Aiden Freeman

Chapter four

When we arrived to our first class' door, I saw a new professor entering it. Iris told me that this was the second day that professor came to teach us physics. It was weird that our teacher was absent. This whole year he was the only one teacher to never come late to work or not arrive. I stopped giving thoughts about it when I was surprised with the test.

The rest of our school went in our usual routine, though it felt different. Many students sometimes stared at me and kept their eyes on me for a while, sort of looking for something. They weren't werewolves, I knew that. Though that was something I realized. I was the only werewolf in the whole school. I was happy it was like that, but I did expect other students hiding their true selves.

-

I offered Iris a drive to her house after school. When we arrived we saw a car in front of her house, and when we walked toward the house I heard thumps and moans coming from her mom's bedroom.

Unsure of what I should come up with to keep her from getting a trauma, I decided to make stuff up.

"Hey um, did you uh- call your mom to tell her you were coming early? Just in case, she might be surprised to see you at this hour." I said, trying to buy time and maybe come up with something more convincing.

"Actually, I normally come home at this hour, so she's probably cooking." She told me.

"Iris, I want to take you to eat something, with me." I said, and I could feel my face blush. I wanted to buy time, hoping they would finish soon enough. From the sounds, I couldn't tell what was exactly happening; I needed to take her with me.

"And what would we eat?" She asked me.

"How about steak? I'm up for it." I couldn't believe what I was doing to save Iris from a lifetime of weird-ass memories.

"Ok." She answered.

We ended up going to a steak restaurant in the city. We didn't have a reservation so we had to wait for a while, but we were able to talk about some things.

"So yeah. Mom and dad finally got back together and we're finally living as a family since I was ten. I missed him." She confessed to me.

"Yeah well, you know I never knew my father. I wonder how it feels to have a father. Do you think it would be different to having Rachel?" I said and we both chuckled. She nodded and we chuckled a bit louder.

After our short conversation we were sent to a small table to eat. I ordered a medium-well steak with mashed potatoes topped with cheese, and Iris ordered a salmon with a small stack of pork ribs with french fries.

While we waited for our meals Iris caught my attention by staring at me and opening her mouth to say something, just to close it, then open it again, just to close it, again.

"Iris, is there something you'd like to tell me?" I asked her. I was curious, plus, I never got to see her this nervous, specially about me.

"I'm going to confess something to you." She said.

My heart was beating out of control when she said that.

"I've liked you since middle school and you became my crush when we entered high school. I really liked your attitude and maturity and how you kept being a good student with all the problems you had while growing up and how you never gave up and how you always smiled even when I knew you were sad inside. I wanted to be there for you more than as a friend at that time and I want to be more than friends now." She blurted out quickly. A shade of pink covered her whole face while I stared at her wide-eyed.

"I've always been attracted to you, but today it was different. I was worried about you and when I saw you, happiness just came over me. And when I saw it was similar to you, I, well, let what happened in the library pass." She added, a redder shade of pink started covering her face.

Just when I was going to say something, Autumn appeared from nowhere.

"Aiden, you have to leave this palace. Take your friend too." She said, sounding highly alert.

"What's going on?" Iris asked.

"Come with me. I'll explain later." Autumn told her.

I looked at Iris. She seemed confused and I couldn't blame her, but if Autumn told me to leave with Iris, then I would.

I gave Iris a nod and got up from the table, I helped her get up and he walked to leave the restaurant.

"What's going on, Autumn?" I asked her in a whisper.

"Wolves. I don't want you near them. You know why." She whispered back quietly.

Iris and I got on my car and left to her home. But as we went down the road leading to her home, we saw two tall figures in the distance, standing in the middle of the road. Werewolves.

As my car got closer I saw another figure standing in the middle of them, a young man, shirtless and without shoes. He only had shorts on, which meant he had recently shifted.

I stopped the car just around fifty feet away from them, and the shirtless one came forward.

"What the hell is going on?" Iris asked. "Aiden, turn back. Those wolves are huge, and that guy walking at us doesn't look passive."

"I know." I answered, but I wasn't sure what to say to her to calm her down.

"Connor, we need you to come with us!" The shirtless guy shouted.

But I wasn't paying attention to his words. I was waiting for him to make a wrong move, just so I could drive away to safety. Just as I was going to change controls, two more wolves appeared from the behind the car, but they weren't a threat to us. The two of them ran to the trio and attacked. I took the opportunity and drove off to my home as fast as I could.

When I looked back I saw a woman and a man where the trio was, and I recognized them. Iris saw them too, and also recognized them.

"They just transformed into humans, into your friend, and, Mr. Jefferson, our physics teacher." She said, more to herself than to me.

"I will explain that." I told her.

"What? How?!" She shouted.

"Because I'm one of them." I told her and she looked at me incredulously.

Now, whether she like it or not, Iris knew about our world. And she was my mate. There was no going back now. Iris would know about my wolf, but my only concern was...

Would she accept me?