I wanted to memorize all of it. The pictures on the walls, the necklaces I and Tracey had made as kids that my mom hung over the mantel, and the rug that we played on so hard that it was torn. Mom refused to throw anything away, no matter how broken it was from me and Tracey either climbing on it, falling into it, or hanging on it. She said that all of those things were memories from a time that she would never get back. My fingers pressed against the framed picture of a horse in my bedroom, one I drew when I was six. I clearly had no talent in drawing but I always loved that picture, it was my idea of freedom.
They were all gathered downstairs and we hugged tightly for a long time. It felt so strange, I didn’t want to leave them at all. Why couldn’t my mate have been a non-Alpha? just a normal werewolf who could come live here with us instead.
“ Be careful sweetheart,” my mom kissed my forehead.
“Don’t break anyone’s nose, that’s not how you make friends in a new pack,” Tracey said into my hair, and her arms were wrapped so tightly around me that it was hard to breathe.
“I won’t,” I said and smiled.
Last but not least was my best friend since birth. I looked around the room in confusion when I couldn’t see her.
“Where’s Anna?” I asked and looked around. When I left to go pack she was standing here with my parents.
“ Layla, it’s time,” Alpha Kade said gently.
“ I’m not leaving without goodbye to Anna, where is she?” My mom shrugged her shoulder and looked as confused as I was.
The door opened up with a bang and Alpha Kade turned his head quickly. Anna was smiling from ear to ear with a giant duffel bag in her hands and a suitcase by her side.
Her hair fell in pieces in front of her face and she was panting.
“Are we going or what?” She asked and looked around. My lips tugged up and my heart started fluttering.
“What are you doing?” I asked her with a laugh.
“You don’t seriously expect me to stay here without you, do you?’ that was a serious question. Looking into her eyes I felt the joy and excitement, she wanted to do this.
“Are you serious?” I asked in glee.
“Duh, my parents are fine with it, they’ve got their hands full with the twins anyway and I need an adventure. Besides, I could not survive here without you, nobody else understands my cute quirks but you,”
“Because they’re annoying as shit,” Tracey said with her arms crossed over her chest and a deep smirk.
I squealed and jumped into her arms.
I turned and looked at Alpha Kade’s surprised expression.
“They’re a package deal, Alpha, you either take both or none,” Tracey said glumly. He sighed and nodded his head.
“ Let’s load the bags into the car.’ He and his brother came around us and took our bags. We walked out of the house and I turned around, looking at my family one last time. I knew I’d see them again, it was the when that caused my heart to sink.
“We love you, honey,”
“ Be safe,”
“Call whenever you want!”
“Aren’t you gonna miss your family?” I asked Anna as the car drove down the road. Alpha Kade sat behind the wheel, his brother sat beside him and me and Anna were in the backseat.
“No I need a break. I love them all to death, don’t get me wrong but you know the chaos that goes on in that house. Getting away will do us all some good and besides, if I ever miss them too much I’ll just come and visit,”
“That’s true, I’m really glad you’re coming with me,” I said and leaned my head on her shoulder. Alpha Kade glanced back at us through the mirror and my heart broke but it wasn’t my pain, it was his.
I don’t understand why I feel him like this
‘Neither do I but it’s more than that and I think we’re gonna find out gradually’
Find what out.
‘Who we are…what we are’
I shivered but disregarded it for the time being. Everything was changing, I could feel it and given the fact that I was leaving behind my family and old pack, I could only imagine what other surprises lay ahead. If I tried to find all the answers right here at once I’d go crazy. I needed to let everything play out and find the answers along the way, only then could I get through it without losing my mind which I felt like I already was.
How come we miss the people we love only when we leave them? My parents would go on trips, and Tracey would go on vacation with friends or visit other towns and packs but I never really missed them. Maybe it was because I always knew they’d come back whenever they left.
‘I think we’re here,’ Anna said and looked out the window. We drove up the path and through the town, it was huge. Everyone was looking at the two cars driving up, they had to know it was their Alpha and also sense that outsiders were among them.
It wasn’t taken kindly when someone who wasn’t a part of the pack showed up without warning. Everyone was on edge to see who we were riding in the car with their Alpha. The pack house was big with two towers on each side, each tower had its round window and the house itself was at least four times the size of the pack house back home. It was built out of bricks and looked like a castle that had been well-preserved. Two big metal gate doors opened up and I had to tilt my head back to see the top of them. The gates had swords sticking up on the top in an arch and all around the pack house was a big wall. I didn’t understand why they would do this, it divided the pack did it not?
In front of the house were a circle-shaped patch of green grass and the cars drove up on each side of the circle. There was a big stone wall in front of us as we stepped out and there were stairs on either side of the wall leading up to the house.
Cara through a bag over her shoulder, her mate grabbed it from her hands and Alpha Kade and his brother took out mine and Annas’s bags from the car.
Cara walked up to me and smiled.
“Welcome home,” right…
