Howling At The Moon

Unexplained Explanations

Paul and Jacob exchanged glances before turning to follow Rachel down the pathway that lead to the beach. They kept a few feet behind her, as she cut across the parking lot and took a short-cut over the pebble strewn section of the shoreline, before she came to a tiny isolated cove that most tourists missed. They were guaranteed some privacy here. Struggling to keep her composure, Rachel stopped at a small rock formation and turned to face them. Their faces were identical. Like they had been cut from stone; and their expressions were definitely the work of some kind of sculpture. Ice, maybe.

Being used to having Paul as her shoulder to lean on, she automatically reached forward a little to take his hand, but he pointedly folded his arms across his chest and continued to watch her in silence. He was barely able to keep his face from falling when he saw the hurt in her eyes; but this was followed by dismay as he saw how quickly her eyes shuttered and become masks. As if she refused to let him know how she was feeling. He hated himself for hurting her and the imprint pull was becoming almost unbearable, so he knew she was definitely hurting inside; and hurting bad, if his own discomfort was any indication. But this was something that terrified him. He and Jacob had both headed to Rachel's like they usually did for lunch on Sunday afternoon. But they had stopped short when they had seen a truck racing out of her driveway with a crying girl at the wheel. They had moved towards the house but were again distracted by the conversation their super human hearing had picked up. Now they had nothing but questions. Government agencies? Covert operations? Danger, bad enough to force a young girl into hiding?

What exactly was Rachel hiding?

They waited for her to collect herself as she sat herself on one of the rocks and wrapped her arms around her knees.

She took a deep breath and began to speak.

RACHEL POV

"Jason and I were classmates at college. We had about 3 different classes together and one day we realized that our dorms were next door to each other as well." I smiled as I recalled the gentle demeanor Jason had, and his impeccable manners. "He asked me out, and we went on a couple of dates." I heard Paul growl at that and felt a twinge of satisfaction. After the way he refused to even come near me a few minutes ago, maybe a little dose of jealousy would do him good. "But things felt weird, so we laughed it off and just stayed friends. Now THAT worked for us like a charm. We were so close that nothing was an off limits topic for us. He was there for me every time the anniversary of mom's death came around, and he was the one that convinced me that visiting her grave would help me heal." I thought of how hard it had been for me to accept that, and how patient he had been when talking it over with me. "I went up to Seattle with him when he lost his parents, and helped him sort out his plans with his little sister. She's up at the house right now actually. He practically worshipped the ground she walked on. He has since she was born. And strangely enough, she wasn't one bit spoiled by that fact."

I remember laughing at his panic that she was starting to date, and he wasn't at home to interrogate and intimidate every boy in the vicinity. And his ultimate relief when I pointed out the pattern he hadn't noticed. After every single date, no matter how late it was, she would always call him to tell him how it went. Not her girlfriends, but him. Every single time. That was what finally relaxed him. I shook my head and tried to focus on the topic of my current interrogation by my sibling and my soulmate.

"Anyway, sometime last year, around the end of the semester, there was an aptitude test that the university required all students take. We didn't know it at the time, but the agency running the test was not a psychological mapping survey, but the DEA. There were quite a few busts around the time and there was one particular ring at the university that seemed to have made it through every trap that was set. The profiling they did, pointed out characteristics that they were looking for, in people they wanted to sign up."

I raised my hands to stop both Jake and Paul from interrupting me. Jake looked beyond pissed that I was wrapped up in something dangerous and Paul… well Paul just looked terrified. Come to think of it, I had never even seen him look mildly worried before, including the time that those Italian leeches had paid our neighborhood a visit. Well that was a strange look on him. Jake stopped whatever he was going to say, but the look on Paul's face suggested that he was simply saving it to say it later.

"It was a lot of information gathering actually. Not real leg work or anything. Its not like we were ever agents or part of an actual DEA team. A lot of people were only used a couple of times, until they became unsuitable to contact. Only a few of us stayed with the project until the end of the year… Jason, his best friend Michael, and me. Kid and I used to…" I trailed off at the way both their heads jerked up and I realized my mistake. "Kid was Michael's nickname. The agent we reported to was also named Michael so it just became easier to call our Michael Kid. See, Kid had an agenda. He wanted to see those guys go down for personal reasons. That was why they were careful not to use him if there was any chance of contact with the actual dealers. Kid was dating this girl in freshman year. They had gone to high school together and everything. Anyway, freshman year, and about halfway through the first semester, there was this party at a friend's, Kid got sick and couldn't make it, but he told her to go ahead. Long story short, someone spiked her drink with what turned out to be bad drugs. She died on the way to the hospital. Kid took it pretty hard. It made him mad. That doesn't always help you keep a level head."

I felt like I was watching this all on a replay in my mind. I could see Kid and Sandra, yeah that was her name, introducing themselves to me, when Jason and I had double dated with them once. Sandra seemed pretty shy at first but warmed up soon enough. It was less than a month later that she had died. Jason and I had already made up our minds to stay friends instead of dating anymore and I remember him calling me from the hospital, asking me to keep an eye on his classes for him, because he was staying with Michael. It was funny how quickly we took to calling him Kid, maybe because Sandra was the only one who called him Michael instead of Mike or any other shortened form of his name. Kid was just a way to make everything easier for us; no dredging up her memory just by saying his name.

I was getting distracted again. "So the month before I got home from college, Mike told us that they were winding operations up, since they didn't want to endanger us. They had this feeling that the ring leaders were beginning to get suspicious. There was one last run they wanted us to do. It was my turn this time, but I had come down with the mother of all colds. Jason had come by my dorm to drop off my package that I was supposed to be carrying… and when he saw me… " I started to choke on this part "… he insisted on going instead. 'you would probably pass out before you got out the door' he said" I wiped away the tears forming in my eyes and shot Paul a glare when it looked like he might step forward. "And then what" asked Jake, even though I could see the hardness in his eyes had faded to concern. "And then… that was it. I never saw him again. He never contacted any of the team, and he never contacted me either. We don't know what happened to him. I was told to pack up and come home 3 weeks later, to stick with my routine, except for reporting him missing, and to just act normal, not draw attention to myself." By now the tears were flowing freely and I did nothing to stop them.

"So now what?" asked Jake, all pretence at anger gone; nothing but worry and concern in his dark eyes. "Now, well, now his kid sister has to stay with me for a while. Jason named me her guardian, said he was worried for her safety. Asked me to keep her here, because it's a small enough town that strangers would be noticed. Especially strangers that come around looking for a young girl." Paul stepped forward then, as if to take me in his arms, and I couldn't have that. Not after how he hurt me earlier, acting like I was in the wrong when he didn't even know the whole story. I slipped off the rock I was perched on and stepped away from him, ignoring the pain in his eyes; wondering if he felt this wrench I was feeling right now. I decided to go back and check on Kaia. But I couldn't resist leaving these two with something to think about. So just before I walked away I spoke over my shoulder, not even bothering to face them as I did so.

"Tell me how it's fair, when you guys have your secrets to keep, and I don't get to keep mine. He saved my life. My best friend and he probably died when it should have been me on that run."

A/N: So this chapter I just wanted to build up a little back story of what Rachel had been upto and the relationship between her and Jason, and her life before the mayhem of imprinting. Also, I just felt that the guys would react in typical guy fashion. Quick quiz. There is another important event coming up soon. The next few chapters in fact. What do you think it is?

Don't forget to review folks !