Stow Away

The school day thankfully passed by uneventfully for Anabelle. She skipped her after-school curricular that day even though she was really looking forward to her cooking class. She was afraid of angering Jenna after Evan's actions. She decided to take the forest shortcut home as she knew Evan would not be waiting for her.

In her mind, this would get her home five minutes quicker and hopefully save her at least temporarily from Jenna's wrath. She often got the short end of the stick and today was no different – the security guard was on patrol. Even though the forest by the school was unused it was private property and forbidden to cross through it. It took her a few minutes to dodge the guard, but she made it home on time, nevertheless.

She approached the front door, sighed, and turned the handle. Nothing. Confused she tried it again. Still nothing. She stared at the door for a few moments and looked in the window. Nothing. She looked in the windows on the first floor but could see no sign of movement. This was beginning to scare Anabelle.

There was never anyone not home. She put her bag down and waited by the front door to see what would happen. She wasn't waiting long when Jenna and her Uncle Dan approached the house. With a gulp, she asked Jenna where everyone was. Jenna informed her that Evan had ditched school at lunch and ran away. Anabelle went pale and started sweating. Selfishly she began to think about what that meant for her and didn't hear Jenna calling her name until she felt the smack against her face.

She realized a moment too late that Jenna had been asking her did she know where Evan was, and Anabelle had just been staring at her. Jenna opened the front door took her bag from her and told her to go to his friend's house and ask if they had seen him. Anabelle didn't tell her Evan had no real friends; it would just anger her. Anabelle spent four hours searching the town for Evan and was starving. She began to suspect he had found out where their mother was and had gone to her, but she hoped her suspicions were wrong. Anabelle had no idea how right she was.

Anabelle eventually returned home and informed Jenna that none of Evan's "friends" knew where he was and that she couldn't find him in town. Jenna told her to go eat her dinner and stay out of the way. Dinner consisted of a dry microwavable pizza, but Anabelle scoffed it nonetheless, starving after her long walk. She heard Alpha Kevin calling her from upstairs and dread filled her stomach.

It wasn't unusual for him to call her up to his room, but it was never for anything good. She climbed the stairs and stopped at this door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door and waited. She heard the familiar drunken come in and did as instructed. There he was the mighty Alpha Kevin that struck fear into the hearts of every pack member– sitting on his bed with beer stains on his shirt, unshaven and drunk out of his mind. if the pack could see him right now, she thought to herself.

Alpha Kevin was not an ugly man – but neither was he particularly good-looking. He wore glasses that fitted his face well, had jet black hair, and was just under 6 feet tall with brown eyes. Jenna was slightly taller than him with brown hair and along face. Anabelle never understood why he left Geraldine, her mother who was a beautiful slim woman with auburn hair and blue eyes (at least that's what she knew from the rare photos she had seen over the years) for Jenna.

Anabelle herself resembled her mother. She was slim, tall for her age with blue eyes. However, she had dark brown hair that resembled her father's. Besides the hair, there was no other resemblance between Anabelle and her father. Evan however was like a mirror image of his father. Tall with black hair but he shared our mother's blue eyes.

Maybe that is why he despised the two children so much – they resembled their mother. Anabelle contemplated all this as she waited for Alpha Kevin to speak. She knew better than to speak first. He stared at her over his glasses for a long moment before speaking. He asked Anabelle if she knew anything about where Evan was, and she simply shook her head.

"Good", he replied, "because when I find him, I promise you I will kill him and anyone that aided in his escape". She looked down at the floor solemnly and said yes father. She knew it was coming and yet she still jumped when she heard the glass smash against the wall. "What will I do now," he said, "who will take over the pack when I retire? "she didn't answer him for she knew he wasn't really talking to her. He didn't value her opinion let alone wanted to hear it.

"This is all her fault that demon woman. You look just like her you know. If you had your wolf, I bet it would look the same as hers. Pitiful." She continued to stare at the floor, for if she met his gaze, it would be considered a challenge. "Look at you, you can't even look me in the eyes". He seemed to have forgotten the rules of his own kind. "Get out of my face". She backed out of the room slowly, closed the door, and waited till she was in her own room before she let the tears fall.