The Outcome

Here I was again, packing my life away for another countless time. I didn’t even need to really focus to get it done nowadays. The second nature of leaving everything behind stopped being frustrating when I was 12. Gathering all of Erick’s and my belongings was easy compared to the workouts I was used to.

I didn’t need to be mad about it or cry, what was the point? Erick was Alpha and Alpha said it was time to go. It wasn’t as though I was cutting any strings. New York was the longest we had every stayed in the same place, two years, but I still failed to make connections with anyone at the school I was enrolled in. The thought still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was too weird or Erick was too protective, scaring away potential friends before they had the chance to consider the thought. I could never put a finger on what had changed in me, the boys used to be enough for me. The five of them, so different from each other, had filled the void of outside company. Lately that wasn’t enough, nothing was.

Taping up the last box, I fell backwards onto the lonely mattress in the middle of a now lonely room. My life was one again cardboard and the only thing that remained was the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling of Erick’s room. I loved the city and the movement of life that was here. I hadn’t seen any endings in La Push, but my research showed it was a somewhat dreary place to be.

No one else was happy about this move either. Max was helping me by taking all the boxes I packed up and hauling them down to car. He didn’t have anything to say as he worked. He was tense, like something was pent up inside him.

Erick appeared at the doorway just as Max was about to go down.

“Good to see you so quiet for a change, Max. Look at how fast you got through with these boxes.” He spoke to him cheerily.

Max just grunted and kept on his way. It was obvious why he was so tense. Erick told him not to speak and what could be done after orders like those?

“Come on, Mace. The car is all ready, all we need is you.” He held his hand out to me.

I didn’t even look at him as I walked past.

I sat in the passenger seat of the car with Erick driving. The other three boys piled into the back and I giggled. It would be a sauna back there. I laid back and relaxed. The car ride would take a few days and hotels with four other boys meant a low level of sleep. It was time to get what I could in now.

The car took off from the apartment and a little piece of my life got smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. The alleyways turned to streets and the streets turned to highways and soon the city was nothing but cloudy skylines. I closed my eyes and slept.

~~~

The memory came to me in a dream. It was like looking into a past life; and it might as well have been, judging how different things were then. The pack and I were still living in New York, I had just turned sixteen. It was scorching summertime, but unusually rainy in the city. The air was damp and muggy, the streets slick with water and rippling reflections of footsteps.

It was my first time ever seeing the big city, and my hair was red. I didn’t stick out, but blended in with all the difference. The norm was being outrageous, so we thrived on it. Despite the masses of people that lived there, the boys were able to keep their guard down with their wolves. People pushed off odd colored eyes to the latest contacts and their size for the desire to be a celebrity.

I was young, inspired, and head over heels in love with Erick. I know that these are the times Erick misses the most, but other than this memory dream I’ve all but wiped them from my mind.

I followed him around like a lost puppy, latching on to him at the slightest bit of attention, following his orders without question, and practically dying to have alone time with him any chance I got. I felt like I was so much younger then, still not used to the new things hitting puberty came with being Pack.

I didn’t know how to handle the visions and all the emotions, the slight increase in power I had over humans. Erick; however, knew exactly how to hold me and whisper things in my ear that made me forget how bad things were being the bait for vampires. I was going to school, training each afternoon, and hunting by night. Then late, late at night, after the kill celebrations- I found a safe place to sleep in Erick’s sheets.

He never pressured me to do anything other than kiss him, but our moments to together were intimate enough that I still have trouble looking him in the eye. My dream changed from day to night to the evening where my love for Erick turned to a constant state of trying to escape.

I was lying in his bead in the tiny room we had away from the boys. There were those glow-in-the-dark stars pasted to his ceiling and I was lost in their muted light. Erick was in the bathroom, and I waited for him to get back. This felt strange. I hadn’t looked into a mirror in about two months and I began to have the kneading feeling that it was time to check outcomes. Something had changed.

He came out of the bathroom in nothing but a pair of boxers and ripped abs, but my heart didn’t tremble like would have just a night ago. He slide into the sheets next to me and wrapped me up tight in a embrace. I didn’t look at him in the eye yet, just continued to make up constellations in the ceiling. What was going on? I needed to find out.

It didn’t take long to realize it was my feelings that had altered, not Erick’s. I didn’t have a ending with him anymore, it was black every time I looked into it. I didn’t know if that meant nothing or meant death, but I had to distance myself for it.
In the times we were together after that it was obvious to him that I had changed, and he asked me constantly asked me why. I had no answer for him and I think a small part of him would never forgive me for it.

Maybe that was why he decided to change too.

~~~

“Hey, Mace, wake up. We’re here.”

I opened my eyes to find Brayden staring down at me. “We’re here? When did we get on and off the plane?”

He laughed at me and the skin crinkled up. “You were like a zombie going through check in and check out. Then you sleep another three hours on the car ride here. But anyway, get up and see your new home before Erick blows a gasket.”

I peaked up out the window and almost willed my self back to sleep. “This is here? Here ain’t much.”

I could admit that this place was pretty. Everywhere I looked was green; the house we were pulled up in front of had a lush forest in the back of it. The sky was cloudy, but had heavenly rays of sunshine coming down here and there. Stepping outside, the ground was soggy from frequent rain and I could smell the ocean not to far away.

So this is La Push, Washington? It did make a good place for vampires to thrive, little sunlight to hide the sparkle and small populations seemingly cut off from the rest of the world. Easy pickings as long as one were careful. I’m surprised the Elders didn’t send us here years ago.

The history of my pack isn’t like those of most others. We didn’t really have a age old tribe that carried on traditions of togetherness and safety. The originals of my pack were created by those who decided to break from their original packs. They didn’t want to live in secrecy anymore, but to fight and rid the world of vampires, not just their immediate community.

Therefore, Alphas were appointed by the Elders based on a number of different things. It could be ability, character, or pure blood line; but once an Alpha was chosen it was law. A pack was formed for him, usually those who were born around the same time as they were, that was the case with my pack. We trained until a year after the first phase, and then sent off to blend in a community with high levels of vampires, their mission to kill.

I was an exception to this; of course, I wasn’t a wolf, yet still pack. Even the Elders didn’t know what to do with me, despite my ability. Then Erick proved to not only to have a pure wolf bloodline, but performed highest in ability. It was decided that my abilities would be best utilized with him, we were meant to work together to be the perfect team.

So, that meant I was to follow Erick and the boys where ever they led me. Which is why I was currently looking at a two story house in the middle of no where to be chased by more vampires. Yay.

Walking up to the door we waited while Max fumbled with the key to the front door. Right when he got it into the socket, the knob turned on it’s own and out walked a man who looked to be in his late-twenties. He had light brown hair and hazel eyes. I could smell the wolf in him.

“Who are you?” Erick asked, ready to take action as always.

“I’m Donavan. The Elders sent me to keep an eye on this pack.”

And now after almost two years, we had a baby sitter. Great.