The Alpha and the Rookie

Chapter 17

His face morphed into a rather dry expression, real blank. I had never seen this expression from him before. “Look…” He said, lightly pulling away from the hug. “I- I want to get something straight first.” He looked back towards the house. “We-” He motioned to the two of us. “-will…never be. I’ve kind of felt like…I don’t know, like you’ve been checking me out/ analyzing me the past few days and…I just had to get that off my chest. I mean, you’re a good friend and I love your brother, but you guys are like family. I could never…ever do that to him. Or you.”

                I was astonished by this. I had no idea what to say next. Stupidly, I thought all week that he’d been hitting on me. Flirting with me and just…being there for me. I mean, I was really considering me and Aidan and how that’s so forbidden and with Matt, it wasn’t forbidden, he was gorgeous, my mom liked him, my brother obviously liked him, and I liked him. Now I’m that I’m really thinking back, if he truly means this, he was playing me the whole time. This whole damn time he was playing me. He knew I always had a bit of a crush on him, and that was just wrong for him to do.

                I tried the best I could to compose myself and not cry, and tried to pretend that I was unaffected by his words. “Umm…yea. I totally understand you. You’re like a brother to me. You always have been.” I attempted to persuade him. He smiled. “Okay, good.” Oh god.

                That sent me over the edge. I couldn’t stop the tears. They just came flowing out. “Oh my god! Kenna! Are you okay? Was it something I said?” I wanted to scream at him, tell him it was everything he said. I can’t believe I actually thought I could trust him and even worse… actually like him. I shook my head. “No, it’s just… I’m going through a lot right now Matt, I- I have to go.” I looked down at the ground and walked back to the house. Matt followed me, but didn’t speak.

                When we entered the house again, my mother looked at me with wide eyes. “Everything all right?” She asked, rushed over and threw her arms around me. “Your eyes are all red and puffy. Did something happen?” She questioned me. I shrugged. “Nothing, mom. It’s fine.” I assured her. Luckily, she didn’t push any farther.

                My brother, on the other hand, hadn’t moved from the couch, and Jonny must have went home. Matt wandered over and sat next to him. “’Sup, bro. So did you tell her?” He asked. Matt’s face suddenly blushed a bright red color. “What are you talking about?” He said lowering his voice. I jumped in. “Yeah, what are you talking about?” I asked.

                My mom wandered off to the kitchen, deciding not to be apart of this drama. I took a seat at the bar seats we had. Bud scoffed. “Are you serious? You chickened out? You obviously like her!” He shoved Matt, but Matt just allowed it. He didn’t respond. “Who are you guys talking about?!” I urged, getting annoyed. Bud just rolled his eyes, not answering me, and continued watching TV. Matt kept his eyes glued on the TV also. I stood up. “Fine, then. Don’t tell me. I don’t care anymore!” I said. When I replayed that in my head, I sounded like such a little kid, but I didn’t care. I was too infuriated with the world right now to think about anything.

                My room: the only place of solitude in this house. I didn’t want to talk to my mom. I didn’t want to talk to Bud. I didn’t want to talk to Matt. I wanted to be alone: alone with my thoughts, which can sometimes be the scariest.

                Why didn’t I just blurt out to Aidan about the chip? I let my emotions get the best of me, and that was not a good thing. Now there’s no way I’m going to be able to get the message to Aidan. Christina needed to come back and I was going to be the one to save her. I couldn’t live without my best friend, and if that meant sacrificing my life for her: well, at least it’ll put me out of my misery. But I couldn’t do this alone. I needed someone tough and young…

                Before I got a second thought in my head, I hoisted myself through the window and landed on the ground. My hands turned into paws, however I wasn’t fully morphed. I was, what we called, an animan. An animan was when we were exactly half human half wolf at the same time. My genes were split exactly down the middle. Put it this way. You know the werewolves in movies where they run around on two legs and have a wolf face and everything? Like the old scary ones? Yeah, that’s kind of how I looked right now.

                I could still interact with the pack, but I had more control of my thoughts in this form. I could really choose who gets to hear my thoughts and what thoughts they get to hear. The only reason we don’t like to faze into an animan a lot is because it drains our energy quickly and we’re fairly weak in this phase.

                “Hey Zev, meet me down by the docks. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going.” I said directly to Zev. I didn’t know if he heard me or not, but all I can do is hope he got it. I ran down towards the docks as fast as I could.

                When I arrived, a young, dark skinned, brown haired kid was dangling his feet off the edge of the dock into the water. “Zev, you did come!” I said, relieved that he got my message. I was almost in tears because I was so happy. Finally someone from the wolf pack I can trust and who will work with me. I wrapped my arms around him and he hugged me back.

                “Of course I came! What’s up MacKenna? What’s with all the secrecy?” He asked, curious. I tried to talk, but for some reason I couldn’t. Then I figured out that I was still an animan. Shit, I thought. I held up a finger and ran back into the woods. I morphed into a human again and stood there naked.

                “Crap, crap, crap, crap!” I said continuously. Luckily, I had a pair of underwear and a bra wrapped around my ankle, but I didn’t have any actual clothes to wear over them. I groaned and put on the bra and underwear. This is just going to have to do.

                “Sorry for the…outfit.” I said, sheepishly walking around the tree. Zev’s eyes grew for a second, but then he cleared his voice and composed himself. “It’s okay, now what is it?” He urged. I sat down on the docks and patted the spot next to me. “Sit back down. This is going to be a long story.”