Gaze (✔)

Chapter Nineteen: From the Ashes

Sorry sorry sorry! I don't know why it's taken me so long, but you could say I'm on a roll now :) This one's pretty short, not a great sorry-it's-been-ages gift... oh well, the next will be soon!

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It was from her own words to Luke – her pushing for him to accept the wolves - that Clara decided to return to Wyatt, and to Maine. Their path had not been smooth, both had tripped up at some point and made mistakes. But that was their humanity - as was her choice to forgive and seek forgiveness.

With her memory of the past few days still sharp, she made her way back to the very hotel that she’d escaped from. She knew he’d be there waiting. The sun rose over the grey, towering structures as she walked, casting shadows on her face and stinging her sore eyes. She couldn’t rest just yet, though. It wasn’t over.

He was in the lobby when she arrived, evidently expecting her – or at least hopeful for her return. She gave him a soft, tired smile as she spotted him in the near-empty room, allowing him to pull her swiftly into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his chest, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply.

She felt his warm breath on her forehead as he pulled back slightly, his large hands gently resting on her cheeks. “Me too.” He breathed with a small smile. Quieting the sadness that still lingered in her mind, Clara let herself smile a little, too.

She rose up on her toes and kissed him softly, closing her eyes and trying to convey all that she was feeling through the meeting of their lips. It was gentle and slow, both of them lost in each other and their swirling emotions. She relished in the feeling, enjoying the distraction from the cold world outside of their embrace.

After pulling away for a breath, she rested her forehead against his. “Let’s go home.”

*     *     *

“Are you sure you want to stay?” Clara asked, releasing Joanna from a tight hug.

The other girl nodded firmly. “It’s for the best. Someone has to stay behind and keep an eye on this city.” She explained. Clara wasn’t surprised; with the sudden rise of the Faction, it was clear that werewolf hunters had started to congregate. Even though it had been swiftly – and brutally – destroyed, there was still the possibility that the hunters would gather again. She just prayed that Luke wouldn’t get involved.

As if reading her mind: “And your brother.” Joanna added with a smile in her eyes. Clara felt a pang of sympathy for her new friend: it couldn’t have been easy to discover that Luke was her mate – especially when she already loved Dylan. She hadn’t seen him since the night of Sam’s death, but she’d heard from Wyatt that he was already back in Maine.

“All right.” Clara relented, opening the car door beside her. She slid inside the vehicle, sending Joanna one more glance before she shut the door firmly. Wyatt was already in the driver’s seat with the car purring softly beneath him, his hands on the wheel as he shot her a reassuring grin.

“Jo will be fine,” he told her. “She’s tough.” Although she knew it was true, all Clara could think about was how her brother was tough too – maybe even stronger than his sister. Would he resist the mate bond and kill Joanna? It was a scary possibility.

She looked out of the window as they began the drive, the towering buildings of Boston flying by her as they left the city she had previously called home. Besides her brother, there wasn’t anything there for her anymore: only death.

Wyatt wouldn’t let her thoughts linger on such things: she found herself smiling gratefully as they drove to the sound of his incessant talking, recalling stories from his childhood that made her laugh – the first time she’d heard the sound in days. She started looking forward to returning to Maine: not just for the peace from the chaos of Boston, but for her future.

Several hours later, the travel-weary pair stopped at a hotel – one much nicer than the dingy little motel Clara had stayed at on her way to the city. They sat in their room, quietly munching on the pizza they’d ordered. The TV hummed quietly in the background, playing some comedy that neither of them were really paying attention to.

“Clara?”

She looked up from the pepperoni she had picked off of his pizza, hoping he hadn’t noticed. She popped it in her mouth quickly, grinning sheepishly and responding. “Yeah?”

Her smile faded a little bit at his serious expression. She scooted closer to Wyatt, He absently reached forward and held her hand as he spoke. “What made you come back?” he asked. She froze for a moment, unsure of what to say. He continued: “After the way I acted a few nights ago -”

“Stop.” She cut him off abruptly, crossing her legs beneath her and taking Wyatt’s other hand. “I saw my dad after I left the warehouse. He said he was done hunting – Sam’s death had made him realise how…how stupid it was. And then I saw Luke, and I told him he was wrong about you all. And it made me realise that I was wrong about you, too. You’re not the angry man that I saw that day. You’re just Wyatt.” Clara leaned forward and pecked him lightly on the lips, to which he gently responded by wrapping his arms around her and deepening the kiss, lowering her gently down onto the bed they sat on.

He pulled away for a second. “You smell like pizza.”

Clara turned her head away, laughter bubbling out of her as she hit Wyatt’s chest. She did nothing to hide the happiness she felt in that moment, safe and warm in his embrace.

*     *     *

Time passed quickly after their return to the pack.

Joanna remained in Boston, where all was quiet, and had even started talking to Luke – although Clara doubted it was much more than yelling. At home, Dylan was in worse shape: although he smiled and joked like the boy she’d come to know, there was a certain spark missing from his eyes.

Life was calm, and even a little boring up in The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Maine. To fill her endless time, Clara had started looking at colleges in the state. She didn’t know what she wanted to study at all – growing up, violence was the only key theme in her life. Education hadn’t mattered to her. Wyatt wholeheartedly welcomed the idea, especially as it meant she’d probably be socialising with other young wolves from his pack. He had already gone for a few years, and was now busy managing his father’s company – whilst running a werewolf pack.

Clara sipped quietly from her coffee cup as she eyed the website of the college he had attended, glancing at the pictures of daunting ivy-covered, red brick buildings. She flinched when she heard a hard knock on the door, frowning slightly. Nobody ever knocked – the door wasn’t even locked. She doubted the werewolves had any difficulties with security, though.

Placing her mug down carefully on the kitchen counter, she closed the laptop and hopped off of her stool, landing on the cold marble floor and padding over into the hallway, where she approached the door with a small frown.

She opened it swiftly, staring out at their visitor. She froze, her grip tightening against the door as she spotted her mother. The woman certainly wasn’t the prim and groomed lady she’d seen a few weeks ago – her blonde hair was in disarray around her gaunt and sunken face, home to piercing green eyes that seemingly held the only energy of her whole body.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Clara hissed.

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Okay look: there are two ways the rest of this can go. I can either write about one more chapter, the last, and finish this, or I can continue on a new plot thread that extends the story by quite a few more chapters (okay like 6 maximum). It all depends on why Sandra's there... >:)

It's up to the readers though, of course. If you think I should continue or end it with the next chapter, let me know. 

Well, thanks for reading, (sorry for the long AN) hope you liked it. Vote and comment and I'll send you imaginary rainbows?