Eternal

Chapter 1: Safe

Chapter 1

Seventeen Years Later

I curled my toes as the delicious feeling of warmth spread throughout my frozen feet. If I had stayed outside any longer there was no doubt in my mind that I'd be suffering from hypothermia about now. The fire crackled in agreement and I grinned. At least he's on my side.

"Tay? Is that you, honey?" Mrs. Charlotte called from upstairs. She'd probably been hoping that I'd be back sooner, but she didn't really mind.

"Yes, ma'am! I'm in the living room!" I responded. The thunk of her old lady shoes coming down the steps echoed off the walls and she appeared beside me adjusting her glasses.

"Where were you so late?" She sat in her reclining chair and gave a relaxing sigh. Although it was only eight-thirty, to her it felt like midnight. Mrs. Charlotte was the kindest woman I knew, but she was pretty old. If I didn't take care of her she would have probably lost her head a long time ago.

"I was out getting groceries, remember? I told you I'd be back later," I half lied to her. While it's true that I had went to the store, my main reason was to cover up letting my wolf out a bit. She'd been restless lately and really needed a good run.

"Oh I'm sorry, sweetie. You know this old brain of mine. Always forgetting things!" Mrs. Charlotte giggled as if she were fifty years younger. I sighed at how true her statement was.

I'd been taking care of Mrs. Charlotte since her husband had died one year ago. She had no children and was going to be sent to a home if I hadn't intervened.

Unfortunately, my motives were purely selfish when I made up that résumé and fooled the old folks home into letting me care for her. I had been homeless at the time and needed money fast, so when the opportunity popped up I jumped at the chance. Of course, it wasn't like I neglected her. She was an extremely sweet old woman whom I absolutely adored. The one year she'd been in my care had been bliss and I had even made enough money to rent an apartment on my own for when she died.

I shook the intrusive thought quickly from my mind. Any day she would be gone and it was just too sad to think about.

With a new resolve to not lead my thoughts in that direction again, I pulled myself up from the ivory colored carpet floor and helped Mrs. Charlotte back up to her bed.

In many ways she was very stubborn and I loved that about her. When I had asked Mrs. Charlotte if she wanted one of those elevating things for stairs she actually smacked me upside the head and said not even in her grave. She had a funny way of dealing with the fact that she was dying, always making jokes and such.

As soon as she was safely tucked in, I went back downstairs to start to put away everything I had purchased. I smiled when I picked up a Hostess Twinkie box and remembered a time when I had been so hungry that I actually stole a carton.

That was during my bad days when I didn't have a single thing to call my own. I remember waking up in kennel when I was a pup and nothing before that. I still had no idea who my parents were or if I was the only person in the world with the ability to change into a wolf. Since I hadn't met anyone else so far, I must've been it, right?

There was no one to teach me that humans didn't like seeing what they called a "puppy" change into a kid of ten years old. Like they were the ones who should have been afraid of me? I hadn't even known what was going on at the time! They chased me off and called me a monster. To this day I despised that word.

An orphanage took me in when I got two towns over. I had been naked and dirty, they called me a "street rat" until I knew enough to tell them my name (something I actually made up but decided sounded like what my parents would have called me). With time I learned to control my inner wolf and they put me in what they nicknamed "slow classes" since I couldn't read, write, or speak an ounce of English. I only knew how to make my wolf sounds, but it freaked the humans out when I did it, so I had decided being silent was better.