Page 7 of Reclaiming Home

“How was the interview?” Henry asked after he’d eaten about half of his sandwich.

I shrugged. “Okay. I’m gonna say fifty/fifty chance they call me back.”

It was hard to get a job when you hadn’t finished your degree and had a two-year gap in employment history.

“They ask why this time?” He all but read my thoughts.

“Nope.” I rubbed a hand over my face and pushed some of my hair behind my ear. “They either don’t care or they do, and make an issue out of it. The reason never matters.”

“Hun, if you had a whole degree—”

“It wouldn’t matter much. Not in this economy. And not in a city anyway. Agricultural science isn’t exactly sexy when all you have around you are cafés and stores.” I sighed again. “I wish I didn’t have to drag you into this.”

“No, what I told you last year still stands, Kye: my spare room is yours for as long as you need it. Besides, my apartment hasn’t been this spotless ever before.” He smiled at me warmly, and I almost let go of my bitterness.

After Henry went back to work—he was a junior architect at a prestigious firm and made a lot of money already—I went back to his apartment.

There was nothing to clean, so I grabbed my laptop and curled up on the couch.

Two years and some change ago, my sister Carys ran away. It was because of our stepmom, really. She was a wicked witch if I ever met one.

Our dad had divorced our mom when Carys was three and I was eight, because she was constantly cheating on him and basically ruined our reputation in our tiny Texas town. Because of her public intoxication and resisting arrest charges, Dad managed to get custody of us pretty easily. Not that she wanted us anyway.

Carys was too young to understand and the little I did, I felt glad she was gone. She hadn’t been much of a mom anyway. Life without her after we moved to Tennessee to be closer to Dad’s family was nice. We had grandparents, cousins, everything.

I guess Dad dated some, but he never brought anyone home to meet us until I was fifteen. Theresa was nice at first, but then she got pregnant the next year and it was as if Carys and I were the necessary evil after that.Our baby sister, Eira, was a nice enough baby. It was a shame her mom was such a bitch, though.

When it was time for college, I managed to get into Texas A&M, which almost meant I was going backwards, geographically. Dad had a good career, so he’d saved enough money for both Carys and me to go to college with very little debt. After I moved to Texas, Carys started to act out more. Do all stupid teenage stuff, rebelling against Theresa, mostly. Dad was disappointed, but he could tell how much she missed me.

I didn’t really hear much from what she was up to, until she went missing.

The kicker was that she went missing while Dad, Theresa, and Eira were at Theresa’s sister’s place for some anniversary weekend thing. Carys didn’t want to go, so they left her home, and when they got back, they realized she was gone.

None of us could get a hold of her. It was as if she vanished into thin air. Then, about two weeks later, she sent me a message from a random number, saying that she was fine and was with her new boyfriend.

It wasn’t much, but it was something. I sent a message back saying to contact me once a week or else. She did send short messages for a few weeks, and then those stopped, too.

My phone buzzed on the coffee table, so I reached for it.

It was an unknown number, but I’d gone from rarely answering my phone even when it was people I knew–messages were so much better–to answering every call, just in case.

“Hello?”

“Kye. It’s me, Carys.”

Afterwards, I couldn’t remember the first few minutes of that call. My faculties returned around the time she told me to give her a second.

“No, don’t go!” I yelled, tears still streaming down my face as my heart tried to do a jig in my chest.

“I won’t, I’m right here, I need to talk to—hey dude? Alpha? What’s your name?”I heard someone’s voice, a low murmur in the background. “Okay, Brodie? Where are we, exactly?”

“What the fuck is going on, Carys?” I asked, my brain whirring at an unsettling speed, while also feeling like I was kind of dizzy.

“I’m in Pennsylvania, in a town called Luxton, it seems. I’ll tell you everything as soon as you get here.” I was on my feet before she could say anything more. “You’ll come, right?” she asked in a hesitant voice that broke my heart again.

“Of course I will.” I was already moving to the guest room to pack all my shit. “You’ll be at this number?”

“Brodie? Will I be at this number?” she asked the guy at the other end. “Yeah, I will. And I’m not going anywhere, either. He promised.”

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