One Day Before University
"Hey, mom?" Tala was holding a mug of tea in my hands. Her mother had descended the stairs before her father this morning, which didn't happen often. He had noticeably been trying to provide his daughter with a sense of freedom and independence, which was out of character for the man she used to know.
Tala's mother smiled at her. On the completely opposite side of the spectrum from her father, her mother adapted much quicker to having her daughter back. She simply adjusted as if she were a kid moving home from college. Everything was an option, she could eat what was made or brought home, or she could cook for herself. She let her daughter work with her but didn't provide any nepotism. She left Tala to her own devices in the office.
"Can you come for a run with me?" Tala requested.
Mercy Thompson, her mother, was nothing if not down for a run on a day off. Tala already knew that, it was why she had asked. Tala wasn't honestly sure of her mother's age. She had been around thirty-six years old when Tala was born, which would put her in her mid-fifties. The difficulty was that they looked more like sisters than mother and daughter. Mercy's aging had never been spoken of, not to Tala's knowledge, but she seemed to have frozen in time in her early thirties.
"Where do you want to go?"
"You'll have to show me what's still around." The whole of her hometown had changed while she was away. It felt sad, to not recognize where she grew up. The Tri-Cities attracted all sorts of creatures that went bump in the night and that meant that it was steadily growing around the clock.
They wound up driving a ways to a park she had the vaguest memory of. If on her own, she probably wouldn't have been able to drive there.
She couldn't drive anyways, so that was also a roadblock.
"Are you ready for college?" Her mother asked while they approached what Tala assumed was the lot to park in.
"I think so." She was already taking her hair down from its ponytail. "It'll be weird, I think, to get used to school here again."
It wasn't that different, she had been in the International School anyways, and the school schedules were similar as far as the semesters.
They had parked and her mother was watching her, a smile on her face.
"What?"
"You're just different," Her mother told her, and she looked a little sad saying it despite the smile. "Happier."
"I feel happier, mom." Tala smiled and it reached her eyes this time. "It was really…I'm sorry. I should have told you how I was feeling. It was stupid to run. I just couldn't keep going the way that it was. They were so—"
"I know," Her mother quieted her. "I know. And I should have realized that it would affect you the same way it affected me. I won't lie to you and say that I wasn't upset, but I was glad to know you were safe."
The words were a comfort, but the run was better. The two women made their ways out of the car and changed quickly. Something Tala thanked her mother for was the ability to change. There were probably more useful skills that she could have inherited—things like how magic didn't work quite right on her mother—but she'd take what she could get. Most wolves took forever to change.
The other thing she was grateful for, which might have been related to seamless transitions between forms, was the way her wolf was just an extension of herself. It wasn't a beast to be reckoned with, not in the same way others seemed to experience it. Tala's wolf was part of herself.
Tala shook herself out, stretching into herself. She hadn't run much in this form since her return. At the moon, obviously, but she hadn't made much time to get out. That was something she had missed about her hometown. Prague was a major European city in shape and functionality. It had green space, but nothing to run in.
The two of them mostly messed around. She had forgotten how fun her mom could be. They chased each other for the first few minutes before Tala found she'd been caught. It only resulted in a play fight before Tala set her sights on finding a snack. Her mother huffed her amusement once she realized what her daughter was up to, but helped take down some small potatoes anyways.
The sun was high in the sky before they returned to the car. Fortunately, the lot her mother had parked them in was scarcely populated. It made it easier to change and get dressed without many questions. There were reasons they didn't tend to run in daylight.
Besides the whole "werewolf" part of the equation.
They returned to a surprisingly empty home. Tala had fully expected her father to invite people over to spend the day. It was her last day at home, tomorrow morning they would head up for move-in day. She had wanted to go alone, but knew it would mean a lot to her dad if she let them bring her.
"Smells good," She said, surprised when real cooking reached her senses. It was only lunchtime, she had thought sandwiches would be the move.
But, nearly hidden by the overpowering scent of garlic, was something else—someone else.
"Jesse?"
Of everyone she had left behind, Jesse was the only one she had invited to come see her while she was away. Tala all but ran to the kitchen and threw herself at her half-sister.
Tala's sister was in her mid-thirties now with a husband. She had two children, Tala had seen them as well during her sister's visit. Max and Kelly were two of the cutest kids Tala knew, though she was incredibly partial. They had made her an aunt when she was merely ten years old, but they were the only babies in the family.
"Hey, crazy lady." Her sister laughed, catching her when Tala threw herself around her in a hug. "The kids are home. Tad will bring them back for dinner. I'm sorry we only just got back."
They had been on vacation when Tala had first returned and then it had been difficult to nail down a time to get together.
Jesse was quite possibly Tala's best friend. She had always been there when their dad, their shared parent, got on her nerves. She always knew what to say to make it better. Lying to her face, when Jesse had put together that Tala was hiding something, was the hardest part of leaving.
"I think dad missed his girls." Jesse joked, nodding to where their dad was watching them with the biggest smile Tala thought she had seen since her arrival. Everything her dad had done was careful these days, he walked on egg shells to try and keep her from running again. This was him relaxed. "I heard through the grapevine that the Great Adam Hauptman was crying when Tala came home. I don't get any tears?"
"Warren is a traitor for telling you that," But there wasn't any malice in his voice, "And since when did you call your father by your first name?"
"I swear to god, I'm in my thirties and he's still on me about every little thing." The fake-whisper made Tala cackle. "Well, at the very least, he's been moping. You have to go easy on him, Tala. He cried every night for three months when I left, remember?"
Tala rolled her eyes because she hadn't been born yet and Jesse was well aware.
"That's right! You don't! Because dad and Mercy used my leaving as an excuse to have unprotected sex—"
"Jesse!" Mercy was laughing now, too, while getting herself a glass of water.
"We've all done it! Well, maybe not you, Tala." She amended. "There's no shame! Any time you see a baby—"
"I'm never going to be able to unsee that." Tala groaned, covering her ears. The action was pointless, she would hear anyways.
"One day, Tala, just not too soon—"
"Jesse!" Now it was their father's turn to stop her and he wasn't laughing, though he wasn't angry either.
Year One
Classes had brought Tala to the library. She had been granted a single dorm—unheard of in this time—due to her werewolf status, but she wanted to be somewhere. She stayed pretty much exclusively in her dorm at all times, except for class.
Odegaard was modern. It was a miracle it had stacks at all, but it at least had group and private workspaces. Tala was only looking for somewhere to people watch while she worked. Meeting people had been a challenge, though she did have plans for dinner with one of the girls on her floor.
As she walked past group spaces and investigated the area, she caught something.
There are a number of scents that one can remember which might bring someone back. That goes for normal humans, as well. Scent memories are strong—especially with regards to things like food or other people.
Having something familiar hit her in the nose wasn't all that uncommon. Often, it was something like a perfume or particularly fudge-y chocolate brownies.
This was a person, a specific person.
Tala had to rack her brain for the last time she would have seen him. Probably middle school. At most, she would have been twelve.
Her eyes narrowed as she honed in on his location and spotted him: back table, just visible through the stacks she'd found herself in. He didn't look up, but she suspected he already knew she was there.
His hair was a messy mop of blond, almost strawberry. She had remembered it being more red when they were children, but it must have paled with age. There would have been freckles scattered across his face as well, but it seemed he must not get enough sun for them to shine through anymore.
She strode immediately in his direction, weaving back through tables of students flipping through archaic books or otherwise swiping desperately through digital texts.
"What are you doing here?" She hissed, all but slamming her hands on the table. She wasn't looking to be kicked out, but at least this wasn't the most quiet level of the library.
"Good morning, whelp," His grin was stupid and lopsided, like his grandfather. Tala could barely see it, he didn't make the effort to look up from his textbook.
Pre-law, that was surprising.
"Who are you calling 'whelp?' You're only six months older than me."
He looked up at her, amusement twinkling in pale blue eyes. That was one thing she didn't really understand. His eyes were inhumanly pale, probably had something to do with his mother.
"You learn a lot in those six months, Tala."
"Why are you here?" She leaned closer into his space, trying her best intimidation efforts.
"'Here' like 'the library' or 'here' like 'at my university?'" The smile didn't leave his face as he cocked his head to the side.
"The university."
"I go here." He shrugged. "Good scholarship."
The boy sitting in front of her didn't need a scholarship. Can Cornick was quite possibly the definition of "old money" when it came to the Americas. His werewolf father had been around the sun more times than feasibly countable. His fae mother had a similar lifetime. His grandfather was the Marrok, the head of all wolves.
She couldn't smell half-truths, not literally. They didn't trigger any sort of response the way an actual lie would. As long as Can was telling her something true and nothing intentionally false, she wouldn't know differently based on omission.
But this was something trying to intentionally push buttons.
"Who gave you the scholarship?" She braced herself for the obvious answer.
"The Remus Foundation."
A fake foundation of which there were two. They were how Cai's grandfather and her "for all intents and purposes" grandfather got around putting money in places his own money didn't belong.
She had been tricked. The answer had solidified the intention that the boy before her had been sent on purpose to watch her.
"Stay out of my life." She warned him before turning to walk away. She would find someplace else to study or she would study in her room again. Anywhere was fine at this point, as long as she didn't have to hear him breathe or smell him.
"Hey, if it helps," His tone shifted to suddenly being very genuine. "He didn't want either of us to be alone. I'm not only here because of you."
He didn't think it was a lie, she noted, but that only meant that he had been tricked as well. If they were meant to keep eyes on each other, she would have known he was there sooner.
She walked away, pulling her phone from her pocket as she did so.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard and she barely had a moment to check for typos before her thumb slammed down on the "send" button.
Tala: Stay out of my life
The message was read almost immediately. Somewhere in Aspen Creek, the biggest, baddest wolf this side of the globe was laughing.
Bran Cornick: I will consider myself thoroughly warned.
She shoved the phone back in her pocked and opted to go back to her dorm. It had been an utter waste of time and she now wouldn't have as much time to work as she would have if she didn't go back. She had a class at 1PM she had to make.
But now that she had seen Cai the first time, she couldn't stop seeing him. She bumped into him walking out of her class building and he tried to say something to her, but she walked away and put headphones in before he could get any words out. Again, in the dining hall, she spotted him from afar. He was with a group of others, all joking around while they grabbed their seats.
"Oh, the blond one is in my philosophy course," Riley supplied, turning her head to follow Tala's gaze. "Cai—"
"Cornick," Tala smiled and hoped it looked natural. "We grew up together sort-of, our parents are kind of close family friends."
Riley lived in the unit next-door with her roommate Ellie. Ellie, however, was an engineering major and so she spent all of her time with her classmates studying, even just two weeks into the semester. Her hair reminded Tala of her sister, she had dyed it pink the night before in the dorm bathroom. It had been pink the whole time, but apparently the rapid fading was beyond repair and it had to be re-done at 2am on a Thursday.
Riley wagged her eyebrows at her and glanced back at him again.
"Oh, he's looking at you."
"You're staring." Tala actually laughed, "I think he's looking at you."
Riley gave a little wave and Cai waved back, obviously amused. One of the guys at his table turned to see who he was waving to and beckoned them over.
"Oh, we should sit with them!"
Tala, not wanting to ruin Riley's fun, obliged. Thankfully, Riley was the life of the party. Cai's table thought she was a riot, including the girl who had joined them (Sara) and sat on Ryan's (Cai's next-door neighbor) lap.
"Are you in my history class?" Sara asked Tala. "With McQuinn?"
"Today at 1?" Tala asked.
Sara flipped her long black hair over her shoulder—it hit Ryan in the face—and nodded.
"You're going to ace that class, it's already so obvious. You're really good in class discussions."
"Tala's mom is a big history buff, she majored in it." Cai supplied, making Riley shoot her another look with a smirk.
Tala wasn't talking to him, though. She looked square at Sara and smiled.
"Yeah, my mom loves history, she specialized in early European, but modern isn't too bad either."
Sara glanced sideways at Cai and back to Tala, but didn't miss a beat.
"I thought I wanted to be a history major, but it's already kicking my butt and it's a level 100 class," She admitted. "I might switch to music or something."
"Do it." Ryan told her. Tala didn't miss how both of his hands squeezed her hips. "You're great at piano!"
"You play?"
Damn all Cornicks. Tala huffed quietly to herself. Riley didn't notice, thankfully.
Sara nodded shyly.
"I wanted to be a music major, but my parents don't like the idea. I got away with history because they thought maybe I'd go into law."
"No, you have to do it." Cai shook his head. "If you're good and you love it, why not? You'll do better at it if you enjoy it, right?"
Riley nodded her agreement enthusiastically. They all chatted for a bit longer, finishing their dinner as they did so. Sara and Riley discovered the three of them lived in the same dorm, a floor apart, and Tala found herself exchanging numbers with a new possible friend. They agreed to meet up for breakfast in the morning and maybe head to the library to get some work done.
The boys, all four of them, walked them back. The dorms weren't so far from each other that it was inconvenient. Tala learned that Ryan and Sara had actually been in high school together and had begun dating over the summer—which explained a lot about how they were so comfortable with each other. "Chick" (Tala wasn't sure his real name) and Chris were in class with Ryan and Cai both because they all shared their intro level English class.
Ryan kissed Sara goodnight as Riley wolf-whistled, making the other boys laugh. Sara was laughing too, as they pulled apart from what had realistically only been a peck. As Tala grabbed her ID to swipe in, however, Cai caught her by the wrist.
"Hey, can I just give you my number? In case something happens or in case you just need to run?" His expression was so honest, it hurt Tala a little. Her gut told her that he was as much a victim of circumstance as she was, but it still upset her that she had fallen for another one of her "grandfather's" tricks.
She handed him her phone silently after unlocking it. He swiped to search for the contacts app and pulled it open. It wasn't even a moment later, he had created his contact.
"I'm sorry. I was being a dick earlier."
"Did Bran tell you to apologize to me?"
"No," He was telling the truth. "I know I upset you, and I didn't mean to. I really didn't know he didn't tell you I would be here."
"Thanks." Tala told him, pulling away so she could enter the building. She spotted Sara and Riley both waiting for her looking like a bunch of nosey neighbors.
"Text me, yeah? If you want to run?"
"I'll keep it in mind." She promised.
She thought werewolves were gossips, Riley was on her as soon as she entered the double sets of doors. The pink-haired girl had already informed Sara of Tala's relationship to Cai prior to undergrad.
"He asked for your number?" Riley followed her sounding absolutely amazed. "Did he not have it before?"
"Not everyone has a phone when they're twelve." Sara pointed out, climbing the stairs behind them.
"No, I had a phone." Tala sighed, "I studied abroad for high school. I was at the International School in Prague."
"And that wasn't your fun fact for the RA's floor ice breaker?" Riley shrieked. The sound bounced through the empty staircase, echoing against the concrete block walls. "Is it different there? The drinking age is younger, right?"
Sara laughed out loud at the question and Tala found it was contagious.
"Yes, I was able to drink in the Czech Republic." She agreed. "And I had a different phone and a different phone number. I got a new one with a US number when I came back in July. He didn't have it."
"What an adorable meet-cute." Riley sighed.
Sara shoved her playfully when they came to the landing that was her floor. She swiped her ID to enter and waved goodbye with a promise to meet in the morning. Riley had already created the group chat between the three of them and, truthfully, Tala was thrilled by it. It was nice to have someone break the ice for her.
When they separated for the night, it was only seven. Riley had suggested she come next-door around eight-thirty to watch a movie and make popcorn, and she had agreed. It would be nice to do something other than school work for a little bit.
In the meantime, she pulled out her phone and opened her phone app to swipe to the contacts. Her finger hovered over the familiar name and she finally tapped.
It rang only twice before someone picked up.
"Hey, Tala, Jesse will be here in a sec. She's currently running after Max." It was her brother-in-law.
"Yeah, no worries." She found herself smiling as she put the phone on speaker and began to change into more comfortable clothes. She wasn't about to watch the movie in jeans, not on a Friday night.
She let Tad tell her about why her sister was after her nephew to begin with. Apparently, Max had decided to hide his mother's toiletries which does become an issue. Tala didn't blame her for chasing him.
"Hey, babe, what's up?" Jesse finally grabbed the phone without giving her husband the chance to say goodbye. It made Tala laugh and come back to the bed where she had rested the phone. "How are classes?"
"Not too bad so far. We're only getting started, though." Tala laid down, propping her head up on her hands. "I've got plans with my neighbor, Riley, after this. She's cool. You'd love her hair."
"Mmmm, what color?"
"Pink, like neon pink."
"I should do that again." Jesse hummed thoughtfully. "Haven't done anything too crazy in a while. Anyways, full moon is coming up, right? What are your plans?"
"You're welcome to come round these parts if you need to." Tad said in the background. Jesse didn't bother repeating his statement, knowing her sister would hear.
"I made arrangements with Angus." Meaning the Marrok made arrangements. "So I should be ok, but I'll let you know if I change my mind."
"Sounds good, as long as you're ok with it!" She imagined her sister smiling on the other side of the phone. Tala hadn't seen their new house yet, they had only just moved in a year prior. She had seen it on FaceTime, but not seeing it in person made it difficult to imagine where she was. "So Riley, any other friends?"
"We met a girl named Sara today. Her boyfriend is friends with Cai—"
"Cai like Cai Cornick?" Jesse stopped her.
"Yeah."
"Does dad know about this?"
"I think Bran planted us here together." Tala admitted. "So I don't know."
"Do you want me to ask him? I can ask him. I'm going to ask him."
Tala heard Tad telling her to leave their dad alone. It was easy for Tad, though, he was usually the one in charge of following someone. Tala herself couldn't count the innumerable times he had been in charge of her and her sister when something dangerous was afoot.
"I can't believe he had the balls to send someone after you."
"You don't know that he did," Tad sounded exhausted, "Don't make your sister anxious."
"It's ok, Tad." Tala promised. "She's right. He probably knew. But, Jesse?"
"Still here, trying to type a strongly-worded text."
"Don't mention it to him. If he didn't know, I don't want him getting anxious." Tala sighed, laying down entirely now and rolling onto her back.
If her dad did know, she would be surprised he let the Marrok go through with it. There was no doubt in Tala's mind, at least, that her father was extremely nervous about pushing her to leave again. The conundrum was enough to make her think herself dizzy, and so she changed the subject. She asked about her niece and nephew, about how excited they were for school. Jesse was thrilled to provide texted photos of Max at the playground earlier in the day.
They eventually hung up, leaving Tala feeling much more relaxed and much more excited for her movie night.