Hunted

Chapter 14: Starting to feel safe

It was late afternoon and I had just finished meeting with my dad about my mom’s memorial. It took a lot longer than I anticipated because my dad wanted to go over every single thing. I did not realize how detail oriented he was. I had planned to meet Hope for lunch but that was not happening now. Instead she was going to meet me at our favorite park to hang out.

I was on the swings when she walked up giving me her normal energetic wave.

“Hey cousin of mine!” She plopped down into the swing next to mine. I smiled and waved back.

“Hi cousin of mine. Sorry I had to cancel lunch.” I frowned and kicked at the dirt a little.

“Oh it’s totally cool. What you were doing was much more important plus Aaron was kinda feeling left out anyway. So I got to have a surprise lunch with him.”

I frowned more. Since I had been around Hope was spending more and more time with me which meant less time for her mate. I can only imagine how that made Aaron feel. I didn’t mean to cause any problems. I decided that I was going to try and give Hope more time and space to be with Aaron.

“I swear if you’re sitting there thinking about how you’re going to pull away from me because you feel guilty I’m going to…” She stopped herself short and huffed. “Don’t even think about it Emmry.”

I nodded even though I knew my mind was pretty much made up. I was going to give her space even if she got mad about it.

“Hope…” I started giving her a look.

“I’m not going there with you right. How about instead you tell me about the memorial…if you want?”

I shrugged and started to pump my legs to swing. “We’re going to just have some people say things that they remember about her, sing a few songs, place some items on her grave and then go to the pack house to drink so everyone else can be super happy.” I laughed a little and rolled my eyes. I know that it was going to be more emotional than that but I didn’t want to let myself get into that place at this moment. There was only so much I could handle at one time.

“Ahh that sounds like it will be nice. Whose all talking?” Hope asked I could tell she was still a little worried about me.

“My Uncle Luke…my dad… Delilah’s Mom…I think a few others that I don’t know.” My dad had so many people who wanted to talk about her he had to cut it off. What I didn’t understand was that most of those people my mom never mentioned once. The last time anyone of those people saw her had to be nearly 17 years ago..It was very confusing to me how they wanted to insert themselves into something that was obviously personal to not only me but their alpha.

“Ahh I see.” Hope nodded and looked around. We settled into a nice quiet where all that was said between us was the swings whining for attention or I guess to be oiled. I couldn’t tell you how long we sat there but at some point my butt started to ache.

“Okay no more swinging.” I laughed and jumped off stumbling into the grass and plopping onto my side.

“Oh s**t Emmry.” Hope let out a loud giggled and followed me into the grass. “What are you doing?”

“Well I believe I jumped off a swing.” I teased her and gave her a nice over dramatic wink.

“That was very rude Cousin.” Hope huffed at me. “What is your point?” I giggled and stuck my tongue out. Hope and I had started to gain a bond. She was the first person outside of my mother who seemed to really understand what I was saying.

I felt the wind hit my stomach and I pulled down my shirt. I couldn’t help but catch Hope quickly look away from me. “I didn’t do it to myself…” I whispered rolling onto my back.

“Emmry it’s okay really..” Hope tried to reassure me.

“I know you’ve been wondering. I didn’t.. it wasn’t something I did. It was something done to me a long time ago. This isn’t…this isn’t the only one.” I sighed and placed a hand on my stomach.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to…” Hope tried to protest. I know she was trying to be helpful but just like everyone else she wanted to know what happened to me. I wasn’t ready to tell her everything but I was ready to tell her a little.

“When I was 12 my mom and I lived on the outskirts of this territory. She never really talked about why or anything. One day she was outside in the meadow it was her favorite place to be. I couldn’t find her, so I started calling her name. Apparently she told me later she had gone to grab something and forgot to tell me she left the picnic in the meadow.” I sighed closing my eyes picturing it.

My hair was shorter than just below my chin and I had freckles all over my nose and cheeks. I could smell the wild flowers as I walked through the meadow. This was my mother’s favorite place. She often talked about a meadow closer to the pack house that she loved more but this one was close enough.

“I was just about to the basket she had left when I heard the growl. I don’t think I had time to blink before I was being dragged into the woods.” I couldn’t open my eyes. I remember the teeth gripping my leg and how my back felt on fire as the shifter dragged me into the woods.

“I knew it was a shifter because of the size. No normal wolf looked like that. It got me almost to a ridge when I heard my mother screaming at it. She was begging for it to let me go. She threw herself between me and the shifter. Sometimes when I remember it she pried their jaws off my leg.” I leaned down and rubbed my calf. On occasion I could still feel his teeth sinking into me.

“Emmry…” Hope didn’t have the words.

“I passed out at some point…and I don’t remember how my mom made them leave or how she saved me but some how she did…and I woke up in my bed with my mother frantically packing the house. We left shortly after…” I wiped the tears away from my cheeks and took a deep breath.

I had held my story in for so long..it felt good to finally tell someone. This attack she could forgive me for. This one wasn’t my fault. No one could blame me for this one. A little part of me wanted to mention the second attack but I quickly decided that was not in my best interest.

“That’s…I’m so sorry Emmry.” Hope said softly. “I really am sorry you had to go through something like that.”

“We all go through crazy things…I’m just…I’m going to eventually come out of this better. I just..that’s why I have a hard time with people and being scared and touching. I’m glad everyone here seems to understand.” Well it was mostly the reason anyway.

Luckily for me Hope didn’t pry she just comforted me and after awhile we headed back to the pack house for dinner. I was very glad Hope was my cousin…she was starting to really make me feel safe.