Disclaimer: Don't own these characters. No harm or infringement is intended.
Bella stared at the door, her eyes wide and face immobilized by shock.
Her son was sitting in the doorway, his face covered in tears looking down towards his lap. He held in his arms the small puppy that he had received for his birthday, that he had loved from the very second he had set eyes on it. She bent down to her knees to get a closer look at the blood covered body. The puppy wasn't horribly mangled, he wasn't dead, and she couldn't identify any wounds. Where had the blood come from?
"What's going on, sweetheart? What's wrong with Wolfy?" He had of course, named the puppy wolfy after his now brother-in-law, Jake.
Her son looked up to face his mother, sniffing. "Ma, I…" he couldn't finish. He sniffed again loudly.
Bella looked at her miserable son, and gave him a huge reassuring smile. "It's alright, sweets, tell me what happened."
He took in a deep breath and began in a wobbly voice, "Wolfy and I were playing in the woods with Jake and Ness, and…" he faltered, his voice cracking. "And then there was this real wolf pack that came, and Jake got most of them to leave, but when he and Ness chased them, one got away." Another deep breath. "And, it came back to me and Wolfy, and I was scared, and Wolfy tried to save me, and the wolf was going to hurt him and I thought he was going to die, so I…. Wolfy was going to get hurt so….I hurt the wolf first." Her son finally finished, looking horrified at both himself and his actions.
"That explains the blood then. So, this wolf, you injured him?" Bella asked calmly.
Her son nodded his head with an agonized look on his face. "I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted him to go away and not hurt Wolfy, and…" He broke off, starting to weep in earnest.
Bella quickly grabbed her son and embraced him to her chest. She cooed softly, trying to reassure him. Her son had always had a bleeding heart for animals, and sometimes his strength was too much for him to control. The end result of such was inexorably going to end in tragedy eventually.
"It's alright, sweetheart, I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt him. Is he still around? I bet we can get Grandpa to fix him, if we asked."
"He's still in the woods," he pointed towards the west.
Bella picked up her son, still holding his puppy and began the trek towards the woods. Sometimes parenthood was surprising, especially in her peculiar family. It wasn't everyone who had the privilege to bring a wolf to their grandfather for fixing.