Chapter 5 Invisible

Zach's P.O.V

Why the hell were Fletcher and Steven coming to my house?

Zach knew with every fiber of his being that this was not going to be a Hallmark family moment Fletcher wanted to have with Corinne. As a wolf being protective of your family wasn't just a small part of their life, it was intrinsic among the pack. When a loved one was hurt, emotionally or physically, it was almost impossible to not seek out what had hurt them, and destroy it. Completely.

And Zach was willing to be his life that Fletcher was here because of the emotional turmoil his father was feeling. In a win or lose situation, within Corinne's family, she would lose every time.

The doorbell rang a split second before a furious pounding on the door shook the pictures on his mother's living room wall. Zach moved quickly through the house to beat his parents to the door, not needing that trouble as well.

"Where the hell is she?" Fletcher had the sentence uttered before Zach had the door open to them.

Fletcher and Steven were both standing in cut offs, no shoes and were wearing the look of someone looking for a fight.

Knowing that all of them could hear Corinne heading downstairs, Zach felt it unnecessary to reply to his question. And instead just gave him a bored expression.

"Hey boys. Is everything okay?"

That was his mom, ignoring how odd Fletcher and Steven looked with their cut offs and dirty bodies to be polite and nice to them. It made his outings with the pack a lot easier having his mother always willing to be there for him.

Zach made sure to give Fletcher and Steven a death glare before turning to his mother.

"It's fine mom. Fletcher was just coming to talk with Corinne. We'll be back in a few okay?"

Corinne was clumsily coming down the stairs, a hopeful look on her face that told Zach she was expecting Fletcher to be concerned for her. She turned her look towards Zach and gave him a smile, making something in his chest hurt.

Stumbling on the last step she was within five feet of her brother when she must have realized he was angry with her. The hopeful look on her face slipped off and for a slight second, Zach actually heard her heartbeat falter.

Zach wanted to beat the crap out of her brother.

Corinne's P.O.V

Corinne had smelled her brother coming towards the house as soon as she had gotten out of the shower.

Corinne couldn't believe Fletcher was here. He had never really shown a lot of concern for her, but he must have found out how upset she was and was coming to check on her. Hurriedly throwing on some clothes, Corinne stumbled down the stairs wanting to see her brother.

Glancing at Zach who was standing by the door with a concerned look on his face, Corinne couldn't help but smile at him.

Halfway across the room Corinne realized that Fletcher didn't look concerned…but angry. He wasn't there to make sure she was okay. He was there because of the argument. It felt like someone slugged her in the chest with a barbell, the disappointment was so acute.

'I'm such an idiot. Why would I think he was actually coming to check on me?' Corinne was scolding her naïve self.

He looked like he wanted to rip her head off and play dodgeball with it.

"Get your ass outside. Now."

Upon reflection, Corinne was pretty sure that ripping her head off was a lot less painful than what Fletcher had in mind. Even as a wolf now, she was pretty sure he could mop the floor with her.

"Actually, we'll be there in a minute."

Zach's voice startled her brother who seemed to have forgotten he was there as well. Corinne watched as Fletcher turned a furious glare on Zach and wanted to drop off the face of the Earth. The first person who was nice to her, who had the potential to be her friend, and Fletcher looked ready to murder him.

"Whatever. You better find me in five minutes, Corinne."

With that parting shot, Fletcher and Steven stalked into the woods and Corinne could hear their furious paws heading deeper into the woods.

"Are you okay?" Corinne turned away from the woods and looked at Zach. He had walked up to her and was clearly worried.

"I'm fine. I'd better go before he comes back and does something stupid."

Zach's P.O.V

The girl was certifiably crazy. Zach could tell she had honestly expected him to stay at his house and let her go confront her brother, and his friend Steven, by herself.

They had been walking in the woods, away from his house, for about five minutes. Corinne never stopped or hesitated in her motions. She just kept trudging steadily towards her ingrate of a brother, all without saying a word.

"They're up ahead." Stating the obvious was a horrible flaw, but he had to break the silence before the war started. Giving him a slight smile, Corinne squared her shoulders and walked around some rocks and marched up to her brother.

"What the hell is your problem, Corinne? I saw what you said to Dad. You know how he is about mom! Do you know how much that hurt him to even talk about her?" Fletcher's voice gradually rose until he was shouting in her face.

"Look Fletcher, I know how close you and Dad are…and I can't even imagine how horrible it was for you to lose mom, but both of you act like I'm not even here. It's like I died with her." Zach could only watch helplessly as Corinne tried to reach for her brother's hand to have her own slapped away angrily.

"You're so fucking sad, Corinne. You think I want to hang out with a loser like you? And as for Dad, leave him the hell alone. He works his ass off for us, the least you could do is give the man some space."

Corinne, despite the tears flowing down her face, looked at her brother's furious expression and tilted her chin up and held herself rigid. Not backing down in the slightest. And it was that look she always wore, like she was resigned to this treatment that made Zach furious.

"The least I can do is give him space? Well, the least Dad can do is to treat me like I'm a part of the family and not just someone who rents a room in the house. The least he can do is treat me like his daughter and not a complete stranger. And the least you can do is to get out of my face, you stupid pile of shit."

Zach saw her brother's facial expression go beyond furious and moved to step in between the two.

"And on that note, I think you need to leave Fletcher. Seriously. Get out here."

Zach met Fletcher's glare head on and realized a part of him hoped Fletcher was stupid enough to pick a fight with him. He wasn't a newly turned wolf and he sure as hell wasn't too fond of Fletcher at the moment.

"Whatever. Just stay away from the house from now on."

Fletcher phased and ran off, leaving Steven to scramble after him.

After listening for a few minutes to make sure Fletcher and Steven were really heading away from them, he turned to find Corinne.

She had turned her back to him and had her hands pressed to her face.

"Corinne…are you okay?"

'Of course she isn't okay, you moron!' Zach wanted to slap himself for the stupid question.

"Just…give me a minute." He could barely understand her between the crying.

Unable to help himself, Zach walked up to her and gently laid a hand on her arm. Corinne's face peeked up at him and Zach realized she had finally reached the end of her straw. Drawing her into an awkward hug, he held her and tried to soothe her and she spoke between gasps of crying.

"I'm…sorry. I just…don't understand…why they can't love me. I just…don't understand."

Zach didn't understand either.

Corinne's P.O.V

Oh God. I seriously want to just throw myself off the nearest cliff.

Corinne and Zach were listening to music from his ipod on the beach. She was so embarrassed that every pack member, eventually, would know of her argument with Fletcher. She didn't really care what they thought of her, but she did care what Zach thought of her. He had been so nice to her.

After the argument, he had just hugged her until she stopped crying. He had even told her that Fletcher and her father were morons, that she was awesome standing up for herself. It felt nice to have a person who would have her back. She just hoped it lasted.

"You know…for all that everyone talks about how wonderful imprinting is..I think it's a crock."

Zach's words snapped Corinne out of her pity fest.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it changes you into someone else. It can make you do horrible stuff, and you wouldn't even care. I never want to imprint." The last part of Zach's sentence was said quietly, almost to himself.

"I don't even know if I can imprint…but I hope I don't either. Doesn't seem to go very well in my family, does it?"

The joke fell flat in the air, a casual reference to the chaotic order her family was now living in. Or at least she was living in. Fletcher and Embry were probably happy she wasn't coming back. They had talked about a weight room for awhile, she was willing to bet her room was already torn apart.

"Corinne…you didn't do anything wrong."

"I know." She didn't know what else to say to him. What do you say?

Zach gave a long drawn out sigh.

"We need to shake this off, I say tomorrow we go cliff diving and then a pizza fest until we throw up."

Corinne watched the sun setting and realized she wasn't going to let her family make her invisible.

"As long as you don't wuss out at the cliffs, then I'd say you're on."

A/N OMG. I seriously need to be shot for not updating in forever. What's really crazy is that I have rough drafts of chapters on my other stories, I just haven't finished them. This is a shit chapter but I'm trying folks.