Forsaken

Chapter 5: Family Meeting

A/N ~ This is a short chapter, but I hope y'all still enjoy.

           

Eli:

            We followed Rylan down a long hallway. He opened a door at the very end and led us inside. "Caleb, this will be your room while you're here. The bathroom is through that door." He pointed to the door on his right. "Make yourselves at home. Caleb, go ahead and stay here for the night. Are you hungry?"

            Caleb started to shake his head, but Ace spoke up for him, "Cay, dude. You need to eat something so that your body has the strength to heal."

            Rylan nodded, "I figured as much. These two will come up for a snack. I'll send them back down with a tray for you."

            Caleb sat down gingerly and winced. "Thank you, Sir. My friends and I appreciate your kindness."

            Rylan nodded and turned to Ace and me. "Let's head upstairs, now."

            I was surprised at how roomy the house was. I couldn't fit through the halls in my house as a wolf. Here, I had plenty of room. I trotted upstairs after the others.

            Once upstairs, Rylan ordered us to stay in the living room. A bunch of men were sitting around the room, and the guy who had come downstairs with Kynzie was sitting next to her. I yawned, trying to ease my nervousness around so many adult males. Kynzie smiled in my general direction as she took a sip from her mug. I glanced at Ace and realized he stood right behind me. It was probably him that she was smiling at.

            I moved further into the room but didn't like that I was practically surrounded. "You can come sit over here." Kynzie pointed at the spot next to her chair. I hesitated for a second, but when Ace didn't move towards the spot, I moved closer and dropped to the floor, laying my head on my paws. I tried acting like being here was the most natural thing in the world, but I felt panicked.

            I felt a pair of eyes on me and glanced around the room until I saw the source of my discomfort. The guy was huge. His chest and arms had various tattoos on them and he wore a pair of gray sweatpants. His dark eyes watched me from across the room until I finally scooted back about a foot so that he could no longer see me.

            Ace folded his large frame onto the floor next to me, making sure he didn't sit close enough for us to accidentally touch.

            The woman that we'd seen in the kitchen a few days ago came out of the kitchen just now, carrying a large tray. The pale, muscular guy sitting right next to the door reached for a small taco off the tray. The woman shot him a glare, "Do not touch. You know the rules. Your sister gets first dibs since the rest of you are pigs." Her voice was playful as a smile teased her lips, but I still expected someone to smack her for her insolence. I quickly shut my eyes, waiting for the violence to come. When it didn't, I cracked my eyes open only to find that Kynzie's attention was on me.

            She studied me curiously. My attention jumped back to her mom as she spoke again, "Liam, I swear I'm going to lock you in your room until you can learn manners." I glanced back at the pale man who was now holding a taco. She finished carrying the tray across the room, glaring at the guy who looked about the same age as Kynzie. "Here you go my darling daughter. You may have the second taco."

            I was disappointed when Kynzie tried to hide a smile by biting her lip. I wanted to see her smile. She daintily took a taco from the tray. "Thanks, Mom." I looked at the food, and hung my head in embarrassment as my stomach growled loudly. Kynzie giggled and held a taco out to me. Her hand moved so fast that it startled me into jumping to my feet. Ace quickly drew in a breath, but I wasn't inclined to hurt my mate. I glanced at her and then the taco, uncertain about what to do with it. "Eat it, Eli. There's plenty of food and you're hungry."

            Her pale blue eyes were huge as she waited for me to take the food from her hand. I took it as gently as I could and barely tasted it as I swallowed. It had been a while since I'd last eaten. She smiled in my direction, but this time, I was sure she was smiling at me. I lay down again, only I moved closer to her chair this time. Kynzie took another taco and bit into it. I panted slightly before dropping to my side to lie down.

            Paris stepped into the room, "Alex, Sweetie?"

            "Yes, Honey?" She replied. I scooted backward, away from her, as she offered the tray to Ace. He thanked her softly and took two.

            "I smell something amazing," Paris stated.

            Alex attempted to hand a taco to me, but I pushed myself backward even further. She frowned and turned back to Paris, "Help yourself. I had some free time today and decided to do some baking. Your favorite is in there."

            He perked up, "Butterscotch cookies?"

            She nodded and Kynzie touched her mom's arm to get her attention, "I'll take a couple more, please?" Alex turned in her direction and Kynzie plucked a couple of tacos off the tray. "Thank you."

            Alex smiled sweetly, "Of course, Baby." She looked over her shoulder at Liam, "At least one of my children has manners."

            "Landon isn't bad, Mom." Kynzie piped up as she offered me another taco.

            "Gee, thanks, Z." The guy on the other side of Kynzie replied.

            Alex rolled her eyes and sighed, "Two out of eleven children." She passed food out to everyone else, making sure there was enough to go around.

            I crunched on a taco and swallowed it. I wasn't sure why I didn't mind Kynzie being close, but I didn't. Everyone else in the room made me nervous.

            I narrowed my eyes at Kynzie as she slowly lowered a taco in my direction. Her hand was steady, but she wasn't paying attention to me at all. I gently took the food from her and set it on the ground so that I could munch on it while watching everyone else in the room.

            As soon as everyone was there, Rylan introduced us to all of Kynzie's brothers, and there were a shit ton of them. From the way all of them watched Kynzie, I was guessing that they all adored her. I wasn't sure if that should relieve me or scare me. I was relieved that she must be fairly nice if so many people liked her, especially her siblings. I was scared because that meant we'd have to convince so many other people that we were good for their sister... and I wasn't even sure if that was true.

            Once the meeting was over, Alex handed a tray of food to Ace and we headed downstairs. We got to Caleb's room and I felt exhausted. I wasn't used to being around so many people for so long and I just wanted to hide under the bed and never come out.

            Caleb was sitting on his bed. Just in the short amount of time we'd been upstairs, he looked better. Ace set the tray down on the bed. There were various baked goods along with soup and some crackers on a plate. There was a huge glass of water off to the side.

            "Thank God. I thought you guys had forgotten about me and left me to starve." Caleb shifted around so that he could set the tray in front of himself as he started to eat.

            "How are you feeling?" Ace asked as he sat down in a chair nearby. I lay down against the wall by the door as I watched them.

            Caleb shrugged with one shoulder. "I guess as well as one could be, given the circumstances." He looked at both of us, a serious look on his face, "I'm sorry I dragged you guys into this as well."

            Ace snorted, "You didn't drag us into anything. Even if we had to do it all over again, we'd have made the same decisions that led us here in the first place."

            I agreed with that. I wasn't sure about being here, but I could already tell that this place was better than our alpha's house.