Side-Story: 2 - Alternative ending to be continued... - Part 2
»Do I look good?«
Insecurely, I looked over my shoulder and saw my siblings standing in my room right behind me.
Carlyle nodded, excited that I would go out with my mate. However, Emma looked critical. I still couldn't tell if it was because I went out tonight while she was here or because my outfit wasn't to her liking.
Casimir said, I didn't have to overdress because we would eat at his home. But I would still meet his parents, so I didn't want to dress too casually.
A beige coloured polo shirt and crocodile green pants. Added to that, my white sneakers and well, that was all. My light coloured hair was obviously a bit styled, but nothing more.
»Of course, you look good with those genes«, Emma nagged and crossed her arms,
before she twisted her eyebrows. »Put a white dress-shirt underneath the polo shirt. It will look a bit better and not like you are coming home from I don't know what. If you are meeting his parents, do it right.«
I hadn't told them that he was adopted, but he considered them his parents, so I didn't correct my siblings. And there wasn't even anything to correct.
»I think it already looks good«, Carlyle argued.
»You only think about passing your exam, Carl«, Emma hissed back and Carlyle obviously got offended and opened his mouth wide.
»Don't you dare look at me like that!«, Emma snarled and then they both escalated.
Carlyle transformed first and crashed into our sister who shifted shapes at the last second. Both rolled out of my room while biting each other. Not so hard one would bleed, but still a fight.
»Can you two stop?!«, I yelled after them, annoyed by their manners.
How could I ever bring Casimir over without him getting a heart attack? Impossible. Just impossible.
However, I still took Emma's argument seriously and put on a white dress-shirt. Fixing the collar in front of the mirror, I took a last look at my outfit, before I left my room.
»When are you back?«, my father asked from the kitchen. He was cooking together with my mother. The fighting siblings were still going on with their quarrel.
»I don't know. Maybe I can even stay over at his place.« I didn't put my hopes up, still, hope was there. His family, including his parents and his brother, wouldn't stay over at his place as far as I was informed. His apartment was too small for that.
My father hummed something in understanding and concentrated back on cooking.
Before I left the apartment, I grabbed my phone and headphones.
The subway was quite full but manageable, though I needed to stand. With music blasting my ears, I endured the drive and went out at the station that was a few minutes walk to Casimir's place away.
I rang the bell outside the building and waited for him to open the door for me. It only took seconds, before the buzzing sound came and I could push open the door.
He lived in a house for more than one person, sometimes families. We did too, but our apartment was much bigger than all of those inside this building. The apartments in this building were just right from the largeness for one person.
I mounted the stairs and went up five floors, before I was greeted with an open door and a nervous but brightly smiling Casimir.
»Hey.«
»Hey.«
We hugged awkwardly. Normally we would kiss, but he seemed so nervous that I didn't want to dare kiss him.
From inside, I could already hear voices. Three of them.
But what puzzled me was a familiar but at the same time unfamiliar scent.
»Come in.« He led me inside, absentmindedly I put my phone and headphones on the cabinet next to the door, and followed him without complaint. A bit in a daze because I tried to figure out the reason I thought that scent was familiar.
Where...?
Six eyes met mine and I froze in horror.
I knew why I was so familiar with this kind of scent.
»This is Keith, my boyfriend. Keith, these are my parents Keila and Kenny. And this is my brother Eden.«
The man, he said was called Kenny, stood up. Slowly and terrifying in my eyes. I could feel how my body started to tremble and that Cas noticed. »Keith?«
»So this is the reason why your scent is so different and strange«, his father said.
I was holding my breath, almost choking because of it. The tension was too great. The pressure that man gave off was like a mountain burying me beneath it.
»Father? What's wrong?«
I took a step backwards but it was already too late. The guy next to Kenny shot up, transformed into a giant wolf with a brown-grayish coloring and crashed into me with full force.
»Eden!«,Cas screamed high-pitched. Shocked and horrified.
But I added to the horror when I transformed in response to the attack. My light colored fur quickly got covered in blood by his teeth crashing down on me.
I tried fighting back and I was sure I landed some hits because when we separated for a second I saw him limping, but he injured me much more.
Eden had Alpha blood inside of him. My instincts told me, screamed at me to get away or bend my knee. And the man behind him, his father, was the current Alpha ruling over their pack.
»Stop it!« The terror in Casimir's voice was loud and clear but the woman pushed him behind her, snarling warningly at me and his father stood in between them and the fight.
»He is hurt! Stop it, Eden! Stop it!« His yelling got much more desperate and for a moment I really thought he would accept me as I was. If only-
»He is a rogue! Casimir, listen! He isn't connected to a pack! He is going to lose his mind someday if he continues to stay alone like that!«, Kenny bellowed.
I flinched under the fangs of Eden who just bit himself into my side and didn't let go. Burying his fangs deeper and deeper into my flesh. Whimpering and howling, I tried to crawl away, but couldn't.
»But he hasn't! He can still be part of a pack! He can join someone! Or maybe he has a reason why he is alone! Don't just attack him! He would never hurt someone!«
My heart warmed when he tried to protect me but the razor sharp fangs and the next words killed that bit of warmth.
»He marked you! He already hurt someone!«
I could hear him stop breathing, then take a trembling gasp.
It was over. It was over. It was over.
With my last resort of options, I swung around, bit into the already limp leg of Eden which made him drop to the ground for a second. And I took that second, spun around and sprinted out of the apartment.
»Keith!«
I heard his scream after me but I couldn't care. I was terrified of what just happened.
Before I ran out of the building, I changed shapes and carried my heavy, now human, body away from that place.
Blood was spilling out from my body and only because of the adrenaline I was able to walk.
I didn't care about the looks of horror and shock in the subway. I must be looking horrible and I felt like that too.
How I made it back home, I couldn't tell. Only until I got into the subway was a blurry memory but after that everything was black.
At home I collapsed in the arms of my brother who opened the door for me. After that I could only remember screams and yells. Mostly from my father who was treating my injuries.
The next time I woke up, my body was terribly tense and every movement hurt like hell.
And not just my body, but my soul too. My heart. It could feel the separation from his mate. The emotional distance. The fear, the horror and the betrayal.
Groaning, I turned my head around and found my brother sleeping on the couch in my room. It took me some time before I found my voice. »Carl.« He reacted instantly and flashed his eyes open.
»Keith!«
He jumped up and came over to my bed. »What happened to you?«, he asked, scared. I wanted to touch his head to calm him down, but even that was hard.
»Wait, I will go get the others.«
I waited until he returned with the others before I started talking. My voice raspy and the bandage around my neck told me that I was injured there.
»They are wolves. His parents and brother. They attacked me because I'm not a part of a pack...«
Shocked, my mother grabbed my hand. »I'm so sorry, dear.« I couldn't tell if she said that because of the situation with Casimir and his family or because she brought me into this world without the care of a pack.
She always was the one who felt the most guilty about it.
»But why isn't he...?«, Emma asked. »He is adopted. His real parents were friends with his adopted parents.«
She closed her eyes from the shock and out of pity.
»And he let them do that to you?«, Carlyle asked, shaking in frustration and anger.
»At first not... He wanted to stop them. Begged them. Even argued back. But they told him that I had marked him... And then he stopped...«
My father huffed loudly. »As if they don't know what would have happen to you if you hadn't marked him!«
»They just don't value the ones that choose to not join a pack. Thinking every wolf goes crazy without a giant pack with hundreds of wolves«, my sister hissed angrily.
»And now, dear?« My mother was the most soft and gentle of them and didn't rage like the others.
»I don't know...«
Did I need to stay away from Casimir from now on? I would have accepted it if we could have talked it out. Maybe not accepted, but I would have been able to manage it better. However, now?
Looking for a conversation wasn't an option. Not for me and obviously not for him.
His family would stop him, even if he would have wanted to meet me to talk it out.
Would I want to meet up with the one who used me when I was drunk to mark me? No. Definitely a big fat no.
Stupid marking rule. Stupid fate. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
»Shit«, I cursed under my breath and covered my eyes with my bandaged arm.
»Stay at home for now«, father said. »It may be possible that we need to move sooner than we thought.«
Move?
»No«, I breathed. We couldn't just move away! »What about Carl's college and about my university? We can't just move somewhere else. We have life here!«
The despair inside my voice was obvious and I knew my family heard it too.
»College is one thing. I can go to a college somewhere else too. But Keith is right. He studied hard to get into Harvard. We can't just let his dream pop like a balloon«, Carlyle agreed.
I was thankful that he was on my side and I showed him that through the streams of tears that were already rolling down my cheeks.
»He doesn't know where we live, right?«, Emma asked and I nodded. I had never told him my address and had never taken him here. Nor had I shown him pictures of my family.
»Then you need to stop working at that café of yours and maybe stop going to your readings for the time being. Your injuries need to heal too. Wait for now and only if you get signs of hunters that got alerted by them, you will move away.«
Emma's idea sounded good and from the looks of our parents' faces they agreed too.
»Fine, we will do it like that. Hopefully, they will do nothing and just let us live in peace«, father said, sighing heavily.
I couldn't believe it. We were somehow on the run. Only because I wanted to meet the parents of my mate. Parents that now despised me and my mate despised me too.
Hunters? Could it be possible that they would send them after us? We had never hurt or killed anyone like real rogues did. We tried to not intrude in claimed territories.
I had only marked the one that was my mate. The one that was destined for me.
Destiny seriously wasn't fair.
Dear goddess, just why...?