The Wild

-10- Caged

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My initial idea was the just avoid the drama, but since that would probably result in guilt-related illnesses, I took off after Mary to the front lawn where the small rain drops were splashing into puddles on the ground and the front windshield where I could see Amaya had locked herself in her truck and refused to budge until Mary stepped out from in front of her vehicle.

She revved the engine loudly, which peaked John's interest from where he was working in the garage--probably talking with Brad. I folded my arms over my chest to protect myself from the rain. Evidently, John's entrance dropped any effort she had of leaving the modern way, so she took to the trees under the classic, I'm-marching-because-I'm-pissed kind of stomp.

"Amaya, come back dear," Mary pleaded, but she kept on walking until she reached a mound of dirt a few yards away from the driveway. She started to climb it, despite it being muddy and far slipperier in the rain than it would have been dry.

Mary huffed in aggravation, and I wondered if she was thankful now for the fact that she had a son rather than an angsty, young adult female who'd rather throw herself from a cliff if it meant keeping her mouth shut when she was pissed.

I turned away from her to look at Mary, but I was distracted by Bennet coming around the corner of the cabin, feet squelching in his shoes and pants baggy with water. I avoided eye contact with him and cleared my throat awkwardly. "I'll... go talk to her," I said and took off at a steady run to the forest where I climbed up the mound of dirt and came to the opposite side where Amaya kept waltzing on around the trees and over fallen needles.

I didn't say a word during the process of reaching her, and once I caught up I didn't even need to say anything before she exploded.

"He kissed me! That asshole kissed me! He didn't even give me a warning! I mean, what the hell did he expect? We were just talking and then- poof! Like, his mom was probably watching us! What kind of idiot does that?" She was flouncing around, arms waving in the air like she was trying to summon a dragon to decapitate Bennet. She gave a sharp laugh and slapped her palm to her face, trying to smack some sense into the situation. It didn't work. Finally she stopped and turned to me, causing me to halt in my tracks as she studied my eyes, my face, and whatever kind of expression I was wearing on it.

"What?" I commented with a confused shrug.

"He told you all about it didn't you? The wolf thing being real?" she asked, her mouth dropping when I didn't deny it. "Holy shit."

"Well, he didn't know a thing about it, so I don't think you should be blaming him for being a wolf. If that's what got you so mad then-"

"I don't care if he's a fucking werewolf, Lily!" she shrieked, but froze when we both knew that was a big fat lie. At last she sighed and pushed a hand over her brunette hair, folding the ends just below her shoulders. "Fuck, I don't know anymore."

"He's been through a lot in one night; give him some credit. At least he's not losing his mind any more than the rest of us," I rationalized. Hell, if I was the one turning my hands into paws I might have just thrown myself off a cliff along with Amaya if she had to keep her mouth shut about it. I figured him going and kissing her was better than any other sort of insanity he could have gotten himself into.

She kept her mouth shut and merely looked up at me from under her eyelashes in a sort of angry manner that told me everything that was coming out of my mouth wasn't helping. I clucked my tongue and decided a different tactic. "I mean, come on, you can't just say it's weird or creepy because I know you have some feeling for him. It's not like there's nothing there, ya know?"