The Werewolf Queen

by Brandi Elledge

  “You know what would help tone down the weird factor? If you would stop watching so many Disney movies. Just saying. But back to the original point, what exactly are you trying to get at, Jo?”

  Jo’s beautiful face turned into a scowl. “The majority of us are born with powers. Some, like your hot brother and me, have kick-butt powers, and some, like that conniving heifer Stacy, have mediocre powers, right?”

  I nodded. “She’s a wall-crawler. Seriously? How the hell is that helpful?”

  “Truth!” Then Jo’s face turned serious as she looked down at her boots. “I guess what I’m saying is, your powers are dormant… sleeping if you will. Quit worrying about why you haven’t come into your powers yet, just remember all good things come in time.”

  Of course, she knew that my non-existent powers were a thorn in my side. She probably saw a lot more than I wanted her to. “What do you mean, they’re sleeping? Jo, you obviously know something.”

  She glanced away from me. Damn her!

  “Sadie, you know if I tell you the things I’ve seen, I might alter your future. Set you on a different path. I can’t do that to you. All I can say is you are in for one hell of a ride and it begins tonight.”

  Then the chick had the audacity to wink at me. She started to get up from the table, and I grabbed her arm, pulling her roughly back down beside me. “Wait, that’s it? You can’t say something that dramatic and then just saunter off. Come on. Seriously?”

  At the touch of my hand on her arm, her eyes glazed over as she stared off into space like she had done since we were kids, and I knew she was seeing something I couldn’t. I waved a hand in front of her face. “Hello. Come back to earth.”

  She finally shook herself out of whatever vision she just had. “Sorry, where were we?” She tapped her chin lightly. “Oh, yeah. Happy Birthday. My early present to you is when in doubt, turn left. No joke. Don’t hesitate. When you get to that moment when you’re like, ‘Which way do I go?’ just remember your sweet, intelligent, and way above average ride-or-die home girl told you to go freaking left.”

  I was still processing her words when she jumped up from the table, making sure to evade me this time. I yelled at her retreating back, “Directions? That’s what you give me? I held your hair for hours the night you lost the battle with Tennessee whiskey, and this is what I get. Freaking directions!”

  She held up her middle finger as she continued out of the lunchroom.

  Once I realized that was all I was going to get out of her, I stood up and stretched before heading down the hall towards my next class. I walked in and dropped my bag right next to Jo.

  “Seriously, we have almost every class together. It’s not like you can escape me.”

  In typical Jo fashion, she changed the subject. “There is poor Michael. That boy has been in love with you since day one.” I looked over at Michael and his small group of friends filing in. “Why haven’t you given him a shot? Or any of the guys here for that matter?”

  “Oh, wait. Is this where we pretend that you don’t know the answer to that question?” At her death glare, I laughed. “So touchy today. Hmm. Let’s see, first there isn’t that much to choose from, and second, even though Michael is cute, he isn’t…”

  Jo’s eyebrows arched. “Swoon-worthy? A pulse-racer? A panty-dropper?”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  Jo nodded. “I agree. You should wait for your soulmate.” “You’re ridiculous. There is no such thing as a soulmate.”

  I thought of something I had been wanting to ask her for some time. “Can you see your future?”

  She gnawed on her bottom lip, coated with a dark purple lipstick. “I don’t get to pick and choose what I get to see, and for some reason, I don’t get that much about my future.”

  “Guess that puts us on level ground, huh?”

  Michael chose the seat right in front of me. He was cute with his cropped blond hair and brown eyes but positively not swoon-worthy. “Hey, ladies.”

  Aww and such a gentleman. “Hey, Michael. How’s it going?”

  “Good.” He took his books out of his bag. “I’m so excited for your party tonight.”

  I almost groaned. I forgot about the birthday party Jo was throwing me. “Yep, it’s going to be a killer.”

  “So, I was wondering if—”

  A loud clapping sound had Michael turning in his seat to face forward.

  “Class, please don’t think just because this is the last week of school, you can goof off. Turn to page three hundred and twenty-three and start studying. There will be a quiz on this passage tomorrow,” Mrs. Jennings, our short, plump literature teacher said.

  I had never liked that woman until right now. She helped me dodge a bullet in the form of Michael, and because of that, this one time, I would do what she asked without giving her too much lip.

  I started reading the passage, but my mind drifted back to what Mr. Boring had said about the keys. Two hours ago, I’d been thinking about graduating and maybe seeing the world, or at least a small part of it. I’d always wanted to go on an adventure, and I’d never really paid attention to when the grown-ups talked about an upcoming battle that never seemed to be close. In my mind, it was something that would never reach us, but from the way Mr. Borrow talked, it could destroy all of us. If powerful supernatural kings and queens couldn’t keep the keys safe, then there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

  Chapter Three

  Jo and I shared rent on a two-bedroom trailer on the outskirts of town. We were roomies for many reasons. Jo was an orphan by the time she was three years old, and I, unfortunately, never had the chance to meet my mom, but Jo and I had heard stories of our moms. They had been best friends since they were little girls just like us. When Jo had nowhere else to go, my grandmother didn’t hesitate to take the toddler into her home. My dad was a heartbroken widower trying to cope with raising two children on his own, or he would have taken Jo in himself. Regardless, we grew up like sisters, instead of friends. Over the years, we noticed the older Jo got, the more visions she experienced. At the age of sixteen, it got to be too much for her to live in town, where she might accidentally bump into someone. She’d begged my grandmother to let her live in the country, so of course, I’d begged my dad to let me move in with her. Living in a supernatural community, no one batted an eye at two sixteen-year-old girls moving into the country to live by themselves.

  To get to our place, you drove about twenty minutes from town, and then you just kept driving until you felt like you couldn’t drive anymore. Then you took a couple right turns and bam; there was our seen-better-days pink trailer. Jo said our home put the trash in trailer. I thought it was homey with its white shutters, and our porch that was almost bigger than the trailer. I planted all kinds of different perennials around the trailer to cover the ugly underpinning. I tried to tell her it wasn’t what you got, but how you kept it, but she just bounced her eyes at me, as if she wasn’t buying what I was selling. Heifer.

  What Jo did appreciate was that mentally she had been in a better state since we’d moved to the middle of nowhere. No one lived on Sugar Mountain but us. The visions still came, but not like they did when she was around the constant hum of others. One would think being around other supernaturals she would fit in, but that wasn’t the case. She had been picked on since she was little by people who made Timmy look like chump change. Since she was old enough to talk, she started freaking people out with her power to see the future, especially when what most people assumed were ramblings turned into premonitions. No one liked knowing their affairs or misdeeds would be known to Jo, and unfortunately, when she was little, she had no filter. Come to think of it… she had no filter now. Over the years, she had become something of a recluse and being her bestie, I’d decided that her enemies were my enemies. Screw them.

  I’d always thought her powers were freaking amazeballs, but she strongly disagreed with my sentiment. Jo swore knowing what would happen before it did
was nothing but a burden. We seemed to balance each other out. I was always griping about my non-existing powers, and she was always jealous of my quiet mind, as she called it. In my defense, it was hard not to complain. Coming from a family of powerful supes, every single one of them had some nifty trick up their sleeve. My brother had several powers, the coolest, in my opinion, was that he could teleport. Well, the coolest power of his that I knew about. He was so weird when it came to talking about his powers.

  Our father could read minds. Talk about a power that came back to bite me more times than once. Me and my brother never got away with anything. My sweet mama, God rest her soul, had the gift of healing. When my mom was seven months pregnant, she was in a terrible accident. Someone ran her off the road, causing her car to flip off of a small bridge. After she pulled herself out of the car, she immediately went into labor. I was born very weak an hour later, and she knew I wasn’t going to survive. My mom, in a blind panic, healed me with everything she had, saving nothing for her own internal injuries. At that moment, she had chosen me over herself. No one talked about her because it always sent dad into a tailspin of depression. Even as a child, if I ever just wondered about her, I could tell it upset dad. Once I got older, I learned not to project my thoughts so loudly, where he wasn’t picking up everything running through my head.

  Missing my mom wasn’t the only thing I was depressed about. It was sometimes tiring to grow up around my family and a best friend who had amazing, vast powers, and I was over here with what—the title of Scrabble champion? They had never looked down on me, but I couldn’t help but feel like an outsider. A dud. Honestly, at this point, I would take whatever power came my way as long as it came. Even if it was something lame like that hoochie Stacy’s powers. Then again, I didn’t know about that. Wallcrawler! How freaking lame.

  As soon as I entered my bedroom, I picked up the silver-handled bristle brush off my dresser that had belonged to my mother. It was one of the few things I had of hers, along with a small picture I kept beside the antique brush. It was my little shrine to a woman who I didn’t remember but wished that I could. I ran a finger over the frame, studying my mother’s image. Her eyes were a brilliant green the color of grass. She had high cheekbones and full, ruby red lips slightly turned up at the corners like she had a juicy secret, but she would never tell. Dad said I was the spitting image of her, except she had honey blonde hair, whereas mine was white as snow. I placed the hairbrush back on the dresser with one last touch. When I got a little down and out, holidays or birthdays like today, that was when I missed her the most. Maybe something fantastic would happen tonight.

  According to my own personal psychic, who didn’t cost me $4.99 a minute and was a helluva lot more accurate, tonight was going to be one hell of a ride. I walked towards my tiny closet with excitement. Might as well dress to impress. I grabbed one of my favorite summer dresses that was the same color as my eyes, jade green. Plus, it was short and sexy.

  A pain hit my stomach, making me bend over. The dress fell from my hands as my head started spinning.

  What was happening? Trying to make it to my bed, I stumbled over the rug on the floor of my bedroom. Good lord, why was this trailer so hot? I could barely breathe. Everything blurred. I lay there for a while trying to get my bearings.

  How much time had passed? Minutes? Hours? At some point, I saw a panicked Jo keeling beside me on the floor where I had collapsed. Her mouth was moving, but I had no clue what she was saying. The moment her hand grabbed mine, something happened to me that had never happened before.

  Chapter Four

  Jo held my hand as I witnessed a scene. She was the one who had visions, not me. How I was privy to something that had happened in the past was beyond me. How did I even know that it was in the past? Maybe I was having a seizure of some sort and was hallucinating. Two young men began to speak to one another, and I squeezed Jo’s hand with what little strength I had. Did she see this, too?

  “Brother, I have just been informed by the pack’s soothsayer that the one who will help you find the key to win the war will be coming into her powers soon.”

  A man, who appeared around twenty, grabbed the back of the office chair with enough pressure to bend the metal under his bare hands. His coal black hair curled a little at the ends. His aquamarine eyes met his brother’s dark blue ones over a large conference table in some sort of office.

  They were brothers? Two brothers never looked more different. Both were more than six feet tall with mouth-watering physiques. But that was where the similarities ended. The blond was almost beautiful with his fair hair, blue eyes, and angelic face. He gave the impression he could be trusted. There was something about him that made me want to smile. The other one was ruggedly handsome with his disheveled black hair and five o’clock shadow on his strong, square jaw. He was the most attractive man I’d ever seen, and yet there was something about him—something dark and dominant that should have made me feel afraid, but instead I felt intrigued.

  I knew I wasn’t just witnessing a scene, but I was gaining knowledge. Even though this dark stranger was extremely young, he was a leader over something. I didn’t know how I knew that.

  The tall, dark, and hot stranger glanced over at his brother. “Jamison, Ariana is positive that the help we need is awakening soon?”

  Jamison’s easy smile turned into a full-blown grin. “Yes. She is positive, and she is adamant that you be the one to go on the mission, or the key will slip through our fingers.” The dark stranger released the chair and walked over to the wet bar. He poured himself two fingers of Johnny Black. Jamison sat down in one of the chairs and threw his feet onto the large mahogany table. “So, Brother, what is the plan?”

  The young man set his now empty glass down. “The plan is to win this war no matter what, and if the soothsayer says we must have this creature, then we will take him or her. Are you in, James?”

  Jamison stood up slowly, with a rakish smile on his face. “Are you kidding? I would not miss this adventure for the world.” The blond angel wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “I’ve been preparing for the trip to the coast since Ariana called.”

  Ariana must be the soothsayer. Everything was connecting.

  The dark stranger regarded his younger brother with pure disgust. “You are way too happy. You must know something I don’t.”

  Jamison laughed. “Don’t be so paranoid.”

  The handsome boy shook his head. “I cannot believe we are related.” To be fair, it was hard for me to believe it, too.

  There was something about him—maybe it was in the way he moved, but I felt a magnetic pull to him. Michael might not have been swoon-worthy, but this boy didn’t have that problem. Forget swooning. With one of his smoldering looks, a girl could pass the hell out.

  Both boys grabbed their expensive looking coats and went to a private plane, heading to a destination that had a key. Whether they were Lux or Degenerates, I couldn’t be certain.

  Chapter Five

  Sweat poured off of me, and I couldn’t decide if I was hot or cold. I felt someone gently shaking me, but I was so exhausted I just wanted to sleep forever. Why wouldn’t they leave me alone?

  “Baby, wake up.”

  I tried to roll over, but I hurt everywhere. “Dad, is that you? Just give me five more minutes.” I felt the edge of my twin bed dip dangerously low with an added weight. I pried my eyes open. “I think I ate something bad. I don’t feel so good.”

  His eyes roamed over me in concern. “Jo came and got me from the shop as soon as your body quit shaking. She knew you were going to be okay, but she was still scared.”

  “What exactly happened to me? Do you think it’s viral? Some kind of stomach bug.” I attempted to push him away from me. “Maybe you shouldn’t be sitting so close to me.”

  “Since when have I ever got sick?”

  True. I had never seen him or my brother sick. I studied my dad. My hero. He was a big man, with thinning blond hair and warm brown ey
es filled with concern and something else.

  “Sweetheart, there is something that I want to talk to you about. I’ve been waiting until the time is right, and according to your friend, the time is now. On a side note, that girl’s manners are atrocious.”

  I didn’t have the energy to laugh, but I did pat his beefy hand. “Dad, you know just as good as me that you wouldn’t change Jo for anything in the world. You love her like a daughter.”

  He snorted. “That might be true, but her running into my shop and screaming in front of customers, ‘Oh, big daddy, shit just got real, yo’, did make me want to strangle her.”

  That was fair. I groaned as I tried to sit up. Dad owned a mechanic shop right in the middle of town. I could see he was still in his work clothes, covered with grease and looking more than a little frazzled around the edges.

  “Sorry that she got you from work, Dad.”

  Dad squeezed my hand before clearing his throat. “Sadie, I know that we don’t talk a lot about your mama.” He took a couple of seconds to control the emotions leaking from his voice. “But you know that she was best friends with Jo’s mom, and they had talked about the baby she carried—you. Your mama trusted that woman just as you trust Jo and because of that, she said I would never have to worry about you when your powers came to you, but you’re my baby, and it’s my right to worry. No matter how old you get, you’re still my baby.” He ran a huge, calloused hand over his tired face. “That’s why tomorrow morning, I want you to immediately start training with your brother to learn how to use your powers. His flight was delayed, or he would have been here for your party.”

  Wait! What powers? “But I’m a dud.”

  Dad chuckled. “My darling girl, even if you had no powers, you could never be a dud. Shoot, you’ve had me wrapped around your pinky since you were a babe.” He laid an envelope on my bed and stood to walk out of my bedroom. I picked up the creamy envelope and just stared at it. Dad’s voice trembled with emotion when he said from the doorway, “I’ve got to go get cleaned up for the birthday girl’s big party tonight. Go ahead and open it up. If you have any questions, we can talk after your party.”