From that point on, the rest of the trip was brain-achingly dull.
The Western Heritage Center did not deserve a five-hour bus drive — ten there and back. It was probably the most boring museum I'd ever been to, but maybe that was because we only spent an afternoon there.
Theo and Ryder barely spoke to each other after that night in the motel, so I could only guess at how long they'd spent arguing about what/who I did or didn't want.
Maia, mercifully, stuck by my side throughout that period of them falling out.
By the time we got back to Missoula, late at night, it didn't really feel like we'd been gone for two days. Back at the ranch, Jason and Jade said that nothing had changed there and that they'd heard no word from Abi or Storm.
As soon as we were back at school the night after we returned from the trip, Chris took me to one side. I was thrilled to see that his black eye was healing and so was his split lip, meaning that he hadn't been beaten up again since the basketball game.
"Chris, are you okay?" I rushed. "I saw you at the game the other night, and I—"
"Not here," he told me and led me away from the corridor full of students.
I glanced back at the pack and Maia: Ryder nodded, but Theo was busy staring at his locker with a clenched jaw.
"Thank you for saving Jade," I thanked him when we were in a quiet corridor.
"It's the least I could do." He eyed me. "But my family knows that I gave you the cure, and now they won't trust me with anything else."
"I'm so sorry." I crossed my arms and gestured to his black eye. "Did they do... that to your face?"
"Yeah..." He looked away. "But that's not all they did."
"What else did they do?" I questioned incredulously; his family seemed ruthless, but I guess that hunters have to be.
Chris' eyes snapped back up to mine with desperation written across his face. "Ember, you have to trust me — they made me do it, I had no choice—"
"You fucking bastard!" I heard Jason yell down the corridor, before running over to us. "Ember, get the hell away from him right now."
"What did you do, Chris?" I turned to him, and I was now the desperate one.
"Jason, please, I know you're angry — but they made me do it," Chris begged, now backed against a wall by the Alpha.
I'd never seen Jason so infuriated before; it was strange seeing him so angry — something big must've happened for him to react like this.
"You tell me right now, you little backstabbing dick," Jason growled; his forearm pressed against Chris' throat.
"I had... no ch-ch-choice." Chris gasped for air, being strangled by Jason's powerful arm.
Theo, Ryder, Jade and Maia were now here, and a crowd of students was gathering around to see the fight.
"Jason, you have to stop," Theo hissed at his Alpha but didn't get too close.
Being squished by the gathering crowd, I ran over to the pack and questioned them, "What the hell is going on?"
"They found a body," Maia whispered.
"Not just a body, Sienna's body," Jade told me, eyes widened, "She was Jason's partner, his one, his Luna..."
His Luna? What the hell is a Luna?
Ryder stepped towards Jason. "Stop Jason; they'll kill you if you kill him."
"At least I'll get some justice for Sienna," he growled back, eyes glowing blood-red.
Instinctively, I stepped back. The only pair of Alpha eyes that I'd seen before had belonged to Victoria, and the sight invoked a dark terror within me.
"P-l-ease," Chris choked, colour draining out of his face, "I— I help... helped y-you."
Jason growled, baring his teeth at Chris, not releasing his grip one bit.
Chris tried again, "I c-c-can he-help y-y-you f-f-find Za-Zack."
At the mention of Zack, Jason's eyes returned to normal, and his teeth and claws retracted.
"You better not betray us," Jason growled at Chris, "Or I swear I will slit your throat and hang your body in the middle of a fucking classroom."
Then Jason dropped Chris' body to the floor and stormed down the corridor.
"What happened?" I asked as I helped Chris to his feet.
"They found Sienna's body," Ryder told me.
"Where?" I frowned. By the looks on all of their faces, they'd all seen it as well.
"In the middle of mine and Jason's Maths classroom." Jade cast a dirty look at Chris.
"I had no choice," Chris repeated hoarsely before he let me help him to the school nurse.
That day passed quicker than I'd expected it to, but maybe that was because I didn't have American History or Maths that day. I hung out with Maia all day; the pack seemed too on edge to have either of us hanging around.
For the rest of the day, I was too afraid to ask what had actually happened, so I didn't get any more information until I was watching the local news in Missoula on the TV late that night.
"In local news," the news presenter read, "The body of previously-missing teen Sienna Burfield was found with a particularly gruesome message at Hellgate High School in the middle of a classroom this morning. The local law enforcement has long believed that the group of teenagers that went missing late last June was dead, however, six of the ten have reappeared in the past few months — with the discovery of Sienna Burfield's body, three are still missing, presumed dead." The presenter warned as they were going to show photos, "Please be aware that images may be upsetting to some viewers."
The one and the only picture showed Sienna, hung up at the high school. There was a noose around her neck, the rope attached to the ceiling of the classroom. Her face, arms and legs were covered in scratches and cuts, with dried blood stuck to her skin. Her eyes were open, and staring blankly. The 'particularly gruesome message' that the news presenter had mentioned was painted in blood on a piece of paper strung around Sienna's neck — the words read:
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
I swallowed, dread filling me. The meaning of the message was clear: the hunters were coming for the rest of the pack.
The presenter continued, "Sienna's body was found by her ex-boyfriend, who was unavailable for a statement at the scene today."
"Well, now you know what happened." Ryder flopped onto the sofa beside me and took the remote control out of my hand, flicking the TV off.
"I can't believe they made Chris do that." I turned to Ryder, wrapping my arms around him.
"I can," Ryder responded, pulling me close to him, "Hunters are brutal, Ember. Don't let anybody ever tell you differently."
I nodded against his neck, and for once, he sounded like Theo — the same sort of advice that Theo gave me about staying away from Chris. But I guess that's the same advice that all werewolves give about hunters.
"Jason's so broken up about Sienna... I've never seen him act like that, especially not at school," Ryder admitted, shaking his head. "Finding her body really messed with his head."
Neither of us spoke for a little while, just sitting there in silence, thinking, before a sudden scream cut through the ranch.
"Abi?" Ryder jumped to my feet.
I frowned; I hadn't heard anyone come in through the door but followed Ryder out of the lounge.
"It's Maia," Theo told us as the three of us rushed to Abi's room.
When we got there, Maia was gone — the room was empty and the window had been smashed, the night air blowing was through freely, unrestricted.
"What the hell happened now?" Jason growled as he stepped into the room.
"It's Maia," I gulped, figuring out pretty quick what was going on, "She must've transitioned..."
"As if enough hadn't already happened today," Jade muttered from the doorway.
"We'll find her," Theo reassured, wrapping his arms around Jade.
That stung. I don't know why it did, but it stung.
It also stung Ryder when he saw my face.
It felt like my heart was squirming in my chest, tugging and twisting this way and that, almost wriggling to get free — desperate to understand my over-complicated and ever-fluctuating feelings about Theo.
Yet at the same time, I couldn't bring myself to push Ryder away. As much as the Phoenix enjoys infidelity, I wasn't ready to give up being loyal.
"Jason... What do we do?" Ryder looked away from me and towards his Alpha.
"We split up," Jason stated more decisively than I'd expected him to be able to do at the time. "From the front of the ranch, near the lake, Theo and Jade will go left; Ryder and I will go right; Ember, you'll stay here in case Maia or Storm and Abi return."
"I want to help," I insisted, "I can help you guys if I'm searching with you."
"No, Ember. We're all faster and stronger than you, and you won't be able to smell or sense Maia like we will be able to. And, besides, if you were to find her, you wouldn't have much chance against her — new werewolves are always more vicious, they have more of a bloodlust."
I took a shaky breath. "You'll be able to find her, won't you?"
"We'll find her," Theo repeated, but this time he wrapped his arms around me in a comforting embrace.
At peace, I sighed into his arms, embracing him back. Nothing compared to how safe I felt when I was with him, nothing else gave me that certain sense of security.
Not even being with Ryder made me feel that way.
When he let go of me, Ryder embraced me as well, then Jade, then Jason, before the four of them set out.
I grabbed Jason's arm before he left the door, "I'm... sorry, about what happened at school today. I — I know that I didn't know Sienna, but I really am sorry."
"I know." He nodded, not looking me in the eye. "I can't apologise for going after Chris the way I did. Not after what he did."
"He did save Jade." I pointed out, mumbling.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean he's on our side." Jason eyed me seriously. "Stay here, lock all the doors and windows, and don't unlock any of them until we, or Storm and Abi, return. Turn all the lights off."
"Okay." I nodded firmly. "I'll do all of that as soon as you go."
"That reminds me — don't lock the cellar door or turn the cellar lights off!" He shouted back as he stepped outside.
"Okay!" I shouted to him, but the four of them had already gone, splitting up and running off into the woods.
I then spent the next five minutes rushing around the ranch, locking every door and window, except the cellar door, and turning off all the lights, except the cellar lights.
Motionless, I stood staring out of the large panoramic windows as the rain started. It came in a few light spots to start, but it wasn't long until it was pouring down. Thunder rolled along the horizon and boomed, sending a rumble reverberating eerily through the ranch. I could feel it underneath my feet.
Lightning flashed down a few seconds later, followed by another grumble of thunder.
I chewed my lip; surely this thunderstorm will make finding Maia much more difficult?
I didn't dare think of what would happen if they didn't find her in time; Jason's words echoed around my head, as unnervingly as the thunder echoed through the ranch, "new werewolves are always more vicious... more of a bloodlust..."
A sudden knocking sound shook me out of my thoughts, but I soon chilled out when I figured out it was just the wind rattling around the old ranch.
What will happen if they don't find her in time?
Rubbing my face with my hands, I groaned aloud; waiting and knowing that there's nothing you can do is one of the worse things in the world. So instead, I turned my attention to the whole Theo-me-Ryder thing.
When I first hooked up with Ryder, I didn't know what I was thinking... I was lonely and lost — the same as him, I guess. I was merely trying to fill a void. A void created by the temporary loss of my fire; reinforced by the Phoenix's lack of loyalty to one lover.
And now Theo moving on with Jade, by the looks of things, at least.
Or maybe I'm just overthinking things.
I heard a sound outside, a sound that wasn't a thunderstorm sound, it was a people sound. From the sofa, I leapt to my feet and slowly approached the door, looking out the window beside it.
The rain was lashing down relentlessly, and I barely saw the figures walking towards the door until they were right up close. It was Storm and Abi. They had a guy with them, supported between them, that had to be Zack.
My heart lifted as I unlocked the door for them and let them in. "I was so worried—"
"Not now, Ember." Abi and Storm struggled with Zack's weight, and so I rushed forward to help them half-carry, half-drag him through the ranch.
My thoughts ran all over the place: I guess we don't need Chris' help finding Zack then — what a convenient coincidence; what if Chris was bluffing?
Zack was tall, skinny and pale, with a spray of freckles on his nose and a thin mouth. And he was injured: he had a split lip, cuts on his forehead, a broken nose, and a black eye — that was as much as I could see anyway.
We lowered him carefully into Abi's bed, and by the way he was grunting, it seemed like he'd broken or injured something internally as well.
I turned to Storm, "The others—"
She cut me off, though not harshly, "I know, we already know what's going on. We came as quick as we could."
"How long ago did you find him?" I questioned as Abi ran to the kitchen to grab medical supplies.
Storm shook her head, "It's hard to say, but we found him at an abandoned ranch just over the Canadian border, near Mount Mahaney — which is in Canada."
I swallowed; Canada is a hell of a long way from Missoula — who knows how long they walked for?
Lightning cracked right over the ranch, promptly followed by a roar of thunder — the sky illuminated, and I could suddenly see how injured Zack was.
He let out a pained groan, "Abi..."
Abi quickly rushed back; arms full of meds.
Temporarily frozen, I stood stock-still, watching the chaos unfold before me. Whilst Abi was tearing Zack's already-tattered t-shirt off to tend to his ribs, Storm was using scissors to cut open the leg of his jeans, below where there was a bone protruding out of his kneecap.
I was almost sick; I'd never seen a broken bone like that.
"Ember," Storm spoke whilst still looking at Zack's leg, "Distract him."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to have to push his tibia back into his leg," Storm told me through gritted teeth, referring to the bone sticking out of Zack's leg.
A quick glance at Abi told me that she was too preoccupied with bandaging Zack's torso for her to even consider distracting Zack. I swallowed back my nausea and began rambling to Zack, "Hi, Zack. So, you don't really know me, and I don't really know me... but I know your pack and they know me—"
Zack let out a yell of pain, clutching at his leg.
"Ember..." Storm said in a warning tone.
"I know, I know." I took a deep breath and brought my face closer to Zack's, and started talking about my Phoenix — surely that should be distracting enough?
"I have a Phoenix within me." Well, that got his attention, and his sweat-sheened face frowned at me, before twisting with pain again, "Yeah, well, long-story-short, it's some sort of hereditary thing that I got from my mum and my aunt and all the women in my family. But I have the most power, the most fire within me — which is why I had to leave the UK for Svalbard last December, so my uncle could teach me how to control it. Anyway, it turned out that I couldn't learn control so, effectively, I had to put the fire out — hence why I'm constantly cold at the moment."
By the time I'd finished my rambling monologue, Zack's tibia was back inside his leg, and both his ribs and leg were bandaged.
"Nice to meet you," Zack said with a half-smile and raised a hand to mine, which I (very gently and very cautiously) shook. "Zack James Cygnus."
"Ember Hestia Milburn." I half-smiled back, thinking that's gotta be a constellation surname.
Zack closed his eyes as he laid back in the bed, and sighed out, "Where's Jason? Ryder? Hayden? Sienna? Ryan? Theo?"
Oh shit. He doesn't know.
He doesn't know that three of his pack are dead.
Though, how could he?
I walked out of the room, biting my lip as I heard Abi and Storm starting to explain everything that he didn't know.
A loud, melancholy wail sounded from outside — a loud, melancholy wail that I had come to recognise as that of a werewolf — drawing me to the front windows of the ranch.
The thunder was so loud by now, that my own thoughts were being drowned out, and the fact I couldn't hear Zack, Abi and Storm talking made me feel as if I was on my own again.
I thought I saw a flicker of movement outside and, foolishly, I moved closer to it.
The rain hammered for a few more minutes, clattering relentlessly against the windows and wood of the ranch. Something moved again, and my heart was pounding at a quickening rate, as I continued staring out.
One minute.
Two minutes, three.
Four. Maybe five.
Until there was a pair of eyes staring right back at mine.
A pair of glowing, golden eyes.
Then they disappeared without a trace.
Someone placed their hand on my shoulder, making me jump and gasp.
"It's okay, it's just me," Storm told me. "Abi's with Zack, and we've told him everything now."
"Everything?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Everything," she affirmed, standing to look out the window at the thunderstorm.
"Can you... can you, like, See what's going to happen with Maia?" I asked hesitantly, aware that her powers weren't quite the same as Wednesday's.
Storm shook her head, "I Saw what was going to happen on the night we returned, but ironically, storms like these stop me from Seeing."
Huh. That is ironic.
I don't know how long we waited, but it felt like forever until Jason knocked on the front door, yelling that we let them in.
Sprinting to the door, I flung it open and saw that they had Maia with them.
And that she had blood all over her.
Ryder whispered, "Deer," as he walked past me.
I let out a shaky sigh; it's not a human's blood, it's not.
But those eyes that I saw — was that Maia? Or another member of the pack?
"Storm, Abi and Zack are back," I told them, once they'd lowered an exhausted Maia onto the sofa.
"For real?" Ryder arched his eyebrows.
"Yes, for real." Storm stepped into the room, rolling her eyes at Ryder with her arms crossed. "We found Zack in Canada."
"Holy shit, Storm." Theo stepped over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "I was so worried about you."
"We all were," Jason corrected firmly — and I thought I detected a hint of conflict between the Alpha and the Beta.
Beta... It's weird calling him that when he was an Omega for so long.
But I was tired and probably just overthinking things, like usual.
After many hugs had been shared between the pack (through which I just stayed out of the way), and the decision of who would sleep where was made, as there weren't enough beds in the ranch — Abi and Zack would sleep together in her bed, Storm and Jade would have their normal beds, Theo and Ryder would sleep in Jason and Ryder's room, leaving me and Maia in Theo's bed, and leaving Jason on a sofa — I flopped down onto a sofa, exhausted, and let my eyes shut.
Someone sat down heavily beside me, and for a second, I thought it was Theo, until they said, "You okay, hot stuff?"
Ryder.
Why am I disappointed with that?
"Not really." Opening my eyes, I sighed and began picking at a loose thread on a cushion.
"You need something to take your mind off everything," he told me.
"Ryder, I'm not really in the mood for—"
"Go on a date with me. Tomorrow," Ryder voiced.
A date? I've not been on a date with anyone since Eric — not even Theo took me on a date...
"Okay." I nodded after a mere second of hesitation.
"Great. There's this diner in East Missoula called River City Grill." Ryder grinned. "You'll love it, trust me."
I nodded slowly; I didn't truly trust him. I was still having issues with trusting people. Especially since the people that I trusted usually ended up leaving me or getting left behind.
Sleeping in Theo's bed again was weird, most likely because I wished he was in it with me, as opposed to Maia.
Who snored.
Very loudly.
And I mean very loudly.
And I couldn't sleep.
And then I heard a noise that wasn't a sleeping noise. It was the creak of the floorboard outside the door.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I carefully slipped out of bed and stepped over to the door. I opened it ajar, to see Jade across the hall, and she was walking into Jason's room, where Theo was.
A lump formed in my throat, and I had to swallow multiple times to make it disappear.
I was with Ryder, so why was I so bothered about how close Theo and Jade were getting? Why did it matter so much to me? Why couldn't I just let it go?
Why can't I just let him go?
Because I hadn't shut the door yet, I heard the sound of kissing. The sound of Jade and Theo kissing.
Passionately, by the sounds of it.
I shut the door and sunk back into bed.
I have to let him go.
I need to let him go.
Before I found sleep, thoughts wouldn't stop whirling around my head — thoughts about Theo, and me, and how we used to be.
How we could never go back to that.