Chapter Seventeen - Not Home

Jake sighed and shifted his weight a bit, trying to get the feeling back in his left leg. He was pressed up against the door so tightly he’d cut off circulation, and still Lia wasn’t happy. Why was she acting like this? David and Marie insisted that she was normally very friendly and rarely complained about anything. To him, she seemed to be socially avoidant and perpetually grumpy. He understood that she was worried about her Gran, but there had to be more to it than that. Reasoning with her was impossible, she wanted what she wanted and that was it. Every time she didn’t get her way she became silent and sulky with her arms across her chest like a spoiled brat. He felt her perk up in her seat when they rounded the corner and could see her cottage. As soon as he began to slow down to park she lunged over David and was out the door of the still moving truck before either man could get a good hold of her.

“Liana!” David yelled, but she didn’t even look back. She stooped by a rock on her dash to the door and had what was obviously the hidden key jammed into the lock and the door open before any of the warriors could stop her. Men jumped from the van and raced after her, but they couldn't reach her in time either. The door closed behind her and Jake was sure they’d find it locked when they got there.

“What the hell is wrong with her,” he growled, slamming the truck into park and opening his door, shaking his leg to get some feeling in it before he tested it with his weight.

“Homesick maybe?” David offered.

“Enough to jump out of a moving vehicle? That was just reckless. We were on our way here, a few extra seconds was hardly worth risking an accident. And rushing in like that? What if the poison had been intentional and someone is trying to get to her? Doesn’t she have any idea how dangerous that could be?”

“There have been a lot of changes thrown at her in the last week.”

“Bad enough to be worth risking her life for the few moments it would take to have us check the place out first?”

“Think about it from her side, Jake. First, she’s poisoned, then she wakes up days later in a strange place and finds out she isn’t who she thought she is. Everything she thought she knew about herself is basically a lie. She isn’t even the same species of mammal that she believed she was. Then she has to change schools and make all new friends in the very last semester of high school, without even any warning or a chance to say goodbye to people she’s known her entire life. When she gets upset about that she’s told she won’t be able to contact any nonwerewolves for quite a while. I still think that was a bad idea by the way, it sort of seemed to be the tipping point where her mood was concerned. She also has to learn a whole different culture that includes having a life mate chosen for her on her eighteen birthday rather than hoping to maybe meet the guy of her dreams sometime in her twenties. On top of that, she was raised to fear everything that we are and the only family member she knows has been unconscious through all of it! The fact that she isn’t having a panic attack over that alone is a minor miracle. And remember, for her entire life she has shared this tiny cottage with one slow-moving, quiet old woman, and now she suddenly lives in a large four-story house that is constantly full of people and playful children, where she is never, ever, alone.”

“You mean it’s culture shock?”

“Jake, Elsie told me an omega walked into Lia’s bathroom this morning, without being called and without knocking, asking if she wanted help washing her hair in the shower. Culture shock would be putting it mildly.”

“I guess we aren’t much for privacy and personal space compared to the human standards she’s used to.”

“And don’t forget the pressure of having to shift for the first time on her birthday, during a giant party no less, that is being thrown under the full moon that she has been raised to avoid, in honor of a goddess that she has been taught to fear. And becoming your mate that same night even though she really has no idea what that word actually means. And also becoming the Luna to a whole pack of werewolves, which she thought were fictional creatures until just a few days ago. And-”

“Okay, okay,” he sighed as they reached the front door. “I get it. It is a big deal and a lot of changes. But if she won’t even talk to me, how is she going to get to know me? If she isn’t around werewolves, how will she come to know them?” The men rehashed their conversations of the last few days as they walked into the cottage. The fastest route forward had seemed so clear when they’d made the plans. Liana’s reaction when they’d told her about them was not at all what Jake had anticipated.

Liana had her phone tucked into the waistband of her pants and hidden with n oversize sweatshirt in the hopes that they’d forget to delete her stuff. She had just tossed some of her winter clothing on her bed when David walked in.

“What’s with the pile?”

“Well since Gran and I never went anywhere we don’t have any suitcases,” Lia said, her voice rather snarky. “I decided I’ll just wrap it all up in my quilt and take that too. It smells better than the sheets at the pack house anyways. Maybe I’ll be able to get some sleep.”

“You know, if you tell the omega’s how to make a soap you like they’ll make it for you and use only that when they do your laundry.”

“I’ll do it for myself.”

“But remember Lia you’ll be the-”

“Stop it David!” He recoiled slightly, not used to her using his first name, let alone yelling it at him. “I am not some pampered princess and I will not rely on slave labour to do my bidding. I can make my own soap. Do my own laundry. And if they’d let me in the goddamn kitchen I’d make my own meals too!”

“The Omegas in that pack house aren’t slaves,” David argued, “In some packs they are, but not here. Here they work for food, clothing, and shelter. If they want more than what is provided they’re free to get jobs. They don’t have to work in the Pack House, it’s just an option available to them. They could leave or quit whenever they want. They are more like hired help, trading their services for necessities. Some teens even take it on as a way to save more of their actual job money for school. It’s like having chores, that’s all.”

Lia took a calming breath, deliberately taking her time as she un-tacked the string of lights from her wall, being careful not to bend any of the photographs attached to it as she rolled it up to take with her. If they were lying and she was never allowed to leave the pack land again she might not ever see her friends again she thought sadly, so she certainly wasn’t leaving their photographs behind. Mark stepped into the room beside David.

“Leave!” She said, refusing to look at either one of them. “This house isn’t big enough for the lot of you. This room certainly isn’t. Get. Out. Of. My. Bedroom. Now.” At his future Luna’s order, Mark stepped obediently back into the hall, looking a bit surprised as he obeyed her, as though his legs had moved without him telling them to. David held his ground.

“Lia - “

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said as calmly as she was able. “You won’t let me be with my friends, in fact, I have been ORDERED me not to contact them. You won’t let me go to my school. You won’t let me live in my home. You can at least stay the frig out of my bedroom and give me a moment's peace!”

“Selene made me your guardian for a reason Liana, I- .”

“Right,” she interrupted, digging through her desk for her sketchbook and favourite coloured pencils. “You’re our werewolf protection from werewolves. Dumbest idea ever.”

“Lia-”

“Fighting fire with fire didn’t work too well in Medicine Hat, did it?”

“Will you let me get a word in edgewise?”

“NO!” She spat back, unable to control her temper at all anymore. “Every time you talk you’re telling me more of what I can’t do, what I should want, and what I have no choice but to do. Stay away from me! Stop trying to help me! Stop making decisions for me! You’re just screwing up my life and I hate the lot of you for it!”

“You’ll be thankful for this when-”

“Not ever. If you’re telling the truth and I’m not going to be a prisoner for life in that goddamn place, I’ve only got to do what you werewolves decide for a few more weeks. Then I’ll be free to come home and back to my regular life. Get out, David! At least leave me the allusion of privacy in my own home,” her voice broke and she turned away from him to hide the tears that were falling down her cheeks. “Jake has one of his horrid beasts on the outside of every door and window, it isn’t as though I can’t run faster than a bunch of wolves so I’m a good as a prisoner here too. You should be able to let me out of your sight for a little while.” David looked down at his shoes for a minute and then left the room. Lia sat on her bed and sighed. Finally alone. She dried her tears and looked around the room, trying to decide what she would most want to have if she were never allowed to return again.

“I had hoped bringing her here would help her feel better,” Jake said when David joined him in the kitchen, “but it seems to have had the opposite effect.” David nodded, looking around the tiny space. Jake paced from the back door to the front, crossing both the kitchen and the living room in just a few strides in each direction. He had counted ten trips back and forth when Liana came out of her room and thrust the armload of quilt-wrapped belongings into David’s arms.”

“Almost done,” she muttered at them as she crossed to the spiral staircase and started up.

“Lia, no-”

“It should be fine,” she said, continuing up the stairs. “You said your people...your werewolves, have checked the attic and found nothing. My favourite tea is in jars up there just inside the door.” Jake looked at David and shrugged, she was right, they’d been up and found nothing poisonous. It was disconcerting that the source of the toxin hadn’t been found, but he was told that it wasn’t in the attic. Lia tried to push the trap door but it wouldn’t budge.

“Did your search party nail it shut?” She snapped accusingly.

“Let me get it for you,” he offered, coming up the stairs behind her. His chest bumped against her back and she jumped away from him as though he’d bitten her. “easy,” he said softly, steadying her with one hand on her waist as he used the other to give the trap door a good shove. It was a bit stuck, but it cracked open when he applied enough pressure. Lia stepped up quickly and swung the door all the way open. A swirl of dust surrounded her and Lia she sneezed so hard that she lost her footing and fell down the steps against his chest. She stilled in his arms and Jake held his breath.

“Odd that it’s so dusty,” she said faintly, “I swept and dusted just before Christmas.” She pushed out of his arms and went back up the steps but she didn’t enter the attic. She reached in, ran her finger along the floor, and brought it to her nose. She sneezed again. “Aconitine, but not wolfsbane,” she muttered, turning and trying to push him down the stairs. “Get out of the way, I need a shower. Move!” Slightly shocked at being yelled at, Jake stepped back and watched her rush down the hallway. David dropped the pile in his arms and ran after her.

“Lia! Leave the door open!” But it was too late. She slammed and locked it in one movement, “Lia darling, we need to be sure you’re okay!”

“Well, you’re not doing it from in here! You’re as bad as that damn girl this morning. I know how to undress and wash myself! Thank you very much.”

“Lia we need to-” She sneezed again. The men both stepped back, getting ready to charge the door.