Talia loved her children. It was her love as a mother that soothed nightmares and praised good report cards (because no one brought a bad report card home to Mama Hale). It was her love as an Alpha that taught her children how to survive their lifelong walk on that high wire between the supernatural world and the human world. Derek and Cora were her babies, loved and taught as Betas.
Laura was taught just a little bit different.
~~
“You must love your pack above everything else, Laura. Even above your own life.”
Laura sits in the hospital waiting room, tuning out most of the chatter around her. None of the conversations concern her. They’re all sad and frightened and private. Not for her. The cold, sterile air is unnatural enough to keep her alert. Well, that and she just plain doesn’t like hospitals. Hasn’t since she had to walk these fluorescent hallways all the way down to the morgue. The doctors were amazed that she could identify the remains so clearly when they were so badly burned. Laura didn’t tell them that it was because she could smell them.
Tik. Tik. Tik.
Laura drops her eyes and watches the nurse shuffle past, keeping her head low over the gurney with Isaac strapped to it. Her feet are bare. Her toenails are claws, wicked and curved. Laura lets her go.
The intercom system pages a doctor to the room where the Alpha is taking Isaac. Isaac is already healed. Even Alpha wounds don’t heal that slowly, Laura knows. She’ll owe Ms. McCall an apology for making her make up yet another lie to cover up the track of a werewolf. A nurse is probably more equipped than her to explain why a gored teenager suddenly doesn’t have a single mark on him.
Laura flips through an issue of Better Homes and Gardens, something six months old with ideas for Valentine cupcakes covered in frosting so red that her throat burns a little just looking at the picture. And she listens. Listens to the gurney being wheeled back out of the operating room, with that same hard squeak on the left front wheel. Listens to the nurse that leans over the front desk and murmurs quietly to the woman who wields the black marker for the scheduling board.
“Room 2 is clear.”
Laura doesn’t hear the rest of the conversation, what the woman says happened or what questions get asked. She gets up, sets the magazine down, and walks out of the waiting room.
~~
“Your pack will love you above their own lives already. They will give them up for you in an instant. Protect them over any ideal of honor.”
Ennis pushes the wheelchair down the hallway, sparse enough on this floor that no one notices that they don’t recognize him. Or mentions that it’s probably several violations to just wheel an unconscious person around, slumped forward in a chair. Isaac’s chair is halfway over the threshold of the elevator when Ennis freezes, nostrils flaring.
“Get in the elevator, Ennis.” Laura stands in the corner by the row of buttons, hands in the pockets of her red leather jacket. The smell of her Beta and the sound of his drugged heartbeat is enough that her eyes light up red. She doesn’t take them off of Ennis, though.
“Hale.” Ennis grins, displaying his fangs. Laura smiles back, flashing her flat, human teeth. That gets a snarl out of Ennis, and his eyes turn red like something is bleeding into them, thick and dull. “Bitch.”
“Get in the elevator,” she repeats, dropping the smile. Seeing him glance over his shoulder, she adds, “Kali won’t be joining us.”
Not that Laura ever actually thought that the Alpha Pack was here for a fair fight, but life usually doesn’t confirm suspicions quite so nicely as it does now, when Ennis releases his grip on the wheelchair and goes to take a step back. She snatches the front of his scrubs, claws gouging deep into the skin. One good yank on the meaty handful and Ennis slams into the back wall of the elevator before the blood even begins to soak through his clothes.
Laura pulls Isaac’s wheelchair in much more gently, then hits the ‘Close Door’ button.
~~
“What if I am stronger than my enemy, Mama?”
“What matters, my dear, is whether they are stronger than the weakest member of your pack.”
“That doesn’t make me anything more than a killer.”
“Power will make things complicated. You will have to decide for yourself where the line between predator and killer lies. There will be nights when you don’t sleep well because you aren’t sure.”
“I want you two to stand down.” Laura finds she can’t muster up the same righteous anger for the twin Alphas. She’s gotten good at picking out people who are in someone else’s collection. The twins remind her of Derek a little, probably a curiosity Deucalion picked up on a whim because it was sort of interesting. Easily the most expendable members of the Alpha Pack and not particularly good at killing yet.
“Stand down,” she repeats. “And I’ll let you go, as long as you leave town.”
They look at each other like they think she’s crazy, like they have the advantage. Every twitch of an eyebrow is part of a conversation Laura isn’t privy to, but she doesn’t need to be. It’s not hard to guess what these two are planning. Two Alphas against one in an empty maintenance hallway, free of cameras and pesky people who might call the cops? Of course they think they can win. They’re still puppies.
“Hey!” Laura delivers a savage kick to the body laying half out of the elevator and half in the hallway. Something cracks and Ennis’s body rolls forward a few inches, his shoulder now at the wrong angle. The twins startle back a step at the visceral reminder of their dead packmate a few feet away. “Go. Take your friend, if you want to bury him.”
“Wouldn’t waste the energy.” Silent decision made, one twin crouches down and the other one steps behind him, grabbing his shoulder. Laura watches the skin begin to fuse, as two bodies become one shapeless mass, bones cracking and shifting until the thing raises up over her. Extra limbs have turned into bulk and the abomination rolls its shoulders, joints popping as everything tries to settle into place.
Laura looks over her shoulder at where Isaac is tucked into the corner of the elevator, still unconscious, still in need of the sort of medical help a hospital can’t give him. She sighs and flicks her claws out. “Alright then. I’ll make it fast for you, at least.”
~~
“Being an Alpha sounds… really hard.”
“It is. But there will be good days too. When things are peaceful and your pack is happy, and you’ve saved the people you’re supposed to save. Then you’ll get to rest.”
Laura wakes up to the sound of the abomination’s neck snapping in her hands again. Fifth time this month. Her fingers twitch, still remembering the way the bones resisted and then just… popped. Once the wave of nausea passes, Laura rolls over and confirms that yes, another pillow has also fallen victim to her nightmares. Stuffing and shredded cloth litter the floor beside the bed. And the smell of worried Betas lingers in the hallway, so there will be no attempts at going back to sleep.
Isaac’s door shuts as soon as Laura opens hers, so he can pretend he wasn’t worried at all. Derek stays in the hallway, though, half cast in the shadows of weak sunlight that hasn’t made it this far into the preserve yet.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Laura pulls him into a one-armed hug, and Derek lets her without grumbling because he’s worried and Laura is absolutely willing to take advantage of that and hold on an extra few seconds.
“Boyd and Erica are picking Isaac up today,” Derek says when he finally gets impatient and shrugs her off, back to business as usual. “He needs a ride home, though, because Boyd-”
“Has ROTC after school. I know.” Laura ruffles Derek’s hair. “I’m fine, Derek. Don’t worry.” She heads into the kitchen to start the coffee and shake off the bad night.
The kitchen smells like coffee already. And bacon. And a little bit like smoke, but not to an alarming degree. Laura sighs, picking up the empty coffee pot.
“What have I said about drinking all the coffee?”
“Refill it,” Aiden says, making absolutely no move to get up and do so.
“Sorry,” Ethan adds, because he’s the nicer of the two. Though he also doesn’t try to refill the coffee.
Laura grumbles and pulls out the wet filter, tossing it in the trash. “Did you at least save any bacon for anyone else?”
“I tried, but Aiden ate it.”
Aiden growls at Ethan, eyes flashing blue at him. Ethan does the same thing right back at him and even though Laura can feel a headache coming on already, it pushes the bad dream further away.
“Alright, enough, both of you.” Laura takes the coffee canister that Derek offers her before he moves to sit on the counter and wait for whatever was going to be for breakfast. So she’ll be on her own in figuring that out it seems. Two bickering Betas, two hungry Betas (because Isaac will emerge as soon as the kitchen smells enough like food) and she’s still a good ten minutes away from getting coffee.
