Annie:
We all sat in silence after Rollo left, none of us knowing what to say to the other. Cal looked like he wanted to go after him, which was a big no; I really didn’t need him getting into another fight.
Jase was sitting on the sofa, cracking his knuckles threateningly. I rolled my eyes; this was it then. All he would do for the rest of the night is think of ways to seem like he had the situation under control.
Which he didn’t.
I stifled a yawn, blinking sleepily as I looked around at everyone. They were all wearing the same basic expression.
Fear.
“I’m going to bed,” I muttered, getting to my feet.
“No you’re not!” Jase snapped, leaping up. “We’re in this mess because of you; you’re staying to help us get out of it.” A laugh caught in my throat as I tried to think through his logic. He wanted me, a pregnant teenager with a slightly less than charming temper, to think of a solution to the problem of murderous werewolves.
I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere…
Cal stood up as well, growling under his breath. Jeez, this thing was becoming like a Mexican Wave.
“She’s going to bed, Jase,” he said sternly. I touched his hand, trying to calm him down. He looked down at me, his face softening somewhat.
Don’t start anything, I breathed, giving his palm a squeeze. Then, I turned and walked out of the living room, running a hand through my hair. What a mess this was turning out to be. All I was doing was trying to keep my family safe; where was the harm in that!
Sighing, I made my way up the stairs, feeling like the weight of the whole pack was on my shoulders. This shouldn’t be so hard; wasn’t pregnancy meant to be a calming experience? I was even more stressed out than before I had the wee bugger in me!
This was why women never had children, I was sure of it. I mean, I was guessing not every woman had a pack of vicious werewolves after their baby, but the common theme of “unnecessary stress” came to mind.
It took me a moment to realise why I wasn’t getting anywhere, and to remember that I had been having a mental war about the miracles of pregnancy.
Idiot.
I managed to make it into the bedroom without stopping for any other arguments, flopping down on the bed tiredly. I rubbed my stomach affectionately, blinking sleepily. It was ridiculous how much this thing could make me sleep. All I seemed to do was kip. It would be funny if it didn’t mean I missed so much.
But soon, I found myself drifting away, the warmth of the bed combined with the breeze coming from the open window too blissful. I curled up on my side, vaguely aware of the noise coming from downstairs.
***
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later, that we realised that the threats that were coming our way, really were quite serious. Well, Ade was making them out to be…
“That’s the second rabbit they’ve left on the doorstep,” he ranted, coming into the kitchen.
“Don’t bring it in here!” Sierra shrieked, as Ade dangled the dead bunny by its ears. I wrinkled my nose in disgust; it was one thing waking up with it on the porch, but it was another when it managed to make its way into the communal eating place.
Max giggled in his highchair, clapping his hands together. Radleigh rolled his eyes at him. I didn’t know what it was; he just seemed to hate the kid. I couldn’t see why; I thought he was lovely, which was why I was cooing over him, trying to get him to eat his yoghurt.
“Where’s Jase?” I asked Sierra, making airplane noises.
I watched as Sierra swallowed awkwardly, running a hand through her hair.
“He went out,” she mumbled. I raised an eyebrow.
“Again? Didn’t he go out last night as well?” I said, catching some of the yoghurt that Max had managed to spit out. She sucked in her cheeks and went back to stirring her stew, her eyes watery.
Well done, Anna-BELLE, Radleigh shot at me, chuckling away in his head. I scowled at him. Arse. I hoped, just because he hated them so much, that he ended up with half a dozen kids and about a hundred grandchildren.
What the hell had I done? I had just asked where my stupid brother was! It was a…genuine concern for his safe- Actually; scratch that. I just wanted to know where he was so I didn’t run into him. But seeing as he wasn’t home, everything was great.
I waited until Sierra had taken Max from me and had left the room, still looking miserable, before anyone spoke again.
“Dad’s getting really annoyed with him,” Radleigh muttered, shoving yet another slice of toast into his mouth. “He’s hardly been home all week.”
I frowned.
“Where’s he going?” Radleigh just shrugged.
“No-one knows; he’s just going off on his own,” he replied. Then he looked a bit sad. “Sierra’s getting a bit edgy; she thinks he’s putting it about.” My eyes widened.
“She thinks he’s cheating on her?” I asked incredulously. Radleigh nodded, helping himself to more toast. Was it even possible to cheat on your mate? I thought being marked by a wolf meant that neither of you could stray.
It should, Radleigh muttered, but since when has Jase been up to following rules?
That shocked me; I had thought that Jase was the responsible one in this family! Okay, he was slightly…passive aggressive, but I didn’t think that he would be capable of cheating on Sierra.
I thought he loved her.
You don’t know the real Jase, then, Radleigh shot at me, walking out of the room. What the hell was that supposed to mean? I was starting to think that I didn’t really know my family at all.
Sierra:
He couldn’t be cheating. He just couldn’t be. We were married. He loved me; he told me so himself. We had a baby!
I looked down at Maxi. He was just beginning to doze in my arms. Being a mother was just…it was amazing. But children needed their fathers. And I needed Jase. I didn’t care that he could be grumpy. I didn’t care that he threw things when he shouted.
I didn’t care about the pain that the slap of a werewolf could do to a person.
Because you go through that when you love someone.
Cal:
I was bored.
That was all there was to it; I was bored.
We were meant to be on patrol, making sure that none of Dante’s pack were lurking in the trees. Ade was grumbling on about Zane not knowing how to use washing machine. Who cared? He was a wolf; he spend most of his time running around on four legs. He didn’t need clothes that much.
Did it really matter if they were pink?
Yes, Cal, he snarled angrily, it does matter.
I bit my tongue and walked further into the forest, shaking my head at him. I kept glancing over my shoulder; I wanted to keep the house in ear range, just in case Annie needed me.
This baby thing has made you twitchy as fuck, Ade stated. I rolled my eyes and resisted shooting some ginger bashing comment at him. The truth was, that I was worried about Annie. Dante and his pack were a big enough threat to be worried about her. And now that she was pregnant as well…
I grinned as I remembered yesterday. It had been the first time the baby had kicked, and Annie had jumped an absolute mile. Didn’t stop the wee smile spreading across her face though…
A rustle in the trees behind us brought me back to my senses. Ade growled, sniffing towards the area with hesitant footing. I followed, hackles raised.
Even this faraway, I could smell the scent of foreign wolf, radiating into the air. It wasn’t unpleasant; just strange. Ade stiffened and darted into the cluster of bushes. Moments later, he returned with none other than Rollo, holding him by the scruff of the neck.
I snarled at him.
What the fuck d’you want? Ade snapped. Rollo rolled his eyes, rubbing his face tiredly. He looked like he had been sleeping rough for a while; his skin was pasty and his hair was sticking up in odd directions.
“I’m trying to look out for your frigging pack!” he spat, batting Ade’s mouth away. Ade dropped him on the ground, where he sat, a furious expression on his face. We both laughed at him sitting there, we couldn’t help it.
Rollo just shook his head at us and got to his feet.
Idiots, he dismissed, starting to walk away. Ade pounced on him, knocking him back to the ground. His head smacked off of a tree route and he groaned.
How’s about, Ade muttered, his paw on Rollo’s chest, you tell us what you’re really doing. Rollo stared back up, his lip twitching in an effort not to laugh. Christ, I hated this guy.
“Like I said,” he replied, staying still, “I’m looking out for your pack.” He glanced about, his eyebrows raised. “But seeing as you two are doing so well, I guess I’ll leave you to it-” He was cut off by Ade walloping him around the face, leaving huge scratch marks across his left cheek and nose.
Well that was fucking productive, he spluttered. Ade shrugged doggedly, getting off of Rollo and standing next to me, his fur bristling. If what Rollo was saying was true, that made him an ally, and we needed whatever we could take.
We’ll take him back to the house, I muttered, turning to walk back, Gordon can tell us what he wants doing with him.
“Youse are arseholes,” Rollo muttered darkly, stowing his hands in his pockets. “Absolute fucking arseholes.”
Radleigh:
I hate this. I hate having to pretend everything’s okay.
I just hate this place.
Annie was sleeping on the sofa, her whole body shuddering as she dreamed. At least she wasn’t screaming. Or crying. Crying was the worst. Reminded me of kids. And kids were just in another league of their own. Actually, I was stumped as to why they were making such a big fuss over one baby.
Babies are born every day, right? And they’re pretty much all the same (give or take how many of the branches of the ugly stick they hit on the way down), so what was the big deal?
Not that I was saying that Annie would spawn an ugly kid or anything; I was sure that it would be an alright looking kid. As far as I knew, neither of its parents had any mutations- well, Annie in the morning wasn’t a particularly pretty sight.
I just hated kids. Most of them are wee brats. Literally all Max did was cry. He cried and he ate and he slept. And sometimes, he’d just stay awake all night.
When he’s eighteen, I’m going to go into his room, shouting all hours of the morning when he’s got a hangover. See how much the wee bugger likes it then.
The front door slammed shut, and moments later, Cal appeared in the living room, kneeling down beside Annie.
“Annie, sweetheart,” he murmured, shaking her gently. Her nose wrinkled and her brow furrowed. He was playing with fire, he really was.
“Piss off, Cal,” she mumbled, rolling away from him, so that her face was pressed against the back of the sofa. I smirked; of all the things he should know, the perils of waking up Annie Knight should have been high on the list.
“Annie, you need to wake up.”
“No, I don’t,” she muttered. “But if you try, I’ll cut your knackers off with a blunt instrument.” I laughed, quickly trying to muffle the sound in case Cal decided to hit me. Well, that was him told.
“Annie,” he said, sounding strained, “Rollo’s in the hallway.”
Annie’s eyes snapped open and she sat up, staring at Cal with wide, fearful eyes. I got to my feet, eyebrows raised. That prick was in the house, and no-one had snapped his neck yet? What was going on with everyone?
“Why?” she hissed, standing up. “Why’s he here?” Cal straightened up, raking a hand through his hair. He’d probably end up bald if he kept doing that.
“He says he’s been keepin’ Dante off our backs,” he murmured.
“Right,” she scoffed, walking out of the room. Cal and I seemed to just look at each other, before realising that leaving Annie on her own with Rollo mightn’t be one of our better ideas. We sprinted through to the hall, just in time to see Annie slap him across the face. Ah well, wasn’t that much of a loss.
Rollo wrinkled his eyebrows, rubbing the bright red handprint on his cheek, staring down at Annie with a blank expression on his face.
“Get out!” she shouted, pushing at his chest. “Get out, Rollo!” Cal intervened, taking her gently by the wrists and leading her away from him, trying to calm her down in case she did herself some damage. To be honest, she was more likely to do damage to Rollo, because the idiot was just standing there and taking it.
His eyes seemed drawn to her stomach, which bulged over the waistband of her pyjama bottoms. He blinked, looking away and rubbing at his own abdomen agitatedly. I snorted, shaking my head; if he was wanting sympathy for something, he was coming to the wrong place.
I don’t need sympathy, Ginger, he spat at me. I glared back at him, taking a step closer, bristling slightly.
“Just leave it, Radleigh,” Annie sighed, coming back towards Rollo. I gaped at her; she was telling me to leave it? Had she forgotten everything that the wee goon had put her through-
Her head snapped up and her eyes flashed warningly.
“No I haven’t,” she snapped irritably, “but it’s got nothing to do with you!” I swallowed, leaning against the wall and standing down from a fight. I was just going to put her bad mood down to Rollo and pregnancy hormones combined-
“Radleigh!” Annie shouted. “Go away!”
I sighed, pushing past Rollo and going through the front door, out into the cool air. Ade was standing about outside, talking to Zane.
“You alright, Radders?” Zane asked, blowing a cloud of smoke in my face. I coughed, wafting it away with my hand.
I’m great, I muttered, walking towards the trees, I’m fan-fucking-tastic.
“Good to hear it!” Zane said happily, turning back to Ade.
Idiot.
Rollo:
I watched her carefully, keeping away from her hands in case she decided to deck me again. After knowing her for so long, I had come to the understanding that, although she was tiny, she could throw one hell of a punch.
“What’re you doing here, Rollo?” she demanded, staying close to that prick Cal. He wrapped his arms around her, scowling at me. I rolled my eyes; the protective mate thing used to be something that drove Annie up the wall. Now they had recruited her as their spokesperson.
“I’m keepin’ you lot safe,” I replied brightly, “and the thanks I get is abuse from your wee mate. Abusive bloke, midget; seems like a great guy t’be havin’ a kiddy wi’!” I smirked as Cal started towards me. God, he could hit me all he wanted, but at least I got the satisfaction of rattling his bloody pride. I’d never seen such a smug wolf. Mind you; he’d won Annie Knight; that in itself was cause for celebration.
Just shut up, Rollo, you’re not helping yourself here, Annie warned.
And who said I wanted to help myself? They’d literally dragged me here from my lookout post; Dante was going to saunter over to make sure I wasn’t slacking and discover I wasn’t there. And who was goin’ t’get the beatin’ out of it?
Little old Rollo.
“But why’re you keeping us safe?” Annie demanded. “You’re one of them.” Ouch. That had actually stung a bit; her grouping me in with Dante and his thugs. Mind you, after the shite I had put her through, I suppose I deserved it.
Aye, you do, she remarked, resting her head against Cal’s chest.
I sighed, rubbing the marks on my stomach. It caught her attention and her whole face softened, making her look more like the Annie I had known back at the house. She bit her lip, probably remembering the first time she had noticed them. Well, I wasn’t exactly going to forget it either. Crazy religious nutjob of a mother…
I mean; who carves SATAN into a kid’s stomach? Not my fault that I’m a wolf…
Annie swallowed, nibbling on her bottom lip. I sighed, shaking my head of any other thoughts of my childhood. It wasn’t the time or place, especially seeing as her nosy mate was staring at the pair of us curiously.
He sure as hell wasn’t finding out about it!
“Because,” I muttered, “you lot don’t stand a chance against him.” Cal looked like he was going to interrupt me, so I held my hand up, raising my eyebrows at him. Don’t you just hate being interrupted? It’s fucking rude.
“Your pack’s only small though,” Annie said, tilting her head to the side. I sighed wearily, rubbing my forehead. It had been, until a couple of days ago when Dante had started poaching the more…volatile members of other packs in the area. I mean, I had met the guys and I was a bit cautious of them; talk about crazy…
“Not anymore it’s not,” I grimaced. “Dante’s planning an attack, and I don’t think he really cares who goes down in the crossfire.” I watched as a panicked Annie put a hand over her bump, leaning closer into Cal. Christ, she looked ready to pop. Maybe it was just because she was so short…
Thanks, Rollo, she muttered dryly. I smirked at her.
“So when’s this attack going to happen?” Cal demanded, evidently not liking the fact he was being left out. I considered him, sizing him up. He actually looked a bit of a tool. I was guessing that he wasn’t the sharpest mutt at the pound.
“It’s gonnae be an ambush, idiot,” I replied scathingly. “He’s not really planning a specific date.”
I was sure that Annie was resisting the temptation to laugh, but she was doing a bloody good job of hiding it.
Cal kissed the top of Annie’s head.
“I’ll go tell Gordon,” he murmured gently to her. She smiled up at him, stroking his cheek.
“Okay,” she breathed, giving him a quick kiss on the lips.
I turned away, looking anywhere but the two of them. I had honestly thought that seeing her with him, and knowing that she’d moved on wasn’t going to be hard, but this…this was fucking killing me. Seeing that she was completely smitten with him was more painful than any beatin’ that Dante could ever give me.
I waited until I heard Cal’s footsteps leading away from us before I looked at her again. She was staring after him, rubbing her abdomen affectionately. I swallowed, rubbing my marks.
“You shouldn’t do that, you know,” she murmured, still not looking at me. “You’ll open them again.”
I shrugged, dropping my hand to my side as I watched her. Slowly, she turned to face me. She looked so much healthier now that she had some more weight on her. Colour had returned to her pale face. Instead of looking like a zombie, she had returned to her former glory.
Right now, she actually looked human.
“You can go back to him now,” she whispered sadly. I bit my lip, my eyebrows beginning to knit together. I really didn’t want to leave her now. But seeing that she was completely happy without me in her life spurred me towards the door. I pulled it open, determinedly not glancing back at her.
You can go back to him now.
The words danced about my head, bringing back memories that I had long since pushed to the back of my head.
You can go back to him now.
I blinked, my eyes prickling slightly as I walked outside, brushing past the fat ginger knob who had slashed my face and Zane, the wee arsehole who had once been part of the pack, the smell of cigarettes just making my head spin that little bit more.
I was sure that they were shouting after me, jeering, but I ignored them, heading towards the woods to get back to my post before Dante realised that I had left, trying desperately not to think about the night before Annie had run away.
Branches crunched under my feet as I clumsily made my way back to the bush. I felt about like a blind man, swallowing back down a whole load of things I didn’t want rushing around my head. Auto-drive seemed like a good gear to be in right now. I didn’t want to think, I didn’t want to feel.
I didn’t want to be human.
And where the fuck have you been, Rollo? The harshness of his voice made me wince, rubbing my temple as pain shot through it. Ah well…here came the beatin’. I glanced back at the Knight house, realising too late that I had practically lead Dante to start his fight earlier than previously thought. At least they weren’t going to be sitting ducks.
The feeling of teeth sinking into my leg as Dante started his fight, made me shift. I didn’t care; physical pain was a hell of a lot better than its variation that Annie Knight had me feeling with what she had said.
You can go back to him now.
Annie:
I realised when Rollo walked out the door, that I felt indifferent towards him. There was none of the love that I had felt for him when I was living in that God awful house with him and Dante’s pack. But nor was there any of the hatred I had felt when I had seen him at mum’s funeral. There was just…nothing.
I sat down on the stairs, ticking it all through my head. Dante was planning on…taking me by force? Well that would go down well…I could just see everyone’s faces. No doubt Jase would welcome the opportunity to get rid of me. I knew he was my brother, but the guy could be a proper wanker.
But…could I really go on staying here knowing that I was putting everyone that I cared about in danger? It would’ve been so easy to slip away in the middle of the night and go with Dante without anyone knowing, but now there was a baby involved, and I didn’t want Dante getting his filthy hands on it. I’d be damned if he turned my child into a miniature version of me.
My hands rested on my stomach, and I looked down at it. If I was perfectly honest, I was beginning to get quite excited about being a mum. There was the occasional day when the doubts would niggle in the back of my head, but then my baby would kick and they would melt away. And I knew that Cal would be a good dad, that he’d treat his kid well.
Suddenly, the front door flew open and Radleigh appeared, his face cut up and bloody. I got to my feet, going over to him with concern.
“What-” I started, but he cut me off, his eyes wide with panic.
“They’ve got us surrounded, Annie!” he exclaimed. I frowned, watching as he darted down the hall to dad’s study, not bothering to knock as he went in. I moved towards the door that he had left wide open, peering through it.
I felt my heart drop several inches.
Zane and Ade had shifted, their lips pulled back in threatening snarls as wolves of different colours and markings moved out of the trees. The biggest one held a broken looking wolf by the neck, his snout wet with the other’s blood.
Dante threw Rollo to the ground, where he stopped moving. I started to walk out onto the porch, not quite believing what I was seeing, but I was forced back by Cal, dad and Radleigh as they rushed out, shifting as they ran to form a united front with Ade and Zane. Where the hell was Jase when all of this was happening?
Annie, Cal hissed as a wolf began to circle him, get back in the house and stay there.
But-
NOW! He shouted as the other wolf leapt on top of him. I jumped, fiddling with the end of my hair as I debated whether or not to do something. But seeing them fight, stirred an instinct deep inside of me that urged me to protect the unborn child growing inside of me. So, knowing that I was going to feel guilty as sin later, I shut the door, going into the kitchen where Sierra and Georgie were talking, Max sitting on the floor with his building blocks.
“Hiya,” Georgie trilled, looking a lot happier than she had in a while, “we were just…” She trailed off when she saw my face, getting to her feet.
“What’s happened?” Sierra asked, her eyes flitting to my stomach. I groaned inwardly, sinking down onto the small sofa by the table.
“Dante’s pack,” I breathed. “They’ve got them surrounded.” Both woman’s eyes widened and they moved quickly from the room, leaving me with Max. I felt like such a coward, sitting in here while my family fought because of a mess I’d made.
Max stared up at me, getting shakily to his feet and wobbling over to me, his eyes curious. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I buried my head in my palms.
“Sad!” Max shouted, his face bright, happy that he’d recognised the emotion. “Sad!” I giggled despite myself, pulling him onto my lap.
“Aye, Max,” I breathed, hugging him to my chest. “Sad.”
Cal:
I wasn’t scared. If I had to die for her, I would. There was no question about it. Dying for the person you love shouldn’t even have to be questioned.
Radleigh:
It’s time’s like this when you wished you were normal. You know; do normal teenage things, instead of squaring up to oversized dogs in the garden…
Zane:
It’s strange fighting a pack you used to run alongside, trying to kill people that you used to be pretty friendly with. Mind you; this pack’s nothing but trouble. And they’re grumpy bastards.
And none of them are ginger.
Ade:
Christ, I’m starving. I hope someone’s thoughtful enough to make us some dinner after this is over…
Rollo:
I groaned on the ground, the air stinging in the open bite wounds. I sure as hell wasn’t getting up for even more injuries. I was perfectly happy just lying here until I healed. I wasn’t really up for moving.
The sound of yelps and tearing of fur filled the air. I think we used to be quite a noble species, only fighting when there was need. Wolves like Dante changed that. Now we’re regarded as monsters, nightmares of young children. Mind you, seeing something like this fight would be enough to give a grown human nightmares.
Dante might argue that it’s human’s who are the scum. I think he’s got it wrong.
Because there’s nowt scummier than what he’s made us into.
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Right...I finally uploaded!! Whoo!! I promise not to make youse wait longer than this for an upload...that was flaming ridiculous...I was just worrying about exams and whatnot...but the worst is over...and I'm determined to get this book finished so I can start my sequel!!
Okay...so you may have noticed that the lovely Rollo's in it more...because, quite frankly, he's one of my favourite characters...:) and he has his own short story!! which I'm begging you to read, because, quite frankly, I'm pretty fond of it. It's on my page as TAD: Stolen Innocence...it's got Annie in it as well.
Right...so the fighting's begun, and some characters might be up for the chopping block :O so...who do we want to lose and who do we want to save? I mean, I already know who's getting killed, but I'm interested in your ideas ;P So, c'mon...who's your favourite character?
Dedicated to Batwoman, who's apparently been looking forward to this upload...hope it doesn't disappoint!! and because she's been keeping me sane while I panic about my maths exam with Rolette...so she deserves a chapter...
right...the wee slideshow is just the cast of TAD...which I'm quite fond of...because they're pretty much how I imagine the characters, give or take some minor changes...any ideas who could play Ade? I've hunted about but can't seem to find anyone...person who finds him'll get the next chapter dedicated to them...
right...thanks for reading (and putting up for the long wait)
vote, comment and fan...
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