A/N: Any wolves you recognize from The Twilight Saga belong to Stephanie Meyer.
Basically everything else, including past and present wolf pack members, imprints, wolf families, and additional characters in this story belong to the universe created by the amazing, brilliant, and wonderfully talented yay4shanghai!
Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, it means the world to me!
As always I recommend you read the other spin-offs by liljenrocks, ari11990, AsagariMelody, Guzhong, twihardcaligurl, and intiMACYx33. They are fantastic and worth taking the time to read.
Thank you so much for being such a wonderful beta yay4shangai, you're truly amazing!
Hard Time in the Slammer
16 August 2041
The morning after the Fourth bonfire, Krista remained at home, not leaving the house the entire day. The same was true of Beth and Sabrina, so I assumed they were grounded. I'd anxiously watched as Krista worriedly paced around her bedroom all morning from my perch in the tree behind her house. At least until she drew the dark green curtains closed, the thick material eliminating any hope I had of seeing into her window.
I'd tried to write Krista a letter after that, to apologize, bringing a notebook and a couple ballpoint pens with me when I returned after dinner. Actually, it'd been more like twenty letters, but they never got very far without me ending up confessing everything about being a wolf and how I thought of her every minute of everyday. My worst attempt had included telling her about sitting outside her window every night and that wasn't likely to go over very well. My head was pounding, worse than I bet a sledgehammer hitting it would feel, from where I'd spent hours yanking on my hair when my inadequacy with words thwarted every effort I made. Eventually, I'd just given up, planning to try again once I knew more about the situation or was just trying to write a regular note instead.
She went to the beach the next day, now that the weather had finally cleared up to reveal sunny blue skies, and didn't look as upset as the day before, so I took that to imply she wasn't in trouble after all. I kept out of sight mostly and I think she only saw me once, because I was uncertain how she would react to seeing me after the other night, so I did my best to keep some distance between us.
I also found out that day about the water damage at her parent's store. Krys brought Sarah and Sammy there later in the afternoon and told me about David and Jared's company being contracted to make the repairs. He assured me that David had said they weren't as bad as they first seemed and would only take a few days to fix, so the stored could reopen soon.
That evening she had her window tightly closed again, blocking out all incoming light for several hours. Krista was alone in the house this time so I didn't know what she could possibly be doing in there that would require her to take such precautions against being seen or found out. Whatever it was, I could smell the fluctuations in her scent as she did it and it had me intrigued beyond belief.
It quickly became a daily ritual, where she spent about two hours alone in her room every night without fail since the bonfire. I even risked getting closer to her house once, scaling up the side of her house like Spiderman, trying to unlock the mystery, but was unable to discover the key that would unleash the hidden secret.
During the day she continued visiting the beach, except Mondays and Fridays when she worked until taking Beth to dance class and skipped going to the beach altogether. On the first Sunday after the bonfire, I spent the whole day with Eli, not vanishing once, even when I knew she was staring at me. And since then, I've quit hiding from her altogether; unabashedly staring at her while she soaked up all the golden rays available.
The following Monday she was back at the store, working until almost three before leaving. It was then that I remembered having made arrangements to take Chloe and Ava to dance class and that I needed to hurry if I wanted to make it on time to pick them up. Racing home I jumped in my car and headed over to their place. Phil made me promise not to drive too fast while I had them and to make sure they always wore their seatbelts. I grinned throughout the entire lecture, but assured him I would nonetheless.
I only arrived a few minutes before Krista and Beth got there. I was talking to Tara when they walked in and she looked a bit flustered to see me standing there. She watched us for a moment and I assumed she was waiting to speak with Tara, so I quickly excused myself and went over to watch Chloe and Ava through the one-way viewing glass. The two of them talked for a little while before she astonished me by joining me at the window to watch. We stood like that for a while, each shooting the other covert looks until the tension built to such a degree that it actually began acting as an impenetrable barrier, forcing us farther apart and I left.
I waited in my car for her to leave as well then followed, letting the invisible link guide me to her like a retractable leash used for walking your pet dog. That was exactly what I felt like too. A pet, fully devoted to its master, but unable to tell him, or in this case her, so I displayed my love and affection by dutifully sticking close and never straying far or for long. She was parked in a remote lot, hunched down in her seat, but the vacant setting prohibited me from getting close enough to see what she was up to so I contented myself with watching from a distance as I was so often forced to.
Each class after that we stood closer and closer, for longer and longer until this last week when we ended up leaning against each other for almost a full hour of the two hour class. I usually still left first, once the intensity got too much for me and I was unable to think of a better alternative, but I was definitely making progress. I even made her laugh when I left the small waiting area yesterday.
I had turned back to see her again prior to exiting and found that she had turned as well to watch me. I grinned at her, trying to smoothly glide backwards and out without breaking eye contact, but managed to back into an end table residing beside the chairs the studio had set up for bored parents, scattering the pile of magazines stacked on top so that they littered the burgundy carpeted floor in a colorful display of glossy pages instead. Also dislodging the plastic decorative plant and reading lamp when I bent to clean up my mess, but fortunately I caught the matching burgundy ceramic base of the lamp before it hit the ground and broke.
She'd giggled adorably and smiled her most endearing smile, making her forest inspired eyes sparkling merrily, before coming over to help me pick up the fallen objects. Our hands collided over the final copy of Vogue, like it was rehearsed, and we were close enough that I saw the speedy throbbing pulse in her neck cease for an instant before swiftly picking back up and enhancing her perpetual blush. I didn't break the connection until she began chewing on her bottom lip looking unsure of herself, like she was debating something vital, deciding to make it easier on her because I hated doing anything to cause her any measure of uncertainty, I stood abruptly and left.
I also started visiting Local Naturals while she was working after the Fourth of July bonfire, doing the grocery shopping for my house and Tay's. Not wanting to go alone, I'd make whoever was available go with or accompany anyone already planning a trip, which typically consisted of Claire or Quil. This way I managed to go in to see her at least twice a week, following her around practically the entire time or spending far too much time making selections, because occasionally, if I waited long enough, she would come over and hand pick whatever I was looking at for me.
The first time I went I dragged Solace with me, but hastily decided against doing that again; he had way too much fun at my expense, although I take partial blame for that considering I picked a bad day and ended up making him late for family night at the Ateara's. He'd joked the entire time about how ridiculous we were being, chasing after one another like we were playing hide and seek.
At one point Solace signed, 'words are overrated, just kiss her and she'll get the message that you're interested.'
I'd shoved him for that and he'd laughingly fallen into a display at the end of aisle four, causing one of the workers to come over and kindly ask us to leave. Hanging my head in embarrassment, I was following Solace out when Krista ran up and handed me a bag of oranges, smiling that wonderful smile that left me a simpering puddle on the floor. She'd flushed the most striking shade of red yet; it went clear down her neck, covering her shoulders and upper chest before disappearing beneath the collar of her lime green tube top, then rushing away. I stared longingly after her until Solace dragging me out, toting the bag of precious juicy fruit against my chest and I watched his chest tremble as he boisterously laughed the whole way to my house where he dropped me off.
'So can I have one?' He'd signed, once pulling into my driveway, then reached over to take one and I responded by snarling and snapping my fangs at his hand. That set off another round of hysterical laughter that I remember glaring at as he drove away heading off to enjoy the perks of his own budding relationship with Maddox.
I never took Mel or Tay because I knew they would go up and talk to her, forcing me to either wander off and watch jealously from afar or stand awkwardly at their side without actually being able to participate in the conversation myself.
My favorite companion by far was Jordan. The summer class he taught was on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so he would choose to either go in later on Tuesday or Thursday morning each week and Eli would accompany us. He never once gave any indication that I was driving him nuts weaving around the store, taking well over twice as long as strictly necessary. He also never mentioned when I bought too much of something or forgot something else entirely, just discreetly put it back or grabbed it himself when I wasn't looking. The only hint I ever saw from him was a small loving smile as we put everything away at my house or his cabin.
Today was a Saturday and her parents were out of town this weekend, having left early yesterday. Melody had informed me that it was their anniversary and that they had planned a little getaway in Seattle to celebrate. They were leaving Nathan, a kindly older guy that practically lived there considering I saw him every time I visited, in charge, but Krista was supposed to go in to help out; make sure they weren't short staffed at all and contact her parents if any problems arose.
As usual, I'd come straight back to her place after finishing breakfast, finding that she'd just finished her own and was trying to leave for work, but her car wouldn't start. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know a whole lot about cars myself, not bothering to learn with so many able mechanics around the rez that were more than willing to help me out if I ever needed anything. Besides, it wasn't like I could randomly show up in her driveway offering some help without it looking more than a little suspicious.
Instead, I watched her kick the front tire in frustration then head back inside, the barely perceptible movement of her lips indicating that she was grumbling as she went. It was such an adorable sight that I couldn't help grinning. A few minutes later, she opened the white garage door where I saw her wheel out an old jade green bicycle with a narrow black leather seat and off-white grips on the handlebars before shutting the door again.
The bike didn't look like it had been ridden in years; the tires were a little flat and I could see the swirls of dust fly up as she wiped off the seat. She climbed on anyways, hiking up the lone pale green flowered skirt, the one I couldn't believe she hadn't changed out of, just enough to be able to step over the center bar and to have room to keep her knees spread and turn the pedals. After a wobbly start, that gradually smoothed out by the time she reached the end of her street, she rode off to work.
I followed close behind, closer than usual in case the need arose to interfere. She really didn't look all that safe or comfortable perched upon the two-wheeled death contraption and she wasn't wearing a helmet. I could just imagine the extra material of her loose, flowing skirt getting tangled up in the spokes on the spinning wheels causing her to crash. It took her almost three times as long to get to work using this mode of transportation, a good fifteen minutes, and my nerves were fried by the time we got there. My heart pounding unbelievably fast whenever a car got near her, frightened it might hit her. Worse had been when it sputtered, skipping a beat entirely, every time she came to a screeching halt at one of the intersections in town, worried that she wouldn't be able to stop, ending up in the street where she would get run down by the oncoming traffic.
I didn't breathe easy again until after she locked the bike to a rack outside and the door had closed behind her after she went into the store. My relief was short lived. In true Forks style it began raining not twenty minutes later. The dark stormy clouds had rolled in the night before then lingered, threatening a tremendous downpour throughout the night, but managing to hold off letting loose buckets until now. From the looks of things, this promised to last all day, possibly well into the night as well. There was no way I could take watching her bike home in this.
That was when I got the brilliant idea to offer her a ride home. Running back to La Push to get my blue sports car, I was drenched by the time I got there. I quickly changed and planned out how I should do this while I drove back. Surveying the area, I decided the best method would be to wait on the street next to the building. There were houses on the other side and on both sides starting just behind the store, but the road wasn't frequented all that often and you couldn't see it from the store unless you were in the parking lot, so I was hoping to go unnoticed. That way when she leaves, I could pull up and it would look like I just happened to see her getting on her bike in the rain as I was driving by. I was banking on the fact that she wouldn't have any qualms accepting a ride from me since she and Melody had gotten so close and we saw each other all the time. I also figured it would be easy enough to gesture what my intentions were and for her to get the message.
She was staying longer than usual, which I should have expected. I had waited over five hours already. I spent most of them staring, completely focused on waiting to see her walking across the parking lot to where the bike rack was located. Occasionally I'd attempt to compose a mental letter, but they always sounded stupid or insufficient. They merely pointed out how lacking I was when it came to having any real substantial knowledge about her.
It was going on the seventh hour now and I didn't even notice when a car pulled up behind me and it wasn't until I saw a flash of movement in my peripheral vision that I realized a man was standing outside my window. I stared at him in surprised confusion for a minute before I understood he was a cop, one I hadn't seen before and an angry one at that. He was saying something, but his lips were barely moving so I didn't have a clue what. It dawned on me then that I should probably roll down my window, something I hadn't thought of sooner in my stunned state, but I noticed his police baton signaling me to step out of the car before I could.
The rain was coming down harder now and I was pelted with the freezing drops as I stood up, but it was refreshing and revitalizing after sitting in the stuffy car for so long. He looked me over, shocked, and I could tell my size scared him, but he quickly masked his fear and gave me a nasty, sneering smirk. I knew right away this wasn't going to go well. I closed the door behind me when he started talking again and slide my keys in my back pocket before raising my hands with the intension of trying to let him know I was deaf and did not understand a word of what he was saying.
My hands didn't even make it up to be level with my chest before he had slapped a set of cuffs on me. I looked down at them bewildered, not having been prepared for that to happen or believed he could move that fast. Glancing back up, I found a smug grin plastered to his ruddy, bloated face. His pudgy fingers reached out clasp my arm and I saw a flash of fear in his eyes again at the contact, but it was brief, fleeting when I didn't resist his efforts to pull me with him.
I was slightly amused seeing the handcuffs locked around my wrists as I climbed into the backseat of the official vehicle, like they could actually restrain me. It would be so easy to snap the chain, twist my arm free of his hold, and take off into the woods, disappearing before he ever had a chance of stopping me. I didn't though. Determined instead to just play along and have Taylor sort things out when we reached the police station since I knew he was working today. I even smiled when he turned on the red and blue flashing lights and took off speeding to get there.
Any humor I previously felt about my situation quickly fled with the realization that Taylor wasn't actually there when I arrived, leaving me to follow the ignorant brute as he swaggered in to the reddish-brown brick building. No one else I knew was there either to help get me out of this mess right away as I hoped, so that I would be able to get back before Krista got done with work and still give her a ride home.
It was an older station, one that didn't see a lot of action, mostly lost hikers or animal attacks that didn't even use the station, so when Charlie Swan had been the Police Chief, he had never really seen the point of re-outfitting and modernizing the place and neither had the new Chief, Jim Green. As a result, I still had to use the ink that stained your skin for a couple days to get fingerprinted.
Next up was the mug shot, something I honestly never thought I would find myself posing for. I also noticed my new friend looked entirely too pleased with himself while taking the picture. Once that humiliation was complete, he wasted no time walking me straight past the desk area and into a cozy little jail cell saying some other unheard thing along the way.
He had confiscated my wallet and I watched as he went through it, pulling out my ID to fill out the paperwork, but the phone rang and he got caught up in conversation with whoever he was talking to. So I waited, staring at the dingy walls, their former yellowish colored paint peeling to reveal the grey concrete beneath. After some unknown time past I began pacing, like a wild animal, a tiger or leopard probably, recently captured and desperate for a chance to escape. I hated the confined feeling being forcefully cooped up gave me and breathing the stale dank air. I didn't understand how Tay could stand working in a place like this. I ended up back at the bars, leaning against my cage, deceptively calm, as I studied my captor waiting to pounce.
I smelled his approach long before he entered the plain dreary building. Gripping the dark rusty metal of the round columns harder, to the point my knuckles turned white, I raised my head from its resting spot between two of them to watch the door. Taylor entered several minutes later, glancing around in confusion with his brow furrowed before he caught sight of me. His eyes widened in surprise as soon as he saw me standing on the opposite side of the cold iron bars. Disbelief colored his expression and it took a while before his eyelids closed and reopened, immediately blinking several more times in rapid succession after the first. He even reached up to rub his eyes before refocusing on me.
Once he was satisfied that it was in fact me and I was indeed locked in one of the two jail cells residing in the Forks Police Department, he broke out laughing. He doubled over, one hand wrapped securely across his stomach and the other gripping a desk to hold himself up as he laughed hysterically. He looked up only to break out laughing again, not once, but twice.
I waited, obviously, because what else could I do, until he finished. When he finally stood up, he pulled out his cell phone and before I realized what he had in mind, he held it up and snapped a picture. He was still giggling when he put it back in his pocket and walked towards me.
'Sorry, but I just have to show this to Mel. So… what happened?' Taylor signed, walking over to me and wearing a goofy, lopsided grin. In that case I really hope he never gets his hands on a copy of the mug shots.
'I was waiting for Krista to get off work so I could give her a ride home,' I signed, explaining.
'How did you end up in here then?' He signed with a confused expression.
'I'm not really sure,' I admitted, then added, 'that guy,' pausing to point angrily at the man nervously watching our exchange before continuing, 'didn't exactly make an effort to talk to me. I hoped you could fix this misunderstanding.'
'Let me get you out of there, then you can tell me everything,' Taylor signed, suddenly serious and in full police interrogation mode.
He started to unlock the cell, but my persecutor stopped him. They started arguing and Tay looked furious. I had no idea what was going on since he was too caught up in their disagreement to sign for me, but whatever the guy said did not sit well with Taylor.
I could see that he was seething, everything about his posture declared it from the clenched fists, suppressing the shaking in his arms, and rapid breathing to the touch of red splashed high across his cheekbones. The other guy had backed far away, cowering, pressed as flat against the wall as he could get his robust body, but still arguing or possibly defending his actions to the irate figure before him.
'What did he say?' I asked, raising my left eyebrow, curious to see what that was all about when Tay finally turned back to face me.
'That,' he motioned over his shoulder with a sour look on his face, 'said you refused to cooperate and tried to attack him… among other things. I need you to tell me what really happened,' he signed once getting himself under control a little more.
I explained the encounter in detail, not leaving anything out including where I was and what I had planned. He even gave me a small smile at finding out about what I had intended to do with Krista.
'Did he say what he wanted in the first place?' I asked at the conclusion of my confession.
'Yes, I guess someone that lives in one of the houses on that street called in after seeing you sitting there for a couple hours… way to go, Levi,' he signed shaking his head a little. Maybe I should have thought about how a shiny, bright blue sports car wasn't the best for covert, stealth operations beforehand.
Taylor either translated what I said to the other guy or told him something, but he lividly stomped away and out of the building after Tay got through speaking to him. I was finally released after that and he immediately hugged me, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist and holding on for at least a minute. It made me question what exactly the guy had said to affect him this much. He was always affectionate towards his family and friends; I was included in both categories, but I hadn't been expecting it right now.
I still breathed a welcome sigh of relief as I followed Tay over to his desk and sat in front of it. I felt like a naughty child that had been sent to the principal's office and was awaiting punishment for his misdeeds.
'So… I can't technically release you unless it's into an adult's custody since you're still a minor,' Tay signed, wincing as he watched me. 'Should I call Michael or Anna?'
'Mom,' I replied with a reluctant sigh and dropped my head against the desk, banging it painfully against the rough wooden surface, cracking it slightly. Tay patted my head while I assumed he called her to see if she could come pick me up.
'I am sorry about this, you know,' he signed when I looked up a minute later. 'Anna should be here in a couple minutes. The guy was on probation for misconduct and use of unnecessary force back at his old station in Seattle. Part of him being reinstated involved relocating to a rural town for a temporary period while taking court ordered anger management classes. It was shit like this that got him in trouble in the first place, but I promise he'll be gone after this,' Tay explained while we waited and I nodded. Honestly, I was just ready to go home and get a nice hot meal then go to bed.
Mom arrived then. She stopped in the doorway and looked at us with her head cocked and a small smile, but with her lips sucked into her mouth. Then she shook her head gently and came over to sign the required paperwork. And just like that we were out of there.
~*~ ∞ ~*~