Howling At The Moon

Epiphany

Seth POV

I am out with both packs tonight and while I know that this club is probably the safest kind of fortress against a vampire attack, I can't help but feel the way I felt when the newborns had attacked. Jittery. Nervous. Like some sixth sense was telling me that I was missing something major. Something important. A huge piece of the puzzle in front of me that I hadn't seen before, but was nonetheless expecting. The feeling had crept up on me from the time we had pulled into the parking lot down the street. It had gotten worse when we got inside the club.

It was subconscious, but it made me so jumpy that I had snapped at Kim when she had put her arm around me to ask if I was ok. If it wasn't for the way I had immediately apologized or if Jared hadn't seen the look on my face when I realized it was Kim, then I might have been in realllly deep trouble with Sam's beta.

Kim had shaken off my strange behavior with a warning look at Jared, that had meant she could take care of herself. It didn't make me feel less guilty for snapping at her anyway.

"Seth, sweetie, there is something wrong and I just want you to know, that if you need to talk, well… I AM better at keeping a secret than most of the others around here," she grinned as she indicated the rest of the pack; who were all studiously ignoring us, but I knew their supernatural hearing had picked up every word of our talk, like we were standing right next to them.

"I know you have a big sister to talk to in case something is bugging you, and I know you can take your pick of older brother figures" she lowered her voice before continuing "but just in case you need someone with an objective opinion, you come get me ok? Anytime you need to"

"Thanks Kimmie" I mumbled, while she grinned at the nickname only I was allowed to call her. I hugged her to show that I really did appreciate her offer, and that I was truly sorry about snapping at her earlier. Jared raised his eyebrow at me, and I smirked at him before smiling and letting go of his imprint.

The evening seemed to flow around me, without me noticing anything in particular, except for this nagging urge in the back of my head that seemed to be pushing me towards the other side of the bar. I knew the dance floor extended to both ends of the bar, as it took up one entire side of the club. This meant that my brothers were probably heading to the floor as well. We had a couple of shots earlier, but I wasn't drinking anything after that, making sure I was stone cold sober when it came time to leave. Being designated driver was something we ALL took very seriously.

Jacob had lost his mother thanks to a drunk driver and we had all felt his pain whenever he thought of her and how she had been snatched away because someone was careless.

It was just then when I noticed Embry in some kind of altercation in the middle of the dance floor. I was already up, out of my seat and walking towards him, before I had even realized what I was doing. Jacob grabbed my arm and I noticed that Paul had joined Embry out there. I shook my head at how distracted I felt. Jake looked at me and was about to ask something when a flash of brown curls peeked at me from the other side of the floor. He saw the way my head snapped around and his face took on a thoughtful expression. I heard Embry laugh and he was joined by Paul when I heard this extra edge of music to their laughter. It made my insides twist to the point of discomfort.

I shook my arm out of Jake's slack grip and went back to my table, ignoring the stabbing in my gut that was telling me to walk the other way. I felt confused and disoriented and when I got to the table, it was all I could do not to just slump to the floor. Instead I rested my head on the table and the cold of the marble top seemed to help a little. But only for a few seconds. That was when the gut-wrenching returned full power.

I got up, and made my way towards the exit. I needed air. Just a breather. I couldn't think, or even make sense of the way my head seemed to feel tonight. I heard Embry ask something as I had left the table, but I had no clue what he said. The irony of having the best hearing in both the packs crashed over me, and then disappeared a second later, like every other thought I had had tonight. I couldn't understand feeling this way. As I walked to the door, I felt rather than saw people move out of my way. And even that was like it was happening a million miles away.