Chapter 6 - Westley
Gabriella made good on her promise. She was avoiding me at every opportunity.
We planned to meet at the park, and suddenly her sister tagged along with us.
We would agree to take a walk, and suddenly she would get a phone call during it.
Gabriella was making this a challenge at every turn, and she did it with a smile.
I tapped my fingers on the counter as I stared down the house toward the door where Gabriella’s bedroom was. “She’s good at avoiding people.”
Hazel, who was sitting just across the kitchen at the dining table, eating a bowl of cereal, nodded her head as she chewed. “You have no idea. One time, she and I got into a fight. She didn’t talk to me for two weeks. I finally had to fake being ill to get her to talk to me.”
I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face. While Gabriella was avoiding me at every turn, Hazel was everywhere.
I found her on the couch in the living room or cooking something in the kitchen.
She was always around the house, always doing something.
It would almost seem we were married rather than Gabriella and me.
Hazel had adjusted to living in the house. She was comfortable and helpful. While I hardly ever saw Gabriella.
“You think you can talk sense into her?” I asked, wondering if that would help. I figured if Hazel adjusted, Gabriella would follow, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Hazel snorted as she took another bite. “I’m not getting between this. You decided to marry her; you handle the backlash.”
I frowned. “You can’t argue that it was a smart idea.”
Hazel looked up at me, giving me a pitiful expression. “I’m not saying it wasn’t, but I also know my sister. You gave her no choice, and she’s going to fight back. She’s not going to just take this lying down.”
I was getting that. I leaned onto the counter. I should have been getting ready for this meet, but instead I was standing out here, waiting to see if I’d catch her to remind her we’d made plans for this evening.
“Is she going to come out of her bedroom?”
Hazel paused her spoon. “Oh, she’s not here.”
“What? What do you mean she isn’t here?”
Hazel shrugged again. “She said she knew that you would be out of your room by seven, so she was out of the house by six forty-five. She also doesn’t plan to be home until at least eight, which would be far too late for dinner.”
I scowled. “What, did she freaking memorize my schedule?”
Hazel nodded, taking another bite of her cereal. “Yeah. I told you she wasn’t going to make this easy. She told me you pretty much challenged her about this. So, be prepared for a fight.” Hazel pulled herself up, walking into the kitchen. “Which was stupid on your part.”
Hazel left me standing there, questioning my life choices.
I didn’t understand why she was acting like this.
Sure, this was an uncomfortable position, but it wasn’t like I was treating them badly.
I gave them each their own rooms, and they were free to do whatever the hell they wanted.
All I asked was that Gabriella act like we liked each other outside these walls.
I headed to work in a sour mood. I walked into the meeting with a large mug of coffee and plopped my ass down. Brandon was the only one in the room, and he had been flipping through his phone. But he paused and scanned me.
“Long night?” he asked, setting his phone aside.
I nodded. “Just adjusting to everything still. You know me, I have always lived alone.”
Brandon snorted. “Takes time. I remembered when Jade first moved in.”
I wanted to tell him the truth, but I also didn’t want to involve him. I didn’t want to muddy the waters when we had so many other goddamn issues right now.
“Wow, you didn’t bring us any coffee?” Kaleb was the next to walk into the room, looking tired, and I knew it was because he had worked overnight last night. His bags were dark, and his eyes looked a little bloodshot.
I slid my mug toward him because he clearly needed it more. He shook his head. “I’m hitting the bed after this, and that’s only going to keep me up.” He slid it back to me as he sat down.
“Long night?” I asked. I knew how Asher and I looked after a hard night, but we had been doing it for months now and had adjusted.
“There was this damn owl,” he grumbled as he leaned forward, rubbing at his eyes. “It would not shut up.”
Asher walked in next, looking refreshed. He sat down with a slice of pizza, and we all looked at me weirdly. He paused. “What?”
“Pizza?” I asked. “That’s what you’re eating for breakfast?”
“It’s all I had in the fridge. I haven’t been able to go shopping yet.”
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” Brandon quipped. “I’ve got a really tightly organized bunch, don’t I? Have you all gone a little soft since being here?”
“Oh, don’t even, I watched you eat cold pizza after a long night many times.”
I laughed as I pulled my mug closer and took a sip. Brandon waved his hand. “Alright, let’s get into the meeting. We all have duties to get to, so this shouldn’t take long.”
We all sat up a little straighter, knowing that the goofy connection between us was on the back burner and we needed to focus.
“We did some digging into the recent attack and found nothing to back it up.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“That it was a false alarm or someone deliberately got our attention away from the pack and into the woods,” Brandon said, his face shifting. “No one said they saw a hybrid, so we have no idea how the alert came to be.”
I thought of finding Gabriella and Hazel in the woods, both with their bags, trekking away. I didn’t think they were involved, but it didn’t look good. It was more of a reason we couldn’t let anyone find out.
“I didn’t see anything when we were looking,” Asher said, looking at me. “Did you, Westley?”
I shook my head. “No. Nothing out of the ordinary. Are you sure that’s what happened?”
Kaleb nodded. “Yeah, we circled back, and the message was a call-in from a random number. We have no idea who even sent us out.”
I frowned, feeling my stomach dip at that information.
“Why didn’t you ask Jade about it? Did she feel anything?”
“Both of the girls were on the other side of Belrose in the woods with the other witches doing some exercises. We couldn’t get in touch with them, and we weren’t wasting any time trying to.”
So, someone had to have known that they weren’t here. And that made things even worse.
“Do we think we have a mole?” Asher asked.
Brandon and Kaleb fell silent. I shifted, uncomfortable in my seat.
Everything pointed toward Gabriella and Hazel.
I wasn’t blind to that, but I knew they weren’t part of everything going on.
They didn’t even have magic. Gabriella was sweet, and Hazel was reserved.
Neither of them was a mad genius trying to take us all down.
“We need to think of something because this calm won’t last forever. We don’t need a repeat of history.”
I thought of the shelter fire and how I arrived last. The flames heated the entire parking lot, and everyone was talking as they watched it burn to the ground.
Everyone was asking the same questions. What happened?
I remembered watching Kaleb come out the back, Asher and Brandon running around trying to get everyone under control.
It was a complete disaster, but at least the animals were alive.
We went inside when the fire was out and found the body.
It was mostly charred, but you could see he was in his human form.
Nora had explained to us that the man had been a dog.
An animal she had been taking care of for weeks, and how he just shed his skin and changed into a vampire.
How it had happened so fast, she hardly had a second to save herself.
We had tried to wrap our heads around this information for weeks. How was it possible? And who knew how to do something like that? Nora explained that he told her that witches were helping, which threw an entirely new problem at us. Who could we trust?
I knew that Brandon and Kaleb had been on high alert since then. Nora explained that she could sense something was off, but she figured he was just a scared animal, so she didn’t think too much about it. It was just another trick to catch us off guard, a trick we wouldn’t allow to happen again.
“Speaking of history, have either of them felt anything off in town?”
Kaleb and Brandon both shook their heads. “No. Nothing like that. Nora and Jade haven’t felt anything in town, which is a relief but not a solution.”
“It sounds like we need to figure out our next steps because this sitting clearly isn’t working,” Asher added. “It’s only making things better for them.”
“Sitting here is saving us,” Brandon countered. “It keeps our people alive.”
“But for how long?” I asked. Asher and I spent more time outside in the woods than we did here, so we understood both sides. Holding down the fort was a good idea, but we also knew the longer we waited, the more time they could fool us.
“What are you two suggesting?”
“We need to do something. They are slowly picking off the surrounding areas, and before we know it, they will come for us. The longer we wait, the more chance they have to fool us and damage us from within.”
Brandon rubbed at his forehead. He wasn’t disagreeing with us. “We don’t have the numbers to go on a hunt, Asher. We don’t have the numbers to do half of what would be smart.”
“Why aren’t you trying harder to convince the other surrounding packs about this? They are the numbers we need.”
“You think I haven’t tried? Their Alphas do not want to talk with me. I have tried reaching out many times, but I get radio silence in return half the time.”
“Screw asking! This is war, Brandon. We are literally fighting for our lives.”
I watched Kaleb give Asher a look, warning him he was pushing.
“He’s not wrong,” I added. “We need them. We don’t have to be buddies, but we need to get along. But we need them, Brandon. I think in the end, we need to think about the big picture, not just our pack but everyone’s. We need to do this together.”
Kaleb looked at Brandon, who was rubbing his jaw. He inhaled slowly, leaning back in his chair. “I’m not saying that’s not a bad idea. But we have to walk a fine line here. We don’t want them turning on us, thinking we’re an issue as well.”
The room fell silent, and I sighed, wondering just how long this would go on. When would we actually win? How long before they decided to attack us with bigger numbers? There were so many questions that we didn’t know the answers to.
The meeting ended a few minutes later, and I headed to my car. I was walking across the street when I spotted Gabriella walking down the sidewalk. She had her jacket pulled tightly and her hair hidden under a hat. She was walking quickly, and I noticed two people following her.
I paused as I watched them close in on her, cutting her off and forcing her to stop. I caught the look on her face and knew that they weren’t friendly with her. She looked uncomfortable and afraid, taking a step back into a wall.
I walked toward them. I listened as Gabriella spoke softly. “Guys, just let me go. Please.”
I took in two guys who were smirking as they caged her there. They clearly took joy in watching her uncomfortable and scared. It pissed me off instantly.
“There you are,” I practically yelled as I got closer. “I’ve been trying to find you for the past ten minutes.”
The guys quickly turned around, looking at me. I watched their eyes widen as they realized it’s me. I moved past them, stepping into Gabriella’s space and throwing an arm around her shoulder. “What are you doing over here? We were supposed to meet at the corner at the other end of the block.”
Gabriella froze for a second, her eyes meeting mine, confused, but she quickly composed herself and smiled. “I was going to our meet spot. I had to make a pit stop first.”
I pulled her closer and turned my gaze toward the guys. They both stiffened, their eyes looking at my arm thrown over her and the way I held her close. “And what exactly is going on over here?”
“We were just chatting with her, that’s all,” one of them explained, giving me a shrug like I didn’t know what was said.
I nodded my head and tilted it, raising an eyebrow at them. “I’m glad to hear you weren’t bothering her because if that were the case, we would have a problem. Do we have a problem?”
They both shook their heads. “No, no, we don’t have a problem.”
I scowled as I narrowed my eyes at them. “I think we do. And I don’t appreciate you bothering my wife.”
They both took a step back.
Gabriella pulled her hand up, placing it on my chest. “Westley, it’s fine. I’m fine.”
I didn’t break my gaze from them, remembering their faces. I wasn’t going to just let this slide. I needed them to understand I wasn’t going to stand for this.
“You’re lucky she has a soft side because I don’t. Next time I catch you bothering her, you’re going to need a wheelchair to get around,” I growled at them, really making my point.
They both turned, stumbling as they tried to run away.
I curled my hand into fists, tempted to run after them and beat the shit out of them.
I felt the anger rising, my body growing hot with rage.
But then I smelled something sweet like vanilla ice cream.
I knew it was Gabriella, and my wolf purred to life.
I pulled my hand from Gabriella, knowing she was probably uncomfortable with me having it around her. She swallowed, rubbing her hand on her arm. “Thank you for that.”
I nodded, inhaling slowly through my nose. “Where were you headed?”
“Just home,” she said, pointing to her car just a few more feet from us.
I nodded. “Let me know if they continue to bother you.” I turned and walked away before I could say or do anything stupid. I had planned to go out for a run later today, but I needed to go now.
I walked down the road, heading for the woods. I felt my wolf start to get uneasy the closer I got, the urge rising to shift out of my human form and take off.
Once I was in the woods, I finally gave in. I felt my muscles stretch, and my skin moved. I felt my bones shifting, and I closed my eyes, letting the change sink in.
I took off into the woods, running as I had so many times before. I didn’t want to think, but just run like it was all I knew.