by Bailey, G.
“Ana, this is Pike and Dale,” Raine introduces them. “This is Ana, and you know Mason from around.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dale says, and Pike nods at us, keeping his eyes on Mason like he is a threat for some reason as he holds onto Raine’s waist.
“Have you ordered food?” Raine asks. I look around at the other tables and quickly conclude they sell only homemade pizzas here. Good thing I’m not fussy and love pizza of any kind. Except pineapple pizza. That is a big no.
“Yep,” Pike says simply, and I’m getting the feeling he isn’t a man of many words.
“I’m going to get us drinks,” Raine says, standing up and dragging Pike off with her. There is an awkward silence at the table, thankfully made a little better by the busy room I stare around at until Raine comes back.
“Here we go.” She slides a purple drink in front of me, a beer in front of Mason, and Pike puts the other drinks down for them. A few moments later, a woman comes over to us, sliding a giant pizza across the middle of the table on a big plate. Each slice looks like a different flavour. I watch in horror as Mason picks up a pineapple and bacon looking slice.
“Don’t tell me you are one of those people who think pineapple and pizza belong together?” I ask. The others chuckle as he grins at me and my reaction.
“They shouldn’t fight it. They belong with each other and taste so, so good together,” he says, and I have a feeling there is a hidden meaning in that statement that makes my cheeks light up. I quickly look away and get a slice with chicken, eating it slowly before sipping the fruity tasting drink Raine gave me. The food and drink are amazing, and after a little while, we all seem to relax. Dale and Mason start talking as I watch the band in the corner of the room, listening to them play music I don’t recognise, though the music makes me sway in my seat, wanting to dance like so many others are. Mason touches my arm just before a loud alarm goes off, and the music stops.
Someone shouts over the crowd, “Everyone outside, now. That’s the evacuation alarm. You have to return to your houses!” and then everything is chaos. Mason pulls me to his side, helping me outside in the group of people running for the small door. One minute, my hand is in Mason’s, and the next we are separated, and I am pushed with the crowd outside. I push my way through people and get to the side of the building, which has a dark alley, turning around to watch people running past. I will just wait until they are gone, then get to the car. I freeze when I hear a noise behind me and spin around, seeing a shadow of a man in a cloak. I quickly recognise him as the man from the train station, and I step back in fear. I scream when someone puts their hands on my waist, and I turn back.
“It’s me, what is wrong?” Mason asks, holding me close as I look back to where the man was. There is no one there though.
“Nothing, we should go,” I say, though my voice shakes. Whoever that person is, they are following me. It makes me wonder if they knew I was going to change into a familiar on that day. Is that even possible?
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Mason darkly replies, staring down the alley and keeping me close as we walk back to the car.
The missing wolf.
“That’s my dad’s car,” Raine points out as she pulls up next to the blue Jeep outside our cabin. “I’m coming in.”
We all get out of the car, Mason placing his arm tightly around me as we walk up to the house. Raine goes in first, followed by her boyfriends, and then we follow. Hugh is sat next to Shadow and Silver, and Shadow instantly runs to my side. I place my hand on his shoulder as I meet Hugh’s gaze.
“What is going on?” I ask, seeing Alex and Liam in the corner of my eye, walking over.
“There is a missing wolf familiar. The empire is on lockdown.”
A silence drifts over the group, none of us knowing exactly what to say to that one other than the obvious question I wait for someone to say, but they don’t.
“Where is the familiar who the wolf was linked to?” I ask.
“Also missing,” Hugh adds, which makes us descend into more silence. This is bad, really bad. I might not have been here long, but I doubt it’s good for their security to have anyone missing. It’s likely the familiar snuck out into the normal world. Maybe they ran away? If that is even possible. It’s funny how no one suspects that though, and it makes me wonder if there is an enemy they already know about. I glance at Mason’s tense expression, Liam’s stressed out frown and Alex’s lazy, narrow eyed look as he stares from the kitchen entrance.
“Who was it?” Liam asks, rubbing his chin, his eyes drifting over me for a brief second before he quickly moves his gaze away. “There are only twenty wolves in the empire, unless I have missed anyone.”
“It was Zoey McKeze and her wolf, Dire,” Hugh answers. “I cannot stay, but I am visiting all wolf familiars as I want them all to be accounted for and kept under watch. I presume I can trust you three to keep close to Anastasia at all times?” Hugh keeps his eyes on Mason, Liam and Alex, who eventually all nod in agreement one by one.
“Zoey is thirteen years old. We have to find her,” Raine demands, her voice spluttering with a mixture of pure cold shock and a desperate anger. Thirteen? Why would anyone take a young wolf familiar?
How would they even get them out of the empire?
“We are aware, but there are signs of the east wall being damaged. I don’t think Zoey is in the empire anymore,” Hugh sadly tells his daughter, walking to her side and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, whispering something we can’t hear before he talks once more to us. “All the Familiar Empires have been alerted and familiar soldiers are on their way here, as we speak, from the capital. We have enemies in the human world who would love nothing more than a familiar to experiment on. They do not like how we can heal or be superior to them in any way.”
“What is the capital?” I ask. We were all human once, except Raine I guess, but the humans have their own laws and rules. I know there are evil people out there, but it seems like a lot of effort to kidnap someone from in here when they could wait for a new familiar to pop up on the outside and take them much more easily.
“The capital of the Familiar Empire is in America, the biggest community in the world. It makes this place look like a dot in comparison,” Alex drawls, his tone suggesting I’m an idiot for not knowing this already. Hugh and Raine leave not long after, and I shut the door, resting my head against it as Shadow walks to my side. Lifting my hand, I rest it on his soft fur, letting my fingers sink into him as I turn away from the door and to Shadow instead. I feel a touch nervous as I rest my forehead on Shadow’s, but for some reason, it makes me feel a million times better than I did a second ago.
“Nothing like your familiar for that connection you need, is there?” Mason asks, and I lift my head, seeing him sitting on the steps of the stairs. Alex and Liam are in the kitchen; I can hear them moving about as I move away from Shadow and sit next to Mason on the steps.
“Am I safe here?” I ask him quietly. “I’ve never been in danger. Not once in my life, because I’ve always followed the rules. Never got in trouble. It was always my older sister who did the rebellious stuff but not me…and now I think I’ve got myself in danger without even trying to.”
“No one in the world is as safe as they like to believe they are. We are all a stone’s throw away from disaster, but the trick is not to worry about it. Worry and stress will make you forget to live in the moment, enjoy the little things,” he tells me, patting my arm ever so softly as he stands up and heads up the stairs. I look up as he gets to the top step, and ask one more question.
“Has anyone ever gone missing from the empire before Zoey?”
He looks down at me, the shadows of the dark night highlighting his high cheekbones, the softness of his lips that are a direct contrast to the hardness in his eyes, as he tells me the pure truth.
“No. Never.”
For some reason, that makes it a million times worse. My lips itch to tell Mason about the man in the cloak, the man that seems t
o be following me, even to here where it should be impossible.
But I don’t.
I keep my own secrets, just like my roommates are no doubt doing.
It might be the only way I can survive.
A silver spoon stuck up his…
“How was work?” I jump, dropping all the files I had in my hands all over the frosty leaf-covered ground outside the infirmary as Liam speaks. I turn my head to see his cheek tinted pink as he moves off the wall he was leaning against, an apology spilling from his kissable lips. “Shit, I didn’t mean to scare you. I should have known better with everything that happened last night.”
“I’m on edge. It isn’t your fault,” I softly tell him, lowering myself to my knees at the same time he does as we pick up the files, brushing them off and getting them in a neat pile. “I thought Mason was taking me home today. Not that I mind you being here.”
“Mason has been held up, and I thought it might be a good idea to take you shopping like we agreed. Only we can’t go for dinner because Alex is cooking and I think he would throw it at us if we didn’t turn up,” he explains, pulling himself up and handing me the files he collected. I add them to the ones I have and hold them against my chest as Liam searches his hoodie pockets. I shiver against the cold wind as I worry about how I’m going to afford anything at all with the little money in my savings. I suppose I could afford new boots and a coat...if they are cheap enough. “I stopped off at Hugh’s and got this for you.” Liam hands me a smooth red bank card from a bank I don’t recognise, and it has my name on it. “Hugh has put a few thousand on it to start you off, and he will take it out of your wages slowly so it’s not too much of a strain on you.”
“I can’t—”
“Every familiar gets the same thing, so don’t worry about it,” Liam interrupts, holding his keys out and unlocking his car. “Let’s go, it’s too cold today.” I don’t get a chance to argue with him over the card anymore before he is jogging to the car. I grip the card harder in my hand as I realise that accepting it means I owe the Familiar Empire something else...and I don’t want to owe them anything.
It hits me like a brick. I don’t trust them or feel safe here anymore. I don’t think I ever have done. I jog to the car, pull the door open and get in before shutting the door. I place the files in Liam’s glove box before doing my seatbelt up, my thoughts still stuck on the card burning a place in my hand.
“You don’t like anything that feels like charity, right?” Liam asks as he starts the Jeep and we head down the road. “And taking the card means you’re accepting help and you are owing someone something.”
“Can you read thoughts?” I enquire.
“I wish,” Liam chuckles, his laugh rolling through me and giving me goose bumps. He shouldn’t be allowed to laugh, it’s too sexy. “If I could read thoughts, I’d know why you have goose bumps and your beautiful eyes are looking at me with such...well, I’m not sure, but I’m clueless, so doesn’t that prove everything?”
“Possibly,” I reply. “And I just like your laugh. It’s nice.” It’s nice? Real smooth, Ana.
There is a silence that drifts over us like the plague as I realise I shouldn’t have said that and now I’ve just made it weird. I sneak a glance at Liam just once, seeing his hands tightly gripping the steering wheel, his body tense enough to break the wheel altogether.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” I tell him. “I don’t want to make us all living together awkward, and I’ve not had guy friends before. I need to figure out where the line is.”
“No, it’s not that...it’s complicated,” he says through gritted teeth. Frowning, I cross my arms and look out the window the rest of the journey, having no idea what is wrong with Liam. Maybe he has a girlfriend and I’ve just made it uncomfortable for him.
Maybe he likes guys and I’ve made it doubly awkward for him.
Maybe I’m just terrible at flirting and not his type. Eventually we come to a stop, and I get out the car like it’s on fire, walking straight towards the rows of shops in the centre of the Familiar Empire that I saw last night. I recognise the bar we went to last night as I pass it, and Liam catches up to me just by the alleyway that I sneak a glance down, seeing nothing but darkness.
“This shop is good for clothes. Want me to come in?” Liam asks as we stop outside one of the glass windowed stores with a blue glowing sign above it. I cross my arms as I turn and face Liam.
“Maybe not. I don’t want to make it weird for you,” I say.
“Look...it really wasn’t you back there. There was someone in my past that loved my laugh, and you saying that just reminded me of her exact words,” he explains to me, stepping closer. He lifts a hand, picking up a strand of my blonde hair, playing with it between his fingers. “Though she had red hair like fire and yours is like ice. I’ve always loved the cold.”
Clearing my throat, I’m surprised I manage to get any words out as he lets go of my hair, snapping out of some trance. “Who was she?”
“Someone I don’t want to see again, that’s for sure,” he softly tells me, stepping closer. His hand drifts down my arm before finding my hand and linking our fingers. “We all have a past, don’t we? It’s our job to find a future we actually want to fight for.”
“I don’t have a secret past. I’ve told you everything,” I tell him, and he sadly smiles at me.
“And that’s why I like you. There is no one in my life I’ve ever met that is as honest about everything as you are,” he replies.
“I didn’t say I was honest about everything,” I mumble. “The pasta Alex made last night didn’t taste nice, and I lied.”
“We all knew,” he laughs, and I grin at him, feeling my cheeks lighting up. “But don’t tell Alex. He thinks he is a master cook, as well as a master at, well, everything else.”
“I’m not brave enough to tell him that,” I chuckle as Liam tugs on my hand, leading me into the shop as he laughs too.
“Liam!” a dainty older lady exclaims as we walk into the shop, and she rushes over. The shop is bigger than I expected, with rows of clothes on hangers. The back of the shop is filled with shoes on shelves, and there are changing rooms either side of them. Liam hugs the dark brown-haired woman before she sees me and offers me her hand to shake. She has milky coloured skin, her hair is curly and flows around her as she moves, and she is curvy in a sexy way.
“Penelope, this is Anastasia. Ana, this is Penelope, and she runs the four stores down this street. If anyone can find you anything, it’s Penelope,” Liam introduces us, and I smile.
“Hello! I heard a new familiar had come in, and I’ve been expecting you. I’m guessing you need winter clothes, some good boots, new bedding and women’s stuff that won’t be found in the boys’ cabin?” Penelope basically takes the words out of my mouth.
“It’s like you read my mind,” I sigh.
“And with that, I’m going to the bakery to buy cakes for dessert tonight. You’re in luck, Ana, Alex is cooking his favourite pot roast, and it’s damn good,” Liam says and lifts my hand, kissing the back before letting me go. I miss his hand the second it’s gone, and at the same time, I want to tell myself to stop being silly.
I am Anastasia Noble, and I do not get all lovey dovey with guys.
What the hell would Bethany say if she could see me now? “Be good to my Ana, Penelope. I might bring you a chocolate cake back if you do.”
“Make sure it has sprinkles, Liam,” Penelope jokes as Liam walks out, his soft chuckle drifting to my ears before he goes. Penelope turns to me, running her eyes over me just once. “I would guess a size ten in clothing and feet size six. Am I right?”
“Yes, how did you know that?” I question, actually amazed.
“I’m good at this,” she explains to me, walking down the aisle and nodding her head for me to follow. I eye a black hamster just as it runs out of the clothes aisle and up Penelope’s leg to her shoulder where it stares at me with the same blue eyes Penelope has. �
��This is Dutch, my familiar.”
“He is cute,” I say.
“Much like the three guys you are living with. Do you know how many girls here would die to be in your shoes?” she asks, a soft laugh escaping her lips as she stops and starts pushing clothes aside. “If only I were ten years younger and not married. I’d be camping outside their cabin every night until they invited me in.”
“Erm...” I mutter, words escaping me, and she tugs out a brown coat with large buttons, a tight belt and a big hood.
“Don’t worry, I will make you look fabulous so that those boys will finally notice a girl around here,” she firmly says. Her smile and laugh make me chuckle; she is infectious with happiness. I can see why Liam likes her.
“They don’t date?” I quietly enquire as I try the coat on and walk to the mirror, Penelope following after me.
“Never,” she tells me as I do the buttons up, enjoying how cosy the coat is already.
“Why not?” I ask, meeting her eyes in the mirror.
“That’s for you to find out. Everyone assumes they are gay, that is until they saw you with Mason last night, and then you came in holding hands with Liam today. It’s an interesting turn of events,” she muses, brushing the coat down for me.
“They are my friends,” I say, loving the coat as I stare at myself in the mirror. Everything from the colour to the shape compliments me perfectly. Penelope wraps an arm around my shoulder, and I find myself smiling at her.
“For now.”
* * *
“Wow, Alex, you made this?” I question, trying not to eat the pot roast too quickly as it’s damn nice. We are all sat around in the basement, a movie playing on the small TV down here as we sit on the three sofas. The movie choice is Mason’s tonight, and it’s Die Hard, but I’m not sure which one of the movies it is. I’m sure there are dozens of them. I’ve hardly watched it as I’ve devoured nearly all my food, and the guys are tucking into theirs. We have chocolate cake for dessert thanks to Liam getting it from the bakery.
