Chapter 7 - Elena
Humiliation and fury raged through Elena's mind like a hurricane as she raced down the two flights of stairs toward freedom. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, threatening to spill forth and pour down her face at any moment. Her hand trembling, she instinctively reached for the phone in her purse as she reached the bottom of the final staircase and pushed open the main door. Luckily, there was still some juice left in the battery. She instantly clicked Hayley's number, desperate to unleash the flood of emotion building within her.
The phone rang only twice before she heard her best friend's familiar voice on the other side. “Hey, Elena, what's up?” Hayley asked cheerfully, followed by the sounds of Kyle squealing in the background. The only response Elena gave was a loud sob as she hurled herself through the front door into the early morning light and sank onto her knees on the granite steps leading up to Ryder's building. “Oh sweetie, what's wrong? Are you okay?”
More noisy fussing and banging of utensils joined the chaotic sounds in the background, indicating that the Hill household had been caught in the middle of making breakfast. While Elena tried to compose herself enough to form coherent sentences, the sound of a door closing came through the other end. It grew quiet except for Hayley's gentle coos.
“Hey, talk to me,” Hayley prodded softly, her tone comforting as ever. “Did something happen last night? Tell me what's going on.”
“It's Ryder,” Elena choked out between shallow breaths. “Ugh, he's the worst! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!” Her voice cracked on the last syllable, and she dissolved into a fit of wracking, hiccupping sobs.
What an idiot she was. Honestly, what had she expected to happen? That they'd wake up next to each other in a tangle of limbs, he'd reveal he secretly loved her the whole time, they'd kiss passionately, and she'd finally have her happily ever after with the devilishly handsome wolf of her dreams? It was her own fault for getting her hopes up. For thinking that he could ever see her as anything other than Tolliver's pesky kid sister.
Still, he hadn't needed to be so callous about it, practically tossing her out on the street like a cheap one-night stand. Sure, they were both drunk. But did it have to feel like she meant nothing? It confused her. He had been all over her, acting like he was desperate to have her. Like it was as much a dream come true for him as for her. None of it made any sense.
On the other end, Hayley listened patiently while Elena slowly stammered out an explanation through ragged gasps. Once the words started to flow, there was no holding them back, the humiliating details of what happened rushing out of her in an unstoppable torrent. She gradually regained some self-awareness, though, at least enough to move away from the front door and out of view of the windows upstairs before she proceeded with the conversation.
“He was so sweet last night, you know?” Elena whined petulantly, wiping away fresh tears with the back of her hand. “I thought—I felt like he actually cared. Like there was more to it. You know? I'm such an idiot. I wanted—” The lump forming in her throat cut the rest of that sentence off, and she choked out a heartbroken whimper.
“Oh, honey, I know,” Hayley crooned sympathetically, “but that doesn't make you an idiot. I got the same impression at the bar. The way he was looking at you, all protective and caring? I thought he was finally starting to come around.” There was an audible huff of frustration before she continued, “I never would have left you alone with him if I thought he was going to treat you like this. Those wolves can be such stubborn idiots, and he's always been the king of 'em.”
A wry snort escaped from Elena at her friend's assessment. Stubborn idiot was putting it mildly. The memory of his smug smirk as he shut her down came flooding back, fueling the anger already bubbling under the surface of her misery. Leaning against the alleyway wall next to his building, she sniffled pathetically. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Why couldn't she catch a break? She wasn't asking for much, only for him to treat her with the tiniest amount of compassion rather than like an inconvenience he had to shove out the door before anyone found out. It shouldn't be this hard.
“I don't get it,” she groaned in despair. “Why is this happening? How could I have been so wrong?”
She stared despondently down at the pebbled asphalt below her, scuffing her feet along the ground and wishing more than anything to sink straight through the earth into oblivion. In response to her emotional turmoil, a miniature whirlwind rose from the loose gravel debris around her, twisting and swirling aimlessly around her feet.
Great. Exactly what she needed. Her magic, which she couldn't figure out how to control no matter how hard she tried, decided to manifest to remind her exactly how useless she was at everything. It wasn't even an impressive cyclone, just a tiny, pathetic twister of stones and leaves with no discernible purpose. As if to mock her, the flurry of tiny dust particles expanded and contracted unevenly, sending random gusts blowing about, buffeting her clothes and hair haphazardly before dissipating into nothing once again. She kicked violently at the remaining cloud of dust and sent it flying. Brilliant. Couldn't something work the way she wanted, just one time?
“Elena, listen to me,” Hayley replied firmly, cutting through her self-deprecation in the stern, maternal tones she had adopted after having a baby. “Don't let Ryder Pierce push you around. You're better than that.”
“I am, aren't I?” Elena questioned despondently, hanging her head dejectedly. “So why do I keep letting him treat me like I'm nothing? Why do I keep running away crying like a little girl?” More frustrated tears slid down her cheeks, the pain and bitterness rising in her throat as another sob threatened to escape.
“Because you care about him a whole lot, so it hurts like hell when he acts like he doesn't give a flip about you,” Hayley answered knowingly, a deep sigh crackling through the speakers. “My bestie isn't a pushover, though. I know how tough you are, and I think you've been way too nice to this jerk all these years. If you don't give him a piece of your mind, I will have to do it myself. Nobody treats my girl like that.”
That made a small smile tug at the corners of her mouth. “Ugh. I totally should. Knowing me, though, I'd probably just break down crying again if I saw him. Or accidentally send a lightning bolt flying at his head or something,” she mumbled halfheartedly, swiping at her puffy, tear-stained face with the back of her hand.
“What would you want to say to him, though?” pressed Hayley insistently. “If you could look him dead in those big, pretty puppy dog eyes and tell him the truth without breaking down or blasting him or setting fire to the place, what would it be?”
“Uhm, I don't know,” Elena said thoughtfully, wrapping her free arm around her waist and glancing upward toward Ryder's window.
In the corner of her eye, something flashed for an instant from the shadows on the far side of the alley. Her gaze darted instinctively over to where she thought she had seen movement, but all she saw was the rustle of plastic bags caught by the breeze. Probably because her magic was acting up again.
She turned her attention back to the phone and continued, “Honestly? I just want him to stop playing games with me. Do you hate me, do you want me, or do you not think about me at all? Seriously, what is his deal? It's exhausting.”
Another shadow moved out of the corner of her vision, but when she whirled around, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She really needed to try to get the elder witches to give her some lessons again. This couldn't keep happening every time she got emotional. It was turning her into a paranoid wreck. She rolled her eyes internally at herself and turned away, focusing once again on Hayley's voice.
“Okay, so pretend I'm him for a second,” instructed Hayley encouragingly. “How would you explain that to me? Tell me how you really feel and what you really want. You deserve to tell him off for hurting you, Ellie.”
“Right. I guess I'd say...” She pursed her lips thoughtfully, envisioning the smug, infuriatingly gorgeous blond man standing in front of her, hazel eyes boring into her with that smoldering intensity that made her knees weak. “I'd say, 'I saw the way you looked at me last night. I know you felt the same connection I did, and I don't believe for one second that it meant nothing to you. So stop acting like I'm irrelevant to you, Ryder Pierce, or—”
Suddenly, a dark shadow soared through the sky, darkening the edges of her vision and blocking out the bright morning sunlight that had previously filled the alleyway. A loud, terrifying snarl reverberated through the space as the looming mass landed with a deafening crash right in front of her, staring at her with glowing golden irises and baring massive, razor-sharp fangs in her direction. Her phone slipped from her hand and clattered to the pavement, and the sound of glass shattering and metal crumpling barely registered in her brain. Her entire body went numb with fear She was backed up against the wall, the wolf blocking both exits to the alley. There was nowhere to run.
“So,” the lumbering wolf growled in a gruff, inhuman voice, “this is Pierce's girl, then?”