ARI
I stared at the picture with shock.
"What the hell?" I asked myself.
Every single person in this picture, I have dreamed about. They're real. I started to shake in fear.
The girl, me, in the picture was standing next to a couple of people. Six guys and a girl. I or someone stood next to another girl who resembled Jen so much and by the picture I knew it was old. I assumed it was her mom but how...how the hell am I there?
I flipped it over to see writing on the back. Matt, Nathan, Damon, Mark, Chris, Me, Jennifer and Zander. Our little pack. :)
Jennifer? As in the girl in the picture who looks like me is named Jennifer?
I screamed in frustration and knocked down the clothes from the closet in anger.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" I yelled to myself.
I clutched the picture in my hand and charged out the door, down the stairs, into the kitchen and out into the backyard.
"JEN!" I screamed her name, tears threatening to fall onto my cheeks.
Alex turned his head towards me and put down a little boy he was holding.
A couple of children hid behind their parents back as they watched me huff and puff in anger even though it wasn't anger. It was fear. Fear of what I didn't know about this place, about these people.
Some of the parents had tears in there eyes as they watched me with shock. Most of them were smiling and gasping. Why are they smiling at me? Who are these people? I looked around the yard and noticed about 20 or so people.
"Ari, what's wrong?" Alex glanced around the yard, looking alert.
"Where is Jen? Jen's Mom? I need to speak to them NOW." I tried to calm myself down as did Alex.
"Okay, okay but you're shaking Ari. Tell me what's wrong." Alex touched my shoulder and looked into my eyes.
I breathed in and out and slowed my heart rate. "Tell me what's wrong, please?" Alex asked me again.
I showed him the picture of me. He scanned it over, his eyes widening in shock. He took it from my hand and flipped it over, reading the back like I had.
"Jennifer?" He asked me.
"What the hell is that Alex? Why am I in that picture?" I started to breath harder, faster.
"Jen?" I heard a women say behind me, her voice thick with emotion.
I looked at her and she gasped, the glass bowl she was holding fell to the floor, sprinkling glass everywhere.
I looked behind me expecting to see Jen but it was only Alex. I looked back at her to see that she was advancing towards me. My heart pounded with fear. I backed up into Alex who pushed me behind him, growling at the women.
I recognized her from the picture. She must be Jen's mom.
"NATHAN!" She screamed.
"Aunt Aimee, stay back." Alex straightened his back and growled again at his aunt who kept pushing forward.
"Jen! It's me, Aimee!" The women sobbed trying to talk to me.
The same men in the picture ran into the yard, looking alert just like Alex had.
"Aimee!" The guy, Chris, from the photo ran towards the women who was stuttering to him and pointing towards me. I hid behind Alex's back, my heart pounding. I was panicking.
The guys Mark and Damon hugged each other, tears in their eyes.
"I-i-it's Jen." Aimee finally said. She was crying so loud but they didn't seem like sad sobs, they seemed like happy sobs.
I clutched Alex's shirt, when everyone from the picture tried to peer behind him, trying to catch a glimpse of me.
Alex only growled louder, sounding inhuman, he shook in his spot and I backed away from him too.
How is he making that sound? He sounded like me. Could he be...
I looked over at Aimee and the men standing next to her. They all gasped when they saw my face.
I backed up into a tree, making me jump. I was shaking so hard and breathing so fast that I couldn't get enough oxygen to my brain. My eyes started to see black dots but I continued to hyperventilate.
"Jennifer!" The man from the picture who's name is Nathan and who I'm now realizing is Alex's dad, looked straight into my eyes.
He was in tears as were almost all of the other guys. I realized one of was missing. I think his name was Zander.
Matt, the tall one in the picture stepped closer to me, crying out my name.
I started to sway where I was standing. My breathing grew faster. My body shook and I could feel the animal inside, crawl to the top.
"I think she's shifting!" Someone yelled.
I froze, halting everything that was happening in my body. I glanced around feeling surrounded.
They know.
They know what I am.
My eyes darted back and forth, looking at everyone as they stared at me. I felt like a trapped animal and it was making me scared. Fear rolled off of me in waves and I'm pretty sure everyone knew how scared I was.
Nathan stepped towards me, his hands upright, reaching for me.
Alex came out of nowhere and knocked his father down and stood in front of me, huffing. He looked quite dangerous, looking at his father with a murderous glare.
"Alex, calm down. We're not going to hurt her." Nathan told his son.
Jen came out of the house and looked between me and Alex, then her mom. "What's going on?"
Matt's eyes never left my face, he was crying and smiling. I only looked at him with confusion.
When Matt stepped forward, something happened that I never thought was possible.
Alex shifted into the beast that has haunted my entire life. His shredded clothes flew to the ground as his already shifted body stood in front of me, growling so loud that the ground vibrated.
I gasped, breathing in the air into my lungs. I forgot how to breathe. The gray wolf's giant head looked back at my still form, concern in its eyes, moving closer to me. The wolf's black eyes glistened in the light. I've never seen such dark, such black eyes before.
I was too frozen to move, to react, so when the wolf whined and touched my arm with its nose, I did nothing. I wasn't breathing, my heart wasn't beating and I knew right then and there that I was going to pass out.
As much as I didn't want to, I started to fall. The wolf shifted back into a human and right before my head hit the ground, a naked Alex caught me in time, just before I slipped into the darkness.
🔹🔹🔹🔹
ALEX
"Ariana!" I shook her unconscious body just as my dad stepped forward and called out Jen. I squeezed Ariana to my chest and led her inside, placing her on the couch gently.
"What happened!" My uncle Matt asked, anxious, throwing me a pair of shorts.
"She must have passed out from the shock or something."
"Or she was scared." I growled, accussing them.
"What the hell is going on Dad." I asked him in a calm voice, even though all I wanted to do was punch something.
My uncle Matt and uncle Damon stepped forward but I stopped them.
Jen pushed through the crowd and crouched next to Ari. I let her because she was the only one I trusted right now.
Jen shook Ari's shoulders but Ari didn't wake up.
"I called Sharry, she's on her way." Aunt Aimee said, looking at Ari with a smile.
"Dad, I saw the picture of all you and Ari. What doesn't make sense is that you were all teenagers. How is that possible?"
"This is the Ariana you wanted us to meet, Jennifer?" Aunt Aimee asked Jen, ignoring my question.
Jen nodded, confused. "Why do you keep looking at Ariana and calling her Jen?" She asked.
Yeah? I wanted to know that too.
"Because Honey, this is Jennifer Gray." Aunt Aimee said with a happy sigh. "I knew she was out there. I knew it!"
My whole family was pissing me off. First they scare Ari and then they go and say crazy shit.
"Mom, this is Ariana Peterson? She just moved here with her mother?" Jen stood up, standing next to me.
"Holy shit! This reminds me! Mark, get Carter on the phone and tell him his sister is here. He should already be on his way though." My Dad said to Uncle Mark.
"Ariana is uncle Carter's Sister?" Jen looked at my dad like he was completely crazy.
"Sharry! Over here!"
The old pack doctor bent down next to Ari and gasped and looked at my dad. "Alpha? Is this-"
"Yes, Sharry, it's her." My dad said to her nodding his head.
Jen and I looked at each other, confused.
Sharry got back to work, checking her pupils and her heartbeat. "Can you describe what happened?" She asked my father.
"She was having a panic attack and then I shifted in front of her, causing her to faint maybe." I answered before my dad could.
"Did she not know about werewolves?" Sharry asked.
"No. She doesn't even know what she is." I told her hanging my head. I knew she was a wolf from the start. When we first met her, everyone wasn't sure if she was or wasn't because of the way she smelled. Usually wolves stick together but since Ari had been living with her human mother this whole time, her smell was always compromised. But I knew from the start she was just like me. It was just a feeling. I kept pushing her away but she deserved to know.
"Well she's fine, probably just fainted because of the shock or maybe she forgot to breath and there wasn't any oxygen going to her Brain. Don't worry."
Sharry packed up her things and patted my shoulder. "She'll be fine." I nodded my head as a thank you and she left.
Ari stirred, waking up. She quickly stood to her feet and looked around the room.
I could tell she wasn't scared anymore. Whatever she felt before was gone.
And then she started to cry.
She sobbed into her hands, trying to catch her breath.
Jen hugged her and sat her down.
I shifted on my feet, wanting to be with her but I was afraid she was crying because of me.
I could feel my father staring at me, watching my reaction.
Maybe Ari will feel better if I wasn't in the room. I started to back out of the living room until I heard her thick voice.
"I thought I was all alone." She was looking at me with so much relief.
She stood up again, walked towards me and then engulfed me into a tight hug. I hugged her back, glad that she wasn't scared of me.
"I thought I was the only monster out there." She said whispering.
"Monster? We aren't monsters? We're werewolves." Jen told her, squeezing her shoulder.
"We're? As in all of you too?" She asked pointing around the room, smiling widely and her eyes filling with happy tears. "Is that why you all smell different? I couldn't understand!" She smacked her forehead.
"My mom was ri-" Ari was cut off by my aunt Aimee slamming into her, hugging her tight.
"Jen." She said, calling her that same name.
"Mom why do you keep calling her that!" Jennifer asked, confused.
Ari just stood there with a confused expression until she came to a realization. She pulled away from aunt Aimee and lowered her head.
"It all makes sense." Ari said to herself.
"I was adopted wasn't I? The women in the picture is my real mother isn't she?" She seemed to recoil from the word 'real mother'.
My aunt shook her head. "The girl in the picture is you."
"What?" Ari asked her, appalled by her answer. "I'm-that's not me?"
My aunt looked at Jen. "Remember my best friend who I named you after?"
"Yeah? Jennifer Gray? You just mentioned her." Jen answered. "But mom, she's dead?"
"Yes, I know that!" Her mother yelled at her.
Aunt Aimee pointed back at Ariana. "This is her!"
Ariana finally snapped. "My name is Ariana, not Jen, not Jennifer. Ariana Peterson."
"Then explain the picture!" Aunt Aimee told her.
"Uh-photoshop!" Ari retorted.
"Maybe I can explain it better." My Dad stepped in and stood in front of Ari. My Uncles Matt, Damon, Chris and Mark joining him. I stood next to Ari, our shoulders touching.
"Son." My Dad said to me. "You might want to sit down for this."