Give Me Love

I couldn’t breathe. I felt myself gasp for breath as Seth tried to get me to look at him, but my eyes were frozen on the pile of shredded denim jeans in the middle of Jake’s backyard. And they were stuck there because moments ago my cousin stood there looking furious only to be replaced by a monstrous wolf-bear thing.

I felt Seth pull me into him and lift me up, my legs hung limp as he carried me like a child by my underarms to the porch and set me down on the steps. Seth’s face took up the whole of my field of vision and I was forced to look at him. “Please don’t freak out,” he whispered.

I caught my breath enough to choke out, “Don’t freak out? Where the hell did that thing go?” I usually didn’t curse out loud, but it was totally necessary in this situation.

Seth’s hands were on either side of my face, “Hey, hey. Breathe, just breathe.” I tried my best to control my lungs, my eyes caught his and instantly a wave of calm overcame me.

The big guy, Sam, came crashing over with the other guys behind him, Embry included. “Did she see?”

Seth pulled away from me and faced Sam, even though Seth was big, Sam made him look small. “Yes, she did. I’m taking her home and then I’m going with Jake, this is all wrong.”

I swear Sam growled at Seth and the hairs at the back of my head stood on end. The even crazier thing though? Seth growled back at him. Like literally growled like animals. A tall and lean girl who looked at lot like Seth came forward and pulled on Seth's shoulder, forcing his attention to her. “I’m coming with you, let’s go.”

Seth and the tall girl helped me up and we began to leave, my mind still reeling as Sam called out, “You’re making a huge mistake”

I turned around to look back and within all of the madness saw my brother, Collin standing there with what looked like a pained expression. He moved to follow us but one of the other guys stopped him. The tall girl and Seth kept a good grip on each of my arms as we walked through the shortcut to my house.

“What just happened, where’s Jake, who are you?” I had finally gotten myself in control and I came to a stop in the middle of the field with my house now in view. They looked at eachother then at me, some sort of silent conversation passing between them.

“I’m Leah, Seth’s sister. We’ll talk at your house,” her demeanor immediately shut me up and I followed her as she led the way to my house. I felt Seth come a bit closer to me, like he expected me to faint, which felt like a serious possibility.

We rounded the corner to the front of my little three bedroom house to see that Dad’s truck was gone and a note was taped to the front door; Out with Billy. Call me when you get home, x Dad

I looked to Leah, waiting for her permission to call him. “Just send him a text,” was her cold reply. Still shaken from the event at Jake’s house, and the fact that Leah scared me a little, I obeyed and sent him a text saying I was home and that Collin was out.

I unlocked the door with my key and stepped inside, unsure of what was going to happen next. Leah motioned to the sofa and Seth softly took my arm and led me to it while he said, “You should sit down for this.”

My heart sped up a bit at his tone and the was Leah suddenly looked ansty. She pulled Seth over to her and mumbled, “Maybe you should just tell her one on one, I’ll go and try to find Jake.”

He nodded and she walked out of my house with a half smile sent my way in what seemed like a peace offering. Seth bit his lip and stayed still for a moment before he sucked in a deep breath and came to sit beside me. His eyes were on his interlocked hands for a couple of silent moments as I waited, inwardly freaking out.

“Okay,” he mumbled as he sucked in another deep breath and brought his deep chocolate eyes up to meet my own dark hazel ones.

I choked, hardly able to contain the fear that was radiating from my body. “What’s going on?”

He chewed his lip and looked at his locked hands again, seeming to struggle with his words. “Okay. Uh, okay,” he stuttered and I suddenly realized how nervous and boyish he looked. A blush so faint I hadn’t noticed it before had taken residence on his flawless cheeks and he was subconsciously rubbing his hands together.

I tentatively reached my hand out and let it hover over his own, his eyes darted up and got caught in mine before he looked back down and unlocked his hands. After a beat of his own hesitation he took my hand in both of his, now anxiously massaging my hand with his thumbs, though I didn’t mind.

“Seth,” he looked up at my eyes again and squeezed my hand. I waited for him to start talking and he bit his lip again. Whatever explanation he had was obviously major.

“Okay, please, promise me you’ll just listen and only talk when I ask? And promise not to freak out?” I was confused, but agreed regardless and he continued. “So do you remember being a kid and going to those bonfire parties during the summertime?” I said I did, but hardly. “Remember how we’d all gather around the fire and while we made s’mores the adults would tell us stories?”

“The ones about our ancestors?” I asked and his eyes lit up as he answered with an enthusiastic yes.

“Do you remember the one about Taha Aki? The Spirit Warriors?” Seth’s eyes looked hopeful so I searched all of my memories to find the story. I did. In summary, Taha Aki was tribe leader and it was believed that some of the men of the tribe could separate their soul from their body to protect our people. He did that and another member of the tribe sabotaged him, killed his own body and took over Taha Aki’s while Taha Aki was in his spirit form. I couldn’t remember the middle of the story, but it ended with a wolf allowing Taha Aki to share his animal body.

“You’re not saying what I think you’re saying,” my blood ran cold as I began to connect the dots.

Seth squeezed my hands again and scooted a bit closer to me as he pleaded, “You promised you wouldn’t freak out.”