I Know You

Ch.10 - Flint

 Best night of my life. Until I walked into the pack house and Demeter slammed into me. "Where have you been?!" He demanded.

I sighed, gritting my teeth together. "I went, had a fight, and then I had some coffee. The last time I checked I didn't need your permission to do that. Or should I start calling you mom now?"

He wanted to hit me and was raising his fist to do so when Luke walked in. Luke was as big as Demeter, and for that reason alone Demeter had a mix of fear and respect for him. Luke would never hurt anyone, but Demeter didn't really know that because he forced Luke to fight and Luke and I had an agreement. We would draw out, but then if Luke was supposed to be fighting Devil he didn't hold back as much as he did when we were in draw. Luke avoided the pack area like it was filled with the plague, so it wasn't really an issue for me.

"You should have been back hours ago. I shouldn't let you leave this place again. Not for a while."

"You're trying to ground me? Really!" I felt the hair on the back of my neck twitching, eager to shift and unleash the energy that I'd had built up through the night. Energy from the fight, frustration in not getting to finish it, anger at getting beaten, and tension from wanting to spend more time with Hadley for reasons I didn't even know, but needed to spend time figuring it out.

"Calm yourself, pup! Remember that what I say goes because I'm the Alpha around here." He snarled his words, narrowing his eyes at me.

"And that's only because those who are strong enough to beat you don't because they don't want to become you. They don't want the power going to their heads. And they don't want to deal with the mess you're leaving around here!" I got in his face, my teeth already changing. "I'm only going to say this once. I will come and go as I please because you have no control over me. I will help you when you need it because I'm the only one who can really clean up your mistakes and you will let me live my life however the hell I want to live it because that's what I've grown up with in case you've forgotten. You will not hold me to any sort of curfew, you will not act like you have control over me, and you will refer to me as an equal and not as anything less. I will take it from certain others because I don't want to get in faces because then those people would either leave or they'd go to you and I really don't feel like explaining anything on how you and I function and I don't want to run this place at the moment. I have a life and I will live it however I please."

He paused, staring me in the eyes for a minute before he backed down. "I don't need you. You are worthless. Your own family didn't want you, remember? I took you in here because you needed a place to stay."

"And you gave promises of family. Had I known that meant you were going to be my mother I would have stayed on my own. And you didn't take me in, I found you during a hunt. Remember?" I turned and started heading to my room. "Oh, and if I don't answer your calls or messages, then don't think that gives you the right to even begin trying to find me. I know your tricks and I know how to find you before you ever catch on to where I am, Demeter. And if you try to find me when I don't want to be found you might not survive what I do to you." I walked into my room and let him stand there in silence.

I locked my door for extra comfort before taking my shirt off and climbing into bed, putting my shirt on my pillow so I could smell Hadley. The one comfort I'd had that day.