Wolf's Needs

Chapter Nine

It was seven o'clock at night now, and Mary was asleep on the couch with Leila while Mikey tried to watch his crime show, but Meka could see his eyes drooping and saw them go farther and farther every time he tried to fight it. He and Mary really was a nice couple with his super dark skin and her chalk pale skin. It was like seeing an Oreo with no top layer to it. And Meka could clearly see that they were comfortable together, even happy, like they were made for each other. When they were together the love was so powerful it knocked Meka's breathe away, and she could only hope that one day it was like that with her and her own mate.

Jalyn sat across from her, his head falling off of his palm as he shut his coffee colored eyes, and then his head jerked back up as if he had to stay awake. They were probably too scared and nervous to go back to sleep. An untouched cup of coffee sat to his left, and he almost knocked it over once or twice.

"Jalyn," Meka whispered but got no response. He was asleep. "Jalyn?"

His head popped back up and he gasped as if unable to breathe for a second. "I'm awake, I'm awake."

"If you're so tired why don't you just go to bed? It's apparent that you are falling asleep anyways, why not do it comfortably?" She scooted her seat closer to him and whispered so that she didn't wake the already sleeping couple over there on the cramped looking couch.

He groaned softly and dropped his head on his folded arms on the table. In two seconds his breathing had slowed to a constant buh-dump ... buh-dump ... buh-dump. She mimicked his posture but kept her face looking at him, a small smile playing her lips. "Jalyn," her voice was so quiet not even a mouse could hear it. "Jaayy-lyynn?" He was deep asleep.

She wanted him to be comfortable, she wanted them all to be comfortable, but she couldn't move them to bed without waking them. Even if her strength was incomparable.

And then another thought drifted into her mind: they were all asleep and nobody was watching the door. She could get away undetected tonight and never have to look back.

As she thought more and more about it, the more the thought was appealing to her. Not only was she helping them by keeping them safe if all evidence of her was missing from this house, but she was helping her parents because she would be able to find them easier if she had no distractions. This was day two that their M.I.A. has been recorded to Meka's memories, and she feared that if she didn't find them soon then it will be too late for them.

She wasn't a hero, but her parents might be in some deep doodoo.

Who was going to save them if they weren't saving themselves?

She was about to get up from the table and just walk out the door without leaving so much as a note – Hunters would be able to track that, right? – but then she thought, what if the Hunters come back? Association with weres is illegal. Images popped up in my head like cooking popcorn kernels. Jalyn with his arms wrapped tightly around a thick wood pole, a Hunter close behind him with a long, leather bullwhip in his hand. With each crack a new line, red and bloodied, would appear on his back over his own natural markings. Jalyn would jump, he'd grunt, and he'd scream, but they wouldn't stop until they got tired. Behind him, two bodies – a short and thin one and a large and tall one – with potato sacks over their heads were hung and set afire. The fire that burned those limp bodies crackled with the whip as it lashed out on Jalyn's back some more. Meka gasped and fell out of her chair.

Could she leave these people to that?

Would she really be helping them if she left, or would she be setting them to their deaths?

But she didn't have a choice, did she? No, her parents weren't helpless and could probably do much better without her, but she had to at least try, right? She couldn't stay and help the Bakers, even if they had helped her not once or twice, but three times? It was the right thing to do if she left them to fend for themselves against the Hunters, who had abnormally large and vicious dogs, soft-point silver bullets that broke apart upon impact, about a dozen people per hunting team, and a heavy werewolf blood-lust that will make them stop at nothing until they get their target. It was the right thing to do...

Meka didn't know what the right thing to do was. Family before friends, right? That was always the code in the pack; you stick with your blood, not the people you just met yesterday.

Sighing, she stood up and went to go find some actual clothes. She'd need to hunt soon, her energy and strength was waning rapidly and while werewolves even though werewolves healed very quickly, getting her energy back up will speed that process up a notch or two.

Dressed in a hoodie and jeans, Meka prepared to go out. She looked at herself in the mirror out of habit more than out of need to see herself, and while she stared at the her own reflection she wondered, why did she have to be this way? Why could she have been born a human instead of a werewolf, and what would life have been if she had been? She imagined herself going to school with people her own age, and going to parties and on dates. She could be normal, and maybe then it would be easier for her and Jalyn to...

To what?

Meka was scared to even go that far.

Instead she was born like this, with wide hips and a big stature. Most people in the pack looked the same, body wise. Muscle thick without any effort, wide shoulders and hips, somewhat large hands and feet, long necks, etc. Some were tall; Meka was average at five feet five inches. Her father was gargantuan, and her mother was like Meka, not too tall but not too short either.

She had long, springy black curls that looked like wine bottle openers, and her silvery eyes almost blended with the white part of her eyeball. Her nose was smallish, and her chin was softly angle and straight. Her mother had the lightest skin tone out of all of them, and had freckles that just barely brushed the bridge of her nose like a baby doll. Everyone in the pack loved Meka's mother, she acted as if everyone was her child. No one was every afraid to take a visit to the female Alpha, and when they did they could tell her anything and she'd keep it their own little secret. But she always had enough time for Meka too, and unlike her father, she didn't push her too hard or too fast to grow up and do things right. Annette Wells was the anchor that held Meka's father down, and despite how aggravating they made each other sometimes, it was as obvious as looking through clear glass that their love was never-ending.

Sort of like Mary's and Mikey's.