Four
~Devina's POV~
The next morning, the house was anything but quiet.
My mom decided to vacuum the hallway outside of my room, at nine in the morning.
I groaned and hopped out of bed. Last night when I got home, she was already in bed sound asleep so I couldn't face her wrath.
I guess I will have to now. I quickly got dressed and opened my door and stepped in front of her, showing her that I was awake.
She looked up at me and narrowed her eyes, shutting the vacuum off and propping her hand on her hip.
"I can't believe you. Who do you think you are?" She began yelling. I took a step back and sighed.
"Did you even call the school? Or google what happened yesterday?" The news took this "incident" as a contest, seeing who can have the most views on their news channel or website. One even went as far as saying the wolves were werewolves. Who would even believe that?
"Yes I did and I'm sorry you had to experience that but it gives you no excuse to just leave town and do whatever you want. You're only sixteen Devina!" My mouth gaped open.
"Only a couple hundred students survived the attack. Out of thousands mom! I almost died and all you seem to care about is how I wasn't home. You know you're lucky I'm even here-" She cut me off with a laugh.
"Don't be so dramatic." She rolled her blue eyes. Sometimes I wish I had my fathers eyes, then maybe I could remember him. Instead, I have this momster's eyes.
"Dramatic? There are over two thousands parents mourning their children right now because they also didn't come home, and won't ever come home and you're giving me a lecture about being home on time?
I can't believe you! Why can't you just pretend you care about me?
Do you see these bruises?!" I yelled and pointed at my face and arms. "I was kidnapped!
And beaten. I haven't eaten anything since Thursday night-which was dinner I made for myself because you weren't home-and I was knocked unconscious at one point but you're right, sorry for not being home on time.
" I huffed and stomped past her and down the stairs.
Walking into the kitchen, I saw her car keys.
I could stay and pretend to be her perfect daughter, or I could leave and-well I don't know.
I made my decision and grabbed them, making a beeline for the front door.
Once inside the car, my mom ran outside and I quickly locked the doors.
"Get out of the fucking car Davina!" She pounded on the driver side window and tried opening the door.
"Devina Ross Stavros! Unlock the door now!
" She tried going around to the other side but it was already locked.
I shoved the keys into the ignition, the car struggled a little, but then roared to life.
"This is illegal! You don't have your license!
" She was right, she refused to sign me up for driver's ED so I only had my permit which allowed me to drive with a licensed driver over the age of 18.
I immediately thought of Zane and closed my eyes.
I didn't want him to leave last night, but what was I expecting?
Him to tell me I couldn't go home? That's what I secretly hoped.
Goddess this is all so crazy. I put the car in reverse and looked over to my mother.
"I hope I never see you again," I yelled and swiftly backed out of the driveway and sped off down the street. My mother's response?
"I'm calling the cops you brat!"
I had no clue where I was going, I just followed the roads and switched between left and right every once in awhile.
I was glad I had changed into a new sweatshirt and some jeans this morning but my hair was still a mess.
Once I was on some random gravel road on the outskirts of town, I pulled over and reached inside the center console.
Finding what I was looking for, I put on my mom's sunglasses and slicked my long hair up into a messy bun.
Hopefully, I look a little older. After I was in my "disguise" I continued driving down the road until it started getting dark.
Minutes later I saw red and blue lights flashing in my rear view mirror and heard the wail of sirens warning me to stop.
"Crap." I pulled over again and waited for the officer to come up to my window I've seen this happen before.
Once I was in the car with my cousin who turns out, was carrying drugs when he was pulled over because his tags had expired.
I just have to be calm and cool. The police officer might not even be pulling me over for stealing a car.
The man walked up to my window and gave it three hard taps with his flashlight.
I rolled down my window and took my sunglasses off since it was dark out now. "Yes, officer?" I sweetly asked.
"Ma'am, are you aware that this car was reported stolen?" I took a deep breath and tried to think of something to say. So much for the hope of the tags being expired.
"It's my mom's car, I realize I'm past curfew but I didn't think she'd call the cops. I'm sorry." The officer wrote something down on his pad of paper and looked back up at me.
"I'm going to have to take you home. Please leave the vehicle.
" I accepted my defeat, nodded and took the keys from the ignition.
I opened the door and locked the car behind me.
"I know sometimes parents can be a little annoying but next time you try to flee, please have your license for the safety of you and others.
" My shoulders slumped over in defeat as I got in the backseat of the cop car.
When we got back home it was only ten.
"Thanks, Mika." I smiled and got out of the car. We had bonded over our love for the Twilight series, books, and movies on the way home. He had just gotten this job and was only 20. Mainly because his dad was the chief but also because he loved the force and was really good at his job.
"No problem Devina. If you ever need anything-an escape from home or school- anything, you know where to find me." He flashed me a dazzling smile and I returned it.
"Alright, will do. Have a good night." I waved goodbye and jogged up to the house.
"You bitch!" My mom came barreling out of the kitchen holding a bottle of vodka and slapped me across my cheek.
The actual slap didn't hurt that bad, but the shock of the whole thing made me freeze.
This is the first time my mom has ever laid a hand on me.
"You stole my car!" She slurred and slapped me again. This time I flinched and backed away.
"Mom what are you doing?" A tear slid down my cheek as she hit me again and again. I was too shocked and weak to fight back. I haven't eaten anything for days.
"What I should have done a long time ago when your father left. It's your fault you know! He left me because he didn't want you." I shook my head and pushed her off of me.
"Stop! Just stop!" I ran up the stairs and locked myself in my room. My head was spinning and I could barely breathe. Panic attack. I yanked my phone out of my pocket and found Zane's number in my contacts. Hitting call, I slid down against my wall and sat on the floor.
After three rings, he picked up. "Hello?" A whimper escaped my mouth as I heard my mom pounding on the door. "Devina? Is that you?"
"Zane I don't want my old life back. I-I," I couldn't even finish my sentence before my sobs got louder.
"Devina, where are you? I'm coming." I heard a door slam shut through the phone and tried to control myself.
"She doesn't care," I whispered.
"Who? Dev please tell me where you are so I can come get you. I'm your knight in shining armor, remember?" I laughed, choking on my tears a little but I still managed to laugh. "There we go, there's your beautiful laugh. Now, where are you?"
"In my room." Another pound on the door made me jump to my feet.
"I think she's going to get in. Oh God, I don't know what she'll do if she gets in.
" I ran over to my dresser and held my phone up to my ear with my shoulder.
"Zane, if anything happens to me you have to take care of Mr. Freddles, okay?
I'm not joking. He can't die." I stroked the side of his tank and another tear made its way down my cheek.
"Okay, I promise." I heard him cuss on the other end of the line and suck in a deep breath. "Baby I'm almost an hour away. You have to get somewhere safe okay? Get in the car and leave." Despite the current events, my heart still swooned at the name.
"The car's not here. There's nowhere I can go Zane." My breathing started to quicken again as the pounding on the door got more violent.
"Okay, okay. I have a way to get there faster but I'm going to have to hang up. I'll be there in thirty minutes. Will you be alright?"
"I-I don't know."
"I need you to take deep breaths for me, can you do that?" I nodded but then replied with a yes when I remembered he can't see me. "Okay good. Your room is on the second floor right?"
"Yeah."
"If your mom gets in your room, I want you to jump.
I know it's high up and I know you'll get hurt but when I come I can heal you.
I just need you safe. Please don't ask any questions right now, I promise you when I get you out of there I will answer every single one of your questions but now is not the time. I'm going to hang up now."
"Okay." I nodded my head and took a deep breath. "Okay."
"Please stay safe, I don't think I can live without you." My breath caught in my throat right as he ended the call.
"You whore, open the goddamn door!" Then as if on cue the whole door broke down and revealed my mom with angry eyes and a kitchen knife in her hand.
"I'm going to kill you." Before I could react, she lunged forward with the knife and stabbed it into my stomach.
I held my hands around the knife and stumbled backward.
"I hope you rot in hell." She sneered before she pushed me back with so much force, I went through the window.
When I hit the ground, I struggled to breathe, everything hurt.
I had landed on my back, taking the breath right out of my lungs.
I slowly brought my hands up to my stomach and tried to stop the bleeding, but it was no use.
I could practically feel the blood draining from my body and seeping into the grass below me.
"Dev. Oh my god." Zane finally reached me and looked at the knife lodged in my stomach. "I-I need to get you back to the doctor, I-I, you're going to be okay. Let's go." He lifted my body up as if I weighed nothing and set me in the seat of his car. Soon enough we were on the road.
"H-hospital." I croaked and winced in pain as he hit a bump.
"No baby we have to get to Sam, he's only a few minutes away. You're going to be fine." It seemed like he was trying to convince himself more than me.
"I don't think so." I breathed out right before I lost consciousness.
~Zane's POV~
"No baby we have to get to Sam, he's only a few minutes away. You're going to be fine." She needed to be fine. She needed to survive this. I shook my head at the thought of losing her.
"I don't think so." She barely whispered I wouldn't have been able to hear it if it weren't for my heightened senses. I snapped my head over to her to see her eyes closed.
"Devina?" I whispered and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "No no no no." I slammed on the brakes and ran around to the passenger side to pick her limp body up. And I ran. I ran as fast as I could to Sam's house. "Sam!" I screamed. "Sam help me!" I yelled and barged into his house.
"Alpha what happened?" I set Devina's body down on his kitchen counter and grabbed her hand.
"It doesn't matter! Just help her!" Sam immediately got to work first by cutting her shirt off then by removing the knife from her stomach.
I could hear her weak heartbeat which was the only thing keeping me sane right now.
"How do I save her? I know my blood can heal her.
How do I do it?" I frantically asked as I heard her heartbeat starting to slow down more and more every second.
"I don't think it's a good idea- she could turn Alpha." I shot my head up towards him and shook my head.
"If it saves her then that's all that matters." I know I'm being selfish but if I lose her, I lose my sanity. I lose everything.
"Okay. Inject your blood into this," He handed me a syringe.
"Then inject it into her veins. I have to go get more supplies in the back room.
You have to do this yourself." I grabbed the syringe and stabbed it into my left arm.
"Since you're an Alpha, it should work." I nodded and watched as he left the room.
"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left you, Devina.
I let you down. But I'm going to make everything better now and I'll protect you.
Forever." I slowly inserted the needle into her arm and squeezed my blood into her veins.
"I'll make the pain go away," I whispered and held her hand.
Minutes passed and nothing happened, her heart was still weakly beating.
"It should be working by now," Sam said as he checked her vitals for the fifth time. "If this doesn't work you should consider rejecting her before she-" I slammed my fist down the on the back of a chair and growled.
"I'm not rejecting her just to save my own life." I ran my hands through my hair and closed my eyes.
"Rejecting who?" A small weak voice asked, making me snap my eyes open. I ran over to her side and engulfed her hand in mine.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. She opened her bright blue eyes and smiled.
"You aren't the one who pushed me through a window after stabbing me." I let out a small growl.
"She pushed you? I thought you jumped." She shook her head and looked down at her stomach, the wound was already healing.
"She caught me off guard." She laughed and went down to touch the wound.
"No. Don't touch it." I grabbed her other hand too and drew soft circles on the back of it.
"How is it healing already? How long was I out for?" She looked me in the eyes and furrowed her brows.
"An hour maybe?" I answered her second question but avoided the first.
"No, you said that you were going to give me some answers." She tried to sit up but I gently pushed her back down. "I'm lying on a table. It's uncomfortable." She whined making me sigh in defeat. I swiftly picked her up and brought her to the couch.
"You healed so quickly because I gave you my blood." I breathed out and sat next to her on the edge of the couch.
"What?" She looked back down at the wounds that were now completely healed.
"Alpha blood can heal people." And things, but I kept that out.
"Alpha? And what exactly are you an alpha of?" She quirked a brow and sat up.
"A pack." I shortly replied and pressed my lips together into a fine line. A line that held so many secrets.
"A pack of what?" I turned my body so I was facing towards her and took a deep breath. She could take this two ways. She could scream and run away or accept it. I was hoping for the later.
"Werewolves." She leaned back a little then smiled. I returned the smile, glad she accepted it. But then she started laughing. Uncontrollably.
"That's funny. But you said you'd be honest with me." Devina replied after she had controlled her laughter.
"I-I what? You don't believe me?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"No of course not. That kind of thing just doesn't exist. Now tell me the truth."
"I'm a werewolf." She smacked my arm again and begged me to tell her the truth.
"You want to know the truth? Do you want to see it?
Come on!" I yelled and grabbed her arm. I was furious.
She didn't believe me. I drug her outside and let go of her hand as soon as I stepped foot in the grass.
Sam lived on the outskirts of town, so I didn't have to worry about people watching.
I started to take off my shirt then looked back up at Davina.
Her eyes were glued to my chest. I have her a knowing smirk then shifted.
~Devina's POV~
I watched as he took his shirt off and couldn't help but stare.
He had a few tattoos here and there and his chest was so defined.
He looked up and caught me staring. I blushed in embarrassment and hoped he would leave his pants on.
Then he did something that I've never seen before.
He crouched over and started to uncontrollably shake.
Then his bones started to crack and reform.
I was horrified. He hissed and pain and I ran over to him.
"Zane! Zane stop!" I yelled with tears sliding down my cheeks.
"Stop!" Then before my eyes, he turned into a huge wolf.
I took a few steps back and shook my head.
"Wha-?" The thing in front of me whined and carefully stepped forward.
I turned to Sam who must have followed us out.
"What is this? What's going on?" I demanded and hesitantly took another step back away from the wolf.
"He wants me to tell you that he won't hurt you. That it's still Zane." I furrowed my brows and looked back at the brown wolf. It had the same color fur as Zane's hair and the same eyes but I still couldn't believe it.
"How do you know that? He didn't say anything. It didn't say anything." I heard the wolf growl and jumped back.
"Alpha you're scaring her," Sam warned the wolf and it stepped forwards again, letting a growl escape its chest. "Give it time.
" It was almost as if they were having a conversation through their minds.
"Change back," Sam ordered but the wolf just lurched forward and tackled me to the ground.
When I was standing, the wolf was taller than me, so it didn't take much force to knock me down.
The whole movement was gentle but I could tell the wolf was mad.
"Change back now!" Sam yelled over my screams. "You will lose her if you don't control yourself!
" Sam screamed and tried to pull Zane off of me.
Wait, what? Zane isn't the wolf. I told myself over and over again.
As soon as the wolf was off of me, I jumped up and ran inside.
Looking for a place to hide, I found an empty room and locked myself inside.
"You lost control Alpha, she's terrified." I heard two sets of footsteps outside of the door then someone knocking.
"Devina? Devina, please let me in." The door knob started to jiggle but it was locked, no one could get in. "I'm sorry Dev I'm so sorry." I saw the knob jiggle again and this time the door opened revealing Zane without a shirt. I looked into his green eyes and knew the truth.
That wolf was Zane.
I backed up to the wall and shook my head.
"Devina I'm so sorry I didn't mean to lose control like that, it's just that sometimes we have a harder time controlling ourselves when we're in wolf form. I didn't mean to-"
"Well, you did!" I cut him off and rapidly blinked trying to clear my eyes of the unwanted tears.
Hurt flashed across Zane's face as he tried to take a step forward.
"No! Stay away!" I screamed. Now tears were uncontrollably flowing down my face.
It hurts to push him away, but everything is too confusing.
"Sam is the chief of police here in town so you'll be safe, he said you can stay with him for as long as you need to.
All of your stuff will be here tomorrow morning.
Including Mr. Freddles." He took a few steps back and closed his bright green orbs.
"I'm going to go." He curtly nodded and turned around to leave.
"You should get some rest, you still need to recover.
" I wiped the tears from my eyes and watched as he strode out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
A few hours later I heard a soft knock at the door, then Sam's comforting presence filled the room.
"I know things are confusing right now and you're torn about what to think and how to act but I'll tell you anything and everything you want to know.
" He kneeled down on the floor with me and held my hand.
He reminded me a lot of my father, always so kind and gentle.
Wanting for everyone to feel safe and welcome.
"Chief of police? I thought you were a doctor." I frowned and Sam chuckled. He guided me up with his hands and walked me out of the room and back downstairs to the living room.
"I used to be a doctor, and I love helping people but I also love the force." I took a seat on the sofa and he sat across from me on a recliner, crossing his legs. "I guess I get to have both in a way." I nodded, that made sense.
"So you are a cop to the humans and a doctor to the-" I thought about what to call them, wolves?
"Werewolves. Yes, something like that." I nodded my head and looked down at my hands.
"Are you...like them?" I asked and he shook his head.
"No, my wife was a werewolf before she passed, that's how I got into the pack."
"I'm sorry for your loss." I sincerely said and he graciously smiled.
"Thank you. She was such an amazing woman." He smiled and looked down at the coffee table, where her picture laid. "My son should be here any-" Almost like on cue, the front door opened revealing Mika.
"Wow, I said you know where to find me but I didn't think you knew where I lived." He chuckled.
"Still team Jacob?" I joked and he nodded.
"Werewolves all the way." I flinched at that word and looked over at Sam.
"Mika this is Devina- Zane's mate." Mika's brown eyes widened as he looked from me to his dad, then back at me.
"But you're human." He slowly stepped forward and sat on the other end of the couch. This was when I noticed he wasn't in his uniform anymore, he had on a pair of gray sweatpants and a black V-neck shirt.
"Yeah. I guess I am." I laughed.
"Her and the Alpha had a little-" Sam glanced over at me and I nodded, telling him it was alright. "Falling out, so she's staying with us for awhile." Mika swiftly stood up and ran over to me hopping on my lap.
"Sweet!" I giggled and pushed him off of me. "Sleepover!" Sam shook his head at his twenty-year-old son hugging me like a teddy bear and chuckled.
"Devina, if you have any questions you can either ask me or Mika. He knows everything too." I smiled and nodded my head.
"Thank you. For everything." And I was truly grateful. They weren't pushing me to accept what was normal for them, and most of all they were standing in their home with their arms open.