chapter thirteen: something wrong

A daughter. He had a daughter. I couldn't deny that she was cute. With little pig tails and huge brown eyes, she looked just like her father. Minus the pigtails. I don't think Alex would be caught dead in pigtails. My mouth was open and I was gaping at the little girl in front of me. He has a child.....with someone other than me. I didn't expect this to hurt as much as it did. The burning in my heart weakens my mind and prohibits me from thinking straight. I shake my head frantically, backing towards the door. Alex's face is expressionless. Stephanie's face is smug. I would love nothing more than to rip her hair out and make her suffer.

'Jesus, Claire! What's gotten into you?' I hear my wolf warn quietly.

'She thinks she's better than us.' I growl.

'That's because she is.' My wolf replies.

'That definitely is not helping anything right now.' I scoff.

'Why do you think he's with her? She is obviously better than us or at least he thinks that.' My wolf says sadly.

My back presses against the solid wood door and I grasp the doorknob behind me. Before I can even process what's happening, I am running. Running from Alex. From Stephanie. From myself. I sprint up the stairs making it into my bedroom and fling myself onto my bed, a sob breaking past my lips. Burrowing my head in my pillow, I let out all of my distress. The weeks of tears that have built up in my body are finally being let out.

He was forcing me to be here. Why does he love to torture me? I had no idea this was what people meant when they said I would suffer for crossing into Westwood territory. My mate is married. He has a wife. And a daughter.

Yet, he is making me stay here. If he has her why would he need me? I'm sure Stephanie could please him much more than I could.

A sob catches in my throat at the sound of my door clicking open. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I turn towards to door. Sebastian steps through, wearing a sympathetic expression, and closes the door behind him.

"Oh, Claire." He whispers, walking over to my bed and taking me into his arms.

He cradles me to his chest and the sobs build up in my throat.

"It's okay, baby," he comforts, "Let it all out."

I look up at him with tear-filled eyes.

"It hurts, Seb." I whimper, clutching my chest.

"I know, baby, I know. Everything's gonna be okay." He soothes, rubbing my back with his hand.

"He has a daughter." I cry, the dam of tears finally breaking.

"Damn it, Alex," he huffs, "I'm so sorry, Claire."

Tears are streaming down my cheeks and snot is running from my nose. I look disgusting, but Sebastian doesn't care, he holds me to his chest and lets me cry. The sobs wrack my body so fiercely that I worry I might hurt Seb.

"It's okay, baby." He murmurs, stroking my hair.

"No, it's not." I sob, curling into him even more.

"He's gonna pay for this." He mutters, "He won't get away with it."

I continue to cry for the next couple of minutes. Sebastian does not leave my side and he holds me to his chest, whispering comforting words into my ear. Once my body, calms itself and my eyes have stopped leaking, I lean back and Seb wipes away the remaining tears.

"Thank you," I sniffle.

"Of course." He nods, a concerned look painted over his face.

My tears are splashed all over his chest, staining his shirt.

"I'm sorry about your shirt." I whisper, gesturing to the tears.

He shrugs, "It's just a shirt."

"Do you want to do something?" I ask him.

"Like what?" he replies, raising an eyebrow.

"Like...….let's go cause some trouble." I smirk, shrugging my shoulders.

A smile slowly makes its way onto his face, "Okay. Meet me downstairs in ten."

I nod my head, grinning, as he leaps from the bed and slips through the door.

Alex was going to regret doing this to me. I would make sure of it.

~

"So where do you want to go?" Sebastian asks, looking over at me from the driver's seat of Alex's favorite Camaro.

He wanted to play dirty. I would play dirty. Stealing his car was first on my list. 

"Let's do something crazy." I smirk, sitting up in my seat.

"What's your idea of crazy?" he chuckles.

"I want to do something I haven't ever done before." I say, looking through the car window.

We were sitting on the edge of town a few miles west from the border of Westwood.

"And that is?" Sebastian taunts.

"I don't know," I shrug, "There's a lot I haven't done before."

"What do you have in mind?" he laughs, glancing over at me.

"Well, I've never drank before. Never drove a car. Never had sex. Never did drugs. Never got into a fight. Never killed anyone….And the list goes on." I list, counting the items off on my fingers.

"Okay, half of those things aren't even legal." He snickers.

"That's why I haven't done them before."

"We can't break the law, Claire."

"Aww, where's the fun in that, Seb?" I pout, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Have you ever been to the fair?" he says, after a few seconds of silence.

"Not since I was really little." I huff, "I was never allowed to go to town in my old pack."

"You want to go to the fair?" he questions smirking over at me.

"Can we?" I yelp, my face stretching up into a grin.

He lets out a loud laugh and nods his head, "Sure."

The drive is silent. We share glances every now and then, but for the most part our eyes are trained on

the road. A few minutes later, Seb pulls into a parking spot and pulls the key out of the ignition. I am practically bouncing in my seat. I loved the fair, when I was little. There wasn't anything like it. This was the one place where everyone was always happy. No one ever fought. Everyone always had fun.

"Ready to go?" Sebastian asks, knocking his knuckle into my cheek softly.

Nodding enthusiastically, I jump out of the car, grabbing Seb by the arm and dragging him forward.

"Claire!" he exclaims, with a laugh, "Wait a second."

I watch impatiently as he grabs his wallet from the cup holder and locks up the car. Walking over to me with a smile, he takes my hand and tugs me over to the ticket booth. We are so close. So close to relaxation. To happiness. To fun.

He quickly buys the tickets and pulls me through the gates, but not before fastening the armband to my wrist.

"Where do you want to go first?" he asks, squeezing my hand in his.

Looking around the park, I take in the various rides. The roller coasters. The Ferris Wheels. The various games and competitions there are to play.

"You pick. I don't care." I grin, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

His smile turns wicked as he stares down at me.

"Sky fall." He smirks and my heart drops into my stomach.

~

"Please, no." I beg Sebastian.

He loosens his hold on my wrist slightly and turns back to look at me.

"What's wrong, Claire? You scared?" he grins.

I shake my head defiantly.

"I just don't know if that's safe. You know. Someone could get hurt." I shrug, attempting, and failing, to be nonchalant.

"Of course it's safe, Claire. It wouldn't be here if it wasn't." he says, pulling me into the line.

"B-but what if we go on something else first. O-or maybe get something to eat." I stutter out, my fear nearly

consuming me.

He wanted to go on the Sky Fall, which was basically a 15 foot drop to my death. The ride slowly takes you all the way to the top and then suddenly it sends you hurtling back towards the earth and I hated it. It terrified me. I had never been one for heights.

"And throw up everywhere? No thanks, Claire. This ride is fine." He concludes, moving up slightly.

I take a shaky breath, looking up at the people on the ride. The ride released them and they came flying back down, I winced at the terrified expressions on most of their faces.

"You know, for a wolf, you sure are a scaredy cat." He chuckles when I throw him a glare.

"I'm not scared." I growl.

"You don't need to go on it if you don't want to." He shrugs.

My mouth drops open and I consider sprinting away, but my mind gets the better of me and I step up in the line.

Seb glances back at me, "You going on?"

I hesitate for only a second before determinedly shaking my head, "Yes."

"Good. Cause we're up." He snickers, walking through the small gate.

I follow behind him with my head held high. I wouldn't let something as simple as an amusement park ride get to me. I walk over to where Sebastian is already strapped in and sit down beside him. The attendant comes over and helps me strap down the handle bars. I can feel Sebastian's hot gaze on the side of me face and I squeeze my eyes shut. At first I think that I will be able to handle the ride, but then we start moving. I grip the handle bars beside me to the point where my knuckles turn white. My stomach is churning. For a moment, I worry I may vomit, besides the fact that I don't have anything in my stomach.

"Open your eyes." I hear Sebastian whisper from my left.

Even though I don't want to, I pry open my eyes and stare at the beautiful sight of the park. The sun was setting and the lights had begun to turn on, making nearly all the rides glow. Surprisingly, we were already near the top. I didn't look down, I didn't look up. I only looked out. I felt fine. I wasn't scared. I was relaxed, free. That is, until we reached the top and the machine sent us pummeling straight for the earth. A scream slipped from my lips and my stomach flew into my throat. It was over before I knew it. The next time I opened my eyes, the attendant was back in front of me unlocking my belt and Sebastian was laying on the ground a few feet from me.

"You should have seen your face." He gasps out, laughing way too hard.

I glare at him, slipping down from my seat and stomping over to the exit.

"Awe, Claire!" he calls, running up behind me.

I cross my arms over my chest and exit the ride, ignoring him.

"Come on, baby." He whispers, wrapping his arms around my waist, "I'm sorry."

"Fine. Let's go on something else." I snap, shrugging out of his hold.

~

For the rest of the time at the park, Sebastian pouted. He constantly said that he was sorry and begged, literally hands and knees, begged me to forgive him. To be honest, I was never really mad at him, just embarrassed. He didn't need to know that though. He did everything to make me happy. He bought me food. If I thought that a stuffed animal was cute, he went over and played the game until he won it for me. He was acting, to be frank, like a boyfriend and I'm not sure how I felt about that. I didn't think of him as a boyfriend, more like a brother.

After many more rides and lots and lots of food, we finally got into the car to drive home. I laid my giant stuffed penguin in the floorboard and continued to happily eat my cotton candy. The drive home was short. It seemed much shorter than the drive there. Shrugging out of my jacket, as I step through the front door, I hang it on the coat rack. I had, untraditionally, walked Sebastian back to his small den and then walked home myself. He didn't need to think this was a date more than he already did. Sighing, I trail over to the kitchen, planning to throw away my cotton candy stick.

Pushing open the door, I notice someone standing by the sink. It's Stephanie. I roll my eyes, silently walking over to the trash can.

"Well, well, well," she smirks, "Look who the cat dragged in. Have fun on your date?"

"It wasn't a date." I growl, turning towards the kitchen door.

"You know I knew from the moment that I met you that you were a slut. Didn't your mommy and daddy ever tell you that you shouldn't cheat on your mate? Oh that's right you don't have any, they died." She spits, stalking closer to me.

My face falls expressionless as I turn to face her. My anger towards her is growing.

"Don't you dare speak of my parents." I say, calmly.

"Awe….did I strike a nerve?" she teases, giggling slightly, "Such a shame, they couldn't stay around to ruin their

slutty daughter even more."

My anger flares and Stephanie goes flying back into the kitchen counter. She connects with the counter top so hard, the marble actually cracks, before she collapses to the ground.

"Don't ever speak of my parents again." I snap, glaring at her.

Her eyes are filled with fear and she gasps out, "Your eyes."

Turning from the kitchen, I storm up the stairs and into my bedroom. Breathing deeply, my anger has not died down. I pull my hands through my hair as I imagine driving my fists down into Stephanie's face over and over again. The books on the book shelf next to me fly off, surrounding me. The lamp next to my bed is ripped from the wall and launches itself across the room. I hadn't touched anything. Yet, I was doing this.

What is happening to me?

Rushing into the bathroom, I lock the door behind me. I walk over to the sink, splashing some water on my face, trying to calm my breathing. Looking up into the mirror, I gasp in horror at the sight of my eyes. They are blood red. They almost look like they are bleeding themselves. Slowly over the next few minutes, my eyes turn back to their normal blue as my anger dissipates.

I needed to talk to someone. Anyone. Sebastian.

Aching to avoid any confrontation about what happened downstairs, I carefully crawl out of my window and drop

down to the ground. From there, I break into a sprint, propelling myself towards Sebastian's den. In under five minutes, I find the tiny building and pound my fist on the door. The door immediately opens and a concerned

Sebastian stands in the door way.

"Sebastian…." I breathe.

"Claire? What's wrong?" he asks, taking my face into his hands.

"I think there's something wrong with me."