Chapter 14: Octavia - Pack of Mine

I unfortunately had to go back in the basement – what happened last night will be me and Tristan’s dirty little secret. As I said, I’m not sure what’s allowed and what’s not. But seeing the way the “pack leader” tied Tristan to a tree, then made him watch while he and Valentine used my face, I don’t think anyone makes decisions besides our lord and savior – Skyler.

I’m a little afraid to disobey him, but there’s something about it that sends an exhilarating rush through me. I’ve never been one to listen, to comply and just take what life throws at me.

I refuse to sit and wait like a fucking pet. My entire life has consisted of breaking the rules, even with my parents before their car accident.

I acted better with them, sure. But after their death, it felt like I had nothing else to live for. I flunked out of my classes, lost the few remaining friends I had left, and spent my days kicking rocks and causing mayhem around Silver Lake.

I was placed in foster care and the system tossed me around in homes that I didn’t last very long in. The parents would always hate me – I remember having so many meetings with social workers where the families begged for me to go somewhere else. They would whisper warnings to my replacement parents that I was a nuisance, to be careful with me, and so on.

As a 16-year-old, that was fuel to the flame. Of course I wanted to act out, I was running on teenage hormones and freshly grieving the death of the only two people who truly cared for me.

Looking back now at 24, I probably could’ve made things a little easier for everyone. They were only trying to help me, but accepting it never felt right. I was trying to force my rage into a mold of me that didn’t exist, like a dress that was two sizes too small.

Memories flash back to the picture of my parents in the garage here, the serial killer-esque corkboard covered in strings and news articles.

What the fuck is that all about?

I can’t wrap my head around why they’re so invested in this witchcraft thing, and why my parents are linked to it. I haven’t read much about witches and wizards besides the occasional mention of it in school when they taught us about the Salem Witch Trials.

My mother may have dabbled, but she wasn’t like that. That’s insanity.

I grab a cigarette and use the lighter that Tristan left behind to spark it up. My mind is too heavy right now and I need a distraction. I know I can’t ask them about it, I don’t know if I even want the fucking answer.

The old light hanging from the ceiling illuminates the creepy room that I’ve learned to make my new home.

I feel that I’ve outgrown this, but I don’t necessarily want to go back to my old life anymore. I get fed three meals a day here, have sex often, my clothes are cleaned, and my smokes are restocked. This pack is starting to grow on me – I definitely have Stockholm syndrome.

Skyler is hot, dominant, and ruthless in a way I can’t seem to resist. He fulfills a deep sexual fantasy for me, maybe even a small romantic one too. He looks like he just stepped out of one of my dark romance novels, bringing my daydream book boyfriend to life.

Tristan is sweet and kind, cute too. He’s gentle and caring, but a pretty emotional guy. He lets his feelings get the best of him, or decides to squish them down and make everyone else happy. Besides that, he would make a great boyfriend. To be honest, he’s someone I would take home to meet my parents if they were still around.

Valentine is intriguing. Even in the midst of Skyler’s chaos, he remains grounded and collected. It’s impressive and sexy, I itch to know more about him. Plus I like the way his cock felt in my mouth, maybe just a little.

I’ve had a thing for older men before.

Tristan cracks open the thick iron door and peeks in, just his bruised face. “They’re home. Please don’t say anything about last night.”

I scoff and roll my eyes at him as I blow a smoke circle out. Does he think I want to get punished as well?

“What about last night? I don’t remember anything happening.”

He smiles and creeps behind the door. I take a long drag and watch the smoke float around the room. It dances under the dim ceiling light and mesmerizes me.

Skyler and Valentine open the door this time and carry undeniable rage on both of their faces. They march forward, maybe expecting me to be in bed instead of walking around, and they don’t stop until they’re about a foot away.

I look Skyler dead in the eyes, take a drag as I lean in, inches away from him and blow my exhale directly into his face. “Welcome back, honey. How was your girl’s trip?” I smile at him mockingly.

His brows knit together and his hand wraps around my throat as he shoves me into the concrete wall behind me. His grip is tight and catches me by surprise, my eyes widen and I drop the lit cigarette to the ground. I smell campfire smoke as it burns a hole in one of the blankets on my bed before extinguishing itself.

“Tell me who the fuck you really are.” His hand constricts and I can’t breathe anymore. I claw at his arm, attempting to tug him off of me but it’s no use. He’s too fucking strong.

“Hey, ease up. You’re gonna kill her.” Valentine steps behind him and places his ringed hand on Skyler’s shoulder lightly.

He obviously isn’t a fan of being told what to do. Skyler quickly drops his death-clutch on me and whips around to land a nasty punch on Valentine’s face.

“Shut the fuck up. She fucking knows and she’s toying with us, toying with me.”

He points in Valentine’s face and as he whips back around to look at me, his fangs hang low, his skin is growing hairier and his eyes are completely bloodshot.

He looks more animal than human right now.

My heart is about to break free from the cage of my ribs – I have no idea what’s going on or what I’m supposed to know that he thinks I know.

“What are you talking about? I’m Octavia, Octavia Cross. That’s who I am. I’m just a girl you kidnapped, but apparently you have pictures of my dead parents on your weird ass corkboard in the garage. What the fuck is that about?”

Oops. It slips out before I can bite my tongue.

His breathing picks up, his nails grow long and he screams a deafening echo into the room before his bones begin to break one by one. He falls to his hands and knees and I watch his body sluggishly transform from man to wolf.

It’s painfully slow compared to Tristan’s and Valentine’s. I can hear every crack of his bones, every realignment of his joints. A tear falls down my cheek and I don’t even realize I’m crying for him.

I pity his transformation, it looks utterly torturous. Chills jump up my arms and I rub them away, trying to imagine how painful this must be for him.

With a final roar, his clothes rip to shreds and his dark brown fur-covered body paces around in a circle. His eyes are dark, pitch black like a midnight sky. His wolf form is quite a bit larger than Tristan’s as well as Valentine’s. He continues to breathe deeply, seemingly still in distress.

My mind wanders a bit and I think of last night, how peaceful and happy I felt upstairs. I miss the soft fur blankets and the bathtub, I miss Tristan’s gentle touch.

Skyler’s rugged voice brings me back to reality.

“Say your last name again, Octavia. What is it?”

I watch his wolf body stride around Valentine and he eyes me like prey, making me feel like a piece of meat he’s about to kill.

“It’s Cross, Octavia Cross. Are you talking about my parents? Why is a picture of them in your garage? Were you stalking me? Was this all a plan?” My voice cracks and I feel tears catch in my throat, wiping more from my face.

He growls animalistically and I know the sound will haunt my nightmares. If he wanted to kill me, he could easily do it in seconds. His head is level with Valentine’s chest, his body level with his ribs. He has to be at least six feet long.

“Do you see what I am, what I’ve become?” He ignores my questions. His voice is deep and chilling – there’s not a hint of tenderness to it.

I hesitate to answer, the words can’t seem to find their way out of my throat. I stutter, but nothing of any importance makes it out of my lips. Valentine just stares at me blankly and allows everything to happen in front of him. He doesn’t seem to have a single care in the world right now.

“DO YOU SEE, OCTAVIA?!”

Skyler screams and leaps towards me, his giant, deadly paws on either side of me and his snout inches away from my face. Saliva drips down from his sharp teeth onto my clothes. My body begins to shake and I feel adrenaline pump through my veins, my heart sinking into my stomach.

“I see…” I hesitate to turn away from him and I sound like a pipsqueak. “I see you.”

I’m scared, and he can see that. But I refuse to say it out loud.

He pulls his paws off the wall and begins to pace in circles around Valentine again. We sit in silence for a minute or two, both of them with their eyes on me.

I think I’m going to die tonight, for real this time.

Skyler pauses on one side of him and sits on his hind legs.

“Your mother did this to me. Your last name, your bloodline – it finally connected.”

What?

His words hit me in the chest, but I feel confused.

“Your mother did this to me, to Valentine and to Tristan. You are the reason we’re like this.” He lets the words sink in and sits patiently.

His wolf form is disturbing. It’s not charming like Tristan’s, or sleek like Valentine’s. It’s like a Halloween costume meant to scare children… and adults. Nothing about the way he looks right now is cute or comforting.

Saliva continues to drip from his giant teeth and his face is twisted, his dark pink gums poking through every time he talks or growls.

I’m genuinely scared of him, and it’s not the fun, flirty kind of scared.

“No… that’s not possible.”

More memories quickly flash through my mind of my mother pouring various liquids into cauldrons, lighting paper on fire and chanting around our house.

I never understood it, I was too young and naive. Our house always smelled of incense and we had weird traditions, but I always just thought she had an odd way of worshipping God, Spirit, whatever. My mother wouldn’t do this, she wouldn’t curse anyone.

“Yes. Your mother was a witch, and she cursed each one of us,” he blurts out as if he could read my mind. They both stare at me, but I notice Tristan slip his head back out the door with his head down.

“No, that can’t be true. My mother would never do that. She was a good person, she took care of me, she couldn’t have done something like this…” I shake my head and slide down the wall, my hands run through my long hair, scraping across my scalp. “No, it’s impossible…”

My body begins to shake, my jaw clenching up. I try to open my eyes and see a disarrayed view of Skyler and Valentine still, but my eyesight bounces like an earthquake.

Fuck, it’s happening again. I’m losing control.

I crash to the floor and my shoulder aches from the fall. I can’t move, I can’t speak, I can barely even cry.

As I close my vibrating eyes full of tears, a vision of Connor’s rotting body takes over my sight. The view slowly zooms into his corpse.

I see birds picking the flesh off his bones, maggots filling his ribcage and moss growing around his skeleton. I can’t control my movement in the dream this time, but I progress closer to his body.

The sounds of the birds chewing and flapping around, the disgusting noise of maggots tunneling through his organs, and the wind blowing the grass around him overwhelm my ears. I try to scream but nothing comes out. I even try to close my eyes, but when I open them, I’m still here staring at him.

“Connor, I’m so sorry…” I don’t even know if sorry is the word I’m looking for. I feel so lost, so hopeless.

Everything always seems to be my fault, just the way it was when I was a kid. Every person in my life could find a reason to be angry with me, to blame something on me, and all I could do was take it.

I fought when I could, where I could, but that just made matters worse. At some point, I just accepted that I would be the villain in everyone’s story.

“I never wanted you to die. I said some horrible things, I could’ve been a better girlfriend, but I never wanted you to get hurt.”

The birds continue to pick at his flesh, pulling strings of it off and swallowing it down. Not a single living thing pays attention to me, it’s like I’m not even really here.

“I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. Everything is always my fault.” I watch the bugs crawl around his bones, the squelching sound of their little bodies moving makes me nauseous.

If anyone’s cursed, it’s me. It’s fucking me.

The vision I’m stuck in distorts, and one of the birds locks eyes with me. It doesn’t say anything as we stare deeply at each other, its black eyes not blinking. I don’t feel threatened or scared, if anything, I feel comforted. The spirit around it feels familiar.

“Who are you?” I ask, but it just continues to glance at me. “Why are you showing me this?”

It looks away and goes back to picking away at its dinner, unbothered by my presence again.

Tears pour down my face and suddenly I feel my body convulsing on the floor. I attempt to make it stop, but fighting it just makes it worse. Something wet pours out of the side of my mouth and I try to swallow, but I can barely breathe.

Goddamn it, I’m seizing again. My vision is still blurry and shaking, but I see Skyler and Valentine in the same position, just watching over me menacingly. My body begins to slow and my eyesight clears.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Skyler spits out and laughs. His saliva-covered teeth disgust me as he smiles and his eyes are filled with malice. He looks like the devil incarnate.

I wipe the foam and tears off my face and sit upright. My hands run up and down my arms as I try to ground myself, shaking off the seizure.

“Fuck you.” My lungs try to fill with air, but I cough out some foam and my insult doesn’t come out as mean as I intended it.

They both remain completely still and watch me, waiting for my next move. Not a single ounce of empathy radiates off of them, their energy is empty. I wonder if they’re even people anymore.

I miss my life a few weeks ago, before I met any of these fucked up men. I miss my shitty bar, I miss my apartment and my vibrator, Hell, I even miss Daryl. Is anyone even looking for me? Or do they just assume I’m dead?

“So tell me, Kitten, did your witch mommy teach you how to unbind a werewolf curse?” Skyler walks closer to me, his twisted wolf face is something straight out of my nightmares. “Or are you good for nothing at all and we should just kill you right now?”