HOWL (rewritten)

12 - Permission

--Emilia's Pov--

A few days after my date with Billie, I was downstairs in the living room with the tv on whatever was on. The doorbell rang as I scrolled through my phone.

I stood and walked over to the door, opening it to see Ali standing there with a box in her hands.

"Hey, Emilia." She said.

"Ali, what're you doing here?"

"Mom wanted to drop this box off. It was some of Tara's old stuff..." She held it out to me and watched as I hesitantly took it. "I talked her into driving me over. She couldn't bring herself to go through it...besides it's mostly just her old journals, her favorite flannels and some CDs. I thought you should have them."

I slowly nodded, trying to hide the fact my heart was aching "do you guys wanna come in?"

"She's taking me to my friend's house. But she wanted to stop by so I could give these to you. Bye."

I watched as Ali left the porch and got in the car. I closed the door and carried the box upstairs to my room, closing my door and setting it on my desk. I opened it and pulled out several journals plus a few of Tara's favorite flannels.

I smiled only to let out a shaky exhale, bringing one of the flannels close to my chest. God, would I give anything to hug her one more time. Under the flannels was a framed picture of us..

I put it up on the shelf above my desk, dusting it off a bit before I did. Stacking up the journals in a neat pile, I noticed each of them were marked as entries. I knew what these books were.

Tara's personal journals her therapist recommended her. As close as we were, Tara would never let me read them. As much as I wanted to, I was going to respect that, no matter how much it was going to bother me.

--No-one's Pov--

A stern knock on the O'Connell's door shifted the tone of the household for a split second. Maggie opened the door, the nervousness leaving when she saw Driscoll and Ronan.

"What are you doing here?"

"You haven't heard?" Driscoll asked, looking at Ronan before looking back to Maggie.

"Heard what?"

"May we come in?" Ronan asked, watching as Maggie stepped to the side to let them in.

The two alphas were led into the living room where they sat on the couch to explain to Maggie what she missed.

"Two hunters?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Yeah. Near the overlook. My wife and I found them early this morning." Ronan said as he shook his head.

"What state were they in?" She asked.

"Both were dead. Their throats were ripped out."

"Why is it my concern? Two less pricks to deal with." Maggie said.

"The deal is, we believed it was your daughter at first. But the way Ronan described it to me, it had to be a vampire." Driscoll said.

Maggie shook her head, "you don't see a lot of them nowadays. Are you sure it was?"

"It is. They haven't been as active since the Nightwatch upped their groups...but also talk to Billie. I recognized her scent at the overlook, along with another I couldn't place. Maybe she had someone there." Ronan added.

Maggie slowly nodded, "oh believe me. I will speak to her."

"We are sorry to bother you about this but the pack felt you needed to know." Driscoll said as he stood.

"Thank you for telling me. Do you guys want something to eat before you leave?" Maggie asked as she stood as well.

"That'd be nice."

"Sure."

--Billie's Pov--

When I heard Driscoll and Ronan bring up my name I knew I was going to get lectured. I already knew my mom would say it was Emilia I was with and to be honest I won't deny it.

I waited until they left to go downstairs and was immediately met by my mom who asked me to sit with her in the living room.

"Two hunters were found dead, near the overlook. Ronan said he recognized your scent-"

"And you think I had something to do with it? Seriously you and Finneas act like you don't trust me or you just can't."

"Billie, it's not that I-"

"No. Anytime something happens you look at me like I'm the one to blame. Sure, I killed Brandon. And those two campers but those are the only people I killed. Am I happy that two hunters are dead? Yes. But I'm not responsible for some vampire who can't control their thirst."

My mom looked at me wide eyed before speaking, "were you with someone last night?"

"I was with Emilia. I asked her on a date and we went to the overlook."

"Billie...you know what I said about dating humans."

"Why can't I? Just give me one good fucking reason instead of 'it's not approved'."

She shook her head, "it's complicated-"

"Only because you make it complicated. Just tell me."

"A small bit of the pack, some who left the pack and moved away, are ones who dated and married humans. They ended up giving birth to halfbreeds; some of the human women didn't survive pregnancy. The pack doesn't hate it but they don't approve entirely because of halfbreeds."

I slowly nod, "so what you're telling me is, despite how much I like this girl, I can never be with her? Because you think I'm gonna knock her up at a young age?"

"No, sweetie. Like I said, it's complicated."

"More like the pack is stuck in a sense of pure breds stick together but fuck the halfbreeds, is that right?"

"Halfbreeds aren't the issue, Billie. It's the human women that bear them. Most of them didn't survive the pregnancies and those that did moved away with their partners. They aren't trying to keep halfbreeds from being born, they're trying to keep humans from dying because of it."

"Why didn't you just say that then?" I ask.

She sighed as she sat beside me, "do you like this girl, Billie?"

"Yeah..."

I heard her sigh again, a moment of silence falling around us as she thought about something. I really hope she wasn't going to say I couldn't see her again.

"If you promise me that you won't hurt this girl, you can keep seeing her."

I look at her, "really?"

She nodded, "yeah."

The fact she thinks I'd hurt her really says all I needed to know, but I wasn't going to argue since she approved of my relationship with Emilia.

"Oh, one more thing," she leaned back to look at me, "did you hear or see anything last night?"

"There was a scream but it was cut short, I literally thought it was an animal. I think it was one of those hunters."

"A vampire killed them, we know for sure."

I hum, "but why in public? They haven't done any public killings in a long time."

"I don't know. Just be careful okay? And keep that girl safe as best as you can."

I nod and stand to head up to my room. The last vampire I met was years ago and that was before they went silent. I forgot her name but damn do I remember that accent, you don't get to meet that many Irish vampires in America.

My mind strayed back to that girl in the woods with the smell of death. Those eyes, I remember those eyes. I just didn't know who she was, but one thing is for certain, she knew Emilia.