I wanted to cry as I was sprawled on the grass, but I didn't want Daniel to see how much he hurt me. I didn't want to see the look of pity on his face or even the look of satisfaction that would flash on his face after seeing my pain stricken expression, so I got up on my sore limbs and ran.
This forest came naturally to me, I knew every nook of it, where to turn and when and suddenly, I was lead to a tree house. Memories of myself flashed before my eyes. Then, a memory of Daniel and I came up, we were young children. I was passing him planks of wood as he helped me put up this very treehouse.
This became our place. Daniel's parents would come looking for him, but for some reason, they could never find him here, it was our secret sanctuary that no one else could find. My parents, of course, didn't care about my whereabouts, they allowed me to wonder out day and night, not even thinking about the dangers that lurked in this forest. It was claimed land, but stray wolves could've come in at any time.
The whole place had a euphoric atmosphere. But the tree house only enhanced it. Fall leaves surrounded the structure like a barrier. There were tattered ropes attached to an overhanging plank of wood that allowed us to climb into the magnificent tree house. But, as I tilted my head, I set my eyes on a small swing set that hung on a strong branch of the tree. The swings still rocked with the blowing, whistling wind.
Something was very attractive about this swing, making me want to sit on it. I turned my head back to the surrounding forest to see if there was anyone following me, luckily, there had not been anyone behind me. But as I turned my head back to the swing, there was already a girl on it. She appeared to be a younger version of me.
This girl was wearing a yellow sundress adorned with small pink flowers. There was a boy behind her, who I assumed was Daniel. He pushed her on that swing, and the younger Evelyn had never been happier. Their shrieks of joy were drowned out my the incessant pounding inside my brain. Soon, the boy disappeared, leaving the young girl alone. She used her legs to push herself, except, moving slowly, as if this girl did not have the energy to push herself any faster. The smile on her face had also transformed into a deep frown.
That didn't last for long as Daniel returned, except a small blonde female followed behind him, appearing to be sixteen. She looked beautiful, and I gasped at the resemblance between her and Martha, putting the piece together, I realised that this must be Martha. Daniel, however, looked much older, there were bags under his eyes, but he still appeared to be happy. A young Evelyn saw as Daniel lead the girl to a seat far from herself as they started to talk amongst themselves, leaving the poor girl out.
The pounding in my head refused to cease as suddenly, the young Evelyn was gone, as well as Daniel and his companion. I looked around, hoping that they were just around the corner. But I knew that that wasn't true and that what I saw were only mere memories.
There was a snap behind me, which I assumed was a twig. George stood there, jaw wide open. "Evelyn," He gasped out. "There were rumours that you were back, but, I didn't believe any of them." I pursed my lips. "I guess they were right." He added.
I nodded my head. "Yes, they were." Was my attempt at humour. "George," I called out remembering where we had left off the last time we talked.
George shook his head at me. As if telling me he didn't want to talk about it. "I remember you used to talk about this place all the time. But this is the first time I've ever been here." He looked at the ground, with a distant gleam in his eyes, as if he was reminiscing. "I never bothered to ask because I thought that this place was something you wanted to keep private from me, I just didn't want to push you."
"Thank you, George," I mumbled, but with full sincerity in my voice. "For being my friend." Instead of saying anything, George simply nodded his head as we began to grow comfortable in this silence.
"It's time for dinner, Evelyn. Daniel wants you there." Dread filled my body as I did not want to go to the dinner's that I had carefully avoided for the past few nights. It's because only the highest ranked officials are able to dine with the Alpha. Other werewolves in the pack, since there are so many of them, tend to eat at home or at the cafeteria that's near to the pack house.
Not having the strength to argue with Daniel, I just started to follow George as he leads me to the dining room. I could hear laughter and loud, booming voices from the dining room, however, all that ceased as I entered the room, late, for dinner. George left me there, knowing that he was not high enough rank to eat with use, which made me sad. I immediately saw Daniel as he was in the centre of the room, eating next to a blonde woman who I recognised to be Martha. A pit of jealousy burned in my stomach after taking one look at her.
Daniel looked up at me and his facial expression turned sour. "Evelyn," I soft voice called. I turned to look at Martha, who smiled at me. "You're back." She said, which almost sound like a question. I could tell she didn't want me to be there, but I didn't know why as I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know that Daniel and I are mates.
Daniel shuffled in his seat as I looked around, searching for seats far away from this table, except only one was available and it was right next to Aaron, Daniel's Beta. At least I would also be seated beside Rune, who was tolerable.
As I approached the spot, Aaron only grumbled to himself while Rune offered me a smile. I returned the smile. I sat down, with a plate suddenly being thrust onto the table before me. It looked delicious, but after all the crap that had happened to me today, eating was the least of my worries. So, I sat there, picking at my food, seemingly not enjoying it.
"It's not that bad, you know?" Rune said, jokingly.
I giggled, but soon replied, "I know, it's just that I'm not very hungry right now." He looked like he was starting to think about something for a second, but shut his mouth. Suddenly curious, I reassured him. "Rune, you can tell me whatever it was that you wanted to say".
He smiled sheepishly at me. "What you saw today-" Rune tried to explain, but ended up drifting off.
"What do you mean?" I interjected, feigning cluelessness. Except, I'm not that great of an actress and Rune easily picked up on it.
"Evelyn, I know you saw me with blood on my hands, and yes, I did kill Alpha Carson." I sucked in a breath at his honest response. I assumed that Alpha Carson was dead, therefore it wasn't much of a surprise, it was just an odd feeling for my suspicions to be confirmed.
"Say no more," I remarked, flashing him a fake smile. Rune continued to look in my eyes for any doubt. "Honestly, it's fine," I added, which seemed to convince him. Our conversation didn't seem to go unnoticed by Daniel as he had his hands curled up into fists, as his knuckles turned a pale colour.
I watched him for a bit as he battled his wolf for dominance, suddenly getting jealous, which came as a surprise. "Evelyn," Daniel started. "You should eat." My jaw dropped in surprise because I did not expect for Daniel to be so nice. And yes, by nice, I do mean, suggesting that I ate, but it was a start nonetheless.
"She's not hungry," Rune answered for me. It was a nice gesture, but it seemed to make Daniel even madder as he scoffed to himself as well as to everyone seated at the table.
"I think Evelyn can speak for herself" Daniel barked. I could feel the tension growing in the area. This drew attention towards us, as all the officials stopped talking to listen to our conversation. I'm not sure how to describe the colour of Daniel's knuckles as they appeared to be even lighter than the shade of white.
"Evelyn is not hungry," Rune said boldly, which made my eyes widen. I expected Rune to simply apologise and to back down.
Daniel's pupils dilated and suddenly darkened, I could see that he was about to shift into his wolf. I suppose his wolf became jealous that another man was answering for me, which made me very angry that Daniel thought that he had some claim over me. But the seriousness of this scene that is currently playing out, stopped me from getting riled up.
Martha touched Daniel's hand and whispered soothing words into his ear. My eyes narrowed onto her slim hand, as it caressed Daniel's arm. I smiled in satisfaction as I saw that her actions did nothing to calm Daniel down.
"You dare disrespect me, Gamma!" Daniel snarled out, making everyone at the table jump at the ferociousness of his voice. Daniel abruptly stood up and stalked towards Rune. I knew what was coming up, and I knew I had to stop it.
"Daniel," I called out, firmly. He looked at me, then turned back to Rune, his prey. "Daniel," I called out once again, except he ignored me. "Don't do this." I pleaded as I moved forward to grab his wrist. My touch seemed to soothe Daniel as his eyes turned back to their original colour. He looked down towards my extended hand, before shaking it off.
Everyone who saw our interaction looked around the room confused. While Martha looked at me with hatred as she began to get suspicious. I could tell that she was starting to put two and two together.
Daniel stormed out of the room, with Martha hot on his heels. As Daniel exited, all eyes that were on him turned to me. I could see Aaron's disapproving glare, but caused me to return the look. Someone cleared their throat behind me and I turned to see Rune standing there, sheepishly. He scratched the back of his neck.
"Thanks for saving me there." He said. I simply nodded at him.
"Do me a favour," I insisted, "Don't rile him up again." Rune just started to laugh. "No, seriously," I grumbled. "That was a very awkward dinner, I might consider to stop eating forever because of that" That caused Rune to laugh harder. I pouted and sighed, "Jeez."
"Look, Evelyn, I haven't known you for a very long time, but I think I've known you long enough to know that you can get through awkward dinners." He chuckled to himself, then added, in a serious tone. "And I don't think Daniel would ever let you skip out on meals knowing that he would be losing time with you."
I snorted, "As if, Rune, I think you overestimate Daniel's love for me."
"I think you underestimate Daniel's love for you." He grumbled out, with a sense of nostalgia. Which made me confused.
"Whatever you say, I'm going to walk for a bit," I announced but raised my hand up as if to pause Rune, anticipating what he was going to say next. "As much as I appreciate your future offer to walk with me, I think I just need to breathe for a bit."
"Cocky much?" He joked, the flipped his hair as if it were like mine. "And, Evelyn, I wasn't going to ask to go outside with you, I was going to suggest that if, perhaps, you were outside, and I, a friend, happened to be outside as well, that we could interact with one another and perhaps strike up a conversation, but of course, this would've been purely a coincidence."
I giggled, "Okay, Rune. Goodnight." I said as I began to walk out the front door. I vaguely heard Rune's reply as I was already out of the door. The cold, night air, filled my lungs. It was quite relaxing as I began to stroke my arms, in attempts to conserve body heat.
I heard the shuffling of the mini stones that filled this vast driveway. I walked towards the noise, which I'm sure would've gotten me killed in a horror movie, but I did it nonetheless. The crunching noise got farther and farther away, and I continued to follow it.
It led me right in front of the river, that I was at a few nights ago, with Daniel. And surprisingly, Daniel was here, yet again. He paced back and forth, in obvious frustration before sitting on a rock. I wasn't sure how long I watched him for, but it was mesmerising as Daniel started to skip rocks. Those flat rocks gracefully, tread on the still water which caused ripples where it touched.
"Evelyn, I know it's you," Daniel called out, not even turning around to look at me. I stood there shocked. "Your scent is enticing, I could recognise it a hundred miles away." Which made blood rush to my cheeks. I still continued to stand there until Daniel said, "Come sit." Then proceed to pat on an area of stone beside him.
I approached him slowly and sat down. We sat in a comfortable silence before I said, "So, dinner, huh?" Which seemed to make Daniel chuckle.
I assumed Daniel was going to continue the conversation, until he pondered out loud, "When do you think when things went wrong?" His question made me wonder myself. "I mean, I remember playing around in that treehouse of ours, and then we grew up, we were close. We hung out at school, I got Martha, and I still had you, my best friend. Then suddenly, I lost you." I couldn't say anything except nod. "It's my fault," Daniel stated. "I should have done some things if things were different."
"But they aren't, Daniel. Sh*t happened and this is where we are now." Somehow, my truthful statement seemed to anger Daniel.
"What? You mean flirting openly with my Gamma?" He insulted, I gawked at him, then furrowed my eyebrows.
"I wasn't flirting with Rune!" I gasped out, standing up suddenly, not wanting to be close to Daniel. "I don't like Rune in that way."
"Good," He answered, "then you won't miss him while he sits in a cell for a week."
"What?" I asked angrily. "Just because he flirted with me, you and I both know, Daniel, that this isn't fair!" I shouted at him, in attempts to knock some sense into that stubborn head of his. I didn't understand how Daniel could be so possessive considering that we weren't exactly on the best terms.
"It isn't because of that, Evelyn. He disobeyed me for god sakes! I have to set an example, I can't have my officials seeing that I allow such disrespect!" Daniel barked out at me.
I clenched my fists, my nails began to dig into my palms. As I started to get angrier, I could feel my nails draw blood. "All he did was say a few things, he didn't challenge you, Daniel!" I tried to justify Rune's actions but it didn't seem to be changing Daniel's mind as he sat, with his arms crossed, stubbornly.
"It's not like he wasn't expecting it, you can't stand up to an Alpha and get away with it, it would make me look weak to the pack!" Daniel stood up suddenly. I gasped in realisation.
"That's why he wanted to walk with me," I exclaimed out loud. It all made sense, he knew he'd be in a cell soon.
Daniel stalked towards me, "He wanted to walk with you?" He shouted, enraged.
"I can't believe you! You have no right to be so possessive!" I screamed in his face, hand raised to slap him. But Daniel reacted quickly and grabbed my risk, squeezing it tightly. His eyes turned back once again. "Stop, Daniel, it hurts." I winced out. He suddenly let go and flinched away from me, he realised what he had just done and looked ashamed of him.
"I'm so sorry," He exclaimed before shifting into his wolf, shredding his clothes in the process and running into the woods, I chased after him, only stopping after realising I would catch up to him. I started to kick rocks in frustration, before walking back to the back house.
Except, I didn't know that there was a person behind a tree, watching our conversation. And that person happened to be Martha.