Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“You’re super fixated on this, huh?” Elena winced from the early morning light streaming through the kitchen windows.

Every morning we had a war where I would open the curtains, and she would yank them shut.

I lifted my head from her tablet. “You would be too if someone robbed you and made it look like you’d run away.”

My resourceful best-friend had demanded the doorbell camera footage of everyone in the neighborhood.  

The lengths they went to filled me with this light-headed warmth, but it was overshadowed by the fact that there wasn’t a single shred of footage that would help me identify the culprit. 

There was one camera from a house on the corner that caught the side of a human form wearing dark clothes, but their features were nothing more than shadows beneath the crappy streetlights. 

It could’ve been anyone.

She scooped a spoon of cereal into her mouth. The obnoxious way she chewed had me rolling my eyes in her direction. Content with annoying me, she quieted down. 

“I’d be downright murderous, but considering you did come back goddess-touched that does seem more important, doesn’t it? Like, don’t the goddess-touched have some grand destiny or reason for being y’know, goddess-touched.”

“If I hear the words goddess-touched one more time I won’t be the only one leaving this house with a handprint on them.” I swiped my empty bowl and dumped the remaining almond milk into the sink. “I have no clue what this even means. We never knew the ones in the past died before coming back with the mark. How much more don’t we know?”

“I could use a good sparring session, but speaking of that. Why don’t you want Kota to know exactly what happened?”

I started washing the handful of dishes in the sink. Mrs. Davenport would still make her comments, so I wasn’t sure why I bothered. Staring at the water swirling down the drain, I fought against the memories of that night. The taste of dirt. The grittiness as my teeth slammed against it.

My shoulder began to itch.

“Knowing that I died wouldn’t change anything. It would only make him feel guilty too. Technically even you aren’t supposed to know.” I began drying the silverware with a dish towel. 

“Yes, but I’m special.” She sang, only to inhale the cereal she’d been chewing. 

Erupting in a fit of coughs, her face immediately turned several shades brighter. I looked over and asked if she’d needed help, my attention only partially on the dishes I was washing, when a sharp, splitting pain erupted along my palm.

“Ah, shit!” 

Elena jumped up, her cereal bowl wobbling and some of the milk splashing onto the table. 

“Goddess, Chloe, are you okay? Let me see it.” She hacked, gingerly setting aside the butcher knife I’d been vigorously scrubbing. Turning my hand over, she sucked air in through her teeth at the sight of the gash. 

It would definitely need stitches. 

Her frown deepened until a crease formed between her brows. She grabbed a clean towel and pressed it against the wound. “Why on earth wouldn’t you look at what you were washing? You’re going to need stitches and you know how I feel about needles. And don’t even suggest I wait outside for you because that’s not going to happen. Crap! I need to get you a bandage …and start the car.”

While she babbled and yanked open every drawer in the kitchen in search of a bandaid that would likely be several sizes too small for a gash this big, I held the towel in place and tried not to think about the pain. 

After a minute or so my mind had wandered and most of the pain was gone. 

I flexed my fingers, waiting for that slicing sensation, but it never came. My heart was racing as I removed the dish towel. A giddy smile tugged at my lips.

“Elena, come see this.”

“I don’t need to see it. I’ve already seen it. What we need is to get you to the hospital.”

“No, we don’t.” I said, forceful enough for her to whip around. Her eyes landed on my hand, which I held up to show her. 

There wasn’t a gash there anymore. Just a raised, angry looking line. The skin was still sensitive, and I had no doubt that it would split open if I did anything crazy, but never had I healed like this.

Elena’s eyes darted from my hand to my shoulder. 

The mark was changing me from the inside out. I wasn’t sure in what ways, or how long it would go on for, but I wasn’t afraid. No, I wasn’t afraid. 

I was excited.

Once she was certain I wouldn’t spontaneously bleed out, we went to get our nails done. Ever since we started getting them done at sixteen we chose matching designs. It was like carrying around a piece of eachother–a reminder. 

Elena pulled her fingers from the uv light and inspected them, nodding happily to me at the shimmery design. “It’s so convenient that you came back just in time for your birthday party. Next time you go on vacation, take me with you,” she winked. 

I faked a yawn. “What if I’m too jetlagged to attend?”

If looks could kill, I’d be convulsing on the floor. “What if I slip one of my mother’s ambiens into your drink and make you come anyway?”

The human male doing our nails looked up at her in horror. They flicked over to me. “Do you need help, miss?”

I started cackling. 

“Oh, shut up!” Elena swatted at me with her finished hand. 

Another woman’s voice called out. “Yeah, shut the hell up. Some of us are trying to relax.”

I rolled my eyes, bored by her snide comment while Elena swiveled her head and snarled at the lady so loudly every nail artist in the room jumped.

“I can tell her that, you can’t.”

We met up with Kota afterwards at this sub shop downtown. We’d been coming here since the menus were paper. They’d been stained with anything from ketchup to coffee.

While I ate half of my turkey sub, I slid the second sandwich I’d gotten to the side. Elena shook her head at it several times, but said nothing as she gave us the run-down for tonight’s party. 

In truth, I was still shellshocked. But I needed to move past that if I was going to figure out who murdered me, and why the goddess brought me back.

After a drawn out goodbye kiss that left my head spinning, he jumped into his truck and headed to the cabin to start setting things up. Meanwhile I branched off from Elena, heading over to the small alleyway in between the sub shop and some cell phone store. 

A pair of dirty brown eyes peered up at me from the edge of the alleyway. The same dirty brown as the greasy hair hanging from his head and jaw. It was impossible to tell if he were in his thirties or fifties with all of the gunk on his face. 

I had tried giving him some clothes, but after finding a stray dog in a turtle neck that looked eerily similar to the one I’d given him, I decided it was a waste of time.

I shook my head and tossed him his sub. “I made sure they didn’t put any pickles. You’re a damn mess, Ray. What did you do with the case of water I gave you?”

“You’re a real one. Ah, I dumped ‘em on kids walking home from school. Had to trek all the way to Wheaton bridge for that one.”

The food in my gut felt more like slabs of granite.

My smirk was thin as a wire at the mention of our town’s old bridge. It was no longer usable by cars, but they could still take the road that ran beneath it.

“That is quite the trek,” I agreed.

Ray cocked his head, a few crumbs dislodging from his beard. “Have you been there, miss Chloe?” 

“Of course not.”

“Thanks for the food!” He shouted as I returned to Elena’s side.

She rolled her eyes at him and hissed in my ear. “The bastard just flipped me off behind your back. I don’t know why you even help him. He’s a damn menace. It’s like he strives to be as stinky as possible.”

“Even stinky menaces need to eat,” I said, not taking her words to heart. Afterall, she did grow up with a silver spoon in her mouth. At least one of us did. “And I find him hilarious. Plus he’s probably the one that keeps slitting Mindy’s tires.”

“For that reason alone, you have a point,” she sighed, the electronic chirp of the car unlocking ending our conversation.

It had taken the rest of the afternoon for Elena and I to find a bathing suit top that was cute and covered my goddess-mark completely. I’d gotten a text from an unknown number, which I now had saved in my phone as Alpha Christian Eastwood, reminding me to keep it concealed tonight. 

I wasn’t surprised he heard about the party. News traveled fast around here.

I settled on a cropped bathing suit top with sleeves that ended halfway down my bicep. It wasn’t my first choice, but it covered the mark entirely.

My nerves must have been shot from the whole dying ordeal, because I couldn’t find it in me to be nervous about tonight. If anything, I had this strange sinking feeling. I could almost feel the earth cracking open.

Pushing all of that nonsense aside, I joined in with Elena’s horrible singing. Music blasted through the speakers of Kota’s truck, our hair whipping around from the open windows. The streetlamps zoomed past like massive fireflies.

Thanks to Elena’s impeccable planning, the party had already started by the time we arrived. 

People were spilling from the cabin, jumping over the porch railing to sprint to the lake several feet away. Music blasted from all directions, and drinks were being passed around like party favors.

Elena flashed us both a beaming smile, took both of us by the hand, and led us inside. 

Calling the place a cabin was generous since it had eight bedrooms dispersed between two floors and a balcony that overlooked the living room. 

We made our way through the sea of people to the kitchen. Several wolves shouted ‘happy birthday’ at my back, but I ignored them. They were the same wolves that hurled vicious insults at me just a few months ago. Now that they were drunk on alcohol they didn’t pay for, they wanted to be nice. 

I let the group shot Elena had roped us into burn away the anger. Kota tipped his can of soda back with a chuckle. 

“All hail the town's resident designated driver!” she cheered.

After the third shot within a two hour span, I cut myself off. My head felt just a touch light. Enough to smother that sinking feeling I’d been ignoring. 

I danced with Kota until my legs ached, then laughed when he tossed me over his shoulder and ran straight into the water. An hour later and he kissed me on the forehead and joined a few other guys for some volleyball.

There were a handful of omega’s that weren’t cruel to me, and I was surprised that several of them approached me personally. It was strange having a conversation with another wolf without them actively insulting me for something I didn’t have.

“I just wanted to say happy birthday.” A short red-head offered me a timid smile. “And this is a really cool party.”

I offered her a genuine smile. “Hey, I’m just the star of the show. The props go to the party planner.”

We talked for a bit about college courses. She went on about a few of the professors, feeding me what she knew since her older sister had been there for three years now. 

When we parted ways, I realized another hour had passed and I hadn’t seen Kota. I spotted Elena from across the living room. Her arms were wrapped around some guy’s neck as the two of them danced. She might not see me, but I was rooting for her anyway.

I was taking a lap around the first floor when I spotted one of the guys from the football team. He wasn’t the nicest to me, but he held his insults back for Kota’s sake.

“Real quick, have you seen Kota?” I asked him.

He looked down at me, disinterest clear in his gaze. “Saw him heading out the front door helping some drunk chick. He was probably taking her home,” he snorted. “Waste of time if you ask me. They choose to get that drunk, they can figure out how to get home.”

Wasn’t he charming. 

I stomped past the guy, shoulder checking him in the process. 

A surge shot up my shoulder and I blacked out. Quickly my sight came back, but something was wrong. I realized what it was when I looked down to see a muscular chest, clad in a football jersey. My head moved upwards on its own, sweeping past the room in search of hot chicks to mess with. 

I briefly spot Kota walking out the front door with some girl, but there’s only that faint glimmer of recognition before my attention is diverted by another woman.

Something snapped in my ears, like a rubber band hitting bare skin. My sight returned, and I swallowed hard. 

I had just seen that guy’s memory.

I tried to recreate what happened again and again, each time with someone new, but I saw nothing. I headed outside and walked around the side of the porch. 

“You should head home,” a silky voice called out, making me jump. It was low in a way that coasted along my skin, leaving goosebumps. 

Never had that voice been directed at me.

I faced Sebastian Eastwood, the Alpha’s son.

He looked sickeningly good in his henley and dark jeans. His hair neatly tousled and dark as the sky above our heads.

“Why the advice?” I asked calmly, bottling the storm that rattled against my ribcage.

Sebastian took a step closer, only to retreat back into the shadows when a few girls ran past. His eyes flicked from them to me.

“The human police are coming. Someone tipped them off that Byron Graves men were going to be here,” he murmured quietly.

The shock on my face was authentic. “I had no clue.”

“Now you do.”

I glared at his back as he made his way to the treeline. “Why the warning? Why me?”

He turned his face enough for me to see the sharp slope of his nose, and the length of his dark lashes.

“Because my father says you’re special.”

A midnight wolf exploded from his clothes, bounding into the woods without once looking back. The size of it had always swept my breath away, and this time was no different. 

I ransacked the cabin for Elena, but she had wandered off sometime while I was outside. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I decided to heed Sebastian’s advice–or rather, his father’s–and head home.

Twice I almost turned back to search for Elena again, but when I heard the sound of sirens in the distance, muscle memory kicked in. 

I could not have another run-in with them. 

It only took a few minutes to reach the house. The red-headed omega, who liked to be called Lexy, gave me a ride. 

I waved back as she turned the corner, disappearing down the road. My steps fell short when I looked over at Kota’s house and saw his truck in the driveway. 

He was home?

The same sinking feeling dragged me down the sidewalk, up to his front door.

It was unlocked.

I shut the door behind me, not daring to breathe as I heard sounds from the second floor. Sounds that didn’t make any sense.

My heart started slamming in my chest, and there was this knot in my throat, pressing and aching.

I stopped at the top of the stairs, my eyes locked on the sliver of light coming from Kota’s bedroom. The sinking feeling grew.

My hand trembled as I opened the door. 

I let out a cry, because the earth had finally cracked open and swallowed me whole.