Lockwood City: The Tale of Eloise

Three

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 twin 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 but my instincts say something else.

"This is the first floor," I say walking over to the cars parked outside my kitchen. The look on his face says it all.

"Wow," he says looking them over. Yes, Beta Graeson. I am excruciatingly spoiled. Rotten even. He should run away from me. As far away as he can.

"They work. Just need to be put to use," I sigh. The same can be said about me. He laughs a deep throaty chuckle. It makes my ears itch. "Through here is the gym. I have the schedule right here,"

He goes over to the clipboard sitting by the speaker 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 flips through the paperwork.

"Do you have a pen?" he asks. I pull the one Victoria handed me earlier to sign for a package, out of my back pocket.

"Making changes already?" I ask. He nods.

"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 ask. I hate food.

"A lot more, princess. I'll work on helping you keep your food down," he nods.

"You can keep that," I point at the clipboard. He follows me to the other side of the penthouse.

"Is this all Luna Bes's work?" he asks.

"Yeah, never before seen pieces she didn't want to sell," I shrug. He looks around in awe at everything I've collected throughout the years or rather, things my mom has stored here. Things like me.

"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," I inform him.

He looks at me surprised. "You know where I live?"

"I know everything that happens in Lockwood City. I know you work with our older soldiers that have PTSD. I know you were the only other higher rank 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 smiles.

"I am,". Not very many make it into Lockwood University, and his mouth falls open.

"You went to school?"

"School went to me. I was homeschooled. Then I did everything else online,"

"You're the business student who was supposed to give the valedictorian speech at graduation this year," he lets out a heavy sigh.

"That's right,"

"That hurts," he laughs darkly.

"What?"

"I only got it because you turned it down. I don't like settling for second," he admits and earns a few respect points from me. Of course, he doesn't like it but he might have to get used to it.

I laugh motioning him to follow me up the stairs.

"You're Beta, Elias. Second is your place," I mean it as a joke and it must have come out right because his mouth falls open and the humor in his eyes makes the apple green in them sparkle.

"You have jokes," he beams making me burst out laughing.

"I have a sense of humor. Ask anyone of my family members," What else is there when you're utterly broken inside? Sasuke rushes up the stairs and leaps 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 accuses.

Sasuke growls 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 the sensors. He glances back at me briefly as he takes a look around the area.

"This is where I spend all my spare time. These are all the pack finances," I say 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?" he asks looking over everything. I take pride in my work.

"Looks like he's gonna try and skim from it," I answer honestly. I turn on the top monitor and show him some of the graphs I'm working on with medical finances. "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 looks back at me angrily. I nod.

"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 Delaware 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 jokes. I laugh.

"Yeah, well good luck with that," I shake my head. He smiles looking my monitors over. "This is my room,"

"Yeah, I know," he sighed as the doors slid open. It has to be the scent. It's strongest here. This is where I fall apart. Where I stay when I can't bring myself to get out of that bed.

"Rooftops' this way," I start my way up the stairs and he follows.

The smile on his lips lets me know he has been up here before. The penthouse has been remodeled a few times since 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 is 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 rushes past us and jumps into the pool excitedly. A gate goes all the way around the edges and is closed off at the top. Twinkle lights decorate the entire thing to make it look like less of a cage. But it is a cage nonetheless. One to keep the monster away from the prey below.

"I remember coming up here for birthday parties and meetings," he says 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 swallow 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 your hair in two pigtails and put a black bandana around your head," he turns back to me and lets out a heavy sigh. "It feels like it was yesterday,"

"Not to me," I choke 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 go over to the dandelions growing in the garden box by the edge of the pool. I pick 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 asks.

"These did," I answer holding it up. I shut my eyes and blow 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 my family 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 look over at him wondering how the hell he would know that. "You wished that your mom and dad could stay with you because they left you alone with Elliot and Victoria all the time because of pack business and their personal work,"

"How do you know that?" I ask him. He gets a little closer and takes 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 comes out of my mouth as the memory comes back to me. 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 Elliot 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 choke out trying to gasp for air. He smiles 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 a long 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 look 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 whisper finally getting a hold of myself. He looks at me confused.

"About what?" he asks, his eyes growing darker. I laugh wiping away the tears that come easily now.

"If you rejected me. As your mate, I mean," he swallows hard. "You thought I didn't know?"

"I didn't think it registered for you,"

I lick my 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 doesn't follow as I rush down the stairs and barge into my bathroom. The liquids I had consumed came up burning my throat, my sinuses, and my pride as a woman. This is worse than anything they made me endure. Living this f*****g hell is worse than the hell they put me through. It's a different kind of torture. A different kind of pain. Even in their death, those motherfuckers are winning.

"Ellie?" Victoria's voice calms the buzzing in my ears.

"I'm okay," I cough. For the first time in my life, I feel like it's a little bit true. "I'm okay,"

"Good," his voice makes 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 until 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. He can keep her. Even if all I can give him is the City, I will push past this. I don't want to be a thing in this storage penthouse of hell anymore.