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Deputy Erin Parker had grown up with her occupation decided for her in the form of her soulmate mark. So she avoided becoming a Deputy for as long as she possibly could. When people asked her why she seemed to run away from police jobs that seemed to call for her, she simply had to show them the words on the inside of her left forearm.
They would always instantly understand. They instantly asked no questions because their questions had been answered in the worst way possible.
“Y’know, Deputy… if it were up to me you'd have been dead a long time ago.”
Her soulmate words held her occupation, but they also made her aware that when she found her soulmate, they would want her dead.
So she ran from it for as long as she possibly could.
She ignored her parents trying to reassure her that it was simply just a mistake and that her soulmate would love her unconditionally as soon as they found out who she was. She ignored her friends trying to comfort her. She ignored every person trying to make her feel better about the fact that one day, her soulmate would hate her enough to want her dead.
Because she knew deep down, there would be a reason for it, so she tried to get rid of every reason on why her soulmate would hate her.
Going through elementary school and being bullied, she decided to ask her parents if she could take karate classes so she could take care of herself.
Having grown up with a quick temper, she quickly squashed it. Anger management classes were her best friend from middle school all the way until her last year of college ended.
She played softball in high school and ended up getting a scholarship to a big-name college with a full ride. She decided to become an EMT because it was helping people, and could still be useful when she decided to finally bite the bullet and apply for the position of a Deputy.
But no matter how far and how fast Erin ran, the words caught up to her.
Her parents had decided to move to Hope County, Montana. Said it was a good retirement state and her dad had a few friends there.
Erin had helped them move in and said hello to the Sheriff, who was apparently an old friend of her dad’s. As soon as Erin saw the man looking at her EMT uniform, she realized what was happening.
But Erin quickly told her parents goodbye before exiting. She didn’t stop driving until she made it back to her apartment, hair a mess from how many times she had run her hand through it.
Erin called her mom as soon as she took off her shoes, and she had been right. Sheriff Whitehorse was going to offer her a job but had stopped as Erin had quickly left.
“You can’t keep running from it forever, honey,” Her mom had told her. “I believe everything will work out fine. You’re such a sweet girl, no one could hate you.”
“They don’t hate me, they want me dead,” Erin had told her mom as she had poured herself a glass of wine. “Large difference, Mom.”
“Everything will work out. I have faith in God.”
Erin had quickly told her mom goodnight after that, getting uncomfortable at her mom who had such blind faith that it made the EMT nauseous.
Erin didn’t have faith anymore. She hadn’t had it since she had finally realized what the words she was born with on her inner forearm meant when she was eleven.
She remembered the gut-clenching desperation of fear. The shock. The horror of realizing that her soulmate’s first words were saying that if it were up to them they would’ve killed her a long time ago.
She could only imagine what her words said on their body. Part of her hoped that she said something nice so that they couldn’t hate her, but the other part hoped that her words hurt just as much as theirs did.
Her parents had only been in Hope County for six months when her dad had a sudden heart attack. He had been outside, trying to put up Christmas lights. Her mom had been inside, loudly singing Christmas music when she heard her husband fall from the ladder.
Between the fall from the roof and the heart attack, her dad hadn’t made it to the hospital.
Erin had driven through the night to make it to her mom and had decided then and there that she was going to stay with her mom and help her.
For the next few weeks, they had been given countless casseroles and Erin had been introduced to Mary May and the Pastor, Jerome Jefferies. She had met Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt, and Sheriff Earl Whitehorse got to officially meet her.
“Your father was a good friend of mine,” Whitehorse told Erin, who had her arms crossed as she watched her mom, who was standing by her dad’s casket.
Erin had offered him a polite thank you and rushed over to her mom, helping her into her seat at the pew before the service started.
And when it did, the only thing on Erin’s mind was the conversation she’d had with her dad the night before he died.
“Your mother is worried,” He had told her.
“She’s always worried, Dad,” Erin had said with a laugh. “It’s second nature for her.”
“We’re not getting any younger and she wants grandkids.”
Erin sighed deeply at that. “Dad…”
“I know you’re scared, ladybug.” Erin smiled at the old nickname. “But you can’t hide from this forever. You’ll meet them eventually. Soulmates always meet. It might be when you’re eighty, it might be when you’re ninety, but it happens. Who are you to fight fate?”
“A Parker.”
“You’re damn right.”
Erin had then continued to talk to her dad for another half hour before promising to come down to Hope County for dinner soon and that, yes, she would think about finally becoming a Deputy.
So as soon as the funeral ended and her father’s casket was in the ground, she heard his voice echo in her mind. “Who are you to fight fate?”
And she had walked right up to Sheriff Whitehorse and asked if his Deputy position was still open.
And after three months of training, and only a week of being an actual Deputy, U.S. Marshal Cameron Burke walked into the Sheriff’s office, holding the warrant for the arrest of Joseph Seed like it proclaimed him King.
Erin remembered barely being able to look at the man’s siblings who stood behind him as the Marshal had ordered her to cuff him. She remembered the blind fear as she led him through his compound as his flock screamed in anger and started throwing things. She remembered the helicopter going down, and she remembered Joseph Seed looking into her eyes and saying, “No one is coming to save you.”
But nothing had prepared her for when she made it to her mom’s house after she liberated Dutch’s Island to find her mom’s body having been torn up by what appeared to be wolves.
The Seeds had probably pulled every single file they had on Erin after the arrest of Joseph went South, and finding out her mom lived in the same county was basically Christmas.
And every single anger management class she’d had for over ten years didn’t prepare her for the unbridled rage she felt as she took the bloodied cross that was still clutched in her mother’s severed hand.
She would make the Seeds pay for hurting Hope County. She would make them pay for taking her friends. But above all else, they would pay for hurting the one person that Erin had left.
Erin knew as soon as she saw it that her mother’s body was a warning. But her mom had always said that she was too stubborn for her own good.
And that was when Eden’s Gate felt the full force of Erin’s wrath.
The ‘YES’ sign and Joseph’s statue were gone on the same day. Outposts started to fall like dominos. Silos and shrines were being taken down by the tens.
John and Faith were barely hanging on to their regions. Their men weren’t able to capture Erin no matter how many men they threw at her. She now had an army to help her just as they did.
But while Erin had John and Faith scrambling, she looked for information on who had killed her mother.
And every sign pointed at the Judges from Jacob’s region.
So Erin packed up Boomer in her truck and took the drive up to the Whitetail Mountains. She’d heard horror stories about the eldest Seed brother, but she’d heard the same about Faith and John. They all had horror stories, it was just a matter of finding the ones that were real and which ones weren’t.
And as Erin drove through the mountains, saving as many civilians as she could, she knew it had to of been Jacob who ordered her mother’s death.
The way the dead bodies were strung up with bags over their heads, shirtless and tortured beyond recognition, Erin knew.
Not only was Jacob the only one who had wolves under his control, but he seemed to be the only one who liked to really make a point.
John made his point by leaving dead bodies everywhere when someone didn’t tell him yes, but they weren’t mangled. Faith made her point by turning people into walking zombies because of the Bliss. But Jacob? He made his point by maiming and stringing the body up.
There was no coming back from Faith and John’s disappointment, but it was easy to tell you literally didn’t come back from Jacob’s.
As soon as Erin had liberated the Lumber Mill and saved Jess, she switched off her radio. She didn’t want to hear Jacob’s monologues as she knew he would have, just like John did. Erin could respect that Faith didn’t say something every time she took back an outpost or blew up a shrine.
She headed straight to the F.A.N.G. center and was halfway through liberating it when she saw her first Judge.
The wolf was much bigger than it should’ve been and was clearly high on Bliss. It had blood caked in its fur, its eyes were glazed over white and it had a red symbol painted on its face.
Erin didn’t stop to look as she shot a .50 caliber sniper rifle bullet straight through its head.
And she went on like nothing happened.
She went and rescued Cheeseburger, and let Boomer and Cheeseburger get acquainted while she sat down and ate a granola bar before washing her hair in the Henbane River. She was mildly concerned about what the effects of the drug would have on her hair.
She had tied her wet hair up in a ponytail, strapping her sniper rifle to her back before dismissing Boomer and Cheeseburger to go get their own dinner.
She wasn’t even able to wrap a bandage back around her soulmate mark before an arrow pierced her leg.
She collapsed onto her good knee, the world going fuzzy very quickly. As she fell back, she barely caught the image of one of Jacob’s hunters standing over her before she saw black.
When she came to, she had ice-cold water tossed over her. She was instantly up and her teeth were bared as she looked at the guard that stood in front of her.
“Kitten’s got claws,” He cooed.
Erin simply rolled her eyes, immediately deciding that this man was not even worth the time it would take to threaten him.
She sat back on the floor of the cage she was in, pulling the sleeve of her Deputy uniform down as far as she could make it go, hoping that no one saw her mark.
That was when Erin saw familiar boots enter her vision in front of her, and her head snapped up. She held back a wince as she saw how beaten Pratt’s face was, and she didn’t miss the pitying look in his eyes.
That was when the door next to Pratt opened, revealing the oldest Seed brother.
Erin felt her heart rate increase- her anger growing just as she looked at him.
Jacob’s red hair was a stark contrast to the dull colors around the yard as he stood in front of her cage.
Erin was not expecting his next words.
“Y’know, Deputy… if it were up to me you'd have been dead a long time ago.”
That was when Erin’s world stopped.
Jacob Seed had his wolves tear her mother to pieces.
Jacob Seed tortured, brainwashed, and killed innocent people.
Jacob Seed was her soulmate.
And Erin laughed.
Erin had held onto a small bit of faith for her mom’s sake. To believe that it would work out with her soulmate. She hadn’t wanted her soulmate to hate her, it was why she ran- because they obviously did.
But what Erin hadn’t realized was how much she would hate her soulmate.
Erin still had a smile on her face as she looked Jacob straight in the eyes. “I always knew she was going to be wrong.”
And every ounce of color drained out of Jacob’s face.