Born to Change [Completed]

9: The Poor Telephone

"H-hunter?" I stutter. He growls and I inch away.

"Hunter, stop playing tricks with me," I say bravely, but inside I'm trembling in fear.

I hear a siren wail and Hunter snaps back into his normal state. He turns his back on me and says, "Hop on!"

I look at him weirdly and he sighs and just picks me up. Luckily my leg has already healed. I don't know why. Maybe they put some magic ointment on it while I was asleep?

Elle, you're being carried by a teenage boy and you're worried about ointment?

I shake my head and instead focus on where we're going. Hunter's going through a maze of hallways, down flights of stairs and through doors. I find that we are in Will's office.

He puts me down with ease as if I weighed nothing. He isn't even panting! What does this guy do, live in the gym?

I adjust myself on the huge chair to find where Hunter is. I find him at the far end of the room with his back turned to me. He's murmuring some words while he dials on a telephone. Whoever he's calling must not be picking up because he groans in frustration and furiously jabs some more buttons. I feel sad for those buttons. They don't have to suffer the wrath of Hunter's fingers.

I hear scuffling outside the door and someone yelling. I inch away from the door.

The door swings open with so much force I swear the door almost snapped off its hinges. In comes a mad and frustrated Will. Travis comes in too with the same expression. He slams the door and the walls shake from the impact.

I guess mad is the new expression for the day. Maybe I should be mad too.

I huff and cross my arms.

"Elle? Are you alright?" I hear Will say. I look at him and see an amused expression on his face. On Travis' too. Not Hunter, he's still torturing the poor telephone. Wait, why am I feeling sympathy for a phone? Speaking of which, where is my phone?

I'm still thinking about my phone when Will clears his throat and I remember his question. I blush and say, "Yeah." Still his expression doesn't falter.

"What's so funny?" I ask innocently.

"Nothing," he and Travis say at the same time.

"Jinx!" I exclaim happily. "You both owe me a soda!"

They look at me weirdly and I sigh. "When two people say the same thing at the same time they say 'jinx' and the first person who says that will be owed a soda," I explain and even put my face in my palm.

They are silent for a while and I look up to see tears streaming down their faces. They finally crack up and I turn to see Hunter supressing a smile. The smile suddenly disappears and he is on the phone talking to someone.

Travis and Will stop and we listen in on their conversation. It isn't very easy, since we could only hear one side but nonetheless we listened.

"What? I thought you ensured protection?"

"No! We sent him away, in exchange for no trespassers!"

"I've had enough of this, expect to see him around again." With that, he slams the phone and the phone breaks. At least the phone doesn't have to suffer anymore.

"What's hapening?" I ask.

They don't pay attention to me. They huddle in a corner talking in hushed voices.

"Are you guys okay?" I ask again.

Still no reply. Travis leaves their circle and for a while I thought he was going to talk to me. But sadly, he grabs something, a piece of paper, from the desk and exits the room.

"What's going on?" I try again.

Will looks at me and I mentally pump my fist. "It's grown-up business," he says and turns back to Hunter.

"Could you just please tell me what's happening?" I ask more loudly than intended because I'm seriously pissed.

I cower when Hunter's glare passes me. His expression softens when he sees my fear.

"You're too young," he responds.

"What is it with people here telling me I'm too young? I've through hell and much worse! Stop babying me! Your parents didn't die when you were young, so don't say I'm too young! You didn't experience hell when you were at a young age. You didn't have to mourn over your parents' ashes not knowing what even happened to them. You didn't live in a world where everybody underestimates you. You didn't lose your life. Sometimes it pays to be a bit more observant and sensitive. Yes, we all have problems but some are much worse than others. Just because you're old doesn't mean you know everything. My age doesn't matter when I have experienced much worst than you could ever imagine," I whimper at the last part and hug my knees, not caring about the expensive chair.

"Elle, I'm so sorry," Hunter starts. He kneels down beside me and lifts up my chin. I look in his murky-green eyes and see pain in them. I see my reflection in them and see that I'm a mess. My face is filled with band-aids and I seem to have grown more thin than ever.

"Damn, is that me?" I ask, and he supresses a smile.

"Face the wrath of your glory's wrath!" He takes out his phone and faces it at me. I see not only band-aids, but also cuts and bruises.

"I have no idea what you just said." I laugh, the tears long forgotten.

"Me neither," he agrees. We laugh and Will joins in, too.

Travis barges in again and looks weirded out by us. His face only makes us laugh harder. When he asks what's wrong we just respond with more laughter.

When we have calmed down Travis reports some stuff on rogues, whatever that is. He looked hesitant at first to report with me there, but Will told him to continue.

He says something about Alpha and I speak up. "Isn't that you Will?" They look at me and supress smiles.

"What?" I ask.