Chapter Twenty-Nine

It doesn't take us long to leave the wood part of town and make it to main part, walking through the woods none of us spoke. I had so much to tell Reece that I know for sure he wouldn't tell my dad especially, but I didn't know if there were others around to hear what I was saying, who definitely would tell my dad. "Is it bad to say that I'm kind of happy Martha's gone on one of her hide and seek journeys?" Reece asks breaking the silence as all the houses come into view, I always thought this place was massive but it doesn't even compare to the town at home "it's sucked without you here, I've had to manage with Justin turning all sophisticated on me, you won't believe the laugh I had to hold in when he entered the room dressed like that" Reece chuckles as we begin to walk in the direction of Martha's parents house, in my mind that would be the only place she would really wanna go. "Why has he gone all James Bond on you?" I ask as police just start to file out of the police station, we have to find her before they do! This causes us all to look at each other before turning our gently walk, into a worried run. Why would my dad send all his officers to find her? I thought we had a tiny agreement back there! We better hope we're about to find her before any of these do, for Martha's sake but also the towns, Scott isn't playing around this time. In no time we arrive at Martha's parents house, by this time a bunch of the towns people were out to their homes looking all worried. That worry just got greater when they saw me with a buff guard, I would go and explain what's going on but I didn't have time. Before I could even knock on the front door, it opens and standing right in front of me was Martha's parents. "I didn't know you came home Erika, what can we do for you?" Her dads asks but seemed off, as though he was holding something back. "I'm not really home I'm just visiting quickly, have you seen Martha, she's gone missing?" I ask as her mother just tears up and walks away, normally when Martha does one of her disappearing acts she's the first to jump into action and start searching. "Why would we have seen her, she decided she wanted to betray the town and move in with her mate, I can assure you if she came here I would send her away again!" Her dad exclaims getting rather riled up, alright that's also not a reaction I was expecting "that girl is no daughter of mine anymore, why couldn't she be more like you Erika? We all know the reason you went into that pack, it was to help the town but she's just gone for selfish reasons" he continues to rant which was just aiding in us wasting time, she obviously wasn't here so they was no point just standing here. "Martha has her reasons for leaving, sorry for wasting your time" I say going to turn around to walk off but he stops me, he literally takes my arm and prevents me from moving. "No I really think you should stay here, we can have tea" he says trying to pull me into his home, okay what the heck is he doing?! Thankfully, the border guard that was with me rips his hand from my arm and puts me behind him instead. He looked ready to kill as he stares down Martha's dad, why was he trying to pull me into his house?! "You're lucky I don't rip that whole arm off, how dare you lay a hand on the Luna" he growls standing firm in front of the man. But then it clicks, I know what they're trying to do. It's either two things, one my dad has radioed through and told people to try to trap me in places, in hopes that would keep me away from the pack and or find Martha. Or my dad or maybe Justin, has radioed through and told her dad do try to delay us, that way they'll be able to find Martha before us. I start to frantically look around where now all the officers were hurriedly searching, those backstabbers! "We need to go, he's trying to distract us while the others look for Martha" I say turning to run out the garden gate, the border guard hangs back while grabbing Martha's dad. "The Alpha wishes to see you" he growls before dragging him away from his house, this left me and Reece standing in complete chaos. The police were running around everywhere, some were even trying to help Martha's dad escape but failed dramatically. The guard would just push and the dudes would end up flying back, towns people ran of their houses and started to panic looking around. "We need to be smart about this, if Martha didn't come back to her parents place she's using her head, she isn't going to come into the main part of town due to what's happening right now, but where would she go?" I ask pulling Reece by the arm so the officers couldn't hear, I don't know why my dad is so hellbent on getting Martha. "I wasn't surprised when I heard she ran off, it's that time of year" Reece says which does make my eyes go wide, I totally forgot! With all that's happened these last few months it totally slipped my mind. Around five years ago, Martha was in a terrible accident on the lake around here. Not the one that our friends go to every year, we go to the one further away from the town due to what happened to Martha there. We were actually all there with her when it happened, it's something I've blocked out of my memory due to how horrifying it was. I wasn't even the one it happened to but yet, I'm still so afraid of remembering it. Every year since then Martha just vanishes, everyone looks around for her but doesn't find her. Apart from the people in our group as we know what happened, it's also something as a group we choose to let go and not talk about. "The lake" I whisper to Reece who just nods his head, why didn't I think of that earlier?! Reece takes my hand looking both ways before walking away, we didn't need the police following us and working out where she was. We continue to walk calmly for a second before the secret shortcut to the lake appears, I turn my head to check where everyone was located before Reece pulls me down the lane. We sprint in single file down the narrow path, the hedges have overgrown which meant branches where sticking out everywhere. Luckily, Reece was in front of me making a pathway, I can say that because that's why he'll say if I ask to go in front. The path soon ends which tells us it's time we went the hard away, we used to come here loads of times a year that we made this path. But the hedges were never this big so it's now blocked the path, Reece looks at me for a second before starting to pull the bits of branches and leafs to the ground. Slowly we begin to walk into the bush that Reece was pulling away, I take a look at his hands and clock all the blood that was spurring from them. "Reece, you're getting hurt let's go the other way" I say pulling at his top to stop him from hurting himself any further, yeah this way would have been quicker but I can't just let him hurt his hands in the process. "No, I'm not letting these people think they can win again, all they do is hurt people for what for, nothing!" He shouts continuing to pull at the bush even more blood going everywhere, his whole arm was full with it, but he soon stops and looks at me "I have an idea, put this over you" he says taking his coat off and literally putting it over my head, this meant I couldn't actually see anything, I must have looked so stupid. Before I knew what was going on I'm picked up and placed on his back, I still once again couldn't see anything as he told me not to take the coat from my head. He takes my arms wrapping them around his neck also covering those with the coat, this is happening so quickly that I'm not really understanding what's going on. He tells me to hold on tightly before I feel him moving, sounds of branches snapping and cracking fill my ears. I nearly fell off a few times which meant I literally had to hold on for dear life, wait was he running through the bush? Doesn't that hurt? And how is he running so fast?! Before I had time to comprehend what happened we stop, I rip the coat from my head to see we were now at the edge of the lake, okay well that happened. I jump off Reece's back and move around to look at his face, he had huge cuts all over his face and arms, why would he do that?! "We don't have time for you to get all worried about me, Martha is in a ton more danger than me right now" he says while out of breath, yes I knew that but I wasn't just gonna ignore how hurt he looked. "Why would you do that and how did you do that?" I ask taking his arms to get a closer look, they looked deep but not too deep that he'd need stitches. "There's no other way Erika, you don't understand how much has changed since you've been away, it's not just Justin but everyone" he exclaims while also walking towards the lake, we still have to look for Martha while nursing Reece "you were the only thing stopping your dad going all dictator, all the rules have changed and have gotten so much worse" he explains as we reach the edge of the lake, I start to look through the grass just in case she saw us and hid. "There isn't a curfew anymore, you're just not allowed out unless you've been given permission by someone of authority" he explains which stops me in my tracks, that can't be legal to do right? "If you're seen even looking up about werewolves you get in so much trouble, your dad claims it to keep everyone safe but I think he just enjoys it" Reece rants but something floating on the lake gets my full attention.