Family Line

POV: Jake

"Jamie Norwood, the priest's daughter was burned at the stake on 1784 accused of witchcraft by local. Born in sin and in sin came to die" Dad read out loud the piece of news I had highlighted from some old newspaper I had found online and printed during the past night

He had spent most of the evening making speeches for the pack and trying to contact Skylar to try to establish peace again, which game me plenty of time to make a search of two with Silas after I left Hamish home, but I should have guessed that by the morning he would be checking on everything I did

I was sitting on the round table we had at the cottage's livingroom while he walked from one side to the other holding my papers and throwing them on the center of the table everytime he finished reading one "LakeVille 1996: Nancy Norwood dies inside Mayor Johnson's Manor" he tossed the newspaper on the table as well "Elle Norwood comments on national TV about what happened to her sister"

He carried on reading until he got to the last one, thing that caused him to stop supporting his hand on a chair across the table, facing me as he threw the last article on the center "The Norwood's entire family tree since 1730" dad raise one eyebrow a bit impatiently "Is this your new obsession?" I shrugged knowing that wasn't what he wanted for an answer

He pulled the chair sitting down in front of me clearly unhappy "Jacob I already have too much to worry about right now, I can't have another one of your..." "Of my what dad? Obsessions?" He took a deep breath looking for the right words but I already knew where that conversation was going "Listen first it was Rose, you wanted to know about her entire life, then when you decided you knew enough you simply had to learn tarot, then you needed to learn how to make jewelry, then if you didn't opened a store on your aunt's name it would be the end of the world. And after you did that it was Silas, you wanted her to tell you every story she knew about Atlas' Reinwald, your witch ancestral"

I had never heard him talking so openly about all of that, usually dad just acted as if nothing bothered him, as if he wasn't even giving much attention to those things...I always thought he was just going with the flow "Then it was Paris, you talked about it for weeks, how things were better there, how you missed the Eiffel Tower, how cooler it made you taking french, how you missed your ex, how you missed those stupid macaroons" "Macaroons are great!" I felt like a little child again, trying to be loud so I could feel heard

"When will you stop? It is about time you accept things as they are and leave the past where it is" "I want my mom back!" I yelled, regretting it as soon as I said it, I had never said that out loud, not like that, I also had never felt so vulnerable before "Jake..." "You two decided it all, no one ever asked me what I wanted, you never ask me what I want" I tried to stay calm but I could feel myself sobbing "I need more, I need to know more and I need to be more than a...monster. Because...because who I was wasn't enough to make her stay, it wasn't enough to make her try to understand"

Dad got up again, making his way around the table and running to me so he could bring me to his arms "I am so sorry, that wasn't fair of me" I allowed myself to cry for as long as I needed to, occasionally trying to speak "I wanted to be responsible for Hamish because...I wanted him to stay, I don't want Billie to feel like I do and..." "Shhh" dad whispered pulling me closer "I am sorry I should have realized how you felt"

"Jake" he spoke carefully pulling back to look at me "I am sorry if I didn't listen to you when you needed, I had been worried trying to make this enough and didn't realize that what you needed was..." "Love?" I risked mocking, but deep down I actually meant it "Yes, I am listening now" it was like my tears had given him some sort of reality check, as if they led him to see the truth "I wanna go to LakeVille"

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POV: Hamish

"Hi, it's me...again" it was Billie's fourth voice mail "I know you probably don't wanna talk but...Hamish you are one of my best friends and I really don't wanna lose you, so whenever you are willing to talk to me I am here, the door is open and I won't hide anything from you anymore, I promise. Just please call me back, at least let me know that you are okay. I am getting kind of worried...love you, bye" they got quiet for a short period of time before leaving one last message "I'll probably call again in like five minutes but think about it until then"

I was laying in my bed as I had been since I got home last night, in fact I hadn't even changed my clothes yet and there was still dry blood on some parts of it. I had told my mom that my phone had died and that Wendy, Billie and I had stayed a bit longer at the Carnival to help Zach. She didn't make any more questions, but I knew she had realized something was not right

I wanted to talk to Billie, I really did but after I got time to be alone and fully think about everything that had went down it all just...become scarier somehow, it was like it had finally hit me: It had all been real

"Hamish, can I come in honey?" Shanelle Myers could always be ready to take down the word but when I came to her children she was the sweetest, I was so lucky that she adopted me "Of course mom" "Hey" she greeted opening the door slowly, behind her came my brother Nick. He had the blue eyes he got from his father, but the same jawline and confident posture as Shanelle. His hair was as black as hers but now he was dying it in platinum...he was good looking I guess, while Wendy seemed to be the only girl for me, Nick was full of one night stands "Hey Hamy" I hated when he called me that

"Hi" I made a quick gesture with my hand to greet them and then simply tossed my phone to the side hopping the sheds would hide it and maybe, if I was lucky, the messages would magically disappear as well, to be honest it wouldn't be the craziest thing to imagine all things considered

"You are still wearing that? Man you're gross" Nick pointed at my clothes causing me to bite my bottom lip ashamed but my mother made him quiet before I had to say anything "Leave him alone Nicholas"

She took my hand and kissed my cheek opening a soft smile after it "Hamish what happened? Is it about Wendy? Did something happened in between the two of you?" Wendy, I hadn't even thought of her with everything that went down but I suppose I did owned her a call "Nothing happened mom, I was just exhausted last night, I am sorry for worrying you" I glanced at Nick fully aware that he was there because he was forced to be "Both of you" "Oh yes I was dying with concern" he looked at mom "Can I go now?" Shanelle took a very deep breath but nodded, she wanted to talk to me and it would be obviously easier if Nick wasn't there

"I don't think he likes me that much" I said as he left the room, it was suppose to have been an innocent joke but the look she gave me made me regret saying it "Don't say that Hamish, every family has issues and your brother can be hard to talk to but he does loves you...Nick just has a hard time demonstrating it" she looked at me as if she was trying to see through me "Is there anything else you want to talk about? Anything at all that's been bothering you?" I gulped involuntarily, if I wanted to ask that was the moment and if I wanted to take the attention away from the past night that was the most perfect opportunity

"Mom...does he...do you think that maybe Nick sees me as...some sort of intrude on the family?" "No, no! Of course not. Why would you think that?" I shrugged "I just...I've been thinking about this a lot lately, I wanted to know where I came from, if I could...if it didn't bother you" I knew the story of why the Myers decided to adopt me, even though no one had told me with all the words, I just made the connections and of course, Nick had said a few more explicit things

Shanelle and Adam had been fighting a lot, there was something about Adam accusing mom of having an affair...in the end the solution they came up with was try it all over again, raise another child together, have some sort of fresh start. They thought it would be enough to save their marriage, to keep the family together and for a while it did...Nick was about 18 and really close to his dad, I was 10...on the beginning it was nice, Adam was trying really hard to make me feel welcome, so was Shanelle, thought Nick made an effort once or twice he never seemed exactly thrilled to have a younger brother now

But then one day Adam decided he couldn't be there anymore and left us behind. I knew mom was doing better without him, I knew she treated me better then he did and things were better somehow, less...violent? But Nick seemed to miss him and I always wondered if he blamed me for what happened

"Of course it doesn't bother me...they didn't gave me much information when I got you but...If you think it will be good for you then I'll do my best to find out what I can, I would want to know too if I was in your place" I smiled at her, a real smile "Thanks...mom" she kissed the top of my head "Just remember that you'll always be my son and that where you came from doesn't make you who you are, the life you build for yourself and the type of choice you make is what counts" "Mom, that was literally the most cliche thing you could have said, but thank you"

She got up chuckling "What about this then? A real family is based on the people you fight for and the people who fight for you, not always the ones who gave you life but the ones who make you live, who make you feel alive and loved...like Billie and Zach, like Wendy and me, and Nick...you'll always have us no matter what you find out" with a quick squeeze on my shoulder she started making her way to the door "Can I visit Billie?" "Of course, meanwhile I'll see what I can find" I nodded "Hey mom, I love you" "I love you too...Hamy" she winked with a chuckle before leaving

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POV: Billie

I was turned into a werewolf during a regrettable party on my home town

It had been an accident, a red haired girl who lost control during the full moon, she tried to help me but in the end there was only one way out: find a pack

She had said something about wolves not being able to survive without one, and told me about Kiam Haley and the Witchtale's pack. So I went to talk to my parents about wanting to study on the states, and for my lucky my Godmother Melanie Murray happened to live in the town so it was all a perfect plan...I could hide the whole wolf thing and I had been doing a great job on it so far

I was so living with Melanie and Mykel Murray and their youngest son, Jackson. They were great, and Jackson and I had some occasional fights but we were getting as well as we could. The only problem I truly had with him is that we were both bisexuals with plenty of crushes but I never managed to get a date while he had phone numbers falling from the sky

He was at some guy's house that morning, while uncle Mykel tried to cook at the same time as he looked outside the window to see the neighbors "You are going to burn the eggs and aunt Mel won't be happy about it" I was sitting on the kitchen table eating an apple and glancing at my phone anxiously, apparently Hamish wasn't going to answer any time soon "She also won't be happy if I miss the gossip, someone has to tell her about what is going on with the Bird's" I rolled eyes laughing

I really liked uncle Mykel "Oh heavens" he said with a dramatic sigh making me want to go to the window but he wasn't talking about the neighbors "My eggs are burnt" "Yeah, I think I told you that" he supported his lightly and artificially tanned arm on the counter top and raised a dark eyebrow at me, he had Asian traces and a black hair that he gave up on letting grow and now used as a tuft, the only reason why he wasn't wearing makeup that morning was because he hadn't had time to do it yet but his nails were painted black "She won't be happy, will she?" "Probably not"

The door bell rang making him do a little jump "Are we expecting someone?" "I don't think so" I watched as he undid the lace of his apron and tossed it on the counter "I better see who it is then"

Jake was at the door, sometime after he got inside Hamish knocked, that would be a weird day