by Sara Dailey
Surprisingly, Mom was patient enough to give Aiden time to say goodbye to his bazillion friends. Right before we headed out, a group of at least twenty people from school showed up at our house. Aiden’s friends. Most of them used to be my friends too. They hugged him and cried, showering him with I’ll miss you and keep in touch.
Hard to believe, but a few of them said goodbye to me too. Jackie Thompson told me to take care of myself, which was kind of nice, but it just wasn’t the same. While Aiden said his last see you laters, I sat in the car wondering what that moment would have been like if it had happened six months ago. As we drove away, I half-smiled and waved to the group, but I knew in my heart that their waves weren’t meant for me.
***
Looking out the window at the snow-peaked mountains in the distance, I found myself thinking about how good this move could actually be for me. I am going to meet girls that are like me. Surely, they won’t hate me before getting to know me. Right? I might actually have friends again. I almost forgot what it was like to be able to call up a girlfriend to go shopping or to the movies. Or give someone a call when I needed someone to talk to about whatever the new drama was at the moment. Or even have good drama. The only drama in my life over the past few months was exactly what lead up to this move. Girls hating me, me kicking their asses, and Aiden being a shithead. I definitely needed new drama.
And guys… new guys would be good. So very, very good. I might even get a date with a guy who doesn’t assume he’s going to score within ten minutes of picking me up. Yes, this could be a great move.
Being off in my own little world, I was caught off guard when Aiden thumped me on my knuckles.
“What is up with you? Do you realize that you are smiling and humming? You look like an idiot,” Aiden said, rolling his eyes.
I turned toward him, ready to reciprocate his insult, but the woe-is-me look on his face, stopped me. He was just sitting there, with glazed over eyes, and a frown that said more than any words possibly could have. I guess I was so caught up in my own new-found optimism, I didn’t think about the fact that Aiden was probably having a hard time with all of this. I mean he actually had friends. He actually had a life that he was forced to up and leave on a moment’s notice. He acted the whole time like this is a good thing, but I had to wonder how much of that was for my benefit.
Trying to lighten the mood, I responded, “What? I was humming? Really?”
“You know, I haven’t seen you smile in a long time. Are you starting to believe that this might be a good thing?” Aiden asked.
“Of course not! I still can’t believe Mom made us sell our car and is dragging us all out here to live on some freaky estate. It sounds kind of like a cult, if you ask me.” I’m not sure why I couldn’t admit my hopes were high. Maybe I was just scared of having them crushed.
Aiden didn’t bother to respond, and instead went back to reading his book, but something told me he wasn’t really reading it. He looked too lost in his own thoughts to just sit back and relax with a book, even a John Green book.
I reached over and tapped him on the knee. “Hey, you okay?”
“Sure, I’m good,” he told me, but his eyes said the opposite. I didn’t want to push Aiden into talking if he didn’t want to. He could act like this is a great idea for all I cared. I knew the truth. If Mom and Dad would have made me leave League City six months ago, I would have been a disaster zone. There was a time when I actually had a life, and friends, and a boyfriend. I would have been devastated if I had to give all of that up, not to mention with only two weeks’ notice.
Well, I guess I did have to give it all up not all that long ago. But that was different. They gave me up. Each and every one of them turned their back on me, and for what? Dad blames the pheromones, but I think it’s just one of those questions that we will never know the answer to. Only one thing was for sure—my life completely changed in the blink of an eye, and I couldn’t have been more ready to start over somewhere new, though I’d never admit it to anyone other than myself.
***
Just when I thought that my butt had suffered permanent and irreversible damage from sitting on it for too long, my mom jerked around and said the words that I had been dying to hear. “We’re here!”
“Finally, I didn’t think that I could drive for too much longer,” Dad said with a small smile, but I could see the tension in his jaw when he turned to look at us. Poor Dad. It was going to be hard on him, being back here with Mom’s family, and of course Mom’s ex-fiancé, Marcus, who apparently is the leader of the pack.
Pack. We were going to be part of a pack. A werewolf pack. This was all too weird.
We pulled onto a long, narrow driveway that headed straight into a wooded area. If this was a scary movie, this would be the characters’ first stupid mistake. There was just something eerie about the whole thing. Mom never mentioned that her pack lived in the woods. The deeper we drove into the brush, the more uneasy I became. The road winded around and back, and soon turned into a snow-covered dirt path.
“Uh Mom, why are we in the woods?”
“Oh Aiden, don’t worry. We are almost there. It won’t seem like the forest once we arrive. Y’all are going to love it. We are right on the lake.” Mom paused for a moment to take it all in, and I wondered what it was like for her to be back after all this time.
“Are our grandparents going to be there?” I asked.
“No baby, they are still in Italy. When I told them when we were coming, my mother was devastated. Oh wait, let’s see… Marcus said he’d meet us in front of our new home. Honey, it should be right up here on the left,” Mom said as she pointed toward a clearing.
As we entered the estate, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was amazing. We might live in the woods, but we definitely weren’t going to be roughing it. Our car pulled into the driveway of an enormous two-story house, complete with a huge wrap-around porch and two balconies facing a breathtaking lake.
Mom turned around just in time to catch Aiden and me with our mouths hanging open. “Isn’t it beautiful? I knew y’all would love it. You know, all the houses face the lake, in a big circle. See?”
She pointed out to a huge community of homes encircling the water. All the houses were about the same in size but each had its own unique style. These homes looked custom built, not the cookie-cutter, suburban homes that have taken over every empty space in the Houston area.
Where did all of this money come from? These homes weren’t cheap!
“How are we going to afford this?” I asked, still unable to believe what I was seeing.
“Oh honey, things are different here. This house, all of these houses belong to the pack. We all contribute in our own way, so as long as you’re a part of the pack there are perks, and this just happens to be one of them.”
At that statement, Aiden “perked” up. “Perks? Like what?”
“We’ll talk about that later. Look, there is Marcus and Noel,” Mom said, obviously disregarding Aiden’s materialistic tendencies.
I looked over and once again my mouth hit the floor. Omigod, Mom’s ex was hot, uber-hot, like Brad Pitt hot. Imagine the most gorgeous older man on the planet, and that was Marcus. Dad must have been one hell of a bass player. And his wife, Noel, was scary beautiful as well, and I mean it, both scary and beautiful.
As all the car doors simultaneously swung open, the frigid New Mexico wind rushed through the car sending chills throughout my unsuspecting body. My measly jacket just wasn’t going to cut it living in the mountains. I wondered how long it would take to get used to living in a place this cold. I glanced over at Aiden and noticed him trying not to shiver, which made me feel a little better.
We piled out of the car and immediately Marcus came over to hug Mom, while the rest of us stood there politely smiling as we tried to appear that we weren’t all about to freeze to death in our new sub-zero environment. It’s weird that just a few days ago I was wearing shorts and flip-flops.
&nb
sp; “Lily! It’s so good to see you. It’s been too long,” Marcus said, while pulling Mom in a little too tightly for a welcome hug. Hearing Mom’s little nickname, I looked at Aiden, and we both mouthed, Lily, at the same time. It would almost be funny if Dad didn’t look like he was about to bust a vein.
“Noel, come over here and meet Lily,” Marcus said.
This whole meet-and-greet was just too bizarre. So, I was extremely relieved when Marcus reached out and shook Dad’s hand, and then handed him over the keys to our new house.
“Nice to finally meet you, Paul,” Marcus said with his chest puffed out in true alpha-fashion.
“You too. Wow, this place is really great!” Dad pointed out politely as he surveyed the surroundings.
“Only the best for our Lily; she’s been missed around here, you know. I’m just so sorry that your parents aren’t here to greet you as well Lily. I’m sure they were quite disappointed when they found out that you all were arriving before they returned from their vacation.”
I looked over at Mom, noticing the forced smile that was planted on her face trying to cover her anxiety. Still uncomfortable after all these years. Noel, on the other hand, looked completely unfazed by Mom’s presence, like us being here was the most normal thing in the world. There was not an ounce of nervousness behind her deep brown eyes or her perfectly-glossed lips. Either she was confident in her standing as lead female, or she was one hell of an actress.
“So you must be Aiden,” Marcus said as he shook my brother’s hand. Aiden nodded and said, “Yes sir. It’s nice to meet you.” There was a look in Marcus’s eyes that I couldn’t explain, but it seemed that there was more he wanted to say to my brother but suddenly decided not to. He held eye contact with Aiden for just a second too long, before he finally turned his attention to me.
I was waiting for a hand shake as well, when Marcus took a step toward me and hugged me like we were old friends, “Allison, you look just like your mom did when she was your age, beautiful, just beautiful.” It was a little weird and definitely unexpected, but friendly as well.
I was so relieved that these people seemed normal, kind of nice even. I was envisioning a bunch of hairy, vicious werewolves with too much testosterone.
After a few more minutes of chatting in the freezing cold, Marcus said, with a charm surely only the alpha could possess, “We are going to let you get settled. You let me know if you need anything… anything at all. And I am so sorry that you kids didn’t get to meet my son, Cade, but I’m sure you’ll run into him later tonight. And, Lily, your parents will be back in a few days. As I’m sure you know, they had that trip planned to Italy for months, but I’m sure they will swing by as soon as they return.” And with that, Noel and Marcus turned and left.
Dad turned to Mom and said, “Well, after you,” and we all entered our new home.
Excited to get out of the cold, I hurried in the front door to take a look around. The house was gorgeous. Gorgeous and huge. It must have been twice the size of our old house. The foyer opened up into an enormous two-story living room, and to the right was a kitchen made for a gourmet chef. The bottom floor also included a study and the master bedroom, but being that my main concern was my own room, I immediately headed upstairs to check out my new living conditions.
The stairs led to a game room, and on each side of the game room there was a small hallway with a bathroom and a bedroom, which were both the size of Mom and Dad’s master bedroom back in League City. I could definitely start to like it here.
After settling in a bit in my own room, I went downstairs to help Mom unpack the boxes for the kitchen. I was organizing the pots and pans when Aiden came flying through the front door with his arms full of boxes. “Hey Al, I met some teen wolves,” he said with a stupid laugh. “They invited us out to the lake tonight, you in?”
Of course, I was hesitant, but I decided that it was time to make a fresh start, so I said, “Sure, why the hell not.”
Chapter 7
Allison
“Aiden, are you sure this outfit’s okay?”
“Come on Alli. You look fine. It’s gonna be great. You’ll see,” Aiden assured me.
Really, how could I be expected not to be nervous? It has been such a long time since I’ve been around new people. And these aren’t even regular people. These are were-people. If only my stomach wasn’t doing flip-flops. Surely, it’s just nerves, but I literally felt like I could throw up at any moment. And if that wasn’t enough, my heart was racing like I had just run a marathon. That can’t be normal. Can it?
I stopped for a moment, just before we came into view of the others, so I could catch my breath. Maybe I just needed to sit down.
“What’s wrong? You okay, Al?”
“I’m fine. I just don’t feel very good. Come on. We’re almost there,” I said as I reluctantly began to move again.
“You’re just nervous. You’ll feel better once we meet everyone and you see how cool they are.”
After a few more steps, a campfire came into view along with, let’s see, six, seven, eight, nine, omigod, ten people. This was going to be weird, definitely uncomfortable, especially feeling the way I do. I stayed a few steps behind Aiden, letting him lead the way. As usual, he didn’t mind.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Aiden walked right up to the group and announced, “Hey guys. I’m Aiden, and this is my sister Al.”
“Alli… hi, I’m Alli,” I corrected him.
One of the older-looking guys jumped up and shook our hands. “Hey, I’m Sammy. And this, well this is everybody. Well, not everybody exactly. Cade and a few others aren’t here, but let’s see, this is Kendall, Cami, Shari, Misty, and Becca.” Sammy went around and pointed out each of the girls and they in turn, gave Aiden a flirty little smile/wave combo, and surprisingly enough, they actually smiled at me too. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be smiled at by someone other than my family.
“Oh thank God! Another girl. This pack is swimming with testosterone. No offense, Aiden,” Kendall said as she walked over to stand next to me. She was oozing that overly friendly, yet fake façade, and some internal instinct told me to watch my back.
“And these are the guys: Ryder, Trenton, Tyson, and Luke. Now Luke here typically hangs out with the jackasses of the pack, but we tolerate him ’cause he’s cool,” Sammy said with a laugh as he shoved Luke’s shoulder.
“Very funny Sammy. You better watch it or I’ll tell Gage you’ve been talking shit,” Luke responded, then looked my way giving me a playful smile.
All the guys stood up and shook both mine and Aiden’s hand as they said hello.
Okay, first impression low-down…
Kendall must be the queen-bee of the group. She just had that air about her. I’d bet money that she says jump and all the girls jump without question. And she certainly looked the part: long, shiny, dark hair, chocolate-brown eyes with eyelashes that you could see from across the room, and the body of an Olympic athlete. On the surface, she seemed nice, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t genuine. And it didn’t help that I could have sworn she glared at me before Sammy introduced her. Not to mention the fact that I noticed that Shari, Misty, and Becca all looked to Kendall for instructions, which apparently were just smile and let me handle this.
All of the guys seemed like really good guys, not the typical high school males that I had grown accustomed to back home. It was kind of a relief to finally have guys to talk to without worrying about them grabbing certain parts of my body without permission.
Glancing around the campfire at all of the new faces, one thing struck me as particularly odd. They were all extremely attractive. Don’t get me wrong, some more than others, but all of them were ridiculously good-looking. I guess it’s a were-thing. Who knows? But it did make me wonder if there was such a thing as an ugly werewolf.
The girls were all tall and athletic-looking, with long, dark hair. Kendall definitely held the title of most beautiful were-girl. I did
find it odd that they all shared the same physical features, though none of them really looked alike. With blonde hair, light-green eyes, and all my new curves, I stood out like a sore thumb. Great, I didn’t even look the part.
The guys could only be described as tall, dark, and dangerously handsome. They could totally be the next big boy-band. But with bigger muscles. Even the younger guys looked like they grew up in a gym. One word: gorgeous.
Finally, settled around the campfire, Sammy offered us both a beer. Still feeling a little light-headed and queasy, the last thing I wanted was alcohol, so I politely declined, but Aiden didn’t think twice about opening one up and chugging.
Aiden fell into step immediately, telling stories and making everyone laugh. They all got a kick out of hearing about me and Aiden fighting in the front yard. He took it upon himself to get up and act out the whole embarrassing event. I sat there praying he wouldn’t make me get up and participate. I think that even Kendall smiled—at him, not me—when Aiden admitted he got his ass kicked by a girl. I just kind of sat there and laughed when I was supposed to, but I didn’t really join in the conversations.
Suddenly, Luke turned to me and asked, “So, you both really just found out you were werewolves? That’s too weird.”
I opened my mouth to speak when Becca jumped in and asked, “So, you two haven’t changed yet?”
We both just shook our heads. “Should we have?” Aiden asked.
“We usually have our first change before we turn sixteen. But don’t worry, Cami still hasn’t changed and she turned sixteen… what two weeks ago?” Kendall said looking at Cami.
I felt bad for Cami. Kendall was obviously making fun of her.
“We were taught though. It will probably happen soon… for all of you,” Luke said smiling at Cami.
