Darkest Wolf

IV

"Get dressed."

Jade looked up at me from where I stood in her apartment on the skirts of the city. I had run there after my talk with me father. Gwen can't come. I won't drag her into this. It has to be Jade if I take anyone.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry," she stepped aside to allow me into the little apartment. It was a mess and the fact that she didn't shut the door behind her while she stood in her green, silk robe that went to about mid thigh and only her sheer underwear made me get up to close it. Again with the differences between us.

"I have to get out of the territory and I want you to come with me."

"Depends on where we're going," she claimed as she moved an ash tray and sat herself on the coffee table," This seems like a last minute decision."

"It is," I hadn't even gone back to grab a bag.

While she continued to be her "dutiful" self and evaluate my situation, I stood up and went to her bedroom. Socks, boots, black jeans and a loose black crop top and a blue leather jacket, courtesy of her floor. 

"Get dressed."

"Tell me what's going on," she pulled the pants on begrudgidly," Are you in trouble or what?"

"I'm not in trouble but if I don't find him soon I will be."

"Who?"

"My mate."

She froze in the midst of pulling the crop top on. Jade Wright had never thought of finding her own mate. She had never seen me take any interest in finding my own.

Now she watched me throw a bunch of random things of hers into a bag from the closet.

"Shouldn't you think about this? Running off to find a man that might be a million miles away is huge, E."

"November used to tell all kinds of atories about her travels as a rouge. We just have to do what she did," I knew I was rambling but I need to get a move on," we'll need money and a train ticket. She didn't go by train but we aren't rouge so it should be fine-"

"Eve, I don't think-"

"We could head to the vampire territory, I bet they have some kind of a witch there. Yeah, I know they've been extinct for how long but nothing stays dead. I bet one of them was once a wi-"

"Eve! Listen to me!"

I stopped putting the clothing in the bag, my hand closed around a shirt as I looked up at her. She looked exactly as exasperated as she sounded.

"You can't just run off into the sunset to find your prince charming," she rubbed her forehead and turned to the side before facing me again," I know that you think you're doing the right thing but you can't just fast forward to the prince that saves the day. My parents tried to do that and look at where my dear old dad is."

I pulled my lip into my mouth before sucking in a breath and putting the last shirt more securely into her bag. I could see she wanted to give up on me but Jade wouldn't do that. 

"Call Gwen if you want but she won't be able to talk me out of this either. I'm going. Meet me at the bus stop in the human town in an hour if you're coming."

She didn't move as I brushed past her, dark matter perfume disappeared under her real scent. I wonder if humans can smell their family's smells under their colognes as well. Family is so strong for every being. They must be able to.

The sky was so different from yesterday. It felt like rain. 

Rain is a beautiful thing, it quells a lot of my dark tendencies. When it rains, I'm not as drawn to the dying or the dead. No bars and strip clubs call to me. I can walk down the street and go to a pond or find a nice ice cream shop.

The Luna's old bakery stood at the end of the street, empty since her family broke apart. Her father died and Zoey was sent to live with my uncle's pack. Teresa and Thomas looked after her well, especially when Thomas met his mate. Teresa's died soon after they met but she took care of Zoey like she was her own. I remember that situation clearly because Ethan and I both felt a pull to it. Both dark and light.

I walked past the bakery with a slight nod of respect to the sadness that still lingers there.

My parents bought their first couch from the store across the street from that. I was 2 at that time. A small part of me remembers it but it's too far buried under useless memories of school and training.

I saw the place where Uncle Kian and his mom chased the Alpha into the Luna's bakery. From what I've been told he was kinda weird about it and kissed her the first time they met. Luna Lacey swears she'd never done anything like that before. Ethan smiles at stories like that.

Down the road a little was the spot where Uncle Luke and Aunt November reunited. She had been gone for almost a year after they mated, swearing she would never come back before she just... showed up. Max was born 2 years later. They were truly in love. 

Of course, there was the last spot on my little tour of the town. The place where the Luna lost her first pup. Our would-be Alpha. They won't tell us where their baby is buried. It's only for them and Kian to know.

All these places in town that held great memories for my parents and family but none of them were known to the people around town. I pity them. Great love stories happened around them and none of them bothered to notice.

I knelt and put my hand on the sidewalk where I've been told that it happened. It was of by 2 feet. Death still lingered. Rage and fear. Horror.

My eyes pricked with the realization that I didn't have a lump in my throat or a stone in my gut from this terrible event. My DNA refused to care.

I couldn't care.