Where She Belongs

Midnight Meetings.

"So, can I go home now?" I ask Mum for the millionth time in an hour.

"No!" She growled, cracks finally starting to show in her otherwise very calm and unbothered demeanor.

"I'm a grown woman and I have rights. I'm just going to call a cab, this is ridiculous."

"Give me strength." Mum mumbles, sipping her tea as she turns another page in her book. "Your father will drag your ass back if you leave. You were just lucky I was the one to bring you home."

"I stayed for Thanksgiving. I have been to four hellish so called pack dinners. I have been sober for two nights this week. I have missed out on some of the best sales of the year and even managed to avoid any major arguments with Dad. It's been two weeks and there haven't even been any more deaths reported. What more do you want from me?" In a rather dramatic display I collapse on the bench in front of her.

I also choose to leave out the part where I managed to act completely normal around Aiden after having some ridiculous dreams I didn't even know I was capable of. Which considering any time I do see him all he has to say is 'we should talk' with a very serious look following it, I'm not sure how my deluded mind could take it in that direction.  Then again it was the most exciting thing going on around here so thanks brain. Gwen has even started to avoid me so my reasons to stay were running out.

"Sorry spending time with your family is such a burden. You are a grown woman Sammy, so act like it!"

"Yeah well it's not like coming home is like going home is for most people. I'm surprised you're not all just as desperate to get rid of me as I am to leave."

She puts down her book and moves around the table, surprising me further by pulling me close in a hug. "I'm sorry you still feel that way. We love you, even your father though he may not make it obvious. Forget the pack darling, you know we don't care you're different. We never have."

I feel like I'm a child again in my mum's arms. She strokes my hair and kisses my forehead, warming up every part of your soul in that way only a mother can. I hug her back and just for a moment, believe her.

"Mum, if someone offered to try and fix me would you let them?" I ask, resting my head against the curve of her shoulder she stops stroking for just a second.

"What needs fixing Sammy? You are who you are. That was what ever the gods and fate intended for you." Could she sound any more like a mum right now. "I have loved you since the second I knew you existed, to me you will always be perfect just the way you are."

Brianna's offer had been haunting me. It was something I could have so easily dismissed no matter how I had wanted to. To be a shifter, to be like everyone else - finally, was a tempting offer.

"What do you think Dad would say?" I ask pulling out of her hold.

"Exactly what I just said." She smiles and I know she's trying to be reassuring, but her eyes look sad. "What brought this on?"

Well I'd already come this far. "Brianna said she could-"

"No. Don't even think for a moment about believing anything a witch says!" Mum snaps. "How dare she make you question yourself. If Nathan or Kate put her up to this I'll-"

"Just forget it. I wasn't taking it seriously anyway." Honestly, I hadn't even thought anyone could be behind her offer, but that made so much sense. "Honestly Mum, let it go."

She growls, looking more like the ferocious she wolf that lurks within her skin than I've seen in awhile. What made it kind of awesome was that it wasn't even directed at me for once.