A/N: Okay, you officially have permission to hate me. I'm so sorry that I haven't been updating! I ran into some writer's block, and stuff, but the good news is that I'm writing now!...Yeah, you can still hate me. If I were you guys I'd hate me too….if that makes any sense at all. So, I'm going to write! HOORAY! (P.S. I have a new story as well! It's a Harry Potter fic called 'Purity'. Just in case you wanted to know…)
Chapter Eleven: Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
Aiva POV
I turned around to see their expressions. Reed, who knew what was going to happen, still seemed to be slightly freaked out. Angel was smiling; she'd probably known what was about to happen because of Reed's thoughts. Karianne had been startled into grabbing Iggy's wrist and shocked so that she was unaware that she still held it. Iggy, of course, didn't know what was happening, so he paid more attention to Karianne's hand than what I was. In fact, he was the only one that was smiling. Alyanna was staring wide-eyed, and Nudge was, for once, speechless. Fang looked in mild shock, which told me he was stunned. The Gasman was looking at the older guys as if unsure of what to do. Max stood, mouth open, shocked beyond belief, but didn't seem to be mad. That was a good sign at least.
I sighed, sitting down on a dry patch of ground, and waited for one of them to approach. Tilting my head, I gestured with my nose toward Iggy, telling Angel to let him know what was going on. She didn't understand, apparently, because soon thereafter, Iggy asked what was going on.
"She's a—a—," Nudge said, eyeing me in disbelief.
"She's a werewolf," Reed finished for her, taking a step toward me.
Angel must have sent Iggy a mental image, because he suddenly exclaimed, "What the—"
"Language!" Max interjected.
"Sorry, she just looks scary. Even for our standards," Iggy explained.
The others all nodded agreement. All except for Reed, anyway. I scratched my nose with my paw, trying to ignore the sudden pain at the thought that my flock thought I was scary.
"She's not really," Reed said. "She's the exact same as she was when she was normal, she just changed her form. She's…she's really very gentle." He probably stumbled because he had witnessed me tear apart and burn a living creature, whatever it had been, though it hadn't had a heartbeat.
"She doesn't look gentle," Gazzy said.
"Really, she seems dangerous. She's a liability," Max said, slipping into her stupid leader I'm-going-to-judge-you-before-I-even-start-to-understand-you mode.
"You haven't even gotten within ten feet of her!" Reed said, defensive. I felt a wave of gratitude, and wondered briefly why he seemed to be so annoyed. Then I remembered that Max had tried to do the same thing to him when all of this first started out. I had helped him, so he was probably just trying to repay me. He probably really didn't even care if I got kicked out or not.
But I knew I was kidding myself. He had to care or he wouldn't have followed me to the beach that night. He wouldn't have held me as I cried. He wouldn't have followed me after I went wolf and destroyed something. And if he didn't care, he definitely wouldn't be defending me right now. And it was at that precise moment that I realized that letting someone into my suckish world was probably less of a bad thing than I had trained myself to believe. Maybe letting Reed in would be okay, good even.
"I can tell from here. She's not safe for the flock to be around," Max growled.
"You have to give her a chance!" Reed snarled. "Talk it over with your flock. See what they think. They've gotten sort of close to Aiva and her flock, you know. They might actually have an opinion."
That seemed to faze her. It would be difficult to safely maneuver around a vote, because she couldn't claim that their opinions didn't matter, yet if she let them vote, it might not turn out the way she wanted. "I'm the leader and I know what's best for my flock. They stand behind me."
"Max, maybe we should have a vote, or at least some time to think about this rationally," Fang said.
"What?" Max half shrieked. "Do you see her? You can't honestly think that it's okay for us to be around that!" That, not her just like the whitecoats said.
"She's my sister," Fang said so quietly that if it weren't for my wolf-hearing I probably wouldn't have heard him.
Max paused, apparently not able to think of anything to say. "Okay, flock meeting. Aly and Kari, if you two want to come with us, you're welcome to," she said. She shot Reed a dirty look. "But you aren't."
"That's okay," he replied coldly. "I know where my loyalty lies." With that, he turned and walked to me as the others left us. When he got to me he said, "Well, that could have gone better, but it also could've gone worse."
Relieved that he had resolved to stay with me, I let my head drop so that I faced the ground. Mistaking the cause of this, he reached his hand up and stroked the side of my neck. "We'll be okay. They'll stay with us." I looked at him, my eyes reflecting everything I was thinking. "We'll be fine," he said again, for reassurance, and then he sat next to me. It was strange to have to look down at him, so I laid down and used his hand as a pillow. I felt something hit my hind leg, and lifted my head to see what it was. My tail had been wagging. Odd. I must have looked confused, because Reed followed my line of sight to my still-wagging tail and laughed. Soon I was laughing with him, only it sounded odd because I was a freaking wolf.
Karianne POV
Aly and I followed Max and the others far enough away so that we were out of earshot. We thought. I turned to Iggy, who was beside me, left index finger through my belt loop. "Hey Igs?" I whispered. He turned his head toward me, so I knew he was listening. "I'm sorry I grabbed your hand earlier. I just got surprised and…"
"It's okay," he whispered back, so low it was almost inaudible.
"Okay, so what is everybody thinking?" Max asked us.
"I'm staying with her," Aly said at almost the exact same time I did. Max nodded.
"I kind of expected that. Fang, what are your thoughts?"
"I think we should stay until there's proof that she's dangerous," he answered.
"You saw her—" Max started.
"And she didn't attack us. She's my sister, Max," he said. They shared a look, and understanding passed between them.
"I think we should stay," Angel said. "She's not dangerous, I read Reed's mind. She's perfectly safe. He's with her right now, all alone, and she's just laying there."
"Are you sure sweetie?" Max asked. Angel nodded.
"If Angel says it's safe, I think we should stay. I mean, Aly and Kari are staying, and I really like Aiva, and we're all getting to be good friends, and so I think we should stay because they're the only friends we really have besides our mom and Ella, and so why would we want to lose them? Aiva loves us, so I really don't think she would ever try to hurt us, no matter what. I really want to stay, Max," Nudge rambled, but kept it to a minimum, which was good.
"I'm with Nudge and Angel," Gazzy said.
"That leaves my vote, which we all know is a no, and Iggy's vote. Iggy?" Max said almost pleadingly.
"I think we should all be on our guard when we're around her in her wolf form, but I really want to stay. It's not really so much that I trust Aiva, and it's not for our safety, I just really think that it would be stupid to throw what could have been away," he said.
"Um…okay?" Max said, finding his answer odd. "So that makes it definite. We're staying, even though I don't like it. We're going to stay on guard though, like Iggy said."
We started moving back toward where we had left Aiva and Reed. Iggy and I trailed behind the group, and I spoke in a soft voice, "I'm really glad you get to stay with us."
"I'm glad too," he said quietly.
"What did you mean by what you said?" I asked him. "What did you mean by 'throwing away what could have been'?"
"I just meant that, well, I mean…It would be stupid to lose you and Aly. I mean, I feel like we're really starting to connect. And we've all really kind of started connecting with your flock, you know?" he explained.
"Oh, yeah, I get it," I said, disappointed. I'd kind of been hoping that he would say it meant that he didn't want to lose me because we could have had something together.
We found Aiva and Reed lying/sitting next to a tree laughing their butts off. I raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything more. I didn't trust my voice. Iggy could tell when something was wrong, and I didn't want to make him upset, too.
Aiva POV
They came back into the clearing, Iggy and Karianne trailing behind. Kari looked disappointed, and I wondered briefly what that was about before I stood up on all fours, and awaited the answer with Reed at my side. His hand was on my neck again, still in a slightly protective way. It felt odd, but at the same time, comforting.
"They voted to stay, so against my better jugement, we're staying," Max announced. I felt my face split into a huge doggy-grin. I picked up my bag in my mouth and headed behind a tree to phase back. I heard Reed corralling them a safe distance away so that no one would see anything that shouldn't be seen.
I put on a black Evanescence T-shirt and dug in my bag for shorts before I realized that the ones that I had ripped in order to phase had been my last clean pair, so the rest of them were in the hotel. Crap. I didn't have any jeans with me either, so I was left to a black denim mini skirt Nudge had got Max that had somehow found its way into my bag. Double crap. Swallowing my distaste, I pulled it on, realizing that it was shorter than I had originally thought it to be. Triple crap. It came halfway between my mid-thigh and my butt. I looked like a slut. It didn't help that the shirt fit me snugly either. I resolved to go shopping soon.
I walked back out from behind the tree, unhappily, but confidently. I walked right into the hugs of Aly and Kari, and moved on to the hugs of Nudge and Angel and Gazzy. I nodded at Max and Fang as I hugged Gazzy, before I heard Iggy say plaintively, "Where's my hug?" Rolling my eyes, I went on tip-toe in order to reach my arms around his neck. I glanced at Max and Fang as I went to stand by Reed. He smiled as I did so, and I couldn't help but hug him, too.
"I told you so," he said. I rolled my eyes and play-punched him in the shoulder.
"Okay, can we go back to the hotel now?" I asked. "It's cold, and I forgot my jacket." Max nodded, and she and Fang took off, followed by Nudge and Gazzy, Angel and Aly, then Iggy and Nudge. I was about to take a running start when Reed draped his jacket over my shoulders and leapt into the air without a word. I looked up at him, smiled, even though he wasn't looking at me, and pushed my arms through the sleeves, drawing it closely around myself. I took off last, flying quickly to catch up with everyone else. Iggy and Kari flew behind, and suddenly Iggy went down. I stopped.
"We'll only be a few minutes! You guys go ahead; we'll catch up!" Kari called to me. I nodded, turning to go ahead, wondering what that was all about.
Karianne POV
I touched down after Iggy, and touched his shoulder to let him know where I was, though I knew that he probably already knew. "So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked him.
"I didn't really want to stay with Aiva. The whole wolf thing really freaked me out," he said.
"Oh, um…okay…" I said, not really sure how to handle this. "I think that you might change your mind the longer you're around—"
"That's not my problem," he said.
"Oh," I said, feeling my brow furrow. "Then what is?"
"Ask the obvious question," he said. I didn't say anything, not knowing what he was talking about. "If I didn't want to stay then why did I say I did?" he said, leading me to ask.
"Oh…um…I didn't think of that. Why did you say you wanted to stay then?" I asked.
"Because I really didn't want to leave you," he said.
I blinked hard in surprise. "What?"
"I said I wanted to stay so that I could be with you. Kari, when I'm with you…it's different," he said, frowning.
"Oh," I said as though it made sense. Then I paused. "Wait, is that a good thing?" I asked.
"I think it is," he half asked/half said. "I mean, it's more than different, it's special. Kari..."
"Yes?" I asked, taking a step closer to him.
"Kari, I think…Kari, I love you," he said.
All of my love for him overwhelmed me, and I pressed my lips to his without thinking, wrapping my arms around his neck. He kissed back and slid his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. After I don't know how long, we broke apart. I leaned back against the tree behind me, smiling.
"So, do you want to go to the movies Friday night?" Iggy asked me.
"Do you want to kiss me again?" I asked him.
His lips found mine and we stayed there, kissing for what felt like a few seconds but what ended up being thirty minutes. "We'd better go," I said. "There's just one question."
He looked at a spot just over my head. "What's that?"
"How are we going to tell the flocks?"
"We'll worry about that when we get back," he said. Then we flew together to the hotel, me flying directly above him so that we could hold hands.
A/N: Okay, so there it was! REVIEW MY DEARIES! I'm tired. I need three reviews, but if you don't review, I won't appear next to your bedside with a chainsaw in hand ready to make your brains go splat all over your walls and then write 'YOU SHOULD HAVE REVIEWED' in your blood on the wall. No, I'm not that creepy. UNTIL NEXT CHAPTER, MY LOVLIES!
