Chapter 11

An awkward silence rang through the room.

“Who never told me what?”

If even possible, the silence seemed to thicken.

“Where is your mother?”

“Excuse me?”

Nathan gave another low grumble, but this time I heard the warning he gave his leader, “Don't.”

He ignored him again. “Your mother. Where is she?”

“Well, if you must know, she left us a couple of years ago. It’s just my brothers, sister, father and I.”

Everyone's eyes seemed to get bigger, if that was even possible. Their eyes slowly tore from me as they whispered amongst themselves.

What was wrong with these people? Sure, it wasn’t ideal, but not impossible to live with.

“Your sister, how old is she?”

I hesitated before answering. “Why?”

“Just answer the question, honey.” The sweet lady who was pouring the drinks peeped up.

“Her and my brother are both five. Why?” I pressed again.

Everybody seemed to relax a little bit at my answer.

”Answer me and tell me why,” I demanded.

Stephan's face twisted in anger, but Nathan stared him back down.

Taking a deep breath, he explained, “The foreseer gene only comes from the same gender as the parent. Because your mother was a foreseer, that means the females in your family would also get the foreseer gene, a little less strength as the parent. However, because your sister and brother are twins, the male gene in the womb killed any chance of your younger sister of having the same gene as you and your mother share.”

I didn't say anything to his explanation. I couldn't. How can someone just believe that they were a 'foreseer'?

Stephan must have interpreted my silence as a hint to keep going, so he continued. “Foreseers are the heart of the supernatural world. The most powerful. Not only can they see the future, but they can read minds, make others hallucinate, uphold telekinesis, and some can even make predictions. Depending on what your mother had, that determines what ability you will have. The stronger the mother, the stronger the child.”

I can do what?! Suddenly finding the lack of Oxygen in the room, I stood and went straight for the sliding door. Before I even got there, though, Nathan was standing in front of me.

“You can't go out there.” He warned, his voice getting so dark it almost stopped me from speaking.

His hand was palm out and inching towards me, as if gesturing that he understood my suffering and wanted to help.

“I need some air,” I rebuked, before shoving his shoulder to shoo him aside.

Only he didn't move. Like stone, he didn't even lean over.

“Nathan, just go with her. After all this, I'm sure she needs some space to think it through.” The woman at the foot at the table suggested.

Nathan's body moved slightly from the door. “And she wouldn't need to go outside if Stephan would have listened to me in the first place! Now she can not only put herself in danger, but us as well.”

Faster than my mind can even process, Stephan jumped from his chair and got right in Nathan's face.

The hatred and detest radiating from him was so strong, I thought he was going to strike out.

He tried to speak through clenched teeth, but it was hard to understand him from the disapproval in his tone.

“You question me? I am the leader of this pack. I don't care if you are my son or not, nobody will speak poorly of me!”

Right away, Nathan bowed his head in shame and moved so he was more directly in this “pack leader's” path.

“Yes, sir. My apologizes.”

I took the opportunity and slipped behind the virile man still slightly blocking my way.

Barely tugging on the handle, the door slid gracefully open and I was able to squeeze myself out the door and into the pouring rain, wrapping itself in a thick layer of fog.

I pushed the hair from my face and race blindly through the fog, hoping to locate some sort of a trail so I can get away without nearly killing myself.

I heard someone behind me and I push myself harder to run faster. My lungs threatened to explode in my chest, as my flip-flops broke and abandoned my feet, but I still ran.

I kept running as the sharp, unadorned branches snatched at my jacket and ripped it right off me.

Finally slowing down, I heaved in heavy breaths of air and lowered myself down onto a boulder nearby.

I had little idea of where I was at the moment, but could care less.

The cold rock under me bit into my rear and thighs. Without my jacket, I was pretty sure my arms would freeze off my body, and my feet felt numb from the cold and needles that were eating away at them.

However, it felt like nothing compared to the confusion and emptiness circling inside me.

I had to have been out here for a few hours. The rain let up about an hour or two ago. Still, although I was the most drenched I have ever been in my entire life, and knew I could get pneumonia or hypothermia or something, I had no urge to go back to that house full of Werewolves, or Shape Shifters, or whatever they call themselves.

I didn't even know what to say when I got back there. ‘Hey, sorry, but I just had to abandon you and run away like a two-year-old because I have issues’.

Yeah, they would probably ship me off to the New Mexico house if I said anything close to that.

The truth was, I didn’t know why my mother could not at least warn me instead of just leaving and having me deal with this all at once with some strangers that abducted me and my best friend at the scene of some fire my best friend just happened to set.

Maybe she thought I wasn't worth it. She didn't need my drama along with her own.

Now that I look at that, I don't blame her. If she didn't really care about us, I didn't want her around.

Even as I thought it, I knew I just lied to myself. I did want her, loving or not.

Tears came flooding out of my eyes again, but I didn't try to hold them in anymore. I just let them flow freely down my face.

All the events and the stress of my new life was starting to catch up to me and I allowed all the tears that wanted to escape flow freely down my cheeks.

I continued beating myself up when I heard footsteps in the pine needles coming towards me and decided to push the pause button on my self-loathing.

I didn't turn around to see who it was, though. I couldn't. If it was someone from our group, I know I wouldn't be able to face them yet. And if it was a stranger, I definitely did not want them seeing me like this.

“Elana?” A British accent made my name sound exotic as it rolled off her tongue,

Hyene.

I still didn't turn around, just studied the trees in front of me. “How did you find me?”

I heard her take a few more steps towards me and realized how close she really is.

“How are you doing?”

Not knowing how to answer her question, I stayed silent.

To be honest, I didn't understand how I was doing.

Sighing, Hyene took a seat by me on my rock.

“Look, I know how it feels to be abandoned. I was in your place, and I want you to know that we are all here just to help you.”

I looked over to my right, studying her carefully.

“I don't tell a lot of people this, but my mum is an alcoholic,” she started. “Well, what I know of my mum, that is. She had never made the right choices. She was a foreseer, like you are, but her father passed away when she was a teenager and she just gave her life to a bottle.

“One day, she found out she was pregnant and didn't know what to do. She knew she didn't want to take care of me, and when she found out I was half Shape Shifter, she freaked and gave me away. She didn't care to whom, so she just handed me off to the first man who wanted me. A man named Dr. Jackson.”

I looked back at my feet as she continued. “He had never heard of a half breed before, yet alone between a foreseer and a Shape Shifter. So, he did what he does best. He experimented on me.”

I turned my head to look at Hyene again, her eyes glossed over from the recollection.

Hyene's hand slowly went to the bottom of her shirt and she lifted the left side up, revealing numerous scars, criss-crossing and intertwining across her caramel skin. There seemed to be more scars than skin on her side.

“They pushed me to my limits, forcing me to shift at a young age, and use my ability for whatever they wanted to use it for. And once I couldn't go any farther, they put me in a cement box for a night, then they would take me out and use me again.”

Hyene released her hand from her shirt and it fell back into place, hiding the past she desperately wanted to forget.

“I was there for ten years when Stephan found me. Although he didn't know me, he did all he could to help me break free. Once I was out, I asked to go see my biological mum, only to find she hadn't changed; she didn't care about what happened to me.”

I heard Hyene sniffle as a lone tear fell down her cheek.

“That's when I decided to stay with Stephan, and he treated me like his own. He showed me how to use my ability for the better and showed me the love I never thought I would be able to find.”

I didn't realize I was crying until I felt a tear drop from my eye.

Here she was, pouring out her heart, while I had nothing to compare even the slightest to. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked, hardly getting the words out in a whisper, the tears still choking my words.

Hyene faced me and looked directly in my eyes.

“Because I want you to know that, even though you left your old life behind, there is always something to look forward to here. We all want to help you and let you join the family if you want to.”

Her comfort emanated to my heart and I felt my own troubles go away.

I would try. I need to.

It's not like I would never see my own family again, I will be able to go back. Someday.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Hyene shot me a small smile and stood. “Well, we best be getting back.”

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