A/N: I'm still enjoying writing this which is rare for me. Usually I stop liking what I'm writing after about 15,000 words but now I'm above 20,000 and still loving it!
Votes and comments are loved!
Five
- Popcorn and Shotguns -
*Annabeth*
“I should totally break her nose,” Hannah, my best friend in the world, said on the other side of the phone. I was in my car driving home from the grocery store. I’d never before realized just how boring and time consuming grocery shopping was. “Or like a few of her fingers.”
“Hannah!” I cried, surprised. Hannah usually wasn’t one to suggest violent solutions. She was more of a let’s hug it out person. At least when she was in human shape. “Shelly Halls might be a despicable person but I hardly think-”
“She told my boyfriend she loves him. How can that deserve anything less than some form of bodily damage?” she asked, voice rising. I felt a little like this was my fault. It had all happened yesterday on Hannah's birthday after she'd chosen to have just me over for a sleep over rather than throw a big party.
So while we had been painting each other’s nails and watching romantic comedies, Shelly had thrown a party of her own. She’d apparently told people it was a surprise party for Hannah but really it was just a way for her to make a play for Hannah’s boyfriend. Not that I’d ever understood what was so great about Josh. He was a football player that was failing everything but gym and his favorite thing to talk about was how awesome his car was. But I guess Hannah was dating him because that was what people expected, with him being the quarterback and she head cheerleader. Man was I glad I’d never let her talk me into trying out that so called sport.
“Josh is yours,” I said. “He loves you almost as much as his car. He wouldn’t dump you for Shelly. He know she’s a bitch – and not in the good way.”
“I guess you’re right. I still want to break her nose though. But I won’t.” She sighed heavily. “Let’s talk about something else. Like your boy-toy.”
“He’s not my boy-toy and I only told you about him because-”
“I’m impossible to keep secrets from so why even try?” Hannah said.
“I was going to say because you’re my best friend, but whatever.” I turned off the main road into the smaller road that led up to the house.
“Are you excited about seeing him later?” she asked sounding giddy. “You have to call and tell me all about it later. And maybe bring your phone and take a photo of him. It’s killing me not knowing what he looks like.”
I rolled my eyes almost wishing I hadn’t let Hannah in on my Ryan secret. But like she’d said she was impossible to keep things from and she was my best friend. Keeping something big like this from her would have been like committing friendship treason. Still I wasn’t going to go stalker on Ryan and start taking his picture, even if he was totally picture taking worthy.
“I’ve told you how cute he is. You’ll just have to take my word for it.”
She huffed. “I’m not sure I will. Maybe I’ll have to come with you to see him one of these days. And if you say no I’ll think you made him up. It’s almost too romantic to be true.”
I chuckled as I turned the car into our half mile long driveway “Yeah getting your foot stuck in a bear trap is real romantic.”
“Oh shut up,” Hannah said. ”It’s totally romantic, you saving him, him and you having your own little private-”
“There are people at the house,” I said, interrupting her. I’d just gotten so I could see the house through the frosty forest. “Don and Jimmy I think. Jimmy still drives that horrible pickup truck right? And Ink’s bike is here. You heard anything about the rogue? Has someone else gone missing?”
“No, my dad would have gotten a call,” Hannah said, her voice suddenly a little higher. “What if they found Ryan?”
I shook my head as I parked the car.“They can’t have found him. How would they? He’s been in the cabin all week.” The door to the house opened and Don stepped out. He was wearing a leather jacket and the late afternoon sun glinted off his light hair. He headed for my car. “I’ll call you later okay?” I told Hannah before hanging the phone up and sliding the bag of Ryan’s groceries down on the floor of the passenger seat. I left my phone on the seat as I got out of the car.
“Hey,” Don said. I forced myself to smile. It wouldn’t really matter if he saw the bag of food but I figured it would be best if he didn’t. Don wouldn’t like me hiding Ryan from my dad – or from him for that matter. “I’m glad I caught you before you ran off to wherever you’ve been this week.”
“I haven’t been anywhere,” I said defensively and headed for the house, leaving him behind. I only had a light jacket on, having decided to be fashionable but cold today so it wasn’t just the fact that I wanted to get away from Don that motivated me.
“Really,” he said, catching up with me and opening the door for me. I scowled at him, but walked into the house.“Because I’ve been here every day this week and I’ve only seen you once.”
I stamped my boots to get the snow off and zipped my jacket’s zipper down, trying to think up a good response to that. “Well yesterday I was at Hannah’s. It was her birthday, you know, and the day before that I was just out for a run.”
“Relax girl, I wasn’t asking for your complete schedule. I just remembered I wanted to ask you if you’d go home with me to see Granny and Papa the weekend before Christmas. They love you and…”
“And…?” I asked eyes narrowing.
“I may not have mentioned to them we broke up.”
I stared at him stunned for a moment. “We broke up more than a year ago. How could they not have noticed?”
He looked a little sheepish and ran his hand through his perfect hair, making it perfectly tousled.“I’ve just made excuses. And I haven’t gone home that many times. Come on Annabeth, please!”
“No way Don. We’re broken up,” I said and took my boots off, putting them by the door.
“Yeah I know,” he said, “and that’s on me, but this isn’t about me. It’s about them. They love you and they’re old. It would break their hearts to learn we had ended things so close to Christmas.“
“No,” I said, even though I wanted to give in. Don’s grandparents were nice. Like super nice. And they’d raised him after his mother died and his dad ran off.
“Fine,” he said sullenly, following me into the living room. “Do you want to help us with tracking the rogue? Your dad won’t ask since he wants to keep you out of it but you could be useful.” I said nothing as I moved towards the kitchen.”You’re a great tracker, I always thought so-”
I turned abruptly.“If I agree to help you will you leave me alone? And not ask where I’ve been or anything?”
He crossed his arms. “If you say yes, sure.”
“Then yes. I will help you track the rogue if you find a fresh trail. But don’t expect me to find something you can’t. I’m not that good,” I said not wanting him to get his hopes up too much.
“Thanks Annie,” Don said, his face cracking up into a wide charming smile. “You’re a doll.”
“Don’t call me Annie,” I muttered as he turned and left the kitchen.
I used the back door and a pair of old gumboots to get back around the house and to my bag of groceries and backpack in the car. Back in the kitchen I took my school stuff out and packed the food down in the backpack. It would be kind of heavy, especially with the laptop I was planning on taking with me in there but I could handle it.
Then I walked over to the pantry and found the box of buttery microwave popcorn. I figured the popcorns would probably have cooled before I got to Ryan but they would still be popcorn. His favorite food. It was silly but I wanted to do something nice for him. He was just so lost and confused. I knew popcorn wouldn’t fix that, but they might at least make him realize I cared and wanted to help him. That he should stay.
I put the bag in the microwave and headed upstairs to get some warm and easy to put on clothes – that still could look good. Then I put my laptop in the back and unable to decide which movie to bring I put both some sort of horror movie and what I thought was an action comedy in the bag.
I got downstairs just as the microwave pinged. I put the popcorn bag in my backpack, headed for the laundry room where I stripped off and then dumped my clothes. Then I changed to wolf, picked up the backpack, trying not to frown at the overwhelming smell of popcorn and headed out the kitchen door’s dog door.
Running as fast as I could I got to Ryan’s cabin in no time. The popcorn bag even felt a little warm as I dressed, well out of sight of the cabin. I hadn’t brought shoes today either. Too heavy. So my feet were freezing by the time I knocked on the door. It opened almost immediately. He’d been waiting for me.
Perhaps he was as excited as me. And I was excited. Ridiculously so. Ryan was just different. Different from Don, different from the boys in school. He was real and had listened to me when we talked. It had been a long time since I had felt like someone really listened to me. Since April died. Sure Hannah was nice to talk to but so much of what she wanted to chat about was boring school or pack gossip.
“You should really start brining shoes,” Ryan said as I skipped from foot to foot trying to get a little feeling back into them.
“Maybe,” I said, setting down the backpack. As I did I noticed something my cold feet had at first made me miss. In fact several some-things.“What’s that?” I asked pointing to a green military styled jacket that was thrown on the sleeping bag. “And where did you get the clothes?” I’d also just realized Ryan wasn’t wearing the torn sweat pants or the hoodie I’d brought him. He was wearing jeans, boots and a blue fleece sweater over a dark T-shirt.
“My leg is pretty much healed and I was starting to go crazy just sitting here so I went out and found my stash of clothes and cash,” he said, shrugging. I felt a little twinge of worry about him going out, about someone from the pack seeing him. But most of them had work or school so the risks of them catching him weren’t very big. And I wasn’t sure it would be a big deal that he was on our territory. Ryan was a nice guy. Anyone could tell. “Nearly froze my feet off though,” he added.
“I bet,” I said as I thought about my brief dash through the snow. He smelled the air suddenly.
“What’s that?” he asked, his eyes leaving my feet and going to the bag. “Is that-?”
I zipped the backpack up. “Popcorn, yes!” I said and handed him the bag.”Some of them might even still be warm. I ran really fast.”
Ryan took the bag and stared at it. I wondered if I’d gotten the wrong kind. Maybe he didn’t like butter popcorn, only didn’t everyone like butter popcorn?
“Are they okay?” I asked. “I brought my computer and some DVDs too. I figured we could have a little movie night. Or well movie afternoon. If you’d like. Or we could just sit. Or I could try to cook you something but I’m really not good at that. I can’t even make eggs.” I realized I was rambling a bit and decided to shut up.
“You brought me popcorn,” he said, his voice odd.
“Yeah. Because you said you loved them. That they used to be your favorite food.”
He looked up at me, a smile spreading across his face. “I thought you said popcorn wasn’t food.”
“It’s not,” I said, pleased he was smiling. I wasn’t sure I’d even seen him smile like that. A real, truly happy smile. It was nice to see. His gray eyes sparkled with it and he had a little dimple on one side. It was adorable. “But it’s a great snack.”
“Thanks,” he said looking down at the popcorn again. “I feel a little stupid about being this happy about popcorn.”
I pulled the laptop out of my backpack and then the movies. “You want to see a movie about some sort of freaky serial killer or one about a kid trying to be a superhero?”
“Eh,” he said, still seeming too focused on the popcorn to think of much else. “You choose.”
Shrugging I turned the laptop on, thankful it had a great battery. “You know you should open the bag and eat them,” I said when Ryan was still just standing there looking at the bag a minute later when my home screen came up. I’d moved over to the sleeping bag, pushing the heavy military jacket to the side so we could sit somewhere at least relatively comfortable.
“Right,” he said and opened the bag. Much to my surprise, since it took almost fifteen minutes to get here at a full run, a puff of warm air escaped from the bag and the smell of popcorn filled the cabin.
“Come sit,” I said and patted the sleeping bag next to me. He looked a little doubtful but then nodded and sat next to me. I could feel his body heat even though he had made sure to sit several inches from me. He seemed to be a little afraid of me. Or not me. More like he was worried about something having to do with me. “I’m thinking superhero kid,” I said cheerfully as I handed him the DVD case so he could check out the summary on the back.
He glanced at I briefly but quickly gave it back in favor of eating popcorn.
“Good?” I asked. He nodded. I moved a little closer to him as I popped in the DVD. I wanted to share some body heat. At least that was the excuse I was going to give him if he asked. Really I just kind of wanted to be close to him.
“Yes,” he said offering me some. I took a handful of the popcorn as the movie popped up on the screen giving me options on subtitles. I chose none and started the movie.
The movie was funny and we both laughed at the crazy stuff the kid was doing. We also finished the popcorn in record speed. By the time the credits were rolling I was sitting right next to him, the laptop as much on his thigh as on mine, his right arm draped slightly around my shoulder..
“Thanks for this,” he said as I closed the lid on the computer and pushed it to the side. ”I’m real glad you were the one that found me.”
“I’m glad I found you too,” I said glancing up at him. I really was. I didn’t want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t. If the wind hadn’t changed and I hadn’t caught his scent.
He chuckled a bit.“It’s kind of funny I’m actually glad I didn’t die. It’s weird.”
I turned to him.“Of course you’re glad to be alive! That’s not weird.”
He turned away. I said nothing, worry creeping up inside me. He slowly said, “The last year hasn’t been fun for me Annabeth. It’s all been kind of passing me by. I haven’t felt glad or excited or anything for a long time. And well, once or twice when I’ve been in trouble I just been wondering what it would be like to…”
He’d been wondering what it would be like to die?
“Well stop thinking anything like that,” I said sternly, putting my hands on his arm. “Right now.”
He smiled humorlessly. “Don’t worry. I’m not suicidal. I’m just tired of being what I am.”
“Then you should change it,” I whispered, moving a little closer to him, looking deep into his eyes. There were faint traces of yellow in them. “Stay here.”
“I’m not sure-”
I put my finger over his lips. “Stay here,” I said again, moving my face closer to his. “Stay here with me.”
“Annabeth,“ he whispered, the warm air of his exhale caressing me. “I’m not the guy for yo-”
Before he could keep talking and ruin the moment I kissed him. Softly at first, just lips barely touching, but soon I felt his lips becoming demanding and his hands move over my body. Pleased I slid over into his lap. He was a really good kisser, not going too fast but still teasing and making me want.
“Am I dreaming this?” Ryan asked as we pulled apart a little later, both drawing in deep breaths. He pushed some of my curly hair away from my face. “I think I must be.”
“No dreaming,” I whispered, looking into his eyes. “I’m as real as they come.”
“You smell great,” he said, his eyes suddenly turning full yellow and locking onto my neck. “Too great. We should-”
Before he could suggest whatever he was about to suggest several things happened in rapid succession.
There was a loud crash; the sound of wood splintering.
Ryan pushed me off and to the side, and then put himself between me and the noise.
A shotgun went off.
Someone screamed. Me I realized a little startled. I was the one screaming. And I couldn’t stop.
Time seemed to speed up as I blinked. Wood splinters, dust and snow was flying all about. The shotgun had hit the cabin’s ceiling and that’s where the snow and wood was coming from.
Ryan was growling and he was crouched down some, defensive towards…Don, Jimmy and Ink who were the ones who had just crashed into the cabin guns blazing. Both Don and Ink were carrying sawed off shotguns. The Montana man’s first choice for making a person into hamburger.
“Annabeth be quiet,” Ink was yelling. He had been the one that fired the shotgun, which explained why he was yelling. Wolf ears ring for quite a while after firing a shot, being super sensitive and all. I shut up because it had been a wolf order and my wolf knew she had to follow orders.
“You,” Don said to Ryan who was still snarling and standing between me and my pack.“Get down on the floor or I will blow you away.”
“Don stop,” I said, standing up. “He’s a friend. He’s-”
“Oh yeah,” Don’s eyes turned to me. “I could see just how good a friend he was about to become to you. Annabeth do you have any idea what this guy is? Whatever he told you-”
“I know what he is,” I yelled. “He’s a werewolf. That doesn’t mean you can come here to his-”
“To his what?” Ink said, quietly. He was a big guy with scary piercing black eyes. “His house? This is pack territory. You should have told your father about this creature living here.”
“He’s not a creature,” I said, taking a step towards Ryan, who was still looking about ready to rip the other men to pieces. “He’s a person.”
“Don’t think you should be touchin’ him just now,” Jimmy said his southern drawl more pronounced than normal. “He’s not quite all there I’d say.”
Jimmy began to move along the wall, clearly hoping to get around Ryan and to me. Jimmy was just a little taller than me, not all that muscular and had no weapon making him the least threat of the three men.
“Ryan,” I said, because if he didn’t realize these people weren’t the enemy, if he didn’t get control of his wolf side, things might go bad. I wasn’t sure who would win, Ryan or Ink & Don along with the shotguns but I had no desire to find out. “Just relax. They won’t hurt you.”
“Darlin’ I think he be more worried about us hurtin’ you,” Jimmy said, “Look at how he’s watching me.”
It was true, Ryan was more focused on the unarmed Jimmy that was still inching towards me, than the two other who both had weapons and were looking a whole lot more scary. Don’s usually pretty face was contorted and his neck was red. He was pissed. I remember what he’d just said about seeing me and Ryan through the window. Perfect I thought and rolled my eyes. We were dealing with someone who was partly operating under the influence of the Green-Eyed Monster.
“It’s okay Ryan,” I said trying to get his attention. “These are my friends. My pack. They’re not going to hurt me and they won’t hurt you if you just-”
Ryan growled loudly interrupting me. I wondered if he had started to change because I wasn’t sure a human throat could make that kind of sound. Jimmy took another step towards me. Ryan looked about ready to attack, crouching further, turning towards Jimmy. Don’s shotgun moved, I tried to say stop, but for the second time in less than three minutes a shotgun went off.
Only this time it was Ryan’s legs and the floor instead of the ceiling the pellets from the gun hit.
Don had just shot Ryan.
“No,” I yelled as Ryan fell to the floor. The impact of his head on the floor made a sickening crack. There was blood too. I tried to run to him but Jimmy caught me and held me to him in a bear hug that I couldn’t escape. I tried, hitting his back and kicking and scratching but he held me like steel.
There was noises and talking but I was too busy trying to get free, yelling and clawing at Jimmy to hear them. I couldn’t believe Don had just shot Ryan. Ryan wasn’t dangerous. It was all their fault. They’d come bursting in. It was stupid of them. They knew you didn’t do that. It was all their fault. Ryan would hate them now and he’d never want to stay. That was if he was even alright. Buck shots to the legs wouldn’t be that hard to heal for him I hoped but he had cracked his head on the floor as he fell. What if he was bleeding in his brain and no one was helping him.
I realized after a few minutes that my crying and kicking was not logical and it sure as hell wasn’t helping anyone. And Jimmy wasn’t the bad guy. He was holding me to keep me out of the way and I guessed to calm me down. He was waiting for my adrenaline and the shock of what had just happened to fade a little. Jimmy had been a Navy Seal for about ten years before joining our pack so he probably knew about shock and fear.
A minute later I became limp in his arms and then, because he’d still been part of this whole mess, I wiped my nose on his jacket.
“You got yourself put back together?” he asked in a friendly tone as he let me go. The cabin was empty. No Ryan, no Don, no Ink. Only a small bit of blood on the floor. When had they gone? What had I missed.
“You shot him,” I said accusingly and pushed at Jimmy. “How could you? He isn’t bad. You shouldn’t have let them shoot him.”
“I recon Don thought he was protecting you. And me. But your werewolf will be fine. He was still alive when they left, it was just his legs. He’ll be alright,” Jimmy said thoughtfully. I glared at him but since he hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger I couldn’t really be pissed at him.
” How did you even get here?” I asked Jimmy, trying to figure out how this had all happened.
“An old but not completely forgotten access road about a mile that way,” Jimmy said pointing north. “Then ATVs.” ATV meant all-terrain vehicle, which was the only practical way to get anywhere in the forest. The cars that could drive in the mud and stuff were too big but an ATV was just the right size. “They just took him back on one.”
“Why did you do this?” I said, still feeling shaky. “He hadn’t done anything wrong. He’s not the rogue, just passing through. You had no right. Don had no right. Isn’t this a free country? You shouldn’t have come. Or maybe if you’d just knocked on the door instead of bursting in like crazy people? Or if you’d left the guns home he’d have-”
“Come nicely? I don’t think so. He’s a werewolf. I recon those don’t do nice. And him being a werewolf would be all the reason Don needed.” Jimmy shrugged and headed for the door that was hanging off its rusty hinges. “Werewolves are dangerous. Beasts. Out of control. It was you who should have come to us. That way it could have been done different.”
“Ryan isn’t bad,” I protested as I followed. He wasn’t. I knew he wasn’t. “He’s not. He was hurt and he was going to leave. He’s a good person. He was just lost and hurt. And you attacked him.”
“Maybe that’s what happened,” Jimmy said noncommittally.
“Take me back home,” I said. It was not a request but an order. “I’m going to explain to my dad. Don isn’t alpha, my dad is. He’ll see Ryan isn’t dangerous. I’ll make him see that.”