My mind did not give me a break all night. My thoughts roamed in every direction, and somehow they all ended with me thinking of Kieran. I wanted to know what he was doing and how he was feeling. I didn't know if he was hungry or thirsty. I didn't know if he was okay or if he was in absolute pain. I didn't know, and it was driving me insane. My thoughts made sleep impossible. I tossed and turned and occasionally just stared at the white ceiling above me.
By the time morning came, I was a bit of an emotional mess. I'd already cried twice through the night thinking about what could happen if I couldn't control my wolf during training. I didn't want to think about it, but it was inevitable. I was terrified, and I tended to overthink about things that I was scared of.
By the time it was 5 a.m., I couldn't stand laying in my bed much longer. I pushed myself out of it and wandered into my bathroom to get ready for the day. I enjoyed having a bathroom in my room at first because that meant I didn't have to leave my room very much. I could just stay put where no one would bother me until it was time to see Kieran. Now, it just annoys me that almost everything I need to live is all in my little room. It honestly made me mad that I didn't really have a reason to leave other than food and water. I didn't want to go meet new people, but at the same time I did. In my own little mind, it made sense for me to just sit in my room and pout like a five year old. If I couldn't see Kieran, then no one was going to make me leave, but then again, I wanted a reason to get out. I hated it in here now. I hated the wall color, the window sills, the doors, the flooring. I just hated all of it.
I decided to just hop into the shower. It didn't make much sense because I had gotten one before I went to bed, but I was hoping the hot water would wash away all of my problems. It didn't. It was a decent distraction, but as soon as I stepped out to put on some clothes on, Kieran flooded my thoughts again. With a tired frown, I just threw on some blue underwear that were nothing like the ones Marilyn bought me, a grey sports bra, some black, Nike running shorts and a purple t-shirt. I didn't bother with socks. I always hated socks growing up. I didn't like the way they felt on my feet.
I exited my room after finishing whatever else I needed to do not expecting to see as many people as I had. There weren't a lot of people out but it was more than I thought there would be. I'd noticed in the time that I was here that most of the people living in the pack house were teens or young adults. I assumed it was this way due to mated couples wanted to get their own houses to raise their own families.
I made my way all the way to the kitchen without making direct eye contact with anyone. I didn't have to look at them to know that they were all looking at me. I would too if my Alpha's kidnapped daughter returned after seventeen years with a group of shredders who like killing for sport (well, that's what Alex says).
I went to the kitchen hoping to grab a bowl of cereal or even a banana, but instead found something else. I found her blue eyes before they had the opportunity to find mine. She was placing a box on the kitchen table that seemed a bit heavy. She shot me a gorgeous smile, and again, I was questioning how I turned out looking this way with a mother like her. Everyone around me seemed so gorgeous, and then here I am.
"Do you need help?" I asked hesitantly. She dropped the box with a bang.
"Honestly, yes, but I'm fine," Alex said shooing me away. I was about to turn around and leave when I remembered what Kieran had said before. I mean, the least that I could do for him was try to get along with him. It was obvious that he must have had issues with his parents growing up. He knew how much I wanted to meet them, and he didn't want this whole issue messing up my dreams of getting to know my parents.
"Its no problem," I said shaking my head. "I want to spend some time with you," I sort of forced myself to say. I wanted to spend time with Kieran, Marilyn, and Bolton, but at the same time I knew a part of me wanted nothing more than to spend time with Alex.
She shot me another gorgeous smile. Her eyes held some sort of excitement or happiness. I understood Greyson fell so in love with her. Not only was she beautiful, but it was obvious that she was definitely at interesting character. Sure, she was usually terrifying like the rest of my family, but at times like this she seemed so young and genuinely beautiful.
"Well, I'm moving some stuff from our house over here since I don't see us going back any time soon," she said running her hands through her light brown hair. I gave her a confused look.
"Our house?" Wasn't this our house?
"When your dad and I had Jale, we bought ourselves our own house. We lived there until you were born," she said as the smile on her face slowly faded into a frown. "We decided to move back into the pack house due to a rogue attack on a neighboring pack. Greyson was worried that we wouldn't be safe away from the pack house, and with you being so small, we didn't want to take any chances."
"Oh," I said not knowing what else to say. Alex sighed after a moment of thinking and then shot me another smile.
"Well, I suppose we should go over and get the last few boxes."
The ride there was quiet. We just sat in silence, but it was a comfortable silence. It wasn't even eight yet, so the morning air was a bit chilly. It was coming to the end of August. I couldn't wait for fall. It was always my favorite season.
We arrived at the house, and to be completely honest I was expecting something much bigger. The house seemed to be only two floors. It looked like an average house. The exterior was dark grey and white with some stone detailing. It had a fairly sized yard, and from what I could tell was an in-ground pool.
Alex took me inside and showed me around the house. It was exactly what I expected from her. The inside of the house followed the same concept as the exterior except the inside was painted a brown instead of grey. It was a breathtaking house, and I could tell just by the inside of the house that my parents were loaded.
My room was probably what surprised me the most. It was pretty similar to my room at the pack house. The one thing that really stuck out about it, though, was my name on the wall. In large, grey letters my name was plastered against a white wall just above a crib.
Grey Riley Hayes.
My eyes softened as I stared at the name on the wall. That was it. That was all of it. It was a beautiful name, but for some reason it made me sick. Not just because I never grew up the way Grey would have grown up, but because my middle name happened to be the same name of the man that caused all of this.
"You named me after Greyson and his brother?" I asked turning to face my mother. She was biting her lip. Her eyes were glassy, and I could tell that she was trying hard not to cry. She put her head down and started shaking it back and forth.
"I named you after the Riley Hayes that I grew up knowing. The little boy who loved Legos and hated the tooth fairy," she said looking back up at me. A tear rolled down her cheek which she did not bother to acknowledge. "That's who I named you after, not the monster that they turned him into." I could tell just how much Riley meant to her. It was obvious that Riley must have been a big part of her life. How, I don't know, but I couldn't help but feel bad. She was my mother and no matter how much I wanted to blame her, my dad, and Jale for what was happening, I knew it was really all Riley's fault. I knew that if Riley hadn't done what he had then we wouldn't be in this situation, and Alex knew that, too.
Upset. Go to her. I was surprised by my wolf's words. I wasn't even sure if she was being truthful or not. I just stood there like an idiot feeling guilty for making Alex feel upset. I felt guilty knowing that my existence was what was causing all of this. Be happy. Go to mom. It suddenly made sense. My wolf probably could care less that my mom was upset. She just knew that I was upset that my mom was upset. My wolf was never like this usually.
I slowly made my way over to my mother. The feeling was extremely foreign as I wrapped my arms around her. She hugged me back and buried her face in my shoulder. It was a bit awkward considering I was taller than her, but I didn't mind it to be honest. I'd been craving a moment like this from the time I was a child.
"I knew I should have named you after Ashton."
We left the house pretty directly after that. We went to her room to grab about five more boxes which I assumed were full of clothes. As we were about to leave, I pointed out a broken lamp in the corner of her room which she easily brushed off saying that she had gotten frustrated earlier that morning. I didn't ask anything else about it after that.
The drive home was nice. Alex asked a little bit about my time in the orphanage which I answered honestly. I basically just told her about an incident when I threatened to throw a girl down a flight of stairs for calling me a crazy person. My wolf was not happy that day.
I helped take the boxes inside. I carried three in with no problem while Alex struggled a bit to carry two. I offered to carry one of her boxes, but she said she didn't want me to hurt myself. Quite frankly, I felt like I was carrying pillows, but okay.
All was going well until Jale and another boy walked into the kitchen. Alex's eyes lit up seeing the two of them. The brown-haired, brown-eyed boy gave Alex a small smile. Instantly, all that I could think of was 'please don't tell me that I have another brother'.
"Hey, boys. Where's Eli?" Alex asked the two in front of us.
"Looking for Grey," Jale said glaring at the two of us. My face paled instantly knowing that I didn't mention to anyone that I was leaving.
"Jale, knock it off. She was with me," Alex barked back with a glare of her own making Jale's disappear. Alex then turned to me with a smile. "Grey, this is Abbot," she said gesturing to the boy beside Jale. His brown hair was a little long and it curled. His brown eyes were quite the opposite of Marilyn's dark ones. His were light and seemed so friendly. Yep, definitely not like Marilyn's. "He's going to be training you."
My eyes grew instantly. This man was probably the size of Kieran, but I was instantly terrified. He seemed friendly, but-to be frank-he was massive. I knew when Kieran was training me, he would go easy on me. He never hurt me. He almost killed Marilyn a few times for nearly breaking my back. One of those times were when she threw me against the side of the house for trying to attack her when my wolf took over. But, Kieran never intentionally hurt me.
Alex and Jale explained to me that Abbot and Eli grew up training together. Abbot was a year younger than Eli, but they were best friends. Abbot was the closest person to Eli's strength, and Greyson had made the decision not to let me fight against anyone that he didn't think would make it out of a scuffle with my wolf alive. Eli was actually going to train me, but Jale was sending him to help patrol the new territory that they had just managed to take over.
I was completely right for saying that I was terrified of training with Abbot. Every time he would land a punch to some part of my body, I had to take a moment to calm my wolf down. She was angry, and she wanted out. She wanted to rip Abbot apart, and I'm almost positive she was angry with me, too for putting us in this situation.
I groaned as my back collided with the matted floors of the training room. Like I said, Abbot was huge, so it was very easy for him to just lift me up and throw me. He did that a lot. I was too afraid to actually fight back. I didn't want him to come back at me harder and give my wolf an even better reason to take over. I just laid there for a moment before I felt two hands grip my ankle.
"Oh my god, no!" I shouted as he drug me back over to the center of the room. I was kicking my legs wildly, and in that moment, I knew Marilyn would be so disappointed. I froze remembering about those few times that Marilyn and I trained. One time jumped to my memory instantly. I tried my best to replicate what Marilyn had done to me in this exact situation. I swiftly raised my opposite foot too his chest. I grasped onto his wrists and pulled them down as I kicked my leg up sending him flipping over me. I don't think he was expecting it because landed with a thud on his back.
I quickly stood up and stared down at him not sure what to do next. He groaned and pushed himself off of the ground. My wolf hummed loudly knowing we caused Abbot some sort of pain.
Abbot didn't waste any time coming at me again. He landed a solid kick to my head making me fall backwards. My vision blurred, and I felt extremely woozy. My head hurt, and it wasn't until I could smell my own blood falling from my nose that I knew my wolf was taking over.
I tried yelling at her to stop, but she wouldn't listen. She just kept saying 'he hurt us'. My brain felt like it was going to explode the more that I tried to get control back. She was not going to give me control back until Abbot was a dead man.
My heart sank when I knew she had finally taken over. The headache was gone. It was replaced by enhanced vision, a heightened sense of smell, and a viscous growl that I knew was from me. I sat up and turned to Abbot with a sinister smile plastered across my face. I have to be honest. It felt honest that I was the reason Abbot looked like he was about to pee himself, but I also knew what my wolf's intentions were as she began standing up.
"That wasn't very nice, Abbot," I-well my wolf said. In an instant, my wolf's hand was around Abbot's neck. "Was it?" With that, she threw Abbot like a rag doll across the room. His back hit the wall of the training room, and I'm almost positive that the whole house shook. Abbot was shouting things at me, but I couldn't hear him. I saw his lips moving, but none of his words made their way to my ears.
My wolf let out a large laugh as she walked over to Abbot. She brought her foot back ready to kick him, but he rolled away causing me to kick a hole into the wall. I felt anger flare up within me.
"Look at what you made me do!" My wolf shouted at him. Abbot was standing now. He had his arms up trying to show me that he was done, but my wolf didn't care. Abbot was still breathing, and she did not like that.
I threw a punch at Abbot which he blocked. He then pushed me backward making my back hit the wall. I snarled causing Abbot's jaw to clench. I ran back at him. I threw another punch at him that he ducked, but then I used my opposite hand to land a punch under his jaw. The punch launched Abbot into the air. He fell back on to the floor.
"It's a real shame, Abbot," my wolf said walking over to his body on the floor. "I really liked your hair," she complimented just before her canines retracted. She was inches away from ripping his throat out until a pair of strong arms came up behind us. They wrapped themselves around my body making another flash of anger surge through me.
"Let go!" My wolf snarled jumping around in the strong arms. The man was not budging. My wolf threw my head back making my head collide with the person's behind me. Their grip on me loosened which gave my wolf the perfect opportunity to get out. She ripped out of the man's arms and turned to look at him.
"I'll kill you!" She shouted staring at the familiar pair of grey eyes. Then, a hand covered my mouth as something pricked my arm just by my shoulder. I instantly felt my wolf shrinking inside of me. She was fighting to keep control causing my headache to return. It disappeared when my vision as well as my other senses went back to normal. The hand moved away from my mouth as I stood there staring into the eyes of my father.
My heart was racing. I was sweating, but my entire body was freezing. I wanted to cry or something as I saw Jale help Abbot up off of the floor from the corner of my eye.
"I told you this would happen. I only train with Kieran."
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Hi back.
I actually wrote this chapter two other times. This is the third time, and I like this much better. I will say that this took five hours of nonstop writing to write. My head hurts now and I just really want to take a nap.
I am proud of myself for updating on schedule and I'm going to attempt to keep on updating every Tuesday!! BUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I'm going to update this Monday because I'm just really excited about posting it.
AND WE MADE IT TO #97 IN WEREWOLF GUYS.
Maybe we can all ban together and vote the shit out of this and get it even higher this week? Thatt would be AMAZING. Plus the next chapter is going to so sosososososososososososo lit and I might update earlier if we can get it higher than #97 :)))))))))))))
Okay so opinions on the chapter? I actually really liked that little bit of Grey/Arden and Alex stuff. It was so cute
Okay Im done for today
Stay awesome Gotham 8/15/16