The Realities of Love

Chapter 13

"Dude you should've seen how weird they were acting yesterday," Randal said to Derek who was sitting in the back of Randal's car.

Derek had been Randal's best friend in almost every dimension I had been in, so it wasn't very surprising when I realized that he was the one the Hart brothers had been mentioning so frequently. Derek was the same as he had been in the other dimensions. He was the usual sight of being slightly shorter than Randal and instead of Randal's darker coloring Derek was the opposite. He was fairly pale with light blue eyes and bright blonde hair. The only thing different about him in this reality was the fact that he was the gamma of a werewolf pack.

"I'm sorry I know that's strange and all, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole Cara isn't Cara but she still is because she's an Amari thing," Derek admitted as he rubbed his forehead intensely.

"From what I've heard I'm pretty much exactly like your old Cara was. I just don't have the same memories of you as she did," I told him.

"Wait so you don't know that I made out with the old Cara when I visited Randal for Christmas break your junior year?" Derek questioned.

"You what?" Randal and I yelled at the same time.

I turned to face Derek and I couldn't stop the look of horror from coming to my face. "You made out with Cara?" I yelled at the gamma.

He gave us a shrug and replied, "At least I didn't make out with you."

"And you're incredibly lucky because of that," Randal growled at him angrily.

"Don't you have a mate somewhere out there?" I asked him feeling slightly mortified.

"Yeah but I've never met her," Derek answered with a shrug.

I turned to face Randal and with a raised eyebrow I asked, "Did you make out with a bunch of girls before meeting me?"

"No... no, I didn't," Randal promised me.

"You know Derek, I've known you in over a hundred different dimensions, and that one piece of information makes me feel like I know too much about you," I told the blonde man.

"Wait... you've known different versions of me?" Derek questioned with a smile.

Randal slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "We've been over this already!"

"I'm sorry if a person who travels between different dimensions is a hard concept to grasp!" Derek yelled at Randal as he threw his arms down dramatically.

"Sounds like you got it pretty well when you admitted to kissing a version of my mate," Randal sneered. Derek went quiet and leaned back against his seat.

"So... when is our meeting tonight?" Derek asked to change the subject. Wise choice Derek.

"I'm assuming like 5:15. All Brock said was that we couldn't be there until after 5," Randal informed him.

"That's so weird... we should go get a really good lunch," Derek suggested.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked him.

"Well, what's wrong with me right now is the fact that I'm starving," Derek said, "It's not like we're short on time. Let's just stop somewhere that we don't have in town and stuff ourselves."

"Is food all you think about?" I asked him.

"No... apparently, he also thinks about making out with you," Randal grumbled.

I shuddered then asked Derek, "What about Ashley though?"

The two looked at me confused, and both of them asked me, "Who's Ashley?"

"Ohhhh," I exclaimed, "You either don't know her, or she doesn't exist in this dimension. That's honestly my bad."

Derek turned to Randal and inquired, "Does she do that a lot?"

Randal nodded and admitted, "Yeah it's kinda wack. She'll start talking about things that have never existed here, or she'll mention what different versions of people we know did."

"Cara you're kind of a freak... so who's this Ashley?" Derek asked intrigued.

"Ashley was your girlfriend or wife in the other dimensions," I told him. His jaw dropped and he stared at me in awe.

"Someone agreed to marry this idiot?" Randal teased as he pointed with his thumb towards the gamma. Derek punched Randal in the shoulder causing the car to veer off to the side for a brief second. I screeched from fear until the car was back in its proper lane.

"What was she like?" Derek inquired ignoring the fact that he had almost killed us.

"Dude it's not like it matters. I bet you were with a bunch of different people in some of those dimensions," Randal said.

"Actually Ashley was the only person Derek was ever with...That I saw anyways," I confessed.

"Wow," Derek mumbled to himself. His eyes then got glossy as he lost himself in his own thoughts.

Hours passed by and after eating lunch we were finally back to our little town of Haywood. It was only 4:30 so we were just hanging out at Randal's house. All three of us were pretty antsy about the meeting to come. After Randal had explained the situation of the government trying to take away werewolf children, we were all pretty on edge and it was showing. Derek was pacing by the bed, Randal refused to stop tapping his fingers on the tabletop, and I was close to losing a nail I'd been chewing mine so bad.

"I just don't get why we couldn't have had this meeting sooner. This isn't exactly something that can be ignored or pushed back," Derek said breaking the silence that had been in control of our thoughts.

"I don't either, but Brock's the alpha and this was his order," Randal muttered in reply.

Derek stopped his pacing, at last, walking up to Randal instead, and said, "Why didn't you just deny it. It's not like his commands work on you anyways."

Randal sighed and replied, "It's rude to just overthrow his command. Plus you should've seen how adamant he was about it."

"All I'm saying is that now would've been a good time for you to use that alpha blood of yours," Derek snapped and shoved his finger into Randal's chest. Randal growled and grabbed Derek's finger and threw it off of him.

"Will you two stop!" I yelled, "What's done is done. There are only a few more minutes left anyways."

They both stopped their useless arguing, and Derek went and sat down at the table with Randal and me. I checked the time on Randal's watch and let out a sigh. 4:57. "I think we should start heading over there," I mumbled.

They both agreed and we stood up from the table. I went to grab the keys, but Randal stopped us. He held his hand up and grumbled, "Do you guys hear that?"

Derek and I both froze as we listened intensely. I heard nothing, but Derek's eyes went wide. "It can't be," Derek mumbled to himself.

"It's getting closer!" Randal proclaimed then ran out the door. Derek and I ran out after him. As I ran behind them I felt a sense of fear overcome me.

"There it is!" Derek yelled and pointed at the darkening sky. I squinted my eyes as I took in a black jet that was flying overhead.

"That's a fighter jet," Randal told us and started to run faster.

I looked at where it was heading and my stomach dropped. No... it can't be. "It's heading for Brock's house!" I screeched.

In a matter of seconds the worst thing we could imagine happened. With a loud bang, an explosion appeared around where Brock's house was and flames lit up the sky. We all stumbled to a stop as the shock made it to where we were unable to do anything but stare. Randal fell to his knees as he clutched his chest tightly. Randal yelled loudly from pain which gained my attention. I quickly went to his side and knelt on my knees as I placed my hands on either side of his face. His features were contorted in pain for a few more seconds then he opened his chocolate brown eyes. He stared at me with unshed tears in his eyes and he whispered, "He's gone."

"Who's gone?" I asked him quietly.

"Brock. He's dead," Randal mumbled as tears started to run down his face.