Chapter 10
I'm pretty bloody proud of the length of this chapter, for me it's kind of amazing. I hope I didn't waffle too much, I have a tendency to do that... So I hope you guys enjoy it.
Thank you to my reviewers fallunder, hgmsnoopy, kieraa, QahlanKwaiya, laurazuleta18, and The all mighty and powerfulM ... =D
As the young Beta ran through the forest, his paws thudding rhythmically against the cool earth, he really wished he was still in bed right now, but unfortunately for him, and every other member of the pack, every week at seven thirty they met in a sheltered clearing for a full pack meeting. As he did every Saturday, Seth Clearwater made it on time by the skin of his teeth.
Jake gave him an unimpressed look as he burst into the clearing, still buttoning the front of his denim cut offs, he flashed his Alpha an easy grin and slumped down against a tree beside a very amused looking Embry.
"Every week man, you should try getting up five minutes earlier", he told him with a smile.
Seth shrugged dismissively, yawning as he rested his head on his hands. "You're lucky I'm here at all, I was having a particularly enjoyable dream about chocolate cake and well... Chocolate cake", he told the smiling Embry cheerily.
"Was Mac feeding you this chocolate cake?" Ben asked cheekily, from his position beside the bored looking Ollie.
"Were you eating the cake off Mac?" Collin asked, snickering at the embarrassed look that crossed Seth's face, which got even redder as the rest of the pack burst out laughing.
Jake cleared his throat noisily, shaking his head in amusement and giving the disgruntled Seth a sympathetic look. "Jared's right Seth, that was cutting it fine, even for you. Next week I want you to be first here", he told Seth seriously.
Seth made a horrified noise in his throat, being here first meant being here before Ollie. And that meant being here at the crack of dawn, an hour before everyone else arrived. Not many of the pack realised this, but Leah had noticed Ollie sitting quietly in the clearing on her patrol early one morning, not long after he had first phased, he had been there an hour before every pack meeting since since. They knew why, Ollie chose to spend as little time as possible in his house, usually by that time of the morning his dad was passed out on the couch, having consumed enough beer to last an average man a week, and after cleaning him up and dumping him in his bed the kid was out of there. You really didn't want to be around when he woke up; his father wasn't really a morning person.
Brady, who was crouched in his wolf form near the base of a tree, growled lightly when Collin decided to use him as a fury chair, leaning back on him and kicking his feet up on a nearby log. They all took turns at this job, being the link between those at the meeting and Leah and Jared, who had the Friday night patrol which finished after the pack meeting, at eight. This meant everyone could see what was happening at the meeting and that the border was being patrolled at all times.
Leah was flying around the far side of the reservation and she really wasn't enjoying the current topic of conversation, Mac was her best friend and she had absolutely no desire to know what her teenage brother had been dreaming about, not after the last dream she had heard about, she hadn't been able to look at either of them without blushing for a week. There were just some things you shouldn't have to see your best friend doing, especially when she was doing these things to your brother, dreamt up or not that shit could scare a girl for life.
Jared was laughing, mentally, at the horrified thoughts running through Leah's mind, but his mental hysterics were interrupted when the she wolf nipped the end of his tail with her sharp teeth, causing him to yelp loudly. She speed past him with a swish of her tail and flashed a wolfish grin at her grumbling pack mate. Serves him right for laughing at her pain, this was no laughing matter.
Back in the clearing Ben smiled happily as he stretched out on the damp grass beside his best friend who was listening to his Alpha talk with more enthusiasm than usual. That was probably because they were talking about him. After another meeting with the elders it had been decided that Ollie had calmed down enough to return to school, a prospect he had been looking forward to for two months.
Ollie loved school. He loved throwing himself into something that would take his mind of his life, which left a lot to be desired for the teenage wolf. Ben, being the good friend he was, had been taking notes for his older friend who was "sick" and had been bringing him home the home work for him to complete. When he had first phased it had taken Ollie over three months to calm down enough to be allowed back into school with the rest of La Push reservations teens and until a few months ago he had been able to control his anger enough that he had been fine around humans, and even if he did lose it there was always someone in his class able to either calm him down, or drag his ass outside, whether it be Ace, Cooper or Ben.
The four youngest pack members were the same age and so shared most of their classes with each other. For a start they were also very close in their levels of dominance, with Ben always being the least dominate and Ollie just above him. But recently that had changed. Jake wasn't sure why, but for some reason the pup had been becoming increasingly dominate in the last few months, and with this knew found dominance he became aggressive and harder to control. This meant it was nearly impossible for his peers to calm him down any more and he was stronger than before, it took at least two of them to drag him anywhere now. His already short fuse became even shorter and with Ben being the only one in his classes he was even willing to listen to, he had been too dangerous to leave in school until he learnt to control his anger issues.
"So I can go back to school?" Ollie asked the Alpha gruffly, the look in his eyes betraying his excitement.
"IFyou control yourself kiddo", Jake told him seriously, but smiling gently at the Ollie's attempts to hid his enthusiasm. "We can't have you there if there's a chance you'll phase. We've made sure you've got as many classes as possible with the others, and in math, because you're in the advanced group, you'll be with Brady and Collin, Seth will be keeping an eye on you as well, so everything should be fine. But as soon as you feel like you're losing control, as soon as you feel yourself getting angry, you need to get your ass outta there. Understand Ollie?" He asked, shooting the pup a stern look.
Ollie just nodded, giving Ben a small smile as the youngest pup wiggled his eye brows excitedly at him.
"Also, even though there haven't been any signs of any vampires around here since a couple of weeks ago, I still want whoever's on patrol to be extra vigilant. Those vampire friends of Mac's seemed sure something was going to go down, and we don't want to risk another leech getting onto the rez", the Alpha said seriously, trying to ignore the twins as they pestered Quil, Quil who was trying his hardest to listen to their Alpha, he really wished they would do the same instead of hitting him in the back of the head with small stones, sticks and... was that a bug?
That Alpha may have been able to politely ignore Cooper and Ace's sniggering but Quil's girlish scream caused him to stop his speech with a sigh, shooting the two boys an unimpressed look. They would have taken more notice, but at the moment they were trying very hard to stay out of way of the severely pissed off Quil, who was chasing them around the clearing very vocally displaying his displeasure. Cooper, always the thinker, had scrambled up a nearby tree and was watching Quil chase his younger brother around the clearing between his hysterical pack mates, with an amused smile on his face. He was six minutes older than his twin, and he was sure the six minutes he had on his twin had made him infinitely wiser than his currently... preoccupied brother.
The young wolves were born within minutes of each other and had phased within minutes of each other. Cooper liked to consider himself the smarter twin but Ace would argue that sneaky was a better description of his slightly older and more dominate brother. The two were always getting in trouble, annoying Quil being their absolutely favourite thing to do, the only difference between them was Cooper was better at getting out of it, leaving his twin to fend for himself in situations not unlike the one unfolding beneath his feet. It was Ace who had thrown the bug after all, and everyone knew how much Quil hated bugs. The pack found infinite amusement in the fact that he was a vampire destroying shape shifter, who was scared of bugs. Cooper liked to think his twin rather deserved to have his face rubbed into the dirt by the furious Quil, maybe he would learn something from this experience.
It took three minutes and a lot of pulling by the very amused looking Embry and Paul to separate Quil's hands from around the younger pups' neck, but by then, he had already sustained a fat lip and had been forced to eat at least two mouthfuls of dirt. He shot his twin, who was still sitting far above him in the safety of a tree, a dark look before grumbling an apology to the murderous looking Quil and slouching down against the tree.
Cooper, seeing the deathly glares coming from Quil and Ace decided on remaining in the tree for the rest of the pack meeting.
Jake sighed before continuing, "as I was saying, we don't want to risk another leech breaking the border, especially if their targeting one of the imprints", he growled lowly, a sentiment that was echoed by the rest of the pack. Any leech that wanted one of their imprints had a fight on their hands.
Seth, Ollie and Ben relieved Leah and Jared from patrol after the pack meeting, when just to be annoying because you know as Seth's big sister it was her job, Leah went over her plans for the day, most of which involved Mac or sleeping, two of Seth's favourite things. Leah was particularly looking forward to the horror movie marathon the two had planned later in the day, after Leah had caught up on some much needed sleep.
Seth decided that his sister was very cruel to do this to him, she knew how much it bothered him that he barely got to spend any time with his imprint, to him, it felt like that between school and Pack business he hardly got to see her at all.
Leah thought that Mac's drama queen ways were starting to rub off on her little brother. Mac came over every day for dinner because none of the Clearwater's trusted her to feed herself. Seth saw his imprint at least once a day, Leah didn't see what he was moaning about, that was a lot more than Quil got to see Claire, who lived up on the Makah reservation, he only got to see her when she came down to visit Emily and Sam on weekends.
Seth chose to ignore the mental sniggering of the two pups, who were running not far in front of him, when Leah called him a drama queen.
Leah also made sure to think extra loud about the chocolate cake Sue had promised to bake for them last night. She would be making sure there was none of that left by the time Seth finished his double patrol at four this afternoon.
Seth growled sadly as she phased out when she reached the last of the trees near their backyard. She knew that his mom's chocolate cake was his favourite. She was so evil.
For Seth this Saturday's patrol went unusually slow. There were no signs of any vampires near the border, not even of the vegetarian pair that Seth was sure weren't far away.
Although he tried very hard to hide them, Ollie's thoughts about his being allowed to return to school occasionally passed into Seth's mind and when they did he couldn't help the wolfish smile that made its way onto his face. Most of the pack that still attended school, himself included, couldn't wait to get out of the place. It was too noisy for their sensitive ears, it was cramped, everyone thought they were in some weird cult that did drugs in the forest, and where a lot of the female population adored them the male population despised them, taking every opportunity to hassle them, and with their volatile temperaments that was not a good idea. Also the place reeked, the mix of all the different perfumes and sprays the girls coated themselves in every morning meant that he left school with a roaring head ache nearly every afternoon.
Ollie on the other hand didn't care. It was still as uncomfortable for him as it was for the rest of the pack, and with his limited people skills maybe even more so, but he loved school. He was by far the brightest member of the pack and although no one was game to say it to his face, the kid was a bit of a nerd. His mom had told him on more than one occasion that she wished he would take his schooling as seriously as Ollie did.
It's not like Seth didn't try. He did, he worked his ass off to get this far through school. It was just he was busy, when it wasn't patrol, it was a pack meeting, or a leech crossing the border. There was always something that the Beta had to deal with and so that usually meant school work was pushed to the back of his to do list. Even when he managed to make it to school it was hard to concentrate, exhausted from patrols and distracted by everything going on around him. It was really difficult to focus on what your teacher was saying when you could hear everything that was going on for three class rooms each way. He was a wolf, he wasn't meant to be locked up in a place that was noisy, smelly and full of over excited girls and aggravated boys. Throw in the fact that he couldn't get his quirky imprint off his mind and it meant that Seth hardly heard a thing the teachers were saying to him.
This was the reason that hardly anyone in the pack had actually managed to pass high school. Leah and Sam had phased after they had graduated, Jared and Paul had managed to scrape through, but they had only had to do a year and a bit extra to make up the time they missed, Jake, Embry and Quil had all dropped out in their final year, taking up various jobs and apprenticeships the council had managed to scrape together for them.
Seth and the younger wolfs had a much tougher job ahead of them. They had to complete most of their high school years as shape shifting wolves with super naturally enhanced senses. He had managed so far, but he was dangerously close to being held back last year and he was willing to bet that this year wouldn't be much different. Ollie was the only one who managed to get through by a large margin, everyone else was barely coping. It was just one of the many draw backs to being a teenage shape shifter.
Thanks to Leah, Seth had been craving chocolate cake for the last eight hours. His stomach was rumbling so loud that he was sure Jake would be able to hear it from the other side of the reservation. And unfortunately for him, Leah was true to her word, and only an empty dish scattered with a few crumbs remained. He sighed mournfully as he headed towards the lounge where he could here Leah roaring in laughter and Mac's heavy breathing. He had no idea how Leah could find this much blood at all amusing, or how Mac could sleep through this much noise.
He supposed she didn't get much sleep last night, when he'd arrived not long after two she had been sitting awake in bed. She'd smiled softly at him as he climbed through her window, him giving her a concerned look. She should be asleep but he had felt the usual wave of fear wash through the imprint bond, she had the nightmare again. She always had them, it was always the same one, but she refused to tell him what they were about, sometimes they were worse than other nights. Tonight was a bad night, a night when she couldn't calm herself down enough to drift back off into sleep.
The only time Mac didn't have the nightmares was when he was with her, and he took great pride in this fact. He used it as leverage so she would let him stay over more often. She'd been so shocked after the first time he'd stayed with her that when she'd woken up and found out that she had been using Seth's chest as her pillow, she had squealed, her arms flailing, and fell out of bed with a thud, waking Seth and bruising her ass something brilliant.
They had gone back to where they left off, being friends, well apart from him spending nights at her house and her using him as a human pillow occasionally. Seth wanted them to be more, he really wanted them to be more, but he was scared of spooking her again. This time she was going to have make the first move. He knew she liked him, he could see she liked him, but he also knew she was still fighting it, fighting him, and that stung a little.
He smiled as he looked down at his imprint who was curled up in a ball on the couch, her hair a mess of dark brown waves around her.
"She passed out about an hour ago", Leah told him, watching her friend as she wiggled and snorted a little in her sleep, causing both of the Clearwater siblings to smile hugely. Leah wasn't going to let her live that down. Seth thought it was adorable.
She stayed asleep until Seth made it to the hall way, he thought she'd be able to sleep better if there was less noise, and less people being murdered with chainsaws.
She rubbed her eyes sleepily as she appraised him. "Maybe I was watching that movie Seth", she told him matter of factly as he set her down on his bed.
He grinned at her, flopping back on the bed beside her, "with your eyes closed? Snoring?"
"I do not snore!" She told him angrily, sitting upright and shooting him a dangerous look.
"Yes you do, you snore Mac", he informed her in an amused tone, his smile growing as she crossed her arms angrily and intensified her glare.
"Well I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this one, won't we?" She said seriously.
"I guess so", he said, chuckling lightly and resting his head on his hands behind him. Seth sighed deeply, sitting forward when he caught the smell of chocolate cake in the air. "Leah's so mean to me", he told Mac sadly causing her to smile cheerily at him. "She knows chocolate cake is my favourite, and now I'm going to be craving it all day".
Mac grinned at him before jumping excitedly off his bed and heading towards his closet. Seth Clearwater's closet was a very dangerous place to be, and he would rather his imprint stayed far, far away from there.
"Where are you going?" He asked her carefully, watching suspiciously as she shot him her "sit-the-hell-down-and-shut-up-look". Seth may have panicked slightly when she opened the door to his closet and disappeared inside. "Mac, what are you doing?" he asked her, his tone slightly more concerned than before.
"I believe that look I gave you meant shut the fuck up and stay where you are, alright Clearwater", she told him, poking her head out of his closet briefly to glare at him before she resumed her digging around in its mysterious depths.
"Found it!" she shrieked excitedly, emerging from the closet clutching a container heavily wrapped in plastic wrap to her chest.
He gave her a curious look as she sat down beside him on the bed, where he had been sitting nervously waiting for her to reappear from the closet of doom. "What is it?" He asked her, as he attempted to peek under the many layers of plastic wrap.
She glared at him menacingly, silencing any further questions he may have had about the container or its unknown contents. "You have no idea how much trouble I went through to get this", she told him seriously, her voice lowering uneasily. "I could have been badly injured, or worse. You'll like it", she said smiling gently at the small frown in his face as she carefully handing him the package.
It was after he had unwrapped the eighth layer of plastic that he smelt it, one of the best smells in the world, the scent escaping from under the many layers of plastic wrap was that of his Moms chocolate cake. He gave the softly smiling Mac a surprised look before tearing the wrapping off hungrily. He couldn't help the huge grin that spread across his face as he looked at the cake that had been hidden within the container and twelve layers of plastic wrap.
"Do you have any idea how difficult it was to hide that from Leah?" Mac told him seriously, the soft smile on her face betraying her amusement at Seth's reaction; he was still staring at the cake in awe. "I figured your closet was the best place to hide it since it kinda smells nasty. If I can smell it, then I can't imagine how bad it would be for you guys, I was pretty sure Leah wouldn't want to get to close to that... uhh, stench", she told him, her nose wrinkled in disgust, Seth was so excited about the cake that he chose to ignore the insult to his closets odour.
"You braved the wrath of Leah to steal me some cake?" He asked her softly.
She smiled at him happily, "well, it's your favourite, isn't it?"
He nodded enthusiastically, "you're kinda awesome Mac", he told her dreamily taking a large bite out of the cake sighing lustily as he savoured the chocolaty goodness.
"I was born this way" she said simply, watching him inhale the two pieces of cake she had managed to steal for him.
"So good", he moaned as he sank happily back onto his bed, hooking the amused looking Mac around the waist and pulling her across his chest.
"I faced permanent bodily damage, maybe even death, to get you that cake and you repay me by squishing me against your stinky, sweaty chest so hard that I can barely breathe?" She asked, her voice stained and her face red, whether it was from the force of Seth's arm around her keeping her pinned to his bare chest, or from the fact she was lying across a half naked Seth Clearwater, he wasn't sure, but he chuckled heartily, inhaling the sweet scent of his imprint before releasing her.
"Well, how would you have me repay you?" He asked her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively while skilfully dodging the pillow the very red faced Mac had thrown at him.
"I vote you be my personal piggy back machine for a week", she told him gleefully, clasping her hands together in excitement.
"A whole week?" he asked her incredulously.
"You've seen Leah when she's angry right?"
He nodded carefully, oh yeah he'd seen Leah angry before. The gaping hole in his wall covered by a strategically placed Nirvana poster was proof of that, "I've got school and patrol nearly every day next week, but how about tomorrow? I'll be your personal piggy back machine for the whole day".
She hummed thoughtfully, biting her lip as she carefully considered his proposition. One day, that was nowhere near as good as a whole week and considering what Leah would have done to her if she had caught her stealing cake for Seth, she thought that one day was a pretty unfair trade. But Seth was busy, he was always busy. Busy with pack and school, between them the poor boy barely had time to think. Mac sighed mournfully before extending her hand towards him, "I suppose that will have to do", she told him, doing her best to look unimpressed. "From the moment you wake up tomorrow, you, Seth Clearwater, shall be my piggy back slave".
He grinned at her, "Your slave huh?"
"Yup", she said happily, popping the "P". "Don't wake up too early though", she added seriously, "You need a good sleep in, you're tired".
Mac swore she didn't mean to do it, sometimes her body kind of had a mind of its own, today her right hand was feeling particularly frisky, and before she'd even realised she had moved, her fingertips were brushing lightly over the slightly darker area under Seth's eyes. Dark brown eyes that were watching her carefully as she ran her fingers down his cheek and along his strong jaw, her hand continued along, trailing gently down his neck before finishing its journey on his bare chest, her palm splayed open over the place where she could feel his heart beating inside.
"Like you can talk Miss I-fell-asleep-watching-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre. You barely got any sleep at all last night", he rumbled quietly. "Want to tell me what your nightmare was about?" He asked her, his hand enveloping her smaller one and bringing it up to his lips where he kissed it softly.
"I can't remember", she mumbled, not bothering to meet his eye as she told him the same lie she had told him many times before.
They both knew she was lying, and that was why she flinched when he growled lowly in his chest, his hand tightening around hers. "When you want to tell me about it, when you're ready to talk, I'll be waiting".
"There's nothing to tell", she told him blandly, her face void of any emotion, she chose to ignore the sad, disbelieving look that made its way onto his face as she lied to him again.
"Well in that case I'm staying at your house tonight', he told her matter of factly. "It means I won't have to wake up as early to be at your house early enough to haul you around all day".
She sighed irritably, glaring at him darkly, "I'm sure your mother would much rather you stay in your own bed at nights Seth".
He rolled his eyes, snorting in amusement as he started to play with her fingers, "I'm the Beta of my pack, and I'm eighteen years old, I do what I like. Plus, I'm pretty sure my Mom would much rather me be safe and sound at your house than running around in the forest looking for potentially deadly vampires".
Mac frowned at that, she hated that they were the ones that had to protect her from him, he was dangerous and she didn't want him anywhere near Seth, Leah, Ollie, Ben or any other member of the pack for that matter. They were all nice people, they shouldn't be placed in danger to protect her. She wasn't worth it, she wasn't worth them.
"Whatever", she sighed irritably, hoping he would forget and stay home instead. She knew he wouldn't, Seth wasn't the kind of guy to forget things like that.
"How was patrol?" She asked him, changing the subject quickly.
He sighed mournfully, looking up at her from his reclined position beside her, "awful, I mean there weren't any signs of vampires or anything, but I was so hungry", he whined. "All I could think about was chocolate cake".
Mac smiled at him, patting him on his head fondly, unaware that what Seth told her was only partially true, he had thought about her a lot. Both Ollie and Ben, although they were fond of Mac, had seen enough of her face in Seth's mind to last them a life time. Seth was usually good at keeping his thoughts to himself, but when he thought about his imprint he had a tendency to let the occasional thought slip.
"So, enjoy your horror movie marathon?" Seth asked savouring the feeling of his imprints touch as she absently ran her fingers through his short hair. He was sure she didn't realise she was doing it, she was reading through one of his English books from school.
"Hmmm... Oh, it was fun, I think Dawn of the Dead might be my new favourite movie", she informed him cheerily, her eyes not moving from the book in front of her.
"Really?" He chuckled softly. "I don't see what you two see in those movies", he said, watching her carefully as her eyes continued to scan the page of his book. It seemed his imprint loved to read, he really didn't know why. Seth hated to read.
"They're funny", she informed him, yawning quietly. "I like the all the fake gore and bad acting".
"I'm not gunna lie Mac, that's a little weird", he grinned at her innocently when she looked up and glare at him darkly.
"I'm going to choose to ignore that comment Seth", she told him, her eyes once again focused on the book in her right hand, while the fingers on her left hand resuming their travels through his soft hair.
He sighed happily, closing his eyes as they drifted into silence.
And that was how Sue found them an hour and a half later when she went to get the pair for dinner. She knocked carefully on the door, she knew her son would have been able to hear her before she reached his room but he was easily distracted and Sue knew what teenagers were like. She wanted to avoid all possible awkward situations, so she always made sure to knock. She waited until she heard Mac's quite answer before poking her head carefully through the gap in the door. Sue couldn't help the soft smile that made its way onto her face as she looked at her son and his imprint.
Seth was snoring softly, his head resting on Macs lap and one of his arms hooked around her waist. He had a small smile on his face and he sighed loudly as his arm tightened its grip around her waist. Mac was blushing as she watched Sue's eyes scan the scene before her, her book still in one hand while her other hand, which had been alternating between playing with his hair and tracing little patterns down his neck and on his chest, was resting gently on his head.
"Wake that son of mine up and tell him dinners ready, won't you dear", Sue told the beat red Mac. "It's very unlike him to sleep while I'm cooking, but I guess he found something better to distract him", she grinned naughtily, waggling her eyebrows before darting back out of the room, where Leah sighed, and stole the best looking meat patty before Seth got there.
Mac stared after Sue, her face growing even redder as Sues words registered in her mind. Did she just wiggle her eyebrows at her? Well, now she knew where Seth got it from.
She sighed heavily, putting her book down before turning to Seth, who was still dead to the world, and shaking his shoulder gently. "Seth... Seth wake up, dinners ready".
She stared at Seth, who frowned slightly, but otherwise didn't stir at all. She sighed exasperatedly, wriggling in an attempt to escape her warm, muscular prison. "Wake up you dork, or Leah's gunna eat all the food".
When he still didn't respond she decided that drastic times called for drastic measures. She covered his mouth and nose with her hands, cutting off his air supply and causing him to twitch a little in his sleep.
After a couple of seconds with no air, Seth squirmed and opened his eyes, glaring at Mac as she gave him an innocent look, her hands hidden behind her back. "I was having such a nice dream", he moaned, burying his face into the stomach of his imprint, who was blushing furiously. Again.
"Well, that maybe so, but I know for a fact that Leah is out there right now eating all of the food she can, before you can get there. It was very necessary", she informed him seriously, smiling when he jumped upright, giving her a look of absolute horror.
That smile vanished with a squeal when Seth, threw her gently over her shoulder, exclaiming that she was right and they were wasting precious food consuming time. He ignored her frustrated growls and violent threats to put her down and he ran toward the kitchen.
She squealed again when he dumped her, gently, into her designated chair around the Clearwater dining table, beside Leah and opposite Seth. He wasted no time in rushing around to his side of the table, sitting down and shooting both his mother, who was smiling softly, and Mac, who was glaring dangerously and muttering darkly, an innocent smile.
He made a happy noise in his throat when he saw his mother had made burgers, he loved burgers. "I love you Mom", he told her dreamily as he swallowed his first bite of burger, ignoring Leah, who coughed something about him being a Momma's boy, and Mac who sniggered and called him a poofter under her breath.
"I know you do Seth, I know you do", Sue told him beaming happily at him. "So how was patrol today?" She asked her son, who had half a burger shoved into his mouth.
He swallowed noisily, smiling sheepishly at his mother's disapproving look before answering, "it was ok, Ollie was excited", he informed the table, choosing to leave out the fact about his constant chocolate cake cravings. He wasn't going to give Leah the satisfaction of knowing she had gotten to him, again. "He tries to hide it, but he's jumping out of his skin at the chance to get back to school... Why I'll never know..."
Sue glared at her son, who had resumed stuffing his face and was now starting on his second burger. "I wish you would take you schooling as seriously as Oliver does, he works so hard at it", she told Seth, in her best lecturing tone. She knew it was hard for him sometimes, but she worried that if he didn't put the effort into his education now then he was going to have trouble finding a job when he was done with school. They were hard enough to come by at the moment as things were, so every little thing he could do now would help later.
Sue had always dreamed of sending her children off to college, she and Harry had started a collage fund for both of her children when they were born. When they had phased that dream had flown out the window, they needed to stay and protect the reservation. She still had the money, there wasn't much but Sue continued to save it, just in case she or her children needed it one day. The money she made at the cafe, which was going very well with all of the tourists visiting the reservation, was enough to keep her family feed and the bills paid.
Seth just sighed, ignoring his mothers comment and concentrated on his food instead.
Dinner, as always, was a relatively quick affair, food didn't tend to last very long in a household with two constantly ravenous wolfs living there. After a good five minutes of arguing, Sue allowed Mac into the kitchen to help her with the dishes, while Leah, who had patrol again in a couple of hours had made her way to her room, wanting to have a quick power nap before she headed out again. Seth was sitting in front of the TV, intently watching an episode of Looney Toons.
Noticing that both of the Clearwater siblings were distracted, Mac decided to take this chance to escape back to the warmth and safety of her bed. She yawned hugely, smiling sleepily at Sue who was giving her a sympathetic look. "I think I'll head home now", she informed the older woman quietly, hoping not to catch the attention of Seth, who was laughing uproariously at the TV. "I'm about ready to drop. Thanks' for dinner, I'll see you tomorrow", she whispered before sneaking off out the front door.
She sighed in relief when she was about twenty meters from the Clearwater home, it had become a regular thing for either Leah or Seth to walk Mac home, and to be honest it annoyed the crap out of her. She knew they both worried about her but it made her feel like a baby, and Mac hated feeling like a baby. She loved them both dearly, but sometimes the two had a tendency to be a bit over protective, she guessed it was a wolf thing, although she knew Sue wasn't keen on the idea of her walking home alone either. She had made that clear with the disapproving look she had given her as she had snuck out the door.
Mac already felt like enough of a burden to the Clearwater family, they were always doing things for her and Sue made sure Mac was around every night for dinner. Even though she gave them money towards food every week, something that no one in the family was happy with her doing, it didn't stop her from feeling guilty at being so dependent on them.
Mac was so busy being sneaky that she didn't notice the people in front of her before it was too late for her to avoid them. She cursed under her breath as the group of teenage boys looked up at her, she didn't miss the way their eyes racked down her body before focusing on her face. Typical, the only time she managed to sneak off without an escort and she bumped into Trey Carter and his bunch of idiots.
"Snowflake, long time no see", he said loudly, handing the bottle in his hands to one of his friends and advancing towards her.
And to make things even better they were drunk. Idiots and alcohol, what a brilliant combination.
She stood her ground, smirking when she noticed the slightly crooked angle of his nose from their last encounter. "Not long enough if ya ask me", she growled. "Bye", she snapped, attempting to step around the smirking group of boys.
"Woe, woe, woe, where do you think you're off to?" Trey asked, hooking his arm roughly around her waist, she wrinkled her nose in disgust, she didn't know how much he had had to drink but her reeked of alcohol.
"Piss off Trey", she growled, yanking his arm roughly from around her, "want me to break your nose again fucker?" She hissed, shifting away from him, but still conscious of the two others who were watching them with interest and blocking her exit.
That wiped the smirk of his face pretty quickly; he glared, shooting his sniggering friends a dangerous look, silencing them both before he stepped closer to her, this time she frowned taking several steps backwards towards the Clearwater household which was now a ten minute walk away.
She wasn't scared, she was confident that she could take him if he tried anything. It was if his friends decided to get involved that she was going to have issues.
"Heard you been spending a lot of time with the Clearwater's", he told her, continuing to follow her as she backed away from him. She cursed lightly, stepping forward with a surprised yelp when she backed into the chest of another, taller teenager. She hadn't seen him coming, and right about now she was starting to feel a little bit alarmed.
Mac was now sandwiched between two stinky, over excited, pushy teenager boys and she was feeling more than a little uncomfortable, because unlike Trey Carter and his smaller friends, this newcomer was built. Not Seth built, but still built enough that she was sure that breaking his nose would pose more of a challenge than breaking the nose of the gangly and relatively scrawny Trey.
"Don't you know there a bunch of freaks?" Trey sneered, his friends nodding in agreement. "Their constantly drugged up, running around half naked... They think they're better than us. They're not", he informed her lowly. "They're trash", he snarled.
If Mac was scared she didn't show it and if looks could kill Trey Carter would be dead. "The Clearwater's are about as far from trash as you can get. You on the other hand are the definition of trash", she hissed, taking a step forward and jabbing him roughly in the chest. "Now, if you excuse me I got place's to be", she snapped coldly, attempting to step around the teenager again.
"You don't know what you're talking about", he growled, his clammy hand tightening around her wrist painfully. "You're like them, think you too good to hang out us do you Miss Grey?"
You would think that he would have learnt from the last time they met to avoid to pissing her off and he probably should have recognised the dangerous glint in her eye as he tightened his grip on her wrist. He didn't have time to react before Mac raised her hand, her fist connecting painfully with his eye and causing him to stumble backwards cursing loudly and clutching his eye.
She was readying herself to deal him a kick to the crutch when the larger friend grabbed her roughly around the waist, chuckling darkly as he listened to his friend swear angrily.
"She's definitely a feisty one", he said, his voice deep and gruff and Mac growled at him to let her the fuck go as his smoky, boozy smelling breath blew across her face. She squirmed in his arms but he was too strong and after a couple of scratches to his face he had taken both of her wrists in his free large hand. "I like her", he decided, burying his face in the crook of Mac's neck and inhaling deeply.
"Yeah?" Trey hissed, "Well she didn't just punch you in the face did she? This bitch is fucking crazy", he growled.
Mac wasn't expecting him to hit her, but the sharp, open handed blow he dealt to her cheek caused her to gasp. Now she really was scared and her cheek was stinging from where he had slapped her, if she wasn't outnumbered four to one then she would have given him crap for hitting like a girl. She screamed loudly as she lashed out with her feet, drawing a satisfied yell from Trey as her foot hit him roughly in the shins. While he was regaining his composure she turned her head biting down hard on the arm of the taller boy restraining her, he hissed in pain pushing her away from him and releasing her wrists, causing her to stumble forward and land heavily on the ground, scraping her knees and hands.
She stood quickly, kneeing one of the two friends, who had been standing off to the side and was now making a grab for her, roughly in the groin but as she turned to flee the tall boy grabbed her again, more violently this time, by her already bruising wrist and pulled her to face him, the fist he had raised never did connect with her face like he intended. Instead his fist was intercepted by a furious Seth Clearwater.
Seth had been happily watching a particularly interesting Looney Toons episode when he felt Mac's panic wash through the imprint bond. He had sworn loudly and rushed out of the front door following the scent and pull of his imprint down the street. He was running as fast as he could without looking too inhuman, which became even more difficult as he felt Mac's panic change to fear. He felt something else to, pain. His imprint was in pain.
Seth hadn't even realised that she had left that house he had assumed she was with Leah, talking about something girly or their favourite horror movie. She had never tried to leave without him before. He should have been paying attention; he should have kept an eye on her. Damn it he should have been more careful. She should have been more careful.
As he rounded the corner he heard his imprint let out a desperate scream, causing his already shaking hands to move so fast that they were almost a blur. There were four of them, two of them vanishing as soon as they saw the quickly approaching Seth, while the taller boy grabbed his imprint roughly by her wrist, raising his fist ready to strike her across the face. He didn't even see Seth coming, he only noticed him when Seth's larger fist tightened painfully around his own, and then everything was black, but that's what you get for trying to hit a wolfs imprint.
Seth was almost disappointed when the young man collapsed into the ground, clearly unconscious and bleeding profusely from his nose. Trey Carter gave him a terrified look as he slowly backed away from Seth, who was growling lowly his eyes dangerous as he advanced towards him, pulling the shocked and bruised Mac behind him protectively.
Seth was going kill him.
He was going to make him pay for even looking at his imprint. Trey Carter was going to wish he was never born. Well that's what Seth would have made him wish for if Mac hadn't rested her shaking, bleeding hand on his trembling forearm and asked him to calm down. Can they please just leave?
Trey was crying now because Seth was snarling at him, his hand tightening around his throat. Mac was pleading with him, she was scared, she wanted to go home. Seth snarled brutally, his eyes not leaving the sobbing teenager in front of him as he shook Mac's hand off his arm and pushed her behind him again. He could feel her fear and it was making him angrier, making him want to break every bone in Treys worthless little body.
"Seth please, you're scaring me", she begged, her voice trembling nearly as much as the hands that were tightening around Treys throat.
He froze when her words registered in his mind, Mac wasn't scared of Trey, she was scared of him.
"Please", she begged as another sob escaped her lips.
"If you, or any of your friends, ever come near her again, if you even look at her, I will kill you", he threatened lowly, giving the scrawny teen a hard push and sending him sprawling across the cracked pavement.
He turned to face Mac, who was sobbing quietly and pulled her gently to his chest, his trembling stopping as he looked at her terrified face. He turned around, giving the teenage boy a dark look, snarling inhumanly at him once more before he scooping Mac up and headed towards her house.
By the time they reached her little cottage she had stopped crying but Seth had to unlock the door for her because she was still shaking a little. Seth shut the door behind him, walking over to Mac who was sitting quietly on the couch. He snarled softly when he saw the purple bruises that coloured her pale skin, her cheek was swollen from where Trey had struck her and her wrist was already several shades of a lovely purple colour from where the boy's hands had held her.
He ran his finger gently over the swollen spot on her cheek, growling when she winced at the contact.
"That's it" he snarled standing abruptly, "I'm gunna kill them".
"What?" Mac said her voice panicked. "No, no way Seth, that will just get you in trouble", she pleaded.
He paused his hand hovering over the door handle as his eyes swept her battered figure.
"Please just stay with me Seth", she begged.
"Shit Mac, what the hell were you thinking?" He asked angrily, "Why the fuck do you fight me on every little thing? Couldn't you have just waited?"
"I don't know", she growled. "I'm just sick of having to be babied, everyone always has to look after me, but apparently I need it because I can't even walk down the fucking street without getting into some kind of trouble. I'm sorry I'm such a fucking burden, ok?"
"Fuck it", he snarled, slamming his hand down on the door handle so hard that it snapped off, clattering to the floor. He glared at the door for a couple of seconds before he stormed off towards the kitchen, rummaging around in her cupboards noisily until he found the medical kit she kept there. He was becoming far too familiar with this little green bag for his liking.
Apart from a few quite snarls and growls the Beta was mostly silent as he cleaned and bandaged the scrapes on her hands and knees. He had given her a popsicle wrapped in a dish towel to hold on her swelling cheek, a bag of peas would have been better but the sweet icy treats were the only things Mac actually had in her small freezer.
"You're not a burden, Mac" he informed her quietly as he finished his final bandage on her left knee. "You're stubborn as hell and I really wish you would just trust me every now and then, but you're not a burden".
She looked at him sadly, "yes I am Seth, if it's not Annabeth and Oscar, it's you, or Leah, or the pack. You guys shouldn't have to waste your time looking after me".
"I am not wasting my time looking after you. You are worth every second of my time", he told her seriously, his warm hands enclosing her smaller ones which were, once again, heavily bandaged.
Mac begged to differ, but now wasn't the time to argue with Seth, not about this. Not when she could feel that he was so damn close to walking out that door and hunting down every one of those bastards. He didn't feel that they had suffered nearly enough for laying their filthy hands on his imprint.
"Seth..." Mac said her voice soft. "How did you know where I was? How did you even know I needed... uh, help?" She asked him reluctantly, it didn't escape her notice that he tensed visibly at her question.
He fidgeted nervously with her fingers while he answered, "I followed you scent," he told her simply. "I didn't know you were in trouble, I only realised that when I heard you scream, I was just trying to catch up with you since I was planning on sleeping on your couch tonight any way, you know be your piggy back slave and all".
Mac was pretty sure he was lying to her, he looked nervous, he sounded nervous and he sure as hell felt nervous. It had been getting worse lately, the feeling what Seth felt. It only happened when his emotions were at an extreme, like when he was really angry, or really excited about something. When he was angry, she could feel it and his emotions carried on over to her making her angry as well, even if it wasn't to the same extent as Seth's anger.
Seth, as an imprinted wolf had always been able to feel her, and unlike Mac he could feel her emotions almost constantly. The bond between them was a two way street, not that either of them realised this, but Seth, as the wolf, could feel her emotions a lot stronger than she did his.
"I think we're even Seth", Mac told him, smiling gently. "Don't worry about it, go home and get some sleep for a change".
She wanted to tell him about it, she wanted to ask him what the hell was going on with them, because to be honest it was starting to scare the shit out of her. She thought it was something to do with the wolves and the pack, but she wasn't sure and as much as she wanted to talk about it she could tell without even looking at his face and the way his jaw was clamped tightly shut, that he didn't. Usually that wouldn't have bothered her, but right now Seth wasn't in the mood to be pushed.
"He raised his eyebrow at that, "a deal was a deal, and your piggy back slave I shall be", he told her, loving the excited smile that crossed her face. "And plus, I'm already here, so I might as well stay".
She sighed mournfully, standing and heading towards the kitchen, planning on ferreting out any sweets she had left. "You can stay if you want", she said grudgingly. "You were probably just going to sleep outside any way".
He blushed a little at that, "I was not", he whined, even though maybe he would have, but she didn't need to know that. After what had just happened you couldn't really blame him for not wanting to leave his imprint. He could have lost her today.
She raised her eyebrows at him, giving him a "really?" look.
Seth choose to change the subject to much more comfortable topic of conversation after that, talking instead about the next bonfire and Mac maybe spending some time with Emily or Kim, because he and Leah had been spending a lot of time patrolling lately and he thought it would give her something to do.
This time it was Mac's turn to fall asleep on Seth and so he carried her carefully to her bed, removing her shoes and placing her gently under the covers. His grin was nearly face splitting when she whined quietly in her sleep, burying her face into his chest and clamping her hands onto his shirt.
Seth really did try to get her to let go but she could be rather strong when she wanted to and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't detach her from his chest. So maybe Mac had an inhumanly strong grip, or maybe he just didn't try very hard, but either way he ended up being Mac's human pillow for the night, he really didn't mind. In fact he was completely fine with this situation.
Thank you for reading =), I hope you liked it!