Beyond the Pack’s Law: My stepsister or nobody else

Hayley’s POV

“I’m here.”

The man before us, who was meant to be Kieran, took a step forward, giving the moonlight access to illuminate his face.

The four of us stood there in the cold night, waiting for something to happen.

“Who are these?” Kieran asked Alessa while motioning towards me and my dad.

“This is Hayley and her dad; they are Aiden’s family; we really need to find him, Kieran.” The desperation and pleading in her voice were so evident that it almost sounded like she really cared for Aiden.

It sent a small spike of jealousy through my heart. I should have been the one communicating how desperately we needed to find him, but now wasn’t the time to have those kinds of thoughts; all that mattered was finding Aiden by whatever means necessary.

“Okay, follow me.” Kieran turned around and walked straight ahead, in the direction he had emerged.

I looked at my dad, and just as expected, he still had that same worried expression on his face.

I tried to nod reassuringly, but to be honest, I didn’t feel very reassured. For all I knew, this could be a trap or just an utter waste of time.

Alessa followed after him without hesitation, showing just how much she believed in this stranger, and we cautiously followed behind her.

We all stepped into the run-down mill, Kieran first with Alessa beside him and then me and my dad.

I expected to be met by an interior that matched the exterior of the building, abandoned and neglected, but surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. If I hadn’t seen the building from the outside, I would have assumed it was a nice, regular old house.

My eyes snapped back to our host, who pointed at some seats for us to use. I had to force myself to sit; my whole being was restless, and the slow pace at which things were going wasn’t helping matters. Couldn’t we just skip to the part where he helped you find Aiden?

He sat before us and just continued to look us dead in the eyes. Talk about theatrics; this man was the king of it; it was almost like he was intentionally stalling.

“Can we please get on with this?” I spat out without thinking; it probably came off as rude because Alessa shot me an angry look. I wanted to smack her across the face.

“Do you have better things to do, child?”

Child? My tolerance for him was starting to reach its limits; we didn’t have time for this. Each second we spent with this clown increased the risk of something horrible happening to Aiden.

“The only thing I want to do right now is find Aiden, and to be very sincere, it doesn’t seem like you can be of much help.”

“Do you want me to help or not? There are a few things in life that I do not stand for; disrespect is one of them. You are free to leave if you have a better way of finding the boy.” His tone was the same; I had half expected a hint of anger, but he still seemed extremely calm. Was it because he didn’t have anything at stake, or did this man actually know what he was doing?

“She didn’t mean to be disrespectful; we are all just on edge right now. We want you to help.” Dad said before I could say anything else; I took that as my cue to shut up, and that was exactly what I did.

“Good, now this is how we will find him.” Kieran leaned in and filled us in on his solution.

“Is that it?” Alessa asked with a glint of hope in her eyes. I couldn’t blame her. Kieran’s way did sound reasonable.

“If everything happened just as you told me and your story checks out, then yes, this should work.”

I took one more glance at Alessa; she better not have lied when she was recounting events to Kieran. I’d kill her myself if this didn’t work out because of her.

“Okay, shouldn’t we be out there right now? Let’s go.” I suggested trying not to sound rude. My palm felt extremely sweaty, and my heart was beating at an agitated pace.

He gave me a stern glare before eventually nodding. I suppose it was my fault for having such a terrible first impression.

“You all can wait outside. I’ll be with you shortly, and then we will be on our way.”

We all stood in response; my dad and I headed out first. It wasn’t until we got to the front door that I realized Alessa hadn’t followed us out. What in the world was she trying to do without us being there?

I walked a few steps. I took a seat on the ground and projected myself back into the room to see what was going on.

“Are you sure?” Kieran asked.

“Yes, he was with us one minute and the next. We heard a scream, and then he was gone.” She looked scared out of her mind as she spoke.

Who was the “he” they were talking about? , Aiden??

“Let’s focus on what’s at hand right now, and then we can deal with that too, okay?” Kieran’s face had a soft, concerned expression as he spoke to her.

She nodded in response.

They walked towards the door, and I ended the projection. I’d have to wait to see who this other him, whom Alessa was concerned about, was.

Kieran stepped out with a lamp and led us into the woods.

“Please be safe.” I prayed underneath my breath.

The eerie feeling in the woods was back-that deafening silence that was occasionally broken by the breaking of a twig and the sounds of crickets. It just seemed so hollow and empty, like a reflection of how my heart felt at the moment.

We were all following behind Kieran when I noticed Alessa join me at my side. I didn’t feel comfortable with her being so close to me; frankly, I wanted her gone. This whole thing was partially her fault.

“Um… Hayley?” She said it in a whisper.

“Uh?” I said nonchalantly without turning to look at her; my eyes were focused on navigating through the obstructions in my path.

“I understand if you are mad at me.”

“Alessa, now is really not the time for you to grow a guilty conscience.”

“Grow a conscience? I’m trying to have a proper conversation.”

Proper conversation? Did she really think I owed her my attention, or was I obligated to soothe her conscience? She was really starting to piss me off. She worked with Aunt Jada, and then there were all the attempts she made to frustrate my relationship with Aiden, and now she was sympathetic after finally succeeding.

“Well, you sure as hell know how to start a proper conversation.” I replied icily.

“You know what? Forget it. You’re acting like you’re some goody-two-shoes who has never done anything wrong, but news flash girl, you’re not, not even close. You’re one of the reasons we’re looking for him right now. This was a mistake.” Her voice rose, then went back to a whisper for that last part, and she went ahead of me to catch up with Kieran.

What he said hit something in me. I never thought I was some innocent do-gooder; the only reason I had really gotten angry at Aiden was because of the constant lies and excuses.

It almost felt like I didn’t know him; the line between truth and lie seemed to have vanished, but regardless, I felt bad about what happened. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something really bad happened to him, and that was the last conversation I would ever have with him.

I looked at Alessa’s dark figure from behind, and regardless of whatever issues I had to solve with Aiden, she had very much contributed to it, and that wasn’t just going to get wiped off my memory.

A hand rested on my shoulder, and I snapped out of my distracted thought.

“Uh?” I said, looking up at my dad.

“Are you okay?” He asked

“Yeah, I just zoned out for a bit. I’m okay.”

“I’m sure he’s fine.” He said he was smiling.

I lost track of how far we had walked or how long we had been walking. Fatigue was starting to set in, and I could feel my body growing tired.

There was a weird scent starting to fill the air; it almost smelled like rusty iron.

Kieran abruptly stopped walking, and we all did the same.

My eyes scanned around for possible threats, but all I could see were trees and even more trees. Was something wrong?

“Is?” I was about to ask when Kieran put a finger to his lips, making my lips zip shut.

He’s head snapped to the left as he sniffed the air. He hurried off in that direction, and Alessa did too, making me even more confused.

After the mini-jog, I saw what ideas had drawn their attention. About a few feet away from me, there was something lying on the ground, face facing down.

I couldn’t see much because of the dim moonlight, managing to sleep through the canopy of leaves above us until Kieran’s flashlight shone on the figure before us, and I gasped.

There is lots of blood everywhere.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Fear gripped me as I looked at the unrecognizable person, Aiden. I felt a scream bubbling up inside me as I stared frozen at the lifeless body.

Kieran moved forward, reached for the body, and flipped it to lie on its back. My eyes shut instinctively, not wanting to have to witness the horror of his lifeless face.

“It’s not him.” Alessa’s voice was filled with relief.

Uh?

My closed eyelids instantly sprung open, and I took a better look at the corpse. She was right-it wasn’t Aiden. Relief washed over me, but I still felt sick in the stomach.

“What exactly could have happened here?” My dad said it in a whisper.

We all looked at each other; we killed this man so viciously. Was it Aiden? Or was there someone in these woods with a violent blood thirst?

“I have no idea, but he’s one of Jada’s men.” Alessa stated it out of nowhere.

“How do you know that?” Dad asked, but then paused. “Oh.

“Yeah, so if he’s dead, I guess that’s a good thing. We should probably keep going; I doubt this guy went down without putting up a fight. If Aiden was the one who did this, he’s probably wounded or hurt badly.”

Her logic made sense, so I shifted my gaze from the dead guy and looked ahead.

“Not so fast.” Kieran said that after being silent for a long time, his back was turned to us, which was weird.

“She’s made a point; we should quicken up the pace,” I asked.

“There’s no point.” He said it plainly.

“What do you mean there’s no point?” I asked, irritated by his theatrics.

“Because… there he is.”

Those words seemed to completely silence the night.

Kieran shifted his flashlight, making it point in the direction he had been facing. It took a while for my eyes to spot it, but when I did, I couldn’t believe it.

There he was, seated at the bottom of a tree, his eyes closed and his head resting back.

“Aiden,” my voice came out cracked.

I rushed towards the tree and kneeled beside him.

“It’s him.” I called out to them in relief; tears of joy were steaming down my eyes like a waterfall.

“Aiden?” I shook his hand in an attempt to wake him, but his eyes remained close.

Before I knew it, Alessa rushed to his other side, looking concerned. I ignored her and focused on him.

“Aiden!” My voice rose.

Panic slowly started to set in as I noticed how pale his face and hands looked.

No! No!! No!!!

I screamed in my head. This couldn’t be happening.