Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or the characters or places you recognize in this story.

A/N: Please, please review.

CHAPTER 3: The Pack

After we left the bird kids we ran to our home, an old house just outside of Paris. It was big, which is good for us, and really pretty. It is pretty much left alone for the fear of ghosts, so we are not bothered.

"I hate France," muttered Gideon, as he flopped down onto the La Z boy chair that Cavan had bought.

"It's not too bad," Cavan offered, sitting down of the floor. Cavan was the newest to join their group. While he was small, he had a lot of guts and was one of the sweetest people I had ever met.

"I like France very much, thank you," Sephy said in a haughty voice, flopping down on the ground right next to Gideon. She was so in love. I smile slightly, painfully. I knew this was not going to end well.

"Sephy," I sigh as she enters her little bubble of love. She always does this.

Mette gave me a look and shook her head and sat down. She has to deal with Sephora too. I sat next to her and started to chew the strands of my hair.

Cavan started to chow down on popcorn and gave me a look like 'what's your problem?' I sighed again.

We sat in our little pods, as we normally do. I sit with Mette, Maja, Zoey and, normally, Sephora. But Sephy just is all that reliable for that stuff. Cavan normally sits with anyone, he's not picky. Blandas stands to the side and looks awkward, not quite fitting in with our family of friends. He is not very social, so he has problems adjusting to more social situations than most people. Maja and Blandas normally fight a lot on a variety of subjects.

It has been a long, long time since I had felt this nervous. My originally family have all split off, Dawn going to another family, Oz and Emma had left to start their own family. I was all alone. And then, I find him, Shatter Fang, the only person I had ever been in love with, standing there, right in front of me. I thought I was seeing a ghost.

It had been a normal patrol, he had left in his wolf-skin, and went to go and make sure that nothing had crept in during the hunt. We had done it hundreds of times. But, he didn't come back. We all went to look for him. I was going to tell him. I was going to have pups. And we found him, so far away; we still don't know what he was doing out there. Dead. His neck snapped the smell of another pack all over him. I miscarried the pups. And I went fifteen years, every day grieving for what I had lost. And when the pack split up, we assured ourselves it was for the better. We promised ourselves we would keep in touch. But did we? Of course not. Of course not.

I hate seeing Sephy with Gideon. I feel as if I should warn her against being so vulnerable. But she doesn't listen to me. She loses herself into this world where she believes anything can happen. And I don't want to be there when that world comes crashing down.

We all roll our eyes and try very hard to ignore the two not-in-love birds. I think about how tomorrow will be the anniversary of the death, and how it is only fitting that Shatter Fang should witness the mourning process.

Next to me, Mette starts to talk to Blandas, who his telling a 'funny' story of what his friend- Billy or Bobby or something- and how they got stuck in the briar patch. Mette doesn't seem amused.

Cavan is searching for any NFL games on the laptop we, uh, borrowed from some spoiled brat in New York. I guess you could say it is a source of entertainment- football, not stealing- for Cavan and me. You see, we root for different teams, and we get into rather loud debates over who is better. For some reason, nobody else finds this amusing.

Maja and Zoey are playing a game of slide, and doing a much better job then I can. Out of everyone in the Pack, those two are the ones that I feel like I can just hang with. We have extremely similar interests, and, better yet, none of us are lovesick. Well, I am, but not discernibly so.

Siri comes and lies down on the floor, sighing a small sigh. "I hate this floor."

"It's better than dirt," I offer as I turn on the T.V. to see what was on.

"Hmph."

We looked around, almost in unison. The house isn't anything super exciting. It suits our purposes. It has a huge library, filled with books we (meaning me, Sephy, and Mette) have acquired over our journeys. There was an entire section for just Jodi Picoult books. I walk over there, and picked up the worn out book, My Sister's Keeper. I sighed as I flipped open to a random page and started to read in my red velvet arm chair.