Chapter 7

Cara:

I was just eating breakfast after a long, sleepless night of tossing and turning when Quil burst into my kitchen, interrupting what should have been my mostly thought-free meal of waffles and apple juice. The fork was halfway to my mouth, my left hand curled around the cold glass of juice, which I hadn't even had a sip of yet, when the door flew open with so much force it hit the wall behind it. The cabinets shook and glass rattled.

"I'd like my house to not fall down on top of me, thanks" I said with a long look in the boy's direction. My comment went unheeded though.

Quil huffed in more oxygen than humanly possible, standing shirtless in the doorway; for once it seemed like he couldn't speak. Normally, on such an occasion, I might have jumped for joy, called the Guiness Book of World Records, maybe thrown a party, but just this once I had a bad feeling that there was a reason behind his panting breath and silence, his mouth gaping as he tried unsuccessfully to speak. Besides… it was too early for any celebrating.

"Quil?" I pushed back my chair, half ready to catch him if he passed out, just to be practically man-handled out the door. The half-naked boy grabbed my shoulders and shoved, slamming the door behind us without even muttering a word. Not even a "Hey, good morning, I'm going to attack you now"

Despite the fact that I was being forcibly dragged out of my house, it seemed like a generally nice day out. Blue skies and white clouds. Another summer day in La Push. Quil tugged my collar again, dragging me into the first layer of forestry, and I gagged, realizing that even though the weather was nice, my day seemed to be getting worse. I could feel the urgency in his stride, the tension in the air that was warm and gentle on my skin. The sun beat down on us we hiked through the trees.

"You… really need… a cell phone" He finally managed to say, glaring down at me. In the afternoon sunlight, his brown hair had flecks like highlights in it, his russet skin looked flushed.

"I know, I keep asking my dad, but he doesn't-" I pulled myself free of his iron grip, taking a deep breath for the first time.

"We can talk about the annoyingness of your dad later, we have to get to Sam's" Quil's voice was tense and stiff, like his shoulders. He marched ahead, not waiting for me to walk with him. I'd never seen Quil act like this- serious. It sort of freaked me out. I glanced behind us, saw my house slowly getting smaller in the distance. Grimaced when I pictured my untouched breakfast on the table.

"Well, where's Jake? What happened?" I caught up to Quil, who was really moving through the underbrush. In seconds, he had made it twenty feet ahead of me. I realized suddenly that Jake could be hurt again, or worse and an insane panic took over, squeezing my chest under invisible pressure. I forced my shorter legs to move faster.

"Nothing, he's fine. I had to come cause they wouldn't let us call" He said, still marching on in a steady stride, not pausing or waiting for me. I was really struggling and my patience level was diminishing. That was it. He couldn't just burst into my house, drag me out literally by my collar and not tell me anything! Before he could take another step, I jumped in front of me and slammed my palms into his shoulders, forcing him to stop even for a second.

"They who?"

--

They appeared to be something unreal. Real as you and me, but unreal none the less. We trudged through the sand and plants bordering Sam and Emily's home, brushed aside the low-hanging leaves of the willow trees and stepped into the familiar clearing of the Pack leader's property. Which was where I froze, stuck in my own shock, surprise and a million other emotions not really categorized as expressions.

There were at least twenty of them, some as wolves, others as humans- all adults. Small or large, they all seemed threatening as they turned as if on queue to stare at us with eyes filled with something like contempt. Children of the Corn came to mind. Compared to them, even Jake looked like a cute little puppy dog. Their fur varied from black like Sam's to fluffy brown like Paul's and even one white one, like me. It's eyes locked on mine and a funny sort of shiver shook through me.

"Um… Quil?"
"Ssh…" He hushed me, grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the house. For once I didn't mind.

We pushed our way through to the front steps, between the wolves and the people all crowded around my Pack leader's house, standing in tense silence as if waiting for the order to attack. I could hear raised voices coming from inside the small home where just three days ago I'd been playing cards.

"-not a chance in hell" That was Jake, his shout made me jump. A soft voice responded but I couldn't hear the words. I'd never heard him sound that angry before. My heart started thudding against my rib cage, making it feel like my entire body was shaking.

Quil and I tripped up the steps, conscience of the people watching our backs. In two strides we were at the door- I tried to avoid glancing back at the crowd of people, but felt my eyes straying anyway, silently counting the numbers. More shouts, another quiet reply, and still my blood pressure steadily rose. Then the door pushed open-

And there was complete silence. The calm before the storm.

Nine pairs of eyes turned to stare at us, the apparent intruders on this very cozy and contained conversation. Quil slipped by me after a second, under the radar since I seemed to be the focus of their attention all of a sudden. I automatically searched out Jake and met his gaze while trying not to turn on my heel and race home. His red-brown eyes were the color of black coffee, wild and angry and as soon as he saw me, a deep pain rushed through them. Enough to make my arms want to reach out and hug him all on there own.

Sam sat at the table across from a woman I had never seen before, the Pack- plus Emily- backing him while the woman had just one companion. There was something about her, something I couldn't quite figure out… like returning to a place you'd visited as a baby with a distant yet distinct feeling that you'd been there before. Her skin was the same russet color as all the La Push inhabitants, a few shades darker than my own. Her hair curled down her back, her eyes the same dark color of coco. And she wouldn't stop staring at me.

"Well. The star of the show has finally graced us it seems" The man behind her said. It took me a minute to realize I'd heard that voice, another minute to process his face. My eyes dragged upward, saw the curly hair and light eyes and I had to fight the urge to gasp. It was… David? What was he doing here? Then I remembered our conversation and knew that he'd been right. I didn't know nearly as much as I gave myself credit for.

He seemed way too pleased about it too.

"Be quiet, David." If I thought her face was familiar, her voice just about sent me reeling into a memory induced coma. Her gaze was still steady on me, her brown eyes sad and longing. The next thing she said was only my name, but it held a certain meaning it hadn't before. "Cara"

"Do I know you?" I asked, momentarily forgetting about a little thing called manners, not caring either way. The sound of my voice seemed to snap everyone into action. Like a great gong sounding, turning off the pause button and switching to fast forward.

Jake growled, low and throaty, sending a fierce glare in Quil's direction and was in front of me in seconds, angry heat radiating off of him. He took hold of my hands and stood blocking the woman- and David- from view. Which was just fine with me. My mind was still reeling that David had been telling the truth and those brown eyes were too unsettling.

"I can't believe he brought you here" Jake muttered, sending one more dagger to Quil, who flinched and pointed to Sam.
"He told me to, man" Which in turn got another glare from Sam. Poor Quil.

"Why? What's going on? Who are all those people?" I asked question after question, barely managing to stop myself as the words gushed out of my mouth. I wasn't sure who I was asking, nobody seemed to know the answer. My eyes darted to David, who grinned back at me smug as ever.

Jake ignored me though as he tried to usher me towards the door. I knew that look, the determined set to his shoulders. I'd studied him enough times to know his behavior. He was being protective, he was on guard. And it made me nervous and anxious and a whole bunch of other emotions not even worth mentioning. Mostly confusion and a desperate need to know the truth. I felt David's stare and heard the laughter he kept inside.

"Nobody, Cara. Come on, I'll take you home" He held on tight to my arm and tugged me forward but I pulled out of his grasp knowing he'd never make me do anything I didn't want to. I should have known then to let it go, to just allow him to drag me way back home to safety and chores. I should have known, but sometimes, I just sort of forget to think.

"I can take myself home. What I want is to know what's going on" I demanded.

Nervous glances, a pained expression on my fiancés face and still the steady and stunned gaze of that woman, sitting with her fingers laced on the table top. I couldn't look at her for too long without shivering as if I'd seen a ghost.

"Cara… please, I don't want you to get hurt" begged Jacob, voice low, his eyes silently pleading with me to follow him out that door. And boy, should I have. Like Amy Winehouse should have gone to rehab, I should have listened to Jake. But turns out we both said no. And the outcome was not so good.

"What are you talking about?!" I was on the point of almost shouting, but barely keeping my voice in check. I could do it, come on Cara. Just breathe. His glance wavered, flickered over my shoulder and I whipped around just to see all the steady, unflinching gazes of the other Pack outside. I gulped before turning back around.

The woman stood, slowly, and David sort of straightened up as if in the presence of royalty. After closing his eyes for the briefest second, Jake stepped up, wrapped my hand in his and squeezed. I barely managed to swallow as I realized maybe this wasn't such a good idea, in fact it could have been an immensely bad one. It was too late now.

"Cara. It's been so long" She said and something in the back of my mind clicked, just a little bit. One piece of a puzzle. Each word was another piece, slowly sending my life spiraling. "You look so beautiful… so much like your father"

"Who are you?" I asked, because I didn't get it yet. I didn't know when to just shut up and leave it all alone.

Maybe I could have prevented everything by just leaving with Jake five minutes ago. Or maybe that would have made everything just ten times worse. I'd never find out though because it was already set in motion. Before the woman, who apparently held so much authority she could keep David in check, opened her mouth, I already knew what she was going to say.

"I'm your mother, dear"

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