The Found One

Chapter 7

                   

Izzy POV

Izzy felt like she was in a trance, the past week had passed like a dream. Nothing had actually changed after the meeting in Vance's office; that night she had gone to bed in the room beside Leia's and Rey', she had woken the next morning (and every one since to then), to them bursting into the room, their giggles rousing her before they forced her into some outfit they had chosen. Every day she had spent with the twins, watching movies, helping in the kitchens, playing board games, everything had gone back to to the days before he had come. But it didn't feel the same anymore. Izzy no longer felt like she belonged, and then there was the edge to the house – the feeling that something was different even though it all looked the same. She hadn't physically seen him again after that first day, but she could feel his presence in the hushed whispers that would stop when she entered a room, and the sideways glances she kept receiving wherever she went, and in the the constant stream of meetings that kept Vance busy from sun up to sun down. He was in the huge elaborate dinners and festivities that filled the nights; parties and feasts, that her and the twins were forbidden from attending. She felt like there was a huge ticking clock floating over her head, counting down until her time was up, until she had to leave. Leave the place she had called - both willingly and unwillingly, home for the past three months. And, leave it with him.

Izzy didn't know what it was about Rowan, but there was something that put her on edge, put an itch under her skin that she couldn't scratch. She hated how his cold calculating gaze had kept finding her, hated how he had said her name, and how he had made her feel guilty about hating his kind. When Luna Mindy had laid out the new rules she had breathed a sigh of relief; her, Leia and Rey, would stay out of the way, would take their meals in the kitchen and were not allowed to set one-foot downstairs after dinner. Rey and Leia had protested, unsurprisingly, and had argued, sulked, huffed and complained, But, no matter what they said or how they had begged, Mindy hadn't budged and Izzy felt her relief and gratitude climb for the woman. She didn't want to have to see Rowan, his silver hair, or his hooded grey eyes ever again, or at the very least - not until she absolutely had to.

She still couldn't believe she had to go with him, a complete stranger – who looked as if he tolerated her presence only marginally more than his hostile friend (who had become a newly recurring theme in her nightmares). Thinking of that murderous glare Izzy shuddered involuntarily, she had never had someone look at her with so much loathing and disgust. What did I ever do to him? She thought for the millionth time, I should hate them, not the other way around, she mused, trying to wipe the memory of his dangerous black eyes from her mind.

Sighing she rubbed her temples, she should have been asleep hours ago, but no matter how tired she was supposed to be - she couldn't find the lulling tug of sleep. Her mind was in overdrive, jumpstarted by the words Luna Mindy had delivered as her and the twins had been finishing dinner at the huge marble island in the kitchen.

"Rowan will be setting off in the morning, him and Vance concluded their business a few days ago and other packs need his attention." Her eyes softened as she looked at Izzy in sympathy, ignoring her daughters' protests and their twin wails of disappointment and refusal. "Izzy dear, you will be accompanying him when he goes. He has decided to head out at first light."

Her stomach had dropped, the pasta she had just finished turning to stone in her belly and making her nauseous. Numbly she nodded her head, her leaden feet landing quietly on the tiled floor before carrying here upstairs. For the rest of the evening she had hidden under her covers ignoring Rey and Leia's attempts to cheer her up and make her feel better. She wanted to wallow in her own self-pity.