Mates (ON HOLD)

51. new normalities

A/N: To 2018, a year filled with many more updates.

And an ending, hopefully. But for now...

Enjoy ;)

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C H A P T E R  F I F T Y-O N E:
new normalities

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M A T C H E S

If there was one thing I loved, besides Liv (obviously), it was that feeling right after you wake up from a deep sleep, 'warm with sleep'. Tired and not fully aware of where you are or how you should feel normally. Warm, covered in blankets and drowning in your subconscious, the moment before you swim up and realize you're awake from a dream without dreaming at all. I loved that feeling and, lately, I can barely remember the last time I've had it.

It's Saturday. I wake up. Four thirty am and I slip my arm out from under Livs head, as usual, tiptoeing my way around the room, pausing any time he moves, listening to his heart beat to see if he's awake.

He stays asleep this morning.

After I'm dressed, I make my way down the stairs, ears keen on every creak in the house until I'm outside and then I'm on a full radius. Victor, the head guard greets me at the back door, and I relieve him of his light duty, as usual, and I stand in the back yard, looking around in the dark, any little movement gaining my attention.

I wipe whatever sleep that has collected in my eyes and run a perimeter, going all the way to the lake and past the end of the road. Clear today. The lake lights blue every time I'm within ten feet of it and I make sure to avoid the actual water, my shoulder already aching from the thought of what happened last time.

By the time I'm done with my round, Parlia and Jamie are tiredly slinking outside, all the warriors following as the sun reaches the horizon over the tree line. Today, I'll join the front just as I have for the past couple weeks, my voice reaching far over the crowd of warriors. Jamie says when we get to the loudest part of the chant, her ears ring from how loud I get. I don't notice.

After the chant, we run. I run 20 miles and stop, going another five to run the radius, checking corners, under rocks and in trees until whatever fear I have is placated enough.

Then it's meetings, plans and arguing at the elder table, Livator always coming it late, his eyes heavy with sleep. No one says anything. He sits beside me, his hand ruffling through the hair at the nape of my neck. The meeting continues after Liv is seated, Parlia quietly catching him up.

The elders always have something to talk about. The crack in the stairs, a rough pup, a sighting in the woods. It's endless worry for all of us and I'm sure they get just as much sleep as me. Everyone sleeps a little differently now, a little less, with the cold of a coming summer seeping through their blankets.

I think we're all pretending that what happened didn't really happen, that Joesph, a man all of them trusted immensely, was a liar and non-believer. That he wasn't their alpha. And I'd be lying if I said slipping into the clutches of the chair at the head of the table isn't scaring me, because it is.

Already, I can feel the twitching of my fingers as my body fights the mid day dreariness. I'm awake and I need to stay awake until midnight, so I busy myself with Elder Oma's rushing words beside me, "Remember what I said about the witches?"

"What about them?" I ask, glancing up from my desk, paperwork slinked over my math equations.

She leaned on her other foot, her long hair gliding over her fingers, "If what got Elwood before was the witches help, and Madame is a witch, how are we supposed to succeed? It's too big of an advantage, we need their help."