Cold Water | Jacob Black

twenty-four | Riley Biers

At some point, early in the morning of May, Jacob had snuck out as Freya woke up alone with just his familiar scent lingering behind. She frowned, knowing it was because he had patrol so now she wondered who was currently in the woods watching her house. Trying to ignore that aspect, Freya went about her morning like usual as she got ready for school.

"Morning, Freya," her mom smiled warmly before disappearing upstairs to get Nancy ready for the day ahead. The girl trekked into the kitchen, opening the fridge as she reached for a yoghurt, as well as her lunch for the day.

"Hey, Freya," her father greeted her from the dining room table. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah," she spoke truly, relieved to know that because of Jacob, things had become a lot easier lately. Freya went to join him at the table, noticing the posters sprawled out on the table and the saddened expression on her father's face. "What's all this?"

"You remember Riley Biers?" He questioned with the first name startling Freya, which luckily only had her father reacting with a small pat on her hand that grasped onto her yogurt. "Yeah, him," he pushed the flyer forward to reveal a mousy-brown-haired boy with a sweet smile and bright eyes. To her horror, it was the Riley from the moons warning, but this Riley was still human — still innocent. "He went missing around a year ago during his first year at Oregon University."

"That's where Noah was going to go," she realised.

Derek nodded, mustache twitching at the mention of Noah. "They were going to go together and it took a great deal for Riley's parents to persuade him to after..." he cleared his throat as Freya leaned anxiously forward, having never heard of this before. "Well, your mother and I realised after the funeral that Riley wasn't just friends with Noah. The two were going to college together," he smiled sadly, "Riley went missing, though, and hasn't been seen since. It's such a shame."

"Wait, Riley and Noah were together?" Freya's eyebrows knitted together as she absorbed the information, wondering if it was a coincidence or not for Riley to have a connection to Freya. "Why didn't he say anything?"

"Maybe they were going to," Derek sighed. "It's something we'll never know, but I would like to hope that Noah knew we didn't care about who he likes, as long as that person made him happy."

"And now Riley's missing," and likely already a vampire so she couldn't save him. "Is Charlie on the case?"

"He's taken over from Seattle — that's where Riley went missing — but there are no leads," Derek rubbed a hand along his face. "His poor parents. If it was you... I don't know what I would do, I'd go insane searching for you," Freya reached for his hand, squeezing it in the reassurance that that would never happen. "I promised Charlie, though, that I'll put these up around the hospital and I want to help in any way that I can."

"Can I take some?" Freya asked, knowing her help would be a dead end, but she still wanted to help and her help could be through the pack. If they found him, then maybe Freya could help Riley, even if he was a vampire. "I can put them up around the school, at work and at the Reservation."