Waiting for the Thunder

Brady had thought that returning home to Mystic Falls was the right thing to do after everything that had happened in New Orleans but the truth was that now he wasn’t so sure. The pack had pretty much been decimated by their alpha before Brady had been able to kill him and with only a few of them left it would have made them an easy target for the other packs in the city. Brady had seen too much death over the course of his life, all of his friends had died while he was in Ecuador and he had almost joined them but he had managed to escape after triggering his curse. Seeing something similar happen with the pack had brought all of those memories flooding back to him, the memories that he had been doing his best to keep buried deep down after he had finally made it back home, and he had made a promise to himself that he wasn’t going to lose anyone else. His parents had died because his extended family had decided that they didn’t deserve to live given that his dad was a werewolf and his mom had picked him over the family that she was born into and ever since then he had been doing his best to keep everyone else safe. He knew that he couldn’t save everyone and some members of the pack had decided to leave but new members had joined as well so he knew that it was just one of those things. Now they all seemed settled but with so many names ending up on the supernatural hitlist it was difficult to know who was next and all Brady could do was keep his eyes open and do his best to make sure that no harm befell the people he cared about.

That seemed to be easier said than done now that Liam had triggered his curse and Mel had been turned into something supernatural by the Dread Doctors but they were the only family they had so they were looking out for each other. Well, that wasn’t completely true – they had Alix as well. Brady hadn’t liked the way she had ambushed him and her brother and made them talk and the truth was that he still wasn’t sure what to make of Rohan but Alix had never given him any reason not to trust her. She went about things a different way and she often seemed to keep things to herself until she absolutely had to say them out loud but deep down he knew that they were alike in that respect. Brady had a habit of keeping things to himself as well so he knew that he really couldn’t judge her for doing exactly the same thing. With so much going on he was glad that he had something normal like work to focus on anyway but as he stopped in front of the garage he saw a familiar figure making his way towards him and his gaze quickly swept over their surroundings to make sure that she was alone this time. There didn’t seem to be any sign of her brother and for that he was grateful so he nodded as she asked if he had some time to talk. “Sure, I’m about due for my lunch break,” knowing that if she did have information that could help him keep the pack safe then he would be a fool not to hear her out. “I was thinking of heading to the Grill, do you want to join me?”

ALIX QUINN

After what had happened with their Alpha, the truth was that Brady was wary about anyone getting close to him or the pack these days. As their Alpha now it was his job to keep them all safe and he knew that he had already failed in that when Mel and a few of the others had been taken by the Dread Doctors. Brady had taken to beating himself up about that for a long time but in the end he had realised that he couldn’t have stopped the Dread Doctors even if he had wanted to because he hadn’t known about them back then. He still had no idea who they were now but he knew that some of his pack were friends with another Alpha and they had been sharing information about what was going on in Mystic Falls. Brady hadn’t known that the town was like this when he had grown up there but he knew that perhaps it hadn’t been like this back then. Something seemed to have happened to escalate things over the last few years and now all any of them could do was try and survive.

He had been starting to trust Alix when she had ambushed him by having him meet with her brother. If she had told him what was going on then he would have been wary but he would have given her the benefit of the doubt and gone along with it but Brady didn’t like being tricked like that so he had been keeping his distance ever since. He knew that it was crazy considering that Alix wasn’t that different to him now but there was a time when she had killed people like them and that was always there at the back of his mind. Dec had told him that Alix had let him go when his name had ended up on the hit list and Brady was grateful to her for that because Julian’s family were his as well but that dent she had put into the trust that she had been starting to earn from him wasn’t something that he could easily ignore.

“So I see,” Brady nodded, glad that this time there weren’t any signs of an ambush like there had been before. “It’s fine, it’s as good enough time to talk as any,” he shrugged. Brady hadn’t known what had happened to his extended family because his mom and dad had never talked about them but at the end of the day Alix was his cousin and even though he didn’t trust Rohan and he sure as hell wanted to rip Ralphy’s throat out for what he had done, Alix had always been honest with him despite her misguided attempts at trying to get the truth out there so he knew that he needed to give her the benefit of the doubt for now, at least until he had heard her out. As she asked how he wanted to get there, Brady’s expression turned thoughtful for a moment. There was a part of him that wanted to say that she should meet him there but he knew that would be a waste of time. He needed to give Alix a chance to start earning back that trust and he knew that there was no time like the present. “I’m not a very good passenger so I’ll drive,” he said, pulling his keys out of his pocket and heading in the direction of his car, unlocking it and climbing in as he waited for Alix to do the same.

ALIX QUINN

Trusting people wasn’t something that came easily to Brady and the truth was that it had been that way ever since he was taken hostage in Ecuador. These days people had to earn his trust and right now the jury was still out on Alix. She was his cousin so he didn’t want to think that she would ever betray him but then again his uncle had been the one to lead orchestrate the attack that had resulted in his parents losing their lives so he knew that he needed to be careful. She didn’t seem like their uncle but Brady knew that he couldn’t afford to take any risks especially considering that she was still a hunter like her brother. Rohan was someone that he hadn’t been able to get a proper read on yet and that was enough to put Brady on edge. He wasn’t so worried about himself but he knew that it was his responsibility to look out for his younger siblings and keep them safe and he had the pack to think about as well. So many people were counting on him and he knew that the last thing he wanted was to end up letting any of them down.

“You got that right,” Brady nodded as Alix said that the time to talk wasn’t going to get any better. His comment about not being a good passenger slipped from his lips so easily but there was some truth to it. Ever since Ecuador when he had been captured and driven out to the middle of nowhere he had hated being a passenger. When he was behind the wheel he was the one in control and back then that was something that had been sorely missing from his life. He knew that there was nothing to stop Alix from trying something but then again he was an Alpha and chances were that he would be able to stop her if he had to, not to mention there were ways in which he could use the vehicle to stop her. It wouldn’t be ideal and the truth was that he didn’t want to end up totalling it but he knew that it was better that than the alternative.

Climbing into the driver’s side, Brady started the engine and pulled the car out of the parking lot before heading in the direction of town. As Alix asked if he’d told Mel and Liam, a sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head. “I have no idea how to tell them, I’ve never been very good at this,” he admitted. He had changed a lot over the last few years but even so there were certain things that he didn’t know how to handle and this was one of them. “Hey guys. Just so you know we’ve got a cousin in town but she used to work with the guy who’s responsible for killing out parents and oh by the way he happens to be our uncle,” Brady said, a humourless chuckle escaping his lips. “That will go down real well.” It had taken Brady some time to get his head around it so he knew that it would be that much worse for his siblings and he wanted to protect them from that for as long as possible. “Liam hasn’t had much to do with it, he’s focused on his own life which is how it should be.” His brother had school to think about and before that he’d taken some time to come to terms with triggering his curse. Brady knew that he couldn’t really talk to his brother and sister about things like this too much but there were others he could talk to. “Maybe you should come over one day and we’ll talk to them together at least so we can tell them who you are. I might not trust you completely yet but you’re still our family and if you’d wanted to hurt us then you would have told our uncle where we are so I need to start giving you the benefit of the doubt.”

ALIX QUINN

Brady had known that it was dangerous bringing his family and his pack to Mystic Falls but after they’d tracked Mel and the missing pack members to the town it had seemed like the best thing to do. Brady had grown up in Mystic Falls before he and his family moved away when it came time for him to go to college and after losing his parents if he was honest he had wanted to return to somewhere that felt like home. New Orleans had never really been that for him, he had made it through three years of college while he was there before going travelling but after he returned home after being held hostage for years it had never been the same. He had tried to get back to normal after that and he had put on a front for his parents but something inside of him had changed, he had changed, and he had needed the chance to start over more than he had realised. Mystic Falls had given him that chance but it had brought its fair share of drama and uncertainty with it and Brady was starting to realise that there was never going to be a dull moment no matter where he ended up.

“Both,” Brady said honestly. “I had to become their legal guardian when our parents died but I’m in way over my head.” It was his first time saying those words out loud but they were still true. He had known that he couldn’t let his siblings go into care so he had stepped up and just like he had with the pack and he had been trying to protect them all ever since. “I know they’re not kids anymore but there are so many things I haven’t been able to bring myself to tell them. There are some things I haven’t talked to anyone about,” he added. He wasn’t sure how much Alix knew about his past and what he had been through but to this day he hadn’t been able to bring himself to talk to anyone about what had happened while he was being held captive and that included Julian who was his best friend. He knew that Julian had been able to figure at least some of it out considering that he had flown to Ecuador to join the search party but he still didn’t know all the details and whenever anyone asked Brady went quiet so in the end they had all stopped asking. In his own way it was how he protected himself and the people he cared about from the horrors of his past and he wasn’t sure how to change that. “Sorry, that was a bad choice of words,” he conceded as Alix corrected him. He had believed her when she’d said that she hadn’t wanted to do it and her actions since she’d arrived in town backed that up. “No, I don’t. You let Dec go when you saw he was just a kid, if you had wanted to be doing it then you would have killed him there and then,” he shrugged. Julian had helped make him see sense about that, at least.

“He has but he’s learning to control it and if there’s one thing I can do it’s give him the chance to be a kid for a little longer,” Brady sighed. He knew that Liam was a part of this world now, he had told his siblings about the werewolf gene after their parents died so they could make sure that they didn’t trigger it but Liam had done that anyway so now all he could do was try and keep things as normal as they could be for a little longer. “We’ll make it happen then,” Brady nodded as he turned onto the road that would take them to the Grill. “I believe you about that and for what it’s worth you’re not in any danger from my pack. You’re family and you’ve been through it as much as any of us, you have whatever protection we can give you now,” he said, glancing over at Alix as he pulled into the parking lot and turned off the engine. As she asked if he’d had any contact from her brother, Brady shook his head. “Nothing but that’s not a surprise, he couldn’t get out of there quick enough,” he shrugged. “Have you heard anything from him?”

ALIX QUINN

Becoming his younger siblings’ legal guardian definitely wasn’t something that Brady had planned on but he knew that it had been worth it to make sure that the three of them could stay together after their parents died. He would be the first to admit that he didn’t know what he was doing most of the time, he was trying to help them both through everything that had happened but deep down he knew that he hadn’t really dealt with it all himself yet. He’d had to fight for his life in Ecuador after being held captive for years and he had triggered his curse while he was escaping. He had thought that he was safe when he finally made it back to New Orleans but he’d had to fight for his life again when his Alpha decided to wipe out the pack and steal their power. It seemed to be one thing after another and he knew that he couldn’t talk to his siblings about it. He talked to Julian about certain things and his friend always tried to help him as much as he could but Julian’s life had been very different to Brady’s and Brady had never been very good at opening up about anything.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Brady laughed as Alix said it looked like he was exactly what his brother and sister needed right now. “Liam acts like he hates me half the time and I have no idea how to deal with a teenage girl. I didn’t exactly make the best decisions during my teenage years,” he shrugged. His grades hadn’t been great but they had been good enough to get him into college but for the most part he had been focused on his friends, girls and sports. He honestly had no idea whether he was giving his siblings what they needed right now or whether he was making a complete mess of it but he was doing his best. As Alix asked if staying quiet was what was best for him, Brady thought about it for a moment. “Probably not,” he sighed. “I don’t know how to talk about some of the things I’ve been through, though, and I’m not sure I want to relive them anymore than I already do,” Brady admitted as he looked over at Alix. “How much do you know about my past?” he asked, pretty sure that she would have done some digging at least.

“No, it isn’t,” Brady said as Alix said that his slip of the tongue was okay. “You haven’t given me any reason not to trust you, aside from ambushing me into that meeting with your brother,” he said, a smile forming on his face at the last part to show that he was only joking about that bit. He didn’t trust Alix completely yet, that much was true, but he didn’t have any reason to doubt her either. “They’re you’re family too and you’ve got every right to get to know them.” Brady knew that he was never going to stop wanting to keep his siblings safe but when it came to Alix, his gut was telling him that he didn’t need to worry and he had learned a long time ago to trust his gut instincts. “To be honest, I’d be surprised if anyone deserves to be on that list,” he admitted. Dec hadn’t hurt anyone but his name had ended up on the list anyway and there was no telling how many other innocent people were on there. Just the thought that there was someone out there putting together a list like that was enough to make Brady feel sick to his stomach but it was reality and nothing could change that but they could try and stop anyone else getting hurt.

“Same here. No one should have to grow up that quickly.” So much had happened in such a short space of time and Brady knew that he would do anything to make sure that Liam got the chance to be a kid for as long as possible. He might not know what he was doing when it came to being their guardian but he knew what he was doing as a brother and Brady knew that he wanted to protect both Liam and Mel for as long as he could. “I’m sure they will too,” Brady nodded as Alix said that she would like to meet his siblings. As Alix said that his offer of protection was appreciated, Brady felt a smile touch his lips. “It’s the least we can do. Pack is family and you’re family too.” If Alix wanted to join the pack then Brady knew that he would be fine with that but he wasn’t sure whether that was something that she would ever want. Alix seemed like the kind of person who preferred to do things on her own most of the time, that was something that they had in common, and it had been a big adjustment for Brady but he knew that it wasn’t for everyone. “That makes sense. Hopefully he’ll reach out to you soon,” he nodded. As Alix asked if he’d tried getting g allocation on the rest of the family, Brady nodded once more. “They’re far away from here for the time being, I don’t think we’re even on their radar right now,” he explained. He had friends in New Orleans that were far enough removed that he’d been able to call in a favour and get them to locate the rest of the family without alerting them and Brady knew that he was going to have to keep tabs on them if they were going to stand a chance at staying one step ahead.

ALIX QUINN

Brady couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Alix’s reaction to his laughter. He knew she was being serious when she said that he was exactly what his siblings needed but Brady was pretty sure that he was never going to see it that way. He wasn’t a role model to them, he had spent most of his time at their age drinking too much and getting into trouble. His parents had sometimes had to bail him out of it and he had never really had to stand on his own two feet too much at their age. Now things were completely different, their parents were gone and Brady knew that he was still distant from them in some respects. He knew that he could tell them about what had happened while he was in Ecuador but the truth was that he had no idea how to talk about it and he didn’t want them to think any differently about him. “Being a brother is one thing, trying to be their guardian and the responsible one is something completely different,” Brady shrugged. He knew that he had no choice about being responsible considering that he was an Alpha and that meant that he had the lives of his pack to worry about but when it came to his siblings he was really worried about screwing up. “I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I did at that age but if I try telling them that they just think I’m trying to stop them from having fun.” He knew that if he opened up to them it might help them understand where he was coming from but that was so much easier said than done.

“There are times when I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that,” Brady admitted. He had survived and he’d managed to tell a really watered down version of what had happened to the press, he had been able to give a few more details to his parents and his friends’ parents but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell anyone the whole truth. Even now he often relived a lot of it every time he closed his eyes at night but the nightmares were more manageable now and that was something at least. As Alix said she’d picked up on some of what he’d been through, Brady nodded. “My friends and I were kidnapped in Ecuador and held for ransom two years. We were beaten and starved and some of their parents were made to pay but when those payments stopped I had to watch as they killed my friends one by one. When it was my turn I managed to break free but I killed one of them in the process and triggered my curse,” he said, a haunted look on his face as he spoke, the memories playing in his mind as he did so. He had never been able to bring himself to go into any more detail than that with anyone and he wasn’t sure that he ever would. It had been enough to let his friends’ parents know that he was the only survivor, leaving out the last part naturally other than with his parents, and he had seen the way that it had broken their hearts but he hadn’t wanted them to be left with any false hope that their kids might return to them as well. “When I got back to New Orleans an Alpha took me under his wing but then he started killing members of the pack so he could become more powerful and I killed him,” he continued. The pack all knew about that and so did Julian and it seemed only right that Alix know the truth as well considering she was family. There was still so much he hadn’t told her but it was enough to give her an insight into what he had been through and where he was coming from at least. Brady knew that the memories would haunt him forever but he could at least recount the watered down version without losing it now. He could still hear the cries of his friends as they died and he could still remember the days he had spent wishing that death would take him too so he at least wouldn’t have to be in that awful place any longer but against the odds he’d survived and that was almost worse. He had seen it in the faces of his friends’ parents when he’d returned home, they had all wondered why he had survived and their boys hadn’t and the truth was that Brady often found himself wondering that too.

As Alix asked if he would have gone to meet her and Rohan if he had known the truth, Brady thought about it for a moment. “Probably not,” he conceded. “I can see that you’re different from the rest of the family but I’m not so sure about anyone else.” Alix hadn’t killed Dec even though his name had been on the hit list and she hadn’t killed Brady even though she’d had a few chances either. She really seemed to want to do things differently and Brady could definitely respect that. “You might still have some work to do but you’ve got time,” Brady nodded. He knew that he couldn’t fix whatever was going on between Alix and her brother right now but he could at least be someone that she could lean on when she needed him. “They might not all be innocent but I’m not so sure anyone deserves to be hunted down like that,” Brady shrugged. Honestly it reminded him of the games his captors played with some of his friends when they’d decided it was time to kill them and just thinking about that made him feel sick to his stomach.

“You have,” Brady nodded as Alix said she was glad she had earned the title of being family. “I don’t know if you’d ever be interested in joining the pack but if you want to, the offer is always there,” Brady assured her. He knew that whatever protection they could give would be extended to Alix regardless of whether she decided to join or not but there was safety in numbers and if he was honest he didn’t particularly like the idea of Alix continuing to do things on her own when she didn’t have to. It might be what she was used to but she had been manipulated so much and he knew that she deserved better. “I hope he does, I can see how much he means to you,” he admitted. Alix and her brother might not be seeing eye to eye right now but it was clear that the love was still there on Alix’s part at least so he really hoped that her brother would come around sooner or later. “Not that they’ve mentioned to me but I’ll ask. Why, do you think they might be hiding in the shadows or something?” he asked. His contacts had told him that Ralphy and the others were far away right now but Alix knew the family better than he did.

ALIX QUINN

Brady knew that he had never been a very good role model for his siblings, he had always been more interested in girls and having fun with his friends than he was in his studies and it often felt like a miracle that he’d managed to qualify as a mechanic in the first place, let alone buy the local garage so that he could be his own boss. Brady had doted on his younger brother and sister from the day they were born, he was already eight years old by the time they came along and as they got older he was the one who taught them to read and would read them stories to get them to go to sleep at night but he’d always had his parents to fall back on. He wasn’t the same person he was before he was kidnapped and even now he still often felt like he was out of his depth when it came to looking after his siblings. It had taken him a while to accept that he was flying solo without his parents for backup now but and it wasn’t always easy but he was trying his best. “I have no idea. Between them, the pack and the garage I usually have a lot of time to catch my breath,” Brady admitted. There was always something going on or someone needing him and he was doing his best to juggle everything but he never felt like he was doing a good job at any of it. “I never wanted any of this, it all just seemed to happen,” he added with a shrug. He had become Alpha when he killed their previous Alpha after the guy lost his mind and started killing off the pack so he could gain their power and he had become his siblings’ guardian after their parents died. None of it was what he would have chosen for himself but it was the hand he had been dealt in life and he was doing his best. “I’m trying. Mel isn’t so bad but Liam seems determined to try and push me away right now.” It was frustrating to say the least but all he could do was stick with it and hope it would all work out.

“You found where you belong,” Brady said, a smile forming on his face as he looked over at Alix. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to give anyone the details of what happened back then. What I’ve just told you is as much as I’ve ever been able to tell anyone,” he admitted. “Anything more than that is too difficult.” He had been asked for more details about what had happened over the years but even now he still couldn’t bring himself to tell anyone. He had been able to say enough to give his friends’ families some closure but that was it. He knew Alix was right and it might do him good to talk about it more but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. As Alix said he did what he’d had to do and she imagined he did everything he could for his friends while he was in Ecuador, Brady shook his head. “That’s the problem, there wasn’t anything I could do. I was kept apart from the others so all I could do was watch.” He had tried fighting back that first day but it had just resulted in him being kept away from his friends. He had been left until last and he’d had to watch his friends die one by one until they came for him. “I survived but I had to kill in order to do so. I’ll never be proud of that,” Brady shrugged. Twice he’d taken a life and even though he knew that it was what he’d had to do, the weight of it was still something he carried around with him now.

“I hope you’re right,” Brady admitted as Alix said the fact that her brother was still in town was enough to show her that he wasn’t like the rest of their family either. Brady wasn’t so sure he believed that but then again he had only met Rohan once and it hadn’t gone so well. He didn’t know his cousin the way that Alix did but trust wasn’t something that came easily to Brady these days and it was going to take a lot more than that for Rohan to earn his. “I’m not sure I’d ever want to be in your position,” Brady said as he let out a breath. “I know sometimes it has to be done but there are always two sides to every story.” There was a time when Alix had gone after Julian’s younger brother Declan because his name was on a hit list. Dec had never hurt anyone and thankfully Alix hadn’t been able to go through with it as he was just a teenager at the time but not every hunter thought like that. They just saw what a person was rather than who they were.

Brady hadn’t really given too much thought to offering a spot in the pack to Alix but the words were soon leaving his lips and he didn’t regret it. She was family so no matter what happened he would always have her back and he would make sure that the pack did as well but there really was safety in numbers and he had a feeling that Alix could probably use that especially if their uncle ever decided to make an appearance. “No pressure,” Brady assured her as she said she would think about it. It was completely up to her and Brady knew that he would respect her decision no matter what. “From what you’ve said, I think anyone deserves more than that,” he admitted. Right now Alix was the only member of their extended family that he somewhat trusted and he knew that if any of them made a move against him, his siblings or Alix then it wouldn’t end well for them. “That’s really messed up,” Brady breathed as Alix explained about almost being made to kill the guy she was seeing for a while. “I will, I promise. You’ll know as soon as I do.”

ALIX QUINN