.Sophie.
Foot pressed on the break, I tried to start the dying vehicle. It gave a sputtered groan before dying again. I wanted to scream. Of course I knew nothing about cars. With a grumble of irritation, I shifted the car into park, thankful that it was ten and a small village, so there wasn't anyone behind me.
Leaning over, I began digging through the contents piled on the passenger seat. Under papers, an already wet jacket, my purse, and a discarded stuff animal, I found it. My old, dingy cell phone that was almost in the dinosaur ages. People were often shocked to see that someone still had a flip-phone.
Opening the phone, I glanced at the bar to the top.
"Fuck my life." I murmured under my breath, closing it and tossing it back onto the seat. Of course, no signal. These woods were a giant signal sucking mass. The only time I was able to get a clear signal was at home, and at Emily's bakery. But even then, what's the point? The urge to ditch my cell phone and company was constant, but, what if I was out of town and Bea needed me? What if something happened to Lace? What if I got stuck in traffic and I didn't have my phone to frogger on?
My only choices were to walk home in the rain, or wait. Not being much for patience, I grabbed the already wet jacket an pulled it over my flour covered "Emily's Bakery" T-Shirt. Zipping it up quickly, I jammed the useless cell phone and car keys into my purse, before zipping it up and cramming it up my now closed jacket. Hopefully, it would keep the contents from getting soaked.
But with the luck I was having today? Probably not.
After pulling the hood up over my messy hair, I opened the door of the car, stepping out and shutting it. I didn't bother locking it. It was such a small village people never locked their cars or homes up. It wasn't exactly like anyone was going to steal. The crime rate was incredibly low the past few years. And even if some did have the urge to steal, what exactly were they going to take? The radio was outdated, and the car was basically just filled with Lace's toys and clothing.
Head down, I walked past the green light that had just switched to red, my already we jacket soaking through. The rain had been sprinkles just moments before, but was now raining down on me as if I were standing beneath the Niagara falls.
This past week had been it's own hell.
Starting work at Emily's, Lace getting a cold from all the rain playing she had been doing with Jared, the worst baby sitter on the planet, Bea trying her best to pretend she was okay only to have her shaking hands give it away, and the memories that I often tried to stuff into the dark depths of my mind. But things weren't that easy.
Halfway down Rosemary Avenue, my care three blocks past, I saw it.
Yellow eyes blinking at me from down the road. These eyes were attached to a humongous beast, it's tawny colored fur soaking wet in the downpour and glistening slightly from the dull street light. If it were smaller, I would claim it to be a wolf, but the fact that it was almost the size of the car it was standing next to, it could easily be confused for a bear. And then, blinking at me slowly, it bounded off into the forest.
"Holy shit." I whispered, my purse falling from my jacket and onto the ground.
.Paul.
I caught her scent and darted from Jared, ignoring his warning growls as I raced towards where she would be.
And when I saw her, I stopped in the middle of the road.
She was drenched, her pink jacket dark and wet and dripping water onto the shinning black pavement. A few strands of wet brown curls fell from the hood atop her head, and her eyes were rimmed and dark. She looked exhausted. And the part of me that raced after her sent and into the road for no reason, wanted to embrace her. To stroke her hair as she fell asleep in my arms and to lay soft kisses atop her soaking wet hair.
And the rational part of me wanted to throw up for even thinking that.
I hadn't even talked to her once, yet some inner force wanted me to be with her for reasons that was properly believed as 'mating'. She wasn't even full blooded Indian. She had more white in her than the Pillsbury dough boy.
But every time I saw her out side her house with her daughter when I went to pick up Jared, or working the register at Emily's cafe, my heart skipped a beat. She was beautiful. She was perfect.
And she wasn't going to be mine.
The guys liked to speak of how their imprints loved them back, no matter what, but I didn't want anything to do with that. I didn't want to force her into this life. Especially if she wasn't just deciding for herself, she was deciding for that tiny little girl who looked just like her.
The only girls who were important to me were at home right now, sleeping in their beds probably slobbering all over their polka dot pillows. Okay, for Katie it would be just a plan black pillow on a plan back bad surrounded by posters of rock bands and boys with eyeliner. She was going through a phase. A phase that was scaring everyone. And that's saying something, because I turn into a giant wolf when I'm angry.
.Sophie.
I slammed the front door behind me and leaned against it, gasping for breath.
I had never run so fast in my entire life. Four blocks in under 3 minutes? That was unheard of in me. I was no runner. I was no sports player at all. Ask the chub on my thighs and hips.
Bea looked up at me from her spot on the couch, turning her attention away from reruns of 'The Bad Girls Club'. "What the hell happened to you?"
I yanked my jacket off quickly, tossing it onto a heap next to the door before turning around and locking the door. Trying to shake off the fear I jumped around, racing to the nearest window and checking to see if it was shut. Behind me, Bea raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. It wasn't common to lock doors and windows around here.
Then again, what would a locked door do to a massive monster? It surely wouldn't stop it from getting in.
"Oh just," I began, my voice shaky, "my car broke down and I was almost gobbled up like the grandmother in Little Red Ridding Hood."
"Huh?" Bea was confused, obviously. She pushed herself up more, reaching over and placing what looked like an untouched bowl of popcorn onto the coffee table. It was a nightly ritual of hers. She would grab a snack and sit down, and I would watch sneakily to see if she ate any of it. But she never did. After I went to bed, she would get up and throw it away. I knew, because as soon as I heard her bedroom door shut, I came out of my own room, and checked. It was a small game we played. A game where we both pretended to not know what was going on.
"WHEN DID THE ANIMALS HERE GET SO BIG?!" I hissed, afraid to wake Lace, who was definitely curled up and sleeping in what had once been my grandfathers office.
"What? Soph, I think you're tired and need some sleep. I know you haven't been getting much sleep lately. With Lacey sick and all."
I kicked off my shoes and started heading upstairs, my heart pounding. The strong urge to check on Lacey was coursing through my veins, the fear of the monster gone, now replaced by the fear for my daughter's safety of any and everything.
"Yeah, maybe." I mumbled, slinking upstairs, leaving wet tracks on the dark wood. She would be no help to me at all. She would sit on her couch in denial, just like something our mother often did.
Slowly, I opened the first door on my right, peaking in to spot my sleeping angel, her snores ringing out loud and clear as she snuggled with the teddy bear that had been given to me at her baby shower. From Allen's mother. Of course she hadn't attended, because of the major belief that it was my fault Allen was dead.
.Paul.
The sun was trickling in slowly as I shut the front door behind me, and the sounds of early morning chatter were coming from the rooms down the hallway.
"Lily! Give it back!" Katie yelled, and suddenly, came racing down the hallway after the younger, chubbier sister. Lily, dressed in her pink dress with her hair in pigtails was the perfect example of innocence. But at this current moment, she had her elder sister's spiked belt tucked against her body. She was tiny and chubby, but boy was she fast. She leaped over the couch and ducked under the coffee table, laughing until she came splat into my legs.
Sprawled out on the floor infront of me, she looked up, that shit starter smile on her face.
Katie reached down, grabbing the belt with her black painted nails, and yanking it from her. "Keep your hands off my shit, Lilian!" She growled.
"Katelyn! No cussing." I warned halfheartedly, scooping the youngest, giggling Lahote off the ground and into my arms. "Holy shit, you're getting heavy, Lils."
Katie rolled her eyes, starting to wind the belt into the loops as she made her way back to her room.
"Is that a fat joke?" Lily frowned, crossing her arms acrossed her chest. I stopped in my tracks, terrified at a response. These girly things I was never incredibly good at. God help me on the day Katie started her...woman thing. That thought alone kept me up at night. Then, the little brat burst into giggles. "Just kidding! Now let me down you big dork! I have to catch my bus!"
I set her on the ground, and watched as she ran to pick up her Adventure Time backpack, slinging it over her shoulder before quickly racing out the front door. A few moments later, a grumbling Katie followed, still stuffing her foot into the vans I had worked over time to pay for. Once the door closed behind them, the only sound left in the house was the soft snoring of my sleeping mother.
That was enough to assure me she hadn't choked to death on her own vomit, so I quickly changed into a different pair of jeans and an oil splatter t-shirt. My shift at the shop started in 20 minutes, so I headed out the door and to my truck, ready for the long, sleepy day ahead of me, thinking of anything I could to keep my mind off the girl in the rain.