Cody's POV

"Oooohhh look who's pouting." I hear from behind me and I scowl in return, crossing my arms as Taylor snickers and takes the seat across from me. The lunch room is bustling and yet I can clearly see James sitting at his table of literal VIPs across the room.

"I'm not pouting. I'm just upset that I have to change my plans that were already set in stone." I correct Taylor but it sounds flat and full of shit even to me.

Curse my stupid Alpha for putting these thoughts and ideas into my head. I was perfectly fine patiently waiting for my birthday to come and wait for either magic or chance to lead me to the love of my life. And now the possibility of having found them already and James being who he is is enough to send me into a spiral. Taylor laughs at me while shaking his head, picking a fry off of his plate while shooing a strand of hair away that fell from his sloppy bun. He points the fry at me before taking a bite, his smile teasing as he goes to speak. "For all your shit you haven't been able to say that he's wrong. So that must mean you feel something." Taylor observes and I want to slap him over the head and avoid the conversation. But of course my Faerie asshole of a friend won't be helpful on that front.

"I heard you finally met Enza's twin." I muse, switching subjects and rather than fight me on it, Taylor chuckles and allows it, the two of us talking about him and Enza's growing bond for the rest of lunch.

When it's time to leave, Taylor and I walk out of the cafeteria together stopping in the large hallway to chat for a second before splitting off. "Do you want to come out with the four of us after school? It'll be me, my brother, Enza, and his sister." He explains but I'm already shaking my head before he can finish.

"Thanks, but no. I've been procrastinating starting on a project for Mental Health Ed and I don't want to fall behind." I admit to him even if the idea of having to complete the stupid project makes my stomach churn and chest tight.

"Okay. If you change your mind text me. I don't know if I'll see you after school my brother is sending a car." He tells me and I nod along, making sure to give a reassuring smile when he peaks at me.

"Okay. See you later." I tell him and he waves before we're going our seperate ways to our next class.

The rest of the day at school drags on into a endless stream of faces and information that for the most part I don't care about. I still do my best to pay attention, but by the time the last bell rings and I'm walking towards my locker, all I can think is that it's kind of a relief that I don't have practice with James after school. I couldn't even imagine having the mental capacity to be able to not only show off my moves and work together coherently with someone, but to also keep up a  conversation? All of it combined makes me want to curl into a ball and hide in the nearest cave.

But since fate spared me that overstimulation, I close my locker after grabbing all of my stuff and head out of the building. As soon as I'm out of the door and past all the obnoxiously slow Supers, I kick my pace up to super speed, enjoying the freeing feeling of wind in my hair. I'm careful to avoid other running supers that run parallel to me, watching the way the beautiful scenery melts into a beautiful melting pot of spinning colors. With my speed it doesn't even take me a full fifteen minutes to get home, my pace not slowing until I hit the borders of Wolf Woods. A few other wolves are walking into the pack lands as well, cars only a mild inconvenience for those of us that move at least three times faster than any given car. Mostly Hybrids and Important higher ups use them unless it's for a cross country trip.

Finally, I jog up the stairs to the Pack House, frowning in annoyance when the loud chatter from the living room reaches my ears. When I walk down the hallway and turn the corner, I find about ten wolves sitting on the floor, doing homework, relaxing or even doing things like reading.

While wolves are very family and group/pack oriented creatures, I've always been more of a loner. Not exactly by choice but really by necessity. I've always been on the milder side of things and I get really overwhelmed so it's always easier for me when I can talk to people one on one which serves its own challenges. But when hanging out in a group, especially with people who've known each other for forever, feels impossible.

I never know when it's my turn to talk.

Who to make eye contact with. Whose name to say. Whose ideas to answer. I don't know when it's okay to change the subject or when I can interrupt. The rules and ways of group conversations are so confusing and messy. Not to mention my limited understanding to relationship dynamics and the way that people my age act. I've always been disconnected to all of those things.

And even if I weren't, the idea of trying to read to enjoy a good book while around all the noise and distraction, the pushing, laughing and interrupting. I would go insane.

And so for those reasons and others as well, I just avoid the whole scene.

It's a lot easier to be by yourself and enjoy the hobbies and things you like to do without interference than to have to worry about fifty million things just to participate in a conversation.

Interaction is scary.

So instead of trying to join the group who's so obviously ignoring their studying regardless of their claims, I pass them towards the kitchen, deciding to grab a snack from the cabinet and a water from the fridge before going upstairs.

When I enter my room, I throw my bookbag into the bed, throwing myself into my swinging chair and closing my eyes for a little bit.

Thankfully all the rooms are near soundproof so the sounds of fun and laughter is barely heard from the safety and comfort of my own room. I push myself softly with my feet as I keep my eyes close, letting the stress and stimulation from the day process in my mind as I take deep breaths, trying my best to let the things I've held on my shoulders to roll off my back.

After a few minutes I feel calmer and less on edge than I did before.

Reaching for my magic charm that plays whatever music I want, I click some mystical sounding music, grateful that our limited access to the human country doesn't limit the cultural experiences they have to offer.

As the soft music swells and fills the room, I venture towards my desk along the back wall of the room, nervously eyeing the envelope that's laying there tauntingly. Even just looking at it gives me goosebumps and causes my already sensitive heart to beat a mile a minute.

It's not the thoughts of having some sort of mental health issue that gives me pause, if anything it's expected. Over forty percent of Hybrids that have a human parent also have a Mental Disability. No one knows exactly why, but it seems to be holding truth.

No, what terrifies me is the sea of welling emotions and memories that try to bubble up to the surface the moment my family is mentioned. Searing, burning pain attacks my heart, and tears threaten my eyes as I reach for the manila envelope. I can feel the presence of my wolf Jessie pushing at the contraints around him. He's pushing against the barrier, trying to reach me but I pull further away, the weight of the memories already too much without adding Jessie on top of it.

With a tight chest and strained heart, I sit back in my swinging chair, drawing my legs up before laying the envelope against my legs, propped up to face me.

I swallow thickly as I go to open the stupid folder, my anxiety feeling like a damn heart attack at this point. If it wasn't for the fact that this is a project grade, I would just take an out and not give it a second thought.

I wish I didn't care so much about approval as much as I do.

With a sigh and shaky hands, I open the envelope and pull out the small stack of information within. There's three big paper clips separating the three members of my family, starting with my father and ending with my sister.

Just seeing the name of my family members sprawled on some paper as if they were  nothing more than insignificant beings makes my jaw tighten and tears prick my eyes, causing the words to blur together.

Not that I'm reading much anyway, instesd my mind is instantly transported to six years ago when my family and I were ripped apart from each other.

I remember the way the door flung open and a swarm of Rogue wolves broke into our once peaceful homes. They dragged all of us to the living room and questioned mom and dad beating them up when they couldn't answer the questions. I don't know what they were asking about anymore, the details blurring and fading away the more time passes. I remember my sisters face of despair when she saw what she had to do.

I remember the way my dad transformed, breaking the rope and chair that bound him While he freed mom and the two of them fought, Casey, my sister was able to carry my still small almost twelve year old body deep into my backyard.

I slam the door on those memories quickly, tears streaming down my face uncontrollably at the unwanted information and memories that force their way into my brain and heart, resurfacing all the pain that took me years to contain. The memories make my chest feel both empty and heavy, depression taking a chunk of my heart and drowning me, suffocating me with the reminder that the people that I loved so fiercely are no longer here.

No longer being able to think about the incident, I toss the paper back into the envelope messily, not caring that I'll probably have a heart attack later about it when I try again.

For now it's all I can do to put space between me and the foul, cursed memories that haunt me, reminding me of my shortcomings and my biggest failure.

I grab a book off of my bookcase instead, hoping to get some reading done, but my mind feels drained and all over the place, fatigue and a bit of exasperation coming over me as I turn over onto my side and close the book I'm barely reading.

I just lay there, letting the quiet and peace surround me, pulling me into a deep sleep I had no intention of falling into.

✨✨✨

"Cody, you have to get away from here. Run straight towards the Pack house or the Alphas house and don't look back." My sister tells me, tears streaming down her face, a snot bubble appearing out of no where before it pops over her lips.

Any other time I would tease her about the gross act and make fun of her, but now all I can do is cry in turn as she holds me to her chest, sobs racking mine as I try to hold on to Casey, praying she won't make me leave.

But my prayers go unanswered as she pulls away from me, bending down so we're the same height, face to face. Casey isn't an Omega like me, shes tough, strong, and reliable. She's the best big sister out there. So to see her so panicked and distraught tells me that something really bad had happened. Something that I don't even want to acknowledge. But with the blood on Casey's hand from the flying blade that came flying towards us as we ran out of the house, I can tell that as much as I may want to, I can't just pretend that everything will be okay.

"Cody, please." Casey begs, full on sobs matching my own. I hear mom scream so loud it makes me cover my ears as horror sets in, reality of what's happening to my parents mind numbing and traumatizing. "Please. Run and get help. Go. Fuck. Jessie, please. Take Cody and go."

Unable to plead with me, my sister turns instead to my wolf, begging him to take me away and at first I think Jessie will refuse, knowing that doing that would break our trust and bond going against everything I want and believe in, but in a few seconds I can feel the force of Jessie as he starts to push my consciousness out of the way in favor of his own. I start going crazy now, thrashing against my sister, trying to throw myself around her and get back to the house. Anything. Just anything to fucking help and not be so goddamn useless.

"Casey! Jessie! No!!!" I roar the loudest growl I've ever done just as Jessie is able to gain control, forcing himself into the front of our consciousness.

And just like that I'm a prisoner in my own body as Jessie hugs our sister once more before turning and running away. Every inch of me wants to turn around to go back and fight. Even if I'm not the strongest even if I'm not the biggest I can make a difference. I know I can.

And even if, Goddess forbid, I can't, at least I'll be there. At least the four of us can be together and we can cross over into the Eternal Woods together. We could still be together and everything would be okay even if we were dead.

But now.

Now, I have no choice but to live with the reality that those Rouges created. I have to live with the fact that I will live. And they won't. They're dead.

I left them to die all alone.

I left them and they don't even know if I'm okay. I left them and I will never see them again.

Each thought is like a punch to the gut and as Jessie takes us to the Pack House, running faster than we ever have before, the hate and anger that I feel surrounding the preverse devastation that was gifted to me is given to Jessie. Every drop of resentment and anger over my family. Over them being taken. Over me not being there to help. Over me not being able to be with them. Over being alone for the first time in my life. It all falls to him.

By the time I get to speak with the Alpha and tell him what's going on, unable to use my pack link until I'm sixteen, Jessie has been locked away with the painful memories of the day and everything that transpired.

From that day on, nothing was the same.

✨✨✨

When I wake up from my nap a few hours later, my anxiety is high, my cheeks and pillow are wet and my hands are shaking. I lay in the dark for a while, just letting the emotions tear through me and all I can think as I do is one thing:

It doesn't even matter if I do have a mental illness. Who wants someone as broken as I am?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okayyyy i like this origin story a lot better. i think it fits the story more over all and that it makes more sense than the OG. Lmk what you guys think.

Thoughts?

Comments?

QOTD: Thoughts on Hailey and Selena drama?