Finding Home

Chapter One-Paige

"Ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant voice floated down through the speaker. "If this is your first time here, please allow me to be the first to welcome you to the good 'ole US of A. If it's not your first time welcome back, and if you're an American returning after some time abroad, welcome home." Paige huffed a dry chuckle. Home. While it was where she grew up, it had been a long time since she had thought of it as home. The flight attendant continued.
"The weather is 65 and sunny, here at Logan International Airport, that's about 18 for you Brits but either way it's still sunny." He chuckled at his own joke. "We'd like to thank you for flying AirAtlantic and we hope you enjoy your stay."

The fasten seatbelt sign switched off and Paige was surrounded by the clicks of people releasing their belts and standing to gather their things. She stood, hunched over in the tiny space and waited for the rest of her row to move out before she got her carry-on from the overhead bin.
As she made her way through the airport to customs she thought about what what she was walking into. It had been almost ten years since she'd been 'home'. She left the pack for college at eighteen and had never looked back. She swore she would never return here but when her mother had laid on the guilt she felt she had no choice.

"Business or pleasure?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Business or pleasure?" The customs agent asked again. "Neither" she thought to her self. But she couldn't say that,
"Pleasure." She answered.
"And how long are you staying?" He asked again looking over her passport.
"Two weeks."
"Alright, Ms Robins, you're all set. Welcome home." He said handing her passport back.

"Thank you." She took her passport and made her way to pick up. Her sister squealed when she spotted her and Paige let a grin spread on her face as she was enveloped in a wolf hug.
"I've missed you so much!" She said holding her tight.
"We video chatted last night." Paige responded, hugging her sister back.
"But it's not the same as having you here where I can hug you." Paige rolled her eyes as she pulled away and moved to her mother.

"Hi mom." She said softly. There weren't many things Paige did softly but speaking to her mother was one of them. She had never been one for softness. Fierce and cold, were better words to describe her. She had learned to be as the only human in the wolf pack. It had was something that served her well being all alone in the human world.

"Welcome home my dear." Sandra replied pulling her into a tight hug as well. "It's been too long."

"Yes well," Paige responded stepping back, "Life has been busy lately." She gave her mother a tight smile.

Sandra wasn't actually her mother. Her mother was a human who had an affair with her father before he found Sandra, his mate. Her father didn't even know about her until she was four years old. When her own mother got sick, she reached out to him and told him of his daughter. After she died she went to live with them in the wolf pack. Sandra immediately accepted her as one of her own and had been her mom ever since.

"Where's father?" Paige asked looking around. Her mother made a pinched face and said,
"He couldn't get away, pack business." Paige huffed put a laugh.
"Isn't it always." She said it more as a statement. Her father never made time for her.
"He wanted to be here." Sandra said, "But things are rough right now."
"Things are always rough mom. If he wanted to be here he would." Sandra opened her mouth to say more but Paige interrupted her before she could start.
"It's fine Mom, really. I've gotten used to it. Let's just go before they charge you for the extra hour for parking."

"Where's your suitcase?" Sophie asked.
"This is all I brought." Paige said gesturing to her carry-on.
"That's all! She exclaimed, "You're here for two weeks!"
"I don't need much, the dress is already here and you have a washing machine." Sophie rolled her eyes.
"I don't understand how you can do that. I'd need a whole trunk to fit everything I'd need for two weeks."
"I remember, I thought you were moving in the last time you visited me," Paige said teasingly. "You learn to pack light when you travel as much as I do."
"Well it makes no sense to me." She grabbed the tiny suitcase and heading for the doors. Paige shared a look with her mother before following her to the parking garage.

Paige spent the two hour drive back to the White Mountains dreading reuniting with her father. He had never been as affectionate with her as he had been with her siblings. Even less so after her wolf failed to show. It had always been a 50/50 whether or not she would get one. Having a wolf father and a human mother was rare and Paige could always feel her father's disappointment in her. Though he never said it, he was upset when she didn't receive a wolf.

As they got closer to the pack territory Paige's anxiety grew. Her father was one thing but the pack had never really accepted her as one of them. The bullying had started in grade school and had only gotten worse after she didn't shift.

"It's going to be okay." Her mother said looking over at her.

"I know," Paige replied. "I'm fine." She was relieved she her words came out steady. In her time away she had worked to put her past behind her. She took to the human world like a sponge takes to water. She studied and worked and travelled. She was set to receive her PhD next month after she defended her dissertation. Everything she had never had in the pack she had found in the human world.

"Your heart says otherwise." Sophie called from the back seat. "It's beating out a samba."

"There are just a lot of memories coming back here is all." She said looking out the window at the passing landscape.

"It'll be okay, love." Her mother said as she reached over an grabbed her hand. "The pack is different now. Most of them were lost in the rouge attack a few years back. You remember me telling you we were taken in by the Moon Wind pack. You probably won't even see anyone who knew you before."

"They'll still be able to smell I'm human." She replied. "They're all gonna stare and point and talk about me behind my back. I just want to get through the binding and get back to my life."

Her mother pressed her lips into a thin line. They'd had this conversation a million times. Her mother would tell her she was always welcome at home and she would reply that she was happy where she was. She never had the heart to tell her that London was her home now.

Paige steeled herself against the emotions coursing through her mind as the pulled into their driveway. "This is it," she thought to herself. She climbed out of the car and grabbed her bag. Squaring her shoulders she followed her sister into the wolfs den.