Chapter 3: No one knew of its power

15 years ago

Liam’s POV

I placed the plate in front of her, she starring down at it. Her eyes remained glassy as her fingers lightly drummed the table, giving a hint that there was still something inside the shell.

“It’s your favourite” I tried, placing my hand on her shoulder and feeling the bone. She hadn’t eaten properly for a while now. Some days were luckily better than others. Sometimes we swapped roles even, she the one taking care of me. But today was definitely hers. I flinched as I remember this morning. That excitement when she had woken up, her eyes filled with sparks.

“She’s home Liam! She’s home!” she had clutched onto my biceps, lightly shaking me. For a moment I had felt that slither of hope as she had stumbled out of bed, rushing towards the room that door was always kept closed. It was thrown open and then her eyes faded once again. Her smile collapsed and her body went slack. I had caught her just in time, having held her tightly before her body racked with sobs. It was a normal occurrence but it still broke my heart every time. This morning had been one of the worst. After the room-incident she had run outside thought, of course Audrey wouldn’t be there. I had found her clawing at a tree, her hands already bloody from the scratches.

She hadn’t been healing that well either, her strength completely gone. So, after carrying her inside, I had wrapped up her hands before having placed her on the couch. She had stayed there up till lunch when she had wandered to the table. Even if she was in a state of complete paralyses, she still followed routines.

That’s all someone can do. Follow routines.

“Liam” my name came out in a whisper, her hand taking hold of mine that was placed on her shoulder.

“Yeah baby” I mumbled, wrapping my free arm around her small frame.

“I swore it was her. I swore it wasn’t a dream” she said, tears splattering onto my arm.

“I know Hailstorm; I understand” I encouraged.

“She was coming back to us. She was beautiful Liam; you wouldn’t believe how beautiful she was. She had your eyes. O baby, she had your eyes. She had walked to… to her room. She had breakfast with us. It was so real. It had to be real” Everything came out as repeats. Hayley had a way of talking where she repeated things, trying to convince herself that the words were actually coming out of her mouth and she wasn’t just thinking it.

When Audrey had first… gone… she had gone a year without speaking. I think the only conversations we had was when we were in wolf form. And that was only during the full moon. After that, she only whispered but my heart had soared. She had spoken, she had actually done something. During that first year both of us were pretty broken. She didn’t speak and I broke every bone in my body more than once. Even without talking, she had still comforted me during my recklessness. I hated that year.

Okay, I hated every year. Our breakdowns came every week now, which was slightly better. Hayley’s were a lot more frequent.

“I know babe” I whispered, feeling a tear falling down my cheek. I leant down, giving my mate a kiss on the forehead. She leans into me, biting her lip.

“I’m sorry” she mumbled, kissing my chin before pushing her food away.

“No Hailstorm, you have to eat”

She shakes her head, curling up into a little ball.

XXX

Hayley’s POV

“Stop that” I laughed, throwing the rolled up sandwich bag back at her.

“Hey! Driving here!” she said, glancing at me but a cheeky smile on her face.

“Then don’t throw things at me” I smirked, feeling relaxed as we drove through the traffic. We were on our way to the base after working at a festival, having gotten way too many alcohol poisoning cases.

“Not until you tell me what did he say?” she enquired, making me roll my eyes.

“Nothing, we just talked” I said, undoing my hair and redoing it.

“He was flirting with you” she said, “Did he ask for your number?”

I shook my head, recalling the truth. My nose slightly twitched but luckily my co-workers hadn’t picked up on my tell-tale lie detector.

“He probably didn’t ask you because he was throwing up so much”

“Classy D” I said as she drove into the centre. Our shift had finally come to an end which meant I could get to bed and sleep the weekend off. Festival-duty was the absolute worse. We usually held a tally over how many mistakes a person made – at the base, not on duty – and the one with the most got stuck with festival duty. Dory had got stuck with the most and I was usually her partner. We parked the ambulance in the garage, jumping out. I smelt like a festival, a cocktail of weed, alcohol and puke. The worst type of stench to have.

Jackson stuck his head into the garage as Dory shut her door.

“Well if it isn’t our party-animals” he smirked, “How was it?”

“Not a lot, just three and an almost four” Dory smirked, making my eyes roll. Every time we went together to a festival, she counted how many guys talked to me and she called it flirting. They were in no way doing that but it annoyed me enough that it became a joke throughout the base.

“Kayden isn’t going to be too happy” Jackson said, me almost throwing him with something.

“Shut up” I said, getting out the empty first aid box at the back of the ambulance.

“Is he here?” Dory asked, helping me take things out of the vehicle. We had to restock everything and best to do it now then later.

Jackson shook his head, “Max, AJ, Lee and Cody went to car accidents, Sarah and West are by fire and Kayden and Amber went to a football match”

We were a lot more at the base but that was mostly our group that bantered and messed around together.

“So that just leaves you and Nadia”

He nodded, “She’s making coffee”

“Okay great, so you can help us here” I smirked, shoving the box into his arm.

“Jeez Hayley! You reek”

“A guy vomited on her” Dory commented, putting a new full box in the ambulance for the next person.

“Gross” Jackson said, taking a step away from me.

“Be careful, I’ll hug you” I said, moving towards the small stock room that had all the things we needed to fill the boxes with along with the paperwork we had to fill in.

Jackson and Nadia kept us company as we restocked, did our paperwork and drank coffee. The other ambulances came back and more went out in the short hour we were there. My shifted luckily ended just as Kayden and Amber rolled in with their ambulance. I did not have the energy to come up with excuses this evening. The night-crew had already come in and Dory had taken the liberty to explain everything to them as I got my things together.

I headed home, giving a quick goodbye to my partner and avoiding Kayden. He was a nice enough guy but goodness knows, my heart belonged to another.

Shit… did I just… my mind almost immediately got filled with Liam, my heart aching. Just when I thought I got a day off without thinking about my ex-mate. I bit my lip, trying to not start crying. Damn mate’s pull. It was worse when you were unmated, your whole being continuously telling you, you had made a mistake.

But it was a good thing… it had to be. For my own mental state, I had to get away from the whole werewolf part of my life. My friend understood that and we talked daily but I missed actually seeing my girls. Sometimes they’d come visit me in this small overly sunny town but this didn’t happen often due to them having children now and having delved completely into the pack-life. I on the other hand, had completely excluded myself from that narrative.

I shook my head, knowing that I had to get my thoughts away from the thought train. I drove home, finally getting to my apartment building. I stayed alone, not wanting to bring someone else into my mess of my life. And it helped a lot when I video-called my friends and spent the entire night talking to them. No one there to ask to keep it down or to clean up – although that would aid me sometimes.

Parking my car, I spent too long collecting my thoughts, deciding to leave Liam-brain in my car for the night. If that was even possible. He was like sand or glitter. Ever present even if you’d vacuumed a million times. I could never get rid of him.

“Come on Hayley” I whispered, finally opening my car door and grabbing my backpack. I headed up the creaky stairs to my little home. It was quint but perfect. When walking in, you almost collided with the couch if you didn’t know it was there. In front of the couch was a coffee table stacked with papers and usually a dirty cup from a rushed morning coffee. If I sat on the couch, I directly faced the big window that showed the L.A. sky line. It was gorgeous and made me relax. Next to the big window was a bookcase that contained books that – if I had the time – would read. I never had the time but the books made me hopeful. I didn’t have a television, having opted for watching Netflix on my laptop instead and questioning how the television-universe thought of werewolves. On the left was the little kitchen that’s fridge struggled to close if you didn’t exactly know how to close it just right. On the right was the small corridor that made you hopeful for more but only held the bathroom and my bedroom. Again, you had to focus on not knocking the couch when you left the corridor.

I eagerly dropped my backpack on the floor and headed to the bathroom. My werewolf senses only made the scent of puke worse and I NEEDED to get Robert or Robbie or whatever his name was’ stomach content off of me.

After my shower I made myself some dinner before retiring to my laptop – a chat invite blinking away from Kira and Lacy. A broad Cheshire Cat grin appeared on my face as I saw that it was still active.

HAILSTORM: Hi guys! How are things?

KILLER: There you are! We’ve been chatting for like an hour now, we were getting worried

LACE: Yeah, Killer can’t keep quiet about her Mommy blog

KILLER: I did not say anything about a Mommy Blog Lace! For goodness sake

LACE: I know, I’m just joking. But it would be something you would start though

HAILSTORM: Sorry guys, work was hectic

KILLER: Firstly, I would never EVER start a mommy blog, secondly – how did the festival go?

HAILSTORM: I hate college kids.

LACE: You were probably worse than them though

HAILSTORM: I didn’t throw up on a paramedic midst trying to get her number

KILLER: Eeww did that happen?

HAILSTORM: Trust me – I still reek

LACE: That’s disgusting

KILLER: Did he try and get your number still?

HAILSTORM: Yip, was very awkward in between trying to clean myself off

KILLER: Ugh I feel sick

LACE: Just take note Hailstorm – you threw up numerous times in your college years

HAILSTORM: Not ON someone

LACE: Not from lack of trying

I laughed, continuing my half-hearted conversation with my friends. It was the best way to end the weekend. We’d usually do it on a Friday but I had been at the festival. We spoke about everything under the sun, the girls’ sons having been shipped off to camp, how their husbands drove them nuts, etc. etc. etc. A wide ark was placed around the conversation point of Liam. But my brain kept flashing his face every time the word mate was typed, every time the word – love was given.

It was a constant headache.

XXX

TO: [e-mail]

FROM: [e-mail]

SUBJECT: Progress rapport

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Perimeter is clear sir. No threat has been detected. I have employed Gregory on the south wing and Haze is patrolling outside. I am by your door as always

Have a rest-filled night

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