Sophia

“I don’t want to leave yet and I don’t want you to leave either. Let’s stay a little longer,” Ashe slurred, holding onto my arm as I scurried around, trying to find the belongings she had told me to find.

The music stopped a while ago, and most people had already left the party. The only remaining people were so wasted that they wouldn’t be able to leave by themselves. How the staff was going to get rid of them was beyond me.

Ignoring Ashe, I dialed her mother’s number again but got sent to voicemail.

I sat down next to her. “We all need to go now. The owner wants us to leave.”

She muttered something incomprehensible under her breath, her eyes shut tightly as she slumped against me. I sighed and tried to call someone else from her pack, but it led me to voicemail, too.

No one from her pack was at her birthday party and now I couldn’t reach any of them either, not even her mother. Knowing Ashe this could mean anything, but this time it felt wrong, making my stomach feel heavy.

“I don’t want to go home,” she said, her voice whiny.

The tone of her voice made my skin crawl and I grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her carefully. Her head bobbed back and forth as she blinked her eyes open.

“I can’t reach anyone to pick you up. Did something happen at home?”

She bit her lower lip and nodded. “No one is coming.”

“What? Why not?” I asked and took a bag a staff member handed me. He threw a pointed glance towards Ashe and raised a brow.

“She’s fine. I’ll take her home now,” I told him, and he nodded, handing me my car keys. I had completely forgotten about my car. “Where is my car parked?”

“No clue. Timothy left hours ago, but I guess it’s in the big parking lot to the left,” he said and pointed in the direction the man drove to earlier this evening, which wasn’t much of a help, but before I could ask for more details, he moved away, continuing to pick up scattered plastic cups from the floor.

I turned my attention back to Ashe, who was nodding off again. I shook her awake, earning me a glare. “Why is no one coming?”

She let out a puff of air, the smell of alcohol making me pull away from her. “They were mad at me because I was going to leave the pack, now that I had the chance.”

A slight headache made its way to the sides of my temples and I massaged them to ease the pain. I knew packs could get slightly sensitive when a member leaves, but usually, it was okay to do, especially when it was after their twenty-first birthday.

I assumed there was more to the story, but I had no energy to get it out of her. It meant that I couldn’t drop her off at her pack’s doorstep and I had to think about someone who was still awake, or already awake, to take her in. My house wasn’t an option, it never was, so I could only think of one other option.

I stood, pulling Ashe up with me. She was unsteady on her feet, causing her to lean on me as I grabbed the bag she brought with her, probably well knowing she would stay the night at someone else’s place, and heaved it over my shoulder, huffing under the weight.

“I’ll take you to Michelle’s again,” I said and dragged her down the stairs, each step feeling heavier than the next. “Can you try to lift your feet just at least a little? I can’t carry you to my car.”

She snorted. “Aren’t vampires supposed to be super strong or something?”

I almost stumbled over my feet and cursed under my breath. Ashe giggled into my ear, and I had to stop myself from dropping her to the floor and watch her crawl to the car. But I knew she was under the influence and she depended on me.

“Stronger, not godlike strength,” I bit out.

She giggled again, but she put more effort into walking now, at least for a moment. Every party night felt like a déjà vu of her getting all wasted, and me taking care of her and bringing somewhere safe. She was lucky I didn’t drink or take drugs, even if my mother thought otherwise.

When I spotted my car at the far end of the parking lot, I almost cried in relief and it gave me the strength to quicken my steps.

I shoved Ashe inside the passenger seat, then threw her bag into the trunk, stretching my back in relief. For a moment, I enjoyed the silence of the night and took a deep breath, cold, fresh air filling my lungs. When I got into the car too, I found Ashe struggling to fasten her seat belt. Sighing, I reached over to do it for her and when I leaned back again, I realized she was sweating and panting.

“Ashe, if you vomit in my car, I’ll set your ass on fire.”

She closed her eyes and nodded before her head fell to the side, a drip of saliva running out of the corner of her mouth. I wrinkled my nose, looking away from her.

“Disgusting,” I muttered and grabbed my phone, notifying Michelle of her sudden guest with a quick text message.

The way to Michelle’s house was fast with Ashe snoring next to me. The reason for her fight with the pack was still bothering me, clawing at me from the inside, but she never shared private matters with me, not if she could help it, and I assumed it would be the same now too.

When we arrived, I dragged Ashe out of the car, her bag heavy on my back again. We struggled to make it up the stairs without tumbling down, while Ashe was still half asleep, barely lifting her feet up the stairs. I was sweating like I did an hour long workout when we reached Michelle’s front door.

She opened the door after the third knock, sticking her head out with a frown on her face. She sighed when she spotted us and opened the door wider.

“Thank you for taking her in on such short notice,” I said, pushing Ashe into her arms.

Michelle’s frown deepened as she glanced at the passed-out Ashe and back at me.

“Look, Sophia, this can’t keep happening. I don’t mind helping a friend in need, but it’s got to stop.”

I stared at her for a moment, before I spotted movement in the background, and soon after, a half-naked woman skipped through the room, a shirt clenched to her chest. I settled my eyes back on Michelle. “Sorry, I didn’t know this was an inconvenient time for you.”

Michelle brushed her free hand through her wavy blue hair. “It’s not about the timing. Ashe always gets into trouble, we all know that, and there's not a lot we can do about it. I’m grateful you watch out for her and I wish I could keep doing the same, but I can’t.”

“Is something wrong? Do you need help?” The questions slipped out of my mouth before I thought about them. Would I even be able to help her?

“My pack finally realized that I’m serious about not being interested in all the bossy and very male alphas and now they plan to get me back into their territory to change my mind. The shifter community can only do so much to protect me from them and leaving the pack isn’t that easy either. Not when I chose to stay when I turned twenty-one. Worst decision of my life, I tell you that, but anyway, my girlfriend and I need to leave Tierelia soon.”

Surprise took me aback as I stared at her, processing the information she told me. Michelle and I weren’t close at all, despite knowing each other for years, we’d never exchanged many words, if any at all, whenever I brought Ashe over. I wondered why she would tell me such private matters out of the blue.

“I thought humans were the only community still stuck up about it? Aren’t harems a thing in the shifter community? Why does it matter if you’re not even interested in men anyway?”

Michelle heaved Ashe higher into her arms again after she’d slowly slipped down. “If the harem has at least one male alpha, no one would bat an eye. As long as an heir is on the horizon, there could be ten women in a harem, but I won’t be able to offer my parents an heir, so they are totally against it. I suppose it doesn’t help that they are the alphas either.”

“Well, damn, I’m sorry to hear that. Where do you plan to go?”

“Lola has mage friends in Kotarania. We can stay with them.”

I nodded, hoping they would find a safe place to stay. I didn’t know anything about the mages in Kotarania, but I also hadn’t heard anything bad. There were only a few shifter packs there as far as I heard though. Hopefully, they’d be more accepting of her.

“Anyway, I hope you understand I can’t take care of her anymore. I can’t risk being on her pack’s radar either. Most packs don’t like to work together, but for the right price? Who knows what could happen?”

I nodded. “No, I understand, really. I didn’t know what kind of situation you were in. I feel bad for always bringing her here now”

Michelle smiled, a small diamond sparkling on her canine tooth. “Don’t worry, I love having Ashe around, especially because she mostly sleeps anyway. And don’t feel bad, you couldn’t have known, but I feel bad that you’ll have to find another place for her now. I doubt her pack’s situation will change any time soon and I guess taking her to your place isn’t a solution.”

A nervous chuckle left my throat as I averted my eyes, not wanting to admit that my parents didn’t want Ashe around.

“Bringing her to my place would be difficult, but I’ll figure something out. Thanks for everything. I really hope it works out well for you two.”

Michelle grasped my shoulder with her long, slender fingers, her golden eyes boring into mine with concern. “Take care, Sophia. Something tells me you’ll need a lot of strength in the future.”

I wanted to ask her what she meant by that exactly but she pulled Ashe closer into her arms, who was surprisingly still sleeping, despite dangling around like this, took the bag out of my hand, and closed the door into my face.

After dropping Ashe off at Michelle’s house, it was as if a weight had dropped off my chest, making it easier to breathe. I loved Ashe, but she was exhausting sometimes. Michelle’s words left me with a pit of worry in my stomach though.

I put on classical music, hoping it would calm me as I enjoyed the empty roads. It was the time between night and morning when barely anyone was awake. The time of the day when it almost felt as if I was the only person in this world.

Too fast, I reached the house and I parked the car in my usual spot. I exited the car and a strange sensation rushed through my body, causing goosebumps to spread out all over my skin. I stopped in my tracks, realizing the lights didn’t turn on and the guards that were usually spread around the property were also nowhere to be seen. Something was wrong. I felt it in my bones.