Outliers

Eight

Homesick. And not sure where home is.

- The Wanderer

Two weeks in Colorado hadn't stopped my nightly thoughts from straying to Jack. While the inner pack at Colorado had been nothing but accommodating, they were still strangers to me and I missed my friends back in Idaho with every passing minute. Wolves were pack creatures, and that fact had never felt truer to me before now. I hadn't been officiated into Colorado yet, still two more weeks until the probationary period was complete, and I was no longer a part of Idaho. I was a wolf without a pack, with my family and closest friend miles away from me.

Even now, as I lay in bed icing my ribs from another morning sparring session with Alpha Harris, I couldn't help my mind wandering to my life long friend, Jack. As cruel as it seemed to my family, he was who I missed the most, who my heart ached for. I missed his teasing smile and the light in his eyes as he laughed, his comforting embrace when he hugged me - no matter how many times I'd tried to fight it - and the way he just knew whenever something was wrong.

That was how Sandra found me, just after lunch, laying in bed moping at the loss of my old Alpha. Above the sound of my music playing quietly - as I was all too aware of how sensitive a wolfs hearing could be and didn't want to be disturbing everyone else in the house - I first heard her approaching footsteps before I heard her voice.

"Hey, Emily..." Sandra's voice called out to me before she appeared in my bedroom doorway. Her usual sportswear missing, Sandra was dressed in ripped black baggy jeans and a white v neck shirt with some killer looking black boots that I was sure could stomp a wolf to death. Her jet black hair, sleek and as straight as always, pared with deep ruby lipstick against her porcelain skin had her looking fierce. If I were a lesser wolf I'd have flinched just in her presence.

Leaning against the wooden frame, she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck the muscles in her toned arms flexing. Despite how powerful she appeared, she didn't seem as confident and assured as she usually did. "So I was wondering if uh..." Sandra cleared her throat.

"What's up?" I asked with a slight groan as I tried to sit up, my ribs screaming in protest. I knew if I was regular wolf the pain would be nothing more than a weak twinge by now. But, unlike a regular wolf, my healing was slower, which had been one of the main reasons Jack had never let me spar with other wolves.

"I was wondering - if you weren't busy - if you wanted to go into the nearest town with me. We can buy you anything you might need; Harris told me he'd made you leave pretty suddenly from your pack so you probably left a lot behind."

I had been rushed into packing my belongings and saying goodbye to my family. But after reflection it was probably better everything had happened that way. The thought of a prolonged goodbye, of having an entire week to prepare to leave, it would have crushed me. To be with Jack for an entire week, knowing it would be our last would have made everything ten times harder.

But there really hadn't been much to pack for my transferal to Colorado. I didn't own many decorations or flourishes to my bedroom, unlike my sister Margaret whose own home had been decorated across every inch. I was happy with my plain white walls and plain grey bedding. Perhaps a few photo frames would have been nice to put my photographs in, but it seemed pointless to make a trip to the nearest town just for that. Truthfully I had probably managed to bring more with me than most wolves who transferred pack, thanks to us using a car, and other than a few personal items, I didn't have anything I was particularly attached to that I couldn't leave behind.

"Oh no, it's really fine," I assured, hunched over slightly, hand pressed tight to my abdomen. "I don't really need much." A glance around my room showed as much. Simple was my comfort.