The Wild

-20- "Home"ward Bound

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

We showed up on the doorstep of my parents' house the next day. It was just like I remembered it--stone and tan siding. As John pulled up next to the curb, everyone was quiet. The house seemed so empty, and as I checked the time on Amaya's phone, I realized it wasn't quite five o' clock yet.

"They aren't home yet," I told them. The two garage doors were closed, as were the blinds on the windows.

"This is where you lived?" Amaya mused aloud, leaning back against the edge of the truck bed, a thoughtful expression falling on her face. "Hm."

"Probably not what you expected," I admitted. Considering how I lived now, it was a surprise that I came from such a clean neighborhood. Mary was right about one thing--this was the perfect place for a werewolf-on-the-run to start a family.

My parents always knew where I'd run off to, but whether or not they wanted to pursue me was no longer in question. The answer was that they couldn't pursue me. I was out where their enemies were, and chasing after me meant being spotted by whoever was after them. For some reason, I felt like if they knew I was in danger from the start, they would have come after me and begged me to come back home.

Not that I would have come back... until now.

Bennet was sitting next to Amaya, pale-faced and sweating through his t-shirt. I felt terrible for Bennet, and also paranoid that I only felt this way because of the bond I had through Tyler. Every now and then I could feel a prick in my chest that urged me to do something to help him... like go back to Stillwater.

And then I got logically and instantly dismissed that idea.

"There's a pool in the backyard. Will that help?" I asked him. His blood-shot eyes turned up to me, and he hesitated before nodding. Amaya put down the tailgate and we all climbed up, having to help Bennet stay upright once he got to his feet. Mary and John locked up the truck, and we all went around to the back of my childhood home and walked through the iron gate.

The backyard was a landscaping beauty. Surrounding the edges of the fence, Mom had planted rose bushes and other flowers, and in one corner there was a coy pond and a wooden bench. Mary and John sat on that bench, watching over us as we stripped down to our underwear and dove into the pool.

Bennet was quiet mostly. He stood where the water came up to his neck and stayed there while Amaya and I took turns flipping off the diving board. At first we both crashed into the water on our backs, but after a while we got the hang of it. We relaxed under the sun while the cool breeze coming from Lake Michigan chilled us to the bone. At the moment, none of us really cared about the fact that it was on the verge of fifty-degrees in the summer.

In the midst of floating near the center of the pool, we were interrupted by the patio door sliding open. I looked up and found a woman standing there, staring at all of us as if we were insane. She had her blonde hair tied back in a pony, and her hands on her hips as she stepped out onto the deck.

"What the hell is going-" she broke off, her voice slowly trailing away as her eyes flickered towards me. She blinked erratically, her jaw dropping the second she recognized me. I came to the shallow portion of the pool closest to the deck, and as I climbed out of the water, she shut her mouth and swallowed hard. "Lily, I'm so-"

"Hi Mom." I blurted it out before my mind even processed she was talking. We shared the same steely blue eyes, but hers had grown wide as she took in my appearance. I'd nearly forgotten I was only wearing my underwear.

"I-I'll go get you a towel," she stammered, and only then noticed the others behind me. "And... your friends as well."

She disappeared back into the house, and through the glass I saw her standing there with her back to the door. She didn't move for a good ten seconds with her hand over her mouth, and when she did move she practically ran out of the dining room to go fetch the towels.