★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★He’s being such a bitch.I didn’t argue with him. I didn’t yell. I didn’t try to convince him anymore because, clearly, his mind was made up, and nothing I could say would change it. Instead, I decided to let my frustration fuel me into doing something productive. Something he couldn’t stop me from doing.I took one of the bikes resting against a shed and rode into town, letting the cool breeze work against the heat rising in my chest. I gripped the handlebars tighter than necessary, pushing myself to pedal faster, harder, as if I could physically outrun my anger. He’s so damn stubborn. I get it, I do—he’s set in his ways, and if someone told me something about someone i trusted, I’d probably react the same way. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. It doesn’t mean I have to sit here and let him dismiss me like I’m some idiot grasping at straws.No. I know what I’m doing.At the general store, I picked up two glass jars and two goldfish, each swimming
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 The swim in the lake had helped me think. And i came to a conclusion, when i argue or fight with Vanessa she bites back and i end up feeling stressed. Why not ease in with peace. I’m not an asshole, and yet I’ve been acting like it since the moment i picked her up on the side of the road. She’s stranded here for goodness sakes. My mother would be so disappointed me. I took Vanessa out to the pack’s bar. It was lively at this time of night, packed with wolves laughing, drinking, and throwing darts at a target on the far end of the room. The scent of alcohol and fried food clung to the air, mixing with the usual musk of wolves who’d spent their day working hard. The moment we stepped inside, heads turned—not because of me, but because of her.Vanessa had that kind of presence, the kind that demanded attention whether she meant to or not. She was dressed in fitted jeans and a crop top, her curves accentuated with every move. Dark, smooth skin glowing under the d
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I think I need to stop drinking so damn hard. Yesterday was a twister for me. I spent my time arguing and then dancing... there’s got to be something wrong with me. This is why I do not take vacations. I am a mad person apparently. I awoke in the living room with a blanket over my body and my bladder full. I tried not to rush out of the living room to not piss myself but I walk fast enough to get there in time before things get worse.After that, I washed my hands, and face and brushed my teeth. Once I felt fresh enough, I made my way out of the bedroom and in search of Colton. He had turned the whole fight around yesterday after dismissing me, to apologizing. It was weird and a complete one-eighty to what I’m used to. He wasn’t around, as expected. I guess this is the farm life. I showered, and opted to spend the morning working on a piece about the lake and how the town seems to hold scenic views that people would love, and I wanted to write about how
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I wandered deeper into what I had assumed was a park, my boots crunching against a narrow gravel path. The air was different here—still and heavy as if the trees themselves were holding their breath. I tightened my jacket around me, but it wasn’t the cold that made me shiver.The tombstones were what unsettled me the most. Unlike the neglected storefronts and cracked sidewalks of Dusty Creek, these graves were pristine. The marble shone as if it had been polished that morning, and the engravings were crisp, untouched by time. Even the flowers, carefully arranged at each headstone, were fresh—some still bearing droplets of morning dew.I paused, my fingers brushing over the carved name of someone I had never met. The town itself had felt like it was crumbling from within, yet here, the dead were treated with more care than the living.Who tended to these graves?I turned, searching for any sign of a caretaker. The town was small—too small to hide someone f
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I got up in an instant, apologizing once more before attempting to leave.“Please don’t leave. I would like to talk to you.” he expresses as he grabs my ankle. I wanted to say no. I mean am i willing to ruin my whole mood with this? By entertaining this... conversation with the man my mother chose? The answer should be no, but it isn’t.I bob my head, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ears. Which popped back out because my hair chose to fight me. Tom, i remember my mother had called his name. I helped him up, and he pointed towards a nearby cafe where we could go and have a conversation.I ordered a black coffee, i wanted no sweetness to combat the bitterness in my chest. Tom got the same thing, and for the first five minutes we don’t talk. Then he starts.“I know you don’t like me. And your mother bringing you here under false pretenses only makes you hate me more.” since he knows why is he wasting his time trying to talk to me? I am not going to ris
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥The brush in my hand was slow and deliberate, moving over the mane of the injured horse with a tenderness I didn’t feel inside. Each stroke was meant to comfort, but it did little to soothe the knot tightening in my chest. The soft swish of the bristles against the horse’s coat was the only sound in the barn, and I wondered if the silence made the weight of the moment heavier. My mind had been racing all day, thoughts like wild stallions tearing through my head, refusing to be tamed. The farm—the ranch—had always been my sanctuary, but today it felt like it was closing in around me, the walls growing tighter with every breath I took.I glanced up at the horse, her dark eyes watching me, patient but knowing. They always knew. Animals, they didn’t need words to understand when something was off. It was like they could sense the shift in the air before I even fully realized it myself. My hands, stiff from the tension, gripped the brush harder, trying to make the st
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥As expected my seven-hour walk around the entire land, there was nothing I could find. Nothing that helped me figure out what was going on with the land. The grass looked as green as they were gonna get, everything on the surface level looked good. But the crops are dying slowly, the cattle too, and now I know one of my horses is suffering from an injury I can’t explain, the others might suffer from the same issue. It would take me longer if I wanted to speak to everyone in the pack while also carefully looking through... god, I’m tired. I can’t even mentally check myself into any conclusion because this land is becoming less beautiful. I might be panicking, to be honest. My head sometimes switches when something goes wrong... with my animals, and the pack who who need this land to survive. It’s how they make their money, and how they live their lives, this pack is where they raise their children. I’m tired. I know I shouldn’t give up, and I won’t but with no
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I couldn’t sleep that night.The conversation I had with Tom lingered in my head, replaying in loops like a broken record. His lack of remorse gnawed at me, not because he didn’t care—he just didn’t feel the way I did. He didn’t know my father, didn’t grow up under his shadow, didn’t watch the slow, aching unraveling of a man betrayed. Tom had the privilege of distance, the safety of time. He had years to come to terms with the fact that he fell for a married woman, that he stood by while she tore a family apart.I couldn’t wrap my head around it.The sheer indifference of it all stunned me. My mother and Tom had moved on, built a life, never looking back at the wreckage they left behind. They never thought about my father, my siblings—never cared about what it did to us.The anger burned deep in my chest, too thick and heavy to let me rest.I pushed the blankets off and swung my legs over the bed, the movement too fast, too careless. The moment my foot h
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I hadn’t even knocked yet.I stood there, on the front steps of my mother’s house, hand raised and frozen mid-air, staring at the cracked white paint on her door. I could see the familiar wind chime hanging off the awning, a gentle tinkling as the storm's last breath whispered through. But I couldn’t do it—not yet. My chest felt too tight. There were too many thoughts pressing in at once, and if I opened my mouth to speak, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to form a single coherent word.I just needed a second. Maybe two.Then I heard it.Voices. Heated. Urgent. Close.My brow furrowed, and I tilted my head slightly. The noise wasn’t coming from inside my mother’s house. No—it was drifting over from one of the homes further down the street. A woman’s voice rang out, tight with anxiety. Then a man’s—calm, calculated, almost cold.I turned toward the sound, my instincts going full tilt. Something in the tone of that man’s voice raised every single red flag I had.S
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I drove into town as slowly as I could, hands tight around the wheel. The muddy road that led from Colton’s farm was half-washed away in places, tire-deep and slick. My windshield wipers squeaked against dried raindrops as they smeared instead of cleared.Every bump sent my heart racing. Not from the fear of crashing—but from the storm inside me.By the time I reached town, my chest was aching. Not physically. Just… heavy. I found a place to park behind the old bakery that never opened on Tuesdays and shut the engine off. My fingers stayed wrapped around the wheel.I didn’t move.I couldn’t.My breath caught in my throat before I even realized what was happening. The quiet—the sheer quiet of being away from the house, from the farm, from him—slammed into me like a wave. My vision blurred, and the windows around me felt like they were shrinking.The tears came without warning.I clutched at my chest, gasping, trying to make the feeling go away—but I couldn
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 The scent of coffee still lingered in the air, but Vanessa was already gone.I heard the door shut behind her, the car pulling out of the driveway, and I didn’t let myself watch her go for long. I looked at her through the window, but it was like i couldn’t really see her. I went back to the kitchen and got to work, distracting my hands with breakfast. Eggs. Bacon. Toast. Anything that would make the house smell like comfort, like something solid. Something I could control.The silence pressed down on me like a weight I couldn’t shrug off. Every sound—the clink of the pan, the soft sizzle of oil—seemed too loud, too sharp in the stillness. This house had been full of noise just yesterday. Voices, arguments, grief, betrayal. Now it just felt... hollow.My hands moved on autopilot, flipping bacon, scrambling eggs, buttering toast. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want to feel. Because if I did, I’d go to that dark place where Laia was gone, where Darcy was cold i
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★The storm had passed by morning, leaving behind a silence that felt almost unnatural. The house was still, the wind no longer howling outside. It was as though the earth itself was holding its breath, waiting for the next turn in the story. I hadn’t slept much—how could I? After everything, the weight of last night pressing down on me, I couldn’t quite shut my mind off. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the soft breathing of Colton beside me.When I finally gave up on sleep, I slid out of bed as quietly as I could, not wanting to disturb him. The house was empty and quiet, with only the distant sounds of rainwater dripping off the roof. I made my way to the bathroom, brushing my teeth in front of the mirror, my reflection tired and worn. My thoughts were a tangled mess of grief, guilt, and confusion. But none of it was mine. I wasn’t the one who had lost Laia. I liked her. I wish I had gotten to know her more. I wish I’d said something a
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I should have said something. Anything.But I didn’t.Instead, I kissed him like a coward—soft, slow, and silent. I gave him tenderness when he offered me something raw and real, something I wasn’t ready to touch. Because the truth is, I wanted to say yes.God, I wanted to say yes.Yes, I’ll stay.Yes, I want this.Yes, I want you.But that yes felt like betrayal. Of who I was. Of everything I told myself I’d never do. Because girls like me didn’t uproot their lives for a man, especially not for a man in a town like Dusty Creek. I wasn’t built for this place. I didn’t belong in second living rooms or in tight-knit packs where secrets wrapped themselves in family drama and storm winds.This was Laia’s story. She chose love and ended up with heartbreak and death. And I wasn’t about to follow in those same footsteps, no matter how safe Colton’s arms felt. But was it right to judge Colton based on the mistakes of others?No, right?So I lay beside him in the
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥Her skin was soft against mine, damp and warm. Her arms wrapped around my torso like she wasn’t afraid to hold a man broken in too many places. The steam clouded the bathroom, wrapping us in our own quiet world—like maybe if we stayed in here long enough, the pain wouldn’t be able to find us.Vanessa held me while the water washed over us, my body weak and trembling from everything it had endured today—physically and emotionally. But somehow, with her here, I didn’t feel like I was sinking anymore. I felt tethered.Her lips pressed softly to my temple, lingering. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Her presence alone steadied the storm inside me more than any words ever could.I leaned back just enough to look into her eyes. There was something in her expression—something kind and complicated. A sadness I understood too well.My thumb brushed her cheek, her wet hair sticking to her skin. “I like to pretend I’m some emotionally grown man who can say what
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 The house was too quiet.Even with the storm raging outside, it still felt like everything inside had gone still—like time had frozen in grief. No one was speaking. No one was eating. Dad was seated in the corner chair with his head in his hands, Curtis silently pacing near the window, eyes locked on the rain. Ross was curled up on the stairs with Catia who had returned back after Curtis took her up, holding her as she slept in exhaustion. Ashley hadn’t spoken since Laia was carried in, and Samson… no one even knew where he went.Laia was gone.And with her, something in all of us had gone too.I was soaked through, my clothes clinging to my body, my hands still trembling from how tightly I’d held her. I couldn’t feel the chill of the house, not really. Not with the way my chest ached, my head pounded, and every breath felt like I was inhaling splinters.I sat there beside her body on the couch, unmoving. I hadn’t spoken since they pulled me away from her body.
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥There’s nothing more heartbreaking than losing a close friend.I didn’t let myself process Darcy’s murder. Not really. I locked that part of myself up because I thought I had to. I was sick so it made it quite easy for me to ignore most of it. Then I found out Reeves was dead too—killed alongside Darcy like they were nothing but pawns in someone else's sick game. And something in my head just… stopped working right. Like grief jammed the gears, all I could do was focus on the next step, the next threat.The next phase was to hear her plans out. This singular was proving to be the worst possible day. When the door was thrown open, I was appalled. I thought for a second, with my heart jammed into my throat that Vanessa was going to leave in this horrendous storm and get herself hurt so I yanked her back and into me. Then when I turned her around to berate her for being reckless her expression filled me with fear.“I saw her,” she whispered. “Laia. She’s on the ca
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★Abel and his family… well, Colton’s entire family ended up settling into the house by nightfall. The rain hadn’t let up, in fact, it had gotten worse—loud sheets of it slapping against the windows, wind howling like it had its own voice, and thunder rolling in like a warning drum. We were all grateful the bodies had already been sent out to the city; the last thing we needed was death sitting with us inside the house.It was clear we weren’t going anywhere tonight. We were trapped. And it wasn’t just the weather that had everyone uneasy—it was each other.With everyone scattered around the house, the air had that heavy feel. Everyone was present, but no one felt here. I could tell—everyone was dealing with their own mess.Samson looked hollow, like his mind was a thousand miles away as he sank into the second living room couch—yeah, Colton had a second living room. This house kept revealing itself in new corners and corridors I hadn’t noticed before. Did