A/N~ Okay, real quick. Thank you, whoever you are, for reading No Matter What You Do, Stick with the Pack. You are a huge help in my effort to to get published someday. After this goes through some Beta readers and editing, I am going to offer it as a free ebook on Smashwords, so if it's not to much trouble please give me your honest feedback, tell me what you want in this story. After you're done, visit http://beccalathorn.weebly.com/thank-you-with-your-help-with-stick-with-the-pack.html to get a treat from yours truly! Again, thank you for your help!
~Becca.
It happened one day during my shift. Nothing much was happening in the bookstore or the café, Cale was sipping on a latte and Parker was playing with the cash register while I tuned Baby. We had a mini TV on and turned to the news, just to feel like we were doing something relevant. And it was rare that we had news from the States, but this somehow made it all the way to Abaline.
Tonight’s top story: A Mystery from a Missing Family from Oregon.
I dropped Baby and ran over to that minuscule TV, turning the volume up and grabbing the attention of Cale and Parker.
Markwood University Professor Archer Charlane and his family go missing only months after their youngest daughter, Katlyn Charlane, runs away. Police seem to think that the disappearance of the family, the runaway daughter, and a group of her friends are all connected. No breakthroughs have been made in the case yet but suspects have been named. Maxine Daniels, Nathan Daniels, Patrick Daniels, and Hector Rockefeller are all in police custody. More on that at six.
For a moment, I couldn’t think straight. I turned the TV off and just stood there. Time, for a moment, paused. Just a moment where nothing happened. I closed my eyes and pressed my lips, trying my best not to panic. I underestimated the situation again. Turns out Northern was impatient. Clearly this was his doing. But a month! Just one freaking month! My muscles clenched up. Of course things would play out like this. Of course I would be too late, again.
The first words to leave my mouth after the report had ended were, “Cale, I quit.”
“What?!” She exclaimed. “What are you thinking?” Cale jumped out of her chair.
“I’m thinking I have a lot less time than I thought I did.” I smiled grimly, turning to walk out the door. I’d have to go back to the apartment and grab some stuff, give Paula a visit.
“No no no, baby girl.” Cale grabbed me as I started to head out. “This is craziness. You stay on that stool and you play your beautiful music!” She stomped her foot.
“I need to go Cale.” I waved her off, not paying much heed.
“You don’t need to do anything.” She shook her head. “Please, whatever that just was, leave it be. You belong here now, Maddy Dan, and nowhere else.”
I started to get a bit irritated, turning around and looking down at her. “No, Cale, I need to-“
“You just stop right there!” Cale shouted, tears brimming her eyes. “Now I’ve already lost one baby and I won’t lose another. You sit down on that stool and forget about leaving!” She tried her hardest to hold back tears. I stood there, not quite sure how to respond. Clearly me leaving wasn’t just about me.
“Cale.” I spoke softly, turning around and resting both of my hands on her shoulders as they shook. “Cale listen to me.” She refused to look at me. “Right before I left home, there was something I really needed to do. Something that probably would have prevented that police report in the first place.” My gaze flickered to the TV and a very confused Parker for a second. Parker I held my gaze with, wishing that if I could convey with my eyes just how important this was too me. “But I couldn’t, because my family wouldn’t let me, because they wouldn’t listen to me. They wouldn’t listen and it cost me so much, and now it might even cost me everything.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “So I need you to listen to me right now, before I have to give anymore up.” Then she decided to look up at me with the saddest puppy dog eyes I had ever seen. “You’ve been like a mom to me this past month. Hell, better then my mom was, you didn’t ask questions and you didn’t push me. You knew I needed help so you helped me, no questions asked. And Cale, that meant the world to me. But no matter what you do, it still isn’t going to take away that problem. I told you when I moved in, I was only going to stay here for a year. It’s because I was afraid that if I stayed to long something like that would happen.” I paused. “If I don’t get back down to Oregon, all of those people will die. I need to set things right again, Cale, or else I’ll never be able to live with myself.”
“But baby girl, I-“
“Cale.” I softened. “That’s my family. That’s my family that’s disappeared. I can’t let them get hurt, I just can’t.”
For a flicker, it looked like she couldn’t even recognize me anymore. But then she regained her composure, she looked like she understood that all too well, and pushed me away for a second to collect herself. She wiped her eyes, sniffed up the excess snot in her nose, and stood up straight. “You go!” She demanded. “You go and don’t come back until your family’s safe.”
I chuckled, giving her a salute and hurried out the door and into my Jeep. When I started the engine, I looked into the shop one last time, with Cale and Parker and anything I could have ever wanted. Then I pulled out.
I slammed the suitcases on Paula’s desk while she took a puff of her cigarette. She looked at the cases with an eyebrow raised. “I thought you felt skittish about Jeep man’s money.”
“I do.” I assured her. “But I need something to pay rent with while I’m away.”
“You’re going away?” She asked, curious but not freaking out like Cale had.
I nodded. “I need you to do me a few favors.”
“And that is?”
“First off, don’t tell Cale or Parker, but I don’t think I’m coming back.” I said. “If that’s the case, and it probably is, a girl from Wisconsin named Oddy is going to come. Everything I own, including the apartment, belongs to her.” I slid the key out of my pocket and threw to Paula, who caught it with one hand. “She’s real weird, like me. I’d like it if you gave her the same welcome I got.”
“Can do friend.” She said, returning to the clutter of paper work on her desk. I smiled at her and mouthed thank you, heading out the door. Before I left, she caught me. “So, where might we all be attending your funeral?”
“Markwood.” My voice cracked. “Markwood Oregon.”
“Alrighty then.” She waved me goodbye. “See ya there.”
I didn’t make this call until I was far away from British Columbia, back in Washington. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. Maybe I just wanted to delay the inevitable. But who was I kidding? I was only a state away and with the Jeep I’d be there by tomorrow. But dear God, these could be my last words. I looked out the windshield bleakly and dug into my pocket for the disposable phone I bought a couple of gas stations back and dialed up Oddy, who picked up on the first ring.
“Hello?”
“Oddy.” I sighed in relief, somehow thinking that she might not be okay either.
“Oh my god, Kate.” She mirrored my sigh. Kate, for a second I wondered if she had me confused with someone else. It’d been so long since anyone called me that. I didn’t feel like Kate anymore, and I never wanted to feel like Kate again. But I guess that’s the name I would die with. “Kate, it’s been awful without you. My parents are going hectic, your whole family’s been spiraling down into depression. And now this kidnapping!”
“So you’ve seen the news?”
“This is bad, this is really bad Kate. What do we do? What do I do? I-“
“Oddy.” I said in a serene voice that I never knew I had, the one that hypnotized people to stay calm. “It’s time.”
“No.” She said terrified. “No, no it’s not.”
“I need you too-“
“No Kate! You turned around right now and go back to Canada! You stay there until this blows over! I don’t care what you think is-“
“It won’t make a difference.” I explained to her calmly. “He’ll kill my family and then find me, he’ll go stray if he has too. Oddy, I’m going to have to face him some time or another.”
“I can’t just let you die!” She screamed, then dissolved into sobs. “I need you Kate, everyone does. You can’t throw it away, you can’t die.”
I let her calm down before I spoke again. “Have my parents asked you for the truth?”
“No.” She sniffled. “They didn’t get the clue.”
“When I go home, I’m going to leave them a note telling them outright to come to you for the whole truth. That’s the last thing I need from you Oddy, I promise.”
“Please stop Kate.”
“And after you do that, go up to British Columbia, a town called Abaline. Find a woman named Paula. She’s the landlady for my apartment, she’ll give you the key.”
“So that’s just it then.” She spat angrily. “You’re just going to give up. Just going to throw your life away and leave the rest of us struggling to get by without you. Don’t you get it? You’re important to us, Kate! You’re the only one I can talk to about Cai and Xavier and the blood, about everything! You make me feel sane, like I’m not a monster. And I’m not the only one. None of us have been able to breathe since you left and if you died…what would we do Kate? What would we do?”
“Goodbye Oddy.” I hung up and threw the phone out the window.
I looked back at Baby in the backseat. Maybe I had time for just one song.
I pulled into the driveway of the house that I left just two months ago, and yet I felt years older than I was when I left. I had grown so much, changed so greatly, I wasn’t the same person anymore. Had anyone seen me, I doubt they would recognize me. Yet for all that changed, one thing remained. I still loved them, I still wanted nothing more than their safety. And with this newly reborn me I had deep passion to bring things to an end. Not for revenge, I wasn’t Maxie. But so that I could forget, put this all behind me. On the off chance that I came out of this alive, that’s what would be my prize. Peace for the girl who had once been Katlyn Charlane, a sense of finally being able to move on with my life.
I put the Jeep in park and walked up the porch to the door, and I got the urge to knock first for a second. Like I didn’t live here. But…I didn’t I guess. And I don’t know what I was expecting when I got in, the place to be in shambles or something. But it was frozen in time to when I left. I swore I could still hear the echo of that slap. And I noticed the little things that blended into the background when I was growing up here, like the bowl of fruit on the kitchen table with exactly one banana and two apples, the way the couches were placed in the living room, the phantom of the time that Jeff Jack and I rollerbladed in the house and scuffed the floors. The house was dark, untouched. I felt tears well in my eyes. It’s too soon. I told myself. I still can’t be here without feeling the pain. The last moments of that night came rushing to me and played in a loop over and over again. But I took that first step in, numbing myself to the memory. In this moment in time it all felt hazy, I found it hard to imagine I ever lived here. I climbed the stairs, passing the framed moments of happiness caught in time, and walked all the way down to my room. The door creaked open, already slightly ajar. I imagined that maybe when anyone passed this room, they opened it just a crack and peeked in, missing me. But that was a horrible thing to hope for.
My room, much like the rest of the house, was exactly as I left it. And I bet I could have found everything easily. But instead of lingering, I went straight to the shag carpet and lifted it, revealing the deep scratches I had made when I first transformed. I thought to myself, in a joking way, that if this house was a cheesy tourist trap then this would be the room they’d say they kept “the beast”. I touched the scratches on the surface, feeling warmth from them. This is where it all began.
But as much as I would have liked to stay there and reminisce, I still had a family to save. So I went back down stairs and did what I had come to do. In the kitchen, I pulled out a notepad from the drawer and wrote a quick note, Go to Oddy for the truth. But at the last minute I scribbled it out. They weren’t ready for the truth then and I didn’t think anything had changed. Plus, maybe it was selfish, but I wanted them to bury me as a human, as someone still part of the family. And it wasn’t my instinct telling me to do this, it was me. For the first time in a while I felt like the same Kate I had been when I was fifteen and everything was okay, that kid who was scared of herself the night she turned sixteen, who thought she was a monster. So instead I jogged back out to the Jeep, grabbed Baby, ran back inside, and placed her on the counter. Frustrated, I crumpled up the note and threw it in the trash. Let’s keep it like that. To my pack I was a tool, to my family I was a human, to Abaline I was a troubled teen. I don’t need much more than that. After all, the only one who really knows who you are in life is you. And I, I choose to the one who was willing to give everything for those she loved. No matter what I did, I stuck by then through and through. And to be honest, it gave me pretty damn good reason to be proud. When push came to shove, when the shit hit the fan, I didn’t run. I fought. And with that realization, just like that I was ready.
But suddenly I heard something move somewhere in the house, and before I could pin point where I was seeing stars.
I woke up to a metallic taste in my mouth. No feeling in my arms since they were tied above my head. It took a little bit to get all of my senses back, but finally I was able to blink my crusted eyes open. At first I deepened on my other senses to guide me. It smelt like I was deep in the forest somewhere, the sound of rattling chains. I must have been in the warehouse. The air felt damp like it always does at night. Night, that was not good. Tonight was a full moon.
I cursed loudly and started to thrash in my bonds, my body begging for the chains to come. A soft chuckle was heard in the distance.
“’Bout time you woke up.”
My head jerked up to find Northern, with all his stalker splendor, from his auburn hair to his completely gay shoes. He wore a sinister smirk on his face, and looked plenty evil standing against the moon like that. Though he couldn’t fool anyone, he was crazy with holding back the transformation. After all, like Maxie said, boys have the least control.
And we weren’t the only ones there either. Oh no, Northern made sure to bring his friends. I could smell ten different guys lurking in the shadows of the warehouse, and they hadn’t changed either, probably at the command of their Alpha. God what a sicko, I couldn’t imagine the pain those guys were in.
But this all only barely passed over my thoughts, I was going insane with wanting to change, wanting to fight, wanting to run. It was tugging my mind in every which way, I couldn’t decide what I was.
Control this! Something deep in me demanded. You are a Lycan Bride, you have the power too! And I used that thought, that motive, as a surge of strength that lit me on fire and seared my desire to give in. Within seconds my trashing was reduced to snarling with a fierce upturned lip.
“Nice to see we’re acting civil here.” He complimented.
“Your one to talk.” The voice that came out of my mouth I couldn’t recognize. It was deep, throaty, not human in the least. It clawed at my throat.
“Talk! Yes, that was exactly what was on my mind!” He exclaimed pacing in circles around me. “I have wanted to talk to you since the day you left. But you didn’t leave a new address darling. And it had me stuck for a while, so I thought I’d send out a mass mail, so to speak. One I knew would reach you. And darling, I want to talk the night away.” He looked up with a shiver at the giant full moon that hung lazily in the sky, taunting us. “But mother moon doesn’t approve, so I think we should make this fast.”
“Oh no, I’ll talk for as long as you want.” I challenged. “Let’s see which one of us lasts longer. Or I could always just change now, to make you more comfortable darling.”
“So nice of you to offer sweetheart.” Northern put a hand over his chest. “But your changing would set off a bit of a chain reaction, my boys get so antsy on nights like this. And trust me,” he snapped his fingers and a group of men, sweating with muscles rippling under their skin, pushed a group of humans into the light. A group of humans I knew all too well, each one looking all too terrified to be happy to see me. “You don’t want that to happen.”
My neck snapped back to Northern and I leapt for him, forgetting about controlling myself and the rope that bound me. “I’ll kill you, you mother fucking bastard!” Northern smirked and glanced at one of his boys, who took my mom and threw her to the ground.
“Behave yourself love, we have guests.”
I bit down on my lip so I tasted iron and copper on my tongue and clamped down on the urge to tear his throat out. He gave out a low whistle. “That’s some control you’ve got, for someone so young. It’s magnificent.”
“Bite me.” I growled.
“Don’t need to darling,” he came closer and traced his finger along my jaw line. I shivered in disgust at his touch. “You’re already perfect.”
My brows pinched together as I forced myself to look at the ground and not at all the different parts of his body that I wanted to tear off. “Go ahead and just say it already!” I shouted, losing my cool. “I’m going to have to be your Mate or else you’re going to kill my family. And you know what? Why don’t I just suck your dick while I’m down here?”
He turned around in half the blink of an eye and brought his hand across my face with a sharp crack. Blood started to trickle down, his nails already turning to claws. “Such childish outbursts will get you nowhere, sweet.”
“I’m not going anywhere good anyway.” With any luck, I’d be dead before that creep laid another hand on me.
He sighed. “You’re a bit of a slow learner, aren’t you?” He snapped his fingers and one of his boys picked Derek up by the throat, raising from the ground and cutting off his air.
“No, wait! What are you doing?! Stop!” I pleaded.
“Temper temper.” He wagged his finger. Derek kicked and thrashed, starting to turn red.
I looked down my eyes narrowed. “Please.” I whispered. “Don’t hurt them.”
“Well, since you asked so politely.” He smirked, nodding at the guard. He dropped Derek to the ground and left him hacking, everyone else struggling against the guards. “What a nice family you have, so obedient. That’s important in an Alpha’s family. Such a waste if they had to die.”
I gritted my teeth together to keep from snapping at him at the mention of my family. He had no right to…
But then I noticed it, another scent in the air. Actually, a couple. I closed my eyes and used my smell and hearing to locate them, not wanting to give away their location with an eye glance. It smelt like…Hector! Hector up on the catwalks, with a bag of silver powder! Bag of silver, that was genius. Of course, it wouldn’t be enough to kill them, but it would be enough to break their control. And once the change began we’d have a window, if a small one, to get away. But that wasn’t the only miracle. Two wolves…Nathan and Scuff, waiting outside! The relief flooded me with so much giddiness that I chuckled. Northern turned to me, a subtle animosity on his face.
I started to laugh, nearly hysterically. Northern looked over at me, frustrated and confused. “You’re not the only one who brought friends, Northern shit.”
Before his brow had the chance to completely furrow silver powder was released into the air. I quickly wretched my arms down, using some of that handy superhuman strength to break through the rope. Once free I ran over to my family, who were already running out of the warehouse. Hector swung down from the catwalks on one of the chains and caught up to us. Behind us the Northern boys were on the ground, shouting in agony as the change came on so unexpectedly. I was still struggling with the urge myself but with the adrenaline I felt I had a pretty good handle on it. Outside everyone, save for Hector and I, stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Nathan and Scuff.
“Keep moving!” Hector shouted at all of them, hurrying them along. We ran through the forest like no other, not sure where we were going but getting there nonetheless. Howls echoed in the distance and propelled us forward. At some I slipped into wolf mind, letting it be satisfied with the hell of a run we were giving. And while all the other wolves gave themselves over to the wolf mind one seemed to be dead set on us. On me.
I stopped and turned around, waiting for him. Everyone else stopped with me.
“Go.” I told them, readying myself to catch him.
“Without you? Are you freaking insane?” Hector asked.
“He’s coming, isn’t he?” Derek asked.
I nodded. “Hector, Nathan, get them out of here.”
“There’s no way in hell you can face him by yourself.” Hector grabbed my arm an yanked. “Come on.”
I didn’t budge.
“Kate, this is no time to be shitting around, we need to go.” Hector emphasized.
“Hector.” I addressed him. “He’ll catch us eventually, someone needs to slow him down. Please, I need to do this.”
And with that he knew, because we both understood. Some things in life you need to do. I needed to save my family, I needed to free myself from Northern. I needed to prove to the world that I wasn’t someone so easily used, even if that statement would echo from my grave. I needed to live at least one second left in my life knowing I was free again. He nodded and started flock everyone away, despite their protests.
“Thank you Hector.”
Through my hazy red-rimmed eyes I saw the sky begin to bleed. The sun would be up soon, that much I knew. I clutched my leaking side and marveled at just how numb it had become, just how numb everything had become. Everything just seemed so…distant. I was miles and miles away from my body, maybe watching it through some looking glass. No, not quite like that. More like I was underwater and I couldn’t break to the surface.
What a whimsical way to end. I thought to myself. And yes, I used the word whimsical, because when your bleeding to death in the woods after very nearly being raped your allowed to have yourself a gay moment. But still, with all my I-can-do-because-I’m-dying, I had to admit it was a pretty badass way to pass on. I mean, I had fought to the death against a werewolf, and man you should have seen the other guy. He didn’t just walk away with a gash on the side like me, he walked away with a couple of broken ribs, a gash on the side, and a nice little crack in his skull. He would die by morning too, if he wasn’t dead already.
And there I had it, a few moments where I was free again. Maybe it was the floating-in-my-skin sensation, but it felt pretty fucking great. All my problems were slipping away, the world turning black. And sure, missing bits of my side were splatter on a rock nearby, and yes, I hadn’t had the satisfaction of seeing the fucker take his last breaths, but damn it all I was still walking away happy.
I wondered what everyone was thinking at that very moment. Cale and Parker were up in Canada, waiting for me to come back. Paula was waiting for someone else, someone else who was probably bawling her eyes out at that very second. And Mom Dad Jack and Jeff, oh boy they must have been confused. And Derek, well, I could never understand what went on in that one’s head. Nathan would feel guilty, Scuff would wonder what it meant when someone would tell him that I was “no longer with them”. Off somewhere, Carri and Logan would be getting hitched, maybe once they would think of that stray they ran into in Burger King, later Mr. C would have to tell them what had happen to that stray. James would carry on, never being tied down to tragedy. Yep, that’s what would happen after I was gone. And after the funeral I’d be alive only by memory. Years of Kate Charlane would start to fade.
I closed my eyes, and I was done.
“Kate!” Someone brought me back to life for a moment, calling from somewhere in the woods. I thought of calling back, but decided not to. Nothing to do now but die, why be bothered by surviving.
“Kate!” Someone called out again. The voice was familiar, that’s for sure. But I wasn’t pestered with trying to figure it out, I had already let go in my mind.
Someone came through the bushes and looked down at me, horrified. And as I looked up at them, a wolf jumped out from the bushes and bit that someone in the stomach, plowing through him and tackling him to the ground.
“Hector!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, and that’s what used up the last of my energy. That’s when the black swallowed the world.