I woke up early the next day to my phone buzzing on my night stand. Alpha Brendon had went back to the pack house to pull a late night of work. He wanted to get caught up that way he could spend more time with me. I checked my phone to see it was Niall's number.
Niall; Are you up?
Me; Why?
I checked the time to see if was three in the morning. What the hell is wrong with him? I heard the door knob to my room jiggle. I threw the covers off and put on my slippers. I opened the door in slight annoyance. The TV's blue screen lit the room and I looked directly into Niall's eyes in confusion.
What the hell is wrong with him? It's three A.M. in the morning. I crossed my arms as I felt a chill crawl up my spine. I raised an eyebrow at him, seeing he was dressed in old PJs.
"It's time," he told me and yawned. "We're going to be late for our shift," he told me. I yawned and nodded my head. I can't believe it's that time already... I looked behind me to think if I needed anything before I go. But, I'll just come back here this time after our shift. I shut the door quietly, although I was the only one sleeping on this hall. Innath was at the pack house, Cal is MIA, and Niall doesn't even live here anymore. I followed him outside as I felt my ankle give me a slight pain ever so often. Just a reminder of what I'd been through.
"I almost thought I'd be free from pack duties," I chuckled out quietly to him. "You know- with me being luna now and all."
"I don't think you'll be living that lap of luxury until your belly is bigger," he told me playfully. "As long as you can shift into a wolf, you're still on boarder control."
I nodded in agreement. I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing anyways. I'm a strong alpha female now. I have to build up my wolf's power to impress the pack. I already know I can outrun over ninty percent of the pack. I'm killer fast. I have to work on my other skills now.
We went outside and straight to the woods instead of to the car. We transformed into our wolf forms and quietly snuck into the dark forest before taking off in a run. I couldn't feel Arwen. She must still be asleep. Niall lead me to the boarder we guarded once before, Mal's old scent quickly caught my attention because it lead back towards the manor. He must've just missed us. I followed Niall into a ritual of refreshing the scent markers and smelling for any new scents. I caught the rogue's old scent still lingering. It made me want to puke at the thought.
We were a good thirty minutes into our run when I heard thunder in the distance. I smelled the air as the wind picked up. We were upwind, but I could still smell a faint scent rain was coming.
"We should probably head back," I told him thoughtfully. I didn't want to get sick and worry Brendon. Not after all the shit I've already been through.
"Yeah, that's probably for the best," he told me. I had a faint feeling then. It was strange how upwind we were. It was unlike Niall. Upwind was a bad spot to be in, you couldn't pick up on a whole lot of scents. I paused from following him and glanced around quickly. This was all strange. I'm sure shift change was later then three... and we went to the pack house first.
"Niall, what's going on?" I asked softly.
He stopped walking to look back at me and tilted his wolf head to one side. Unfortunately he's hard to read this way.
"What do you mean?" He asked. "Are you talking about the storm coming? That might not even pass this way," he told me.
"Niall, that's not what I'm talking about. This is all weird. What's going on?" I asked him. "We're upwind and the shift change started at the pack house before... but we came here to take Mal's spot and didn't even greet him." Niall let out a sigh.
"Alright, alright... you got me." He turned around and walked up towards me. "I took you out here because mom asked me to. She's planning a surprise for you."
"This early?"
"She has work too, Vivienne."
"Why? What's the surprise for? She should be more worried about Innath right now."
"Did you really just ask me that? You're having the alpha's son for fucks sake, Vivienne. Mom's flipping her shit in excitement." He wagged his tail a little and I felt relief wash over me. Of course she is... she's such a good mom too. I bet she's really excited to be the grandmother of the alpha. "Now, you have to promise me to act surprised when we get back," he warned. "But we can't go just yet. We migh walk in on them setting things up," he chuckled out.
"Them?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Dad, Naomi, Mally... LIlith is helping," he told me and I felt amusement rolling off of him in waves. I sighed and felt defeated. That really did sound like something she'd do. Of course they'd do it at the crack of dawn. The sky was stil dark as the wind picked up and I could smell nothing but the rain coming in.
"Okay, I just don't want to get sick," I told him. "I'd hate it if I worried Alpha anymore then I already have."
"Yeah, he's not the best person to piss off," he said in agreement. "He'll probably drown me if I got you sick out here," he said in amusement. I chuckled as it occured to me, he would.
"Yeah," I said softly.
My leg suddenly throbbed in pain. I had been so focused, I forgot about it. I lifted it up off the ground for some rest. It was hard to stay up on three legs... My body trembled. Of course changing into my wolf form wouldn't change anything. I was still recovering from a broken leg. So? Why would they send me out here of all places? They could have just let me sleep... i wouldn't know what was going on. Niall looked at me, his eyes shinning with worry.
"Are you okay, Vivienne?"
I always admired him because he was my eldest brother... But, I also know when he's just putting on an act to look kind. He never cared about anyone in the family as a kid. He resented dad because he was infactuated with Malakai. He always looked for a way to one-up Mal. So, he truly done it becoming Beta of the pack. Their brotherly rivaly is a read behind the scenes situation. Mal showed interest in Lowell last night as a way to say, 'I'll be a better uncle than you'll ever be for a father.' I can see that now when I look at Niall with his fake worrying. Is he trying to be a better brother than Mal is to me?
My family is a sick joke. They're all nice on the outside but I know behind closed doors they're all grinding teeth with frustation. Everyone wants father's attention. They want mothers kind words. They want to steal the mother out of her and take it from Nena and Cole. Mal was always quiet as a kid but he's also not afraid to fight back a jealous brother, Niall. Nena followed her mother into nersing because she's afraid to leave her alone. Because we all lost our mothers. She's afraid to loose her mom. Cole left us like smart person.... but he went off with the bad guy, possibly to get all of our attention.
Calcifer and Innath can't even compete with this drama. Did Cal run away to get away from the drama? Did he find a mate coming back home? Will I see a letter come through the mail? Or did he die protecting Innath? The two of them are the closest in the family. I never understood why? Cole and Nena were twins so natrually they kept eachother close as kids until they grew up- had a fight over a hoodie they shared and instantly Nena moved into her own room. Distanced herself from Cole as he started dating- Emmett.
I had no one growing up but Mal- Mal who sat with me on the drive to and from school. He was annoying back then, but did he secretly feel sorry for me? I grew up lonelier then any of them. I had to pull teeth to get Niall to play tea parties with me as a kid... and now look at him. Desperate to one-up Mal on my favorite list.
"Sometimes I wonder if I should have played with Calcifer and Innath more..." I trailed off. "Then I could understand them better."
"You're silly," he sighed out. "Are you worried you'll loose both of them?" He asked.
"Mom's throwing me a party when she should be at Innath's bedside," I said in disgust. "I'm going home," I growled out. I have a few words to scold at her with. I turned around and started back towards the house. I heard him growl suddenly and turned around to look at him. What's he growling at? I watched as he hunkered low to the ground and stared into the forest outside of our territory. I didn't realize we were so close, but the shubberly was familiar to me.
"RUN VIV!" He shouted and got up suddenly. "RUN!" I tried to see what he was looking at before I heard a gun go off. FUCKING SHI-
I turned around and ran for a tree for protection but I wasn't fast enough as I felt a bullet strike my hind leg. Agh! NOT MY LEG! I limped over to a tree as I heard a second gun going off. There's two different guns. IS IT HUNTERS!? They're not out before dawn usually are they? I felt suddenly dizzy as I lost control of my limbs and fell over. I looked to see what was going on with my leg to see a dart sticking out of it. It's not a bullet? What the fuck? I felt my heart pounding in my chest. This isn't good. I felt like it was REAL work just to keep my eyes open. Why am I not shifting back? My eyes fell into darkness but my ears remained on high alert.
"Are you freaks insane!? That's my sister," I heard Niall saying.
"Good then we have the right one," I heard an unfamiliar voice saying. "And I would watch your voice, Niall. She can still hear you."
My hearing faded as my mind sunk into darkness.
My chest heavy, as I struggled to breath.