Winter's Pack (The Cursed Book 2)

by Lou Grimes

  She turned around before he reached the door.

  “Arsen, I’m sorry,” she said, not having anything more to say. He kind of half turned toward her as if he wanted to cave.

  “Me too,” he muttered before leaving.

  The door shut. The only noise for a while was the background noise from the party below. As soon as she had collected herself enough, she stumbled out of Emily’s room in a daze.

  As she walked downstairs, Cara and Garrett met her at the foot of the stairs. At first, Cara was having fun, but when she caught sight of Louvette, the smile slid from her face.

  “What happened?” Cara asked.

  “Me and Arsen got into a fight,” Louvette admitted. Cara looked around the party, searching for said guy.

  “He’s not down here. I think he left,” Cara said, turning her face back to Louvette.

  “It’s okay. I just want to leave,” Louvette responded.

  “Let’s go, then,” Cara replied.

  “No, you guys stay and have fun,” Louvette said.

  “Not a chance. We are in this together, remember?” Cara said.

  “You guys don’t have to,” Louvette pointed out again.

  “Don’t be dumb. We don’t have to, but we want to,” Cara said.

  “If you say so,” Louvette surrendered the fight. She had done enough fighting tonight.

  “Let’s go home,” Cara said. Cara looped her hand into Louvette’s, and they walked out of the party together. Garrett followed behind.

  Garrett started driving them home. Louvette simply lay down in the back seat, resting her head in Cara’s lap. Cara’s fingertips painted Louvette’s temple comfortingly. The first betraying tear rolled down her face.

  The door shut, and then tears began sliding down her face silently. There was no ugly sobbing. This was bound to come out one day when she didn’t tell him about her Gift. Pretending to be normal wasn’t worth losing Arsen. Louvette had only herself to blame if he never spoke to her again.

  Cara was murmuring consoling words, but they fell on deaf and numb ears. Louvette’s ears were dead to the world.

  Once they arrived at her house, Louvette stumbled out of the car.

  “Thanks again, guys,” she said as Cara hugged her tight.

  “He’ll forgive you. No one can resist Louvette Blackwood for long,” Cara comforted her.

  “Yeah,” Louvette replied, thinking that it most likely wouldn’t be how she wanted it to turn out. She was just as much to blame as Arsen was.

  “Whatever it was, Arsen can’t stay mad at you,” Garrett said. Doubt rose in the back of Louvette’s throat like bile.

  “I hope not,” Louvette muttered. Her heart was heavy from the blanket of sadness that surrounded it.

  She went inside after telling them goodnight. Her shoulders tensed. She wanted to avoid her mother’s questioning at all costs. Louvette had rubbed off any tears before nearly running through the house without her mother seeing her.

  Wishing nothing more than to tell her mother about the fight, Louvette couldn’t because the topic of Gifts and Lupines would have to come up. She didn’t fancy going through the effort of making up a false fight just to talk to her mother.

  Thankfully, the living room was empty when Louvette opened the door. She quietly snuck up to her room.

  The sight of her bed was the one true comfort she felt that night. She wrapped herself tightly into a cocoon within her heavy blankets to help her sleep that night, doing her best to disappear into the comforting covers. Her breathing grew light as she slipped into the oblivion of her dreams.

  Chapter 13

  After the party, Louvette was so grateful they were off for break. She would’ve hated having to avoid Arsen at school. It was helpful for her own healing. She could lick her wounds in peace.

  However, she was not a lick her wounds type of person, so she threw all her time into something that might bear fruit. The last thing she needed to do was sit at home crying like her mother was currently doing.

  The overabundance of time from the break and her fight with Arsen had her doing things similar to what she was doing now, sitting in a cafe drinking coffee. She had an old booth next to the window that had clearly seen better days. At first when she sat down, the booth was uncomfortable because the fake leather material had some rips from patrons’ abuse over the years.

  Her breakfast was long gone. The remainder of her half-eaten hash browns was the only proof it had ever existed. Beside her breakfast lay a notepad with chicken-scratch musings all over it.

  Louvette sighed and sat back to relax. She had abandoned her phone since she’d sent Arsen one text message the morning following their fight. Two simple words that read I’m sorry. Most people would have poured their heart into a paragraph or more, but Louvette knew no matter what she said it wouldn’t be enough to explain her actions.

  There had been a hundred opportunities when she could have come clean, but didn’t. Louvette had chosen to keep it to herself. Now, she was wondering if shouting it out to the rooftops of Whitefish might have been better. She had no clue what her and Arsen’s standing was at this time.

  Tears started to well up in her eyes. She screwed her eyes shut to keep her tears from falling. Louvette gathered herself because she had really no one to blame except herself, and focused on the task at hand.

  She stared out the window again, watching the owner of a particular black Cadillac parked at an office in town.

  Sipping her now cold coffee, Louvette took her eyes off the person she was tailing.

  Spending the day watching all the people come and go had been taxing on Louvette. It was simple to tell who clients, secretaries, and food deliveries were. She made notes as everything happened, not intending to miss anything.

  Sooner or later, Thomas Hollows would make a mistake or one of his co-conspirators would.

  Eventually night came, and Hollows returned to his house. She had followed him all day and would have liked to continue into the night so she didn’t miss anything. Nevertheless, Louvette had to go home before her mother came back.

  Her mother was only a little bit of help because she was in the same boat Louvette was. Her mother’s boat was worse because Thomas would never come back unless Louvette was dead. Arsen might forgive her. Louvette had found her mother half a gallon deep in ice cream more than a few times since Hollows had left her. She had joined her the first time.

  Her mother had glanced at her in surprise.

  “I got in a fight with Arsen,” she murmured to the room, not focusing on anything. Her mother hugged her as tight as she could. Tears fell out of the corner of Louvette’s eyes with her mother’s embrace.

  Louvette had bawled her eyes out that night. When there were no more tears, she found something else to focus on: to watch Thomas Hollows.

  She had no idea where to go from here.

  After one week, Louvette went to hang out at Cara’s. Cara had texted her throughout the week, continuously making an effort to draw Louvette out of the house. Louvette had used the excuse that she didn’t want to leave her house for Cara’s sake, in order to trail Hollows. Finally, Louvette gave in to make Cara feel better as a friend.

  The two of them were hanging out at Cara’s house when Cara finally had had enough of the distracted zombie her friend had become.

  “Let me show you my designer room,” Cara said to her.

  “That sounds like a blast,” Louvette said. They walked to a door at the end of the hallway.

  “Close your eyes,” she said.

  “Okay.” Louvette sniggered. She put her hands over her eyes. Cara looped her arms and pulled her through the door.

  There was some shuffling and scraping.

  “Now, open them!” Cara said enthusiastically. An image flashed before Louvette’s eyes of toddler Cara, bouncing around, trapped inside Cara’s full-grown body.

  “Wow,” Louvette whispered as she dropped her hands. There was fabric everywhere. A couple of mannequins
with extremely grand dresses displayed on them stood in the room.

  “Where do people wear these?” Louvette asked, suspecting the only answer was that time travelers from the medieval ages came here to get their dresses. A new age time traveler because the dresses were mainly black with some bold accentuating colors such as hot pink, a deep purple, and lime green. Louvette smirked at the dresses, thinking if Cara had been born at that time she would have pissed off all the people at court for setting the status quo, not following it.

  “Very fairy godmother-like, though I doubt she could beat you,” Louvette complimented.

  “Thanks,” she said, seeming proud of her work. “Would you like to try them on?” Cara asked.

  That was how Louvette ended up hanging out in Cara’s room in a ball gown. She and Cara were laid across Cara’s bed because no one could sit in a dress this puffy. They had found if they attempted to sit down, they lost the ability to properly breathe around their corsets.

  Hers was a navy blue with silver thread embroidery and accents. Cara’s was green and had white little flowers sewn onto it.

  She and Cara were flipping through a magazine. Well, Cara was, but Louvette was distracted. She’d offered an obligatory answer whenever the right time came around. She hadn’t thought for a second Cara would catch on to what she was doing.

  “All right, I’ve had enough. I thought the dresses would work, but you’re clearly broken,” Cara finally said.

  “I’m not broken. What’s wrong?” Louvette asked, half listening.

  “You are what’s wrong. I’m tired of the moping,” Cara answered. Louvette struggled to sit upright around all the ribbons to pay more attention to Cara.

  “Sorry,” Louvette started to apologize. She hadn’t realized what she was doing. Her thoughts had focused on catching Hollows red handed.

  “I know what you need,” Cara continued.

  “What do I need, Cara?” Louvette asked.

  “We need to go on a girl’s trip somewhere,” Cara said.

  “You know the cool places, so you pick,” Louvette replied, at first barely listening.

  “Let’s go to Missoula. It’s only a couple hours away, but it’ll be a good a change of pace,” Cara said after thinking for a few minutes.

  “Let’s go to Mexico,” Louvette blurted before she could stop herself.

  “What?” Cara asked in a sputter. Cara had heard her, but was just confirming she had heard right.

  “Let’s go to Mexico,” Louvette repeated.

  “Why?” Cara asked.

  “I need a vacation and we have time,” Louvette explained. Louvette couldn’t tell her the actual reason she planned to go was because of her father.

  Cara was silent for a second, sneaking peeks at Louvette as she thought. Louvette could tell she was honestly thinking about it, so it made her heart happy that her best friend might go with her. Louvette didn’t tell Cara that she would go either way, with or without her friend.

  “My father would kill me. I’ve never been allowed out of state without my family,” Cara admitted.

  “I understand if you can’t go, but I need to,” Louvette said.

  “Let me think about it,” Cara replied back gingerly.

  “That’s all I ask. If you don’t go, we can still go to Missoula,” Louvette said.

  “Deal,” Cara said.

  “I’m going to go change and see how my mom is doing,” Louvette replied as she wobbled up.

  “If you need me, I’m always here,” Cara pointed out.

  “I know,” Louvette said simply before changing and heading home.

  Figuring out where Thomas was in such a small town was an easy task. He was either at his house, office, or out somewhere eating. The true challenge was for him not to see her while tracking him because her car didn’t exactly blend in.

  She had his schedule down, now. It was thirty minutes before three, so she headed to see if he was still at his office.

  Rounding the corner, she was happy to see the Cadillac still there. She had been hanging out for a few minutes before he walked out of his office in a business suit. He got into his car and started it.

  Hollows left with Louvette on his tail. He stopped at Latitude 48. It was an odd place to stop. The establishment didn’t open until five for dinner. He couldn’t eat for a couple hours. From her notes, he usually ate his meals on a schedule, so this was out of character.

  Closing his door, he went inside. There weren’t any cars in the parking lot, so Louvette waited about an hour. She had hoped someone would show up.

  Losing her patience, Louvette left her car and speed walked across the road. She had nearly made it to the building when she bumped into somebody on the crosswalk.

  For a second, she had thought it was Arsen, until she realized this man was a bit taller and larger. They almost smelled the same.

  Mr. Whitecreek stood before her in jogging attire. Headphones were blasting music. From the sweat and heavy breathing, she had run into him mid-run. He pulled out an ear bud.

  “Hey, Louvette. How are you today?” Whitecreek greeted.

  “Hey, Mr. Whitecreek. I’m good, how about you?” she asked, needing to continue on.

  “About the same for me. I’m trying to de-stress with these runs,” Mr. Whitecreek said.

  “They always seem to help me,” Louvette answered.

  “Arsen told me you two had a fight,” Mr. Whitecreek told her.

  “Yeah,” she said, but didn’t feel like baring her soul to Arsen’s father.

  “I’m sure things will work out how they are supposed to,” Kenneth replied.

  Louvette stared at him. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She had been so focused on following Hollows she had managed to distract herself enough to keep from moping around as she had hoped. But, Mr. Whitecreek’s words struck a nerve that had gone numb. Her fists clenched, as she tried to maintain her composure.

  “My heartbeat is dropping; I have to keep it up to get my endorphins. It was great to see you, Louvette,” he added before continuing on. He never once noticed her internal battle.

  She watched him leave until he turned behind a building. Once he was gone, she took off to the side of the restaurant.

  Deliberately prying the door open to minimize creaks, she fit herself inside the building. Halfway down the hall, she heard something clatter. Louvette froze before tiptoeing toward the sound.

  Throwing open the door, she sprang into the dining floor, expecting to find Hollows or his boss. However, the only people in the room were a couple of waitstaff and loaders who were stocking inventory. They all gazed at her wide-eyed.

  “I’m sorry,” she stuttered before leaving out the closest exit. It was the primary entrance she had gone through.

  The sole thing that made this whole situation better was that Hollows’s Cadillac was nowhere to be seen.

  A drive by his house put him at home, and then she drove back home as well.

  The house was empty because her mother was at work. It was what she was focusing on. If it made her forget the snake, then Louvette was all down for it. If her mother had realized that Louvette had chosen to trail Hollows, then she might not be so happy with her daughter.

  ***

  Her alarm blared loudly. It seemed to have a headache-inducing frequency that only happened on days she didn’t have to go to school. The alarm was the worst on those days. A day when everyone else was resting but Louvette.

  At first, she had misgivings about returning to the gym, but she had earned her right to stay there. She wasn’t about to lose that over Arsen.

  The drive there was full of yawns and coffee. That morning there wasn’t enough coffee to wake her up. She was also skeptical if she’d keep the coffee down once she started training; something she didn’t look forward to.

  Louvette got a couple of odd glances when she walked through the gym door. She had changed beforehand so she could arrive at the last possible minute to not have to endure the looks she kn
ew were to come.

  “Hey, I heard about yours and Arsen’s fight. I’m really sorry,” Matt said, walking to meet her.

  All the rest of the guys had gathered around at the top of the bleachers as if they were waiting in line for concession food.

  “You heard what we fought about?” Louvette asked, needing answers. The odd faces started to make sense if everyone had found out about her and Arsen’s fight.

  “No, just that you guys fought. He’s a bit of a mess right now,” Matt answered honestly. Though hearing that Arsen was a mess cheered her up some, it broke her heart at the same time knowing she had caused it. She knew that Arsen coped differently, but couldn’t stop the image of Arsen eating a bucket of rocky road ice cream from flashing across her brain.

  “What is he doing?” Louvette questioned.

  “He’s working with his dad constantly. I don’t think the two of them even sleep,” Matt said.

  “Why? He doesn’t have to keep me a secret anymore. I’m not his burden,” Louvette pointed out.

  “Someone contacted all the red and yellow flag packs around us and told them we were keeping secrets. Now every pack from the East to the West coast is demanding answers,” Matt explained.

  “I know who it did,” Louvette said, scoffing.

  “Who?” Matt asked.

  “Your sister did it to get rid of me,” Louvette answered. Matt’s face crumpled.

  “Do you have proof?” he wondered after a minute.

  “Yes, I have the phone she used,” Louvette said in a half truth sort of way. She liked to have the element of shock when handling people who weren’t family or friends.

  “I’ll take care of her. She won’t do it again,” Matt promised.

  “Thank you,” Louvette said, though she doubted what sway a brother might have over his sister that would match her Gift.

  “Listen up, ladies. Today, we are working on using our Gifts. Today is capture the flag. Teams will be randomly selected. Pick a piece of paper out of the hat. Red on the left and blue on the right,” Frank said to the gathered group.

  Distracted from the conversation, Louvette had not detected the change in the room until now. Curiosity entered her mind as she stared at the dirt ring that was no longer a ring. There were natural and man-made barricades covering the field, similar to a genuine military training camp. There were rusted old cars, metal walls, brush, and everything a person could think of. It must have taken someone the entire night to drag it all onto the field.