Chapter 240

I’ve been trying to tell you that you aren’t crazy Oakley, her wolf tried to calm her. She’s like me… she doesn’t hate me… I’ve missed her so much… not alone… not alone anymore. “You’re okay Oakley,” I whispered to her, to the other humans it would sound like unintelligible mumbling. “You – you – don’t un-understand,” she bawled, a mess on my lap, “No cry,” Ava ran into the room, patting Oakley’s back, Casey just hung back. She cried until she stopped, her face blotchy and searching mine. “You hear it too?” she asked in a voice smaller – more vulnerable – than Ava’s, “I don’t hear the same voice as you, but I do hear the voice like you do, like Ben will. We – all of us here – are all like you,” I answered honestly. “Will – will one of you tell me what’s going on?” Grant stood, demanding answers, hands gesturing, waving between Oakley and I. “I’m going to start at the beginning, because Oakley doesn’t know what’s going on with her, but we have our mom to thank for all that-” I said shaking my head. “You better?” Ava asked Oakley concerned, oblivious of the rigidity of the room, Oakley looked from Ava to me and back, nodding. When Ava got the answer that pleased her she attacked Casey. I shook my head at her natural kindness, “Uhm as I was saying Oakley doesn’t know what’s happening to her, neither does Ben, but it’s because Anya-” “Who is Anya?” Ben asked puzzled. “Well… that’s what people who knew my mother, knew her as, but I guess to you guys she’s Norine?” he nodded, why would she need so many names… he thought to himself but still said nothing. “Anya – Norine – she,” I stopped this was harder than I thought, “Oakley has been hearing a voice in her head, not like a hallucination, it is a part of her, I have that as well. We all do here – as I said before – but there are other things enhance about Oakley as well. She can hear much better than a normal human, as well as her vision and sense of smell,” bring me a knife, I told James. Swiftly he went and returned with a small sharp knife, “Watch,” I said taking it and slitting my palm open, deeply, the blood rushing, pooling. James offered me a towel, I placed it over my palm, the blood saturating the towel and by the time I pulled it away showing them the wound, it had already begun healing, closing, scabbing over and in less than five minutes my palm was as it was before. “Holy shit!” what – what is she? Grant thought, frightened, he wrapped an arm around Ben, reaching his wife. You just say that Ben and Oakley are like you and he’s trying to protect them from you? They are like you… Avena said humorously. “Have… uh – have you all seen the news? About the shifters?” I treaded carefully, the animals? “I can turn into a wolf, Oakley is turning into a wolf, and Ben, I think you’re one tantrum away from shifting as well,” I said unsure because while Oakley had the notable signs, I couldn’t get those same readings from Ben. I just felt his wolf, but I don’t think his wolf had made himself known. She’s crazy… Julia thought dazed, afraid to blink while Grant was more or less sifting his memory for signs. None of them were saying anything so I continued, “Norine, she…” I was already frustrated, my hands wiped furiously across my face, “I don’t want to overwhelm you guys with too much, but I – I don’t know what she was thinking. I know your dad is human but Oakley and Ben are not, and there are some dangerous people that were watching you two. Keeping tabs, waiting to see if Oakley would shift, just waiting to take her. When they did – and there is no question that they would – they wouldn’t be taking her for any reason other than self-gain. Whether that be having her breed children out like she was just an incubator, or beating the shit out of her until she reached her shifter potential, then killing her…” I ignored the gasps but there was no way around this, I needed them to truly understand the danger here. “Not all shifters are bad, but there are those that are truly terrible and care about nothing but power – those people – those bad ones, they are the ones watching you…” I stood, turning around, lifting my shirt so they could see the scars on my back. Oh my god….Poor child… Julia and Grant thought simultaneously.  She isn’t lying, this isn’t… what do we do? Grant furiously trying to absorb and make sense of what he was learning, “So you took us…” he said unsure. “Many people want me dead, want everyone here on this island dead, no one knows where we are and as of maybe three hours ago, everyone back home, your home too believes you are dead. I ordered people to bring you here because of the bad men but also because of what you did Oakley,” I said lightly, taking her hand, the wrist she cut, pealing the bandage off, it was still healing. Deciding to show them more, I closed my eyes and concentrated on healing it completely. When it was physically healed, the Lawson’s – minus Oakley – were green faced, so I waited. I expected them to throw up, be afraid something but they seemed too shock to do more than blink and open their mouths closing it quickly after. Oakley brought it closer to her face, examining the area in pure astonishment. This is impossible, she thought. “No, not impossible, just different,” I braced myself for her reaction, which she didn’t disappoint, jumping to her feet, can she – is she reading my mind? “Ah-” “Yes, I am,” I kept my eyes on her, not looking away, Oakley brought her hand to her head, touching it lightly, she can – everything… “Oakley?” Ben called his sister, unsure of what was going on, going between us like a tennis match. “She can read our minds?” she still said it like a question, but I nodded. “I can… I can read everyone’s mind – minus the Elders-” “The man that killed our mom called her an Elder…” Oakley blurted out. I whipped my head towards James, Gabriel? Can you send Jack and Marlon here? What’s wrong? He growled, worried, so I just replayed for him what had already happened as Oakley stood sitting near her uncle Grant, he his self examining her wrist once again, “this is – things like this just don’t exist-” she was saying something else… “I was…” I answered, startling him, but I just continued, “Besides the power hungry individuals that were keeping tabs on Oakley, the main reason I brought her here was to get her away from Sarah and Amelia. You see, even though Oakley has the genes to shift, without the willpower to actually want to live, she wouldn’t survive her shift… do you understand?” I asked them all, but kept my eyes on Grant. I’m sorry for loving them, Ben thought sadly looking at Oakley. Your brother thinks that you hurt yourself because he loved Sarah and Amelia, I told Oakley, her head whipping to face me, a fire behind her eyes, before she registered what I told her and went to Ben. “Ben, you know the tape I played for dad? I know Sarah and Amelia aren’t bad people, but Dad just… I feel like I’m not enough, not good enough. I look just like mom and that makes him sad, but one of the other reasons was I had that recording. I guess I always thought that eventually daddy would love me again, not just see that mom left and then him, you and I… well I wanted to find the people mom mentioned on there…” Ben shook his head, blonde hair flopping about, “But if I loved you more and didn’t love them you wouldn’t have done that…” he pointed to her now healed wrist sadly. She shook her head, but Grant was the one to answer, “Benny, what Oakley did was because of how she felt inside, us grownups made a lot of mistakes in how we treated her and handled your momma missing and Oakley was hurting and afraid because of what she heard,” he paused for a moment, but that was all Oakley needed, “Ben, if it wasn’t for you, I would’ve given up so long ago… you’re the only reason I held on and tried so hard but then it was like all my feelings were crushing me, suffocating me,” and I glance at James. His face clear but his mind is on his daughter, hoping that if he ever finds another woman to love that he doesn’t do what Pat Lawson did to Oakley.