Prey of Fate (bxb)

Chapter 5 - Decision

Open the fridge, then check the phone. Brush my teeth, then check the phone. Go to the meeting... and check the phone. I was in a vicious circle. My rational side screamed at me that it was too dangerous and that I could endanger the entire pack with a single message. However, the side that had longed for a mate all my life begged me with every thought to contact him. I was faced with a difficult decision.

I knew that eventually, I would have to choose – either text Tobias or Liliana or delete their numbers so they wouldn't haunt me. And while I normally had no problem making decisions, in this case, it was almost impossible. Maybe that's why I decided to delay it for as long as possible.

I needed to clear my head which meant it was the right time to visit my family. Jacob was currently in the interim period when he was home for a couple of weeks, so we all tried to spend as much time as possible with him. If we got on his nerves, he kept quiet about it and let us continue to annoy him.

Cora on the other hand. Fresh sixteen often took its toll on her mood. Like most of the teenagers in the pack, she had alternate classes. She went to school in the closest town two days a week. All the subjects she could take in the pack were taught by wolves who were accredited to do so. There weren't many of them, but still enough for the wolves to go to the town only minimally. Of course, they didn't like that very much. They got a taste of the world outside the pack and had to come to terms with the fact that they couldn't live in it all the time. In reality, it wasn't so bad, the pack was ideal for wolves, but I understood that they might miss their friends, cafes, or cinema. Moreover, they had a hard time explaining to their friends why they couldn't invite them to their house. People often thought we were weird, and it was all the more difficult for us to fit in. Cora's friends were no different, but luckily, they eventually got used to our family living differently than they were used to. However, not everyone was equally understanding and there were always some idiots who picked on her. And she was still upset that she couldn't just throw them over her shoulder. With how she liked to solve problems by force, I was surprised that she decided to follow in our mother's footsteps and not our father's.

Today was one of those days when she was home. And according to my calculations and the shift schedule in the pack house, our father should have been home as well. Chaos was guaranteed which meant a perfect day to visit.

As I mentioned last time, the fam lived just down the street from me. And even if you didn't know it, all you had to do was come to the neighbourhood and follow the sound. Or rather noise. Wolves were temperamental by nature, but in our house, it was doubly true. Three children and two parents working in places where there was no time or space for conversations? Yep, noise at home was guaranteed.

When I moved out a year ago, at first, I thought the sudden silence would drive me crazy. Perhaps I need not say that I visited them more often than I should have. Not that it would bother them, with one son always on the go and the other finally back from college. Each wolf family was a small pack in itself. In ours, I held the position of peacemaker and surrogate parent most of the time. The destiny of the eldest sibling.

As the middle child, Jacob somewhat conformed to the stereotypes. He was always independent, so he had no problem traveling the world on his own to fulfil his dream. However, the moments when he was at home were irreplaceable. You know what they say, the middle child is the one who secretly keeps the family from falling apart. This was certainly the case with Jacob. He and I were inseparable as children. As an older brother, I took him everywhere with me and all my friends always loved him because he was such an adorable kid. As he started to grow and hit puberty, I had to admit that he was smarter than others his age, making our four-year difference seem much smaller. That's actually what he still has. Although he was only nineteen, he was working harder on his future than some adults.