Behind the Lines

“Ahhh!” I screamed. “Please don’t!” I yell.

“It’s not your fault, Journey,” she said as her body looked blazoned by the dying sunlight behind her.

“Please, no!” I beg.

“Journey, I will be watching over you. Stay strong…” and before I could save her, she jumped off from the cliff, not even letting out a scream, and fell gracefully into the water, never to be taken out, or found, again.

~~~~~~~

I wake up screaming in my bed with sweat rolling down my forehead, panting heavily. I take a sip of the water by my bedside that I always keep in the night in case I get a nightmare…. Like the one I just had. I would not even call it a nightmare. It is a recurring memory that keeps popping up in my head when I sleep.

While I drink my water sip by sip, Rob and Gavin come running in, looking around my room for any oncoming threats. If this situation was not so serious to me, I would be laughing.

Rob and Gavin realize that there is nothing in the room and their frantic eyes finally land on me.

“Are you okay?” Rob asks, sitting on my bed while Gavin stands by the end of it.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bad dream, that’s all,” I chastise, waving it all off as no big deal, though it is. But they do not need to know that.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Yeah, I’m sure?”

“You know… they might just stop if you tell someone,” Rob suggests sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as if I would freak out.

“I’m just not ready to talk about it yet, but when I am, you will be the first to know.”

Rob sighs, looking at me with uncertainty, but lets the topic go, anyway. “Okay then. Why don’t you get some sleep? No training in the morning; you can use a break,” Rob orders. He gets off of my bed and leans over to kiss my forehead in a brotherly way. Get your head out of the gutter people. He is just a friend!

He leaves my room and Gavin simply gives me a fist pump and a smile and says, “Night,” before exiting my room, closing the light and door behind him. Yeah… never go to Gavin with your problems. It will not do you any good.

I sigh deeply and lay back down on my bed, snuggling up in my comforter and pillow. I try to go back to sleep, but the memory plagues my mind like a disease.

After twenty minutes of twisting and turning, I give up and get out of bed. It is only four o’clock in the morning, but I still head over to my balcony and lean over the railing, looking at the view of the deep, dark forest in front of me. The moon shines behind the foliage, creating a minimal amount of light, yet slightly illuminating the forest.

I sigh and think about the dream, which leads me into thinking about the people in the Red Sun Pack.

I wonder if my brothers regret doing everything they ever did to me, and if they ever even think about me at all or if they completely forgot about me.

I wonder if Blaine misses our inside jokes and conversations, or if he too, was forced to enjoy my company.

I wonder if my parents even realize I am gone and are looking for me—their little girl.

I wonder if Landon is still looking for me, and how he did on that drama project with Blaine.

In my little trip to outer space, I did not notice how long I was thinking, until the birds start to chirp and the sun peeks from behind the trees where the moon previously was. I watch the sunrise, admiring the beauty, yet the simplicity of it.

While the sun blazes a dark yellow, around the sun is an array of colors, pink, purple, orange, and red. The colors are darker around the ball of fire but starts to fade when it spreads further in the distance, blending in with the light blue morning sky. The sun takes a while to come up, but by now, tiny critters on the forest floor are active and looking for their breakfast.

I decide to get ready, even though Rob exempt me from training today. But hey, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

I step back in my room and head to my en suite to do my daily routine. I finish in record time, and make my bed before going downstairs. Marla will freak if any one did not do their bed. She will personally make you do your bed, glaring at you, and ordering you to do extra chores you would not have to do if you make your bed. Honestly, I would not be making it if it was not for Marla. She checks every day to see if we make it, and there is at least one person that did not do it. I do not see the point of making your bed if you are only going to mess up your hard work by sleeping in it, few odd hours later.

I go downstairs to the first floor and head into the kitchen for an apple and water bottle. I did not think anyone would be up this early at six, but am surprised to see Caleb sitting there on the table, reading a book and having cereal.

He hears me come in and turns his head to face me.

“Morning,” he greets, smiling and revealing his dimples. For the love of god, through me in a river.

“Good morning, did you sleep well?” I ask sweetly, but not too overly sweet to make him think I am like Samantha and Lucy. I walk over to the fridge to pick up a water bottle and an apple.

“Yeah, one of the best in a long time,” he answers, putting his book down to take a bite of his cereal.

“Why are you up so early?” I question, sitting across from him on the table.

“Early riser. I couldn’t sleep longer even if I wanted to. My body doesn’t allow it,” he chuckles. “What about you? You’re up pretty early.”

“I had a nightmare. I couldn’t fall back asleep after that,” I take a sip of water.

He looks at me with concern in his eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nah, I think I live, just as long as we don’t live on Elm’s Street,” I joke, trying to lighten up the dampened mood. He understands my jokes and laughs.

“So, you going somewhere?” he asks, eyeing my sportswear.

“Yeah. I am just going out for a walk.”

“Cool. Mind if I come with?” he asks.

“Sure. I could use some company.”

“Awesome. I’ll be right back. I just need to change,” he gets up from his seat and I notice he is only in a wife beater and sweat pants, obviously his nightwear.

“No problem. I’ll be right here.”

He smiles at me, briefly, before running off and I fist pump the air after he leaves. I get to hang out with him alone! I almost let out a squeal, but cover my mouth before doing so, knowing anyone can hear it. We have werewolf hearing. We can hear a pin drop in a crowded Indian train station.

I calm myself down before Caleb can come down, and enjoy eating my apple. Did you know that the Adam’s apple is called that because of a popular idea that it was created when the fruit got stuck in Adam’s throat when he swallowed it? Well, if you did not, now you know.

Five minutes later of thinking about random apple facts, Caleb comes back in the kitchen looking as sexy as ever. With a lot of effort on my part, I manage to keep my jaw from dropping. He is wearing ripped, low ride dark jeans, a loose tank top, combat boots, and a cute beanie on his head.

He smiles at me and take my hand resting on the table. “Let’s go,” he says, pulling me off my chair and out the patio door, heading to the path in the forest. I cannot help but like the feel of my small hand in his big one, even though it does not bring any sparks like a mate’s touch would do. Caleb’s hand just seem comforting and safe and warm.

He guides me in to the forest, and we lose ourselves in mindless chatter, like the barbeque yesterday.

We walk for at least twenty minutes before finding a pile of huge boulders and sitting on one of them side by side. Looking at the sky through the trees, and birds flying home to their nest, it makes me wonder why Caleb, Johnston, and Harmony moved here.

“Caleb?”

“Yeah,” he says softly.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure.”

I take a breath before asking, “Why did you move here?” There has to be a reason for him to switch packs, and I remember Rob saying his situation is slightly like mine.

He does not answer for a few minutes, and I think of it as an “I’m not going to answer” silence.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I was just curious,” I reassure.

“No!” he says too quickly, startling me. “Sorry. I mean, I do want to tell you. I was just thinking how to say it in the least gruesome way as possible,” he lets out a smile, though I can see pain behind his eyes and I know that he has been through a lot.

“Take your time,” I say and smile back.

He pauses for a few more moments before taking a deep breath and turning his face to look at me.

“My dad was the alpha of my last pack. My uncle, Johnston’s and Harmony’s dad, was the beta,” he starts. “Johnston, Harmony, and I went to this party one night, a few weeks ago, across town. While we were at the party… our pack was attacked by rogues. They didn’t kill a lot of people. Just my parents, my older brother and Johnston’s and Harmony’s parents, and a couple other families. The pack was—is—devastated over the loss of its two leaders. They blamed Harmony, Johnston, and I for not coming to help. They couldn’t contact us through the mind link, for some unknown reason. They thought that if we were there, we could have helped.

“Our pack members didn’t want us there anymore, saying we were a disgrace to their pack. The three of us took the blame on ourselves, and I contacted Rob to see if he would be willing to take us in his pack. We didn’t want to be in a pack where people blamed us for something that came totally out of the blue. But I can’t blame them,” he pauses, taking a long breath, and keeping control of the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. “If I was there… we could have helped them out. I don’t think I will ever be able to forgive myself for not being there for my parents and brother and uncle and my pack,” he finishes, finally breaking down crying with his head in his hands.

I pull him into a hug and he immediately buries his head in my neck and wraps his arms around me, proceeding to cry. His body shakes as his tears drop onto my shoulders. I rub his back with one hand, and the bottom of his hair, not covered by the beanie, with the other hand, in an effort to comfort him. I let him cry, knowing this is probably the only time he has had to fully take in what he lost.

We stay like that for a while; him sobbing into my neck and me comforting him. He calms down after a few minutes, but there are still some random teardrops and sniffles coming from him.

“You know,” I whisper, “I don’t think you’ve done anything bad. If it helps, I kind of know what you have been through. You’re not alone.”

He tears away from me and looks at me with a deathly glare, so unusual from his cheery self.

“You have no clue what my situation is like, so please don’t try to be sympathetic and say things that have no meaning,” he remarks, his voice hard and cold. I think it is time I tell him what I have been through.

He turns away from me on the rock and sheds angry tears. I give him a few moments to himself, before breaking the silence.

“Caleb?” I whisper.

“What?” he says sharply.

“Do you know how I joined this pack?”

“No I don’t,” he huffs, still looking away.

“Well. I am going to tell you a story,” and before he can say anything, I start out giving the basic summary of what happened. Unlike him, I do not cry, already used to the telling my story. I did not want to tell him, and seem like a broken girl, but he does not believe me, and I cannot have more of that.

“And that’s how I ended up here,” I finish after ten minutes. I pretend to take more interest on the dirty forest floor than look up at his face, knowing he turned around sometime during the story to listen properly.

He takes my hand and with his free hand, he moves my chin up to face him and looks right into my eyes. My eyes are blank, something I have learnt to do over the year, but his eyes are full of pain and regret and guilt.

“I’m sorry for what I said before. I-I didn’t know,” he says, and then moves his lips to my forehead and kisses it. He then pulls me in so my head is lying on his shoulder and his arm is around mine. And like that, we sit in a comfortable silence, each consumed by our own thoughts.

It was not long after until Caleb breaks the silence.

“I don’t you about you, but I want to get to know you better.”

“Me too,” I smile.

“What should we do?”

I think for a couple seconds before answering, “We could take turns telling each other things we used to do as kids or what something embarrassing that happened to us and what not,” I suggest.

“Sure,” he laughs, “I’ll start.”

I nod and motion for him to continue.

He hesitates and recalls previous memories in his mind before starting.

“When I was younger, I would put my broccoli on Johnston’s plate when no one was looking. He would always get in trouble for not finishing his dinner because he was too full!” he laughs at the memory and I laugh along with him, imagining him doing that in my head.

“Naughty child! My twin did the same to my younger brothers,” I remember.

He laughs, “Your turn.”

“Okay, let’s see…” I think for a second before I am hit with a good memory. “When I was younger, I would go to my dad’s closest and wear his shirt and tie. Afterwards, I would go around the house mocking my dad’s voice and everyone would play along, including my dad, pretending to be me.”

Caleb laughs, probably imagining little me in men’s clothing. “So men can be drag kings,” he concludes.

“Oh shut up!” I laugh, hitting him on the arm playfully. “Your turn.”

“One time during school, I went to the bathroom and my teacher was there washing his hands. There was water on the floor, so when he went to get a paper towel, a few feet away from the sink, he slipped and fell. Instead of helping him up, I burst out laughing and couldn’t stop when he mentioned he thought he broke his hip bone. He gave me detention for disrespecting a teacher, and sent me to the principal’s office.

“The principal told me to tell her what happened, so I did, and she ended up laughing along with me, and told me anyone would have done the same. She got rid my detention and let me skip the last few minutes of class,” he reminisces. I was already laughing at the middle of it, just because I would die to see a teacher fall. I laugh long and hard with tears coming out of eyes. I calm down after a while and continue on.

“One time, my teacher in middle school was lecturing us in class about a Facebook page made about another teacher in school. Apparently, people were saying mean things about her and she found it. It was really tense in class with our science teacher teaching us about morals and what not. Suddenly, the kid next to me farted really loud.

“I tried to hold in my laughter, and so did other kids, because I didn’t want to upset my teacher anymore, but after a minute of chuckling, I finally burst out laughing, along with the whole class, including the teacher. He said he was waiting for someone to start laughing because he couldn’t pass out on the hilarity of the situation. Within seconds, the tension that couldn’t have been cut by a knife was absorbed by stinky gas!”

Caleb starts laughing really hard and we spend hours and hours taking turns telling embarrassing or funny stories about out past. There are times that we laugh so hard, we fall on the ground of the forest floor. After falling multiple times and getting back up to sit on the rock, we decide to just stay on the floor and roll around in the dirt, laughing.

When we finally could not think of any more memories to share, we lay side by side on the ground, using our arms as pillows and staring at the canopy of trees above us.

“You know what, Journey?” Caleb asks softly in his deep, smooth voice.

“What?” I softly reply back.

“I really wish you were my mate. You make me feel at ease whenever I talk to you,” he admits.

“I feel the same way,” I blush, though admitting my feelings.

He moves to his side and rests his head on his hand, balancing his forearm on his elbow. He blocks my view of the canopy and all I can see is his face hovering over mine. Our bodies are extremely close and our breaths mingle with one another because of the close proximity. The sun shining through the trees, shines behind him, making him look like an angel with a halo.

“I really like you, Journey,” he confesses.

“I like you too,” I manage to breathe out. I blush and move my face to look away from his, but he has other plans.

He moves my head with his free hand to face him again.

“You look really cute when you blush,” he says smiling at me, which only makes me blush more.

Ever so slowly, he leans down, closing the remaining distance between us. Even though I just met him yesterday, I feel as if we are moving at just the right pace. I feel like I have known him forever. Like he said, he makes me feel at ease. Even though we will end up finding our mates sooner or later, I feel as if we can pick up each other’s pieces.

Just as the space between us is just a centimeter apart, a loud noise shrills through my head, startling me, making me bump heads with Caleb. We both groan in pain and hold our heads in our hands.

“Where the hell are you guys!?” Gavin screams through the mind link, and I can see Caleb can hear him too because he grimaces at Gavin’s screaming.

“No need to yell, Gavin! We are in the forest, just talking,” I retort, a little peeved off by him.

“Do you know what time it is?” Gavin shrieks.

“No, mom. Please feel free to enlighten me,” I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes, which causes Caleb to laugh.

“It’s twelve o’clock!” Gavin screams, yet again.

“Whoa, we’ve been out long,” I say to Caleb, not using the mind link with him.

“I know. We left at, like, six,” he recounts.

“Come back now!” Gavin screams.

“Okay, okay, we’re coming. No need to get your panties in a twist.

Caleb gets up from the ground and helps me up. Before letting go he pulls me in and holds me by the waist, pulling me in, all the way to his chest.

“I think we were interrupted, Miss Allen,” he whispers, inching his head closer to mine.

Little by little, we inch our heads together, and our lips connect.

Obviously, sparks don’t fly, but his lips feel great against mine. It is not a rough kiss, but a soft, comforting kiss. Our lips move in synchronizing motion and I move my hands up behind his neck to bring him closer. We get as close as we can get, and when it is not close enough for us, Caleb’s hand trails down my side, and over my hips, to my thighs. He lifts them up and wraps them around his waist.

He opens his mouth a little to let his tongue travel across my bottom lip, asking for permission. I tease him a little and keep my mouth shut, and he grunts in my mouth. Holding me up by one hand under my butt, he takes the other and squeezes my side, making me squeal against his lips, and I accidently making me open my mouth. He takes this to his advantage and slips his tongue in my mouth. We fight for dominance, until we both run out of breath and call it a tie, without exchanging any words.

Calming ourselves down a bit, we rest our foreheads against each other, breathing in and out.

Finally, after two minutes, him still picking me up, he talks.

“I think that was one of the best kisses in my life,” he admits.

I smile in response and bury my head in his neck. He hugs me tights and sighs.

I look up at him and see some apprehensiveness in his eyes.

“Is anything wrong?” I ask.

“We’ve only known each other for a day, Journey. I really like you, but I don’t want you to think of me as a player. I’m sorry,” he apologizes, and puts me down on the ground, looking at anything but me.

I put his face between my hands to make him look at me.

“Caleb. I know this is moving fast. But I can’t help the connection I feel with you. I know you’re not my mate, but there is something about you that makes me want to keep you until we find our true mates. I don’t think of you as a player, but an amazing guy with a big heart,” I say, looking him straight in the eyes.

I give him a quick peck on the lips to prove me point. He bursts out into a smile and picks me up and spins me in a circle, while I squeal in delight.

He puts me down and holds my face between his hands.

“I want to keep you too, until I find my mate, but I want you to promise me one thing,” he proposes.

“What?”

“I want to be friends after we find our souls,” he admits.

“Of course we will be. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I smile at him with sparkling eyes, no doubt.

He gives me a brief peck on the lips before offering me his hand.

“Shall we go see what the beta wants?” Caleb says.

“We shall.” I accept his hand, and we walk through the forest together, both our moods uplifted. We still talk about stupid things like we did before we kissed, and I could not be happier that we still act the same as we did before.

After a twenty minute walk back home, filled with even more pecks and what not, we find Gavin waiting at the starting of the trail we just came from.

“Ah. I have been waiting for you,” Gavin says in a mocking, vampire-esque accent.

“What do you want Gavin?” I say, arms crossed, kind of mad he ruined our walk.

“I wanted to remind you the next week is prank week.”

And with that said, I could not be happier.

Next week is going to be a blast.

There is going to utter destruction.

There will be chaos.

There will be hell.

There will be war.

For it is, Prank Week.