Chapter 5: Carys

Jana and I run through the forest and over the mountains, she wants to wolf out to go faster, but after what happened to my mum, I don't think it's a good idea to transform where there might be hunters. I know it was Kincaid who shot her, but you can't be too careful.

"Ceri says I'm in shock, I guess I've sort of been in a state of shock since what happened to my dad, but it got really bad when I was in that cave. Like when humans have panic attacks, not so much the main symptoms, but how it comes out of nowhere." I explain everything that had happened; using Eolas and Anceon. But I don't tell her about hearing my mum's voice, I don't really see where that would get me. "I guess things are still going to be difficult for a while, but hopefully when I'm sixteen, and I can go back to being tame again and we can live together, everything will be okay. For now, I'll have to roll with the punches."

"You're amazing," she smiles at me. "I mean, sure you have your moments of weakness, we all do, but you always pick yourself up again." Her words mean everything to me, just knowing that she has that confidence in me is enough to keep me going.

We stop to kiss for a little while, which becomes a long while. I still feel a little down but I'm never too down for kissing her. We're standing at the top of a mountain in the Welsh countryside. We ran most of the way here, now we just need to get a train from Caerphilly to Cardiff Central Station and then a five-hour train ride to Northumbria with one change and finally, two buses to Stoneybridge.

We've recently discovered that Jana hates trains. And now we have to get on two more, for five hours. We won't get to Stoneybridge until about 6 pm. Her legs bounce up and down in her seat, but I place my hands on hers and she relaxes almost immediately. We talk about how nice it'll be to see Maddy, Rhydian, Tom and Shan. We saw them before the pack relocated, we had agreed to meet today in the village centre.

The time flies by, before I know it, we're getting onto the next train. We both fall asleep until we hear the robotic voice announcement that tells us we're almost at our stop. Jana practically sprints off, and the bus station is only a two-minute walk away. We make it just in time for our bus, it only takes about 20 minutes and then we're getting onto the next one.

When we finally arrive in Stoneybridge, we see a very familiar blonde tuft of hair poking out from behind a bush. Even if we couldn't see Rhydian, we'd know they were all there waiting to surprise us. We caught their scent the second we got off the bus.

"SURPRISE!" Rhydian, Maddy, Tom and Shan all pop up from behind the bush with party poppers and the girls are holding a big banner that reads 'Welcome Back!' in brightly coloured lettering. They all look so happy to see us. I get a bit emotional, telling them how much I've missed them and the human world. We all greet each other and head to the Kafe. I walk ahead for a moment because I'm still feeling a little bit overwhelmed from what happened earlier this morning. I haven't had a moment to myself since. Even when I am alone for a split second, I'm not really. My mother's voice comes back. 'Back where it began then?' I ignore her.

Luckily, it's Katrina's day off so the K's are nowhere to be seen; those three are one thing I definitely don't miss.

Everyone else is chatting away, but all I can think about is Ava. I'm sure Rhydian is thinking about her too. He's looking at me like he knows what I'm thinking, the way I did with my parents, or Jana. I always have a hunch as to what's on their minds. The others are talking about everything they can think of, and Jana notices how zoned-out I am. "Hey, Carys. It's going to be alright," she says grabbing my hand.

"Why does the universe insist on ruining my life?"

"It'll be okay," she sighs, knowing how difficult this will be.

"Okay, so, me and Carys' sister—that we didn't know existed—has turned up out of nowhere. What do we do?" Rhydian comes straight out with it.

"I guess, you have to let her in. She doesn't have to be part of the pack or anything, but you could agree to meet her every now and then or something, both of you," Maddy says. Everyone can tell I'm not a fan of the idea.

"I don't have a problem with her, it's just that she chose the worst possible time to show up." I'm so frustrated. "She says she wants to get to know us, but I don't get how she expects that to work if I'm in the wild, because there's no way in hell she's joining the pack."

"Well maybe now you two can come back," Shannon says, "And you could live with her until you're sixteen." It's a fine idea in theory, but I still don't trust Ava.

"Maybe the two of you should just talk this out with Ava alone, explain things in more detail, she's older, she might have some ideas or something? She might be able to help you out when we do return to the human world," Jana says. Rhydian and I look at each other and shrug. "I know she came here because something terrible happened, but you should look at this as a good thing, she's your sister. If anything, she should bring this pack closer together."

I let out a big sigh. "Yeah, I guess you're right." I turn to Rhydian. "Let's go talk to her, everyone deserves a chance."