Eventide

Chapter 1, First Scent

CHAPTER 1

First scent

(Soulmate, by Natasha Beddingfield)

     I awoke in a sweat with my heart racing and tears in my eyes.  That damn nightmare again, no doubt, though I was grateful this was one of those mornings that I didn’t remember it in detail.  In the alarm clock’s glow, I saw steam rise into the frigid air above my bed from my sweat-slicked skin.  It was five thirty in the morning, only a few hours since I had finished my last patrol of Trapper Creek.

     Seth would be waking up for school right about now, so I threw back the damp sheet that covered me. It took just two steps to cross my tiny bedroom and scoop my cell phone off my dresser.  

     “Can’t sleep?” Seth asked when he answered.  It didn’t sound as if I had woke him.

     His voice brought a smile to my lips.  “Just checking up on my baby brother.  I didn’t wake Mom and Charlie, did I?”

     Seth snorted.  “The way Charlie snores, not likely.  If Mom can sleep through that, there‘s no way a phone call would wake her.”

     My mother had married Charlie a little over a year ago.  Their wedding was one of only a handful of trips back that I had made since I moved away from La Push.

     “Is she still happy?”  Mom had moved in with Charlie after the wedding, but she had kept our house in La Push.  Seth would inherit our old home when he turned eighteen and graduated high school.  To me, she had given a portion of the life insurance money from Dad’s policy.

     “Definitely.  I’m really glad she married him,” Seth said earnestly.  “He even helped me get Bella’s old truck back on the road so I could use it to finish school on the reservation.  Charlie’s not great with a wrench, but he spent two weekends busting his knuckles in the driveway with me.  It’s a good thing Jacob helped me throughout the week.  We got it done pretty quick, so Charlie‘s knuckles can heal.”

     “I‘m happy for her.”

     Seth would be out of the house within the next couple of years, so I felt better knowing Mom would not be all alone.  In truth, Charlie was good for Seth as well, with Dad gone.  

     “They’re lucky to have each other.”  That last came out more wistful than I would have liked.

     “It hasn’t helped much, has it?” Seth asked.  He knew me so well that a slip like that wouldn‘t get by him.  “We all thought you’d be happier once you moved away.  But you’re not, are you?”

     I sighed.  “Did you really moving would magically solve all my problems?”  That sounded pathetic, even to me, so I tried again.  “Look, Seth, my situation is what it is, no matter where I go.  I can deal, but I doubt I‘ll ever be happy about it.  You know my theory.”

     “Knock it off, Leah.  You’re not a genetic dead end.  I keep telling you but you’re hardheaded, like Dad.”  There was a long pause.  “I mean-- like Dad was.”

     I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat.  “Can I ask you something?”  Without waiting for an answer I asked, “Do you think Dad knew it was coming, you know, before we changed?”

     Seth knew what I was talking about.  We had both transformed at almost the same time and our father had died very soon after, too soon for us to have told him.  Dad had been an elder and knew all about the wolves of La Push, so there was a good chance he had recognized the signs and knew what was happening to his children before we transformed.