✖️The Worst Kind of Wonderful✖️
"Only enemies speak the truth;
friends and lovers lie endlessly,
caught in the web of duty."
― Stephen King
Chapter Six~
"I..." I started, eyes darting around the room in search of an escape. Just then the quiet murmuring of distant birds through our wood and glass case of a home, were drowned; choked out by vibration.
My phone sat upon the table, glowing like a holy thing. An object of salvation, and that's exactly what it was. 'Knowledge is power and if shared too much can be destruction.' I remembered my grandmother warning when she was still alive. I could almost picture a younger me with my ear pressed up against the wall late at night trying to eavesdropping on the woman giving my own mother a lecture. I needed to keep my secret guarded, especially from those I cared for the most. I picked up the quivering device and pressed its cool surface to the curve of my ear.
"Hello?" My voice reflected my relief like a perfect mirror, causing Andrea to raise her eyebrow in accusation.
"Mia! It's Belle, I've tried texting you all day." She sounded worried and I wondered where she was now, and more importantly if she knew about the meeting.
"Oh, sorry the volume was turned off for the meeting and I forgot. What's up?" I tried to keep my tone light but the tension in the room was so thick that I felt my lungs ached at the pressure.
"I heard what happened, are you okay? I'm so sorry about my mom."
"It's not her fault, she was doing her job and she didn't even find me guilty of anything." I sighed, finally feeling the entirety of my exhaustion. "It's the Worth's that I'm worried about."
"Yeah, I heard that Zak beat the crap out of Shane afterwards." She laughed and my mouth opened in silent shock. "It must have been crazy, Zak broke his arm and Shane's face was messed up pretty bad from what Hannah Glass said, it happened right outside her house on Main Street, I also heard that Shane hit his head and has been loopy from all the pain meds Doctor Alvi had to give him."
"That's awful!"
"No no they're fine", she insisted. The sound of a door opening came through the line and the busy fog of the main square's sounds echoed around her. "No one used silver or anything so they'll be healed by tomorrow."
"Well that's good I guess. Hey Belle?"
"Yeah?"
"We need to talk face to face sometime really soon."
"Why? Is it something involving your- uh, 'friend' from the woods?" She whispered in a barely audible breath so no one could hear through the line.
"Yeah, I think I know who- or uh, what said topic of discussion is. We can't talk about it now though, come by tomorrow."
"Holy-" she muttered under her breath, "okay, well I guess I'll see you then."
~*~
I woke up the next morning to an ache in my chest. It was a slow creeping hollowness that cut deep beneath my ribs. My wolf was hurt, she needed her mate and I knew that every day we weren't with him the pain would intensify. It was the most persistent yet subtle agony I had ever experienced and it made me want to curl up into a ball and go back to sleep, but the neon digits on my alarm clock forced me to decide against the temptation of escape. I thought about that word as it passed through my mind. Escape. I wanted-needed even- to escape, but when I thought of leaving my family the pain in my chest doubled. My parents and Andrea couldn't bare my absence just as I couldn't bare their's especially after losing Lacy.
It was one in the afternoon and the sun filled my room with a burning light that pooled to the floor. The room was filled to the very brim with soggy stale air from the uncharacteristically intense heat and a groan escaped my dry lips.
"Andie!" I called into the empty hallway, letting my voice bounce off the walls in its clumsiness.
"Yeah?" Andrea's head poked around the corner letting her hair tumble over petite shoulders.
"Can you turn up the air conditioning? It's like a million degrees."
"It's turned up all the way already. Nothing is cutting through this heat. It's cooler downstairs though if you wanna hang out with me and Thomas."
"Thomas is here?" I asked groggily.
"Yeah, and Annabelle called earlier to say she'd be here around two." After she left, I quite literally dragged myself out of bed. The sheets stuck to my legs in protest but eventually I was free. I had been surprised to hear that Thomas was visiting, he and Andrea were best friends all throughout elementary and middle school but as soon as Christian came into the picture they distanced themselves.
"Aw look it's Andrea's little sister!" Thom called sending me a warmly familiar smile. I groaned at his refusal to commit my name to memory. In the eighteen years I'd known him I was almost positive he had not use my name once.
"She's your little sister now too," Andrea reminded taking a swig of lemonade that's glass she gripped with long manicured fingers.
"Oh right. Well then let me rephrase: aw look its my little sister in law. I almost forgot about you and my little brother. How does it go? Zak and Mia sitting in a tree, first comes unreturned love, then comes marriage then comes fifty years of bossing around snot nosed teenagers with a thirst for rogue blood. Congrats."
"Why are you always so horrible?" Andrea slapped his arm sending a murderous look. "Nobody likes a cynic."
"Oh please Andie, you know you love me." They continued to bicker as I made myself breakfast, pouring sugary sweet juice into a glass and spreading melted butter onto burnt toast.
Andrea had been right in saying that the heat was more bearable downstairs. Though it still clung to the air like an unyielding fog, the tiny air conditioner that sat firmly in our kitchen window provided at least a small amount of some much needed relief.
It was two on the dot when Annabelle arrived bringing in another wave of heat in her wake. I was almost surprised to see that her usually sleek hair had frizzed into uneven curls and that her smooth skin had flushed a reddish pink color.
"It's a freaking inferno out there!" Belle groaned, stumbling through the kitchen and throwing her oversized purse into a chair and plopping down beside it.
"Hey Belle." Tom threw the words at her awkwardly and she snapped her head around to face him.
"Uh, Thomas... Hey?" I was reminded in that moment of Andrea and Thomas' first day of middle school. Annabelle and I sat on the stairs looking down at my mother as she snapped a far more than necessary amount of pictures, Andrea's groans of embarrassment echoing through the hall. Annabelle was making the occasional sassy remark about a new girl that was bothering her in class when the door opened and in walked Thomas.
You would have thought she found the holy grail by the way she looked at him and when he noticed her the expression on his face was practically a carbon copy. That was the first day I thought seriously about the possibility of the mate theory's validity, but as we reached the age of our first shifts and they didn't feel the connection I lost all hope in the idea; realizing the only reason they turned each other into fools was the fact that they were hopelessly and blindly infatuated with one another.
"You uh, you look nice." He pointed out after a long unintentional staring competition.
"Thanks, uh- I'm mean, it's just, not really... It's crazy hot out today." She pointed out running her fingers through her hair. It was almost physically painful to watch. Annabelle was the most confident girl I knew and to see her acting so uncharacteristically pathetic made me want to slap her upside the head. I sent Andrea a questioning look when I realized how amused she looked but she only held up a finger letting me know that she wanted to give them a minute.
"Yeah I-I noticed that I- uh yeah." Thomas tried to find a logical sentence but the words never came.
"Yeah..."
"Mhmm..."
My nerves as to what Annabelle's reaction on my mates species finally won out and I snapped. "No!" I burst out breaking them out of their trances. "First of all, you two are idiots." I pointed out making Andrea burst out into a fit of laughter spouting the occasional 'its funny because its true'." And second; Belle we seriously need to talk." I turned around and walked out the back door, slamming the flimsy screen behind me. Annabelle followed shortly looking embarrassed at her earlier behavior.
When had both reached the yard and I was now pacing back and forth across the grass with pent up nerves. Cool hose water streamed steadily across the yard, sending clouds of mist in all directions with the changing winds. The sprinkler reflected shards of light in rainbow spheres, that cooling mist bringing the heat with its spay into the flooded grass. I turned to Annabelle who, now out of her awestruck state, had a look of concern mixed with pure unfiltered curiosity across her face. "I know what Xander is." I stated plainly watching as her eyes flared in excitement.
"And..."
"He's a hunter." All the blood seemed to drain from Annabelle's face at the word, her flushed cheeks turning a cold pale white.
"No." She denied with a slow shake of the head. "There's no such thing!" This time her head snapped up from its bowed state. Allowing her eyes to meet mine boldly.
"What do you mean Bellsy? Have you heard of them?" I asked carefully, trying desperately not to upset her further.
"She promised! They don't exist Mia!" Annabelle's eyes were wide in a look of crazed horror but her time remained sure and even.
"What do you mean? Who promised?" I asked, my own emotion reflecting her unexplained fear.
She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and looked me in the eye, a thick line of unshed tears brimming her lashes. "My mother, she promised me there were no such thing as hunters after what I overheard Elder Hartley say."
I waited for an explanation by she stayed silent. "You're not making any sense Annabelle." I saw her sway slightly and tried to steady her with my hands, pressing them onto her shoulders.
"After my dad died," she began slowly. I tried to hide my shock but even if I hadn't she wouldn't have noticed, the way she was avoiding my gaze. Annabelle had only ever spoken to me about her father once when we were thirteen and I'd never thought I would hear her speak of him again."A few of the most elite COE members came to give their condolences." She explained.
I nodded for her to continue."We were still in shock; my mom was blaming herself for not being on that hunt so she could have protected him and I could just barely grasp the concept of death." A quiet sob escaped her lips but she choked it down, trying to get through the obviously painful memory. "After they visited, Atticus had the other members of the COE that had accompanied him leave and my mother sent me to my room. I shouldn't have listened! I know I shouldn't have but- I did- I stayed on the staircase."
"Did they mention the hunters?" I asked unable to restrain myself.
She nodded slowly and continued. "Atticus said that my father's group wasn't attacked by rogues but had to tell the pack for their safety in ignorance. He said that he thought she deserved to know about who really killed him: a group called the hunters who are hell bent on destroying any and all shifters. They think we're soulless and demonic. He said more but I can't remember; when I asked my mom later that night she promised that I misheard, that it was just a part of grieving and that it was just the rogues that killed him. She said that hunters don't exist, but Mia, if they do and you're mated to one... With their belief system in mind, if any of his comrades find out they'll kill you- that is, if Alexander doesn't kill you first."
I was shocked at her words. I was hurt and felt betrayed, but the more I thought about it throughout the rest of the day and into the night and early morning, I began to realize how right she was. The mate bond was strong, but was his misinformation fueled hatred stronger? What's more powerful: nature or nurture?
✖️