I lie on my bed, flipping through my photos. Bennett is at my computer desk, looking through my National Geographic portfolio. I stare at Tristan's wolf. He's so beautiful.
"These are really good. I want to be among all this."
I chuckle. "We can do it now if you want." I sit up.
"Nah, I'm waiting for Dean." He clicks through more photos.
"Your waiting for Dean. In my room." He grins and runs his hand through his sandy brown hair. "What makes you think Dean will be coming to my room."
He turns in my chair. "I lied. I'm really excited about Sara."
I shake my head. "You and me both."
"She said yes to the alcohol." He opens up a document on my computer. We digitalized all the points were going to meet with the Halloween party. Sara is on a date with a guy that works at the Halloween store. She's trying to get us some discounts for the party. Bennett's broke and I've been broke since I was born.
"Do you think Dean will do something about that?"
"What, like revoke the alcohol privileges?"
"Yeah."
"No. I can legally drink anyway, but its my party, and no one will call the cops on us so we're home free." He shrugs and types more things.
"Have you figured out what you're going to be yet?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'm going to be a frat guy. And I'm gonna have a boner, whether if its real or not, that's up to you to decide."
"Only you, Benny." I smile.
"What are you going to be?"
"Little Red Riding Hood," I say.
"Only you, Anna Banana." He reaches for my hair, but I dodge his hand and spit my tongue at him. "What's Sara gonna be?"
"A lion tamer." I smirk.
"Yeah my boner is going to be real."
My phone lights up with Sara's name. Bennett and I stare at each other and both jump for the phone. In a tangle of arms and a few head butts, I get the phone from Bennett. "Hello." I push Bennett's head away. "How was it?"
"Are you okay?" she asks.
"Yeah, Bennett's just... being Bennett."
"How'd it go?" he yells.
"Bennett, you're a goddamn wolf and this is the twenty-first century. Let me put it on speaker." He stops struggling. I stare at him for a few seconds to make sure that he won't attack again. I put the phone on speaker.
"So what happened?" I ask.
"Well we went on the date, but he's not going to give me a discount straight away. I think we're going to have to invite him to the party."
"Wolves only," Bennett says.
There's a long pause.
"Sara, are you driving?"
"Yeah. I didn't want Dean overhearing. He pissed me off today." I shift on the bed. Bennett lies next to me.
"You didn't tell me much about that," I say. "Was it really that bad?"
"Yes. Dean's being a dick, take my word for it."
"Are you sure its not just him being an alpha?"
"Positive."
Bennett and I share a look.
"I'm pulling up now. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Love you," I say.
"Love you too." I toss my phone on a pile of clothes.
"What about me? Where's my love?"
"You don't get any," I say, sitting up. I pick up my camera and set it on my bedside table.
"I'll get it from Dean then." Bennett stands.
"Don't leave me."
He raises a brow. "Shouldn't you be cleaning Dean's wound anyway?"
"I'm punishing him."
"Really, why? But didn't you say he could die from an infection?"
"For pissing off Sara, but Aunt Holland gave him some really good antibiotics."
Bennett flops on my bed. I scooch over to make room. My lights are on but you can still see the glow from the stars and moon on my ceiling.
He props his arm behind his head.
After a long silence, he says, "I remember when you guys put these up without me. And I got really mad."
I laugh. "I remember." Dean's mom took us to a toy store and we went wild. We were four or five at the time. Sara, Dean, and I all ran off together to look at all the toys. I got distracted in the science area and Sara kept trying to drag me out, but it was no use.
Dean was the one that spotted them.
That was what got me out of the aisle and into the next science one. There were starts and crescent moons only at that time I called them a banana moon. That's where Bennett came up with my nickname.
I hated the nickname at first but I slowly fell it love with it. But I got Bennett back and started calling him Benny. It was a name he always hated but grew a soft spot for when it was me calling him it.
When Dean's mom finally found us in the science aisle, we all begged her to buy the stars and moons for us.
She did.
The whole ride home we were debating whose room was going to get them and Dean and Sara both agreed on my room.
Bennett was six or seven at this time and he was at baseball practice which is why he didn't come with us. But when we got back to Dean's house, we ran to my house with the shopping bag in hand.
My aunts laughed at us as we ran down the hall to my room.
When Bennett came over after showering, he was mad. But he soon got over it when we turned the lights off.
"I wish we could go back," I say.
"Why?" Bennett props himself on his elbow to look at me.
I shrug. "It was a simpler time."
"But look at you, Anna. The photography you're making. And National Geographic will hire you. If they don't, I'll go down there and demand that they do."
I smile. I told Bennett about the contest and everything because he's the only one that's left the pack and been able to come back. Once you leave the pack, you're on your own. You're a lone wolf. Lone wolves can sometimes be dangerous. They can also join other packs, but its rare that they do. The only reason Bennett isn't exiled from the pack is because he's the alphas best friend.
"And if I do win? The New York Film Academy is in New York."
Bennett pulls out his phone. He hides his screen from me. I fight the urge to push him off the bed.
"The academy is like ten minutes from my apartment. Live with me." He sets his phone on my bedside table.
"Live with you?" I sit up. "You're joking."
"No, honestly." He sits up against the wall. "I have a two-bedroom apartment. It's nice, comfortable. I mean, we'll share a bathroom." He shrugs. "But who cares?"
I pick a loose cotton string from my bed spread. "That does sound pretty cool. But I've not even won. I don't want to think about the future." Plus, how will Sara and Dean take the news? "I don't want to think about it."
Tristan and I sit outside of the school as I wait for Sara. He didn't want to leave me on the school grounds alone.
I show Tristan some of his photos. "You're so pretty," I say for the umpteenth time.
"I'm like having an out-of-body experience right now." He takes my camera from me and peers closely at the screen.
"You're going to go blind if you continue on like that." I pick up Tristan's camera and click through his photos, stopping on a black wolf barely visible through the darkness. Its eyes aren't even distinguishable. "Who is this?"
Tristan gives the photo a double take. "Alexia."
I refrain from dropping the camera. "Oh. It's a nice photo."
Tristan sets my camera down and looks at me. "Are you alright?"
"She just makes me nervous is all." I hand his camera back and pick up mine. He flips through the others and I can't help but notice that his have a dark vibe to them. Mine are happy, bright. "I've heard things."
"So have I."
"About Dean?" I narrow my eyes. "Dean—nothing bad about him should be said. He's the best alpha there is. What have you heard about him?"
"Are you done?" Tristan laughs. "Its nothing bad. But the alphas are talking. Why is Jessica visiting your pack?"
"Jessica? The California alpha?" He nods. "This is the first I'm hearing of it. But if I did know I don't know if I'd tell you."
His brow raises. "You wouldn't tell me?"
"Pack confidentiality. Dean has a lot of trust in me."
"He does?"
I nod, unsure of what he's getting at.
"Why has there been a wolf from your pack watching us for the past ten minutes then?" I follow his eyes to my left, but I don't see anything. "Can't you smell them?"
"No. I think you're just smelling me." Sara's car pulls up. Tristan helps me to my feet. My eyes linger on the spot to my left. "Maybe you're smelling Sara."
"I don't know." He shrugs. "I'll see you tomorrow, Anna."
I give him a tight smile. "See you."
I open Sara's door and sigh when I sit. I shut the door. Sara pulls out before I clip my seatbelt on. "You smell like him."
"You tell me that every time." I clip on my seatbelt.
"That's because every time you smell like him." She reaches into her door and tosses something to me. A bottle of perfume lands on my lap. "Spray it. There's another alpha. If she smells East Wolf on you, you're a goner."
"Is it really Jessica? The one that killed her parents?"
"Yeah, its that one."
I spray the perfume on my clothes. I put on an excessive amount to piss off Sara and to make sure Tristan's scent is gone.
His words nag at my mind. "I'm not being followed am I?" I watch Sara for any reaction. Surely she would know what her brother is up to. I wasn't invited to the last meeting—the meeting where Dean pissed Sara off.
"Followed? By who?" She glances at me.
"You tell me. What's Dean up to? Why is Jessica here?" I push my bag to the floor and play with my camera light.
"He's not told me anything but it probably has something to do with Alexia." Sara pulls into the neighborhood. She passes Dean and Katie. They stand outside of the office talking.
Sara pulls into her driveway. "What are you doing today?"
"Bennett and I are putting a playlist together. I have homework and some photos to edit." Sara looks from her house to mine. It's significantly smaller. Mine is a one story while hers is two. She has more rooms too, enough to house me and my aunts as well as Bennett. We'd all have our own rooms, except my aunts of course. "He should already be in my house." I climb out of Sara's car, lugging my book bag over my shoulder.
Bennett's smell hits me the instant I open my door. His voice comes from the living room along with Aunt Jenna's. "Is that my Anna Banana?" He pops his head out.
"And Sara."
"And my Sara." He comes out of the room. I brace myself for a body slam type hug but he instead grabs Sara and pulls her down the hall to my room. I smile at Aunt Jenna before following them.
Sara sits on my bed and Bennett sits at her feet. I shut my door. "Why are you on the floor?"
"Shush, its story time."
Sara suppresses a smile.
I walk to my desk and sit down. I power up my computer while Sara starts.
"Well, we went to Olive Garden and talked about trivial things. It got to the point of us talking about his job and he told me he gets a 35% discount..." I open up a document and start typing up my project. It a biology project on wolves. I fought to get wolves. The teacher was originally going to give me the red squirrel.
Its an essay about the DNA sequencing and the gnomes about wolves. Most of it I already know because I looked it up a long time ago: the first time I found out I was a half-breed. I didn't understand how I could be half wolf, half human when everyone is half wolf and half human anyway. But I figured it out.
Being a werewolf is a different species of humans, just like how apes are similar to our DNA, the same goes for werewolves. Being a wolf means your 100% that species. My mother mated with a human, he was 100% human and she was 100% wolf, when those two combined and created me, they created a hybrid of sorts: someone that is 50% wolf and 50% human.
"Nearing the end of the night," Sara says, "I asked him what the best Halloween party was that he went to and he—this is what I think we should do." She looks at me and Bennett. "He said that Halloween parties with low lights, good music, and a few spooky decorations here and there are the best."
"I don't get it," Bennett says.
Sara rolls her eyes. "Ben, we don't need all these crazy decorations for it to be a Halloween party. The party is on Halloween, people will be dressing up, and there's alcohol. That's basically all we need."
"We do need a budged for food though," I say, turning back to my computer.
"Yeah, that's why I swiped Dean's pack card." I freeze. I turn to Sara. Her mouth is open and Bennett holds up Dean's credit card.
"Bennett." Sara swipes the card. "You can't just take his credit card."
"Yes I can. He's been holed up with Katie and Jessica all day. Daphne, Daryl, whatever, they wouldn't let me in."
"You did say he was being a dick," I say.
"Anna, you too?"
I put my hands up. "I'm just saying. Whatever he did to you yesterday, this could be his karma."
Bennett nods.
Sara stares at the card in her hand. She looks up at me. "What the hell."
Sara drives us to Target. You would never guess with the way Bennett acts that he's older than us. We've been here an hour and we haven't even made it to the food yet. Bennett has been preoccupied with the Star Wars toy aisle.
We stood around waiting for a while for Bennett to pull himself together, but then he started making the roar that Chewbacca makes. Sara and I left him after that. He can find us when he's done.
I push the cart and let Sara pick out the food. I decide within myself that since it's Dean's card, she can decide what gets purchased with it. We did need Bennett for the alcohol though.
The cart gets filled with bags and bags of potato chips. I make a comment about sour cream and onion being my favorite and Sara throws in two extra bags.
I follow her to the next aisle where the snacks are. She tosses in some Oreos, Ritz crackers, and a few bags of candy.
When I was about four or five I asked Aunt Holland if we could die if we had chocolate because my friend at school had a dog that died because it got into their chocolate stash. Aunt Holland said we couldn't, but I was still afraid to eat it. That is until I found out I was a half-breed.
Sara skips a few aisles and walks down the freezer aisle. She takes cheese cubes out of the freezer and tosses them in the cart. She also grabs cheese sticks and pizza rolls and bagel bites.
"There you two are." Bennett walks down the aisle. "That's a lot of stuff."
I shrug.
"We're wolves," Sara says.
"Well I'm going to get another cart and fill it with all the alcohol necessities." He turns to leave.
"Make sure you get some strong stuff with some stronger stuff to mask the taste."
"Will do, Anna Banana." He leaves.
I turn to Sara. She has a brow raised. "What?"
"Are you planning to get wasted or something?"
"No." I move the cart to the next aisle.
We decide to meet Bennett by the car. After we purchased the food we loaded it into the car and waited.
I take a deep breath and ask the question that keeps passing my thoughts. "What's Dean up to Sara? What did he do to piss you off so much that'll you'll use his card like this?"
Sara doesn't look at me. Her eyes stay focused on the front doors for Bennett. At first I don't think I said it, or I wasn't heard, but then she takes and breath as the night wind whips past us, carrying a scent.
It's a wolf.
It's Daryl.
"Which one of us is being followed?"
Sara looks at me from the corner of her eye. It's almost like a glare but I soon recognize it to be pity. Anxiety fills my chest. My heart pounds and leaps to my throat.
"It's me isn't it?" She looks away and that's all I need. But I'm not sad, or disappointed. I'm not upset. The emotion that fills me is anger. And when Bennett comes out of the store I don't greet him with a smile or laugh. I get in the passenger side and slam the door. And I don't need my wolf ears to hear Sara clue Bennett in.
Nobody talks on the way home. There's tension in the air and when Sara pulls into the drive, I hop out before she turns off the car.
Dean laughs inside the house. There's someone else there, but that doesn't stop me. I open the front door, barely hearing Sara yell my name.
"Dean." I slam the front door.
All is silent as I walk to the living room. I don't recognize the wolf sitting on the couch, but she eyes me carefully.
"You're having me followed?"
Dean gives me a look that I can't quite read. His eyes dart to the woman sitting across from him as she stands. "Is this how you let your wolves talk to you?" She looks me up and down as she approaches.
Dean stands. A vein in his neck twitches. "She's different," he says.
A new surge of anger swells inside. He will not pull the half-breed card.
"Different how?" the woman asks.
I grit my teeth.
"She's the only one that can talk to me like that. We're childhood friends, but there's more to it than that." He takes a carful step, not because of me, because of himself. His wolf is millimeters from coming out. "She's also my mate." He sends me a look not to protest and I actually listen.
"Oh, I didn't realize you pursued the lead so soon. Well it's nice to meet you—"
"Anna," I say.
"I'm Jessica." She puts her hand out to shake. I shake it forcefully. "I'll let you two have your lovers quarrel."
I wait for the door to shut before turning back to Dean. "What the fuck, Dean. What have I done to deserve this? And your mate? What the hell does that even mean?"
"Don't you even start on me, Anna." He stands in front of me. "Don't you ever act like that while another alpha is around."
"Its not as if you told me she's be here. You don't tell me anything. Why am I being followed?"
"Why?" He sardonically laughs. "Just by asking that tells me that you should've always been followed." Dean takes a step back. I move closer to the wall. "Why do you know an East Wolf, Anna?" He slams his hand on the wall, blocking my path to the living room.
"How the hell do you know that?"
"Sara told me. Why didn't you?"
I clench my fist. "It's a harmless friendship, Dean. It's not like I'm meeting with Alexia secretly and exposing plans that you don't have. I only saw her once—"
"What?" I duck under his arm but he grabs my elbow, pulling me back and pinning me against the wall with his close proximity.
"You didn't let me finish. I was leaving Dairy Queen with the East Wolf and we ran into her. It's not like we weren't in her territory to begin with."
"Why did you keep that from me?" His voice is low, dangerous, but I'm only somewhat frightened.
"Because its unnecessary. All she did was say hurtful things, but it doesn't matter."
Dean pushes himself off the wall.
My heart beats erratically. His does too. It sounds as if its going to jump from his chest.
The adrenaline runs dry and I'm left trying to catch my breath. Dean stares at me, breathing heavily too.
"Why'd you tell Jessica I'm your mate?"
He pauses. "So she'd stop bugging me to be hers."
"What do we do now?" I cross my arms.
"We play the part."
"Well let's play the part of not talking to each other. Fuck you, Dean." I make sure to slam the door on my way out.