***Warning there is a short part that contains marking. *******
All too soon a blissful Summer slipped away leaving a roaring, bully infested high school in its place. The thought of going back to school made my skin crawl, but as long as I keep my head down and try not to draw any attention to myself things should go by smoothly.
Leo, Dave and Izzy were going to school, despite them being 18 they had been on the run for so long they thought it would be best to relearn the basics before applying to colleges. We had gone shopping for supplies a few days ago and everyone was ready.
"What's wrong?" asks Leo as we were laying in bed, neither of us sleeping.
"Nothing." I lie
"Clearly somethings wrong, you're jumpy, always going off to la-la land. Tell me, Beautiful. What's wrong?" he murmurs, a low hum to his words
"It's nothing...." I grumble, looking back at the ceiling. His eyes were entirely too alluring. They were demanding answers, while managing to be soft. Painstakingly soft.
"Tell me" he props himself up on his elbow, angling his body closer to mine so I feel the heat radiating off his legs.
"It's no big deal, just a little nervous about school. We only have a week till we have to go" I shove the topic away
"Don't lie to me" he says positioning himself so that he's leaning over me. His large frame cupping my smaller one, I may not be tiny, but I'm also not near as broad and strong as Leo.
"I'm not, I'm nervous about school, it starts in a week you know" I say and I'm not lying, just bending the truth at little. And by a little, I mean a lot, and by a lot I mean an embarrassing amount.
"Why?" he asks, eyebrows pulled together in confusion. His stance stays firm.
"Its school, everyone's at least a bit nervous on their first day." I stutter and he's silent for a while
"Whats going on at school?" he questions. A hard tone in his voice, one I don't know. One that sounds angry, and fearful, and strained.
"Huh?" I answer avoiding the question, trying to avoid eye contact. His thumb an forefinger draw my chin into his direct line of vision.
"What is going on?" he asks looking me directly in the eye. Green on Blue.
"Why do you think something is going on?" I whisper, a shiver to my voice.
"I know you, Ryan. Tell me what is going on" he insists.
"It's not that big of a deal." I mumble, snapping my eyes away from his.
"Then it shouldn't be hard to tell me" he says frowning slightly
"Its just that....I... um..." I say and heave a sigh, all of the ugly word's that they've carved into me turn around my head. I fear that Leo can see them through my eyes, the stains peers have felt in my moments of weakness.
"Just what?" he whispers, his tone softens as his eyes trace nervous grip my teeth have taken on my lip.
"I don't have....friends" I confess
"You what? C'mon, Ry, that's not possible" he huffs, looking at me with confusion.
"What do you mean?" I say confuse. My brow furrowing trying to grasp his train of thought.
"You're you, I would have thought that you have had friends everywhere." he says lying back down beside me.
"No, Jess is the popular one." I sigh. Neither of us said anything, I rolled over on top of him and gave him a kiss, that soon deepened. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pulled away. I rolled off of him.
I listened to our deep breathing and I tried to work up the nerve to ask him to do something that I've been thinking about for days.
"Leo..." I whisper
"Yes, Beautiful" he answers
"I want you to mark me as yours" I say softly
His breathing spiked up and he turned to face me "Are you sure?"
"I love you Leo. So, yes, I'm sure" I say and kissed him. I woke up the next morning marked as his. I looked over to him sleeping and giggled. Yes I giggled, tickled the bottom of his feet with my toes to wake him up. Slowly he woke when he saw me he smiled and embraced me with a kiss. I pulled away and kissed his cheek.
"I love you, Ryan Pine." he says his green eye's sparkling.
"I love you too, Leo Beady" I say placing my head on his chest
"Your brothers are going to kill me when they find out I marked you." he groans, rubbing his hand down his face.
"Way to kill the mood! You just needed to bring them into this" I scrunch up my nose in mock disgust.
"I'm a dead man walking" he moans, through his fingers.
"You marked me, its not like we did anything else." I says tracing the mark over my heart with my finger.
"I'm still a walking dead man" he says placing his hand over mine and tracing with me.
"I wont let them hurt you, besides the fact that you and Noah are actually turning into good friends." I comment
"What are we going to do today?" he questions
"What do you want to do today, Angel?" I reply
"Right now, I don't want to move." he says kissing the top of my head.
"Good, because I wasn't planing on it." I say and close my eyes. Ten minutes later we had gotten a urgent metal message that we were to meet in the barn ASAP.
"So, whats going on?" I ask when Leo and I entered the barn.
"More Rouges." says a bitter looking Charlie
"What are we going to do?" asks Izzy
"I don't know, the wind shifted and I smelt them. As long as they don't attack we should be fine but I want everyone to be careful." says Dad, who was keeping something from us I could tell by the sound of his voice.
"Where's Jess?" I ask not seeing my sister
"She must still be asleep." says Reeve
"No, I passed her room and it was empty..." I say
"Jess! Where are you?" I ask through our mind link.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know!" she responds quickly
"Just come home! There are rouges." I say with a sigh
"I can't Ry, I can't come home." she says and by now she's sobbing
"Of course you can come home, why couldn't you?" I ask with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach
"Ryan one of the rouges is Mom. And she's not willing to give up her family this time." she cries and everyone looks at me.
"Do you know where you are?" I ask
"Some where in the woods, please help me!" she panics
"We will, I'm on my way now." I say and tell the pack everything she had told me, Dad's face paled and he sat down.
"Go in pairs and spread out, I will be circling the house and around the edge. " Dad says getting up and shifting.
"I'll go with Leo." I say and notice that everyone was paired up. "Please be careful."
"We will see you soon." says Reeve who gives me a hug and him and Dave shift and leave the barn.
"Meet us by the pond in four hours" says Charlie giving me a hug Izzy following him.
"We will." I confirm.
"I swear to gawd, if any of them hurt her..." Noah looks enraged.
"We will find her." I promise and Leo and I shift.
"We will find her." I send to everyone and start to run. Please God, let Jess be alright.
We ran. We ran for hours. I ran until I couldn't feel my legs. But we never got so much as a smell of Jess. We were in at the house sitting at the table discussing what we needed to do.
"Okay, so lets have three people out there for three hour shifts." suggests Dave
"I'm taking the first shift." I leave no room for disagreement, and everyone looks at me.
"Hun, you ran like mad to day, don't you want to rest?" Leo treads lightly, his concorn for me written all over in large print.
"I'll rest when Jess is home and who ever took her is dead." I growl back. I can't believe that Mom would take her. I thought that part of our life's was over.
"Who said we are killing anybody?" questions Noah, surprise in his eyes
"They're rouges what do you think is going to happen? There just going to hand Jess over and walk away with out a fucking fight." I say covering up my fear of losing my family with anger. My animistic side pushing through.
"She's right, the odds are the Jess's mate is there and even rouges don't like to have their mates pulled away from them." adds Leo and I can tell that he has already predicted the outcome of this.
"Why would Jess's mate be there? How do you figure?" grumbles Dad. He looks aged, today had aged him.
"If they came here there are so any other easier options, like Ryan doing the barn chores or Angela going for her morning walk. But they took Jess out of bed. Her mate would have been able to smell her and convince they others to take her." Leo answers.
"If her mates with her then we are beyond screwed." I grumble
"Think positively Ryan" says Izzy "Your mate was a rouges and you're happy."
I smile at the thought and look at Leo, tracing my mark absentmindedly and say "Yeah, I am."
"Why do rouges work in packs... I mean they're Rouges, isn't the whole point to not be in a pack?" asks Angela
"Well they don't really work in packs more so... companions. They don't trust each other and will kill if it come's down to it. They don't like the idea of Packs because they like to be free. That's why if they are with others its usually a small group. And Mates aren't really mates, more like they own each other..." informs Izzy
"So could we take on a group?" asks Charlie. Everyone looks at each other. If it came down to a fight we could lose. Some of us could die.
"Probably not" whispers Leo, looking at me sadly.
"Well we're going to have to! We are not just going to roll over and give up! We can't its Jess we're talking about." I say near hysterics. No one says a word.
"We can't... we can't just feed her to the wolves." I say bitterly.
"Ryan." says Dad
"She's my twin sister! The baby!" I continue on. Snapping a little because no one seams to be reacting.
"Ryan, don't" warns Reeve
"You all can't seriously think that we aren't going to fight? You heard Izzy Rouges travel in small groups. We are a pack! We can win!"
"You need to calm down." insists Charlie, seeing my shaking form vibrating in anger.
"Calm down?! I need my sister back" I yell the stress of the day finally getting to me. My wolf is being pushed and I know my eyes must be black. I trry and fight her back down.
"Leo" Dad nods and Leo gets up and walks towards me and embraces me with a hug instantly I feel calm and not as unstable. I relax and hug him back. I feel a sob working its way up my throat. I yelled at my family. After a minute he leans after and kisses my forehead. I sit back down in my chair and he stands beside me.
"I'm sorry" I murmured looking at my feet. Tear prick at the backs of my eye's threatening to spill.
"Baby Girl we aren't going to give up." says Dad with a sad smile on his face
"Then what's the plan, Yoda?" I ask softly
"First you are going to sleep." he instructs.
"What, why?" I crunch my eyebrows together.
"Well because you look dead tried. And you will be able to hear her better then we do." he says and I know he's right. I've always been able to hear thoughts louder and clearer then anyone. Sometimes the people don't even have to be from my pack.
"Well then, who's running with you?" I ask wanting to know who to talk to.
"Reeve, Charlie and Dave is it okay with you guys take the first shift with me, at about three am we will switch?" Dad turns his attention to the muscle of the group
"That's fine with me." says Charlie and Reeve almost at the same time.
"Wouldn't you want Noah to go with you guys?" asks Dave
"He'll be on the next shift.... Tonight it will only be Reeve, Charlie, Dave, Noah and Leo running...." says Dad
"Why not the girls?" asks Izzy clearly offend. Dad didn't answer for a long time but when he did his eye's were blazing.
"I know how Clara works, she won't fight she'll have someone else do the fighting for her. She will blackmail and threaten but never get violent. She will go after you girls in a second. I don't want you doing the night shifts." he answers and him and his first shift people move towards the door.
"Please be safe" I beg "And if you hear her again wake me up"
"We will, we aren't going out there to fight just... if they've gotten in and out of the house before. I don't want my other sister stolen from me." grumbles Reeve, and Leo stiffens whipping his head over to me a stand up and take his hand.
"They'll be safe." promises Leo. A hard edge in his voice as he looks at us with protectively.
"And you guys better be too" demands Izzy gazing at Charlie he walks towards her and gives her a kiss.
"Don't worry I'll be back in bed, sleeping at 3:02." Charlie forces a grin and nods at the rest of us.
"Ryan get to bed, we're going to need you at your best to try and talk to Jess tomorrow." demands Charlie I nod and watch them leave. I turn to Leo and give him a hug.
"I guess its time to go to bed then.." I mumble
"I guess so." sighs Noah
"Can you guys get some medical stuff ready and something to defend ourselves with..... We have some guns in the basement." I ask not want to be doing nothing- oh never mind my instructions were to sleep.
"We will, now go to bed." says Izzy
"Bed time for Ryan." says Leo teases smiling
"You too" adds Angela
"Why me?" he exclaims
"Because from the look of her neck you guys didn't get much sleep last night." Angela replies with a smirk and I feel my face turn deep red.
"Oh gross! Did I really need to know that? " says Noah with the worlds most disgusted look on his face. I pull my shirt up to hide the mark. I don't know how she saw it though it was hidden.
"How did you know?" I whisper
"You leaned down and you shirt slipped. Don't worry no one else but the people in this room know." she shrugs
"I wish I didn't." groans Noah, his face covered in his hands.
"Have fun telling everyone else, I'm sure Charlie will be thrilled." says Izzy jokingly punching Leo on the arm
"I'm heading to bed. I can think about that later." I say and take the path that leads to my bedroom followed by Leo. The second my head it the pillow my eye's began to close. Maybe I was sleepier then I thought? Please, Please Jess try and talk to me.
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A/n- Everyone please thank Charityyyyy for getting this chapter up :)