Things that Go Bump in the Night

Chapter 41 Part 1: Unbreakable?

A/N: I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update! I know this update is probably the shortest one that I have posted but I just wanted to post something (even if it wasn't completely done) tonight because I will be gone for the next two weeks and will not have access to a computer. I was hoping to get more written this week but with all the family holiday stuff going on my writing time has been slim. I hope that you all enjoy!

Chapter 41:

 Part 1:

“Umm…Juniper could you by any chance direct me to the restroom. Somebody has shoved their head onto my bladder.” Norma frowned a littler bitterly at her stomach while the two male werewolves were talking about something or another that made absolutely no sense to me.

They were talking about pack politics which was about like speaking in tongues to any human. It was all jibberish jargon that no werewolf seemed to feel the need to explain to a normal human. We were not told about the judgments and opinions of their world.

We were just given an order and forced to obey.

Or die.

Those were out options as humans.

I nodded and led her toward the back bedroom bathroom, knowing from the look in her eyes that her request might have been brought on by more than a compressed bladder. She had news to tell me. When we got to the bathroom I walked to the sink and turned the water on the tap on hoping to down out our voices if just a little more. It had only been a few minutes since I had agreed to let Norma use my name when naming her monster spawn and my sister had decided to sulk in the guest bedroom after being verbally bitch slapped by the her former nemesis of a neighbor.

I then turned to look at her expectantly, regarding her slightly troubled expression with slight confusion and worry.

“I’m sorry about how I snapped at your sister.” Norma whispered with her eyes a little downcast. “It’s just the last time I said that I hated werewolves this happened.” She explained as she pulled up the side of her sweater to reveal gruesome looking bite marks over her abdomen that were even more distorted with the stretching of her skin.

I was barely able to keep the hiss of anger in my mouth.

“I just didn’t want…and I haven’t….I don’t know how to…”

“I understand. It’s fine.” I mumbled instead, clenching my fists and looking away from her stomach. I didn't feel sorry for Cheyenne for being yelled at by Norma and I sure as hell wasn't mad at Norma for attempting to shut her up in the only way she seemed to know how.

“Your sister still seems to bring out a side of me I’m not very proud of.” She sighed, lowering her shirt back down and taking a deep breath.I could see the memory of that bite still swirling in her eyes and it made me want to voimit or hit someone.

I knew that feeling all too well.

“Don’t worry about Chey. I’ll explain it to her later.” I told her with a shake of my head. Chey was not the big issue here and quite frankly I didn't want to think about what could of happened if Norma had not intrupted Chey when she did. Sure the Monster was acting in a way that made her feel like he wouldn't give a rat's ass whay Chey said but Norma's moster was a whole different animal.

One I didn't want to have to figure out.

I was sure Norma had something other to tell me anyways. 

“Kyrie told me to tell you that he and the gang will be coming over to eat lunch with you and Chey the  morning after the werewolves leave for the tribunal.” Norma told me before glancing around the room as if looking for the ears that could probably still hear our conversation over the running tap. “He just wanted to let you know to tell Chey the situation that night so she’ll be prepared.”

I looked into Norma’s eyes in that moment and saw the slight confusion in them. She was transmitting the code that Kyrie told her to tell me but she had no idea what it meant.

She didn’t know that my sister was the Alpha’s mate.

She didn’t understand that Kyrie was confirming that he and Carlos thought it best for me to tell Chey what was going on.

And they obviously agreed to keep the rest of the group in the dark for security purposes.

They didn’t need to go down in the cross fire of the retribution for my lies. We were all risking our freedom…but we all didn’t need to risk our lives.

I looked away from her.

“Thank you. I’ll make sure I do.” I replied softly. Norma nodded quietly and then gently took my hand, forcing me to look into her eyes once again. Her eyes had given up on the confusion and now held a look of resigned gratitude that almost made me want to burst into tears.

Because in my new world of unspoken truths, I knew what those eyes were going to say before the mouth could form words.

“Don’t worry about me.” She whispered. “You said the words I didn’t have the strength to say…you don’t know j-just how m-much….” she tried to tell me, tears brimming in her eyes. I wrapped my other hand around the one she had already taken hold of.

“Don’t thank me Norma.” I pleaded with her, feeling the pain that those tears involved right in my gut. The pain of being helpless.

The pain of thinking your parent, your family was dead.

The uncertainty…the constant worry.

The creeping dread that chilled you right to the bone and robbed the breath from your lungs.

I knew all of that too well.

“Just…just never let them break you. Never let them win.” I asked, hating seeing the tears staining the face of my long lost neighbor and new found friend. “Promise me…and I’ll do the same.”

Norma’s lips twitched up into the glimmer of a slight smile through her tears.

“I promise I will not break. I’ll be unbreakable. I’ll be you.”

I stared at her in stunned shock.

Unbreakable?

With how much of my life lay in shatters I couldn’t even fathom how she had come to that conclusion. I looked over her honest eyes and mousy brown hair. I memorized her determined stance and her quiet brow. I saw how much she believed what she had said. Believed that somehow I was an unbreakable force, an unbroken spirit. She didn’t look at me like the person I was. The person that was scared every minute of every day and that felt so helpless that all she wanted to do was burst into tears. She was looking at me as if I were some pillar of strength in which all should aspire to… she had painted a grandiose picture of my character in her head that was not at all true.

But I did not argue with her.

 Instead I gave her hands one last squeeze and then let go.

“I’ll leave you to attend to your bladder.” I joked with a grim smile before backing out of the room. She had delivered the message. She had given me her word and I knew deep in my gut as I walked out the bathroom door that the conversation I had just had would be the last open one I would ever have with the pregnant teenage girl that I barely knew but felt so kin to. Either way the escape attempt went…I would never see her again.

This was the last time I would see Norma Rodgers.