Lynn wasn’t in the house. She wasn’t anywhere on the pack grounds.
She was just…
Gone.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Surely Mom would’ve noticed if someone had gone through the barrier around the pack and taken her… so then, how was she gone?
Even though we were twins, it was moments like these that made me realize the truth. We were very different. It felt like we weren’t connected at all, in any way. It was like everything around me was moving, she was moving, and I… was just standing still, unable to move a muscle.
A part of me thought she might feel jealous of the attention I got from Mom sometimes. But if anything, getting the attention that she’d had once felt sickening. It was worse than anything else. I wanted to hide and disappear most days, make everyone forget they ever knew me and leave…
So why was it that she was gone instead?
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. As close as we were, we didn’t confide in each other on everything. I had no idea why she’d ever even want to leave.
I hadn’t bothered her this morning, thinking she was still asleep. Our rooms were connected, each with a door to the middle room which had the bathroom and what we’d turned into a small lounge space. I hadn’t tried to hear her breathing or peeked in her doorway. I’d just gone downstairs to grab a granola bar from the box I’d opened last night after dinner.
That was the first clue that something was wrong.
It was the first clue that she was gone.
And I missed it.
It took a few more hours before I noticed she wasn’t in her room, or the house, or the pack. I even went to her ‘hidden treehouse’ that we all knew about and didn’t say we knew about for obvious reasons. She went there when she wanted space and time to herself. Who would we be if we barged in like animals and disrupted her peace?
I checked there, without having to actually climb up, but she wasn’t there.
Speaking with one of the ladies on patrol the night before, I came across the next two clues.
“I thought I heard something last night, and I thought I smelled either you or your sister, since you know that you two have incredibly similar smells…”
I knew that I wasn’t out there last night, despite my occasional tendency to sneak out and stargaze.
Looking down, I gripped the unopened chocolate-covered granola bar in my hand tighter as I gritted my teeth. The lady had given it to me during her explanation.
“I investigated a little and found this on the ground. I’ve reported back to the Beta, but there doesn’t seem to be an issue with this yet.”
Walking back up to the house, lost in my thoughts, I heard it before I saw. Well, and then I felt it.
Everyone in the house already knew Lynn was gone.
Or, more specifically, it seemed Mom knew now.
My feet carried me faster and faster, I was running when I reached the wide-open front door. I snuck in past Elena and Maria, our Beta and her sister, who appeared to be the last line of defense.
I immediately went around them, only to go stand on the side, next to her.
“Ma?” I whispered carefully.
Putting my hand on her shoulder, I could feel the slight tremors going through her. She was shaking, and her phone was clutched tightly in her hand. Any tighter and we’d have to worry about it breaking.
“Ma?” I asked again, just as gently as before, only now, she acknowledged my presence.
“Josephine… Lynn is…”
“I know.”
I looked in Ma’s eyes then. I just shrugged when I saw the flash of question and alarm in her eyes.
“I figured it out.”
She nodded. I took in the rest of the room again, from this new perspective, only to wish I hadn’t. I got the gist of it. And it wasn’t good.
Jacob and Mom were staring daggers at each other from the few short paces that separated them. Mom was furious.
“Jacob,” she commanded. “Move.”
And if it had been anyone else on the receiving end of that look, they might’ve cowered. Mom was the Alpha. She was, as her title stated, the in-charge go-to person on decisions. If she says move, you move.
But even though he was younger by just those couple years, Jacob didn’t flinch or back down. He stared right back at her.
“No.”
His reply was just as curt as her demand had been. I gazed between them, seeing the unwavering fury and determination in Mom, and the same level of determination from Jacob, minus the fury. If anything, he looked pained; he looked sad.
Mom… she wanted to walk right out that door and find Lynn, consequences be damned. Anyone and everyone could tell. I could, and I just got here. Jacob was standing there, stopping her, in order to prevent her from doing so. And Ma… I looked at her next to me. She was stuck on the line between them. She wanted to go find Lynn, but the consequences of that action – she was wary of them, so she couldn’t just push it aside like Mom could.
I sighed.
And where did I stand in this?
Was I supposed to let Mom leave and make a big mess everywhere? Was I supposed to stop her?
Stop her?
I almost laughed.
Nobody could really do that.
Nobody.
Not even–
“Jacob.”
“I’m not moving.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed. “I will go through you,” she ended up saying. “You know that, don’t you?”
I held my breath. It was like the atmosphere between us all, the tension, had sucked the air right out of the room.
Until I figured out where I stood in all of this, I couldn’t do anything. I was stuck, just like Ma.
“I know.” It was all he said. He barely blinked as he kept his gaze on her. “You know how many things will get broken in the process?”
Those words in a different situation would’ve sounded like they were supposed to be a joke. But it wasn’t. And the look in his eyes had changed, ever so slightly. I tilted my head, trying to figure it out.
Something… something was off.
“Things don’t compare to people, Jacob. I’m getting my daughter back.”
He stared into her eyes, jaw clenched tight. An almost imperceptible shake of his head.
“You need to calm down.”
Mom smiled, only it was like a grimace.
“I am fine, Jacob. Move.”
“I already told you I’m not going to.”
She pursed her lips and then she was moving. They were moving. Both of them. Kicks and punches were thrown, some of them landing, others getting blocked.
I winced as a swift kick knocked a vase over the edge of the table it was on.
CRASH!
Yeah, there was no coming back from that. Poor vase…
I stared at it. I stared at it for far too long. I mean, it was just a vase. It wasn’t like a priceless artifact or even worth more than ten dollars at whatever random store Lynn and I got it from. We’d done little chores for the money, mostly just quarters, and saved it up to buy it together for Ma and Mom’s anniversary… like twelve years ago? We’d picked flowers… and drew on it. When I dusted the living room, I’d always pick it up and swipe the table before dusting it off. It had always made me smile.
The vase. It was just a thing. A thing…
What was it that Jacob had said?
“You know how many things will get broken in the process?”
It hit me, just as Mom slammed into Jacob, sending them both tumbling roughly outside through the front door. Elena and Maria had jumped out of the way to avoid serious injury from flying elbows and knees, only to then immediately run outside to help him.
Broken.
I glanced at the shards of that vase, my feet carrying me to the open doorway, where I stopped. Where I watched them slowly begin losing the fight against Mom. They wouldn’t hold out forever. We might only have minutes.
Broken…
He wasn’t talking about things. That was why he made that face. He was talking about–
I raced back to Ma, having found where I was going to stand. She already had her phone in hand, having dialed a number, but she wasn’t saying anything. She was crying, her hand was trembling. I grabbed the phone before it fell to the floor and held it to my ear, sneaking a peek at the name as I did.
Oh, Ma.
“Hey, this is Josephine Blakeley. We need backup here. As soon as they can get here.”
“Who do you need? How many?”
“Just Henry.”
“Got it.”
I heard him relaying orders in the background, and then he was talking to me again.
“He was here with me. He’s on his way. Probably five to ten minutes depending on how fast he sprints.”
“Thank you.”
“Josephine?”
“Hm?”
“I’m going to want you to call me back so I can get an explanation, if that’s alright. I trust your judgement, but I’d like to know what’s happening.”
“Of course. I will.”
“Good.”
And then the call was ended. I looked to Ma. Her eyes were just barely holding back tears, but her hand was in mine. I was already dialing the next number. And, after another short call, I slipped the phone back into her pocket. That was when the tears started to fall, for both of us.
But this couldn’t go on.
By some miracle, Jacob had gotten the upper hand in their fight, despite his shirt now being green instead of white and half torn off. There was no coming back from that, sadly it was now and forever would be rags. Poor shirt. They were both on the ground, Mom in a headlock, Jacob gritting his teeth with the effort.
“Let me go, Jacob! Lynn is out there all alone!” she shouted, an elbow slamming into his side as the words left her.
Guilt raced through me.
I bit my bottom lip, and the pain that flared up in the spot told me I likely broke through the skin. I didn’t care. I supposed that maybe I deserved it.
Mom might’ve been our best bet on finding Lynn fast.
But it…
It wasn’t the only option… right? There… there were more options.
I wanted to fall to the floor, I wanted to sit down and cry. If I’d just doomed… If making that call made things worse for Lynn, how could I forgive myself?
“You’re too angry, too upset. You don’t have good control of your powers right now, Ani. You’d kill whoever is in your way to her in this state without question!”
“Damn right I would!” Mom shouted. “They’d deserve it!”
But then… we might not have answers. For any of us.
What if someone she took down… someone she killed? What if they were innocent? Like a puppet being pulled on by all of those strings…
And, on the off chance, though I seriously doubted she ever would, what if she had just run away?
“You’ll regret what you do in this state, Ani! Please!” Jacob pleaded with her, even as she struggled against his hold on her, Elena and Maria barely able to help.
But she didn’t listen to him. Jacob yelped, freeing her.
And we were right back at the start again, Jacob with a hand to his opposite arm, a hand-print shaped bruise already forming there. They were both panting from the fight, staring each other down without another word. Time stood still in the shallow breaths they took. Jacob rolled his shoulder a bit, wincing. Whatever she’d done to his arm, she’d likely used her super strength, whether it was purposefully done or not.
I watched them, in the silence, watched Mom’s eyes flick to the side.
To the trees.
And then she moved.
As she ran, trying to sidestep them and get past, a bolt of lightning shot from Jacob’s hand, hitting the ground she was just about to step on with a loud crack. She leaped and tumbled past it narrowly, rising to her feet slower on the untouched ground, angrier as she faced the culprit behind it.
“Jacob…”
“Don’t make me use it… please. I don’t want to.”
She made a noise in the back of her throat and suddenly, they were kicking and hitting again, tearing up the grass, well… it was mostly Jacob getting pushed back, shoes sliding across the grass that ruined our lawn.
The poor grass.
It was definitely going to need some TLC.
This time, Mom definitely had the advantage. And neither Elena nor Maria had been able to jump in and help Jacob now. There were too many limbs flying around and it was likely they’d be injured if they got too close to them.
It was really something. Them, fighting all-out.
And it scared the hell out of me.
A brief movement out of the corner of my vision caught my eye and I looked that way. I heaved out a silent breath as two wolves appeared, shifting back and slipping into the bare minimum of outfits given to them by the patrol group before they rushed over to us.
That’s when I noticed they’d stopped moving. Jacob turned his head down to the side, avoiding Mom’s gaze, while keeping her body in sight, standing between her and the tree line.
A noise of frustration escaped Mom, but before she could take two steps, she stopped.
Mom had caught sight of them. Of Karen and Henry. Her head turned to us, her face and eyes speaking volumes of how she felt. This was like betrayal to her.
And part of me felt that too.
Like I had betrayed Lynn.
But Jacob knew Mom just as well as Ma. He knew things about her that Lynn and I would never know. If he thought she’d break a part of herself if she left now, with no information, to go find Lynn…
Then, I believed him.
Heck, Ma couldn’t even pick a side! She couldn’t figure out which option was better, or rather, which option was worse.
I’d have to be more than just blind if I didn’t notice that Mom had gone through some serious trauma. She’d been hurt mentally as well as physically. I wasn’t sure of all the details, but Jacob would. He’d know them all, because he was there with her when it had all happened. I’d seen her get triggered into a panic from Lynn’s powers. I’d seen her try to put a bit of distance between Lynn and herself, I just never knew exactly why.
But if Ma was more than just worried, and Jacob was willing to risk serious injury to keep her from leaving…
It was the choice I had to make.
Somehow, I knew Lynn would agree.
She’d want to protect Mom too, as long as Mom showed her just a small little crumb of the whole pie of love and care she had toward Lynn. If she just showed her a little bit of it, Lynn would be overjoyed.
But, Lynn wasn’t here.
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