by Rachel Hera
“Damn. It might very well be a werewolf thing then.”
“So do your senses overload?”
“Let’s just say that the only reason I go to school is because of you –and the fact that Carlos refused to continue to homeschool me,” Blake shook his head. “I don’t know what it is with girls and their body sprays and perfume.”
“As a girl, I’m pretty sure it’s to cover sweat and body odour.”
“Isn’t that what deodorant is for?” Jason asked.
“Well, don’t ask me. I like to think I’m fairly low maintenance.”
“Thank goodness for that, or I’d have to reconsider this entire mate thing,” Blake chuckled.
“Well, at least I know how to get rid of you,” I retorted.
We stopped by Tim Hortons on the way to school, Blake admitting that their bottomless stomachs was a shocking truth. It was a truth that I could live with, since I had the munchies at least eighty percent of my waking hours. When they offered to buy, I realized I could use this mate thing to my advantage; I got two powdered donuts. The only angst I had with powdered donuts were how messy they were. And white streaks on my navy blue top weren’t really the look I was going for.
“Here,” Jason unscrewed the lid of a water bottle and put a napkin over top, tipping it upside down while Blake found a parking spot at the school. He handed me the damp serviette, and I accepted it graciously.
“You’re a life saver in more than one way,” I joked.
“I wouldn’t really call powder on your shirt a serious crisis,” Jason said. “What happened to low maintenance?”
“Low maintenance doesn’t mean I have to look like a slob,” I replied. “I say we camp out on a picnic table in front of the school to wait for Maddie to come –I would like my cell phone back at some point today. The sooner the better.”
“We can do that,” Blake said, turning off the ignition.
“I’ll meet you guys there –I got to take a piss,” Jason said, hopping out of the jeep.
“Finally,” Blake said, undoing his seatbelt. He turned towards me, and I laughed.
“Can’t get enough of me, huh?”
“You teased me yesterday getting out of the jeep, the least you can give me is a morning kiss.”
Is this what they called the honeymoon stage? I undid my own seatbelt, reaching down to grab my bag, which I’d set by my feet while I’d eaten the donuts. “You know I’m not into public displays of affection, right?”
“All the more reason to kiss me now, or you’ll be suffering all day,” he grinned.
Rolling my eyes, I leaned forward, “Well, when you put it that way…”
* * *
“Thanks, Maddie,” I said as she handed me my phone. “I’m glad you found it. I was worried it’d fallen out of my bag in the rain.”
“What happened last night?” she asked, glancing towards the table where I’d left Blake and Jason.
Well, to begin with, Cole attacked me. Not that I felt like I could tell her that. And that wasn’t because I didn’t think she’d be sympathetic about it, I just wasn’t sure I wanted sympathy. I also didn’t want her to get suspended for punching him in the dick –which I know she’d do.
“Jason and Dante picked me up on my way home. I thought I had a sprained ankle, so they took me back to their place,” I lied. “Guess I was wrong though, because I woke up and it’s been fine to walk on.”
“Blake looks like he’s feeling better,” she commented.
“If you felt his skin, you’d think otherwise. He still has a fever,” I said.
“And that’s all that happened last night? Your ankle got treated?” she looked at me apprehensively.
“Well, they gave me tea.”
“You know that’s not what I meant,” Maddie sighed. “What time did you get in last night?”
“Around midnight? Made my mom angry,” I said. “My cheek’s not red, is it?”
“Well, now that you pointed it out. I thought you were wearing blush. It looks fine, though.”
“Blush? On one side of my face?”
“Did you want to borrow mine? We can make it even on both sides,” she offered. “Here, let’s go to the bathroom.”
“You’re a doll,” I grinned, glancing at Blake who waved me on. Super hearing really was a thing. Huh.
“Did you sleep okay?” she asked as we walked to the girls’ washroom. We headed to the one by the gym, which worked out perfectly, since the bell was going to ring soon.
“Not really. I kept waking up,” I admitted. Mostly because Cole’s face kept appearing just as I drifted into a decent sleep.
“Nightmares?”
“Bad dreams,” I responded. It wasn’t like he was chasing me with an ax and I was running for my life. He was just there.
“And you had a hot shower when you got home?”
Well, I had a hot shower. A really, really hot shower. But not at home. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I’m not getting sick. And after my shower I went to bed. Or something like that.”
“Or something like that?” she questioned as she pushed on the heavy door. “That doesn’t sound very much like you.”
I accepted her blush, but didn’t answer. I could tell her. The truth. She’d be happy, if not ecstatic, that werewolves and vampires existed. When I woke up this morning, I’d let it sink in. Blake was a werewolf. Blake and all his friends were werewolves. It was my wildest dream come true. And for Maddie it would be the exact same thing. The exact same feeling.
But for one, I had promised to keep it a secret. It wasn’t mine to tell, after all. More than that, it wasn’t like I could tell her about the Werewolves without telling her about Cole.
“Evelyn?” she probed.
“I don’t feel like myself,” I said. That wasn’t a lie. I felt different from yesterday. “I think it’s because of how tired I am.”
“I feel like you’re dismissing me,” she confronted.
“I’m not dismissing you,” I sighed.
“Well, you’re not answering me clearly,” she persisted.
Frustration ebbed at my insides. Didn’t she know when enough was enough?
“Just talk to me, Evelyn,” she said.
“Look, Maddie,” I turned on her. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m tired, I’m cranky, so I’m sorry if I don’t feel like talking much.”
“Take a breath,” Maddie touched my shoulder, facing me properly. “Something’s clearly bothering you.”
I did take a breath. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather we just drop the subject.”
She looked surprised, and it took her a moment to gather herself before she gathered her makeup and tucked it in her purse. “Well, in that case, I will talk to you only when you want to talk. That’s what you want, right?”
“Maddie,” I began, but I didn’t follow her as she headed back out into the hallway. The bell rang, and I quickly brushed my face with my own foundation to make the blush a little less prominent.
When we spoke again, I’d thank her for the blush.
Chapter 30: Blake
“You know what I’ve been thinking?” Jason said as the three of us walked through the park at lunch time.
To be honest, I didn’t care what he was thinking. All I could think about was how I was beginning to hate the bargain I’d made with Carlos. In my head I thought of all the possible outcomes that could occur if I went against him, but none of them were pretty. None of them meant an easier lifestyle for Evelyn. At least, not in the long run. Short term, getting rid of Cole and Marissa probably would make her life easier.
“What?” Evelyn took the bait.
“I was thinking,” he began, picking up a rock and throwing it into the shallow river. It landed with a splash, startling any ducks that were nearby. Not that he’d been aiming for them –we were more humane than most teenage boys. “Carlos said that we couldn’t beat the shit out of Cole. But he didn’t say we couldn’t pressure any of the foxes for a
nswers. Like –why Evelyn?”
I hated that it was true –not the loophole that Jason had found, but the fact that even after Cole had attacked Evelyn we weren’t allowed to rip his head off his torso and feed it to the coyotes that scrounged the area. After the others had gone to bed the night before, I had confronted Carlos about why he’d let Evelyn in –not only into our homes, but our lives.
“Girls are fragile,” he’d said. “And sometimes all they need is to get their minds off of their problems. So, instead of letting her rework it in her mind all the possible outcomes of what could have happened out there in the forest, I offered her mind a different realm of possibilities.”
He thought that maybe knowing that werewolves existed meant that she’d go to bed wondering how we compared to myths, thinking of questions to ask, instead of letting her attack get the better of her. And he only did it because she was my mate, not to mention that Jason, Dante, and Kaya had vouched for her, too.
“You think they’re after me?” she scoffed. “I’m pretty sure they’re all just dicks –except Philip. Philip’s actually nice to me.”
“Exactly,” Jason nodded.
“That’s why he’s the one we should go after,” I caught on to what Jason was getting at. “He might give us answers if he thinks he’s helping you.”
“So there he is,” Evelyn gestured with her head to a picnic table off to our right. “He’s only with Evan. I can distract Evan while you talk to Philip.”
“No, we can wait for a time when he’s alone,” Jason said.
“Why? There’s an opportunity right here,” she looked at the two of us, and before I could grab her, she took off towards the guys.
“Sorry, Philip, let me borrow Evan for a moment,” she grinned at the two of them, taking Evan’s hand with both of hers and leading him off.
“Jealous?” Jason grinned as we approached Philip.
I didn’t reply.
“So, I was wondering if you’d seen Maddie today –we got into another fight this morning,” Evelyn was saying as she continued to walk with Evan. To my relief, she’d dropped his hand.
“What do you need?” Philip asked as we approached.
“What makes you think we’re not here for idle conversation?” Jason asked.
“Because Evelyn has only spoken to Evan in music class since the three of you have become all chummy,” he snorted.
“Yeah, well, you’re right,” I said as Jason opened his mouth to retort. “We’re here to get some answers, Philip. I think we’ve made ourselves quite clear that Evelyn is protected by the Pack –so what makes you guys so eager to start a war between the wolves and foxes?”
“Cole and Marissa just don’t like her –”
“‘Just don’t like her’ is a good explanation when they knock her text books out of her hands,” I stepped forward, and Philip shimmied further away along the bench of the picnic table. I lowered my voice, but couldn’t hide the venomous tone as I continued, “‘Just don’t like her’ is not a good explanation when your dickhead leader decides to attack her wearing my face.”
Philip was silent for a moment, rubbing his hand over his face. “That happened?”
“Coincidentally at the same time that Blake was home, poisoned by wolfsbane. We suspect your sister did that,” Jason said, putting a hand on me to keep me from going too far. “And you’re trying to tell us that you know nothing about any of this?”
“I’m not sure if you’ve realized this, but I’ve tried to cut myself off from the other two. Their methods aren’t really ones that I approve of –”
“I’m not sure if you’ve realized, but we’ve been tailing the three of you for the past week. You might not talk to them at school, but you still reside in the same house as them,” Jason snarled. “So don’t tell us that you don’t know anything.”
Philip fell to silence again.
My hand shot out and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him to his feet. “You’re going to talk, Philip, or else we’ll make sure that –”
“Hey!” Evan shouted at us, running back in our direction. Evelyn followed behind him, shaking her head at me. I released Philip.
Philip rubbed the front of his chest, “Look. Clearly we can’t talk now –we can’t really talk anywhere in town. So Saturday, I’ll meet you in Hightown. I’ll give you the when and where later.”
Jason and I exchanged looks, but couldn’t say anything before Evan reached us.
“I guess this is where we leave,” Evelyn said, putting a hand on both Jason and I and easing us back. “We’ll talk later, Evan. Thank you.”
“Well that did us no good,” I muttered, putting my hand on the small of Evelyn’s back and leading us back towards the school.
“Nothing?” she asked.
“Apparently he wants to talk to us Saturday out of town,” Jason said.
“But you don’t think it’s going to happen?” Evelyn pulled a string off her shirt. Rubbing her fingers together, she watched it fall to the ground. “I’d give Philip a little more credit than that –he is a better man than Cole.”
“We’ll give Philip the benefit of the doubt,” I promised her. Not that I wanted to.
“So I’ve been thinking. Once you get the go ahead to kick Cole’s ass, I have a list of ways that I’d like him to die or be incapacitated,” she didn’t meet my gaze as she spoke. I didn’t know what kind of face to put on –I didn’t want her thinking about it. But if telling her that werewolves existed didn’t help, then I didn’t know what would. “So far, the top of my list is cutting off his balls, grilling them and feeding them to him.”
“You might be the evilest of them all,” Jason joked.
“I’m just… coping,” she shrugged. “And yes, imaging his death over and over again in my head really does help.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t asked us any questions,” I tried to change the subject. “You just found out our biggest secret and you have nothing?”
“Well, I do have one,” she began.
“Only one?” Jason laughed.
“What is it?” I pushed his shoulder to shut him up.
Evelyn hesitated for a moment before she asked, “If you were to bite me, would I change?”
I took her hands in mine, sliding my fingers between hers. “Don’t get me wrong, Evelyn. There is nothing more in the world that I want than to be with you in both fur and skin. But I would never bite you. The change from human to wolf is bad enough when you’re born with the process imbedded in your very being. I can only imagine how excruciating it would be for you.”
“And that’s if you make it out of the first seventy-two hours,” Jason added.
“Damn,” her shoulders slumped for half a second before she straightened and shrugged. “There goes the only dream I’d had since I was twelve.”
“I have a question,” Jason said as we began walking again. “How’d you know I was the wolf that took after Cole?”
“Deduction, my dear Watson,” she patted him on the shoulder. “You were the last one to come back as a human. Oh, that does bring up another question: when am I going to see your wolf form, Blake?”
I brushed her hair behind her ear and pressed my lips to the side of her head. Now that she was mine, it was hard for me to not touch her with my hands, with my lips. If I could hold her forever, it wouldn’t be nearly long enough. And I wasn’t sure if she believed me when I told her that I longed to be with her as wolves and humans, but it was true. It killed me that it might never happen. It killed me even more to think that if it did, it would be because of some mongrel or rogue. Not that I’d let that happen.
It’s why I needed the Pack. If it wasn’t shown by the night before, I needed them to help me protect my mate. I couldn’t always be there for her, and there’s no way I was taking her on jobs or missions.
“Blake?” she prodded.
I smiled down at her, “Don’t you worry. You’ll be seeing the other half of me a lot from now on. That’s the th
ing about being in on the secret –we don’t have to hide from you anymore.”
Chapter 31: Maddie
“What’s wrong?” Kristy asked me on Friday as I sat beside her at the cafeteria table. She’d been absent the day before with a migraine.
“Need you ask?” Maegan countered, pulling off her crust. “She and Evelyn had a fight again yesterday.”
“Oh,” Kristy said. “What happened this time?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t know,” I muttered, prying open the top of my chocolate milk. “For some reason, Evelyn’s been keeping secrets from me.”
“They must be some pretty big secrets then,” she shrugged.
“She’s supposed to tell me everything,” I grumbled.
“I think everyone has secrets they don’t feel like they can share,” Maegan added. “I mean, last time it was Shayne. That I can kind of understand. Not wanting to jinx a relationship before it starts. Maybe this time it’s Blake.”
“What is a best friend if not someone you can gush to about boys?” I countered.
“Then maybe it’s bigger than boys,” she suggested.
“We’re high school students. What’s bigger than boys?” Kristy laughed.
“Her parents could be having problems. Or she could be having problems with her mom,” Maegan continued to name situations. The thing was, Evelyn would tell me about those sorts of problems.
“Or Evelyn could just be changing and leaving me behind,” I pushed my salad around the plastic container, mixing the dressing in. Leftovers from dinner. If Evelyn was here, she’d be stealing lettuce leaves and croutons. But she wasn’t.
“That is probably the one case I don’t believe,” Kristy said. “You guys don’t function properly without one another.”
“She seems to be functioning just fine with Blake,” Chantelle, who’d been unusually quiet today, finally spoke up. When we looked to her, she nodded towards the lunch line. Evelyn stood close to Blake, with Jason only a step away. Blake leaned in and whispered something in her ear, and she laughed loudly –though I could pick her laugh out of a crowd any day. It kind of came with the title of best friends.
