She's Mine

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Caroline POV-
Hope and I wake up in our hotel room at about 8 am. "Are you ready to go?" Hope nods her head and puts her charger into her backpack. We check out and start the four hour drive back to Virginia. "I'm going to drop you at the school so you can talk to Josie. I'll head to this address after and let you know what I find. Sound good?" Hope looks over at me, "Yeah, keep me posted."
Hope POV-
Caroline and I make great time back to the school. I grab my backpack out of the car and say goodbye to Caroline. I head up the stairs towards my room so I can drop my bag before going to see Josie.
I open my door and can smell that Josie had been here. I wonder if she tried to stop by last night. I set my bag down by my desk and turn to head out of my room when I see it. Josie's ring is sitting on my side table. I pick it up and hold it in my hand. Why did she leave this here? She didn't even want to talk to me? I could feel my anger rising. I set the ring back down on my side table before walking out of my room.
I step out to see Josie and Lizzie walking down the hall towards the cafeteria. I stop in my tracks. My eyes flash golden but I manage to blink them away. I need to stay calm as best I can. "Josie, why is your ring in my room?"
Josie POV-
Lizzie and I are heading downstairs for breakfast when Hope steps out of her room. Her eyes flash golden before the blue comes back. "Josie, why is your ring in my room?" Lizzie turns to look at me, her eyes wide open. "You didn't even talk to her?" Lizzie hastily asks in my ear. Hope was trying to stay calm but her words had bite. "I wanted to talk to you but you weren't there. I think we should end this. End us." I did my best to sound confident. I definitely didn't need tears to start streaming down my face right now. Hope doesn't say anything for a second. "You want to end us? Josie, you have pushed me out of your life and I don't even know why because we haven't spoken to each other in days."
Hope POV-
Josie doesn't say anything. So I continue, "Can't you see that you have hurt me? I've done everything I can to support you, Josie, to be there for you! And you back out of this without even talking to me? What happened to forever and always?" My heart rate is through the roof. I can feel it pulsating behind my eyes. I can't help but stumble backwards a step. I place my hand on the wall for balance. My voice barely raises above a whisper, "I'm not enough for you. I'm not enough for anyone." My eyes turn golden and stay that way. I turn around and immediently transform into my wolf shredding though my clothes. I take off at a dead sprint out the back doors of the school.
Josie POV-
A small whimper escapes my lips as Hope transforms but she is gone before I open my eyes again. "Jo, are you okay?" Lizzie places a hand on my shoulder. "Yeah," I swallow hard trying not to cry. "Let's go eat."
Hope POV-
I burst through the doors and continue sprinting out to the woods. My vision is red with anger. I run as hard and as fast as I can. I am zipping around trees and jumping over rocks. I trip and slam into the side of a tree but keep going. My vision is becoming blurry but I keep running. I have to. If I stop, I don't know what I'll do.
I make a sharp turn before bolting forward between two trees. It was a close call. I turn back to see my near miss when a tree stops me. I ram into it shoulder first crying out. I hear the crunch before the pain begins to radiate throughout my entire leg and into my back and neck. I try to take a step and fall to the ground. I lay there for a second trying to calm my breathing before tunnel vision turns into a blackout.
Lizzie POV-
Josie and I grab some food from the kitchen and bring it to eat in the cafeteria. We are just finishing up when Josie let's out a quick "ow" and starts rubbing her side. We don't think much of it but then Josie falls out of her chair clutching her shoulder. She starts screaming in pain. "Josie, what the hell is going on?" She is clenching her teeth to try and prevent another outburst. "Go, get, Dad," Josie shuts her eyes tight still clutching her shoulder.
"Dad, Josie's shoulder just erupted in pain while we were eating." Dad jumps from his chair and quickly begins to walk towards the cafeteria with me trailing. "Where is Hope?" I knew where he was going with this. "Josie broke off the engagement and Hope wolfed out running towards the woods." I could hear Dad cursing under his breath.
Emma wasn't here to help Josie's pain and Hope clearly just did something to her shoulder. "Lizzie, go out to the woods. We need to find Hope, now." I turned around and started running towards the back doors.
Alaric POV-
"Josie, sweetie, what happened?" Josie is still clutching her shoulder and laying on the cafeteria floor breathing hard. "My shoulder, Hope must have, god it hurts Dad." She couldn't even complete a sentence. "Lizzie is going to find her right now I'm going to bring you to the infirmary. We can get you some pain meds." I scoop Josie off of the floor and start to carry her.
Lizzie POV-
"Hope! Where are you?" I slowed down to a fast walk so that I could look around for Hope. "Hope!" I've been walking fifteen minutes and could finally see the Salvatore gate that outlines the property. I turn to the left and see Hope not moving. "Dammit Hope," I ran over to her kneeling down. I place my hand on her shoulder and immediately regret it for the sound that came out of Hope was ungodly.
Hope's eyes begin to flutter open after she called out in pain. "Hey Hope, it's Lizzie, can you walk?" She slowly shook her head no. I pull out my phone and call Dad.
Alaric POV-
I set Josie in one of the beds and retrieve her some pain meds to hopefully ease her pain. Now we need to find Hope. I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. "Hey Lizzie, did you find her?" I talk on the phone for a minute before hanging up. "Did you find her?" Josie mumbles. "Yes, I'll be back. Stay put." I run upstairs to Hope's room and grab a zip up jacket and some pants. Lizzie said she shredded her clothes. I throw them into her backpack and start running towards the woods.