Chapter 5

Snow

After walking a few blocks away from the Fight Club, I could breathe easily because I made sure no one had followed me and I was in a safe area. That's why I took off my mask. Then, for extra security, I changed my hood to a red wine-colored one and my dark shoes to pink ones that Aunt Susan had gotten me at a garage sale for $5.

I pulled my hair into a high bun and walked on more calmly to get home.

Not by mistake could anyone mistake me for Sage, which was a relief to me.

You have to buy food, my she-wolf said boredly.

The reminder wasn't necessary; I knew very well that we had nothing in the fridge, so I took some time to make a purchase that would last the whole week, but first I had to make a strategic stop and order a good hamburger that could calm the hunger I was feeling.

William was right when he said that after a fight, the first thing you feel is the urge to eat. So I ordered something simple and classic: a double cheeseburger with a side of fries. I ordered quickly and went out back so the smell of barbecue could hit me full on; anyone could call me crazy, but I needed to cover up the fact that I had no smell or Mr. Frank, the man selling at the store near my house, would ask questions I wasn't willing to answer.

When my order was ready, I ate quickly with the help of my soda, then resumed my walk while eating my potato ration as if there was no more trouble in the world. Ignoring the fact that surely Aunt Susan would be a disaster of epic proportions when she arrived,.

Thinking about the mental toll of having to attend to her and deal with that was not something I wanted to do. If only she had been able to pull through, things would have been different, but reality sucked.

"Are you okay, Snow?" asked Mr. Frank in a kindly way when I arrived at his tent.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied with a smile, and he frowned before sniffing me.

"You reek of onions and meat; you should take a good bath when you get home," he said, and I nodded.

I knew he would do that and say the same old words, so I made it a point to always catch the scent. In a way, he was my alibi in case someone from the herd came to ask about me, which would be unusual, but I didn't like to leave loose ends everywhere, and Mr. Frank had somehow become my ally.

I took a basket and filled it with what I needed to eat for the week. I added some cleaning supplies and a couple of my favorite candies. What caught my eye were some new headphones that seemed to have good sound reduction. I didn't hesitate to grab them.

"Those are expensive," Mr. Frank said ruefully. "But you can pay for them piecemeal if that works for you."

His offer was one of the sweet things about the older man, but I dismissed it every time because I didn't like to abuse him.

"I'll take part of my savings to buy it this time; don't worry," I said calmly, and the man nodded.

He billed me for everything, and I paid without a hitch.

"I hope you achieve your goals; you are too good for this pack," he said seriously, and I took the words as a compliment.

After the death of my parents and the rejection my aunt suffered, somehow people expected me to be someone terrible. The background was there, but the reality was that I had promised myself that I would not make my family's mistakes.

That's why I hoped I would never find my mate.

A mate is a blessing; don't throw him aside because you're afraid, my she-wolf mused, but I ignored her as always when I thought about that subject.

I walked leisurely until I got home, and when I entered deeply, something in the atmosphere was not normal.

I inhaled deeply, and the scent of a wolf flooded my nostrils.

It was different from any I had ever smelled before.

I frowned immediately as I remembered that this was not the date nor the usual time when the supervisors responsible for the orphaned minors in the herd came to make their visits. In addition, the smell was not remotely familiar.

Which made me seriously question whether my aunt Susan had been stupid enough to let a complete stranger into the house. The thought of that immediately upset me, so I left the groceries in the entryway and started checking.

I inhaled sharply again and noticed that the smell was subdued, which meant that whoever that wolf was, he was long gone from our house. I cursed through my teeth, so I did a visual inspection and realized that they had rummaged through our things, which put me on high alert.

I ran to my aunt's room and found her snoring with more cans of beer than I remembered. I immediately checked her to see if she might be unwell, but her vitals seemed fine, and she had the nerve to stir uncomfortably from my inspection. She said something unintelligible, which made me growl with rage.

I realized that, all in all, she was just completely drunk, but she was fine.

So I went through all areas of the house, part by part, to see what could have been taken, but nothing seemed valuable enough to do so. Everything was in disarray, but nothing was missing.

It looked like whoever had gone in had done so to look for something and didn't find it.

Something is wrong here, my she-wolf said seriously.

And I believed her. She wasn't usually wrong; she was a pain in my ass and a challenge for me, but she was the one I trusted the most, so I couldn't let go of her concerns. If she said something bad had happened, it was because it had.

"Now I have to tidy up this mess," I mused angrily.

I did it in a hurry, then arranged the groceries in the refrigerator and pantry. I organized everything for days and had on hand a painkiller for the headache Aunt Susan would wake up with the next day. I left it on her bureau, and after securing the door and windows, I went to take a shower to help not only wash away the smell of fried food but to calm the nerves that were consuming me.

"Who would come looking for something in this house?" I asked for nothing in disbelief. "It's implausible to me that anyone would even think there was anything of value here."

Aunt Susan had pawned almost everything to pay for her vice, which made nothing sense, but I did have a lot of suspicion and, to some extent, fear.

What was meant to assure me that the intruder wouldn't come while we were asleep?

Rest; if that happens, I'll take care of it, my she-wolf mused in a vain attempt to calm me down.

I could count on her, which was good, but I couldn't count on Aunt Susan, who used alcohol to lull her she-wolf to sleep because she hadn't coped with the rejection of her mate. To think that she had to resort to that in order to numb the pain was not what I expected in my life.

Before my parents' deaths, I thought about finding a love like theirs.

"That only happens in fairy tales," I said before I went to bed.

I took the photograph of my parents, kissed it, and fell asleep, thinking of a better future.