She sat on the tailgate of Tanner's pickup truck, the air around her warm and stars above, bright. He jumped up next to her, smiling.
“Want a bit more whisky?”
She took the offer from the flask and handed it back to him, “Thanks.”
“No worries.” He took a sip himself and looked down to his hands, “So, you're a Forenone girl?”
Her eyes met his, her nose wrinkling, “How do you know?”
“Cause' I can smell it.” He smirked.
She took a whiff of him, but all she smelt was the obvious wolf scent, “What about you?”
He shrugged a shoulder, “Not really got a pack.”
She swallowed, shifting and trying not to look bothered by his words.
His hand slid to hers and he smiled at her.
Breaking the contact as soon as it started though, “Why were you at the river?”
“Why you into questions all of a sudden?”
“I was pretty wasted at the bon-fire.” She breathed.
“Yeah, so was I.” He chuckled, “But it was good fun, crashing those grad parties usually pays off.”
Ella watched him through the darkness, “You go to a lot of them?”
He laughed, “Well, I've been to a few.”
“You don't look that old.”
“No, I ain't.” He drank more, “Twenty-three.”
“And you don't have a pack?” She snapped.
His smirk got the best of him again, “Don't need one.”
“Yeah.” She sighed, “I wish, I didn't have one.”
“Why's that?”
She huffed, “My uncle is the alpha-”
“What?” He did a double take, staring at her.
She shrugged, “Makes my life sorta safety orientated.”
He tilted his head, “So, you're Colten Turner's niece?”
Her eyes widened, “How do you know who he is?”
“Everyone knowns Colten, don't act so surprised. He dismantled Oscuro, I was only seven but I heard lots of things about your uncle.”
She reached for the flask in his hand and took it, “It wasn't just him, Grayson helped too.”
Tanner smiled, “Grayson?”
“My other uncle.” She took a sip, making a face, “Is it weird they're both Alphas?”
Tanner blinked, “Whoa, you're alpha blooded on both sides?”
“What?” Ella paused, “I guess...”
“That's insane. I mean, any guy would be stupid to get mixed up with you.” He snorted out a laugh, looking a bit happy with himself.
Not knowing what to say to that, she figured he was joking, “Lucky for my mate.”
Tanner took the booze back, “Yeah, something like that.”
“Hopefully though, I don't meet him anytime soon. It would cramp my style.”
He smiled, “So, what's the female of two alpha lines do exactly?”
“Graduating, and then, I'm going to Maine.” Why she was answering his questions so easy, she blamed on the booze.
“Maine?” He arched his brow.
“Yep.” She swallowed, “I just... haven't told my aunt and uncle yet. Either that or I just going to run away in the middle of the night and never look back.”
Tanner drank more, “There's that option.”
She sighed, “It's a bad one but I'm almost at that point with them.”
“Hey, it can't be that bad.” He smirked, his eyes catching the moonlight above.
“Oh, yes, it can. Speaking of my ass being fried alive, do you know what time it is?”
He looked to his phone in his pocket, “Around one.”
She took the flask one last time, drinking and jumping off the tailgate, “I should go.”
“Oh...” Tanner jumped off next to her, “Still early though.”
“No.” She smiled, “but hey, thanks for the company and the booze.” She handed him back his flask and he watched as she started to walk away.
“Where you going!” He called, “I said I'd give you a ride.”
Ella smiled, “Your truck's too loud! I better just sneak in, or try.”
“Awe, come on!”
“Sorry!” She shifted, running as fast and as hard as she could away from him. It wasn't that she didn't trust him but... she didn't and once she had started to think about Maine and her aunt and uncle. She begun to panic, of course, showing the rogue wolf that side of her panic could have been bad and she was better to leave minus him.
She got to the RedValley Ranch in half the time it would have took drive, which was probably good, because the more she started to sober up, the more she realized what sort of trouble she'd be in once in the door.
In attempt to avoid, she jumped the one story level and got to her window, shifting at the same time. It wasn't the most graceful move, but she did it, clinging to the open window and falling inside hap-haphazardly.
“Argh.” She landed on her side and winced. Pausing for only one moment, she could hear the muffled sound of the television downstairs and hoped, whoever was watching it, wasn't still awake.
Cursing, while tip-toeing herself around the room, she dressed herself in pyjamas and moved to her door, wanting to brush her teeth to cover up the sure smell of booze and brush the knots out of her dishevelled hair.
She crept out into the long hall of wooden floors and dashed to the bathroom a few doors down. Locking herself inside, she figured she was in the clear but that's when she heard the front door slam and Colten's footsteps up the staircase. She knew the sounds of his shuffle well, in fact, she had memorized it.
“Crap.” She hurried, grabbed the bottle of mouth-wash, swishing and swishing...
“Ella!”
“Mm.” She answered, spitting out the burning wash, “Yeah?”
“Get out here.”
She wrinkled her nose and looked to herself in the mirror, “I-I'm getting ready for bed.”
“Really?”
She put her hair in a pony tail and opened the door, just a crack, “Yeah, really.”
Her uncle stared in at her, “Do you want the lecture or should I just go straight to your imprisonment options?”
She swung the door open, “I opt neither.”
He smiled, “You'd charge hell with a bucket of ice water, wouldn't you?”
She paused, he was calling her brave and stupid and it took her a moment to figure out what to say, “Fine,” Shifting her weight, “So, I – snuck out but I came back.”
“I had everyone looking for you, Ella!” He almost lost his cool, almost but it wouldn't be like Colten to lose it just yet and she knew that. Her fate on this one would be classic and she saw it barreling at her full speed ahead.
“That was a bit much. I was at the bon-fire.”
“Oh, I knew where you were, until Trixie left it!”
She swallowed, “You stalked me?”
“No, Pete told me she came home and said, Trixie had left you there with some guy.” He fumed.
Ella smiled, “Don't worry, I left him in the hay field after I drank all his whisky.”
“Get to bed, you'll be up at five, feeding, waters, mucking all twelve stalls and tomorrow, you can fix the whole north side of the far pasture's fencing and no, Brant ain't helping you.”
She stared at him, “I'm not doing that.”
“You are, or you can forget about that dumb city car you want or maybe even living.”
Ella burned, “You know, I didn't ask for my parents to die. It's not my fault, I'm such a burden on you.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with your parents and why you live here, so don't worry yourself.”
She shrilled and ran into her room, slamming the door, “I hate you! I hate y'all! I hate it here!” She fell to her bottom, crying, slipping to the floor, streaming tears. Thinking of the parents she'd never known, how much she disliked her uncle and how much she had to change her life because of it.
#
“Where you been?” Brant asked as Ella walked past him in a corral.
She wiped a hand over her cheek, smudging a line of fresh dirt, “Fixing the back fence.”
“By yourself?” He looked surprised.
“I don't want to talk about it, okay?” She snapped.
Brant smiled, “You got it for going to the bon-fire, didn't you?”
She huffed, crossing her arms, “Yeah, well, Colten might have had a minor blow-up over, absolutely nothing.”
“You know,” Brant stepped up to the fence, “If you want to go to that school, you know the one, far away, you better stop pissin' him off. I mean, don't you need the rest of your tuition?”
Ella stared at him, “Are you even suppose to be here on a sunday?” She turned and started to walk away.
“Hey!” Brant called to her, laughing, “Why you be hatin', Daisy!”
“Shut it, Branty!” She shouted back, marching herself to the house. The smell of Abigail's sunday pie and roasting chicken was somewhat comforting, for a moment, she felt she wasn't in any trouble.
That was until Colten looked up for where he watched the sunday sports channel, that it snapped her back to reality.
“Well?” He called.
She kicked off her cowboy boots and walked in, dust and all, “I'm done. Everything.”
He glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, “Eight hours, that's not bad. I figured you'd need another day.”
“Nope.” She itched her head, “So, is that it?”
He smiled, “You mean, is that it for sneaking out and doing everything I said not to do?”
“Yeah.” She put her hands on her hips, “I fixed the whole fence line.”
“Oh my goodness!” Abigail walked in, “You finished?”
“She says she did.” Colten grunted as Abigail sat next to him.
“That's impressive, Ella.” Her aunt looked honestly surprised.
She stared at her aunt and uncle, “So?”
“Think I need a bit more time to decide.”
She really wanted to lash out at him but she held her tongue.
He looked to her, “Better go clean up for supper. We'll talk it about it later. Pete and Mia will be here soon.”
“All of them?” She winced.
“Yep.” Colten looked back to the television.
“Great.” She hissed, clenching her jaw and walking towards the stairs. Trudging them, she walked to the bathroom and locked herself inside for a shower. Fuming and trying her best to hold it together, Brant's words about tuition and not pissing off her uncle more echoed in her mind. She hated when others around her were right, more than herself that was.
Once clean and less annoyed, she set her sights on what she really wanted; Maine.
Now dressed, she joined her aunt in the kitchen as Abigail sliced the chicken and arranged it on one of her many silver platters.
“Abi.” She walked over to her aunt.
Abigail smiled at her, “You look less grimy.”
“Yeah,” Ella breathed, “I feel less too.”
“That's good.” Abigail went back to prepping supper, her aunt was so easy to forgive, always looking past things and she started to feel a bit of her guilt coming back from the night before.
“Abi, I'm-” She lowered her voice, “I'm sorry about last night, what I said about -”
Her aunt looked up to her, “It's okay, Ella. You were upset.”
“I know. I – I didn't mean that though.” She breathed.
Abigail reached out and patted her arm, “You must feel a lot of pressure, and Colten thinks because he was in a very similar situation, that you're emotions towards it – Well, they're just not how he dealt with it but he'll see that.”
Ella sighed, “Yeah, but when?”
Abigail smiled, “That, I can't tell you. Now,” She picked up the platter, “Will you take this to the table for me?”
Ella nodded, it was never hard for Abigail to change her mood, it was just a mystery to her how someone so happy, put up with her uncle or didn't at least not rub off on him more.
The doorbell rang and Ella paused at the table, hearing Colten answer it and greet the guests. The piercing sounds of the children made her wince, “On second hand, I'm glad they couldn't have kids.” She said under her breath and turned back to the kitchen.
“Hello, Ella!”
She looked up as a petite woman walked into the kitchen, “Hi, Mia.”
“How are you?” She smiled.
Ella shrugged, “Could be better.”
“Oh, I heard. Shouldn't push your uncle like that.”
Ella twitched, “Yeah...”
Trixie bound into the kitchen, “Hello!”
She let out a sigh of relief as her friend embraced her, “You're alive. I was afraid, I'd find you cut up in tiny pieces in the wall.”
Ella pushed back from her, “That's a nice image.”
Trixie grinned, “I know, right?”
The sound of screeching children filled the home again.
“They all came?” Ella breathed.
“All five of us.” Trixie rolled her eyes.
“Girls!” Mia called to her children, who crashed into the living room, all four younger girls with their youngest brother in tote, “Please help Abi set the table.”
“Yes, Mamma.” They answered in unison.
Trixie grabbed Ella's hand and they dodged the rest of helping, giggling and walking into the front hall.
“So, what'd you do with that guy last night?”
“Umm...” Ella sat to the bottom stair, looking into the living room where Colten and Trixie's father sat, watching the sports reels, “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Trixie whispered, “Come on.”
“No really, he was like, a rogue? No pack.”
“Oh,” Trixie's eyes grew, “I knew he smelt weird.”
“Yeah.” Ella nodded, “And he was nice enough but I got out of there. Came back here so I could put on slave-duty.”
“Totally.” Trixie breathed, “Colten was at our house last night, I really figured you wouldn't be alive when we got here.”
Ella shrugged, looking to her hands, “I just want to leave.”
“You gotta talk to them about it.” Trixie encouraged her, “The sooner you get it over with, the less torment you'll have to endure from Colten.”
She nodded, agreeing with her friend, “I already know it's going to be a fight.”
“He can't control your life forever. Just get on with it. Do it tonight.”
“No way.” Ella shook her head, “He still hasn't out-lined my life sentence yet.”
“Ella,” Trixie smiled, “What worst could happen at this point? Even though, I don't really want you to go.”
Ella gave her a sympathetic look, “It's a life-experience and it's far away from Texas.”
Trixie nodded, “That it is.”
“Supper!” The little girls ran into the front room as Ella formed her next plan of action and what she would be calling Operation-Maine.
Her focus started with supper, and once she avoided all eye-contact with her uncle and the food was all finished, she helped clean up with Trixie. After a few hours of mindless chatter and the faint squeals of children, Ella found herself in bed early. The quiet and loneliness around her made her thoughts happen again. She knew Colten wouldn't go for Maine, so she'd just figure out the best possible way for him to not be able to say no.
That was the crack of dawn, hay in her hair and the dust sticking to her.
“Watcha doin', Daisy?” Brant walked past the feed room as she dropped the last bucket back in place.
“Chores.”
He stopped and turned towards her, “I don't think I've ever seen you up this early... ever. You get hit in the head?”
She rolled her eyes, “Funny, Brant.” Walking out into the barn isle she wiped her hands off on her dirty jeans, “Why is there dirt everywhere on me?”
“You'd think, by the way you talk, you hadn't grown up on a cattle ranch.” He laughed.
She pushed him, “It's been awhile since I've done chores, okay?”
“No one noticed, don't worry, secrets safe with me.” He winked at her.
“You're so annoying.”
He stretched, “I, on the other hand, had an amazing sleep-in.”
“Seven AM is a sleep-in?” She retorted.
He smirked, “Is when you don't have to muck stalls, feed and throw some hay around. Oh and no more school, ever.” He picked a piece of hay out of her hair, “This, it sort of suits you though.”
“Oh, shut it.” She grabbed his hat and ran.
“Hey!” Brant chased after her, “That's not cool, Ella, no one takes a cowboy's hat!”
“You're not a cowboy! You're a clown-boy!” She laughed as he caught up to her, running out of the barn and into the sun, grabbing her around the waist as she held the hat away from her body.
He snatched it away from her as she elbowed his gut.
He groaned, “What are you made of, Daniella Turner?”
She giggled as he kept hold of her, putting his hat back on his head.
“Good morning.”
They both paused and looked up to see Colten standing in front of them.
Brant dropped his hold on her and she fell to the ground, “Oh, Ella!” He went to grab her but she shoved him off.
“Idiot.” She snapped under her breath to him, dusting herself off but giving up a moment later.
Brant grunted, “Morning, sir.”
Colten grunted, “Don't you have something to do, Brant?”
“Sure do, sir.” Brant nodded, giving Ella one last glance before he walked away, a soft smirk on his face.
Ella looked back to her uncle, waiting for him to talk.
“What are you doing up?”
Ella smiled, “I did them all.”
“Did what?”
“All the chores.”
Colten stared at her, “What?”
“I was up at five.” She nodded, “Yep, I did them.”
“I only said you had to do them yesterday.”
“Yeah, well, you never finished the punishment, so I figured I'd just get ahead of the game.” She went to walk past him, not nearly as satisfied as she thought she would have been by telling him she'd done all the chores.
“Well, you guessed right.”
Ella paused, staring into the rising sun, “Of course, I did.”
Colten walked into the barn and that was that.
She rolled her eyes and walked towards the house, “I so need another shower, or two... or ten.” She kicked off her boots and headed up the stairs, Abigail walking out of her bedroom.
“Hi, sweetie.”
“Morning.” Ella groaned.
“What were you up to?” Abigail wrinkled her nose.
“Chores.”
Abigail's eyes widened, “Wow, Ella. That's proactive. Did Colten wake you up this morning?”
“No.” She shook her head.
“Oh, well, he must really appreciate all that you did.” Abigail smiled.
She really wanted to tell her aunt she had way too much faith in her husband but she kept her mouth shut, “I dunno.”
“I'm going to town, do you want to come?”
Ella shrugged, “Sure.”
“Great, I wanted some company.” Abigail smiled at her, “We'll have a girls day.”
“I just need to scrub the dirt off my skin first.”
“I'll be downstairs.” Her aunt left her.
Ella sighed, walking into the bathroom and slamming the door.