Alaska ✓

3 | Competitors

The girl had much sharper features, but she was beautiful as well as striking. Her eyes were a penetrating azure, constantly shifting from one object to the next. Her hair was slightly ruffled, but the otherwise the straight brunette hair didn't have a flaw. She was what I had always imagined a shifting female would look like.

The male looked in the direction I had just been staring in, and saw Chase's glum expression as he started to pick at his food.

"Looks like it's his time of the month again." The boy jerked his head towards Chase, flashing a smile my way. The girl let out a snort. After a few seconds, he politely held out this hand. "I'm Josh." He then signalled to the she-wolf beside him, "This is Azra. You must be the rogue."

I don't know what to make of him calling me 'rogue.' He seemed like a nice guy, and he was actually trying to cooperate with me, proving that he didn't care whether I was a rogue or not.

I take Josh's hand. His grip is strong and firm: he will not be easy to beat, although he looks it. Can I trust him, though? Trust was a foreign concept to me, but having a so called 'friend' could help my understanding.

"Alaska." I say, leaving out my surname, because who the hell wanted to know my surname anyway?

Josh greedily picked up a drumstick of chicken and ripped off a chunk of the charred flesh. "You missed the opening ceremony." Josh said after swallowing. "Don't worry, though. It was just a bunch of crappy fireworks and a parade around the whole city, and then we got blessed by the Alpha King. Nothing much." Josh shrugged his shoulders. I was trying to figure out whether he was joking or not.

Azra rolled her eyes as she nudged her piece of chicken breast with her fork. "Don't mind him. He's just being an arsehole as usual." She looked up at me, confidence writhing within her cerulean irises. "Nice to meet you, Alaska."

I nod at her, not because I don't want to talk to her, but because I don't know what to say. Having been separated from pack life for so long, this was all new to me, and to be frankly honest, I hated it.

"Sorry about coming in like that." Josh apologised after another bit of meat. "You just looked lonely."

I open my mouth to respond, but Azra beats me to it. "God, Josh. Leave her alone."

"I didn't do anything!" Josh gaped at his friend. I wondered whether they were siblings, although the resemblance was almost non-existent.

"You talked."

"Since when was talking a crime?"

"Since you opened that big fat gob of yours."

"Now that is low." Josh retorted, leaving his food to fold his arms across his chest.

"I'd get used to it, if I were you." Azra concluded with a roll of her perfect, pristine eyes. Then her sapphire orbs snapped to me once more. "Sorry. I've lived with him for ten years. You get annoyed after a while."

So I guess that meant that they weren't siblings. They were childhood friends, just like I had been with some of the children at my old pack. I barely remembered their names to this day. After all, I wanted to forget as much as I could about the Shadow Claw pack. The memories would trigger nightmares if I didn't bury my ancient grudges.

"It's ok." I say quietly. I was not a confident person. That much was obvious.

"So what's it like, being a rogue and all?" Josh asked me. It felt as though my whole body had been picked up by an invisible force and hurled outside my comfort zone by a million miles. Did this guy understand how to be sensitive, because he wasn't pushing the right buttons.