The Middle Child

Chapter 23

 Alyson woke up with a throbbing pain spreading through her body, pain was starting to become something that she had to learn to live with. As it seemed to be a constant, ever since she met these Weres. But this pain was much better than the hollow feeling that lived inside her before they met.

"Alyson?" a deep treble voice asked, Hayden, her fuzzy mind pieced together. Why exactly is she laying down? She was...she was... what happened? Alyson scrunched her brows together in thought. Then as if a ton of bricks were released on top of her, her memories came back. She gasped as she shot up and her head smacked against another person's.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Alyson said scrambling away from the person.

"Hey, hey, calm down," the person said reaching out to her.

"No! No, I'm okay! I don't want to hurt you!" Alyson said falling off the bed and landing flat on her back, knocking the air out of her lungs. Hayden's face appeared over the edge of the bed.

"Are you hurt?" He asks reaching out to her.

"No...no I'm fine," Alyson said standing up and dusting herself off. Her eye caught the mirror she gasped as she saw her eyes were still the golden colour.

"I...I thought it would go away..." Alyson trailed off as she watched the stranger's eyes in the mirror.

"Hey, it's okay. The colour means nothing, okay?" he says crossing the room to get to her.

"If it meant nothing you guys wouldn't be so scared of them!" Anger and fear swirled inside of her making her chest tighten.

"It'll take some getting used to, but we will. It's on our blood to fear and fight Skinwalkers, it's nothing any of us can change, okay?" Hayden said enveloping her in a hug. She melted into his embrace and instantly felt some of her fears slip away as she breathed in his sweet pine, mint, and a hint of wet dog smell.

"Come on, let's go get you something to eat you seem a bit shaky," He said gently detaching himself from her.

"Yeah," Alyson said her voice weak. She doubted the shakiness was from the lack of food but followed Hayden anyway.

Upon entering the dining room the once lively banter was replaced with an eerie silence. She tried to tap into their emotions through their connections but found that they were broken. Even the one she had with Hayden was severed. She sighed sadly, not lifting her gaze from the floor.

Hurt swirled in her chest as the group remained silent. She didn't have to tap into their emotions in order to feel the fear radiating off them, it seemed to ooze through the room coating every inch of the once joyous space. Unable to take the silence any longer she tried to perk up and pretend as nothing happened.

"So, Daniel, what's for...ugh Breakfast?" She asked her voice sounding almost normal.

"Well, considering it's 2 p.m. I'd say it's more lunchtime than breakfast," He said trying to ease the tension.

"Will you two stop acting like nothing is going on! She has suddenly developed the eyes of a Skinwalker! She nearly killed Mason as they were sparring! And everyone is just going to act like she's not a threat?" Dustin screams as he stands up and his chair falls backwards, making Alyson flinch as her gaze remains glued to the dark wood of the table.

"Honestly, Dustin! Look at her! Does she look like a threat to you? After all this time she's known us do you honestly think she's going to actually hurt us?" Hayden asks matching Nate's tone.

"Hayden," Alyson interjects placing a hand on his shoulder, "He's right, we don't know what's happening to me. It doesn't matter if I wouldn't want to hurt you all, I really didn't want to hurt Mason, but I did!" At the mention of his name, Mason looked up at her his forehead still sporting the gash from last night.