chapter iv.
❝ So you're telling me that you guys turn into giant dogs and there are sparkling vampire. Do you really expect me to be okay with that? ❞
la push, washington
june 5, 2007
THE FOLLOWING morning Josiah was woken up by drool falling all over his face. Opening his left eye, the young soldier found Ollie sitting next to him and looking down at him with, what he would assume, a puppy smile. Letting out a groan he lightly pushed the pup away before burying his face further into his pillow. Next to him Ollie let out a whine and buried his nuzzle underneath Josiah's pillow.
Josiah lifted his face from under his pillow to look at Ollie again, "What is it Ollie?" Hearing his owner's croaky voice ― having just woken up ― the pup cried louder and pushed his nuzzle further into Josiah's pillow.
"Do you want to go out?" Josiah asked the pup, "Do you want to go outside?" At hearing the word 'outside' the pup's face lifted up from the pillow and tilted his head to the left: tail wagging.
"Alright, let's go," Josiah let out a yawn and stretched out his arm over his head. Standing up he grabbed Ollie and placed him down on the floor.
Opening the door to his room Josiah walked towards the front door, Ollie hot on his heels with his tail wagging wildly and tongue sticking out. Once the door was opened the pup rushed out and began smelling everywhere until he found the perfect spot to do his necessities. Meanwhile, Josiah stood by the door watching the small pup run around the front lawn.
"Alright come on Ollie," Josiah called out to his pup ― after giving him 10 minutes outside ― and walked back inside the house.
Heading towards the kitchen Josiah opened the fridge and took out the leftovers from last night's dinner that Mary and him had. He then placed it on a plate and put it inside the microwave for it to heat up. While it was heating up Josiah retrieved Ollie's food plate and grabbed some dog food from the cabin underneath the sink.
"Here you go Ollie," Josiah patted Ollie's head before placing his food plate down in front of him.
After hearing the annoying beeps of the microwave that told him that his food was ready, Josiah took out his food and began eating once he sat down at the dining table. The soldier ate his food in silence. His thoughts invaded his mind as he thought back to Paul and how he was planning on talking to him without sounding self-centered for wanting some of his brother's attention.
Losing his appetite Josiah began to push his food around before letting out a quiet sigh and standing up. He washed his dirty plate and headed off to the bathroom to take a shower.
Once he was done showering and putting on new clothes Josiah decided it was best to go and find Paul again and talk to him. So now he was heading towards Sam and Emily's house. It wasn't long before he saw the familiar house that he visited a week prior.
Taking a deep breath Josiah walked to the front door and knocked twice. He didn't wait long before the door was pulled open and Emily appeared. "Hey Josiah," Emily greeted with a big smile at seeing the young soldier again after a week of not seeing him around.
"Hey Emily," Josiah sent her smile, "Sorry to disturb you but is Paul here?"
Emily hesitated before answering, "He left a little while ago with Sam and the rest of the boys to do some things around the reservation."
Josiah nodded slowly, "Well do you mind if I wait for him here."
"Of course not. I could use the company."
Walking into the house Josiah was hit with the smell and sight of freshly baked muffins ― his mouth started to water. Noticing the look on Josiah's face Emily let out a chuckled and motioned her hand at the plate in the middle of the small dining table which contained a pile of chocolate chip muffins, "Help yourself."
In the next half an hour Josiah ate two muffins ― which were delicious ― and Emily told him about how she met Sam and the rest of the boys. Josiah listened intently and frowned when she mentioned Paul's extreme temper and how Sam helped him with it.
The sound of boys screaming and whistling outside broke their conversation. Paul walked in smiling and playfully pushing Jared. Josiah stood up from his seat and faced the boys that were coming in with big smiles on their faces. At the sight of his brother Paul's smile grew.
"Jay!" Paul walked over to his older brother, "What are you doing here?"
"What up Jay!" Jared exclaimed, throwing his arm on Josiah's shoulders.
"Hey Jay," Embry walked by Josiah and Jared towards the table full of muffins ― along with Quil, Brady, and Collin.
"Hey guys," Josiah greeted them with a small smile on his face.
Sam walked in afterwards and sent Josiah a nodd, which Josiah returned, before making his way towards the kitchen where Emily was.
"What are you doing here?" Paul asked again not to take his eyes off his older brother. Jared took his arm off of Josiah and followed after the rest of the boys and the smell of muffins.
"I came to talk to you," Josiah said quietly, hoping the other's didn't hear him.
"Okay," Paul nodded and tilted his head towards the door, indicating to him to take their talk outside. The Lahote siblings walked outside and sat on the front porch in silence.
"Where have you been for the past week?" Josiah finally asked.
"What do you mean?" Paul asked, confused.
Josiah scoffed, "You know damn well what I mean Paul." He didn't mean to sound rude but the words left his mouth before he could stop them.
Paul scowled angrily, "I've been busy okay," standing up he stood in front of Josiah who was still sitting down, "I'm sorry that I have a life outside that doesn't always involve you."
Josiah stood up as well coming face to face with his brother, "What has you so busy that you leave early in the morning and don't come back till midnight?"
This time Paul let out a scoff and faced away from Josiah, towards the trees that surrounded the house. He felt himself start to shake ― anger building up inside his chest ― ready to explode.
Josiah shook his head in frustration while looking down at his shoes, "I'm only here for two more weeks, Paul."
That only seemed to spike his anger more as Paul began walking towards the woods, his shaking getting even worse. He knew that he was on the brink of phasing in front of his brother and he didn't want to hurt him so the best decision is to walk away from the situation.
Josiah had other plans. He followed after his brother's retreating figure, "Don't walk away Paul! Is it too bad that I want to spend more time with my little brother before I leave!"
Paul stopped dead in his tracks and faced Josiah again, face visibly red from the built up anger, "That wasn't my choice!" Paul's scream could be heard from a mile away as he walked up to his brother again, "You decided to leave me! You left me!"
Josiah stood shocked at Paul's words, "I didn't complain when you decided to leave for four years! That doesn't mean that I was happy to see you go! And now you're leaving again!"
"Paul―"
"No!" Paul interrupted his shaking getting worse by the second which was starting to concern Josiah, "You don't get to be angry with me for not spending time with you because you are the one leaving, again. That is your choice!"
Before Josiah could say anything more the sound of Sam's voice broke through the air, "Josiah!"
It all happened in a split second.
One minute Josiah was standing in front of his brother. And the next he was thrown back and made hard contact with the ground ― pain cursing in his leg causing him to groan out in pain. His ears ringed as he lifted up his face and was face to face with a giant dog ― the size of a bear ― that took the place of his brother Paul where he once stood. As Josiah looked closely he was able to see that it was in fact a wolf and it was silver and had a snarl on its face making Josiah scoot back in fear.
However, the wolf's snarl was gone in an instant and was replaced with whining as it tried to approach Josiah. This only caused the older Lahote to scoot back faster, fear written all over his face.
"Josiah, are you okay?" Sam ran up startling Josiah.
Josiah continued to stare at the giant wolf that stood in front of him, "I-Is that P-Paul?" Josiah whispered afraid to get an answer.
Sam sighed, "We'll explain everything once Emily takes a look at your leg."
At the mention of his leg the young soldier looked down to see his left leg dripping blood and three large gashes covering his front calf.
The giant wolf gave one last glance at Josiah before disappearing into the forest. "Jared, follow after him." Josiah didn't even notice that the rest of the boys had come out of the house and approached them.
"Let's get Josiah inside."
◭
Emily bandaged Josiah's leg while everything was explained to the eldest Lahote. He sat in silence as Sam explained everything to him: how the supernatural world existed. How all of the boys and two girls in the whole reservation ― Sam, Jared, Embry, Jacob, Seth, Leah, Aubrey, Quil, Brady, Collin, and Paul ― were shapeshifters: werewolves. He also explained how they all phased when they sensed danger in their reservation. And that danger was vampires ― that sparkled in the sun. Every word that left Sam's mouth caused more cracks inside the wall that kept him sane and at bay inside his head.
After everything was explained Josiah only managed to say, "So you're telling me that you guys turn into giant dogs and there are sparkling vampires." Josiah finally looked up to make eye contact with Sam and the rest of the boys who were holding their breaths at Josiah's reaction, "Do you really expect me to be okay with that?" Sam stayed silent.
"I must be going crazy," Josiah mumbled to himself. "You're not going crazy Jay," Embry spoke up from the other side of the room.
"You guys turn into giant dogs!" Josiah exclaimed.
"Wolves..." Brady mumbled.
"Even better!" Josiah snapped sarcastically making Brady flinch back. Guild swelled Josiah's heart but ignored it as he tried to wrap his head around all the information that was just thrown at him.
Silence fell upon the house as the rest of the boys and Emily watched Josiah try to get his head around the idea that the world he has been living in has taken a turn, all in one day.
"I-I think I need to go," Josiah spoke up after what felt like hours, "I-I need to get some air a-and get my mind straight."
Before anyone could stop him, the soldier was out the door and speed walking to his mother's house. Or in his case, limping. Once inside he ran to his room and collapsed on his bed ― tears building up on the corner of his eyes. Ollie whined, noticing the distress of his owner. Jumping up on the bed, the small pup laid down next to Josiah ― giving him silent comfort.
Josiah felt like his head would explode at any minute which would cause him to have a complete breakdown, which he didn't want.
"Josiah!" At the sound of his mother's voice Josiah got off his bed and headed towards the living room.
The sight of her son's blank face, tears at the corner of his eyes, and bandaged leg made Mary's heart clench. Walking over to him Mary embraced him in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry you had to find out about it like this." Mary whispered against her son's chest.
Josiah froze in his mother's embrace, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Pulling away slowly the eldest Lahote looked down at his mother's questioning look, "You knew?"
Mary closed her eyes briefly before opening them again and answering, "Yes."
Josiah stepped further away from his mother with a look of betrayal on his face, "You knew..."
Mary held her breath.
"Why didn't you say anything!" Josiah exclaimed snapping his head back up from looking down at the floor.
"It wasn't my secret to tell," Mary simply answered trying to defuse the argument that was rising in the room.
Mary watched as her son furiously shook his head back and forth before storming towards his and Paul's room, slamming the door. Ollie, the small pup, that was sitting next to his food bowl and watching the scene unfold in confusion whined out loud as the door slammed shut.
Inside the room Josiah grabbed one of his duffel bags and began shoving in clothes after clothes. His mind was running wild and he didn't think that he would stand staying in La Push. So with that thought in mind, the young soldier decided to leave. Grabbing the duffel bag filled with some clothes Josiah made his way back out where his mother stood exactly where she was with Ollie in her arms.
At the sound of the door opening Mary looked over to her son, "W-What... w-where are you going?" Mary looked down at the duffel bag in her son's hand and panic filled her eyes.
"I need to leave," Josiah was filled with the guild at the sight of his mother panicking eyes and shaking hands, "I'll come back but right now I just need to leave La Push."
"Where will you go?" Tears fell down Mary's face.
"I'm going to Liam's."
And with that Josiah Lahote grabbed Ollie from his mother's hands and headed out the door. Once inside his Jeep, Josiah Lahote grabbed his phone and dialled the number he kept at the back of his head in case of emergencies.
"Hey Jay," Liam's voice filled the inside of the Jeep.
"Hey Liam," Josiah's voice wavered, "listen I need a place to stay for a couple of days, can I stay with you?"
"My house is always open for you. You know that." Liam chuckled.
"Great, thanks." Josiah forced a smile on his face thinking that it would make him sound less anxious.
"Everything okay?" Liam questioned over the phone. Josiah could hear the frown on his friend's face over the phone by the sound of his voice.
"I'll explain everything when I'm there."
"Okay, well I'll see you in a couple of hours."
With that Josiah hung up the phone, put his Jeep in reverse, and made his way towards the airport.