☾ Eden ☽ [discontinued]

Home

Everything felt different.

His home, the one place that he felt the most comfortable, and the one place he was able to truly unwind from the day of performing his duties as an alpha was now the cause of this heaviness in his chest and the crawling of his skin. Everywhere he went, traces of her still lingered in the air, and her absence seemed to be taking a toll on his wolf.

The overwhelming need to protect her and to be with her has sent him almost chasing after her so many times, just so he could bring her home to him where she belongs; but deep down he knew this distance will be what protects her most in the end.

Even with that reason, however, he couldn't seem to stay away. A wolf like him isn't meant to stay apart from their mate no matter how beneficial it might be. His old habits caught up to him once again as he would find himself shifting into his wolf and running down the familiar trail through the woods, all before sitting himself down in the brush and watching the house he knew her to be inhabiting.

Only then was he at least a little comfortable.

******

Everything felt different.

I can't really explain it, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere; this unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, a feeling that I just couldn't seem to shake no matter how hard I tried. I was in the place I grew up in, the same house that I lived in and called home just mere months before - the place I will always consider to be my home - yet this feeling of anxiousness always seemed to surround me and keep me from really feeling at home.

"Eden?"

"Hm?" I looked up from the pool of water in front of me, my forearms completely concealed by the soap suds. As soon as I did, my eyes met the tired ones of my younger sister as she climbed on to the bar stool across the counter, belly brushing against the edge.

"Do you have a minute to talk?" She asked me, cracking a small smile.

"Uh," I paused, looking back towards the sink before fishing my hands out of the water, drying them on the dish towel by the sink. "Sure."

Her eyes never left me as I shuffled over so I was standing on the opposite side of the bar, across from her; I could immediately tell by the way that she looked at me that she had something rather important she wanted to say.

I stood there, waiting for her to speak, but it never came. Instead, I was caught off guard as she reached out towards me, going to grasp my hands in her own - something she would always do when we would have a heart-to-heart. But there was something horribly wrong. My wolf immediately began screaming at me to do something and, before I knew what was happening, I snatched my hands back, away from her touch.

I watched as her eyes widened at my actions, and it was then that I knew just how badly I reacted. Something my wolf easily began to justify in my head was silenced as I wished to apologize to my sister, but the words wouldn't come out.