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"Underneath the skin there's a human,
Buried deep within there's a human,
Despite everything I'm still human."
Human - Daughter
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I.
\\ THE NEW ARRIVAL //
A quiet yawn escaped Aden's lips as she awoke from her deep slumber. Her eyes flickered opened and she found herself lying on the ground, right across from her foster parents who had just woken up as well.
She picked her head up tiredly, propping herself up on her elbows, rubbing her eyes.
Ugh, last night was rough. She grimaced to herself.
"Morning Aden."
Looking over, Aden saw her foster mom, Emma yawning as her foster father, Daniel helped her up to her feet.
Aden smiled, stretching out her limbs tiredly, "Good morning."
It was then she heard Maddy coming down the stairs and as Aden got up onto my feet, Maddy had opened the door.
"Morning, Mads." She yawned as she walked over and then slid past her.
Aden knew she had about fifteen minutes to get ready for school and she was incredibly tired after that night she'd had. Like most Wolfbloods, some full moons were worse than others for her. One night she could wake up the next day feeling energized from the night before, and another she could feel completely drained.
"I can't believe you guys." Aden heard Maddy say, "Breaking out and raiding the bins."
However, Aden kept on up the stairs until she was in her room. She was not up to a lecture early in the morning about breaking out of the cellar. Maddy didn't understand the pull of the moon and last night, it was one of the most energized moons Aden had felt and her wolf self used every bit of that energy. Although, Aden was grateful that Maddy found them before Aden had a chance to nose in those bins...if she didn't, Aden would probably feel as sick as Daniel was feeling that morning.
Quickly, Aden changed into her uniform, fixed up her make-up and brushed her hair and teeth. She slipped on her boots and grabbed her jacket before rushing back down the stairs. Maddy and her parents were still in discussion but Aden kept towards the door.
"Come on, Maddy." Aden said, heading out the door, "We're gonna be late!"
☽ ☽ ☽
As Maddy and Aden made their way towards the school entrance, Aden let out another yawn...mentally noting that today would probably a 'nap during history class' day for her. If she was lucky, their history teacher would put on a film instead of teaching, which happened a lot actually, and then Aden could easily fall asleep without being bothered.
"What happened to your shoes?"
Maddy and her looked over to see Tom looking down at Maddy's shoes, joining them at their sides as we walked.
Aden looked down at Maddy's feet herself and when Aden saw she had on a pair of rain boots that were an ugly shade of green, she remembered Maddy losing one of her shoes when trying to coral them back in the den last night.
"A werewolf ate them." Maddy smirked at Tom, "Didn't you see the full moon last night?"
Aden chuckled, "They are known to run rampant during the full moons."
Maddy gave Aden a playful look, knowing Tom would never catch on that what they were saying was actually true. Tom was one of Aden's only friends besides Shannon. When Aden first came to Stoneybridge, Maddy introduced her to her friends and they kind of just accepted Aden into their circle right away, no questions asked.
"Don't you lot start too." Tom said, "I've already had all this from- Oh! Shannon!"
"Maddy! Aden!"
Both of them turned around to see Shannon making her way over with an excited look on her face.
"Did you hear it last night on the moors?" Shan asked them, "Howling. And here, look what I found on Dreamers Lane this morning."
Maddy and Aden gave each other a look, curious as to what she was talking about. Shan had been on and on about a beast of the moors since before Aden first arrived here. She was relentless about it.
Shannon handed Maddy her phone and Aden looked at it, seeing a picture of paw print in the mud.
Aden's lips parted.
That's impossible. Aden thought to herself, Neither Maddy's parents nor I were anywhere near Dreamers Lane last night.
At least not that Aden could remember.
"I'm going to compare it to different breeds of dogs." Shannon told them.
Maddy looked at Aden with the look she always gave when Shannon started going on about the whole "monster on the moors" thing. It was subtle, so Shan and Tom didn't catch on, but Aden could see it in her eyes. Maddy always had that concern look when Shan would bring it up.
"What, every type of dog?" Tom said in disbelief.
But Shannon sighed and held her phone up to him, "This is proof, Tom. Proof that there is something weird. Something out there on the moors."
"Hey Shan!" Aden heard someone call, "I saw something weird on the moors last night. You."
Aden turned around to see the three K's approaching them - Kay, Kara, and Katrina. Of course it was them. The three popular girls who thought that they were God's gift to mankind.
"Don't you three have some fake eye lashes to put on or something?" Aden crossed her arms over my chest.
"Don't need them," Kay smirked, "You, however, can use all the help you can get."
She rolled her eyes as they kept walking until they finally disappeared out of sight and into school.
"Well, I'll catch you guys up before first period, yeah?" Aden told them, "I have a meeting with Mrs. Westly to discuss my English revision."
Shan and Tom nodded, uttering some okays and she gave them a wave as she turned around and started towards the main building.
"See you in a bit, Ade." Maddy called after her.
And with that, Aden let out a sigh as she walked into the school, already ready for the day to be over.
☽ ☽ ☽
After her meeting with her English teacher, that actually went better than expected, followed by an hour and fifteen minutes of her first class, and an hour and a half of her second class, Aden had made her way down the hall, looking for her friends since they had their next class together.
After a little while roaming the hallway, Aden found them gathered around the wall where they had hung one of their Photography Club sign-up sheets. They looked to Aden like they were having a serious talk when she caught up with them.
"What's with the long faces?" She asked as she approached them.
Maddy sighed as she handed Aden the Photography Club sign up sheet. She looked down at it to see all the names were completely bogus. Rolling her eyes, Aden had a good idea of who would have done it.
"We have until tomorrow to find three new members or Jeffries is going to shut us down." She told me.
Frowning, Aden looked down at the sign-up sheet, looking over it before looking back up to her friends. He can't shut down the Photography club...it was the only school sanctioned thing here that she actually enjoyed.
"Don't worry guys." Aden said assuringly, "We'll think of something..."
But Aden drifted off when suddenly, she was over powered by a strong scent that lingered through the air. Her lips parted, recognizing the smell right away...but she was in disbelief.
"Maddy," Her eyebrows furrowed as she whispered under her breath, "D'you smell that?"
She looked at Aden with wide eyes, answering that question for her.
A Wolfblood.
Without another moment of hesitation, both of them took off in the direction of the scent.
"Ad? Mads?" Tom called after them.
Sharon yelled, "Where are you going?!"
But neither Maddy nor Aden even looked back to their friends, as they burst through the double doors, following the scent into the stairwell.
They started down the stairs but when they rounded the corner to climb down another set of stairs, a group of students were making their way up, causing the scent to disappear as it mixed with theirs.
Aden's eyebrows furrowed as she looked down the hall.
That was really strange.
"Mads? Aden, what are you guys doing?" Tom caught up to them, "It's time for class."
Aden looked at Maddy, who had the same disappointed look in her eyes, and she let out a defeated sigh.
"What's going on?" Tom pressed.
"Nothing," Aden assured him, "Just thought I forgot something in my locker for a moment but I'm good. Let's go."
Tom nodded, satisfied with her answer. She looked back at Mads who still had that disappointed look plastered on her face and offered her an assuring smile as well, nodding her head for Maddy to come along. Aden made sure she knew that they'd talk about it later.
So, they all trudged off to Mr. Jeffries' class, grudgingly of course. It was a Monday and his class was the last class they had before lunch.
Aden filed in behind Maddy as they made their way into the classroom and she took my usual seat beside Mads, behind Tom. Setting my bag down on my desk and started sifting through it to take out my notebook and pen.
"Class, this is Rhydian Morris who, I am guessing, is from Wales." Mr. Jeffries voice suddenly echoed throughout the class.
Aden looked up from her desk and her mouth parted slightly as they landed on the boy in front of the classroom.
Not only did Aden get human butterflies in her stomach but even more, her wolf picked up the sent that she had smelled earlier and practically wanted to rush her forward, but she suppressed it with everything she had.
He was a Wolfblood. Aden realized.
"No," the boy replied, as if offended.
Everyone in the class suddenly started laughing but Aden was too in shock to mind it much.
"No?" Mr. Jeffries repeated, "Ok, he's not from Wales, ok. Sue me."
She managed to tear her eyes away from him and look over at Maddy, standing on her feet, who already looking at her with a look she couldn't quite decipher.
Everyone in the class was making annoying sheep sounds by then and both Maddy and Aden looked back to the boy, unsure and thrown off.
"Quiet everyone," Mr. Jeffries talked over the class.
The whole class seemed to pipe down as Aden continued to look at the boy, in disbelief that he was like her. It had been a long time since she'd had seen another Wolfblood besides Maddy and her family and Aden couldn't say she wasn't intrigued.
All the sudden, Maddy spoke up, "You smell like my parents."
Aden's eyes widened as she looked at her, harshly whispering, "Maddy!"
Everyone started laughed again and Aden looked back up to Rhydian, who was glaring at Maddy with his jaw locked.
"Maddy, sit down." Mr. Jeffries scolded, "Rhydian, you too."
There were more sheep sounds, that Aden would usually snap at, followed by Mr. Jeffries ordering the class to quite once again...but any sounds seemed to kind of faded away as she watched Rhydian walk to the back of the class and take a seat. He was glaring at Maddy for a while but when he felt Aden's eyes on him, he suddenly looked at her straight on, his lips parting ever so slightly.
She bit her bottom lip and looked away quickly, trying to focus on not looking back at him any more during class.
Aden's eyes caught Maddy, who was looking at her. She could see it in Maddy's eyes just exactly what she was saying. She and Aden both wanted answers.
So Aden nodded slightly, whispering so only she could hear, "After class."
Satisfied, Maddy nodded and they both tried their very best to pay attention to what Mr. Jefferies was saying. But with a strange Wolfblood in town, Aden knew that it was going to be impossible for her to hear anything the teacher was saying over her heart pounding in her chest.
☽ ☽ ☽
It felt like years before class was over and the bell finally rang. Maddy and Aden raced after Rhydian as soon as class was over, following him until they were once again in the stairwell. They knew they had to be careful, they had no idea what this Wolfblood's motives were and what he was capable of doing. So they treaded with caution, until they cornered him on one of the levels of the stairs.
"What are you doing here?" Maddy approached him first.
Her tone was challenging, trying to assert herself over him.
"What?" Rhydian looked at her, slightly confused but mostly annoyed, "I'm looking for the canteen-"
"Not here," Aden interrupted him, "On our territory. Don't you know the rules?"
Any Wolfblood should know that if a territory is already claimed by a pack, they cannot stay unless granted permission by that pack. And Aden was sure Maddy's parents didn't have any intentions of sharing their territory with a Wolfblood pack they knew nothing about.
"You can't stay here," Maddy told him, "If my mom and dad get a sniff of you-"
"-I don't even know you two," He looked between them.
"Exactly." Mads pointed out.
Aden watched as the boy in front of her looked genuinely taken back. Something wasn't completely right...and Aden started to wonder if there was more to this than she initially thought.
But Rhydian's eyebrows furrowed, "I don't care who's territory this is. I'm not sticking around anyways. I mean, why would I, in this dump? But no smelly girls are going to tell me when to stay or go."
And with that, he stormed off leaving Maddy and her alone on the stairwell. Aden was puzzled, considering he seemed like he knew nothing of Wolfbloods or what Maddy and her were talking about. Either that or he was a really good liar.
"Maddy, I don't think he's like other Wolfblood's I've met." Aden told her, "He doesn't seem to know."
"Or he's fooling ya and pretending he don't know?" She said angrily, "Aren't you worried? Him being here is dangerous."
"I am worried, Mads," She told her, "But we don't know much right now. Maybe everything isn't what it seems, yeah? We'll figure this out, I promise, but we have to keep our heads."
She sighed, "Fine, let's go. I'm starving."
Aden nodded, grabbing her arm in hers and walking beside her as we started making their way to the lunch room.
"Do you think I smell?" Aden asked Maddy jokingly.
"No," she shook her head, "Do I?"
They both laughed and as their laughter echoed through the halls, they playfully nudged each other, goofing around as they headed to the canteen.
☽ ☽ ☽
Lunch was a little eventful...Tom tried to go up to Rhydian to see if he had any interest in playing football, but Rhydian just snapped at him, giving Maddy and Aden a look before continuing whatever it was he was drawing.
But Aden tried to not focus on any of it until after her next class when she had free period with Tom, Shan, and Maddy. They almost always spent free period in the dark room and that day no different.
"Alright, we need three new members by tomorrow." Maddy reminded them.
Leaning back in her seat, Aden made a suggestion, "Are there any events going on today? Where we could recruit some members?"
Shannon gasped, standing up excitedly, "Mrs. Parrish's badger stake out!"
Shannon then walked to the door and they stood up and followed her as she lead them over to the bulletin board where sign-up sheets for various things were hung.
"It's open to anyone," She told them, "But it's part of the year seven's syllabus, so year sevens have to go."
"Shan, you're a genius!" Maddy said, "If we give out all the club cameras, I bet we'll get three new members by tomorrow."
"Alright, then it's settled." Shannon smiled, "We should start packing the cameras after last period."
"Oh, I have one of them in my locker that I took home this weekend." Aden told them, "I'll grab it and catch up with you guys after class."
"Alrighty."
"See you, Ade."
☽ ☽ ☽
Once they made their way down the hall, Aden walked across to where her locker was, putting in the combination and opening it. Seeing her camera bag sitting on the top shelf, she went to grab it when she stopped suddenly after she picked up that same scent from earlier. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rhydian opening his locker across the hallway. Her mind was still swarming with questions about this strange Wolfblood. She couldn't help but wonder where he was from and where the rest of his pack was.
But Aden sighed as she knew he could also be a threat to her pack. To the people she cared about. She was finally somewhere safe...and never thought she would run into another Wolfblood again.
What am I supposed to do?
Aden asked herself this as she looked over from her locker to see Jimi and his buddies laughing at Rhydian.
"I thought I smelt something funny," Liam chuckled.
Aden's eyebrows furrowed as she looked and saw Rhydian pulling out a leek stalk out of his locker.
"Is that your lunch, Welshy?" Jimi mocked him.
Rhydian turned and looked at them, his hands clenched at his side, "I'm not even Welsh."
She swallowed a lump in her throat as she heard Rhydian's heart starting to pick up in pace.
He wouldn't wolf out in school, would he? She nervously stood.
But everything started turning worse when Rhydian threw the leek and it hit Jimi in the back. Aden watched wearily as he stopped, his fists clenching at his sides as well as he turned around and glared at Rhydian.
He stormed over, pushing Rhydian, "You got a problem, leek boy?!"
But Aden's eyes widened when Rhydian grabbed him, jumping up and slamming Jimi on the ground. Rhydian started growling at him and Aden's heart began to pound in her chest when she saw the veins in Rhydian's hands starting to turn black.
Just as Aden rushed over, Rhydian stood up suddenly, looking down at his hands as if he was shocked at what was happening.
"What on earth is going on?!" Jeffries voice boomed from down the hallway.
Dammit. Aden cursed to herself.
"Come on!" She grabbed Rhydian from behind and dragged him towards the dark room and closed the door.
Hoping no one had seen them go inside, she locked it and looked back frantically at Rhydian, knowing what was about to happen.
"What are you doing?" He looked around frightfully.
She could hear his heart beating loudly in his chest. He was right on the brink of transforming.
"It's alright," Aden said in a calm voice, trying to soothe him, "Just breathe."
"Get out!" He yelled, "You have to get out!"
He stumbled backwards, knocking a bunch of things off the shelves. She watched as he fell to the floor and the shelf landed on top of him.
"Argh!" He yelled as she swallowed a lump in her throat the size of a baseball.
Aden slowly walked towards him as he pushed the shelf off of his body and got himself up onto his hands and knees.
It was then, he looked up at her, he veins blackened on his hands and his neck. His gums had also blackened and he was panting, trying to fight a battle he couldn't win.
"I'm so sorry," Rhydian looked up at her as his eyes started glowing yellow.
From there, it only took a few seconds before he wolfed out. Before she knew it, Aden was face to face with his sandy colored wolf-self. Immediately, his wolf growled at her, feeling threatened. And rightfully so, considering he was trapped in a small room with with a girl he didn't even know and no way to get out.
"Rhydian?" Aden said slowly, holding her hand out a little in front of her and making slow movements, "It's okay, you're okay."
She took a tiny step forward but Rhydian suddenly bolted, running all around the room, knocking things over left and right, running on top of all the desks.
"Rhydian!" She yelled in a challenging tone.
The wolf suddenly stopped and faced her, growling and snarling, again feeling threatened especially since she had just challenged him.
Aden kept her hand out in front of her and stood there, looking into the wolf eyes of Rhydian. She took two small steps forward and as she did, Aden brought her hand closer and closer to the ground until she was on her knees and her hand was inches above the floor.
Aden let herself give in and her eyes changed into their glowing yellow as she slowly picked her head up and looked at Rhydian.
Immediately, the growling stopped, as if he now finally realized she wasn't a threat and that there was no danger to him there. He sat down on the ground, looking at her with almost guilty eyes.
"Rhydian," Aden said softly, "You have to change back before someone sees you, yeah? Can you do that?"
In response, he dropped his head, and after a few moments, Aden watched as he shifted back into his human-self. She stood up, letting out a sigh of relief.
"I knew there was something about you and that other girl." Rhydian said as she started picking up all the stuff he knocked over.
Shan and Tom were so going to kill Aden for the mess. They loved the dark room and now it's completely trashed.
"It's true, isn't it? You...you're like me!" Rhydian said excitedly, "You're like me!"
Aden stopped picking things up and sighed. She wanted to be happy but she was more angry than anything. Irritated. Rhydian had acted like a complete cub out in the hall, not like a wolf with any kind of common sense.
"What the hell was that out there?" Ade looked at him, "You pick fights and almost wolf out in public?! Are you trying to get us exposed? What a stupid, stupid thing to do."
His face fell, his eyes softening at her words.
"I..." Rhydian said, "I didn't mean to lose control."
"What you did out there makes you a danger to my pack," Aden said lowly, "This is Maddy's territory, so you and your pack need to leave before people start getting hurt-"
"-I don't..." Rhydian swallowed, "I don't have a pack."
That made her stiffen, and her lips parted. He couldn't be a lone wolf...
But that would explain how he didn't know that there were other Wolfbloods out there besides himself...or how he didn't know that he was invading their territory.
"You...you don't?" She looked up at him, "What about your parents?"
"Don't have any." he admitted, "I'm in foster care."
Aden's eyes softened at this, knowing fully well what not having parents was like. And looking at him, he had the same lost look that she'd had when she first came here.
"I...I'm sorry," She said sympathetically.
But Rhydian brushed it off, changing the subject, "I just got transferred here. I didn't even know there were other's like me, let alone a whole pack."
She stood there for a moment, trying to process it all and sighed, not knowing what to do. Rhydian didn't intentionally invade their territory. He didn't even know there were other Wolfbloods out there. He was alone. She couldn't just let him get kicked out when he had nothing else and no where to go.
"Okay...let me talk to Maddy's parents." She told him, "You don't have to leave. You could stick around and i'll convince Maddy's parents that you're not a threat. We could even teach you a few things, if you'd like."
But Rhydian shifted his weigh uncomfortably, "Thanks for the offer but-"
"Just think about it," Aden said, "This place really isn't that bad."
He still seemed unconvinced. She could tell he didn't trust her even remotely. Understandably so.
"Why don't you meet me after school and we can take a run through the woods, yeah?" Aden suggested.
He didn't say anything, looking at her unsurely, so with that, she offered him a smile and then turned to leave. She had a good feeling that he'd show. He had just discovered there were other Wolfbloods out there. The curiosity would make it extremely difficult to turn away.
"Wait," Rhydian's voice stopped her in her tracks, "I never got your name."
She looked back at him and smiled, taking that as his answer to meeting her later for a run.
"It's Aden."
He smiled a little and then she turned, leaving the room without another word to head to her next class, thinking about quite the day it had been.
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"Woken up like an animal,
teeth ready for sinking."