Cora, A Sidelines Story from Clayton

Big Sky

The Characters of Clayton, Rya, Kennedy, Dallas, and the Valentines belong to Rachelle. The character of Cora is expanded on with Permission from Rachelle, and is written for the pleasure of the International Wildflower Pack, the WhiskeyQueenn fandom. #WildflowersUnited #iwp 

:: Thank you Rachelle Whiskeyqueenn  for letting us wander around in your world 

of CLAYTON with over 2M reads (2016)::

Just for petrap73 who is working so late tonight. <3

Big Sky

Mark's POV (two months after leaving Cora)

I am sitting on Shotgun waiting my turn to practice, my routine has been way off lately. I was barely holding my second place ranking in the ACHA. All I seem to think about is a pair of azure eyes and long dark hair. The last time I saw her, she was kneeling on the floor, bleeding and sobbing, just like mama. She wouldn't let me protect her, and she had given me one of the worst beatings of my life to prove why she didn't need me to protect her, claiming she had to go back to her pack for some friend of hers. I didn't really listening to why, I was remembering mama in the moments before she died, before she pulled Blessing from her body and handed her to me, then mama had told me to run. So I had, and I did it again that day.

Dad said I had to give her three moons, our pack called it the 'calming moons' so I was. I was still mad about him taking her part, I was his son. She called every night but I didn't call back. I didn't know what to say, and I guess my pride was a little wounded. Shotgun's cookie lady was one of the strongest wolves I had ever met and I had run away from her like a coward.

"Mark... MARK!" Blessing is yelling across the ring at me. I look over and she waves my phone.

"Hey Markie-pooh some floozy on your phone again. I told you, I don't share with floozies." Blessing laughs. Her laughter is contagious. Floozies? Where does she get these words?

"I'm yours alone, darlin'," I promise laughing, before I hold the phone up to my ear. "Hello? Hello?"

I hear nothing except the livestock around me then the call drops. Caller ID says it was Cora, but she never calls me during the day. Every night 10:10 pm that's her time. I know because I have saved every message. I sigh, maybe she pocket dialed me, it's happened before. Once I listened to her give an entire lesson on the proper way to boil and poach eggs. I never knew it was so complicated. She loves teaching cooking. I hand the phone back to my baby sister, her thick glasses slide down her nose and she saves them instead of my phone. Shotgun puts his giant hoof right in the middle of it. Blessing just looks at me wide-eyed, hand over her mouth before she burst out laughing.

Great... now I need a new phone.

Stepping down from the lead-footed beast, I pick up the shattered plastic from the dirt. It can't be salvaged, it's done, so I pry the SIM card out of the back and tuck it in my shirt pocket, I don't want to lose the only picture I have of my mate. I haven't seen her for almost two months and it hurts. My wolf lifts his head and growls at me. We are not on good terms, he wants her back, but I want an apology more. She humiliated me in front of my family and another pack. She owes me.

~

~Ten days later

Miles, Blessing, and I are standing there as I am awarded my championship buckle. Blessing keeps hugging me and giggling. A photographer is trying to take pictures of us, but she won't be still, I seriously doubt he'll get a good one. I smile my best, this is what I have worked for since I was 15. Only one thing could make this moment better, if Cora was here to see it, if she was beside me, but she wasn't. She chose her life over us. In the last two weeks, my wolf and I had gotten even more angry, resentful. If Dad had taken my side, he could have made her come. Cora had stopped calling, her phone always went to voice mail. Miles said he just got an auto response from her text messages. I tried to call Flatirons, but nobody would tell me anything. I would stop in the Rockies on my way home, it was time for Cora and I to settle things. She was coming home with me back to Big Sky, rejection was not an option. If I had to throw her over my shoulder and ride toward the northern star, then that is what I'd do.