Lockwood City-4
2053 Words
Highly Suspect- Wolf
Eloise:
I feel light-headed. Weak from puking up my soul after waking up to the sound of the heavy breathing that echoes in my head when I sleep. I have to get over this. I have to do something or the animal inside of me is going to tear me apart. My father's reign is coming to an end and I can't just sit back and watch as someone else undergoes what's been part of my family for generations. I need help. I've known that for a really long time now. This fear has to be controlled even if I can't completely let go of it.
The only other men around me have been my little brother and my dad. Blitz rarely comes up to see me. He doesn't have a single patient bone in his body. It's the number one reason why he isn't a runner up to the alpha position. Showing this man around my sanctuary is going to mess me up for a while. I can trust him. That much I know.
"This is the first floor," I said walking over to the cars parked outside my kitchen. The look on his face says it all.
"Wow," he said looking them over.
"They work. Just need to be put to use," he laughed. "Through here is the gym. I have the schedule right here,"
He went over to the clipboard sitting by the iHome I use when I get tired of my headphones down here. It's playing since I broke them when I lost it this morning. He flipped through the paperwork.
"Do you have a pen?" he asked. I pulled the one Victoria had handed me out of my back pocket.
"Making changes already?" I asked. He nodded.
"You are physically healthy for someone who hardly goes out. However, you're an alpha. We need to help build your stamina. You need a little more muscle. When shifting, the wolf can damage your muscle tissue. It's why it hurts so much when you shift. Why you blackout. We need to take care of you before we take care of her,"
"Guessing that means more sustenance?" I asked.I hate food.
"A lot more, princess. I'll work on helping you keep your food down,"
"You can keep that," I pointed at the clipboard. He followed me to the other side of the penthouse.
"Is this Luna Bes's work?" he asked.
"Yeah, never before seen pieces she didn't want to sell," I shrugged. He looked around in awe with everything I've collected throughout the years.
"The little bedroom on the other side is a spare. You can crash there if you don't want to walk all the way downtown if it gets late,"
He looked at me surprised. "You know where I live?"
"I know everything that happens in Lockwood. I know you work with our older soldiers that have PTSD. I know you were the only other higher ranks that made it into Lockwood U. I know you train the younger wolves in the morning. I know you and my cousin Maxwell hate each other,"
"Who's the other wolf that made it into L.U?" he smiled.
"I am,". Not very many make it into Lockwood University, his mouth fell open.
"You went to school?"
"School went to me. I was homeschooled. Then I did everything else online,"
"You're the business student that was supposed to give the valedictorian speech at graduation last year," he let out a heavy sigh.
"That's right,"
"That hurts," he laughed.
"What?"
"I only got it because you turned it down. I don't like settling for second,"
I laughed motioning him to follow me up the stairs.
"Your Beta, Elias. Second is your place," I meant it as a joke and it must have come out right because his mouth fell open and the humor in his eyes made the apple green in them sparkle.
"You have jokes," he beamed making me burst out laughing.
"I have a sense of humor. Ask anyone of my family members," Sasuke rushed up the stairs and leaped into his bed. "This is Sasuke's area for now. Once he gets bigger I'll move him,"
"He is going to be spoiled rotten," he accused.
Sasuke growled at him before letting out a loud bark as if he were telling him to mind his own business. The door to the entrance of my room slid open once we stepped in front of sensors. He glanced back at me briefly as he took a look around the area.
"This is where I spend all my spare time. These are all the pack finances," I said pointing out the top shelves of my massive bookshelf. "The rest are the pack affairs,"
"What's your take on Maxwell's health care proposal?"
"Looks like he's gonna try and skim from it," I answered honestly. I turned on the top monitor and showed him some of the graphs I'm working on with medical fiances. "See this right here? That's part of Max's shares within Lockwood Consolidated who run the health care in the east side,"
"He's been taking money from the system," he looked back at me angrily. I nodded.
"If I'm right, it's been going here. To the weapons manufacturing shares, his dad owns,"
"What are you going to do about that?"
"Me? Nothing, my dad wants me to keep this off the books for now. When the time is right, I'm going to buy him out. Invest in the Delioncourt company and vote in favor of the Salinas healthcare bill. That way those who need no longer have to pay out of pocket,"
"You have the entire pack wired, princess. Here we thought you were up here taking a long well-deserved nap," he joked. I laughed.
"Yeah, well good luck with that," he smiled looking everything over. "This is my room,"
"Yeah, I know," he sighed as the doors slid open.
"Rooftops' this way," I started my way up the stairs and he followed.
The smile on his lips let me know he had been up here before. The penthouse had been remodeled when I started staying here. The stairs to the rooftop had been outside of my room where the stairs to go into my room are. My room had been two master bedrooms and now are one with a massive bathroom and walk-in closet.
The entire rooftop was changed along with my room. There's now a massive swimming pool where it had been open space. Sasuke rushed past us and jumped into the pool excitedly. A gate had been put all the way around the edges and closed off at the top. Twinkle lights decorate the entire thing to make it look like less of a cage.
"I remember coming up here for birthday parties and meetings," he said going over to the part of the cage I had taken the lights off of so that I can peer down at the world. "You were eight the last time I came up here. Your party theme was Christine. That killer Plymouth Fury. It's your favorite movie or was. I don't know anymore,"
"It still is," I swallowed back the knot in my throat.
"You wore the same thing that Arnie wore. The red denim jacket with the black turtle neck, dark fitted jeans, and your favorite black Timberlands. Your mom did you hair in two pigtails and put a black bandana around your head," he turned back to me and let out a heavy sigh. "It feels like it was yesterday,"
"Not to me," I choked out wiping my tears away. "It feels like-like a completely different life. What little I remember from then, it's blurry. It all feels so distant,"
I went over to the dandelions growing in the garden box by the edge of the pool. I picked one off feeling the soft white seeds against my fingertips. I don't know why but these have always made me feel better.
"What kept you alive?" he asked.
"These did," I answered holding it up. I shut my eyes and blew the seeds away praying for relief. "I made a wish once, I wished that I'd be able to stay with my family. I don't remember why I made a wish or who was with me but that's what I held onto. I knew they were looking for me and that they'd never stop. Sometimes I wish I hadn't made the wish. That they wouldn't have found me and that they would have just ended it,"
"You made that wish, February fifteenth, two thousand one. You were six years old," I looked over at him wondering how the hell he knew that. "You wished that your mom and dad could stay with you because they left you alone with Affray and Victoria all the time because of pack business,"
"How do you know that?" I asked him. He got a little closer and took a dandelion from the garden box.
"Because I taught you how to make the wish. My mom, before she passed away taught me. I missed her a lot and you would come over to my house so that I wouldn't and I would come here so that you wouldn't miss your parents. It was the first wish you ever made on a dandelion,"
A sob came out of my mouth as the memory came back. We were standing outside a house. His parent's house. I had been mad at my dad for missing valentine's day. He had promised he would be home to take Affray and me to the Saint Valentine's Fair that comes every year. How had I forgotten that?
"I'm all f****d up," I finally choked out trying to gasp for air. He smiled at me.
"Yeah, you are. I'm not saying we're going to get you back. There is no coming back from what you went through. Normal people would have killed themselves along time ago. You're alive. You've walked away from something you never should have experienced. But look at you. You're standing right here more than willing to fight for something that any person in their right mind would give up in your position,"
I looked away from him. This man has just inherited a massive burden. I don't know what to tell him. My instincts and my feelings are two different things. I want to feel what this is but my instincts are afraid of everything that can possibly happen.
"I wouldn't be mad at you, Elias," I whispered finally getting a hold of myself. He looked at me confused.
"About what?" he asked. I laughed wiping away the tears that come easily now.
"If you rejected me. As your mate, I mean," he swallowed hard. "You thought I didn't know?"
"I didn't think it registered for you,"
I licked my chapped dry chapped lips. I feel like throwing up now that I've said it out loud. I can see it in his eyes. He knows what this is doing to me. He didn't follow as I rushed down the stairs and barged into my bathroom. The liquids I had consumed came up burning my throat, my sinuses, and my pride as a woman.
"Low?" Victoria's voice calmed the buzzing in my ears.
"I'm okay," I coughed. For the first time in my life, I felt like it was true. "I'm okay,"
"Good," his voice made me flinch. "Cause Victoria made us lunch,"
He doesn't take no for an answer. He doesn't get angry or upset when my body doesn't do what I want it to do. He pays attention to the little details even I miss. I'm pushing. I need to get over this. If I let him down it will be the end of me and I don't want that. I don't want the reason behind his unhappiness to be me. I'm going to fight as hard as he is and we're standing together at the end of this road, I want to see that look in his eyes. The one he gave me when I pulled the hoodie off my head when we first met. That was the look of a man who found his world. I want to give him the world he deserves. Even if it isn't me.
- Writer
