Resisting Fate (Predetermined) (10 page)

Alphas? What the hell? Had I stepped into one of my favorite books or something?

She leaned over and gripped Zachary under his arm, helping him into a standing position. Her frown was heavy–her eyes were bitching mad–narrowed, almost black looking. Whoa. She was not the nice sweet motherly lady anymore apparently. I gulped and shifted on my feet, trying not to lock my knees. The one thing I did notice was that she didn’t look a bit shocked that her son was there at four o’clock in the morning–all the way from Chicago–getting the shit beat out of him at that.

What. The. Hell?

I zeroed in on Zachary again. His eyes were still trained on me, but they also appeared torn. My gaze drifted between his face, and Jack’s, over and over again. I’m pretty sure I probably looked spastic–exorcist spastic–but you know what? I had every right to be.

 “Emmy!” Mrs. Martin was suddenly in front of me. Her hands gripped my shoulder as she tried to pull in my attention, but I was disconnected from everything except for the boys in the room, and all that male grunting and growling. “Get your bags, sweet heart. I’m taking you to Kelsey’s house.”

I nodded at her, unable to question her as I moved towards the bed to grab my stuff. Zachary stood. His hands were behind his back–and against the wall on the opposite end of the bedroom. He was no longer focused on anything, even though his eyes seemed to still be pointed my direction. He was void–he wasn’t Zachary any longer.

Holy, shit.

His head bowed, his hands pressed into his thighs. A moan escaped his mouth, and I watched–panic and dread filled me as he fell to his knees. Tremors shook through his body. His eyes, the eyes that were only moments ago completely unfocused, were scrunched together–two tiny, golden slits.

“Shit, get him out of here Tammy. I can’t control them both if he shifts.” Mr. Martin yelled back over his shoulder at his wife.

My mouth fell open. Um, did he say the word
shifts
?

I sat on the edge of the bed–my entire body was in a time zone of nothingness. I was permanently frozen–an icicle of epic proportions. I wasn’t cold. I lifted a finger to touch my head feeling wetness. No, not cold. Cold people didn’t sweat. And I was sweating something fierce.

There’s this moment before panic actually hits–it’s brief–peaceful even, and that’s what I experienced before the dizziness took hold. The dizziness that was surely the beginning of a full-on panic attack.

“Emmy, stay with us
,
sweetie. I need to get you to your friend’s house.”

I nodded, or did I? Slowly, I turned and focused on Mrs. Martin’s frantic face, but it was momentary–nothing over two seconds.

Then my stomach started to churn, nausea was hitting me full on, as the scene became clearer. Just as Zachary’s tense form took on an entire other shape. Zachary, my normally hairless boyfriend, or whatever he was anymore, had hair. Everywhere. And it wasn’t on his head. It was spreading like wildfire all over his hands, his chin, and his arms. Everywhere he had skin.

Oh. Shit.

“
Um,
Mrs. Martin?” I cried and whispered at the same time. My fingers shuddered as I pointed towards her son.

His face–it wasn’t his own as he stared back up at me. And either I’d officially hit crazy town, or there really was a snout replacing his nose and his mouth. His ears were even shooting out from the side of his head–two pointed furry triangles replaced, what were once two perfectly rounded lobes.

“Oh. My. God. Is he…is that a…wolf?”

I slapped my hand over my forehead shaking my hand. The skin underneath my palm was clammy–damp even and fingers slipped easily down my face. I stood, determined to walk sideways towards the door, and avoid all the craziness that was almost consuming me. My hands were outstretched in front of me, but that sure as hell wouldn’t fix my shitty problem here.

Mrs. Martin landed at my side, but I couldn’t look at her–I couldn’t look at anything but the hairy beast on the floor ahead of me. I stumbled backwards, over something, losing my balance completely, only to land on my ass a second later. My wrists burned from breaking my fall, but nothing was going to keep me from now going full on, eye-to-eye with the rabid, wild human wolf thing that was only a foot in front of me.

Sweet Jesus, this wasn’t happening. This has to have been another dream!

I blinked, hoping that maybe I was going delusional from my lack of sleep lately. That had to have been what was happening! But there, in the darkness of the bedroom was a wolf–A full-fledged, red and brown, golden eyed wolf-boy.

“Step away Zachary,” Mrs. Martin warned, her voice controlled as she moved herself in front of me. That didn’t stop him from pushing his nose against her knees.

Suddenly, I found myself giggling at the sight. His nose, her knees… Christ, why was I laughing again? This wasn’t funny–this was some serious shit and I was currently knee deep in it all.

The sound of his nails scratching against the wood floor had me freezing up again. This time, my knees locked up; which in turn didn’t set well with my already aching gut.
Oh no, no-no-no! I would not pass out, I would not pass out!

My mantra didn’t work, and the last thing I heard before my head collided with the floor, before the darkness completely overtook me, was Mrs. Martin, the perfectly clean cut housewife, dropping the f-bomb.

Chapter Eight

“Emmy, you have got to eat something. You’re getting too skinny!” I froze. My fork was halfway to my mouth, and my lips were parted. Um, wasn’t that what I was doing?

Mrs. Orson’s nagging had been consistent, I’d give her that much. Every hour of the day she was on me about something. This was the third day of staying with Kelsey and her family, and let me say that I was more than ready to go home and deal with a drunken step-douche rather than deal with her persistent badgering. I loved this family, really I did. But being here, under their constant watchful eye and their never ending criticism, was getting beyond ridiculous.

“I’m not hungry anymore,” I sighed, setting my fork on the plate. Yep, my appetite was replaced by annoyance.

“The girl eats like a bird every day ma, so quit worrying.”

I frowned at my traitorous best friend. She was sitting across the dinner table from me; a smug smile was on her face partnered with a wink. I frowned at her, secretly thinking about all the different ways I could shove my fork up her nostrils. She raised her eyebrows back at me, as if she knew what I was thinking. I groaned.

Evil, that’s exactly what she was made of.

“Hey, leave her alone, you two. If Emmy doesn’t want to eat, then she shouldn’t have to eat.” Mr. Orson, the whitest Asian man I had ever known, smiled back at me. I grinned, relaxing for the first time in seventy-two hours.

My thoughts drifted away from their conversation and I slouched low in my seat. I became mesmerized with the flickering candlelight that danced in circles above the wick. And then I shivered, damn light, it reminded me of the glow in Zachary’s eyes only three nights ago, as he faced me in his full on, wolf form.

After walking away from the Martin house that night, I’d been a downright, messed up, little chickadee. I could no longer sleep. Eating was a chore. I barely managed to function with my day-to-day routines. Because everything I did, everything I saw, every vision, every site, seemed to remind me of wolf Zachary.

Mrs. Martin had been the one to wake me after I passed out. It wasn’t pleasant getting water splashed on your already damp, sweaty body. When I finally came to, I kind of went into freak-out mode. Yes, I sort of swung at her, and whoever else came near me. And yeah, okay, so maybe I overreacted a bit. What exactly was I supposed to do when faced with the impossible? I mean her son, the boy I’d been madly in love with for two years, turned into a full-fledged, wild animal right there before me.

I do believe some screaming was acceptable.

Mr. Martin had come back in the room a little while after my initial melt down ended, with a very pale looking Jack in toe. Zachary though, was nowhere in sight. Thank God for that one. Apparently, his quick choice of exit had been through the window because glass was scattered everywhere, and the window itself had a massive, dog sized hole in it.

When I managed to finally speak, even though I had still felt mildly crazed after what I’d seen, I got braver. I asked questions. I actually learned a lot about the impossible. And although I was technically still struggling with the concept as a whole, I began to sort of accept it, to a degree.

Everyone was tense, Jack included as he stood off to the side, his eyes were narrowed and angry, but he kept them diverted from me. Mrs. Martin had gone on to explain that Zachary didn’t actually get sent away to a private school in Chicago after all. In fact, all those months we’d been apart? The guy had been living only an hour and half hour away from Louisa, at a school for newly turned wolves like himself. Liars. They were all liars. I wasn’t about to cross any of them though, especially after I found out about their little secret. I had no idea what they were capable of.

And then the discussion turned serious, more intense, and even more confusing as Mr. Martin explained to me how the change from human to full on wolf-shifter didn’t usually happen during the teenage years. Apparently it was an adult only thing, something that usually only took place during what they called their
mating age
. I scoffed at that whole idea.

Hell, a mating age? Seriously? It was unreal, and I truly felt as though I was living out one of the scenes in one of my paperback novels. To hear that there was an actual
mating age
was enough to make me want to freak out again. Luckily though, I held my shit together and put on my supernatural ready panties, willing and perfectly capable to hear the secrets they’d been keeping from me for over two years.

Mrs. Martin took the reins at first, but it was all over my head, the whole mating thing that is. I’d never wrap my head around it all, but I did get the basics straight at least. The basics on what being a wolf entailed that is. I discovered that the normal age for the first shift was around twenty-five. I learned that wolves could shift at will, only having to absolutely complete the change during a full moon. I learned that wolf shifters were practically unknown to the human world. Very few knew about them, except for the ones that were mates, or worked under them.

I also discovered that shifters didn’t necessarily hate other shifters, but they didn’t exactly get along with them either, unless of course they were family, or close to a family member even.

I listened and nodded my head in all the right spots as they told me about
their
family, their wolf family, Jack included in all that stuff too. I wondered if that was what caused all his moodiness, then I wondered why he hadn’t shifted that night too. Then I remembered that young wolves were rare, so Jack must not have had it in him yet to shift.

By the end of the conversation, my brain had become so fried from the night’s events that I didn’t fight the ideas that they were spitting at me. Still, the abnormal, caveman mating thing they had going on would never be okay with me.

Then they began discussing possibilities to me as to why Zachary might have shifted so early. And that was a wake-up call in itself. A number one reason: me. Yup, apparently super strong emotions could trigger the change early, and everyone knew that the super strong feelings that Zachary had felt was love, or something close to it, for me.

Talk about putting some pressure on a girl…

I was flustered. I was confused. And yes, I was beyond shocked as I took in all of their words. I finally got the courage to face Jack head on, and was weirdly disturbed that he had at some point in time, left the room. Then I started freaking out even more when I started to remember the words he’d spoken to Zachary before they went all out World War Three on each other.

You can’t have her anymore, Zachary. You’re too late.

It was cryptic crap like that, that I was growing tired of, and I needed answers, badly. So I decided to mention the simple words that Jack had spoken aloud, to both of the Martin parents, and Mrs. Martin got all choked up, slapping a dramatic hand over her mouth as she weepily mumbled something to Mr. Martin under her breath that resembled an
oh shit
.

Let’s just say that was only the second time in my knowing the woman that I had heard a cuss word leave her mouth. I never asked about it again after that, but I didn’t get over my curiosity either. I’d get the answers I needed…eventually.

Finally, Jack had come back into the room, his sexy as sin frame was pressed up against the doorjamb. He was looking more knight-ish than ever. With his black leather coat tucked under his arm, and that hideous, red motorcycle helmet strategically placed at his feet. He appeared downright dangerous. And I couldn’t deny the fact that he had saved my ass from Zachary.

He wound up being my driver that morning, the one to take me to Kelsey’s house that is. I didn’t want him to, but he didn’t give me a chance to tell him no either. Jack was in control, and I hated every, last minute of it.

Then, as he buckled that red helmet strap under my chin, I realized all my good intentions to stay away from him were impossible. Damn impossible. He had this hold over me, this terrifying, but equally as exciting powerful hold over my soul. A desire, a flame–he was burning me with both, and I wanted it all.

Riding on Jack’s Harley was an experience in itself. I was terrified at first. I hated fast stuff, especially motorcycles. But then he’d dropped his hands onto mine, and pulled them tight around his hard stomach. And with that one move, I was immediately put at ease. Hell, I was calmer than I’d felt in a long time. It was like he’d lifted an unknown weight off my shoulders the moment he sped away from the curb.

It was once again weirdly…magical.

Jack even seemed to relax a little more too, especially when we pulled into Kelsey’s driveway. Maybe it was because I was leaving his house or maybe–God forbid–he actually enjoyed snuggling up to me as much as I did him. He even chuckled slightly, as I sighed in contentment against his back.

I know, I know, I totally should have been freaking out at that point instead of swooning like an idiot, but I went with it, needing a sense of normalcy in my life again. Although normal wasn’t normal when you knew people who shifted into animals.

I blinked, the now and then took over as Kelsey’s voice pulled me from my memories. “I’m going to take Emmy for ice cream after dinner, and then we’re going to swing by the store too. I need some stuff for a project at school tomorrow.”

I squinted up at her from under my lashes, watching as my best friend tilted her head to the side. She studied my face; I was an open book I’m sure. She had to have known something was wrong, but I wasn’t about to tell her.

I nodded, and stared back down at my plate.

“Good, good. Emmy needs to get out more. She’s becoming quite the hermit lately.” Mr. Orson chuckled.

I crossed my ankles to keep from kicking the Kelsey’s mom. Hell, if any of these people had been through half the shit I had over the past week, then they’d most likely be in a mental institution by now.

“Um, by the way Emmy,” Mrs. Orson paused. The tone of her voice was unsure and I lifted my gaze to stare back at her. God…what was wrong now? “Your mom called today,” she cleared her throat. I leaned forward in my chair. Come on lady, spit it out…

“What did she say?” Distrust settled in chest. My hands balled into two fists on my lap. I really thought that my mom made herself clear at the hospital when she left me there; selfishly claiming that she didn’t want anything to do with me anymore.

“Well actually,” she cleared her throat again, looking at Mr. Orson and Kelsey before she fixed her eyes back on me. “She wants you to uh, come home hon, and soon. Apparently your stepfather is in jail because he wasn’t watching Jamie one night in the bath and the poor thing wound up falling and breaking his wrist.” I smacked my hand against the table. The saliva in my throat disappeared and the dryness began to choke me.

No. Not Jamie. Anybody but him! Jesus God…I knew I should have gotten him out of there. I was going to kill that rat bastard.

“What the hell?” I barked, definitely not meaning to come across as a bitch, but still, you’d think I would have been told this earlier!

I stood, wiping my mouth with a napkin as I wordlessly walked away from the table towards the front door. I had to get home. I hated myself for not being there for my little brother, even if it wasn’t my fault. “Emmy, wait. I’ll drive you.” Kelsey waltzed up behind me. Worry laced her chocolate, brown eyes. My heart hurt so much at that point. All I wanted to do was get home to my baby brother.

I nodded reluctantly at her, before grabbing my jacket. I slipped it over my shoulders. “Let’s go then.” I frowned. I really didn’t want Kelsey to go, but I knew she’d never let me do this alone.

The ride to my house was quiet. Kelsey, being the chatty queen she usually was, didn’t even say a word. I was a little too busy fighting back tears to talk anyway.

We pulled into the driveway. Kelsey parked and stuck her keys into her pocket. I reached over and grabbed her hand. “Just go, they’re here. I see a light on in Jamie’s room.” I turned, pointing up towards the second floor. As I walked away, I could hear her soft curses behind me. She was obviously scared, hell, so was I! I had to face this on my own. This was
my
 life, my
mother, my baby brother. And
nobody
could deal with this crap-tastic-ness better than I could.