Perfect Reflection (19 page)

Ash watched as Captain Jackson got up and
walked back to his office. She liked her Captain. He had mentored
her since she left the police academy ten years ago. She was the
youngest police officer at the New York Police Department and the
youngest cop to become a detective. She was nineteen years old when
she became a cop.

Captain Jackson was an instructor at the
Police Academy when she went through. He was more than her Captain;
he was more like a father to her. He gave her advice on what
classes she needed to take to further her career and who to watch
out for in the Police Department. She would eat dinner with him and
his wife, Janie, every Sunday afternoon. He knew Ash was different
but that never stopped him from trying to watch out for her. He
knew about Ash’s background and knew she acted tough to keep people
away from her heart. However, Ash couldn’t act like that with Janie
and him. They wouldn’t let Ash close up on them and keep them at a
distance. They made sure she was sitting at their table for
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The Jackson’s treated her like
family. Captain Jackson and his wife, Janie, held a special place
in Ash’s heart.

Ash looked at the clock, seeing that she
didn’t have a lot of time left before her flight took off. She
grabbed her computer bag and ran out of the office, rushing to get
home and finish packing.

***

Ash sat on the plane, looking out the window,
thinking about Nash. She leaned her chair back trying to remember
when she first met him. Nash had been her friend since they were
six years old. They were best friends while they were in the
orphanage. Neither one of them had parents nor any family. Ash
treated Nash like a little brother. She knew that Nash was special,
too. He was a werewolf, but she didn’t care. Ash loved Nash as her
family. They stayed in the orphanage until they were both sixteen
years old, and then they had run away together. Ash couldn’t stop
the bad memories as they flooded her mind as she remembered all the
terrible beatings.

Ash told Nash she wasn't going to take the
beatings any more so she asked Nash if he wanted to run away with
her. They had spoken about leaving before, but now Nash could tell
Ash was breaking up inside. The beatings were becoming more
frequent, so Nash immediately agreed to leave with Ash, telling Ash
that she was his family, and if she left, then he would leave too.
Ash knew that Nash would run away with her, but she didn’t want to
assume anything, and she always wanted Nash to have a choice.
Nobody ever asked her opinion or gave her a choice on anything in
the orphanage.

They ran away from the orphanage one night
after Ash was beaten because she didn’t want to eat the beans they
put on her plate. She said they weren’t cooked all the way. They
beat her for giving her opinion on the food, telling her she should
be grateful for receiving anything to eat since she was a ward of
the state. They always treated the kids like pieces of shit. Ash
was different, and the older she got, the more they noticed the
changes in her. She was also filling out faster than most girls
were at her age. Ash knew it was only a matter of time before
something happened. The security guards or male caretakers always
made comments about her breasts and how much they’d like to see
them. They made Ash nervous when they were around.

They ran away together with only the clothes
on their backs. Ash always found ways to get them food or a place
to live. She knew how to find people that could help them
disappear. She had found someone to get them both a different
identity. They planned to use a different identity until they
turned eighteen, and then they would go back to their original
names because they would no longer be wards of the state.

They worked odd jobs to stay alive and lived
in rundown shacks where people didn’t ask any questions about their
age. Ash was street smart, and she knew how to hustle to get them
whatever they needed. She would always come home with a new shirt
for Nash or new shoes, always taking care of Nash’s needs before
her own.

When their eighteenth birthdays came around,
they both decided to use their real identities. They also had
someone check to see if the orphanage ever reported them missing,
they never did. They didn’t care about them. They knew they were
different and wanted them gone, but they continued to collect a
check in their name. Apparently, nobody from the state checked
either. This was why Ash wanted to be a police officer. She wanted
to help kids like her and Nash. Give them some hope and a friend to
listen to them. She would be an advocate for the young runaways and
the older generation who just needed a friend.

When Nash turned nineteen years old, he
started to apply to the states in alphabetical order to inquire
about living family members and after applying to the state of
Colorado, he received a hit. He knew it was a slim chance to find
anyone, but he was always optimistic. He found out he had family
who was looking for him. He learned he had a cousin who was an
Alpha of the local werewolf pack in Freedom, Colorado, and owned
the Meadowland Lodge. Larken Wilder was his name. He wanted Nash to
come live with him and his family. Ash knew that Nash wanted to
belong to a family. He asked her to come with him to Colorado, but
Ash wanted to become a detective. She wanted to make something of
herself. She wanted to belong to something that helped people out.
Ash needed to help people and kids like her and Nash. She had a
soft spot for runaways and wanted to make a difference. Ash didn’t
feel right leaving with Nash when he was going to meet his
biological family. Ash wasn’t a blood relative, and she didn’t want
to interfere with Nash finding the happiness he deserved.

Nash said he understood, but Ash knew he
wanted to go and meet his family. They had been looking for him
since his parents were killed. Ash wanted Nash to have the family
they both craved to have.

Nash had learned that his father had gotten
into an argument with his brother, the Alpha of the Meadowland
Pack. Nash’s father decided to leave the pack and find a place
where he could raise his family the way he saw fit. When he left
with his wife and Nash, they never contacted Larken’s dad to tell
them where they had ended up. They traveled around the country for
about three months, always stopping at rundown hotels. A fire had
broken out at the motel they were staying at and his father and
mother both ran back into the hotel to save the others, but the
roof caved in on them before they made it out. Since there was no
paperwork to show that Nash had family, he was sent to an orphanage
in Atlanta. Nash was six years old when this occurred. Ash
remembered how little he was when he arrived at the orphanage. She
immediately took his hand and dragged him around where ever she
went.

Nash didn’t talk to anyone the first year,
but when she met Nash, she felt that they were family in some way.
She felt like he was her brother. Ash had a way so Nash could
communicate with her. She taught him sign language. They still
communicated like that sometimes. After the first year, Ash brought
Nash out of his shell. He started talking to her and then to
everybody else. Nash was the cutest kid, with beautiful sandy hair.
It was long and touched his shoulders. Ash showed him how to pull
it back so he wouldn’t get teased about it. Ash showed him
everything. She was a mother hen to Nash, and he loved her for
it.

The staff at the orphanage never liked the
fact that Ash would always take up for Nash and any other kid they
abused. She took the beatings so the smaller kids wouldn’t get
hurt. She would also take the beatings meant for Nash. Ash could
still remember the belt they used to give out punishments. The belt
was made of leather. She could still remember how the belt cut into
her skin when they beat her. Her skin would turn dark red then turn
into orange and yellow bruises from the beatings. Ash remembered
how they hung the belt on the wall outside their rooms. One single
nail was inserted into the wall as the belt hung for all to see.
This was a reminder so every kid would know what they would get if
they didn’t do what they were told. Any infraction got you
disciplined. They would make all the kids wear dark-colored
uniforms so nobody would see the marks on their body. The lady in
charge of the orphanage would call the beatings 'discipline
training.' Ash had gotten her records from the state when she
turned eighteen, and they actually had in her chart that Ash was
given discipline training a few times a week because she was a very
defiant child. She hated to remember those times in her life, and
she would get sick to her stomach thinking about the orphanage.

After Nash left to go stay with his family in
Colorado, Ash applied to the police academy and they accepted her.
She became a cop and then worked her way up the force. She quickly
received a name for herself in the community for helping runaways
and abused children find stable homes. She also made a name for
herself for getting the job done in the law enforcement community.
As her career grew, Ash became more and more involved in her work.
One of the things Ash was most proud of was when she was part of
the team that closed the orphanage where Nash and she lived. She
continued to help find homes for all the kids who lived there.

Nash and Ash’s friendship continued to grow.
Nash had been coming back to New York to visit Ash every year since
she joined the police academy. He would come for a week, and they
would explore different parts of the city they never knew about. It
was an adventure every time Nash came to New York. People always
thought they were a couple instead of friends, but they never
explored any type of sexual relationship. They were family, and
they liked it that way.

Now Ash was traveling to the Meadowland Lodge
to attend a law enforcement seminar and to see Nash. He was head of
security at the lodge. This would be the first time Ash traveled to
see him at the lodge. They had been talking non-stop about her
coming to visit him. Nash told her the weather report said it was
going to snow, so they could go skiing. Ash loved the outdoors and
always wanted to live in Colorado with Nash but just didn’t have
the nerve to make the move. He told her that she would always have
a job, and since he was related to the Sheriff, she could get a job
as a Deputy if she wanted to stay in law enforcement. Ash didn’t
feel right taking a hand out, even from Nash.

Pulled from her thoughts, she heard the
flight attendant tell the passengers to put their seatbelts on.
They would be arriving at the airport in five minutes. Ash buckled
her seatbelt and watched as the plane turned and headed toward the
landing strip. She hated flying in planes, feeling like she never
had control. Ash held on so tight to the armrest she heard a
cracking noise. The plane landed on the runway without any incident
in Colorado. She could see the runways had snow on them, but
nothing happened when they landed. She wanted to get on her hands
and knees and kiss the ground. Ash laughed at herself,
now
wouldn’t that be a funny sight to see,
and exited the plane
excited to see Nash.

Grabbing her luggage off the luggage rack,
Ash went in search of the van that would take her to the lodge.
Nash had given her exact instructions on what to do when she got
off the plane and where to look for her ride. Following the
instructions, she walked outside the airport and observed an
eighteen-passenger van sitting at the curb just like Nash said
would be there. On the side of the van had a picture of the Rocky
Mountains and had the name Meadowland Lodge in Freedom, Colorado,
in big bold letters. A good-looking young man was checking people
in and putting their luggage into the van. Nash advised her that
Jessie would be the one checking people in. She gave the young man
her name, and as he took her luggage, he smiled at her and then
winked. Ash blushed and said, “Thank you, Jessie.” He looked up
shocked that she knew his name. She looked away blushing and
followed an older man and a small child onto the van. When she got
on the van, it was almost full, so she made her way to the back and
sat next to the child. While she was walking toward the back, she
observed two men sniff the air as she walked by them. She
immediately knew they were shifters. She was used to it with Nash
and some of the other shifters on the force. She had a cat shifter
on her squad, and another cat shifter was in the SWAT division.
They continued to stare at her until she passed them by. She tried
to ignore the way they would turn around and look at her during the
drive to the lodge, and she couldn’t help wondering what they were
thinking about her.
Could they tell she was different, too
?
Ash got caught up talking to the little boy sitting next to her and
fifteen minutes later, the van pulled up at the Meadowland
Lodge.

As she exited the van, Ash gasped as she
looked up and observed the beauty of the lodge. The lodge was
nestled in the middle of the mountain. Twinkling lights draped
around the trees. The views of the mountains were the most
beautiful views Ash had ever seen. The pictures Nash sent her
didn’t do the place justice. This place looked like it was made for
the rich and famous instead of a bunch of cops for a conference.
She couldn’t believe she was actually going to stay there. She had
been in beautiful hotels in New York that catered to the rich and
famous but this place was beautiful and rustic. Ash couldn’t
understand the feeling of home she felt when she looked up at the
lodge.

Ash stood outside of the van, looking up at
the lodge and the mountains. She didn’t have the words to express
how beautiful the lodge was.

The two gentlemen who were staring at her in
the van came up and stood beside her. One of the men asked, “Have
you ever been to the Meadows?”