A Friend To The Elements

Chapter 9

Within a few minutes of walking, a black Jetta busted a U-turn right in the middle of the street. He veered off the road and jumped out of his car. Josh’s long arms wrapped me in a hug and held me tight. I could feel the wind picking my hair up and blowing in a tangled mess. I was not sure if it was just a windy day or if it was creating a circle of relative protection around us.

I took a few deep breaths and slowed my heart rate down letting the wind subside around us. He pulled back just enough to look into my eyes. “You okay?”

I shook my head and pressed the heel of my palms into my eye sockets making the world go black for a second before taking another deep breath. “Can we go somewhere? Anywhere besides here?”

He did not ask questions and just pulled me towards the car door helping me in. The car was warm with the heat steadily humming on low. The radio was tuned into an old country classics station that only played the “golden oldies” on Saturday mornings. Josh climbed into the driver’s seat and put the car in drive. The door locks automatically clicked shut as he made one last U-turn to head out of the compound. I could not help but stare out the window and wonder if this would be the last time, I was home.

Our pack bought the twenty acers of livable land and five acers of surrounding woods when the town was first starting. It was surrounded with a low wooden fence that would not do much to keep anyone out, but it let running wolves know when the property ended, and they were no longer under full protection from the pack. Outside of the gate shifting was frowned upon. Each founding family received an acer of land that they built on and added houses to for their descendants. When some families died out others took over their plots of land to make room for new members or families that had expanded past their one acer. We had been looking to purchase a few more acers since we had seen such large growth during our time of peace, but that was still all in talks.

Every family built their houses to their styles, so some were bright blue like ours while others were plain white. We even had a few log cabin style homes scattered about. The home itself would be essentially rented to the family but the land it sat on belonged to the Alpha. Each family paid for their own water and mortgage if they had to take one out to build, but we footed the costs for property taxes. Running a pack was expensive so we had small businesses scattered across the land ranging from a large garden that we all took turns tending and then selling at the local farmers markets to bee hives that we would all come together and harvest the honey from during the proper seasons. Some members of the pack held high paying jobs within the local community and would help contribute to living costs, but it was never required, and nobody received special treatment for it.

We were a family and I was being forced to leave it. As we drove little kids waved at us recognizing the car while other kids were in their yards wrestling in their wolf form gave us a short bark and then a howl. I had not noticed that tears were slipping down my cheeks until one dropped onto my hand making me jump.

“Are you ready to talk about what’s going on?”

“Because my mate is an upper rank of another pack, we have to sign a treaty. In that treaty it states I will essentially be isolated from the pack until my eighteenth birthday when I will be forced out. I have the option to leave before then but not after. They cannot risk me sharing information with a potential enemy. My future children will be allowed on the property to visit but will hold no status for being part of their family.”

He sucked in a sharp breath and his shoulders dropped. “So now you’re wondering if staying the year is worth it or if you should just stop delaying the inevitable?”