement, then Keeno led his wife to visit Enya at Zaldon's camp outside the village.

"Please, be careful!" Kel begged Roan and Theo when the boys set off. "Come right back to me and I'll escort you to Zaldon!" he added as they were walking away.

Roan rolled his eyes. "I swear Grandfather thinks we're still in swaddling cloths."

Theo laughed, and Roan glanced at him sadly: it was strange to see Theo with such ugly, beady eyes when his eyes before had been slanted and so beautiful. He couldn't wait until they were in the sun village and Theo was out of that hideous Glamour.

They paused outside Sade's hut at long last, and Theo heaved a breath. Roan didn't understand it: Sade had never been close to Theo, had never been a loving or even playful father. Why did Theo need his father's forgiveness so badly? But he didn't question it when Theo said nervously, "Here I go!" and knocked on the wall beside the curtain of the hut.

Roan retreated across the street, watching from the shade of a tree as Theo -- in his white fur and beady-eyed Glamour -- waited patiently outside the hut. After a pause, the curtain swished aside a crack, and a short female with Theo's slanted eyes peered out. She was small and gray and her face was grim. She clutched a white shawl to her gray fur and stared up at Theo irritably. Roan wanted to laugh: she looked exactly like Theo, just prettier, shorter, and female.

"Well?" she demanded. "What the hell do you want, pup? I'm not in the mood for guests, I don't have any manual labor you can do in exchange for wares, and I wouldn't trust you in my hut anyway -- your eyes are too close together."

Theo laughed. "Same old Mom," he said, fondly shaking his head.

The female stared up at him as if she thought him screwy. Her long gray mane was a cloak around her ears as she scrunched up her nose and said, "And you're crazy to boot! Get off my property before I call my husband -- Sa --!"

The word was barely out of her mouth, however, when Theo suddenly leaned down and hugged her tight. She sputtered her indignation and probably would have screamed bloody murder, but Theo made her freeze when he whispered in her ear, "It's me, Mom! I've come home!"

Standing across the street, Roan was warmed to see Theo's mother's face: the little female squeezed her eyes shut, as if she was silently thanking the heavens that her son was alive. She bit her lip, and even from where he was standing, Roan could see that tears were squeezing from the corners of her lashes. But she didn't hug Theo back. Theo seemed hurt by this. After a pause, he straightened up and asked awkwardly about Sade.

"Is he home?" Theo asked in a low voice. Roan wasn't surprised: Theo's mother could have easily been lying about Sade's presence just to scare him off her property. It would have been very like her.

But Theo's mother need not have answered. A voice boomed from the depths of the hut, "Amrosa! Who's that at the door? The spear-smith? It's about damn time he . . ." Sade appeared in the doorway beside his wife, and laying eyes on Theo, his voice trailed into silence. He stared at Theo, and it was as if he could see straight through the Glamour.

Across the street, Roan grew very still. Sade looked a great deal like Theo too: gray and tall and hard-bodied with the same square jaw. But his eyes, unlike Theo's, were not pretty but mean. He had light gray eyes, watery and cold. He cowed Amrosa into the shadows of the hut with just a glance. She clutched her shawl tight to her throat and sank meekly out of sight.

"So," said Sade, folding his arms and narrowing those mean little eyes, "you came back here, boy. Why."

Theo looked at his father as if he couldn't believe he had to even ask. "Because I wanted to see you, Dad!" he hissed in a low voice. "Because I missed Mom, because you're my father and I love you!"

Sade's flat eyes looked straight past Theo, as if he wasn't there. He snorted, his chest heaving. "Father? I am no father. Get out of my sight." And he just stood there, looking past Theo.

Theo just stood there too. Roan couldn't see his expression, but he knew Theo was angry: his paws balled into trembling fists. But his fingers relaxed, and Roan heard him say bitterly, "Gone, baby. Long gone." He turned away, and behind him, Sade turned abruptly and marched into the hut. Amrosa appeared in his place, looking meek and strained, her expression worried as she took in Theo's retreating back.

"Boy!" she called, too afraid to shout Theo's name.

Theo looked back, his lashes fluttering: his mother was beckoning him! He moved back toward the hut, joyous disbelief making his face bright. He couldn't believe it when she pressed a packet of food into his chest. But she never smiled and her pretty eyes were as cold as her husband's.

"Where are they taking you, the sorcerer's lot?" hissed the little female.

Theo smiled down at his mother. She would never know how grateful, how happy it made him that she had asked. "The sun village," he whispered to her.

They looked at each other. Amrosa looked so pale and miserable, so cold and mean, so angry. Watching the strange exchange across the street, Roan realized for the first time that Amrosa was just as angry as Sade! She had always seemed so open before, so accepting of tail chasers! But perhaps she too had always expected her son to settle down with a female, to follow all the traditions. Perhaps she too felt ashamed. Apparently, it was okay for other wolves to be tail chasers, just not her own son.

Theo leaned down to kiss his mother goodbye, but she pressed him away by the chest and scowled. "Don't!" she hissed. "I don't know where those defiled lips of yours have been! Just take the meat and get out of here -- quick! Before some other sharp-eyed wolf recognizes you for who you truly are!"

And to Roan's dismay, Amrosa took a broom up from the shadows of the hut and started whacking Theo's ankles and butt with it. Theo hurried across the street. He was grinning when he came to Roan clutching the packet of meat, but there was an unmistakable misery in his eyes. Roan gazed sadly at Theo. What had he expected? For his parents to embrace him? Kiss him on both cheeks? Roan had witnessed nothing more than he'd imagined would happen. He'd easily foreseen such a scene, why hadn't Theo?

As they were walking back to Kel's, Theo noticed Roan's confusion out of the corner of his eye and offered an explanation:

"You know I was actually avoiding my father the day we had our first little get together out in the woods?" He laughed bitterly as he remembered. "Dad wanted me to do some more of his relentless exercises and I was sick of it. So I took off. Then you stumbled upon me. It was my lucky day." He smiled at Roan before continuing, "Dad always wanted me to be the very best. He's been busting my ass since Amrosa dropped me . . . But I never believed it was out of love. Never. I loved Sade, but . . . Sade didn't love me. I was just his trophy son. And the really sad thing? I think everyone knew that but him. But no matter what you know in your head . . . you still tell yourself that maybe . . . just maybe your parents will love you no matter what. I mean, they're supposed to . . . right?" Theo gave Roan a half-smile, but it was such a fragile smile that Roan knew Theo could have very easily come to tears.