Chapter 6 - Faye

Hector gave me a head start. He said it was only fair, considering how he had caught me off guard in my living room. I tried not to think about the spandex shorts I wore or the stretchy shirt that said spoiled in glitter script across my tits. Yeah, that was probably a bad idea. I should have worn something that covered more of me.

But then again, I hadn't exactly planned on getting kidnapped or attacked by a creepy demon. Whatever, it wasn't like I was going to be here much longer. I knew this place like the back of my hand. I knew their security routines and everything.

Not much had changed. Yet, regardless of how familiar I was with the area, it felt so foreign to me. The ride through the main neighborhood was smooth, meaning the roads had been paved at some point. The condo for Adrian wasn't new, but the smell of fresh paint hung in the air. He might have had some renovations done. Even the early morning air felt crisp and brand new, full of promise.

I didn't want promises. I just wanted to go home. Someone had to have noticed my absence at this point—Kylie knew I wasn't the type to ignore text messages. She must have sent about ten by now. After running out the front door, I realized I was faced with the woods, and probably would come across a bunch of pack members going for an early run. Like I would. Like I should have been doing at this very moment with Kylie.

To shift into my wolf form and roam the woods—or any area of this pack, for that matter—would raise the alarm. Members would try to capture me. I didn't want to cause mayhem in a place that was already ass-backward, so I skittered off to the rear of the house, flicking my fingers over my shoulder at the house.

Don't see me. Don't see me. Don't see me…

Hector tried to hide his security cameras with a simple coat of paint, but that wasn't enough to thwart my perception. They stuck out like sore thumbs to me. If I kept flicking my fingers at them, I could use the charge of power I had left to fool them into thinking I was a woodland creature.

Since my parents rejected so much of me, I was left to study on my own. I rented books from the local library only to discover that they were modern witch books with nothing of inherent value in them. When everyone went to sleep at night, I would dig through the secret archives located beneath the barn and explore our inner sanctum of knowledge, hoping to find other children like me who had been born a hybrid.

There was no one else like me. I was alone in this world, holding up two shaky fists to stave off my bullies. And here I thought I had left this life behind.

Lucky me, I thought as I dropped to my belly and shimmied into the crawl space beneath the house. I get to relive every single morbid second and avoid demons at the same time. Can this possibly get any worse?

Birds chirped musically in the background as other morning creatures woke up and got to work. Footsteps echoed above my head, a clear path pacing between the front door and the back door. They paused just above me, circled about for a second, and then stopped entirely.

My heart thudded in my chest. What was he doing up there? It wasn't like I could magically read his intentions or movements. I had a leg up on most wolves, sure, but I wasn't a mind reader or someone who could predict second by second what would happen next. I usually just got snippets of weird poems or puzzles that I had to piece together as they happened.

I snorted. What good is being clairvoyant if it's too hard to read the future?

Hector materialized as a water portrait in my mind as if someone had turned on a projector in a dark room and was forcing me to look at him. It made me uneasy at first because it felt like an attack from an unknown force. But the longer I looked at him—the more I studied the lines of his face and the curve of his muscles—the more I wanted to run upstairs and throw myself back on the couch.

And I didn't know why . This man had literally tackled me to the ground in my home and tied me up. Nothing about that should have been appealing, but my slit seemed to have other ideas.

I closed my eyes and bowed my head, ignoring the fact that I could sense the bugs around me growing restless with my presence. More footsteps sounded above. There were two people in the house now. That sent me into panic mode as I combat-crawled toward the front of the house. The footsteps remained in the rear, so I guessed that I would have an opening soon to bolt.

But then what? It was quickly turning to daylight; the pack was awake. Even if I did find an exit, someone would spot me, and I had to guess that there were more demons trying to trail after Hector—or me—or us . I was trapped here, and I knew Hector did it this way to make my escape nearly impossible.

I was never going to get out of here.

None of that nasty self-talk, I thought. Mom forced toxic positivity down your throat at every turn. Where there's a will, there's a way. Now find a way out.

"She's here? Where?! "

My head snapped back as I recognized that voice that I hadn't heard for ages. Tears welled in my eyes. Blood rushed through my veins as I combat-crawled toward the light, digging my way out of the messy hovel to get to the other side. To get to that voice. To get to the only one who truly knew me better than myself.

" Cliff …"

A commotion exploded inside the house, and then I saw him, my brother, standing on the small porch with a pale face like he was looking at a ghost from the past. And honestly, same .

It was like peering into a warped gender-bending mirror. His dirty blond hair had grown out now, maybe shoulder-length. I couldn't tell because it was tucked back into a low ponytail. Blond scruff, the color of beach sand, decorated his strong jaw, and his skinny teenage frame had been traded for a boxy buff fit that suited his proportions. Every bit of sunshine he could muster was in his eyes—the very same shade of hazel-brown as our mother's.

And mine.

My heart cracked. I dropped the hard act and sprinted toward him, throwing myself into his arms like we were at a funeral or expecting the world to end, or maybe like this was the one thing that would cure all that pain. The terrible nights I had spent awake in my bare bed were fresh in my mind now, just like the paint on Adrian's condo.

Cliff squeezed me hard enough to pop my spine. I didn't care. His rough touch and sturdiness allowed me to cry. Hot tears streaked down my cheeks as I buried my face into his t-shirt, the greasy stains on the off-white fabric somehow feeling comforting despite their sharp smell. I felt his weight shift from one foot to the other as he encompassed me with his muscular arms. He rubbed my back, my shoulders, my spine. He kept pulling back, muttering something, and then whimpering as he hugged me tight again.

We did this for a few minutes uninterrupted by the newly appointed alpha, who I knew was watching us. I didn't want to look at him. I didn't want him to know he won this round, that I couldn't take off without seeing my brother. Even though my brother never came looking for me. Even though he never called.

My Goddess, I couldn't help it. I loved him. I hated our family, but I loved him. He was never truly bad to me. He was just confused. I kept telling myself that over and over, trying my best to pull away, trying to burrow my face deeper into his shoulder. Finally, he stepped back for real this time and held my shoulders, keeping me steady—or maybe he was trying to keep himself from falling over.

"You look—" He took a shuddering breath. Red decorated the rims of his eyes like he had just applied pencil eyeliner to them. "Faye, where have you been?"

"You would know if you'd looked." Bitterness came easily with this kind of resentment. No matter how much I loved my brother and understood his past actions, I wasn't in such a forgiving mood.

I was upset with Hector for snatching me out of a perfectly good pack and shoving me right back into the past. I was desperate. I was confused. I was being pursued by demons .

I wanted to plant my fist so hard into Hector's jaw that it would make him spin.

And then I wanted him to kiss me.

I shook my head. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine." Hector cleared his throat, frowned, and looked away. "You have every reason to be mad. I'm sorry. I just…"

He shrugged.

And I knew what that meant. "Mom."

"Yeah, she was one concerned voice."

"I thought you would have left by now, honestly."

He smiled sheepishly. "Eh, I couldn't ditch the ‘rents like that."

"Are you saying I ditched them?"

His frown returned with double the sorrow. "Faye, no. What the hell? I would never say that. I just—"

I twisted out of his reach. "After everything they did to me, you're going to side with them?"

"I didn't say that either. It's just—"

Thunder cracked the sky. A flash storm erupted from nowhere, soaking me through with frigid rain that pelted my head, shoulders, and back. The wind whipped through the trees, creating a hurricane-like sound that shook the side of Hector's house. I stared at my brother as lightning flashed over us, illuminating the shock that had returned to his face—and the determination that sat on Hector's face.

Fury boiled inside me as Hector descended the porch and grabbed my shoulders. He shook me once, hard. "Girl, you better cut that crafty crap out before someone gets hurt!"

I blinked at him like he was a vision. I tried to understand what he said— cut it out —but my body was rebelling against my brain. Logic had flown out the window, and all that was left was a gaping crater where my family's love should have been. I was betrayed and abandoned, all while I was still living under their roof. It would have been better if they'd just dropped me off at a fire station. At least then, I wouldn't have endured their persistent bullying.

Hector shook me again. "You did this in the car. I know you can make it stop. So, stop it , Faye." He slouched forward so he could level his gaze with mine. "Come on, Cherry Pie. I know you're hungry. Come on…"

His voice had dropped an octave. Now, it was like soothing honey melting inside a hot cup of chamomile tea. My fists unwound, revealing the painful indents left in my palms from my fingers that I hadn't even noticed until just now. Tension drifted out of my body little by little as Hector massaged my shoulders, his thumbs coasting my collarbones and drifting toward my throat.

He nodded. "That's it."

The rain got lighter. The thunder receded, and the flashes of white ceased. Soon, the dampened earth remained with slivers of sun poking through the dusty white clouds. Humid air swirled around us, creating a vortex of warmth that lifted my hair and fluttered it around my face. Hector kept looking into my eyes while rubbing my shoulders, his features totally relaxed and his eyes full of trust.

Trust him .

The wind abruptly stopped. Birdsong returned along with the familiar creak of branches swaying in a gentle breeze. It reminded me of Beaufort Creek for a moment, the only thing different being that there wasn't the smell of sea salt on the breeze. My heart clenched in my chest as I reached for Hector's shirt, clutching a handful of the shoulder part in my right hand.

I clenched my jaw as my knees buckled and my head swayed. "I want to go home…"

He caught me before I could hit the ground. As he swept me into his arms and cradled me, I dug my nails into his back. I embraced him like he was my last hope. No one else had been kind and gentle like that with me from my own pack—I meant, from the Silverfang Creek.

Where had that storm come from? It wasn't like me to lose control. I hadn't been like this since I was a teen, and it all started with this jerk showing up at my door.

Did he truly affect me that much?

I shoved my face into Hector's chest and tried to bury the feeling of being stuck, being trapped.

And most of all, I tried to bury the feeling of elation at controlling the weather, of using my power for something so big that it could destroy the entire pack's town.

I tried to bury that feeling.

But I failed.