The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1)

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  Logan could feel her anxiety. It flowed in waves off of her. He glanced down and saw her nose and cheeks grow red with impending tears. When they reached his locker just outside of Ben’ classroom to put the helmets away, he looked to her again. She was raking her hair down to frame around her face in an attempt to hide it.

  He shook his head ruefully. “Just ignore them. Don’t worry about it.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. It’s a little harder for me,” Katey whispered back, her voice a little choked.

  “Would it help if I told you what they were talking about?”

  Katey scoffed. “Oh, I know what they’re talking about.”

  “No, you don’t. I do.”

  “What, then?”

  Logan gazed down at her as he told her the honest to God truth. “They think you slept with me over the weekend. The girls are jealous and the guys were checking you out. I heard one guy make a comment that I didn’t quite understand. He said something about ‘tapping that’.”

  Katey’s jaw dropped and her hand shot up to cover her gaping mouth. “What?” she gasped.

  “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Logan asked with a tilt of his head.

  Katey hardly knew how to answer to that. She took a shaky breath and looking around at a group of guys down the hall that were staring at her with leering eyes. She turned back to Logan and shook her head. “You’re lying.”

  “Katey, I swear to you, I’m not lying.” He glanced up to the guys that she had taken notice of. They saw that they had been spotted and quickly dispersed, muttering something about getting their butts whooped for checking out ‘his girl’.

  He looked back to Katey and saw that she was standing up a bit straighter and looped some of her hair behind her ear to reveal a little more of her face. He smlied at the change in attitude, but was disappointed that she cared so much about other people’s opinions of her.

  “It doesn’t seem to bother you that the school thinks we’re sleeping together?” Logan whispered to her as they strode into Ben’ room.

  Katey raised her chin a bit higher, walking with more confidence and surety. “Of course that bothers me, because it’s not true,” she replied as they stepped into the classroom and shuffled to their seats. “But in this decade, it’s not completely a bad thing.”

  Logan gave her an ambiguous look. “Really?”

  “Yeah,” Katey replied as she pulled out her supplies for the test. “Almost everyone is having sex nowadays in high school. I don’t think it’s a thing that makes you cool or uncool, it’s just kind of a given thing. Unless you sleep around with a lot of guys, then you’re a slut.”

  “And what if a guy sleeps around with a lot of girls?” he asked.

  “Then they’re a player,” she stated matter-of-factly.

  Logan peered at her curiously as he turned around in his desk, but thought better to drop that subject. Many things have changed since he was a teenager.

  Katey did feel a spark of self-confidence from what Logan told her about what the other students were saying. Perhaps tomorrow she would make a point not to wear makeup. She could taste the first fruits of freedom begin to ripen and thought of all the time she would save in the morning that could be spent sleeping or spending time with Logan, and all the money she would save from not buying beauty products.

  Ben stepped from behind his desk when the bell rang and ran the class through the normal testing routine while passing out the packets of geometry problems.

  Katey took a deep soothing breath and tried to clear her head of all that weighed heavy on her. She was in no mood to be taking tests. She was still tired and a little sore from the day before. Despite the armor she wore to protect her from the paintballs, Katey still spotted at least five little bruises on her arms and legs where she got shot by the teachers and Logan. Her muscles ached and cried out to her to never go paintballing with the teachers again. She wasn’t going to argue. She had a blast, but the soreness wasn’t worth it. She hoped that the teachers would understand. After all, she was only human.

  When Katey finished the test, she glanced up to Logan who was leaning back casually in his seat twirling a pencil between his fingers. He had finished the test within mere minutes.

  She laid her head down on her forearms and pulled her hood over her head to block out some of the florescent light of the room so she could take a nap. She was close to falling asleep, until Ben came up beside her desk and pulled her hood off, just to mess with her.

  Katey imitated a low growl, but Ben only laughed and took her test out from underneath her arm. Perhaps he was amused at her lame attempt.

  By the time the bell rang, Katey hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. She stood up and saw that Logan was waiting patiently for her.

  Katey and Logan walked so close together that their hands occasionally bumped into one another’s. Katey felt a blush rise to her face at the thought of holding hands one day.

  When they came to the senior hallway, Dustin was outside his door talking with Mrs. Kimbrough, Mrs. Disharoon and Mr. Sanders, all neighboring teachers.

  “How can he just be so casual like that? It doesn’t bother him?” Katey asked Logan softly.

  Logan shrugged. “I guess not. It’s not like it’s a crime to associate with humans. Just not recommended. The guys do it all the time so they’re pretty used to it.”

  His words reminded Katey of her talk with Darren the day before and how they had taught Logan to shun human company. It made her wonder why he even wanted to come to public high school in the first place. But it didn’t take long for her to speculate that she had been the reason all along.

  Logan and Katey walked into the classroom and sat down in their seats. Katey took another deep soothing breath and hoped that all the studying she had done yesterday would help her even a little bit.

  “Just one more test and we can go home,” Logan muttered softly to her.

  Katey had to shake her head and smile. “That sounds so weird.”

  “What?”

  Katey looked to Logan. “Saying ‘home’ and ‘we’ in the same sentence… Just strange to me, I guess,” she said with a shrug.

  Logan smirked and slunk down comfortably in his seat. “Yet another thing for you to get used to.”

  When the final bell rang, signaling that the first day of semester exams were over, Logan immediately stood up and approached Dustin, who was getting ready to leave as well. They conversed softly together about something and Katey watched them, intrigued by their body language.

  Logan looked significantly shorter than usual with his knees bent forward and back hunched a bit. While on the other hand, Dustin stretched a little taller than normal, his head held up higher over Logan’s. The difference was subtle and probably not noticeable unless one was looking for it. It reminded her of a dominant and submissive wolf pictured together on the cover of a National Geographic magazine.

  Katey caught herself slumping her shoulders as well and lowering her head a little as she gathered her things and made her way to the door with Logan. It became evident to her that she seemed to be integrating herself into their pecking order without even knowing that she was doing it.

  “The guys are all going home for lunch and we need to meet them there. Do you want to eat at the house or grab something on the way?” Logan asked.

  “Doesn’t matter to me,” she replied. “Was Dustin ok? He seemed a bit sluggish.”

  “Yeah, he just needs a bath,” Logan said nonchalantly as he took the helmets from his locker.

  “Bath?” Katey asked quizzically.

  Logan chuckled and waved her question aside. “You’ll find out in a little while. I need to get gas down the road before we head there.”

  Katey let her probing questions go for the moment.

  ***

  They rode swiftly to the last gas station on the way out of town. Logan pulled up to one of the gas pumps and began filling up while Katey remained on the bike, slightly leaning over sin
ce the bike was propped up by the kickstand.

  While Logan was holding the handle, he placed the other hand on the bike, unbearably close to Katey. She felt like getting up or moving his hand, but enjoyed the thrill it gave her to have his hand that close.

  Logan’s eyes occasionally fell on her as she stared off into traffic. He let his lips curl into a gentle smile as he watched her hair flicker in the breeze a bit.

  Logan paid for the gas with Darren’s credit card and by the time they arrived to the house, all the teacher’s cars were already parked under the carport.

  Katey could just faintly hear some commotion in the back yard. She listened for a moment, and then realized it was the yipping and grunting of some sort of animal.

  Logan didn’t seem at all bothered by the noise and began walking around the side of the house towards the backyard. Katey automatically followed.

  When they rounded the corner of the house, Katey was met by the sight of three huge dogs barking and roughhousing on the green lawn near the gazebo. She froze and stared in awe as Logan kept on walking like nothing was the matter. For a fleeting moment, Katey wondered where the dogs came from. Then, she realized that they weren’t dogs at all. They were wolves.

  One of the bigger wolves was a beautiful mixture of grey shaded fur with distinct dark markings around its muzzle and chest. This wolf seemed very relaxed as it laid in the grass, watching his surroundings with warm brown eyes.

  Another was shorter and leaner with colorations of dark brown with lighter tan and ebony interspersed highlights in its pelt. He was the energetic one, bounding around happily playing with the other two wolves when she arrived on the scene, its tail wagging furiously and its tongue hanging out, ready to have fun. The one thing she recognized immediately about this wolf was it had dazzling green eyes, reminding her of a clover field. One thing she knew for certain was that wolves did not have green eyes.

  The other was nothing like the other two. It was a little smaller and all black with a bit of silver on its back and the tips of its paws. Its eyes were dark yellow, with a menacing and melancholy look about them. It looked less than pleased to have to put up with the green-eyed wolf’s playfulness, giving out the occasional growl or yip with its tail tucked between its hind legs.

  Katey’s eyes darted between Logan and the wolves.

  Then it hit her. Where were the teachers?

  “Logan?” Katey said nervously. He stopped and turned around to see her bewildered expression and laughed.

  “Don’t you recognize them?” he asked.

  All three wolves looked in their direction. A shock of fear ran through her, and then died away as she finally understood. The wolves were the teachers. She remembered Darren saying something about how they can change into dogs, wolves or their loup-garou form.

  Without warning, the brown colored wolf with the green eyes, which she then recognized as Dustin, came swiftly padding towards her. She took a step back to brace herself as the animal jumped and propped its front paws up onto her shoulders. She struggled with the weight of him for a moment, but managed to steady herself, gripping Dustin’s massive paws.

  Katey found herself giggling as Dustin sniffed her; his cold, wet nose skimming over her face, shoulders, and neck, leaving behind traces of his slobber.

  Logan smiled and turned to the water hose that was hooked into the back of the house. The black wolf hustled towards Logan and got in the way while he tried to turn the water faucet handle. Logan had to constantly push the wolf out of the way so he could keep turning it.

  “Well, that one loving on you is Dustin. The silver one is Darren and this annoying black one is Ben. Will you back off?” he snapped at the omega.

  “I think I figured that all out just now,” Katey said through her laughter.

  Dustin detached himself from Katey and trotted towards Logan and leapt upon Ben playfully and romped around with him to distract from the water hose. Logan was finally able to turn the water on full force. He covered half of the hose opening with his thumb, sending out a shower of water over the three wolves.

  Katey rushed over to Logan’s side to get out of the line of fire and leaned against the brick wall, watching the scene with a mix of emotions. She felt wonder, amusement and a twinge of fear collide all at the same time and she didn’t know how to show it except in a smile that she hid behind her hand.

  Dustin danced in the water while Darren and Ben stood tall and steady to the water pressure, enduring the bath they probably didn’t need.

  “They need to get hosed down every once in a while to keep their coats clean. You’d think they wouldn’t get dirty that much, but mostly they change to run around and unwind on the weekends or after school. The way you can tell is if they’re really tense or upset, then you know they either need a cleaning or they just need to be run around a bit. But if one of them changes, they all change. Does that make any sense?” Logan explained, as if reading her mind.

  “Yeah, I guess, but if they don’t change that much, why would they need to take baths?”

  “It’s hard to explain. It’s not like their skin gets dirty, but their wolf fur… I’m not exactly sure how it works. Darren told me once, but I got lost in all the scientific terms.”

  Logan leaned against the wall and watched the teachers got soaked to the bone so much that their fur hung heavy on their powerful wolf frames.

  Then, Logan suddenly offered the hose to Katey, diverting the water away from the wolves for a moment. Katey’s eyes shifted between Logan and the hose, blinking and unsure.

  “You take a go at it,” he finally said before shoving it into her hands and walking around her to grab a tin bucket not too far away from where they stood. Katey was flabbergasted for a moment, and then copied Logan’s hold on the hose to continue wetting down the teachers.

  Logan brought over the pail, squeezing something with the same consistency as dish soap inside and around the bottom of the bucket. Katey took the hint and sprayed some water into the pail, causing white suds to rise and overflow around the edges.

  As Katey watched Logan roll up his sleeves, she wondered if Logan’s wolf or dog form had blue eyes and what color his pelt would be. Only one way to find out.

  When Logan turned his gaze up to Katey, he was taken aback by the expectant grin spread across her lips.

  “What?”

  “Aren’t you going to take a bath too?” she asked flirtatiously.

  “I’ll take a shower tonight.” Logan raised an eyebrow at her as took the sponge sitting on the ground and submerged it in the suds.

  The wolves stood still and watched, as if they knew what they were talking about.

  “No, I mean your dog or wolf form, does it need a bath?” she asked excitedly. Something inside Katey wanted to see Logan in his wolf form so much that it hurt.

  Logan’s motions slowed and cast his eyes to the ground, refusing to meet her gaze. A shadow passed over his face as he opened his mouth as if to answer her, but then he clamped his teeth back together and gritted them angrily.

  He didn’t say a word as he dropped the sponge into the pail and hurried back around the house towards the sliding glass door. Katey stood, puzzled for a moment. She let the hose lower and her lips parted, wondering what she had said to make him so upset.

  The wolves exchanged knowing glances and shook their bodies, sending droplets of water in all directions. Dustin let out a low grunt to the other two and padded towards Katey. Darren laid down lazily in the grass to watch while Ben rolled himself in the grass, getting even more dirty with mud.

  Katey carefully stepped through the puddle of water on the ground after turning off the hose and leaned around the corner of the house just as she saw Logan’s figure run upstairs through the glass doors.

  “What did I say?” Katey muttered, not really speaking to anyone.

  “Logan can’t change like we do,” Dustin’s voice came from behind her. She started a bit and glanced over her shoulder to see him standing in no
thing but a towel around his waist and dripping wet.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, too enraptured by the situation to care that one of her teachers was practically naked in front of her. “He was born one wasn’t he? So he should be able to change just like you and Darren, right? That’s what he told me.”

  Dustin grimaced. “He’s supposed to, but he doesn’t. We’ve tried to help him for a century now, but it’s just not physically possible for him. He’s only been able to change into his loup-garou form once a month and that’s all. He can’t change at will. He’s had many close calls when he thought he would change outside of his time, but he never did,” Dustin explained with a heavy heart and she could almost feel the sadness in his voice for Logan.

  Katey let her eyes fall to the ground. “But, why?”

  “The way that we understand it, it might have something to do with the gene not being strong enough in him. Since he received the trait from me and not his father, his loup-garou side is much weaker than his human side. It’s the opposite case with Ben. When he was dying on that battlefield, he has less of a human soul in him. And when I turned him, the loup-garou part dominated his human side. But this is all speculating. We don’t know for sure if that’s it.” Dustin exhaled slowly and placed his hands on his hips. “Once thing is for sure. We have never heard of anyone like Logan, in the respect that he adopted the condition from a second generation instead of a first like most do.”

  Katey shook her head and looked back up to the sliding glass door. “He never told me any of that,” she mused.

  “I’m not surprised. He’s a little sensitive about it.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she whined, pressing her fingers to her temple in frustration. The last thing she wanted was to hurt Logan any more than he already was.