Thank you all so much for the wonderful words you left behind after reading the first chapter of this story. I'm so sorry that it took me so long to come up with this chapter—I've been having some issues with school, so I was a little distracted and not able to sit down at my computer. Also, I wanted to add that, if any of you are interested, I would love if someone could create a graphic for this story. It would make me super happy. (: Well, without further ado, here is the next installment of "Howl":
Favorite Line:
"You'll get through it, Jane. You always do."
Milk? In the refrigerator on the top shelf.
Sliced white bread? On the first level of the cabinet to the left of the sink.
Carton of strawberry ice cream? In the deepest, darkest corner of the freezer so that I wouldn't be so easily tempted.
Determinably I pushed myself to purposefully place all of my groceries back in their rightful places, hoping that the menial task would help stem my trembling fingers. Unfortunately, after stowing a head of lettuce in the vegetable drawer of my refrigerator, I found myself nearing the bottom of my last grocery bag and running out of a feasible distraction. At my hesitation, my hands clenched into shaking fists, nails squeezing sharply into my flesh. Swallowing the abrupt lump forming in the back of my throat, I shoved away the instant fear of having to face both the damage to my apartment and my eventual guest and continued the mind-numbing process.
When a plastic bag of frozen vegetables jolted my bare skin with its icy chill, the jolt that rushed through me forced the bag to slip through my fingers and clatter to the linoleum floor. Silently cursing myself, I stooped down and picked up the bag, hoping that the coolness would wake me from this nightmare and calm my nerves. Unfortunately, all I was left with was shivering hands and sore knees. Sighing, I pressed my wrist to my aching forehead and tried to figure out what was happening.
The last couple of months, while rather hectic, had been normal. Sure, I had moved out of my grandparents' house and finally begun my independent life as a college student—I had even started my job at Beacon Hills Hospital barely a month ago, sure that the hectic schedule would easily distract me from any issues in my personal life. They had been supernatural free, void of any longing for adventure or danger. The only thought that continued to haunt my mind was if Derek was safe, and even that I was continuing to push out of my head. But now, whoever had ransacked my apartment had completely eviscerated that progress.
Two quiet knocks at my front door instantly froze my hesitant breaths, forcing me to continue kneeling on the hard, cold linoleum for just a single moment before heaving myself onto my shaky legs. Numbly I reached for my handgun, preparing myself for putting a bullet in the head of any unexpected guest. I strode slowly to foyer, making sure the door chain was still lodged tightly into the slot nailed to the door frame. My trembling fingers reached forward for the smooth, metal door knob, fear abruptly ripping through my stomach and threatening to strangle me. Even if it was only Derek on the other side of that door, was I really ready to face him? It would be the first time in more than two months that I would be seeing him; after all the progress I had made, after my struggles to place him out of my life, it would all crumble in one second. Maybe calling him had been a mistake; maybe—
"Jane, it's alright. It's just me."
At the sound of his deep, calm voice, all my reservations about seeing him dissipated in an instant. Shakily I undid the door chain and swiftly pulled the door wide open.
He had changed. Even after only a couple months, in an instant it was obvious that there was something different about the Derek Hale who was standing right before me. Thick, dark stubble crept over his strong jaw, prickling my sensitive skin without even brushing my fingertips over it. If possible, he looked even older than his years, deep circles etched into the soft flesh under his deep green eyes. But, even with the long months that had changed him, he was still the same Derek Hale that could turn my insides right out. Piercing, forest green eyes narrowed down at me as soon as I slid the door open, unreadable even to the sharpest of minds. Thick, slightly damp, jet black hair clung to his forehead, hinting to the possibility that it had finally begun to rain outside. That familiar black leather jacket was draped over his broad shoulders, raindrops beading on the cracked, smooth material, his clenched fists shoved deep into the pockets.
As soon as my eyes met his, an explosion of emotions stirred deep within the pit of my stomach, my heart swelling and beating so loudly that I was positive Derek could hear it. Fear and outright joy, depression and anxiety blanketed my entire being, but barely any of it registered initially as I struggled to simply part my lips to say something, anything to him. All I could bring myself to do was gape up at him, completely stalled by utter shock of seeing him.
"Hi," I finally found myself saying rather lamely, my limbs suddenly hanging awkwardly by my sides.
Derek silently nodded at me, perhaps not as emotionless as he seemed. Farther down the corridor, a heavy door slammed shut, startling me so abruptly that I visibly jumped. When the tense silence continued to linger, Derek cocked an eyebrow and said quietly, "Are you going to invite me in?"
Again I jumped, but this time there was only silence surrounding the threshold. Hurriedly I stepped out of the way so Derek could pass through the doorway and into my apartment. Instincts forced my arms to cross over my chest as I mutely followed him through the hallway and watched as he stepped into the living room. Growing uncomfortable with his unwillingness to say anything, I found myself saying, "When I called…I wasn't sure if you'd come."
"You sounded upset," replied Derek, his back turned to me as he cast a glance around the living room. "And I figured you wouldn't call if it wasn't something important."
Nodding despite the fact that his back was still facing me, I leaned against the archway and wished that there was something that could help distract me. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to start cleaning up the debris scattered around my apartment until Derek left, since any movement would most likely disrupt the scents and clues left behind. Until then, I was forced to simply watch as Derek took a few cautious steps through my living room and hesitated at the sight of my bookcase.
"How did you know where my apartment was?" I couldn't help but ask him, the nagging question abruptly beginning to weigh on me. I most certainly hadn't told him that I had moved, let alone which building I had moved into. And yet, despite my overlooking of actually informing him of my address, Derek had managed to arrive at my doorstep in little time.
Derek halted his movements before casting a glance over his shoulder at me, his eyes narrowing on my uncomfortable form for just a moment before turning away. Instead of answering my question, he began, "Whoever your intruder was, he definitely wasn't human, and he probably wasn't that smart. I practically caught his scent before you even opened your door. And his movements are…erratic, like he wasn't really sure of what he was looking for."
Biting my lip as I struggled to comprehend just what Derek was saying, I met his gaze and told him, "He wasn't just in here. He went…he went into my bedroom."
In an instant, Derek's brow furrowed as he silently studied my face. As his gaze slipped away to the hallway leading to my bedroom, I found myself continuing to watch him and struggling to decipher the emotions cast on his handsome face. Even when I was positive I knew him quite well, I still couldn't quite read his face half as well as he could read mine. Derek abruptly glanced over at me and, after catching the puzzled expression flitting across my face, his jaw clenched and he wordlessly strode towards the hallway. With a soft sigh, I followed him.
The top two of my bureau drawers had been dragged out, the garments tucked neatly away now rifled through and littering the wooden floors spanning from underneath my tennis shoes. Despite the situation, I found myself flushing as I realized a few of my panties had been strewn about, but Derek paid no notice to them and instead focused on my bed. My sheets were a tangled disaster, and obviously someone had rifled through my bed for God knows what reason. Just the sight of the mess forced me to cringe in embarrassment.
"Well," Derek said as soon as I crossed the threshold into my bedroom and stumbled upon him wrenching a hard stare onto my messy bed, "I think I found out what he was looking for."
"And what is that?" I asked him, completely lost.
Refusing to meet my gaze by continuing to glare down at my bed, Derek replied shortly, "Me." Catching my blank stare, he continued, "Whenever there's a new Alpha, some Omega werewolves—lone wolves—will come out of the woodwork in hopes of joining the new pack. This one, apparently, decided to find me by ransacking your apartment. Not exactly the smartest idea, but he's certainly made himself noticeable."
Even though I completely understood what Derek was telling me, I still shook my head as I took a tentative step towards him, hoping he would finally meet my gaze and actually acknowledge that I was standing only a couple steps away from him. However, when he refused to, I forced myself to ask him, "But why, Derek? It makes no sense. I haven't seen you in months—the whole reason we agreed to…to go our different ways was so that no one would be able to make that connection. Why would this person come to my apartment—my living room, my bedroom—in search of you?"
"Your mattress," he replied simply, his eyes narrowing into a harsh, full-on glare now at my twisted, tangled cream-colored sheets and pale yellow quilt. "Even though it's not strong, my scent is still encased in it. It must have sunk into the mattress when…well, you know."
Derek finally wound his neck around to blink down at me and, in that brief moment, my stomach coiled into tight knots and an immense rush of blood flooded my head and reddened my already pink cheeks. Dizziness and nausea engulfed my system, my trembling knees nearly crumbling underneath me and forcing me to tumble down the ground. Sucking in a sharp breath of cold air, I stubbornly pressed my palm onto the nearby wall, allowing to me stay afloat for just a little bit longer.
Catching Derek's startled expression, I firmly told him as I dug my knuckles into my throbbing forehead, "I'm fine. Just…a little dizzy."
Despite my stubborn words, Derek hardly looked convinced as he reluctantly nodded. Sighing, he eventually said, "I should be able to track him, thanks to his lackluster ability to mask his scent. He won't come anywhere near here again, I can promise you that." Catching the deep wrinkles embedding themselves into my forehead, he added in a slightly gentler voice, "You should probably stay with your grandparents—it'll help you sleep if you're not alone."
Even as he was suggesting this, I immediately knew it would never happen. If this Omega was circling my apartment in hopes of catching a glimpse of the mysterious Alpha, I was hardly going to flee to my grandparents' home and bring danger right to the unsuspecting doorstep. "I'll be fine here," I replied quietly. "I need to clean this place up, and I'm used to not getting much sleep during the night."
Of course, Derek did not overlook the last section of my response to his suggestion. Fortunately, he only cast his striking stare upon my reluctant face for just a moment before turning it to my bedroom. As his gaze lingered on the picture frames placed on my nightstand, he parted his lips to say something, but then they formed a rigid, straight line. With a shake of his head, Derek began to stride towards my door.
At the thought of him leaving, an abrupt sensation of foreboding filled my stomach and my heart threatened to leap into my throat. Hurriedly, I took a determined step after him and said nervously, "So, how have you been?"
Abruptly Derek froze. My breath clogged my throat, rendering me mute as, his back still turned to me, Derek softly said, "Don't do this, Jane."
"Don't do what?" I tentatively asked.
"Make this any harder than it already is," he responded shortly, irritation twisting his voice as he spun around on his heel and glared down at me. "This isn't easy for me either, but you can't just…you can't try to push yourself back into my life. You need to put some effort into staying away from me."
"Push myself—" I struggled to repeat, unable to believe what Derek had just thrown directly into my face. Fury licked at my insides as I clenched my fists, cheeks flushed in anger, and said sharply, "That is not what I was doing, Derek. I haven't seen you in months—no word from you, nothing that gives me even the slightest hint that you're safe. But I respected you for that. I've been trying to move on with my life. I got a new job, started college classes; I was actually doing fairly well until all of this happened." I waved my arms around, trying to force him to see the damage that had been forced onto my home.
"If you were so determined not to see me, to move on, why did you call me in the first place?" Derek demanded harshly. "As soon as you stepped into this place, you should've called your uncle, the sheriff of the entire town! Instead, you called me first. Why? Why bother when you're supposed to be staying away from me?!"
"Because I trust you!" I practically shouted, unable to believe what I was hearing. "Out of everyone in this town, you are the only person I can actually trust with my life, Derek! When I got scared by the fact that my home had been trashed my some stranger—that my bedroom had been broken into and the place where I try to sleep had been destroyed—I turned to the one person I trust. I'm so sorry for actually trusting you."
Initially Derek said nothing after my outburst, only narrowing his eyes down at me and clenching his jaw in poorly stifled rage. My gaze drifted down to his hands dangling by his sides, only to find them tightening into shaking fists for just a few moments before relaxing once more. Finally, just as I dragged my stare back to his face, he coolly said, "I'll track this Omega down. If you're in danger, I'll let you know. Otherwise, keep your head down, Jane. It's the only way you can stay safe."
Unwilling to let me respond, Derek turned on his heel and silently stormed out of my bedroom. A few moments later, the front door slammed shut, and I was left standing in the center of my room, clothes and shards of a broken heart scattered all around me. I refused to allow the tears budding in my eyes to fall. Instead, I stubbornly squeezed my eyes shut and, as soon as I was able to stifle the weak sobs struggling to creep from deep within my throat, I got to work.
For the past two months, my nights had been nothing short of miserable. Initially I had found myself waking up in the middle of the silent night with screams clogging my throat and visions of mile-high waves of crackling flames overtaking me still flashing right before my open eyes. A sickly sweet voice would hiss into my ear to not be so afraid of what the night could bring, but I stubbornly kept my eyes open, blearily blinking up at the bare ceiling as the late hours ticked by. Eventually the pattern created a harsh habit that forced me to stay awake each and every night, only allowing me a few hours of restless sleep in the early hours of the morning. As soon as my alarm would begin annoyingly buzzing, I would awaken and begin the day as if I hadn't just been haunted by visions of my past the entire night.
That night had been no different. It was only around two-thirty in the morning, after I had managed to make my apartment somewhat presentable, that I had stumbled onto my couch, curled up into a tight ball, and fallen into a light sleep. Despite my struggles to sleep, it took me quite a few minutes, in the late hours of the morning, to realize that someone was pounding loudly on my bedroom door and loudly calling my name.
Groggily I blinked open my eyes, the horrible memories from the night before rushing back to me as I cringed at the thought of them. Pressing my knuckles into my throbbing temples, I nearly forgot about the annoying person continuing to knock at my door, their muffled voice impossible to decipher.
Sighing, I shoved myself onto my feet and staggered towards the door. Despite the all-too familiar face peering up down at me through the peephole, it took me a couple moments to comprehend just who they were. Biting my lip nervously at the actual thought of seeing them, I sighed once more and, after undoing the locks, wrenched the door open.
"Good morning," grinned my uncle almost sheepishly at the sight of my undoubtedly horrid appearance. My greasy hair hung heavily past my shoulders and no doubt there were deep circles etched into the soft flesh underneath my tired eyes. My uncle, on the other hand, was dressed sharply in his sheriff's uniform, a tray of two Styrofoam cups held in his hand.
"Morning," I managed to weakly smile up at Uncle Jake, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stepping out of the way so he could enter my apartment. "Sorry it took me so long to answer the door—I was still sleeping like, you know, normal people do at seven in the morning." The clock on my oven was practically mocking me as I shook my head at my uncle's odd ability to be a morning person.
"It wouldn't kill you to wake up a little bit early to see your favorite uncle," said Uncle Jake, pressing the Styrofoam cup that smelled suspiciously of soothing hot tea into my palms and beginning to search through my cabinets. Catching my blank stare down at my cup, his eyes softened as he asked gently, "Late night?"
"Yeah," I shrugged, shoving away my exhaustion to appear at least somewhat fine, for my uncle's sake at least. "Sorry, I've just been so busy with work and school and I guess it caught up to me last night. Thank you for the tea though—it already is making me feel so much better."
Uncle Jake shrugged off my appreciation and replied, "It's the least I could do after cancelling on you last night. I really am sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it," I said after a long swig of the sweltering hot tea. "How did your search go? Did you manage to find that missing girl yet?"
Sighing as he took a seat at my tiny, round dining room table, Uncle Jake responded, "I'm afraid not. It seemed she ran off into the forest in the middle of the night and now there's no sign of her at all. We need to find her before the end of the night—it's supposed to get to near freezing temperatures and she could freeze to death out there. Not to mention the animals out there—remember that mountain lion a few months ago? Who knows what else could be out there."
Nodding mutely, I cast my gaze down onto my tea and thought about the true animals that were out in that forest. Whoever this girl was, she didn't stand a chance if the truly evil ones managed to catch up to her. A soft sigh filtered through my lips as I thought of the one who had continued to haunt my thoughts the entire night, the same one who wanted nothing to do with me anymore.
Catching my sigh, Uncle Jake furrowed his brow and asked, "Really, what's going on, Jane? I know you're stressed, but I've seen you deal with much more stress before than this. There's something going on, I know you all too well. What is it?"
"It's…it's really nothing, Uncle Jake," I finally told him, hoping my calm smile would ease his nerves. However, when his frown only deepened, I reluctantly added, "It's just some issues at work. My schedule's been so hectic and I haven't really been able to sit down and get some of my homework done. I'm actually falling a little bit behind."
I felt horrible about having to lie to Uncle Jake, but surely it was better than giving him even a hint of the real truth—that I was still in love with a werewolf who was determined to keep me out of his life forever, even if it meant hurting me in the process. How well could that conversation actually go?
"You'll get through it, Jane," my uncle said, pulling me back to the present with his encouraging smile. "You always do. You've been through a lot in the past year and, if you can get through all of that, you can easily get through this. At least you don't have to worry about a crazy boyfriend or anything, right? Or any boys giving you trouble at school or work?"
At his obvious phishing expedition, I could barely stifle the bubble of laughter forming at my pressed lips. Shaking my head, I found myself chuckling as I replied with the worst lie of all, "Don't worry, Uncle Jake. There's absolutely no one in my life right now. You have nothing to worry about."
And that is the end of this chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it! Please don't forget to leave a review behind and let me know what you think!
