Chapter 5
Tracey
The call never came. I waited and waited for Jade’s parents to ring her but they never did. The service must have cut out where they were. I ran my finger over the scar on my forearm and sighed. I didn’t have a single scar on my body. But this one was there to remind me of the night I had failed our entire pack. If something happened to Jade, then our Alpha was doomed. This had probably been the plan from the start with the rogues… or whoever they were and we had played right into their hands.
We should have told Jade the truth from the very beginning.
My hands burned from the chemicals I scrubbed into the tiles on the bathroom floor of Jade’s cottage. I released the rag with a ragged sigh and sat back on the balls of my feet in a crouch. I had been at this for hours now, hoping to keep my mind off of everything that had happened. I was also trying to keep my mind off of the things that could be happening. I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. My eyes burned and internally I blamed it on the cleaner I had been using. I tossed the rag into the sink and pushed up to my full height. The kitchen was clean, not spotless, but clean enough. The laundry room no longer had a rat problem and was ready for a washer and dryer. The living room’s carpet was pulled up and the wood floor that had been hidden underneath needed a good shine job.
I whirled as someone knocked on the front door. Thankfully the mirror was still covered in a thick grime and I didn’t have to see myself as I walked by. When I yanked the door open it dispelled a wave of dust. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to get rid of all the dirt in the air. It would take me weeks to get this place in tip-top condition.
My mom waited on the other side of the door. Her white hair was pulled up away from her face in her typical fashion. She wore loose jeans and a sweater. She didn’t look a day over thirty but there was a weariness to her eyes today.
I took a step back. “What’s up?”
She held up a soda and a bag full of food. My stomach growled in response as my wolf purred in my head. I took the bag from her hands and moved out of the doorway for her to come inside. “I figured you were hungry. You’ve been in here for a while.”
I rolled my eyes. “It hasn’t been that long.”
My mom gave me a stern look. “It’s been twelve hours.”
The bag threatened to spill from my fingers. “What?”
“It’s dinner time,” She threw me a concerned look. “Do you need to talk?”
Did I? Probably. Was I going to? No.
I shrugged my shoulders and sunk down onto the tile in the kitchen. It was the cleanest part of the tiny house. It was the first place I had started on. It smelled like lemons now.
“You don’t need to hide it all from me. Let me be the one to take the burden from your shoulders.”
I scoffed. “And how are you going to do that?”
She sighed and slid down to the floor. She stretched her legs out and leaned against the cabinets across from me. “Let me help you.”
I ruffled through the bag so I didn’t have to look at her. She had brought me a rare steak and mashed potatoes. I immediately dug in instead of acknowledging what she said. My parents were very different people. Getting emotional and having a breakdown hadn’t been allowed. At least, not when it came to my older brother. I scrunched my nose up to keep the tears from coming again. I could only look so weak around my parents. My father was the opposite of my mother in every way. My mom tried to be the healing salve to his abrasiveness.
“You can’t do this all on your own, this isn’t even your home to fix.”
The potatoes tasted like ash on my tongue as my eyes rose to meet hers. I swallowed quickly. “There are two bedrooms.”
Her face softened at that. “Honey,”
I shook my head sharply before I ate some more of the food that tasted like nothing. My stomach was happy but my heart was not.
“This is her home, and…” She paused and her face fell. “What if she doesn’t come back?”
I shrugged one of my shoulders up. “None of this matters then. Not one bit of it.”
“The pack will go on. There is a Beta for a reason.” Her husband, my father. But I couldn’t acknowledge that either. It was all too much. I finished the food quickly, not tasting a thing.
Jade had to come back. She had parents that had fought so long to have her. She had me that finally felt like I belonged. She had the guys that loved her and just wanted to see her smile. And then she had Rafe, the insufferable bastard. The insufferable bastard that didn’t know how to do anything right but he was good, somewhere deep down. I knew he was good. I had known it the first time I shifted.
It had been in the middle of the grocery store. He was a few years older than me. I didn’t leave his side. I wanted to go everywhere with the Alpha’s son. So I tailed him to the grocery store and I hadn’t even shifted yet. Everyone said I was a late bloomer. Turns out my wolf just liked a little bit of exhibition. He had wrapped his coat around me and carried me out of the store. Joked that his puppy had followed him. For years that had been my nickname.Puppy.Until we grew up and everyone stopped whispering that we were destined to be mates. There was a part of me that had always wondered if the mate bond was just a little late like my shift had been. But then it happened with someone else and I didn’t know how to process it. I didn’t even think he had realized before he was shipped off to Pack Law to become a Guardian and I was left behind.
I pressed my palms into my eyes as my nose burned and my eyes watered. I was always left behind. My mom leaned over and wrapped her arms around me as the tears slipped free again. It didn’t matter if there was a Beta. It didn’t matter if things didn’t work out because how was I going to survive if the others didn’t? My best friends...
