Wolf #1: The Pack [COMPLETED]

Prologue

Warning: Violence. Reader's discretion is advised.

Prologue

Death clings to the air like the rope digging deeper into her skin.

A body. Her body. My sister...I wait quietly for her to blink. I wait for her to step down from the railing and tell me that this is all a joke. A prank.

She never does.

My eyes meet hers. Eternally wide, frozen in a state of panic.

My hand touches my chest then my mouth then towards her. She's spinning back and forth, a little less with each swing, just as the breaths in my throat grow louder and louder the longer I stare at her.

I shut my eyes and collapse to the ground, expelling all the air in my lungs in a piercing shriek.

"Stephanie!"

+ + +

Fours hours earlier...

"Stephanie, can you and Amelia give Richard a ride home?" The speaker pops loudly as Richard's mom unplugs her phone from the aux cable. She smiles at the two of them standing together. My sister and Richard are a good-looking couple. He's built like any varsity football would be, and she's long-limbed and blond. It's like they were cut out of a Vogue magazine and placed right here in our sleepy Oregon town.

Young-Jae tugs on my cardigan, "My nail fell off."

"Ew," I open my bag and hand him a roll of bandaging. Truth be told, I had ripped off my small toe's nail last night when I was practicing at home. Occupational hazard—or a sign to change the way I stand on my pointes.

"Don't 'ew' me! If I can't share these kind of details with my dance buddy then who else?" His nail looks gnarly. We both hiss under our breath as he fully removes his sock. "Amelia!"

"Quit your whining," Steph chuckles. She knees down and starts bandaging his toe up, "After doing this for so long, you'd think that you two would have gotten over—"

"You don't get over bloody toes, Steph."

She hands Young-Jae his sock and looks up at Richard's mom, "We'll have him home after dinner, Miss Mac."

"Great! Have fun, you guys!"

Richard's arms snakes around Steph's waist the moment his mom leaves the studio room. His cheeks are a deep red and his bright, blue eyes are trained on my sister. But she's staring off again—lost in thought or intrigued by something in the forest outside.

Young-Jae rises to his feet as Steph stiffly shrugs Richard away, "I'm going to leave you to deal with...whatever that is."

"Thanks," I give him a quick hug, "Text me when you get home, Goose."

"Roger that, Mav."

It's an awkward car ride home. Richard has been kicked to the backseat. I sit up front with Steph, who hasn't said a word since we left my rehearsal. Her fingers are white against the steering wheel. I glance down and double-check that her seatbelt is fastened.

"Hm?" She glances at me, "Did you say something, Mel?"

I stammer. I hadn't said that aloud—"Are you okay to drive? You seem distracted."

"I'm good," Her stiff smile says anything but.

Richard and I share a look. He gives me a frustrated shrug before slumping back into his seat. This is going to be one hell of a dinner.

This was nothing new though. Recently, this is what it was like being around my sister. One minute, she was her old, chipper self. And then the next...it was like talking with her underwater.