by A. M Martin
“I thought for sure he was going to ring our asses,” Cam mumbles limping towards the house.
“Who was that?” Nick asks.
“The black hole,” Cam mutters, slowly pulling himself up the porch steps.
My eyes glow and narrow on Cam’s hunched over form. Why would he call her a black hole? She’s just a girl, right?
“Cam, where are you going?” Aden questions.
“To have Shelly call Doc. I’m not walking all that way.” Cam snaps.
“Avery,” I mumble the last to move. “Doesn’t Jeff have a niece named Avery?”
Cam freezes with his hand on the doorknob, “Oh my god. You’re right. I bet that was her.”
Cam thinks for a moment. “She looks different.”
“Ya think.” Nick says sarcastically, “She was like five the last time she came here.”
“The girl that was always down at the lake?” I question.
“Yep,” Cam says walking into the house.
I pause at the doorway as my memories decided to make an appearance.
I remember a little girl with bright blue eyes and always smiling, skipping rocks across the lake. The little girl is always laughing, and I was always following behind in her glowing shadow watching over her. Avery’s a far cry away from that little girl. I shake my head walking into the house. What happened to her?
Avery
I follow the sound of muffled voices into the house. I pass a small sitting room on the right and a closed-door on the left. I continue down the cream-colored hallway. It opens to a large dining room.
My eyes land on the central piece of furniture. A large dark wood table. It’s rectangle in shape with enough seats for at least thirty people.
My head cocks to the side looking at the polished table. Do they need one that big? Is that how dinner is going to be, full of people?
My eyes flicker around the room. The walls are done with a soft tan, matching the light wood floor. A floor to ceiling window takes up the right side of the wall. Behind the monstrous table is a white door. It’s one of those doors that you push, and it swings in or out depending on which direction you’re going. Very Bel Air.
I go around the table. The voices are coming from the other side of the white door. I slowly push it in, stepping through into a kitchen. My eyes roam around. It’s a type of kitchen you’d expect rich folks to have but never use. Big industrial stainless-steel appliances. An extensive breakfast bar fits seven underneath a window. Grey and silver granite counter tops. Dark wood cabinets. It’s a huge room.
Is every room going to be this type of grander? I knew Jeff was well off, but this was way above what I imagined or remember. I thought a small two-story house set here in place of this Cabin castle, but maybe my memories are wrong.
My eyes land on a set of sliding glass doors where Jeff and a small lady are standing. I assume this is Shelly. Her oval face and chestnut brown hair match Lilly. The two are arguing back and forth. Heads close together, heated looks passing between the two. Shelly spots me first. She snaps her mouth shut, turning in my direction. It has a domino effect on Jeff. He stops mid-sentence spinning towards me also.
It’s quiet while they stare. Dark gray ribbons are spinning lazily around Shelly while she looks me over from head to toe. She’s afraid. But the question is it me she’s scared of or something else. The ribbons never lie.
“How are you dear?” Her voice is warm and friendly, not revealing the fear she feels, that I can see.
I cock my head watching her. It’s amazing what some people can do to hide what they’re feeling. She looks happy and very mom like but it’s false.
Her brown eyes widen as she turns to Jeff. He shakes his head.
“Well, I was just about to make dinner.” She smiles again, this time it's strained. She walks stiffly over to a huge double door dark wooden cabinet.
I shuffle closer when she opens it. It’s a fridge that looks like a cabinet. Now, why would someone want that?
“Let’s get you settled in shall we.” Jeff claps his hands walking towards another white door opposite of the one I came through and stops short.
“I swear to everything Kayden if Jeff doesn’t kill you I will. You broke my ribs. I don’t freaking heal as you guys do.” A boy screeches, limping into the kitchen.
He pulls up short seeing me standing up against the wall.
“Ah.”
“Cam, move.” Someone else snarls.
“Oh, my god. Camron what happened?” Shelly squeals, rushing past me to Camron.
“Kayden thought he was Bo Duke.” Camron rolls his warm brown eyes.
Shelly’s hands flutter around Camron as he limps to a seat, “I’ll call Doc.” She rushes out of the room.
“What did I tell you?” Jeff grinds out, pinning all four guys with narrowed eyes.
I feel the little hairs on my body stand up and look to my right. Bright jade green eyes stare at me.
I tilt my head. What’s his deal? He’s taller than the others with a five o’clock shadow along his square jawline. He has bushy eyebrows that look good on him. A strong nose with a thin upper lip, the bottom one is slightly plump.
I want to bite it. I jerk as that thought flitted through my head. Why would I want to do that?
“Come on Avery,” Jeff says walking past me.
I give the plump lip boy one last look and follow Jeff through the other door.
He looks over his shoulder as we go down a short hallway, “You’ll have the third floor to yourself. It’s one big room.”
I nod.
He leads me into a huge living room. It looks so much different from the front part of the house. It looked inviting and lived in, homey.
A huge dark brown sectional takes up most of the space with a large flat-screen hanging on the wall across from it, and several dark blue bean bag chairs scattered about the room.
“This is our main area. The front part is for guests.” Jeff says as we go through the room and into another hallway. He points at doors as we walk past them. There is a bathroom, a den with a small library, another to room and a playroom for Lilly.
He goes up a flight of stairs talking, “This floor has mine and Shelly’s room and Lilly’s. Also, two guest rooms and another bathroom.” He says looking down the hallway.
He shakes himself out of whatever thoughts captured him and looked at me. He’s sad.
"Your room is at the top of the stairs. Shelly went shopping and got you some stuff. You should be good for a while until you’re ready to go yourself. I'll let you get settled in. Let me know if you need anything."
I head up the rest of the stairs. Leaving Jeff on the landing looking after me. There's no door when I reach the top. It just opens into a little sitting room.
A purple chair sets off to the side. There are hooks on the wall opposite of the chair. I guess it's for jackets and other things. I take two steps up into the room.
Grey carpet, white walls, a huge four-poster bed done up in light purple and lime green, a desk with my lavender laptop sitting on it, two closed doors on the left side of the room and an area with a black leather sectional couch on the right.
I take all of it in in seconds. The room is not the problem nor are the things in it. It’s the pictures plastered on the walls. That cause my steel walls to shake and crack.
They are pictures of happier times. Of a very different girl. Me in my dark blue and yellow dance uniform with a cheerful smile plastered across my face. Me and Jules swimming, at the park and just being plain goofy. The more I look at the many pictures, the more my walls shutter and wobble. My breathing is coming faster.
Me and Evan together. At homecoming, his house, my house. Pictures of us, kissing and selfies together. We looked so happy. I looked so happy and carefree.
And one picture of dad and me sitting under the willow tree. A sharp shard splinters in my heart.
Pictures everywhere. I loved pictures. Taking them. Hanging them up.
&n
bsp; As I breathe slowly and fix my internal walls, I see a stranger in every single picture. This happy girl on the wall is not me. These memories are from another life. A life I don’t have anymore. A life I don’t want.
I turn on my heels going back down the stairs and through the house. Instead of going through the door leading into the kitchen I stop and lean up against the wall. I hear voices. Many different voices. You always learn the most interesting things listening when no one knows you are. Call it being nosy, but it’s also incredibly insightful and useful.
“She’s powerful. Or at least it felt like she was for a couple of seconds.” A confused voice rings out.
“Yeah, I know.” Jeff’s thick voice sighs.
“We felt her as soon as you passed through the gates. But nothing in the yard.” That sounded like the brown-haired guy, but I’m not sure.
“What happened to her?” Another guy asks. His deep baritone voice heats my blood.
“Max should have kept her here, and maybe none of this shit would have happened.” Jeff snarls sounding like a dog again.
First, he growled like a dog then snarls like one. I shake my head. And here I thought I was the weird one.
“Now honey. You don’t know if that would have made a difference.” Shelly’s warm voice pushes through the tension.
“Maybe, but she might need bonds being that powerful.” Jeff grunts.
He’s crazier than I am. Bonds? Powerful? What the hell.
“You said bonds, like more than one. That’s unheard of. Plus, how do you know Avery is not a dud and what we all felt was just the blood flowing through her veins?” A gruff voice snaps.
A loud snort, “She’s a black hole. When is, Doc getting here? This sucks.”
Those sleep tingles start vibrating under my skin. I rub my hands along my arms.
“So, what do we do? I mean we don’t actually know anything about her or what happened to that power we all felt. It just vanished.” That same voice that heated my blood has my pulse throbbing.
I’ve heard enough. Nothing made sense. These people have more problems than I do. I shake the pins and needle feeling out of my legs and walk through the door. Everyone freezes up with this oh shit look on their faces. It’s as if they’re caught doing something they shouldn’t. Like talking about me.
Jeff’s sitting at the bar with Shelly behind him, her hands on his broad shoulders. The four guys from earlier are spaced out in the kitchen. They all share the same impish look on their faces.
“Avery, did you need something?”
I reluctantly move my eyes away from the four guys and look at Jeff.
“Gone. I want it all gone.” I state in a muted voice.
Jeff and Shelly share a confused look. Three of the guys have wide eyes except for thunderclouds. His gray eyes narrow on me. I don’t like him. Something is brewing in that gaze of his.
“What do you want gone?” Shelly questions.
My eyes snap to hers. Shelly shuffles back a step. Dark gray ribbons come out to play. So, it’s me she’s afraid of. My heart speeds up a little at that.
“The pictures in the room. The laptop. I want it all gone.” My vacant voice fills the air with a heavy tension.
“Alright.” Jeff’s voice is so soft I barely hear him.
They all stay quiet, and I go back to looking at the four guys again. I don't know how long we stare at each other with my eyes bouncing between them, when hazel eyes clear his throat and says, "I'm Nick." He points to his brother, maybe, with the bright jade eyes. The one who causes my blood to heat and my pulse to throb from just his voice. "That's my older brother Kayden. He’s a jackass. So, don't take anything he says personally."
Kayden slugs his brother in the shoulder and turns a small smile my way, “Nick’s full of himself. Don’t listen to him.”
My body heats and those tingles come back. I look at the brothers with new eyes. I thought they were twins. Guess not.
"Aden." Thundercloud eyes say, a sneer set on his face.
The Sandy-haired one takes a limping step forward, “Camron and I normally don’t look this bad. Kayden truly is a jackass.” His voice is sweet and a little breathless.
“Do you remember me, Avery?” Camron asks.
Yellow and pink ribbons come out to dance. Camron is happy and smitten.
“No.”
A pale blue takes the place of the yellow ribbon turning and spinning. He’s either sad or lonely. That’s the thing with these ribbons. One color could mean several different things and since I can’t feel or won’t I’m not exactly positive what the other person is feeling either. It’s a guessing and watching game.
Camron and Jeff are in a type of stare down. Their eyes are talking to them. Jeff gives the nod causing Camron to set his sights back on me.
"We used to play together when you and your .........Umm. When you came to visit during the summers."
“I don’t remember you.”
The light blue-ribbon flares even though his sweet smile stays on his face.
Everyone just stares at me. No more questions. Shelly won't meet my cold eyes, but everyone else does for a couple of seconds anyway.
"I'm going to the lake."
The last time I was here I was five years old. I might not be able to remember this house or these people, but the lake I do remember. It's a huge muddy body of water with a deck stretching out to the center. It was always my favorite place here. Hopefully, it can bring me some much-needed outside time. I don't want to be locked up anymore. I just want to be able to do my own thing.
My hand latches onto the door handle of the sliding glass doors when Jeff's voice rings out, "Supper will be ready soon, and it’s almost dark. Why don’t you stay in the backyard for now?”
I look over my shoulder. My eyes are narrowing on Jeff. I give a small nod. I can go to the lake another time. Being outside will be good enough for now. I don’t want to push my luck too soon and never be allowed outside ever again.
Kayden
“Is she still out there?”
I grunt from my spot at the kitchen window. Yeah, she’s still out there. I’ve been watching Avery for a couple of hours now. What is it about her that grabs my attention so much and won’t let me go.
Is it because she’s a new addition to the pack? Is it because she’s a Female? Is it the history surrounding Avery? Is it that cold winter smell that seems to be stuck in my nose and heats my blood to a low simmer? Is it just because she looks so cold and lifeless? Is it the questions surrounding her, Is she a wolf? An empath? A dud?
My teeth pull at my bottom lip; I just don’t know why this cold girl holds so much of my attention or why I want to wrap her up in my arms and never let her go.
Could she be my mate? At first, I thought maybe she could be my mate, but now I’m not so sure. My body is telling me different things. I want to go to her but then there’s something that pulls at my guy like a warning. I just don’t know what to think, at least not yet. Maybe time will tell.
“What’s she doing?” A sleepy Cam mumbles from the doorway.
“She’s still laying down in the grass,” I mumble, my eyes glued to Avery’s small figure lying on her back looking up at the night sky. She hasn’t moved in over two hours. How can she possibly stay so still?
At first, she was just walking around in the backyard. Touching the grass and smelling the flowers. After about an hour of that, she sat down and soon it turned into her laying on her back. She hasn’t moved since. Is that what it was like in that place she came from? She’d just be still for hours upon hours? I don’t think that’s normal.
“Jeff did say she’s been locked up inside for a long time,” Nick says walking towards the window. “She’s kind of cute in a way.”
I snarl at Nick. My eyes widen. Why did I do that?
“Hey, what was that for?” Nick yells backing away from a glowing-eyed me.
I share Nicks confused look and shake my head. I don’t know what that was.
My instincts maybe? Has my wolf already laid claim to her and I’m just taking a while to catch up?
“You’d think she’d be cold,” Cam says limping towards me.
“Stop it, Cam. You aren’t broken. A couple of bruised ribs and a bruised knee. It doesn’t call for all the whimpers you seem to be doing.” Aden grumbles from the table.
“How dare you. I am fragile. Something you male wolves tend to forget.”
Cam huffs looking out the window. “She’s kind of sickly looking.”
Yeah, she is. I noticed that too right from the get-go. She’s skin and bones, with washed out pale skin. What happened to her?
“Have you felt anything?” I murmur watching the moonlight shine on Avery’s black hair.
“Nope, nothing. It’s like she doesn’t even exist.” Cam says head cocked sideways.
“How is that possible?” Nick mumbles clicking on his phone.
“Some duds and normals are like that. Not a lot but some.” Cam mumbles moving to the door.
“What are you doing?” Fear spikes inside of me. My heart is pounding wildly inside of my chest.
Cam gets a weird look in his eyes at my high shrill tone.
“I’m going to get her skinny butt inside. Get food in her and send her to bed.”
My muscles lock up, tense and tight as I follow Cam with my eyes to where Avery is laying on the damp grass. Why didn’t I think of that?
I watch with rapt attention as Avery turns her head to look at Cam. Her blue eyes seeming to glow into the night.
Cam waves his arms around saying stuff and Avery just stares. I shift on my feet when she turns her head looking back up at the night sky.
“You think she’ll come in?” Nick asks around a mouthful of cookies.
“I don’t trust her,” Aden says leaning against the wall watching Cam speak with her.
“What? Why?”
Both brothers look at the surly wolf.
“She’s hiding something,” Aden grumbles.