~Emilia’s Point of View~
“Oh … my GODDESS EMMY! OH MY GODDESS! It was insane, I just can’t even, I can’t begin to describe it, just totally fucking nuts,” Natalie said, rambling a mile a minute and throwing herself around in the front seat.
Her friend who was driving giggled and was hanging on Natalie’s every word, since she was still a pup and hadn’t yet experienced shifting.
“Yeah but like watch the road okay,” I said, as I watched her friend almost hit a parked car.
The next ten minutes I just sat in the back seat, sometimes covering my ears. I was so tired and all I wanted to do was crawl in bed. I finally opened my eyes when the car came to a stop and I was quickly drawn to the police car in my driveway, along with two others.
“What the hell is going on,” Natalie said, jumping out of the car.
I jumped out of the car as well, and recognized my aunt’s car next to the police cruiser.
“Oh! Girls! We’ve been looking for you for hours, it’s nearly 3am,” aunt Renee said, running from the front door.
“Yeah my phone died. Oh my goddess did mom call the cops on us? Look, I had my first shift! This was the BEST night of my life! I feel so alive, so amazing,” Natalie said, rambling on a mile a minute.
A female police officer came to my side and before I knew it, she was hugging me. I didn’t know what to do, so I hugged her back. My aunt Renee was my dad’s sister, and we didn’t spend a lot of time with them. My dad was never happy that she married a human instead of a shifter. The male of the relationship had to be a shifter in order for the children to inherit the gene so she also in effect severed her line.
“You girls are okay then,” the officer said.
A male officer came out of the house, along with two of my cousins that I never see.
“What are YOU guys doing here,” Natalie said, in a rather snobbish and rude way that made me snicker.
“You mean you don’t know,” my cousin Meredith said, equally as snobby.
“You hush, go wait in the car, NOW,” aunt Renee said, snapping at her daughter.
“Why don’t you girls come inside,” the female officer said, pushing me toward the door.
We walked into the living room and my eyes immediately went to the TV that was on.
“As you can see from the wreckage there was no chance for the passengers of the minivan, they were crushed on impact. The driver of the stolen pick-up got out, fled on foot and is still at large. Police believe alcohol and a high rate of speed were factors. Any witnesses are urged to come down to the precinct,” the reporter said.
The camera pulled back to reveal a navy blue minivan, what was barely left of it. My legs gave out and I began to fall but the officer caught me, and dragged me to the couch.
“Turn it off,” aunt Renee snapped at her husband who was in the recliner.
“No fucking way,” Natalie said, dropping next to me.
I blindly fumbled around for her hand and found it, she gripped mine hard.
My mouth hung open, but I was simply unable to form words.
“Was she … going to the airport or coming from it,” Natalie said, very slowly.
My eyes immediately went to my aunt, who shook her head.
“I’m sorry girls, it was both of them,” she said, kneeling in front of us.
Natalie gripped my hand with both of hers and I couldn’t look at her. If I did, I would lose it.
“They didn’t suffer,” the female officer said, kneeling next to Renee.
For the next hour or so everything was a blur. People were talking, but I couldn’t hear a thing. I did make out that Renee said she would stay a few days so we could be at home. I had the feeling she was going to make us move soon and the very thought of leaving simply paralyzed me.
I laid in bed the rest of that night, staring at the treehouse through my window. I begged the Goddess to make this a dream, to turn back time. It couldn’t be real. At some point Natalie came in and got in bed with me, and I turned into her, laying my head on her chest.
“I’m not going to let them split us up,” she said, out of nowhere.
I sat up abruptly and gaped at her.
“Is that even … something that might happen,” I questioned.
“Well now that I’ve shifted I’m technically an adult. They could send me off to school or something, I’ve heard of it happening. You know they’re humans basically, Renee lives as a human. They’re not going to want to deal with us having … special needs,” she said, annoyed.
“Is there really no one else we can go live with,” I said, trying to think. I sat up and pulled my knees into my chin.
“I don’t think so. I remember hearing mom say once it was in their wills that we live with Renee if something happened,” she said, rolling to her side and propping herself on her elbow.
“What about our house, all of their things,” I said, finally feeling like I was going to cry.
Natalie quickly moved toward me and pulled me to her chest.
“We’re not giving all this up, this house is all we’ve ever known,” she said, choking up.
With that I lost it and began sobbing. My eyes quickly went to the wall by my closet, where my dad had been marking my height my whole life. Then to the pile of folded clothes in the laundry basket next to it. They couldn’t really be gone, they just couldn’t. Literally everywhere I looked, I saw my parents.
“Well at least dad was smart enough to get us our own checking accounts, college funds. At least we’ll have that money and Renee can’t get her grubby hands on it,” Natalie said, mostly talking to herself.
“You really think she would steal from us,” I said, taken aback.
“We can only trust each other from now on Em, I mean it. Dad never fully trusted humans, and we can’t either. We have to look out for ourselves now, it’s you and me against the world,” she said, holding my face.
Mommy won’t see my first shift. Daddy won’t get to meet my mate and interrogate him. This can’t be real, it just can’t be.
December, 2017 ~Aleksey’s Point of View~ It had been roughly two years since I had my first shift, and Father gave me more responsibility with each passing month … and less to his own flesh and blood. For now, Maxim didn’t seem to care. Pussy and booze, parties and blow … that was his life. He was pissing it away and it didn’t go unnoticed by the family. However my sister, Alexandra was taking to the life well but she was still a pup. They called me “the fly” because even though no one saw me, I was never far. I would hover over them and know all their secrets. I was in every room, listening and seeing. I had spies everywhere on the family payroll, or ones I blackmailed into working for me. I loved all the technology and listening devices, it was all at my fingertips. To be boss of t
~Emilia’s Point of View~ “I just feel like I should have gotten my wolf by now. I mean, I’ll be 17 in six weeks. It seems like everyone else has theirs,” I whined to Gabby, my only friend. “It’ll happen girl, I know a lot of wolves have lost their faith in the Goddess, but I still keep her in my heart. I believe she watches over us,” she said, giving me a side hug as we walked to class. “I do too. I mean, even after everything that’s happened to me. I still want to believe,” I said, absentmindedly stroking my rubber bracelet. It was early on a cold winter’s morning, the nearly full moon still brilliant in the sky. We’d just rolled into the first week of December. “I won’t ever complain about ho
~Emilia’s Point of View~After running for hours, the snow began to get deeper, and trying to get through it was too exhausting. My companion also seemed tired and led us back to our clothes. If shifting into my wolf had almost killed me, I couldn’t imagine how getting back to my human side would go.Even as a wolf I was still able to think as Emmy, still have thoughts. But I couldn’t necessarily control my wolf’s actions, she completely had a mind and personality all her own. She was very playful but also loved to hunt and could rip a live critter to shreds without a second thought. That was going to take some getting used to.I watched my hero as he shifted back, his rich brown fur suddenly disappearing to his white skin, which still had a good bit of hair. Emmy, blushed
Two Weeks Later ~Aleksey’s Point of View~ Once word got out that my wolf had his first taste, our first blood … everyone looked at me a bit differently. No one held my gaze as long, and there was a definite air of fear amongst my underlings that had elevated. I loved it. They should absolutely fear me, they should fall in line with my authority. Maxim had never killed, and I very much doubted he had the balls. From the time I’d spent with his wolf, I didn’t think he was much better. Some people aren’t cut out for this life, he was definitely born into the wrong family. “Darling, with Christmas soon won’t you come with us, you haven’t been in awhile now,” Mother said, rubbing my shoulder.
~A Week Later~ ~Aleksey’s Point of View~ I’d been sitting in my car outside this aunt Renee’s house for two hours. There were at least four people in the house and I wasn’t comfortable going into that many sets of eyes. Everything about my work was always quiet, in secret. I hated being exposed, being seen. RING RING RING RING “Yeah,” I said, answering my phone. “I got it here boss on the lawyer's paperwork. Payment to a private school in Switzerland, I googled it and got the address. I’m trying to hack their records now, just to confirm she’s there. I don’t think you need the aunt now,” Robert, my computer guru said. I sighed, in ut
~Emilia’s Point of View~ “Your home is so lovely Mrs. Petrov,” I said, feeling overwhelmed. “Darling! It’s Yulia, please! I’m just Yulia,” she said, beaming at me, with a fake enthusiasm nobody would believe. I smiled back at Pavel’s mom, feeling incredibly out of place. His parents were having a large Christmas Eve party and there were just so many people. We’d stayed with a cousin of his for a couple of days when we first came out, something about his parents being out of town. It seemed odd to me but Pavel didn't want to explain himself. There seemed to be a lot of that going on and I’d had a few moments where I wondered why he even brought me. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but there were just always whispers. People speaking in hushed tone
~Aleksey’s Point of View~I was grateful that Father dropped the issue of Emilia. In just the span of a day, business was picking up anyhow, and I was quickly distracted. Christmas is usually a busy time, people get desperate, they make stupid choices to make an extra buck. It’s also a stressful time and addicts need to feed their addiction.“Please, please I’m sorry,” the man begged as I laid out my toys on the table.“Sorry? Sorry you were double crossing me, and Alexander? We gave you a good job, you have a nice home. So what? It wasn’t enough,” I said, remaining calm despite my wolf begging to take over.“All of it! I was being blackmailed by Vladimir, he said I had to give him informatio
~Emilia’s Point of View~ “I don’t understand!! If you care about me, why are you breaking up with me,” I said, nearly hating how pathetic I sounded. I’d known since our Christmas Eve conversation this was likely coming, and I’d refused to sleep with him because of it. He had some damn nerve to even try these last couple of days, knowing this is what he was going to do. Before Pavel I had no one, no one to really care about me. No one, who really cared if something happened to me. If I was happy, if I was sad … he’d been there for me. Sure, Gabby did a little bit but there’s only so much a friend can do, a friend with her own life to live. “I can’t explain it okay? My family they…” Pavel trailed off.