Chapter 12

• I arrive home after a long drive. I was able to hitch a ride with a few humans. I was so lucky they were going in the direction of my old pack. I open the house door, expecting to smell mom's scent, but I don't. She has been gone for too long that her scent has faded away. The whole place is turned upside down. The living room looks like someone was trying to tear it down. There are pillows everywhere, and the TV is even broken. Did they fight in here? The kitchen is like the living room, but my breath catches in my throat once I see blood on the kitchen counter. I smelt something weird on my way to the kitchen, but I did not know what it was, and now that I do, I wish I didn't. Please, I hope it's not Mom's. I sniff the blood to find out if it has the scent of mom, but I can't tell because the blood seems too decayed to say. This also causes me to empty my stomach in the kitchen sink. The blood smelt so bad, and I think it's been here for days. The amount is also tiny, even if I can't tell who the blood belongs to. I feel little comfort knowing that if it belonged to mom, she did not bleed a lot.
• I walk upstairs to check the state of the rooms, and unlike downstairs, which looks like it was used for a WWE match, the rooms are intact. I can't help myself and think about the horrors mom might face wherever she is once I get to her room. Her room still has her scent, and I am sure it is because of her clothes. I try to push back the tears as I think about it because I need to be strong right now. I can't be crying every time about everything. I need to shower, visit our Alpha, and find out how the search for mom is going.
• After I finish showering and cleaning up the house a bit, I walk outside to the packhouse. The second I step inside, all eyes turn to me. I am a little confused as to why everyone is looking at me. It's not like I am a stranger here. A girl around my age who I hardly speak to because we dislike each other walks towards me with the worse fake smile plastered on her face.