NightStar Summit

2. The Eyes

COLT

"Why so...happy, Colt?" My dad asked as he walked into the living room, "You're doing homework, what's fun about that?" He laughed.

My dad was probably my best friend, as bad as that may have sounded. He was the only parent I had though, so we became close over the years. My mom died five years ago, while giving birth to my little sister, Felicity.

I shook my head, trying to get my thoughts of her out, "Nothing."

"Right. Where's your sister? Is she not home yet?"

"Uh..." I knew she told me where she was going and to tell dad as soon as he woke up from his routine nap, but I couldn't remember. There were other things dominating my mind, against my will. "Cara's house I think."

"You think?"

"I don't remember what she said."

"Weirdo," he took an apple from the fruit basket on the counter, "I'm going over to the den house to see what they're making for dinner tonight. It's our pack meal, so be done with your homework and out by the fire by seven. And go find your sister in an hour or so, or have Forrest do it. She's too little for play dates."

"Aye aye, captain."

The front door opened and I watched as Forrest and Felicity came crashing in. God, they were a loud pair sometimes. Forrest was sixteen but he still acted like a kid sometimes and Felicity was five and she was a kid all the time, Forrest just enabled it, really bringing out the annoying parts of both of them.

"Where were you two?" dad questioned, his mouth full of the apple he had yet to chew.

"I was helping Mrs. Carpenter fix her sink since her husband's out hunting and on my way home I found Flica playing with Cara on the edge of the summit," Forrest pushed Felicity inside and she gave him an evil look in response.

Fuck.

Dad gave me a bad look and I didn't even try to defend myself. I do remember her saying she was going to do that now though and I did nothing to stop or protect her and Cara.

I would never hear the end of this.

"How many times have I told you to stay away from there? You could get hurt," dad badgered. "Come on, Colt."

"What?"

"We're going to build a kiddie fence around the summit."

God.

KAT

"Why are you so upset?" My dad asked whilst dropping his briefcase on the kitchen tile, and taking a seat across from me in front of his plate of spaghetti.

I pushed the meatballs on my plate around and shook my head, trying to hold back the steady line of tears threatening to fall, "My day wasn't good," I couldn't hold them back anymore, Niagara Falls was pooling from my eyes in seconds. I laid my head down on the table, slightly embarrassed that I was letting some boy make me feel this way. "But it was also good at the same time."

I couldn't really describe what I was feeling.

I was confused. How can I be so sad one second because one relationship ended, but then be thrilled and excited the next minute because of some other guy I hadn't paid much attention to until now?

I was referring to Colt, by the way.

We only had the one class together, but I spent the remainder of the school day and most of my work shift thinking about him.

I didn't know him at all.

"What happened?" Dad asked. "Why was it bad but also good?"

"Connor broke up with me," I said right as I looked up. He looked relieved, like that was the best piece of news he had received all year. He never did like Connor, always thought he was only after one thing. I guess he was right though.

"But...? What made your day good after that?"

"Another boy..." I said slowly.

I never kept secrets from my dad. We were close. We had to be since he was the only one raising me. My mom left when I nine. She met a new guy, one who didn't work as much as my dad and she started a new family with him. She always asked me to come and visit on weekends, but why would I spend my time with a mother like that?

I'd rather not have a mother at all than have to spend time with the one I had.

"Another one? Don't you think you should take time to study? How are those college applications going? Universities are competitive, Kat. What's his name? Is he college bound too?"

"Dad, I don't know," I wiped at my drying tears and suddenly Connor's cheating self didn't seem to bother me. "We hardly talked. I just...nothing. Never mind."

"Does he like you?"

I gave him a crazy look, "Probably not. I think he thinks I'm weird," and again, he looked relieved, "I got caught staring."

"Ah, ya loser. Never get caught staring," my dad scooted his chair out as he stood up with his plate in his hand, "I'm gonna go eat up in my office. I'm supposed to be calling a client in ten minutes. Don't worry about the dishes, I'll do them later, just get your homework done."

"Alrighty," I mumbled. I wasn't going to be finishing dinner tonight. "I'm just going to go to bed."

"Alright, pumpkin. Love you."

"Love you too. Oh hey dad," I called right as he was about to disappear from sight, "Sadie and her parents are going hiking up at the summit tomorrow. They asked if I wanted to go with them and I said I'd ask you..."

"You have school though."

I tried to think of some bullshit excuse that was excellent enough for him to even consider. It was hard when your dad was a well respected lawyer though. "Dad, it's the second day after coming back from break, we're not going to be doing anything in any of my classes. Please, I'm sad and this will make me feel better."

He looked very torn between the two. Does he make me go to school to further my chances at getting into the best law school and make me suffer through my feelings, or does he take my feelings into consideration and realize that I'm wrapped around his finger and he has no choice but to give me everything I want? "Fine."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah. You have to do the dishes now though."

"Dammit!"

"Language."

~~~

"I actually really hate hiking," I whined as Sadie and I climbed a steady hill, really hard on the calf muscles. "How long ago did we lose your parents and brother?"

"Like an hour ago? I hate how they have to stop to take pictures of like everything. It's super f*****g annoying."

I nodded as we entered a very thick part of the woods, it made me question whether or not we were actually still on the trail. "It's so cold," I pulled my purple north face jacket closer to me in hopes that it would make me warmer. There was still a little bit of snow on the ground from the massive storm we had a couple weeks ago.

"Um...Kat," Sadie stopped walking, a scared expression coming onto her face as she looked around like she could see something I couldn't. "We should go back. I don't feel safe here."

"What? Sade, we're almost to the top."

"I'm just getting a really really bad vibe. Can we please turn back, Kat?"

I looked back to face her long enough to give her a look that told her I wasn't about to turn back, before I faced the front again.

The second I saw what was in front of me was when I started praying for my life.

"I told you!" Sadie whispered.

"Like a second ago," I cried as I watched two wolves slowly stalk towards us.

The one was big, his fur a dirty white color, he seemed to be old and wise...and hungry as he growled angrily at us. The wolf next to him was brown, but his head was black though like he was wearing a hood. He seemed younger, not like puppy young, but I could tell he wasn't fully grown. He stalked slowly behind the white wolf as if he was learning some valuable lesson. No growl ever left him though and that was oddly comforting.

"We're gonna die," I mouthed, knowing Sadie couldn't see me.

All of the white wolf's attention quickly turned on Sadie as he slowly passed me, the brown wolf stopping right in front of me and sitting, as if daring me to move away from him.

His eyes were gorgeous and eerily familiar. I couldn't remember where I had seen them before for some reason and I probably never would because I wasn't so sure I was about to walk out of this situation alive.

I quickly turned around after hearing a howl and then saw Sadie take off down the hill, the wolf only following her so far.

The eyes...

They were just like Colt's.