Thank God for lunch. Giselle's stomach was so empty it was practically feasting on itself. No doubt everyone around her could hear the gurgling and complaining. Just another embarrassment to add to the list of reasons that homeschooling was a better option for her. She barreled into the cafeteria and headed for the shortest line in the lunchroom. Window-style, like a walk-up fast food joint, there was a menu overhead with generic choices and prices. Giselle ordered one of everything. Pizza, burger, fries, juice, side salad with Italian dressing, the works! She wanted it all. It didn't matter that school lunch wasn't really food. More like foodish-looking products with artificial taste, color, and smell. It didn't matter at that moment. She was starving, and her wolf was restless. She'd gnaw on a table leg if it meant her stomach would stop complaining.
Picking up her overloaded tray, she scanned the room for her group. Feeding time at the zoo would have been easier to manage than school lunch hour. Tables were filling up faster than she could reach them. Pre-determined groups had laid claim to specific areas of the room and set up invisible boundaries that must have been known to the regulars. She certainly couldn't see them, but one step too close to the Goth group earned her sneers and hisses that had her wolf ready to surface. Giselle tried to remember she'd already embarrassed herself more than once today; she'd best be on good behavior at least until day two.
She spotted Di already sitting in the farthest corner near the windows and headed for her. "Where's Taylor?"
Di faux pouted. "She's on second lunch."
"That sucks," Giselle said, and proceeded to stuff her face with a slice of cardboard pizza.
"Nah, she's got friends to keep her company. School council, party planning committee, that kind of thing."
"Overachiever?" Giselle asked.
"Social butterfly," Di answered. "But she's also got the connections. If you need it, she can get it. Pays to have friends in high places."
Giselle couldn't imagine what special things she'd need in school, but smiled and continued to wolf down her food. Onto the sawdust-flavored burger. "So. Who wants to tell me about the other pack here?" she asked between bites.
"Could you be any louder?" Di cringed. "Or more disgusting? Chew with your mouth closed, please!"
She couldn't help herself. That would be the last time she skipped breakfast! "Like anyone listening knows what I really mean." She gulped down a soda and wiped her mouth clean. Vikings probably had better table manners than she at this point, but if she didn't sate the beast, there'd be more problems than sloppy eating. Her wolf demanded more food.
"Whatever, Elle." Di rolled her eyes and scooted her chair a few inches away from Giselle. "Don't stress. The others are not our friends. That's all you need to know right now."
She'd made a big deal about warning her, and that was her reason? Nope. Not going to fly. "Screw what I need to know. Give me something to work with here. I need details."
Di huffed as if her word were law and to challenge it was an insult. "When you are made an official member of the pack, maybe Martina will tell you. It's not my place."
New family or pack or whatever they were, Giselle could see some arguments in their future. Di's attitude was grating on her nerves, to say the least. But she tried with a cleansing breath to calm her wolf and work a different angle to find answers.
"Fine. If I decide to join, I'll ask Martina. But for now at least tell me about Ash.... The boy. Because I sit next to him in Chem and in Writing. He's..."
"Not. Our. Friend, Elle," Di said with finality.
Giselle grimaced at the way Di tried to shut the door on the conversation. "Maybe not yours. But, as you so poignantly stated... I'm not pack. So I'm not held by those rules yet."
"You will be pack soon enough."
"Says who?"
"There's no way you'll reject our pack." Di seemed to think she had the upper hand here.
"Been a lone wolf for a long time, and you're not making this pack sound very appealing," she lied. She very much wanted to be part of a pack, but if denying that would play to her advantage, she had to take it.
Di sighed impatiently. "Geeze, Elle, you just don't give up, do you?"
"Nope."
"Fine," she huffed. "I don't have all the info, but I'll tell you what I do know. He's the youngest of his family. Last one in the pack to finish school here. The whole family has lived here for generations..."
Giselle's attention drifted as Ash came strolling through the cafeteria doors. Head held high, he walked like a man with a purpose, even if he was just joining the lunch line. She caught the flair of his nostrils and the quick flick of his eyes in her direction. Of course he had picked up on her scent, and Di's as well. Two wolves sitting in the corner together would be hard not to smell. Even normal humans should have been able to pick up on something different.
As quickly as their eyes met, he looked away and continued on to order his food.
Di snapped her fingers in front of Giselle. "Hey. I'm talking here."
"Oh. Sorry. I—"
"Was ogling the enemy. I know. Wipe the drool off your chin, chica, it's embarrassing."
"Seriously, why is he the enemy? If you won't answer, I will go get the info out of him."
She rolled her eyes. "Why is it so important to you?"
"I'm a lone wolf. I rely on my own wits to keep me safe. That means I need to know everything about my surroundings."
"You're not a lone wolf anymore. You have a pack now."
"Not. Yet."
Her sigh of impatience sounded more like an aggressive growl but the look on Di's face screamed for mercy. "C'mon, Elle. Don't be like this."
She'd get to the bottom of this one way or another; but Giselle wondered exactly how much she'd have to push now that Di was showing her frustration. "Just tell me and we can drop the subject."
"I don't really know, okay? It's like the Hatfield and McCoy crap."
"The what now?"
"Feuding families. The Thrace family and the Hernandez family have both been here a long time. And neither of them wants to leave."
"Why should they? It's not like there isn't enough space for more than one pack to roam the desert."
"That's not the point. Sure, the city can handle more than one pack, but their pack is deliberately trying to shove our pack out."
"Well, a turf war doesn't make someone evil. It's kind of the wolfy way, isn't it? I mean, we're all a bit domineering."
"You are, that's for sure."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It's not."
"Afraid I'm too Alpha for you, Di?" She hadn't intended to start a dominance game with Di, but the blonde had just opened the door up for it, and Giselle's wolf was itching to prove she was top dog.
Di's gaze hardened for a moment. Her wolf was rising to the surface as well, and Giselle was ready to meet it, but before anything happened, Di closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "I think you and I will make great sisters."
Not what Giselle had expected her to say, but her words deflated the situation perfectly. Giselle was left speechless. Comebacks she was good at. Compliments... not so much.
"Nice try changing the subject." Giselle was quick to steer the conversation back on track. "You guys act like Ash killed your sister or something."
Di looked down and started picking her nails, chipping away some of the pretty pink polish. "Not Ash, but his father... and it was Martina's sister."
Now things were getting interesting. "Really?"
"That's what I heard. And then paid a witch to curse Martina and make her barren, so there would be no more Hernandez wolves."
"Wait a minute... Witches are real now, too?" It shouldn't have come as a shock, but Giselle was having issues wrapping her mind around it.
"Seriously? You're a werewolf, questioning the belief in witches?"
"No, I just... Look, up until a month ago I was the only... person of unusual talent I'd ever met. Now I've met wolves from not one but two packs. And you're adding witches to the bunch too. Give me a minute to process, okay?"
"Sure," Di smirked. "Let me know when you're ready to talk about vampires too..."
Giselle's jaw nearly broke it dropped so hard. The whole world was brand new in her eyes. And she was eager to not only learn more but experience it as well. Another quick glance awarded Giselle with a parting view of Asher's hot butt as he walked, lunch in hand, through the cafeteria. Enemy or not, she'd be glad to enjoy the view any day!
"Did I shatter your world view?" Di laughed.
"Expanded it quite nicely." She sighed, eyes still locked by the gravitational pull of his body.
"You're pathetic," Di groaned. "Even if he wasn't the enemy, which he is, you have no chance with Asher Thrace. Just give it up."
"A girl can daydream, can't she?"
"Just don't act on those dreams. He's the enemy!"
"I think the whole feuding families thing is a bit much."
"You would. You're not part of the pack."
"Exactly my point. I'm not. So maybe I'll go talk to Mr. Thrace and see what his side of the story is."
Di laughed. "Good luck there. Martina would forbid it, and she's the pack Alpha."
Giselle glanced over to Ash. He'd just set his tray down at a table filled with jocks. Through the back patting and congratulations going around, she caught him casting curious glances back her way. She was missing something. Murder and curses. It all sounded a little too farfetched. But if this was what it would be like being part of a pack... she could do without it. Life was stressful enough as it was without adding this kind of drama to the mix.
"I don't like being told what I can and cannot do."
"Part of being pack! Take the good with the bad, and always... always defend your own."
All she had ever wanted was a family of her own. Her place with Martina had been a dream come true. Too perfect. Of course there would be a catch. Giselle glanced over again to Ash. And what a catch.