Maddison laughed as she closed the dull blue locker, spinning the dial to lock away her books, before turning to her three best friends. The troublesome trio had wide smiles on their faces as they mocked Paul Lahote in the hallway. Maddison found herself giggling uncontrollably as the boys narrated what appeared to be a failed attempt at Paul picking up an underclassman.
"Come on, babe. You know you want a piece of the legend." Embry cackled out as Paul moved his mouth and placed his arm on the locker above the russet skinned girl.
"I'd rather have a piece of Casen, Lahote," Jacob sarcastically said in a high pitched voice as the girl's hand flicked at Paul to back up.
"Okay, too far, Black." Maddison laughed as the thought of her brother with the native girl who was known for going around brought a feeling of disgust to her. The three boys burst into another fit of laughter at Maddison's comment and the fact that the girl had simply patted Paul on the chest before walking off.
The boisterous laughter from the group caused Paul to turn his head towards the four best friends with a slight smile on his lips as he saw the way Maddison's eyes gleamed even from across the hall.
Once the groups laughter had died down enough for them to compose themselves, they all looked back at Paul to see him staring right back at them. With a quick movement, Paul winked at Maddison, before walking away.
"Uh, oh." Quill began with a mischievous smirk on his face, and teasing tone in his voice as he turned his attention to the slightly red Maddison, "looks like Lahote found his next victim."
"That or he finally caught onto your little crush."
Embry laughed as Maddison shoved him into the lockers for his comment, before wrapping his arm around her shoulders as the group began to their houses.
"You're really violent, you know that Mads?" Embry teased as Jacob and Quill continued to play a stupid little game behind them.
The quartet all paused, however, once they reached Maddison's house and saw Casen loading up his little red Chevy truck as their mother wept on the front porch. Maddison turned to the worried looking boys with a small, forced, smile on her plump pink lips.
"I'll... I'll, um, see you guys tomorrow."
"Yeah." Embry nodded his head as he brought her into a quick hug and whispered softly into her ear. "Call me if you need something." He said with a stern voice as he pulled back to look into her eyes with a soft yet serious expression.
With a quick nod of her head, and a glance back at the scene in front of her house, Maddison turned and hugged Jacob and Quill goodbye; each boy taking the time to reassure her that they were there for her if she needed someone to talk to later.
As she stood in her dirt driveway, Maddison watched her boys walk away. She was afraid to turn around and find out what was happening at her house to cause her mother to weep in a way that she had never seen; not since her dad died, at least. Maddison was never one to deal with emotions well. Always the blunt girl, she did not process pain due to secrets well. She would become bitter before she became sorrowful in a situation where she was betrayed. Unbeknownst to her, she was about to face one of the biggest betrayals' of her life from more than one person that she cared about.
With a deep sigh, Maddison turned and walked up the dirt path. She kept her eyes glued to the little puffs of brown that would kick up every time she took a step, and focused on the sound of the ground crunching against her feet instead of her mother's sobbing.
As she stood next to Casen's truck she noticed he had packed the old rusted bed with a few duffel bags, as well as the shotgun that he kept in the floorboards under his bed. With questioning eyes, the fourteen year old girl looked up at her brother. His blue eyes were bloodshot as he continued to reposition the duffel bags in the back of the truck.
His head suddenly snapped up as he noticed the presence of his little sister. Looking at the innocent, worried, and curious blue eyes that were so much like his own as he listened to his mother's sobs, Casen wondered if he was being rational.
"Where are you going, Casen?"
Casen visibly grimaced as he heard the quiver in the voice of his wide eyed sister. The wind was blowing her long deep brown hair around, and he couldn't help but notice how much she had grown up. He knew that she was going to be furious, and the idea of the innocent looking angel in front of him threatening to smite him broke his heart, but the decision had already been made.
"I'm leaving, Mads."
Her heart clenched at his words as he slammed the rear door to the bed close, before resting his head on the truck for a second as if to regroup himself.
"Leaving... Where... Where are you going?"
His moment of silent reprieve was broken by her softly spoken words. He whipped his head off of the truck to sneak a glance at her, before heading for the cab.
"I joined the military, Mads."
His voice sounded harsh as he spoke the words before pulling open the front door and leaning into the car, as if looking for something. Maddison's feet slowly carried her around the truck to the side that he was on. Her body felt as if it was being controlled by someone else as she reached out and forcefully tugged on his arm.
"What do you mean you joined the army?! You just turned eighteen! You haven't finished school!"
"Like you said a few months ago, Mads, 'I'm flunking, and I am not doing anything with my life.' I'm tired of not fitting in here because my skin isn't dark enough, my eyes aren't black enough, and my last name isn't tribe!" Casen took a deep breath and ran a hand over his face as he turned to face the girl before him. With a sorrowful sigh, his anger faded away into a soft whisper. "I... I just need to leave to find out who I am, Mads. I want to help people and that's what I'm going to do. I made a good enough score on my ASVAB that I can be a UH- 60 helicopter repairer. That's not too dangerous, Mads, but I'll still be helping."
As his watery blue eyes looked up at her, Maddison's reply was cut off by the sound of a car door slamming. The two Ellison children turned to see a sad smile placed upon the face of Paul as he approached the duo.
Maddison's mouth opened to tell Paul about the stupid decision that Casen had made without telling them, but as the words were about to come out Paul pulled Casen into a tight hug.
"I'll miss you, you stupid military man."
The words shocked Maddison, as her blue eyes flicked back and forth between the two best friends. The two boys, who were more brothers than friends, were exchanging words that sounded a lot like a knowing goodbye to her confused mind.
"Yeah, well you better stay out of trouble. You may be my best friend, and a mini-me, but you're still sixteen and I don't need to hear about a little girl being pregnant at base. Do you hear me?"
Casen laughed as Paul nodded his head with a sad smile on his face and embraced her brother once more. As the two finally broke apart, Maddison did not know who she was more mad at: her brother, or the boy who kept the secret from her. Maddison watched as Casen pulled himself into the cab before sending a sad smile her way as he backed out of the driveway.
The little wave Casen sent as his final goodbye was Paul's cue to turn to Maddison, who was already watching his face with her pretty pink lips formed into a frown as her eyes furrowed in a question he wasn't ready to answer.
"You knew?!"
And there it was.
Paul felt his heart break as she backed away from him, shaking her head. Her brown locks flew back and forth as she continued to try and deny the obvious to herself and put space between them.
"Maddison." Paul stated as he reached out to grab onto her arm.
"NO!" She yelled as she pulled her arm out of his reach. Clutching onto herself, Maddison raised her watery eyes, not from sorrow but from anger, to the russet skin boy that she had grown to love.
"NO! You knew and you didn't tell me?!" Her voice was laced with anger and pain as her blue eyes pleaded for Paul to tell her a lie. Tell her that he found out moments before her. Tell her that he didn't encourage this. Tell her that he tried to talk him down. Tell her anything she wanted to hear, so that the betrayal that was written all across her face would disappear.
"Maddison... I..."
He tried but he couldn't make the lies come out; he didn't want to hurt her more than he already had.
"Just..." She took a few more steps away from him. As he tried to follow, she held her arms up at him. Not wanting to hurt her feelings anymore he stopped in his place. "Just know that if something happens to him, it's on you!"
Her words were like knives as the broken voice cracked in anger. The cute little furrow she got between her brows when she was mad at Casen and himself when they pulled pranks on her, was suddenly breaking his heart as he realized he would never see it again. He would never joke with Casen, and sit on the coach talking about Leah as he listened to Maddison singing in the kitchen as she baked his favorite cookies. He would never see her ridiculous bed head in the morning, as he woke her up just to make her mad. He would never get to sit on the coach next to her and watch a movie as his best friend threw warning glares across the room. Suddenly, he was furious too.
"I'm losing him too, Maddison! Don't act like this is my fault! You talked down on him so much with your witty sarcasm that maybe YOU'RE to blame!"
Her eyes were wide as she took in his cruel words. They both were hurting, and instead of dealing with it, they both did what they do best: they got mad.
"Yeah, well he was YOUR best friend! You should have said something! You should have made him feel like he had a place, that he belonged! But, noooo! You were too busy whoring around to realize that Casen was feeling like an aberration!"
His hands clenched into fists as she continued to berate him; the words hurting him more than he would have ever thought the innocent looking girl possibly able to.
"He was your brother! You shouldn't have driven him away! I was there for him! Where were you!"
"You know what?!" She finally snapped stepping closer and pushing the temperamental boy with all her might. Paul barely stumbled backwards, more from shock than her tiny hands against his form. His body felt like it was on fire and he was shaking horribly as he continued to stare down at the icy gaze of the girl he loved.
"Just... Just leave! You're my brothers friend, not mine! Now that he's gone, you don't have a reason to come around, so just leave! You can leave, and NEVER talk to me again, Paul Lahote!"
Her words were like daggers in her own stomach. She didn't want him to leave, no matter how angry she was. She was mad at Casen and just needed a way to get all her emotions out and a knowing Paul was a good enough target. However, she wanted nothing more than for the Quileute boy to wrap his arms around her and pull her close and apologize.
Without another word, Paul's shaking form stiffly nodded his head and took off running into the woods. Maddison watched as a few tears rolled down her cheeks, which she quickly wiped away, before rushing to the steps of her home. Her mother had long since left the porch, but she could still hear her heart-wrenching sobs from within. As she placed her hand on the rusted doorknob, her head snapped to the forest the Paul had just run into. As she stood there on the steps, little tears falling from her eyes, a wolf howled in the distance; a sound filled with so much sorrow that she felt it in her bones.
Little did Maddison Ellison know that the broken howl was that of Paul Lahote, as he shifted for the first time.
○○○○○○○○○○○○
Super long chapter, well pretty long, but it is officially the start. This story does take place before Twilight, and will continue on up until the scene in the movies where Bella see's Jacob shift as a wolf. After that there will be an epilogue, unless this gets enough reads to do a sequel. However, if a sequel DOES happen it wouldn't be until after all of the other wolf pack books are done, and I currently have five lined up: Paul, Embry, Jacob, Leah, and Seth. I want to do a Quill book too, so possible six. The outlines are done for the first three books, and this book is going to be sixteen chapters long( starting from where the titles say "chapter" not intro, ect.) Sorry for the blurb but it is just to let y'all know what's happening!
Vote. Comment. Share. and Follow!
Thanks for reading, and look out for an update soon!
•Abundance_of_Fiction•
•July 6, 2016. Unedited•