Date: 3-8-17
Chapter 44: Wolf Puns
Lucas is frozen as Lena's soft lips press onto his. Lucas has a fleeting thought that she deserves the title elemental angel.
Lena pulls away after only a moment, but that moment was good enough for Lucas.
Lucas feels a numb grin spread across his face. "What was that for?" Lucas asks in a daze.
"I hate seeing you sad." Lena admits as she removes her hands from his face. "I thought I could try and cheer you up." Lena adds a little quieter.
Lucas thinks back on what he was upset about. John was walking outside with Evie and Alisa. He told them he couldn't stand being there.
Lucas blinks and realizes Lena is looking at him with concern. Lucas pushes away his unhappy thoughts to let the joy he felt a minute ago come back.
"Thank you. But you can kiss me when I'm happy too." Lucas is surprised that he just said that, but Lucas keeps his gaze level so Lena doesn't notice.
Lena laughs lightly and it echoes in Lucas' head. Lena's laugh is nothing like Jerica's, and for that Lucas is grateful.
"I'll keep that in mind." Lena replies while casting her eyes to the ground. That's the first sign that Lucas has seen that Lena is nervous.
Lucas is debating whether to kiss Lena again. Lucas is feeling a pressure in his chest that he somehow knows will go away if she's closer to him.
But Mason ruins the plan by walking up to say hi, leaving Lucas with an ache in his heart.
"Hey Mason." Lena responds with no sign of disappointment. Either she's a good actor or she hadn't noticed what Lucas was feeling.
"Do you know what's going on with Adrian? I saw he called you over when he was talking with John." Lucas questions Mason, hoping to find out if Adrian's the reason John is mad at him.
Lucas could tell that John found out somehow about him and Mason because John has wolfsbane with him.
Lucas didn't even know about wolfsbane until he heard Adrian say that to Monique. Then Lucas looked it up. Adrian could've warned Lucas about an herb that's deadly to werewolves.
Speaking of Adrian, he could be the one who told John their secret. But why would Adrian do that when that would also expose him?
"Well, Adrian asked John if he knew about stalkers. John said no. Then Adrian asked about bipolar girls and explained the whole Ivie thing." Mason pauses when Lena jumps in.
"He told John? Why would he do that?" Lena demanded to know. Mason took a step away from Lena before continuing. Honestly, Mason is such a scaredy cat sometimes. Or should I say scaredy wolf?
"Adrian asked John for help! He asked him to do a spell to fix Ivie. But John said he couldn't because it uses dark magic." Mason rushed to explain. Lena is getting angry and Mason thinks it's directed at him.
Lucas can tell that Lena is just fed up with this situation. And Ivie just found out about all of this. Lucas wonders how Lena can be so strong when everything is falling apart? Is that an elemental angel thing or a Lena thing? Lucas would bet on Lena.
"How did Adrian even get John to fess up about his magic?" Lena questions Mason even though it's not very likely that Mason will have all of the answers.
"I don't know! They just suddenly started talking about magic. I guess John just stopped playing dumb." Mason answers as best as he can.
"Why did you guys say my name so many times?" Lucas flinched at Adrian's voice behind him.
Mason yelps like a kicked puppy and Lena jumps. Then she takes a deep breath to calm herself. Monique walks up and stands beside Adrian.
"Adrian. We were just trying to figure out what you were talking to John about." Lena says while taking the straight approach instead of gingerly going around the subject.
"Good answer." Adrian says seriously. Lena doesn't say anything because she knows what Adrian means. He can tell when people are lying.
"Hey! What's going on?" Jerica comes to stand next to Lena.
There's a clear separation between this group of people. Lucas is facing Adrian with Mason on one side of him and Lena on the other. Jerica stands slightly behind Lena, confused with what's going on. And Monique is standing bedside Adrian like his second in command.
Lucas wonders if it's bad for Adrian not to have followers or pack members, as werewolves would call it. Lucas still isn't used to the unsaid rules of being a werewolf, but he understands that it's important to have a pack standing with you to watch your back.
So how does Adrian get along without one? Is his sister really enough to help him?
That's what makes it click in Lucas' head. Adrian was technically recruiting John. That sounds like another pack member, even if John isn't a werewolf.
Besides, Lucas considers Lena and Jerica a part of the pack and they're not werewolves. Maybe everyone in a pack has to be supernatural?
Lucas stops contemplating this when he realizes Lena is explaining something to Jerica.
"We're trying to figure out what Adrian's been doing." Lena tells Jerica.
"Well yeah, he's a complicated person." Jerica says with a sly grin towards Adrian.
Lena rolls her eyes and turns away from Jerica. Lucas hopes that doesn't turn into another fight between them. It was upsetting to see Lena distraught over a fight she had with her best friend.
"Anyway, John is meeting us at your house at 9:30 tonight. I'm having him come earlier because Ivie decided she likes going out around 10 pm now." Adrian says playfully.
"How many times do we have to go over this? Ivie isn't doing this. Vine girl is. Ivie isn't vine girl. Vine girl isn't Ivie!" Lena snaps at Adrian, loud enough that a couple of people near give them weird looks.
Adrian holds up his hands in mock surrender. "Sorry. And not to change the subject but where is Ivie?"
"I don't know. Probably with her friends." Lena answers vaguely.
"And who are her friends?" Adrian asks, sounding annoyed.
"I'm not telling you so that you can go scare them off too! You already did that with John." Lena says viciously. Lucas is surprised at how fierce she suddenly got. Lucas knows Lena is strong, but wow...
"Actually, John left because he's afraid of Mason and Lucas." Adrian retorts smugly.
Lucas looks to the ground. He knew it. Lucas knew that John knew their secret. But was it Adrian who let the wolf out of the bag?
"What? Why? I mean, I know you can smell emotions but... Does he know about...?" Lena trails off so no one around them will understand what they're talking about if they hear the conversation.
"I assume so. Why else would he get so nervous when I called Mason over? And sneaking suspicious glances at both of them too." Adrian says with a shrug, like he's not hurting Lucas with every word.
Lucas can't believe John would stop being his friend because they accidentally became werewolves. Lucas wouldn't shut John out because he's a Spellcaster. Does John really believe Lucas is a monster?
"I scared John?" Mason questions suddenly. Everyone turns to stare at him blankly. "What?"
"Yes, you scare him." Adrian says in a bored tone. "Now let's get to your house to start the next part of my plan."
"Which is...?" Lucas asks Adrian with a "go on" hand gesture.
"Part 2 of my plan. Duh." Adrian grins and walks away.
Lucas lets out a huff of air in frustration. Lena puts a hand on Lucas' arm to calm him. She's not surprised with the muscle under her hand because Lucas plays football every year in school.
What shocks Lena is how hot Lucas feels. As in his body temperature. Her hand heats up in seconds. Lena lets her hand casually drop away. Lucas smiles gratefully at Lena for trying to calm him.
Lena concludes that the hotter temperature must be a werewolf thing. She decides to test it out on Adrian.
"Sorry guys. He's just grumpy sometimes, especially when he's stressed." Monique apologizes for Adrian.
"It's not your fault." Mason speaks up in defense of Monique.
"I'm going to grab a drink before we leave." Lena says before disappearing into the crowd.
Lena sees a glimpse of who she hopes is Adrian. When Lena finally catches up, she grabs the guy's arm. He turns and Lena sees it is Adrian. How embarrassing would it have been if it wasn't Adrian? Gosh...
"What?" Adrian asks as he quickly pulls his arm away possessively.
Lena notes that Adrian isn't as warm as Lucas was. Actually, Adrian feels a bit cold, like his eyes appear to be now. It must only be when a werewolf is angry that they're very warm. At least Lena knows now.
"Lucas might trust you if you stopped acting so arrogant. Or maybe just try to stop keeping things from him. He could live with the arrogant thing." Lena says with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Adrian takes a step closer until they're only a foot apart. Lena has no idea where that speech came from, but it's true so Adrian won't be suspicious.
"Did you just tell me what to do?" Adrian asks with a glint in his eyes.
Lena stands her ground, refusing to be afraid of Adrian. "No. I just told you how to gain trust and maybe a little respect. That is if you wanted help with your stalker problem."
Lena has gone out on a limb with that stalker thing. She only knew that Mason said Adrian mentioned it.
Adrian growled and stood up straighter, glaring down at Lena since he's at least an inch taller than her. "I don't have a stalker problem." Adrian replies, suddenly calm.
"See you later." Adrian steps away with a wink. Lena frowns as she watches Adrian confidently walking away. What changed his attitude?