Written In The Stars

Chapter Seven

"So tired trying to see from behind the red in my eyes"
-Hozier

Penn

I glanced around my office once before turning to the boy in front of me.
"What exactly is she to you?" I questioned.

The boy looked at the floor, the bookshelves, the wall, anything but me. He looked scared for his life.
"W-we're just fr-friends. Nothing more. I s-swear Alpha," Elijah stammered out. I almost felt bad for scaring the poor kid. But this interrogation was a necessary evil.

"Good. I have a task for you." His eyes lit up at being asked by his Alpha to do something.
"Of course Alpha, anything you ask."
"You're her friend. She trusts you. I need you to protect her. Watch over her. Ensure that she is safe. Even if it's from me. And most importantly, keep her away from here," Elijah stared at me with his jaw dropping from shock.

"O-okay. Of course. May I ask why though?"

I hesitated a beat before answering in a near whisper, "She's my mate."

~~~

Alice

"Hey Ali," Eli greets me with a smile as I walk up to the passenger side of his car.

He's been very insistent on driving me to and from school everyday. I wasn't complaining though, it was better than having to walk two miles to and from town.

"Friday is finally over. How was your first week?" He asked as I got into his car and he pulled out of the parking lot.

'Exhausting. Dreadful. Mind-numbing. Full of monotonous lectures from teachers who couldn't give a flying fuck about actually teaching.'

"Boring," he laughed at my answer.
"Well how about this; you come to my house and we can hang out. Then there's this big dinner that the neighborhood has every week. You can come with. Maybe it'll make up for your crappy week?"

I thought about it for a moment.
"Well, on the one hand I could go and spend time with my friend. And on the other I could spend time alone in my empty house, whilst sitting in silence." It was a no-brainer. I had no desire to spend yet another night alone, desperately trying to get just a wink of sleep. I haven't been sleeping too well since we arrived in this town. The lack of sleep left my eyes red and sore and I just wanted to nap.

He kept his eyes on the road, his eyebrows furrowed. "It sucks that you have to be alone in that house, where's your mom anyway?"
"She came back on Tuesday afternoon, stayed until Thursday morning. Then she left on another business trip. I honestly don't mind. My mom and I don't exactly get along," I told him the truth. I was beginning to be more open with Eli. He was my friend after all. I trusted him. To an extent.

"I'm sorry Ali, that really sucks. But on the bright side, at least you're free to come to my house tonight!" He laughed like a child and the sound of it brought a smile to my face.

~~~

"Elijah, I need to talk to you for a minute." Eli's dad poked his head into the living room, where Eli and I were sprawled across the couch watching TV.

"Sure," he went out the door while I remained on the couch. There was some incoherent mumbling before I picked up a snippet of their conversation.

"You know that the Alpha said to keep her away from here, at least for now."
"I know, but she was going to be all alone. Again. And besides, the Alpha is out of town until tomorrow, he won't even know she was here."

There was a faint grumble and some more muffled conversation before Eli came back into the room, smiling nervously. I decided not to mention what I had heard.
"Hey, everything alright?"
"Yeah. It was nothing," he didn't say anything about it either.

I wasn't an idiot, I knew what an Alpha was; the leader of a wolf pack. But that didn't explain why they were referring to a person by that title.

I still didn't say anything. He had avoided uncomfortable topics for me, I could do the same for him.

"He just told me that the pa-neighborhood dinner is staring soon, so we should head over now," I caught his slip-up, again. I didn't mention it.
"Okay, let's go," we headed out the front door.

I wasn't sure where we were going until he headed for the castle-like building beside his house.
"We're eating there?" I asked in awe.
"Yeah, we do it every week. It's kinda hard to explain all the reasons behind it but, the dinners are a way for the neighborhood people to stay close to each other," he pulls open one of the massive double doors, not even bothering to ring the bell.

The inside was even grander than I thought it would be. Two curved staircases faced the entrance, leading up to a railed hallway that led off in either direction and overlooked the foyer. The space was large and open, allowing me to see the large dining room and kitchen off to the left. Multiple couches and armchairs sat pointed at a huge television on the right.

What really shocked me however, was the amount of people that were inside this home. Dozens of people of all ages walked freely about the house, talking, laughing, watching TV. This place was warm and happy.

I smiled; this felt like home.
"All right everyone, the food is ready," a woman announced as she stepped out of the kitchen.

In the blink of an eye people were on their feet and running for the kitchen. Pretty soon they all had plates piled high with food.

Eli dragged me to the kitchen, we loaded up our plates, and went to look for a place to sit. People were everywhere. All the spots at the dining table were filled, people sat on the couches, on the floor, even on the staircases. It was a relaxed environment and I really liked that.

Eli led me over to the TV where some of his friends that I had met in school sat and we plopped down on the floor, our plates in our laps.
Some people were giving me glances but I ignored it and dug into the mouthwatering food.

A few hours later all the people had cleared out. With the exception of myself, Eli, and his parents.

For the first time in a long time I had fun. I ate a load of amazing food. And I talked to many people from Eli's neighborhood. I couldn't believe how nice they all were.

The men all gave firm handshakes while the women pulled me into a series of warm hugs followed by a few minutes of pleasant conversation.

Several of the neighborhood children would run up and cling to my leg or tug on my shirt. Then when I looked down they would giggle and run back to their friends. I even heard some daring their friends to go talk to 'the pretty lady', and hearing that made me blush. I don't normally receive compliments.

We were cleaning things up when I heard the front door slam. Someone must have forgotten something.

Just as I bent over to pick up an abandoned plate from the kitchen floor I heard an almost animalistic growl behind me.