All seemed well again in the Meyer’s household. We finished dinner and watched old clay-mation Christmas movies together. By midnight everyone had passed out except for Jason and me. Allison and Max fell asleep holding hands. Who saw that one coming?
Jason and I crept upstairs to my room where we snuggled up with my comforter wrapped around us. I reached over the end of the bed and pulled out the books I got Jason. I hadn’t got around to wrapping them, but figured Jason wouldn’t really mind. He accepted the books with what I hoped wasn’t fake enthusiasm.
He stood up and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be right back, your gift is in my car.”
With a blur of motion he hopped out of my window. I was left to wait alone on my bed and reflect. When the year had started I’d led a normal life. Now I had a boyfriend, a dad, a werewolf pack, and Chase. I wasn’t too keen on investigating what I meant to Chase. Ignore it and it would go away? Doubtful, very doubtful. The more disturbing question was whether I really wanted him to go away. It was kind of nice having another demon around.
Jason interrupted my thoughts as he popped back into my room through my window. He handed me a rectangular box wrapped in bright, reindeer covered wrapping paper with a big red bow on it.
“Tell me it’s not jewelry,” I said sarcastically.
Not understanding my humor, Jason cocked his head in confusion.
I shook my head. “Nevermind.”
I tore open the wrapping paper and let it fall to the floor to reveal a box with a pretty laptop computer on it. I shook the box by my ear. “Is it . . . shoes?”
“No,” Jason laughed.
“A puppy?” I questioned.
Jason grinned and took the box from me so he could open it and pull the computer out of it. He set it on my lap for me to examine. I looked up at my ancient hand-me-down desktop computer, then back at my laptop. I smiled. “I knew I should have bought you something better than books.”
Chapter Seventeen
The next day was the least eventful day I’d had all week. Abel had shown up personally to apologize for not reaching Shelby in time to help. He wished me a merry Christmas, then left with a knowing smile and a ‘see you soon.’
School would start up again in a few weeks, along with my how to be a demon lessons. Even more daunting was the looming Werewolf Coalition meeting. I still didn’t know how I was going to convince my mom to let me go.
All of those worries were for another day. Just for Christmas, I ignored all of my problems. I went sledding and watched more Christmas movies with my mom and Jason. I was somehow happy with my new strange life, and that was worrisome enough.
Broken Beasts
Book Three
Chapter One
Standing in line at the airport. So this was what it had all come down to. Jason was standing to my left, and Chase to my right. They are polar opposites except for their height. At 6'2” Jason is slightly taller than Chase's 6', but the similarities end there. Where Jason has brown hair, blue eyes, and lighter skin, Chase has black hair, dark gray eyes, and darker skin. I'm a pasty ghost compared to either of them with my blonde hair, green eyes, and white-as-a-sheet complexion.
Jason and Chase had become like my own personal bodyguards since the abduction incident . . . extremely annoying, but fairly cute bodyguards. I could hear Chase softly humming. I'd had about enough of his damn humming. It was never something normal. Today it sounded like the Harry Potter theme.
Just about a month ago, some wannabee supernaturals had kidnapped me with the intention of stealing my powers. When I say wannabee, I mean that they wanted to be like other supernaturals, so they were killing them in an attempt to steal their powers. I’m a half-demon by the way, so is the boy to my right, well, he’s a little more than half. The other boy is a vampire. And let’s not forget the werewolves standing in line behind us. They were the reason I was at the Portland, Oregon airport preparing to fly down South to Moab, Utah.
See, amongst the chaos of kidnappings, new “friends”, and the reappearance of my long-lost father, I’d managed to become the leader, or “alpha” of a misfit werewolf pack.
Now we were all on our way to meet with the Werewolf Coalition. That's right, the werewolves actually have a governing body, a place for every wolf, and every wolf in their place. If we wanted to have our place, we had to prove ourselves. I’d been trying to not think too hard on what proving ourselves might entail.
I held Jason and Chase’s tickets as well as my own. When we reached the front of the line, the female security guard took the tickets with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. I gave her a dirty look and shoved Chase forward to walk first through the metal detector.
“Thanks Darling,” Chase jested, his slight accent that I was yet to place coloring his words. I guess I could just ask him what it was, but Chase didn't like to talk about his past.
Jason chuckled and walked through next. The security guard could speculate all she wanted, she so did not know the most interesting things about us.
Jason hadn’t quite managed a friendship with Chase over the past month, but he at least tolerates him now. They seem to have some sort of understanding between them. Chase looks out for me because my dad asked him to, and Jason because he's my boyfriend. If they were logical, they'd understand that they both have the same end goal and go from there, but when are boys really logical?
We turned and waited for Lucy and Max to walk through the detectors. Lela and Allison had gone to Utah a few days ahead of us to fill out paperwork and get our rooms at one of the local inns situated.
Question: Why did we need Allison there when she had nothing to do with werewolf affairs?
Answer: We didn’t.
We had all agreed that it would be best if she didn't come. She’s human, and there was no need for her to put herself in danger. Despite our decision, Allison had caught up with Lela, telling her that she was supposed to go with her. We'd found out because Lela had called to check in and had mentioned Allison.
Now Lela, for some reason, holds the firm belief that I plan on beating her up when I get to Utah. I have no intention of doing so . . . probably. I was annoyed, but one does not simply get into fistfights with werewolves over a little annoyance.
My cell phone rang as we were waiting for the security lady to search Max’s bags. I still have an old crappy flip phone. No fancy phones for this girl. I suppose it would be convenient to have one, but when you accidentally set things on fire a lot, carrying around expensive electronics becomes impractical.
I checked the screen to see that it was my mom . . . again. She had grudgingly let me go to Utah, as long as I promised I wouldn’t get behind in school. She’s still trying to cope with finding out that her only child is part demon. She has accepted it somewhat. She had known for years that my dad was something . . . other, but she didn't know he was a demon until I'd found out myself and told her.
It had actually been Chase that talked her into letting me go, with the promise that he would look after me. She loves Chase, don’t ask me why. She knows he's a demon, just like she knows what the rest of us are, but for some reason it doesn't seem to bother her. I silenced the phone and shoved it back into my pocket.
As soon as Max had put his shoes back on, we headed for our gate. Lucy was the only one of our group that minded flying, as far as I knew. I'm pretty sure that her fear springs from her obsessive need to be in control of everything. I glanced at her petite figure as she tensely walked like there was something shoved in a place I won’t mention, and decided to keep my theory to myself.
We sat to wait for boarding and I instantly pulled out my copy of Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Feeling the worn pages in my grasp was an instant comfort. I'm one of those weirdos that will reread a book multiple times. I find it's like watching a favorite movie, you learn the words so well that you can open the book and pick up anywhere in the story and still enjoy it.
It would have probably been smart to discuss the matters
at hand with the group. We were, after all, heading towards a gathering of werewolves. We also weren't really sure what would be expected of us. A more in-depth game plan would have been nice, but I was fine with just reading instead.
We’d discussed our own opinions on how we should handle this little trip to the point of redundancy, and I didn’t plan on giving anyone the opportunity to discuss it with me further. I just wanted to get it over with.
We didn’t have to wait long. The slow process of boarding began. Apparently we'd made it just in time. If we had been much later we might have missed our flight. That would be terrible. That was sarcasm there, if you didn't catch it.
I haven't flown much, but I've been told that it's best to get to the airport at least an hour before your flight. That had been my plan, but try telling that to a frantic new werewolf about to meet a whole slew of her own kind.
Lucy had never really cared much about her style, but apparently the situation made clothing a lot more important in her mind. Add in her extremely over-protective mother and her extremely talkative little sister, and well . . . we didn't have to wait long at the airport.
I managed to keep my nose in my book the entire time we waited in the slowly shuffling line that led us onto the aircraft. As soon as we were on the plane, I quickly snagged the only window seat in our block of tickets.
The plane had three seats on each side of the isle. Lucy and Max slid into the two seats beside me, leaving Chase and Jason to share a row with a rather large man already sitting in the window seat.
I cringed at the smell of recycled airplane air, then buckled my seat belt and raised my book back up in front of my face. I glanced over at Lucy, but she didn't see me. Her eyes were shut tight in concentration, probably counting to ten over and over again in her head.
She didn't even notice as a young girl in a school uniform tried to shove her suitcase in the overhead compartment for our group of seats. The girl couldn't quite reach, and nearly dropped the suitcase on Lucy's head before an adult finally helped her out.
The steward gave us the whole safety spiel, and I finally started getting a little nervous. What if someone on the plane made me mad and I started a fire? If it could happen with TVs and washing machines, what was to stop me from getting angry and exploding one of the plane's engines? Maybe I should just try to sleep the whole flight.
I glanced over at Jason, who gave me a smile and a thumbs up. Chase had already managed to procure a pillow and blanket from the stewardess. I was pretty sure they didn't usually hand those things out until after takeoff. I gave him a considering look, and he mimicked Jason's thumbs up with two of his own. I turned back around as the plane started moving forward on the runway. A deep breath and away we went.
Chapter Two
The flight was thankfully uneventful. When we arrived, Lela was waiting at the small airport for us with a very large, black SUV. The back had two rows of seats so we could all fit in one trip. Lela refused to make any eye contact with me while we loaded our luggage into the back of the SUV. I felt a twinge of satisfaction at having a tall, exotic knock-out afraid of me. Petty, who me?
We were able to slide all of our luggage into the trunk space without having to stack anything. This was a nod to the amount of trunk space, and not to our minimal luggage, because it wasn't minimal at all. We had packed for all contingencies, not knowing what type of clothing would be appropriate for meeting the other wolves.
“Okay,” I announced, “Who wants the front seat?”
“You have to take it,” Lela interjected, finally flipping her long dark hair out of her face. “You’re Alpha. You can’t sit in the back.”
Oh, more werewolf etiquette; joy. Feeling crankier than ever, I asked, “What happens if you have more than two Alphas in the same car.”
Lela opened the front door and looked at me meaningfully. “They fight.”
“Who's going to know if I ride in the back?” I pushed.
Lela gave me a very serious look. “They'll know. They always do.”
I got in without another word. This was so not my idea of a vacation. Everyone else piled in, much more somber than before. Lela got in the driver's seat and started the engine. We pulled out of the lot and onto a narrow highway.
Though there are still tall trees in Moab, its color scheme was something completely foreign to me, having grown up in Oregon. Cliff faces formed out of porous rock in shades of red, orange, and brown decorated the landscape at random intervals.
From what I could see the trees were mostly oak, but we had oak in Oregon too, only our oaks were surrounded by plenty of pine trees. The landscape was so visually stunning, that I managed to turn my thoughts to absorbing the scenery the entire drive to our destination. With the amount of pending thoughts to process, it was quite a feat.
Our hotel was a quaint little inn with red paint to match the orange and red rock surroundings. We got out of the SUV and walked onto the asphalt. The perfectly manicured lawn hosted a slew of people waiting in front of a table to get what looked like ID badges.
Noticing my interest, Lela dug in her large leather purse and produced a handful of lanyards with our names on them.
“One of the reasons I got here early,” she explained. “We’re all signed in and ready to go. Plus, the latecomers had to get rooms at a different hotel after the inn filled up. This way we won’t have to drive to get to any of the meetings.”
“The meetings are all at the inn?” Lucy asked walking up behind us, quickly taking everyone’s lanyards from Lela. That's our Lucy, always straight to business.
“No,” Lela answered, forming a smirk with her full lips. She gestured her hand in a sweeping motion to the wooded area behind the inn, “they’re held out there.”
Well that wasn't ominous at all. I felt hands on my shoulders and leaned back against Jason’s chest. He has a way of always knowing when I’m stressed. Jason moved to put one arm around my shoulders, and guided me in the direction of the inn. I'm tall for a girl, but Jason is tall for a guy, so he can comfortably put his arm over my shoulders.
My feet didn’t seem to want to move. I had one lovely moment of keeping my tattered gray sneakers glued to the ground, then I had no choice but to walk into the wolf den, with my pack of wolves behind me.
Before we could reach the door of the inn, one of the last people I wanted to see came walking up. Abel is tall, dark, and handsome; either Hispanic or more likely American Indian, though he has no accent that I can decipher either way. Today his long dark hair was pulled back into a tight braid that trailed over his shoulder. I felt the sudden urge to yank that braid out of his skull, or maybe set it on fire. I resisted the urge . . . barely.
Abel hadn’t actually done anything wrong as far as me and mine were concerned, but I couldn’t help blaming him for this debacle anyway. He's the leader of the Western sector of the Werewolf Coalition, and this whole mess had begun because the lot of them hadn't put down a very crazy werewolf.
Said crazy werewolf had scratched my best friend, turning her into a werewolf, and the downward spiral went on from there. So yeah, Abel didn't really do anything wrong, but he didn't do anything right either, and a girl’s gotta have an outlet for her anger.
Abel came to stand in front of us. Jason stepped back to give me room. Abel came eye to eye with Jason’s tall frame. I was left to stare at the silver buttons on his rather tight fitting black vest. There was no shirt underneath.
Lela stood directly behind me. Her attempt at hiding would have been more effective if she weren’t an inch or two taller than me. A fleeting thought brushed through my mind that Lucy and Max must feel like they’re hanging out with a bunch of giants all the time.
Abel spoke, interrupting my thoughts. “So glad that you are here Alexondra. I’ve promised your father that I will do my best to return you to him in your current state.”
The double meaning wasn't lost on me. My current state wasn't the best, considering what a mess my life was. Still, I to
ok Abel at his word. My dad’s a demon. Breaking a promise to him would probably be bad. I still didn’t feel any safer though.
“It’s Xoe,” I grumbled in response. “And let’s hope you’re good at keeping your promises.”
He smiled. “I assure you I am. I trust your flight went well.”
“Sure,” I replied tartly. “Don't you have other guests to greet?”
Ok normally I'm not that rude, but I was in defense mode. I was in a new place that I didn't want to be in, and I was soon to be surrounded by new people I didn't want to be surrounded by. My go-to defense was grumpy. Anyone that got in my way would be showered by a torrential downpour of grumpy.
Abel chuckled. “This should be interesting.”
With that cryptic observation, Abel turned away and moseyed towards the lanyard supply table. His black jeans fit as tightly as his vest. Men should simply not wear pants that tight. His black boots blended into his jeans so that at a distance you couldn't tell where one started and where the other ended.
“You’re staring,” Chase whispered in my ear.
Crap, it probably seemed like I'd been staring at Abel’s butt. I guess I had. Not in admiration mind you. I made a mental note to always keep my eyes on the ground when I’m lost in thought, and headed towards the inn door, trying to hide my blush.
Chase chuckled and walked ahead to hold the door for me. He gave me a little salute as I walked through the doorway. Had I mentioned that this was going to be a long trip? Well, what I meant was that this was going to be a very, very, very, long trip.
By the time we pushed through the crowd in the lobby and got to our rooms it was already 5:00pm. We had two rooms, one with two beds and a cot, and the other with just two beds. Lucy and Allison were going to share a bed in the smaller room. My options were to share with Lela in the girls’ room, or share with Jason in the boys’ room. I ended up in the boys’ room.
The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) Page 30
