Sam and I ran out of the house and into her Jeep driving away in a fit of giggles. We brainstormed on what we could do and finally found the perfect thing on the side of the road. We picked it up and put it into the back of the car. The noise from the box was a little annoying but because of it’s contents we found it absolutely adorable to listen too. We had also known of a few places where we could get more of the item in question for free.
We drove to a couple stranger’s houses and picked them up. The last house we dropped by seemed quite interested in me like the lady knew me from somewhere. None the less we picked up our prize and drove away. We took our items to a enclosed space and let them all get dirty in a particularly smelly patch of mud before rounding them up again. We drove back to the pack house with the box in hand. The items were trying to get out and we got many stares from passers by in the halls of the pack house, but we made it back to our destination in no time. We opened up the door to one of the rooms and found it to be perfectly horrid. Hot pink was everywhere. We gladly placed half of the items inside before closing the door being careful not to let them out before doing the same with the nearly identical room beside it. All we had to do now was wait for the screams.
“This will be good.” Sam said beside me as we made our way down the hall to her room.
“I just want to be there to take their pictures when they find them. I bet they will be utterly priceless!” We both laughed at our hijinks before giving each other that look. Once we do one prank we have to pull off others. We ran about the house preparing as many of the classical pranks as we could find. Buckets of water over door jams, at least a hundred whoopee cushions, and even a round up mouse toy. We went back to my room to find a highly amused Caleb sitting on my bed.
“I hear you two have been…productive today. I do have one question though.” I stood there with my arms crossed and head high at my pranks highly proud of myself and confident that he wouldn’t do anything to me, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Sam do the complete opposite. She cowered away, head bent down and arms crossed behind her. Normally Sam would be the one to speak up for us while I held this position. How our little team worked was I was the mastermind, Sam was the tough guy and Arthur would normally be the lawyer trying to work something out to lessen our punishment for the crime we had committed. Our team worked well, but unfortunately Arthur wasn’t here.
“I am sorry Alpha please forgive me.” I gave Sam a weird look before she mouthed something at me. ‘Alpha power. You’re human I’m not.’ I immediately understood what was happening. I stood in between Caleb and Sam holding my pose.
“No. We do not ask for forgiveness because you have no proof that we did these pranks.” No sooner had I gotten the sentence out did a shrill scream echo across the mansion. “Although that one might have been us.” I noted before racing out of the room to follow Sam who was as desperate as I to see Camilla and Tracy’s faces. We made it to their rooms in a few minutes. The were still pretty pissed off but they seemed to be trying to get the puppies out of their room. The puppies we had put inside their rooms had gotten on everything leaving a horrible stinky muddy mess behind. Some had made it out into the hall to play with the onlookers but most were playing with the two girls thinking it was a game. Sam and I barely held out for a minute before breaking down and laughing. We were rolling on the floor from their messed up hair and dirty designer clothes.
Tracy was the first to hear and alerted Camilla to our laughing. Camilla suddenly screamed. “You two did this! You bitches! These are Dolche and Gabbana dresses!” the girls instantly shifted into their blond wolves making Sam and I sober up. Sam shifted and helped me into her back as we ran. Sam took us outside and had the girls chase us around a group of fighters in the back yard. Most people stopped to watch the spectacle as their new Luna was riding on the back of their warrior as they were chased by some pissed off preppy werewolf girls. It had people laughing within moments. Caleb came out and watched as I used my horse back training to pull off stunts while riding Sam.
Since the time I was little I had wanted to be a trick rider and had learned a couple moves. It was harder to do them atop Sam but I still pulled them off. When Sam ran past Caleb, who was standing in the door frame of the kitchen door eating a donut, I jumped of into a back flip and landed in front of him. Tracy and Camilla noticed and tried to back me up against a wall. Something in me flipped and my body moved of its own accord. I tried to speak up, but I had become mute. I hit one of the girls in the snout before I was pulled backwards.
“Some one get me the headband.” I heard Caleb yell. I was starting to move back into the training room when I felt something get slammed onto my head. Caleb was now standing in front of me making sure that I made no move to remove the head band. When I felt better I looked past him to find that I had broken Camilla’s nose and both she and Tracy had just slipped on some new dresses since the ones they were wearing were completely destroyed now. The stalked forward for a moment aiming to come after me, but Caleb turned them back around without a single word. “Come with me Vanessa.” He said grabbing my arm. He was pulling me behind him and I thought of a better idea. I pulled my arm from his grasp and before he could turn around I had jumped on his back.
“Mush!” I commanded.
“You know I’m not a dog right?” he said with a laugh in his voice.
“I said mush Doggie!” I screamed out doing my best crazy person impersonation.
“Oh you’re going to pay for that one.” He said before using his werewolf speed to make it upstairs. Before I could say yeah right he had me on my back atop his bed and was tickling me. I couldn’t get any words out between my bursts of laughter. I was actually enjoying myself and after a time he finally stopped, just as breathless from laughing as I was. He laid down next to me and held my hand. I put my head against his shoulder and felt right at home. I hopped up quickly remembering that I was supposed to be mad at him.
“What’s wrong Vanessa?”
“You haven’t apologized have you?”
“No I haven’t Vanessa. He is my beta and I was telling him to go about his duties.”
“You should earn your packs respect instead of making them because of your birthright Caleb.” I closed the door to his room and went into mine, locking myself in. I started to unpack my things quickly. I got to the bottom of the bag and found my birthday presents. A couple books and the box my Grand-Mama gave me. I set it on my dresser before answering a knock at my door. I opened it to find Caleb.
“This is something I need to give you Vanessa.” He said staring down at something in his hands. It was about the size of the box I had just placed upon my dresser and was wrapped in bright blue wrapping paper.
“What is it?”
“It’s kind of a late birthday present. And its also something you will be needing.” I picked up the box from where he laid it upon my bed and pulled gently on the paper. Inside I found a box almost identical to the one I had received from my Grand-Mama. The only difference was that the oval around the flower on the one my Grand-Mama gave me was replaced by a rectangle on the one Caleb gave me.
“Is this something everyone gives a girl for their seventeenth birthday?”
“No. This box is special. When the time is right you may open it and we can be together permanently. But you can’t open it until then.”
“Just like I can’t open this one.” I said gesturing to the one I got earlier. Caleb eyed it and knew what it was.
“Please don’t ever open that box Nessa.” Worry covered his face and voice, filling my heart with fear.
“Why not? It is something my mother gave me.”
“This box, when opened has the same kind of effect as the one I just gave you. You now have a choice to make Vanessa. You can open this box…” he picked up the one from my Grand-Mama. “…and become a Hunter, or you can open mine and become a werewolf. Each needs to be opened at the proper time.”
“What if I choose the Hunter to learn more about them for your pack. Could I then become a werewolf afterwords?”
“No, once you choose one its over. You can’t switch. You can only open one of these Vanessa.” I tried to swallow but a huge lump had risen in my throat making it impossible.
“I will always choose you Caleb.” He seemed happy at that and pulled me in for a quick kiss. I managed to put my hand up and block his warm and inviting lips before they touched mine. “But you have to apologize to James before you get a kiss from me.” I wriggled out of his grasp before sauntering off. I put both of the boxes inside of my large purse along with a pair of clothes. I made my way along the corridors to the foyer. I found James down there and told him where I was heading off to before showing him that I had taken Caleb’s keys.
I hopped inside his sleek black sports car and drove down to the community pool wanting to take a couple laps in one of my favorite spots. I went inside and opened up my own locker that I have paid rent on. I felt a small knock on the mental wall I had placed up.
‘Vanessa, you took my car?’
‘I see you talked to James, apologized yet?’ I said turning the key in the lock and pocketing it before walking out into the pool yard.
‘Vanessa, I don’t like you going places without my knowledge. Especially when your Lead Huntress Grandma is out there looking for you.’
‘Will you calm down?’ I said jumping from the high dive I had just climbed and making a prefect swan dive into the refreshingly cool water below. ‘My Grand-Mama has no idea I even come here Caleb.’
‘I’ll come meet you there Vanessa I don’t want you alone at the moment. Where are you?’
‘At the city club. I’m in the pool.’
‘Of course you go to a public place when you’re being hunted down by a deadly group of werewolf Hunters.’
‘Well these Hunters will think that I am going to be right by your side, no? So probably one of the safest places I could be is in a public place alone because in their minds that would never happen, logical right?’
‘Touche, but I still don’t want you alone.’
‘Fine. I’ll get out of the pool now and you can drive me back to your pack house even though I think it’s more of a mansion then anything.’
‘I’m already half way there.’ I climbed out of the pool and put a towel around me. I was disappointed that I had barely ten minutes in the pool but at least I was in it. I unlocked my locker and slung my purse over my shoulder before a rag was placed over my mouth. A familiar voice taunted me.
“This time they can’t leave me unconscious or put any gold on you. I will become your more dominant side Vanessa. You can count on that.” I was left falling into a black darkness as I continued to breath in the smell of the liquid that had been poured onto the cloth. I felt something go on my head and felt lonely all of a sudden. Before I could think to long on the matter the darkness had consumed me.