The Runaway Shifter

4 – The Repeat

EVERY droplet of the pouring rain has been absorbed by the already wet soil. Even the grasses glistened when the downpour slid in its leaves.

From afar thunderstorms can be heard every after a few minutes.

The weather did not dither the friends and neighbors of the Tudd couples to bring them to rest.

Despite the drizzle, a great number of people were in the cemetery to sympathize with the couple’s living relatives.

Everyone was devastated when they learned of what happened to them. It came as a shock that the couple’s lives has come to an end because of an irresponsible driver.

Jane was in the diner she got the news. She was counting the money for the day’s sales when she received a call that broke her heart for the second time in her twenty-four years.

Her parents had an accident.

Earlier, her mother sent her a message that they will be visiting a friend. They requested Jane to bake something so that they could showcase the pastry that she can do.

They were on their way home when a drunk driver collided with her parent’s car. The couple was critically injured. While on the way to the hospital, her mother pulled her last breath while her father did not make it out of the emergency room alive.

The drunk driver got nothing but a broken arm and bruises on the face.

According to the investigators, the driver was in his twenties and came from a party. He was intoxicated and fell asleep behind the wheel. He lost control and collided with the vehicle in front of him. His car swerved and bumped into a barrier. His airbag deployed immediately upon impact.

Unfortunately for her parents, the airbags deployed, too, but the crash triggered her mother to have a heart attack. Her dad had a force blunt trauma to the head. Eventually, his heart was not able to take the mishap. It was his second. He had a stroke a year before.

Jane watched the staff of the diner leaves her parents’ house. The funeral was in the morning and it was an hour past noon already.

For the three-day duration of the couple’s wake, the staff of the diner has been Jane’s company. They came to lend a hand in entertaining the visitors that were offering their condolences.

“Did he come?” She shook her head at Basil’s question. She heard him heave a sigh. “Will you be staying here tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Will you be fine here alone, little Janey?”

Her head lifted. Tears pooled in her eyes when she heard him say that.

It has been a long time since someone called her that.

It was her father’s pet name for her since she could still remember. Her mother did the same.

Soft, brown eyes met hers.

Jane looked down as tears descended on her face. Her fingers played with the helm of her sweater.

She already changed her clothes when she arrived at the cemetery. Her dress was soaked in rainwater when she reached her parents’ home.

The pain of losing the older Tudds brought back the memories of her losing her biological parents. The only difference was, that she was old enough now that she can fend for herself.

Billy has not shown up during the wake. Not even once. She sent him messages when he did not answer the calls. She even asked one of the employees in the diner to visit him in his apartment. He was not there. According to his neighbor, he has not been home for days.

She has to make the decisions for the Tudd couple’s send-off. The lawyer spoke with her after the funeral but she told her that they would talk about her parents’ will in the presence of their biological son, Billy.

When the last person left the house, Jane made sure that she locked the doors before she went to the master’s bedroom.

Tears pooled in her eyes the moment she saw the bed where her parents slept.

As expected, there was no clutter in the room. The older Tudds were big on being neat and tidy.

When she was eight years old, Ora Tudd found her in the parking lot. Instead of sending her to the authority, she brought Jane home.

For the first time in two years after she left the pack, little Jane fell asleep with a roof over her head and a full stomach. She has never felt so clean again after the female Tudd helped her in the shower.

The water that spilled into the drainage was very dark the moment the older woman started scrubbing her skin. It was months of accumulated dust and grimes from living in the street.

Jane woke up that morning with an older boy sending daggers her way. She slept on the sofa in the living room.

Even on day one, before her adoption has been approved, Billy already abhors her presence.

The adoption process was made quietly. Jane had to appear in court twice. Once was for the trial that no one has a claim on her and the other was the formality that she has been adopted by the Tudd. The months while the adoption was in process, she was already living with the Tudd’s family. She already had her fair share of their son’s bullying and ‘accidental’ circumstances that led little Jane to fall on her feet.

Things escalated. From pushing her back to pull her hair when the parents are not looking, Billy recruited his friends to make it more difficult for little Jane in school on daily basis.

When Jane graduated from Senior high school, Billy was already in college by then, she decided not to pursue a degree. Instead, she took short courses that could help the older Tudd in managing the diner.

She dedicated her life to Tudds despite Billy watching her with scrutiny.

It did not bid well when Billy dropped out of college. He chose to help in the diner in the first year but eventually stopped altogether when he embezzled the money from daily sales a number of times.

He moved out of the Tudd’s residence almost at the same time as Jane did. Yet, he asked for financial aid from his parents for the house rent.

The couple learned that their son has been using illegal drugs again. At times, he spent the night in the casino that he lost his day job.

Jane lay on her parents’ bed. In her mind, she imagined them enclosing her between them.

In her younger years, she was never sickly. It must be because of the other part of her who has been giving her a boost and reassurance that she is no longer alone.

“That’s right. I will not leave you, Jane.”

She sniffed. She wiped the tears from her face.

“Thank you, Ylona.” She whispered in her head.

No matter how much Jane wanted to forget her past, she can never would. Having lived with the humans most of her life, a part of herself will always be leaning toward the past that she has left behind.

She was seventeen when she shifted into her wolf for the first time. It was painful and frightening since no one has prepared her into shifting.

However, Ora Tudd did not leave her alone. The female Tudd stayed with her in her room while her body was burning in pain and sweat.

Her throat was dry and sore as she screamed.

Her adopted mother was not afraid when she saw her daughter transformed from a petite woman to a large dog. Apparently, Ora Tudd was not ignorant of the existence of the werewolf shifters.

Her adopted mother was a pure human but she had a friend who was mated to a werewolf.

Ylona considered Ora as their mother. She has a soft heart for their human parents who embraced them since Jane was very young.

Every time Jane has to shift, Ora made sure that no one can see her. The house was locked and in case someone is coming, Ylona would run to her room to hide. She has a free reign to run in the vicinity of the residence when no prying human is around.

That has been their routine for the last six years. The last two years, Jane spent in her own apartment. She would strut in the small confinement of her place so that Ylona will not spit meaningless whines.

For the second time, Jane is an orphan again.