Chapter 4: We’re All Dogs Here
I was minding my own business on Thursday morning when someone decided to ruin it. There I was, walking timidly through the halls towards French, when my wolf stirred and started pacing, her ears erect. That could only mean one thing, especially when her reaction caused my heart to race.
“Morning,” Theo said, walking up beside me.
I peeked into his green eyes. “Hi,” I said softly and I turned back to face in front of me again. I hadn’t meant to do that! Every glimpse into his green eyes made me yearn to be closer to him!
His hand moved behind his back and when he brought it in front of us again, he had my favorite red fruit in his knobbly fingers. I was more captivated by his hands than the fruit. His fingers were long and knobbly and spidery, but they looked strong, too. I could imagine them easily shoving me up against a wall--
Oh my God! Where did that come from?! I thought and my cheeks flamed red. My wolf, the bloody traitor, was whining, as if that mental picture set her blood afire. Embarrassed, I returned my eyes to the ground, ignoring the pomegranate.
“You can have it if you agree to go on a date with me,” he proposed and my head whipped around to blaringly glare at him.
“What?”
He smirked. He had the gall to smirk. “You can have the pomegranate if you go on a date with me.” He wiggled it in front of my face. All I could think of was holding those hands on a walk in the park.
I mentally kicked myself. I looked into his electric green eyes--fused with gold--and I felt my knees wobble like Jell-O.
Taking a deep breath and stomping on my pining wolf, I said flatly, “No thank you.”
Theo’s bright eyes widened and his face went blank. Had I been too mean? The last time I had refused a date . . . well, let’s just say that had ended too swimmingly for my liking, especially since I moved all the time. That boy had not taken ‘no’ easily.
He didn’t speak. He literally just stared at me and my wolf howled in longing. I swore I heard an answer in my own mind, but it was faint. Theo’s eyes permeated my soul when the strange wolf sang and I got shivers.
“Goodbye, Theo,” I said and I sped past my classmates, ignoring my trembling heart and the fact that someone else had just been in my mind.
…………….
In French class, my resolve to avoid all human interaction continued to fail. I was sitting peacefully in my seat in the back, working on crosswords, when Miss Ethiopia walked up next to me.
“Hey, Sigrid,” Raylor said.
I glanced up. “Hi,” I said, feeling as small as a ladybug.
She smiled down at me. “Do you wanna hang out after school today?”
My lips trembled with the desire to say yes. But if I said yes, I’d only be hurting everyone when I moved. And if I said no, I’d hurt her now instead of later. “I have work,” I forced out.
She shrugged. “After then.”
My throat pinched. How long had I yearned for anyone to see me as a friend and take me under their wing? How long had I dreamed of a situation like this, when someone would see me as friend potential and take a liking to me? In fact, the last time that had happened, I think I’d hurt myself more than my friend.
“N-no thank you,” I stammered and I looked back down, my face blazing like a furnace.
She slid into her seat and leaned towards me, her dark curls bouncing towards my face. “C’mon, Sigrid. I’d love to show you ‘round town.”
It won’t be worth it, I thought forlornly. It will never be worth it.
“Or we could chill at my house if you want.”
The idea of actually having a girl friend was so tempting my insides were boiling, rioting in my face, protesting me saying ‘no’. My hands were nearly shaking. What could one day hurt? Tomorrow I could act like I had a horrible time and then ignore her. At least then she would’ve felt successful in the act that she would’ve tried, seen me as a helpless case, and would proceed to leave me alone.
“Sure,” I said, my eyes flicking to hers.
She lit up like a light bulb. “Awesome!” Raylor grabbed my agenda and opened to today’s date. “Here’s my address. Come over any time you like.” She stole the pencil from my hand and scrawled it down. “My number’s there also, in case you can’t read my handwriting.” She smiled at me again, her white teeth glowing.
“Okay,” I said, looking down at the agenda.
“I have to go meet Tobias,” she said and she stood up. “I’ll see you later, Sigrid.”
“Bye,” I said softly as she leapt out the door. My blood was cold. I had never been so anxious in my life. First someone else gets in my head--not to mention it’s a wolf--and then I say yes to hanging out with someone? Merriweather was really doing a number on me.
………
I pulled up to the humane shelter after school and immediately the dogs started barking. I saw Pheeter, Dee, and Dum, and all the other dogs I had yet to associate myself with. I headed inside and my heart squeezed at the sight of angry, hissing cats.
Chandra appeared when the bell on the door rang and she smiled when she saw me, her black eyes narrowing to crescents. “Hello again! I’m glad you came back.”
A brief smile crawled upon my face. I fished the form from my back pocket and gave it to her. “My parents signed everything.”
She clapped her hands and took the paper from me. “Excellent! The dogs have been so antsy since you left. I think they really want to meet you.”
Yeah and rip my throat out, I thought.
We could take ‘em, my wolf said.
I resisted rolling my eyes as Chandra led me into the dogs’ room. Of course we could, dumbo. She silenced herself and lay down, watching everything around us.
“The dog food is way back here,” Chandra said, taking me to the door on the opposite end of the room filled with cages and barking dogs. “Stop it!” she said to a German Shepard who was scratching the floor to get out of his cage. He growled, but lumbered over to his bed. His nametag said ‘Rocky’.
Chandra led me into the room and I saw a giant sink and a stack of dog bowls beside it. There was a line of different dog foods, about half of which had slits cut in them. The room was roughly small, but it held everything. In a pile in a corner there were dog beds, and a few of them had rips in them. A stack of towels were beside it and I was a little astonished at the effort Chandra put into this shelter.
The last shelter I’d helped out at was grungy and the dogs were scrawny and starving. Here . . . this was luxury for a shelter. These lucky dogs. I noticed a door in the back that was marked ‘Employees Only’ and I could smell the scent of drugs leaking out of the bottom of the door. I swallowed uneasily, feeling sick, realizing this was not a no-kill shelter.
“Clean the dishes out here, food is there, when playing with the dogs, the toys and leashes are over there, and if one soils their bed, there are plenty more. Just let me know when one does,” Chandra said, pointing to each section of supplies. She faced me when she was done. “You’re also in charge of the phone.” She led me out of the room with the dogs and back to the front desk. “If someone calls for animal control--even if for our crazy wolf overpopulation--my grandson is the head captain and his number is right here--” she pointed to a yellow sticky-note on the desk “--just call him and give him the address. He and his buddies will take care of it. Keeping up?”
I nodded.
“Good. I’m really grateful you showed up because my older brother is very ill, so if I disappear one day, you’ll know why.” She smiled at me, a piece of her clipped black hair falling into her melancholy face. “Okay. Well. Now you know the drill. I have to go take care of finances.” She turned to head back into the main office, when she spun back around. “And you know you’re staying ‘til five, correct?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
She smiled again, the wrinkles on her face melting together. “I’ll be here in case you need me. Just go check the dogs’ dishes and then play with them. They need some lovin’.” She fished some keys from her pocket and tossed them to me, smiling at me knowingly.
The fact that she was trusting me already blew me off my feet. Normally my ‘employer’ would inspect me as I washed the dogs’ dishes and tell me to stay away from the dogs, not to play with them. What if they had fleas or worms or were half-rabid?
She had almost disappeared into the office when her head poked out again. “No need to be standing ‘round like a statue. Our dogs are perfectly safe to be played with. Thankfully, we have a little extra money--and my husband’s rather rich--so we take care of these dogs, making them much more appealing for families to adopt. We have one coming in tomorrow to look at Dee and Dum for the twin daughters. And if people wander in, I’ll see--security camera--just show them around.”
I nodded again, almost numb. This was a lot to take in. she gestured at me to ‘get a move on’ and I turned back to face the door that led into the dogs’ room. Anxiously, I walked in, and the barking ensued, even louder than before.
Nervously, I bent before Pheeter’s cage. His teeth were long and intimidating, but I had done this before. My wolf stirred and my senses went on hyper drive. My ears were bombarded with even louder barking and I winced in pain. Major discomfort.
“Hey, Pheeter,” I said softly. His ears perked at my voice. I laid my palm out flat and stuck it through the bars of the cage cautiously. He stepped back, peering at me with his one good eye, and I weaved some of my wolf’s tone into my voice. “I won’t hurt you.” My ears vibrated with the onslaught of noise and my wolf growled.
My heart shook in my chest. I had never been surrounded by so many angry dogs before and the fact that these dogs thought they could scare me and my wolf unsettled her. My wolf jumped to her feet and I saw the hairs on my arms bristle with the threat of shifting.
Shakily, I rose to my feet and peered around, my body trembling. All these dogs were angry and pissed and looking like they wanted me to die.
My wolf had had enough. “SHUT UP!” I bellowed, a hateful, wolf-ish tone behind my human voice. My body was shaking and I looked around again, my vision narrowing. My wolf couldn’t have been angrier--and I never get angry. “Do not disrespect me,” she said through my voice, but I couldn’t help but agree with her. A growl lay in the undercurrent of my tone and as though the dogs would sense I was a bajillion times more powerful than them, they all quieted. Some lapped up water, some returned to eating, and some curled up on their bed. But none stopped looking at me.
I breathed heavily and struggled to keep my wolf under control. Chandra had mentioned security cameras, and if one was peeping on in here, the dead last thing I wanted her to see was a werewolf transformation.
“Calm down,” I told myself and I leaned over, my hands on my knees. I needed to get a grip.
After a few moments of calming myself down, I proceeded to unlock Pheeter’s cage. “I’m just getting your water, big guy,” I warned him. He watched me curiously as I took his water dish, left his cage, and relocked it. In the supplies room, I took a deep, long breath as I washed out his silver dish. I had never been this worked up from being around dogs.
I did that routine with all the cages. By that time, I had fallen in love with a black labradoodle named Godiva--yes, like the chocolate--and I was playing with her in her cage when the alarm on my phone went off, signaling five o’clock.
“I gotta go,” I said to her and she licked my face playfully, throwing the tattered teddy bear back at me.
“Sorry, sweetie. Someone’s got homework to do,” I said and I kissed the top of her head. She wiggled underneath me and slurped her tongue against my ear. My hand flew up to drag the slobber of my skin and she wobbled on top of my lap. I laughed at her and then chucked the teddy bear to the opposite end of her cage. I jumped up and exited the cage, locking it behind me. I poked my fingers through the bars when she approached me with sad eyes. “Sorry, Godiva. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
She lumbered over to her bed with the teddy bear and began tearing apart its ear dejectedly.
I left the room and knocked on the office door. After hearing a muffled “come in!” I opened the door and wedged myself in a bit. “Chandra, it’s time for me to go, so I was just letting you know I was leaving.”
She looked up from her paperwork, her dark brown eyes piercing me kindly. She smiled “No problem.”
“What about the front desk?”
“I have an employee coming in soon. And if anyone comes in, I’m here.”
“Okay,” I said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Sigrid.” She waved at me and I did a mirror of it before I shut the office shut. Just as I did, the phone on the front desk rang.
Panic fluttered through me. I hadn’t even thought about what to say! In a rush, I picked up the phone and said, “Hello, this is Merriweather Humane Shelter. Sigrid speaking. How may I help you?”
“Hi, I’m Dave Smith. I’m calling for animal control. There are some wolves on the loose near my house and they need to be taken care of.” His voice was stern and unquestionable.
“Right away, Mr. Smith. I’ll send animal control.”
“Thank you.”
“Have a good day,” I said, but he had already hung up. I set the phone down and looked at the number Chandra had scribbled on the sticky-note. Those wolves were probably reckless werewolves. I couldn’t call animal control on them. I’d just be doing my uncle’s job.
But this was my job. If I failed to call animal control and Dave called again, that wouldn’t be good for the shelter. But I couldn’t let harmless werewolves be caught and caged. All the same, though, I couldn’t act like werewolves existed. Dave was a human. He didn’t know about werewolves and I couldn’t let it slip that I was keeping secrets.
I punched in the first three digits of the number. If they were caught, they’d just be brought back here. They wouldn’t be killed, would they? Maybe shipped off somewhere else? But if those were werewolves, they wouldn’t have any money on them and then when they shifted they’d be scared and alone and naked and--
I took a breath. I couldn’t do this. No, no. I wasn’t part of this pack, but I couldn’t betray them.
Then what about the wolves near Dave’s house? I questioned myself. I tugged at my hair in frustration. I needed to unwind and possibly warn those wolves about leaving.
Time for a run.
………
Turns out, I never got close to the wolves. I was running around--silent as the wind--but I never came across any wolves romping around like wrestling pups. I even wandered close to the suburbs, but I found nothing. I was gone for nearly an hour and when I left, I felt even more frustrated than how I had felt when I began.
So once I changed at my house, I made my way to Raylor’s house in my car, using the address she’d scribbled in my agenda. Her neighborhood was quaint and most of the houses were one-story. Most of them were well taken care of, but there were those few that were neglected and a handful that were for sale. The yards were green, some sprinkled with lawn gnomes and stone animals. A few were fenced and as I passed, I heard a dog bark.
Raylor’s house was one story, brick, and had a porch. There were three steps to get to her front door and flowers exploded in front of her porch. All the colors and blossoms imaginable were there. There were basketball lines drawn on the driveway, and I didn’t want to get in the way of a potential basketball game, so I parked on the road.
Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself. I could do this. One day, one failed attempt, and she would leave me alone. I tucked my keys in my pocket and left my car. I walked up to her front door and rang the doorbell. I heard a screech inside and my heart pounded. Did they have a parrot?
The door flew open and Raylor looked at me with wide eyes. “Hey, Sigrid! Come in!”
Cautiously, I stepped inside the house and when I looked to the left, I saw a young, dark-skinned boy sitting on a couch. He was playing Temple Run on his Kindle. He smelled like a werewolf.
An entire werewolf family, then, my wolf commented.
No, really.
“Wiley, this is Sigrid,” Raylor said.
Wiley’s black eyes briefly glanced at me. “Nice to meet ya. Got monkeys to outrun.”
Raylor rolled her eyes. “He’s obsessed with Temple Run. And in case you heard him, he’s the one that sounds like a dying cat when he yells for me to get the door.”
“I do not!” Wiley protested, not looking up from the tilted screen. “Oooh!” he exclaimed as his avatar narrowly missed being decapitated.
“Mm-hmm,” Raylor said. “Come on,” she said and she led me deeper into her house. The walls we passed were blue and it looked like a sitting room with blue teacups and pots. There were numerous bookshelves. We stepped into a kitchen and she opened a cabinet that turned out to be floor-length. The walls were a pale yellow and the appliances looked faded and almost outdated.
“Hungry?” she asked.
“N-no,” I said, but I was lying. Anyone could tell. As if my body wanted to spite me, my stomach growled just as loudly as my wolf would.
“Sure,” she replied sarcastically and she reached inside her pantry and withdrew a packet of M ‘n M’s. “Eat up.” She tossed it at me and I caught it in an instant.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No prob,” she replied and her hand withdrew with a box of Lucky Charms. “I steal all the marshmallows, but don’t tell Wiley.”
I nodded, smiling a little bit.
“You want some? We’ve also got Rice Krispies, Captain Crunch, and Rice Chex.”
“Um, I like Rice Chex,” I said.
She plopped it in my hands. “To the basement!” She declared as her war cry and she led me around the corner and down a stairwell. My nose clogged up at the heavy air and she looked back at me as we descended. “Sorry ‘bout the smell. I’m a potter and the clay makes the air really heavy.”
“No, she just farts a lot!” Wiley crowed from the other room.
“Shut up, punk!” Raylor shouted back.
She was right. She was a serious potter. When we came to the bottom of the stairs, I saw . . . a mess. There was no other word for it. In the corner closest to our right, there was an unmade bed with a white bedside table and a lamp on it, but that was probably the cleanest part of the room.
The rest of the room consisted of clay everywhere. There were shelves in the back and they were crowded with finished, half-painted, gloriously completed, short, fat, tall, skinny, misshapen, and perfect sculptures--the majority of them being vases.
“Those are my first attempts. That was a couple years ago when I got my first official carving class. This--” she said and she directed my attention to the left wall adjacent to us “--is my recent work.”
My jaw dropped. The shelves were longer and higher. Each one held beautiful sculptures of people, torsos, animals, mugs, plates, utensils, buildings, stuffed animals, busts--everything you could imagine, it was there. The top shelves held the more misshapen ones, while the middle and bottom shelves were near perfect.
I wandered over to the muddy shelves and gazed at a bust of Tobias. His cheekbones were a little off and his lips a little stout, but it was still incredible. Besides it was a clay teddy bear and one of its eyes was drooping. There were plenty of wolf busts and muzzles.
As I continued down the line, things got a little out of hand. There was a sewing machine, but the hands on it melted into the machine. There was a teapot pouring out a miniature person. There was another bust, but she was screaming and her hands were over her ears.
But the best, in my opinion, was at the end of the shelves, and it was so big it had to be on the ground. I knelt before it, my mind blown. It was a sculpture of a naked woman from the waist up and her hands were on her jaw like she wanted to tear her skin off. There was netting on her face that wasn’t netting at all, in fact it was the delicate webbing of a clay spider sitting atop her forehead. Her face was etched with fear.
My breath had been stolen from me. I couldn’t function. “You did this,” I stated, but it was more of a question.
“Yep,” she said from behind me. “That’s my favorite. I’m submitting it to the local art gallery for a month or two. Some of the other sculptures I sell.”
My breath whooshed out of me. “How did you do this?”
I heard her smile unfold on her face. “I studied torsos for a ridiculously long time and spent a load of money to get enough clay for that one. I spent more than three months on it.”
I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her lips were carved in such a way that they looked healthy and wet and full, but the terror edged them to be crinkly. Her eyes were hollow and her eyebrows were perfectly shaped with lines showing where the hairs were. Her hair tumbled down her back and spiders fell from the ends.
“This is . . .” I laughed nervously. “I don’t even have words. This is . . . mind-blowing. It’s marvelous and magnificent.”
She squatted beside me. “Thanks!”
“How long have you been carving?”
“My whole life. But I got serious anatomical training two summers ago. I’ve been toning it ever since.”
I shook my head. “I feel like I’m in the presence of Michelangelo or something.”
She laughed. “Thanks. I’ve still got to expand my horizons. I used to carve wolves so much I began to hate them.” She laughed at the irony. “And I really love Kate MacDowell’s work.” Raylor turned around and pointed to the opposite wall behind her kiln. There was a picture of a white sculpture of a hummingbird with a human skull in its stomach. There was a picture of a white sculpture of lungs with birds in the middle. “That’s some of her work. And one of my favorite sculptures ever is Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova. And Bernini is one of my favorite artists, too.”
I was agog. She pointed to a picture of each or gestured to a group when she said a name, and she continued to boggle my mind. I was certain this girl would go places. Her sculptures were already mesmerizing, and if she continued to hone her skills . . . the world would be hers.
She shrugged and rose to her feet. “But I saved a special room for my pity-city nights when I can’t sculpt. Come on.”
I got to my feet and she led me around a corner. Here, the floor was unfinished but covered in all sorts of clay-splattered rugs with fringe. The walls were covered in tapestries, and in the small uncovered spots, I could see they the wall was unpainted.
“It gets a little cold in here, so I hoard all the blankets,” she said and my eyes fell on the couch in the middle of the room. It was shaped like an E with the middle leg cut out and it was overflowing with blankets. It was like a blanket nest.
Raylor plopped on the couch and wrapped up in several of the blankets, leaving half of them free. “Come on, then.”
I followed her example on the other end of the couch. This was unbelievably awkward. She propped her sheathed feet up on a cushion and looked at me. “So, Sigrid, do you like Merriweather so far?”
“Uhh,” I intelligently said. The Rice Chex shivered in my lap. “It’s very woodsy.”
She chortled. “Yeah. I’m sure Google maps doesn’t have a picture of us because we’re so isolated.” She popped some Lucky Charms into her mouth. “Any siblings?”
I nodded. “My older brother is off at college and I have a younger sister who’s a freshman.” I stuck some Rice Chex into my mouth.
She nodded. “Cool. Wiley will be a freshman next year. Oooh man, a powerful senior and fresh meat. That’s gonna be fun.”
I smiled, trying to agree with her.
“Okay,” she said, and she put her hands out and rolling up her sleeves. “I’m going to do the tasteless, unoriginal investigation. Favorite food?”
I smiled, but then furiously blushed at the memory of this morning. But I couldn’t say cheese puffs. No, that was my little secret. “Fruit,” I answered vaguely.
She chortled. “Opposite of me! I love chocolate. Anything with chocolate, I’ll eat. When I saw that chocolate jewelry on TV, though, I was kinda freaked out.” She put some more marshmallows in her mouth. “Favorite school subject?”
“English,” I answered automatically. “And yours?”
“Obviously, I like art, but I’m on the gymnastics team as well.”
“Oh. Cool.”
“Do you do any sports?”
Not that I have any time for them, I thought sourly. “I’m--I’m a big fan of running and volleyball.”
“Really? You never would’ve struck me as a volleyball kinda girl.”
I nodded. “Three schools ago I was on the team.”
She nearly choked on the hearts and balloons. “Three schools ago?”
Whoops. I spat out the quickest excuse I could think of without thinking twice. “My dad’s in the Air Force, so we move around a lot.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” she said, but she sounded skeptical. She took a breath. “Most basic one: favorite color?”
“Purple,” I replied, thankful for the subject change. I had used the Air Force excuse before, but I couldn’t remember what I had told Theo. I prayed it was the same lie.
“Mine are cerulean and lavender.” She rolled her eyes. “I know. Kinda kooky colors. I’m an artist. What’re ya gonna do?” Frankly I didn’t know what to do. “So how do you like Mademoiselle Beaulieu?” Raylor twirled her hand to add a French accent.
“She’s nice,” I responded flatly, but then I added, “I like how she’ll start rambling in French.”
“Oh, I know!” Raylor exclaimed, nodding. “I wanna be able to do that.” She leaned back in her chair. “So what were some of your other schools like?”
My blood turned cold. Oh, not this question. “They were schools, I guess,” I said, trying not to sound nervous. “Once you’ve seen a lot of them, they’re all the same.” Minus the fact that some wolves go missing due to my murderous uncle. But she didn’t need to know that.
“How many schools have you been to?”
“At least six,” I said. At least twenty.
“Whoa,” she said, chewing some more Lucky Charms. “Do you ever get first-day jitters?”
“Not anymore.”
Her eyes widened. “Dang, girl. I could never do that.”
I never wanted to.
The front door opened and we both looked up at the ceiling. My stomach plummeted and I jerked my head down. I could not give any indication I was a werewolf! That meant hearing things you’re not supposed to be! And certainly not parents telling their children to go cook mac ‘n cheese in a calm voice. If she thought of me as a threat, as a mindless, reckless rogue, I would be done for!
Not that she probably already knows or anything, my wolf said. She was pacing again.
Right, I replied dumbly. I’d totally forgotten. She would already know I was a werewolf.
As if she could read my thoughts, she gave me a quizzical look. Thankfully, my phone saved me.
Ring!! Ring!! Ring!!
I jumped and my hand slapped on my thigh, but my phone wasn’t there.
Ring!! Ring!! Ring!!
I fished through the blankets, but my phone seemed to be mocking me and falling through the folds.
“Let me help,” Raylor said and she yanked the blankets off the couch, sending my phone flying across the room, closer to her side. “Sorry,” she said and she craned her entire body backwards to pick it up off the floor.
Panic ate my chest and I leapt to my feet. “That’s okay, I can--”
“OW!”
“--get it.”
Raylor’s hand jumped from my phone and she cradled it to her chest, looking offended. “Geez Louise,” she said with a flabbergasted face. “What was that?”
“I-I don’t know,” I said and I looked at the screen. Time to go. “I’m sorry, Raylor, I have to go pick up my sister for karate.”
She nodded, but she still looked horrified, as if my phone possessed an inner demon. “Alright.” She untangled herself from the blankets and led me upstairs. I hoped that I wouldn’t bump into her parents, and my wish was granted for once.
“Thanks for coming over,” Raylor said, opening the front door. She looked majorly turned off by the idea of my friendship. All because of my phone.
“Thanks for inviting me,” I said, but I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be seeing her any time soon.
“See you tomorrow,” she said and she waved.
“Bye,” I said and I turned to walk down her driveway. Once I was in my car and I saw no one peeping at me through her curtains, I peeled the cover of my phone off. My heart thudded at the sight of a Hex, carved onto the back of my phone--glowing silver and burning bright.
…………..
Cassidy was antsy by the time I reached the house. She practically leapt in my car. “Do you have the address?” I asked.
She waved hand. “Pfft, I know how to get there. I can lead you right to it. It’s downtown.”
In a matter of minutes of backtracking, yelling out “Turn now!” and zipping past red lights, I’d managed to find my way to her karate studio a minute before her class started. It was an hour long and I had nothing else better to do, so after she jumped out of the car, I headed to for Winan’s. However, when I saw a quirky place called ‘The Groove’, I decided to check it out instead.
Once I entered, not only did the aroma of coffee and pastries overwhelm my nose, but I was slammed with the scent of an Alpha power. It rolled over me like a tsunami, overwhelming and little bit strange. Alpha’s always had a strong presence, but this was over the top. I looked around, but saw no one, so I gathered my wits about myself and headed over to the front counter.
The Groove’s walls were a dark violet and someone had drawn galaxies and stars and swirls using more purples, yellows, and oranges. Bible verses were here and there on the ceiling and walls. Little balls of light hung down like little suns and there was an electric fireplace someplace or another. I could smell it, not see it.
I ordered a fruit smoothie and almost left contentedly, but my eyes landed on a familiar figure with strawberry blonde hair and muscles.
Tobias, I thought.
Alpha, my wolf whined and she started pacing.
She was right. Across the table from him was a man that could’ve been his double except that he had more wrinkles on his face. Their faces were serious and set. From the looks of it they were talking about their pack. I refused to listen in because I know what manners are.
His dad, I guessed.
They smell similar, my wolf added.
Shoot! Because I wasn’t a part of their pack, they were bound to smell me very soon--and that was the last thing I wanted! I had told Theo I wasn’t a threat, but who said he’d believe me? And who said Tobias would still consider me a threat? I was so slow when it came to my safety!
My breath became short. The main difference besides age between the two men was that his dad was wearing a quartz ring on his right hand and talking animatedly. It glittered in the light and seemed a little off being there.
I ignored the odd gaudiness of it and rushed out of The Groove, but as I scampered out of the door, I rammed into a body builder with a red buzz cut. Werewolf exuded off of him like he was radioactive and my face drained of blood. “I’m s-sorry,” I stammered.
“It’s okay,” he said with a deep voice, holding open the door for me.
I rushed past him. Oh God, get away! He smelled like the Beta and I didn’t need anyone else questioning my presence in a pack that I didn’t belong in.
I scampered away as fast as my legs would take me, and because I wanted to conserve gas, I headed for Page Rage--the local used book bookstore. I hid my beverage as I walked in, unsure if they allowed food and drink. I guessed they didn’t and I wanted to be safe. I asked the employee where their romance section was and he gestured upstairs. After five minutes of wandering looking for the stairs, I found it and soon after found the romance room.
I plopped myself in a chair and skimmed through the beginnings of several books until I found a Nora Roberts one I particularly enjoyed. After some book angst and almost-kisses, my phone buzzer rang, and I took off for Cassidy.
If only my love life was a romance novel.
………..
Theo
I was beyond frustrated. When I had met Sigrid this morning, she had almost seemed friendly. But then . . . her stunt with the refusal sent me spinning to a spiral of confusion. Not only because she had the capability to refuse her mate, but because she smelled funny and I didn’t like it.
The last time I had smelled something like that was when--
My wolf growled with the realization. When we’d had hunters last.
I fiddled with my car keys as I made my way across the parking lot. Why would she smell like a hunter? She was so shy; I was amazed she had the brawn to refuse me solidly. How would she become involved with a hunter? She wasn’t a hunter, was she?
My mind jumped from one conclusion to the next. I was so tired of her being called a hunter and an anti-werewolf and a hardcore religious-person and then even a prostitute by my fellow werewolf classmates that I abandoned the idea of my driving home. If Principal Wilkes had a problem with it, he could answer to the Alpha.
I slipped into the woods and shifted, discarding my tattered clothes under a rock. I bolted through the woods, reveling in the muscles of my black wolf. Tobias thought it was hilarious that my hair color corresponded so identically to my wolf form, but I kept attacking him from the shadows, so who’s the loser now, huh?
I couldn’t keep track of how long I ran. All I knew was that when I was a wolf, all human matters seemed to float away. The woods egged me on, cheered me to run faster. I chased a buck for a mile or two, but when I ran into the herd of deer, I backed off. I wasn’t asking for trouble and if some innocent person got hurt because of my recklessness, I didn’t want that responsibility on my shoulders.
I continued to run, lolling my tongue out at how excellent this felt. No sooner than I had had that thought, I accidentally wandered on civilian property. This wouldn’t be a problem, but seeing as it was a human’s yard and I could hear him calling animal control, I’d better get away fast. It didn’t really matter, though. Animal control knew what we were.
Refusing to have to face my problematic mate any sooner than necessary, I continued to run like hell was hot on my heels. As I ran, I couldn’t help but keep track of whose house I passed. There was Kyler’s, and Sasha’s, and Alix’s, and Drace’s, and Raylor’s and--
I nearly plowed into the dirt. That was not Raylor’s scent I smelled. It was fruity, with a hint of cheese.
My wolf whined. Mate.
Sigrid was over at Raylor’s house. I bristled with jealousy. So she could tell me off and try to scare me away by saying she wasn’t a threat and that she wouldn’t want to be around me, but then she’d go and hang out with Raylor? When she knew she was the Alpha’s heir’s mate?
Some girl, I thought bitterly.
No, I would not be jealous. Tobias and I were meeting later today with Alpha Roan and Beta Xander to discuss responsibilities and upcoming training. We had chosen The Groove to talk about it because it was mellow and no one would care to listen in on our conversation there. Plus, they have really good food and hey, we’re all guys. We love good food.
For the half hour I ran some more, getting all the nerves out of my body, and when I returned to school property and my car, I swore at the time. I was late! I quickly took my extra change of clothes from the back, pulled them on, and revved down the road. Being late did not qualify as a good trait of the next Beta.
When I walked in, her scent wafted up my nose and I nearly drowned in it, but I had to push it to the side when Tobias beckoned me over. I had pack duties to learn.
…………
A/N: As I'm editing this, I'm realizing how ridiculously long my chapters are! Oh well! Thanks for reading!
-SKatInk