Wild and Free

(Mason’s POV)

To say that the days that followed were tense would be an understatement. But I didn’t really know what to do to change that.

For me especially, it was like the calm before the storm, which was saying a lot because catching up on school was not easy. My father had originally planned to come back from his business trip the day after we found Auden. However, because of setbacks he had to extend his stay for longer. Part of me was thankful because it put off the huge talk he was going to have with me no doubt. But in some ways the waiting was almost worse because it just gave me time for the anxiety to build up inside.

We’d spent most of the time after school during the week, making up missed schoolwork and attempting to clean Auden’s apartment, or at least enough so that she didn’t have to sneak in to sleep at Cassie’s.

Yep, that’s what they’d been doing. She, Cassie, and Holden had left the pack house saying that they’d work something out. It wasn’t until a few days later that we found out that Cassie would sneak Auden in through her window late at night and out early in the morning, so her parents wouldn’t notice. Kenz and I both thought it was ridiculous because surely Cassie’s parents wouldn’t care that the blue eyed girl was staying there. I mean they’d always welcomed her.

But I suppose it never crossed my twin’s or my mind that eventually it would look suspicious that the girl who didn’t have a house or parents to begin with wasn’t staying there.

It was awkward everytime that we were in the small place, attempting to make it livable. Probably because there was always that thought looming over our head of how she was going to survive after that. But we tried to carry on normally aside from that. Keyword tried.

The big thing that had been on my mind in particular was trying to figure out who had actually been the one to break in. There weren’t any clues, to my knowledge, that would point to anyone in particular. It didn’t make sense. I mean, only a handful of people even knew about Auden’s living situation, let alone where she lived. That ruled out pretty much everyone at school and in town, so who was left?

I had pushed away the idea of the grey wolf pack being responsible for a number of reasons. None of them seemed to be from around White Chapel so they wouldn’t even know of the rumors around Auden or even to suspect where she lived. The thought of them following her after the night of the attack had come to my mind but I dismissed it when I remembered that no one had been able to catch a scent off of her. The grey wolves were no different.

So there I stood, screwing a cabinet door back on it’d hinge that had been broken, my mind too clouded with thoughts to hear my friends calling me the first three times.

“Mason!” Kenzie shouted, attempting to get my attention.

I turned my head in her direction to see my twin’s annoyed expression. Auden stood behind her, leaning on the doorframe snickering at my space out. I stuck my tongue out at her and she grinned, turning and going back into her room.

“What?” I asked my sister.

She looked down at her phone that was in her hand, “Father just messaged me. He just arrived at home and he wants to speak to you. Said you weren’t answering your phone.”

My stomach churned at the thought of the conversation that was coming but I nodded. I put the screwdriver back in the box with the other few tools we’d brought to fix up the extra damage in Auden’s apartment. Kenzie’s phone rang and judging by the smile on her face, it was probably Holden so she stepped outside to talk to him.

That day it had only been me, Auden, and my sister at the apartment cleaning because Riley and Cassie were out together and Greyson got detention again. Who knows why this time. So when my sister left the place, I went to go find Auden to tell her I had to leave.

I walked into her room to find her crouched on the floor in the corner by her half broken night table.

“Hey,” I said. The sound of my voice made her jump and she whirled around, her left arm staying hidden behind her back.

“What’s up?” she asked nonchalantly.

I knit my brows at her, “What are you hiding?”

She shook her head, “Nothing, what did you need-”

“I know you’re lying,” I rolled my eyes, taking a step closer to her. “What’s behind your back?”

Her stunning blue eyes would not meet my gaze which told me even more so that she was hiding something.

I stepped again so I was less than a foot from her. She didn’t move an inch as I leaned toward her, peeking over her shoulder and plucking a small piece of paper from her hand.

I shot her a look before looking down at the paper.

We know who you are. Watch your back or our next encounter won’t end with only bruises and a few broken plates.

My head snapped up, looking at the girl in front of me. She ducked her head, refusing to look at me. So I trained my gaze on the corner she was crouched in a second ago. There was a floorboard missing and in it a shoebox filled with a few random items. I sucked in a breath when I realized what she’d been doing.

“When did you find this?” I asked sternly, gripping the paper tightly. She still wouldn’t look so I tipped her head up myself, putting my finger under her chin and lifting like I’d done the other day, forcing her to look my in the eyes.

“I’m serious, how long have you had this?” I repeated.

Her eyes flicked all over my face before she let out a breath, “I found it last night,” she confessed and I clenched my jaw. “I just didn’t want you to make a big deal out of it!”

“Auden this tells us who did this to you! Why the hell wouldn’t you tell me?” I asked anger seeping into my voice.

“Because I knew you would want to try and go after them!” she fired back, matching my burning gaze. “You heard what those psychopaths said that night, you can’t go looking for them or it won’t just be me getting hurt.”

I opened my mouth to argue but she was right.

“I should’ve have told you but can you please understand why I didn’t?” she asked looking deeply into my eyes.

She knew that by telling, me I would want to go after those cowards and rip them apart, which was exactly what wanted to do. But she also knew that the safety of not only her and my friends but my entire pack would be at stake if I tried to go after them.

“Just because you’re right doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I huffed, crossing my arms.

She smiled and rolled her eyes before snatching the paper from my fingers. It was now wrinkled from my hard grip but she didn’t seem to care, and proceeded to tearing the parchment in half and tossing it into the bin.

“There,” she finished. “All gone. Now what did you come in here to talk about before you started grilling me?” she asked playfully.

I scowled, “I wasn’t- Ugh whatever. My father texted Kenzie and said he wants to speak to me so I have to go. She just stepped out because Holden called so I can’t imagine how long she’ll be gone.”

She smiled for a second before it fell, being replaced by a nervous look, “I’m really sorry if I got you in trouble with your father.”

I shook my head, “We’ve been over this, I can handle him-”

“It’s not just that,” she cut me off. “Bringing me to your grounds, yeah that was a risky thing to do, and I’m sure he’ll bust you for it, but that’s not the worst thing. You know that right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t told anyone about what you guys told me on the rocks that day, like you asked.”

I nodded, “And we’re grateful for that.”

“But you only told us because we forced you to,” she swallowed, probably feeling the guilt of blackmailing us for answers. “Your father won’t understand that. You broke a huge rule telling us, he’s bound to know that.”

Her expression was one of unease and nerves and I found it strange for a second because she didn’t have anything to worry about. But then I realized-

“You’re worried about me aren’t you?” I said, a smirk playing on my lips.

She rolled her eyes at me again but failed to hide the slight blush that crept up on her skin, “Well yeah I’m worried that your dad will toss you in a dungeon for breaking the law.”

I hid my smirk at the fact that she had avoided answering the real question.

“Look, you don’t have to worry,” I told her holding her wrists in an attempt to calm her nerves. “There are some things I’ve been meaning to talk to my father about for a while now and this is just an excuse to do so.”

“But the-”

“I think he’s been lying to me,” I said, making her shut her mouth. She looked at me to continue, “I don’t know how everything is connected yet but I’m hoping I can work that out now. But I promise I’ll explain it when I get some answer from him.”

The look in her eyes seemed like she wanted to say something else, but she didn’t. She just looked down at my hands and nodded. And with that, I said a quick goodbye before leaving the apartment.

~*~

“You haven’t been answering my calls,” My father commented, not looking up from the stack of papers her was examining on his desk.

I walked over to the bookshelf across from him. The room was cold and eerily quiet. Or maybe that was just my anxiety making myself aware of how the dreaded room always was. How anyone could work in there was beyond me.

“My phone ran out of charge while I was out.”

He turned the page, “You should be more responsible with that,” he replied simply.

I knit my brows and turned to him, “If you’re going to scold me or punish me, will you just get to it rather than stalling with small talk?” I spat angrily.

His gaze snapped up to mine and he set down the papers, folding his hands on the surface of the table, “What were you thinking?” he glared at me.

“She was hurt, I had-”

“No,” he silenced me with the tone of his voice. “Mason, the correct answer is you weren’t thinking. Do you know how I can tell? Because if you had been thinking you would’ve realized that what you were doing was stupid and dangerous, not just to you but for her and our pack.”

“Father she was hurt I had no other choice,”

He stared daggers at me, “She’s human you could’ve taken her to a human hospital.”

I shook my head, “She’s got a history with them and refused when I suggested the same thing.”

He sighed, rubbing his hand down his face, “I just don’t understand how you could’ve been so careless as to tell her the truth about you, about all of us! I know your mother and I did not raise you to be so ignorant.”

I brushed off the sore topic of my mother quickly so I didn’t let my anger get the best of me.

“You also raised me not to lie, but it seems as though you have a pretty hard time fulfilling that moral yourself,” I snapped.

He looked back at me, both confusion and anger written on his stress worn features, “I do not know to what you are referring to.”

“I heard that conversation that you and William had that day about the rogues near the border,” I told him, hoping I didn’t sound hesitant to admit that we’d eavesdropped.

His eyes narrowed, “That was a private conversation, one that was none of your concern,” he brushed it off.

“None of my concern? How could it not be my concern, it’s my pack as well!” I yelled.

“Of what relevance does this have to the thing you brought here?” he growled, ignoring my statement.

“That thing’s name is Auden. And it matters because we were attacked by those same wolves that were reported near the border,”

He was silent for a moment, brown eyes identical to mine searching my face for anything that could indicate that I was lying. I could tell he was trying to read my thoughts and judging by the look on his face, he didn’t like what he heard.

“How did it happen, I need to know everything,” he demanded, his voice almost startlingly calm.

I retold the story of what led up to the wolves appearance that day, including in vague detail about how the guys and I listened in on the conversation. His jaw stayed clenched the entire time, I was almost nervous that he’d break his own teeth.

“It was the strangest thing though,” I inquired. “All of the wolves were exact same. Identical. Kenz and I are twins and even we don’t look completely identical in wolf form.”

“Did you ever see their faces?” he asked.

I shook my head, “After the guys got Cassie and Kenzie out of there, they transformed but they had masks on.”

“And did anyone get hurt?”

I balled my fists and nodded, recalling my sister’s beaten state and the same for Auden. Both images made my blood boil but it just fueled the fire I had inside that wanted to destroy the grey pack.

“Kenzie put up a fight but she didn’t want to reveal herself to her friends so she didn’t morph,” I explained.

His eyes grew wide, “She fought two of them in human form?!”

I nodded.

“What about others?”

“Cassie, Riley’s mate was fine, a little shaken up but he got her away before things got ugly,” I answered. “But Auden got caught in the crossfire, trying to protect me.”

He raised an eyebrow in disbelief, “What happened?”

“One of them came at me and she tried to warn me but it happened too fast. They saw how we acted toward each other and used her as blackmail to get me to make a deal with them,” I told him.

“You what?” he yelled angrily.

“They were going to kill her! Werewolf or not she’s still a person and I wasn’t about to let her die,” I matched his tone with equal fire. “They made me promise I wouldn’t come after them in exchange for our lives and a swearing that they wouldn’t disturb our pack.”

He dragged a hand down the side of his face, “So what happened to the girl?”

I sighed, leaning my elbows on my knees, “They nearly choked her to death before I agreed to what they said. I didn’t find out until later that she had also protected Kenzie while the guys and I were fighting the other wolves. She got a nasty gash on her arm to show for it.”

“I saw her in the infirmary that day, it didn’t seem like her little friend did much to help,” Father said passively.

I slammed my hands on his desk, “The fact that you saw her in there means more than you could imagine. If Auden hadn’t taken that blow and slowed the wolf down I might not have a sister right now! Why can’t you understand that?”

“I’ve never even met the girl and so far it seems like she’s caused nothing but trouble for us,”

“Will you just believe your son for once when I say that we can trust her? This attack happened weeks ago and she hasn’t told a soul about us,” I went on. “You know that I don’t trust people easily, you taught me that. I would not have brought her here, let alone told her about us if I didn’t trust her.”

He sighed, still not seeming totally convinced, “Did you ever find out exactly why you were attacked by this, grey wolf pack?” he asked.

I hesitated, wondering if telling him they were actually after Auden would make his impression of her even worse. If that was even possible. I swore, if he’d just have one conversation with the girl, he’d see that he was being ridiculous and she was of no threat to any of us.

My father eyes me, noticing my hesitation. His eyes flickered white like Kenzie’s did when she got a vision and I could tell his was creeping around in my thoughts.

When they returned to their normal brown, he sat back in his chair, a satisfied look on his face, “So you’re trying to argue that she helped you and your sister, while she was the reason that you were attacked in the first place?” I could tell he was close to smirking because he believed he was right.

I stood up form the chair I sat in across from him, fed up with his arrogance and the fact that he wouldn’t listen to a word I said.

“I thought that you might actually want to talk about something that mattered to me for once but I guess I was wrong,” I spat. “I’m sorry that you can’t get off your high horse and realize that I’m not a child who does stupid things wherever he goes.”

His face flickered with some emotion that I didn’t know or care to read into.

“Believe me about the girl or don’t but these guys that attacked us, and that you’ve been lying to our pack about, are and actual threat that we need to be thinking seriously about. So come and find me when you actually want to deal with them, because it seems to me that right now you only care about the girl that you are too blind to see that we can trust.”

I walked over to the door, and just before I left I stopped.

“Mom would’ve trusted me,”

And I slammed the door behind me.

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

Well then. So of you have read my previous author’s notes you’ll know that I cannot emphasize enough that the stupid little things throughout this story are extremely significant and will become extremely significant very soon in this story. I promise.

Hope you enjoyed!

As always, comment, don’t hate, and read on!

~ your Cheshire Cat loving friend