Wolfsbane: The Wolf Within

by Bethany Shay Porteous

  ∞

  “Has the senior prank been decided?” Hannah asked through a mouthful of sandwich at lunch the next day. “I’ve heard so many different rumors of what’s going to happen but nothing actually concrete.”

  “Some of the swim team wanted to drain the pool and fill it with sand,” Lucy chuckled. “Jeremy’s dad owns a garden company and he said he would supply the sand.”

  “I can guarantee that nothing will be coordinated and everyone will end up with a whole bunch of different pranks on the same day and it’ll be chaos.” Trey crunched his empty can in his hands. “It’ll be magnificent. I hope no one pulls their shit together to organize anything.”

  “As long as the prom doesn’t get canceled,” Grace warned. “If anyone does anything that cancels that I will seriously be rolling some heads.”

  “I had an idea for a senior prank,” I mumbled.

  “Oh?” Aiden asked beside me with a grin.

  “What?” Lucy asked as her eyes gleamed.

  “Well…I was thinking we could arm every senior with a paintball gun and some silly string and run a rampage through the halls.” Saying it out loud I felt stupid and I shrugged as I tried to brush it off causally. “Just an idea.”

  “I love it,” Josh whooped loudly and a few heads from other tables looked in our direction. “That idea came from sweet little Evelyn everyone, just saying.”

  “Imagine the mayhem,” Trey snorted with laughter. “Oh—we could put soap all over the hall floors so anyone who tries to run away—”

  “Can break their neck and die?” Hannah cut in brightly before her look sobered. “Let’s not take it too far Trey.”

  “Hmph,” he grumbled.

  “I think that’s a really good idea,” Aiden squeezed my hand. “We should start running it past the other seniors. Grace have you set up that seniors only page yet?”

  “Last night,” she pulled out her phone. “I’ll post the idea now and see how many people want to do it.”

  I felt excitement bubble within me at the thought of running around like an idiot with a paintball gun. It’d be the perfect way to end the year. Everyone began talking enthusiastically while Grace’s phone kept buzzing on the table and each time she picked it up her smile got wider and wider and seniors from other tables began giving thumbs up toward our table.

  “Looks like everyone is keen to shoot students and staff with paint,” Josh said dryly. “Dreams will be coming true that day.”

  “It needs to be so casual,” Hannah said. “Make it look like an ordinary day and then out of nowhere we just start spraying people with paint.”

  “This is either going to be really good or really bad,” Grace rubbed her face. “Either way I think it’ll be worth getting in trouble for.”

  Aiden leant across the table and got Josh’s attention. “Are you covering Hanson’s patrol tonight?”

  “Nope,” Josh said. “I’m leaving after lunch to go with my parents to pick up Katherine from the airport.”

  Hannah’s face pinched and Lucy coughed.

  All day the thought had been looming with Katherine’s impending arrival and the closer it got the more nervous I became. I hadn’t stressed too much over it but suddenly it hit me that she was in fact coming back and that I was going to have to face this girl. The one who had tried getting herself into mine and Aiden’s relationship. The one who swore until she was black and blue about how much of a worthless Luna I would be and how terrible I was for Aiden.

  My palms began to sweat.

  Why are you afraid of her? The Shadow soothed. You’re powerful she is nothing. You could end her if you wanted to.

  I swallowed the bile in my throat as more forehead broke out into a cold sweat. The cafeteria suddenly seemed dull and muted and my ears began to burn. It was right I did have more power than Katherine but there was something about the intimidating way she carried herself—like she was untouchable and the way her cold eyes would regard you in such a way that you would be reduced to nothing.

  You’re not nothing, it crooned to me as coldness blanketed my body. You are everything.

  I am everything.

  “Evie?” Grace shook my arm as everyone else stared at me. “Honey you have a bloody nose.”

  I noticed the blood stain on my blue jeans as I dazedly pressed my napkin to my face. Hannah watched me with a worried frown and Aiden’s jaw was clenching and unclenching. Grace and Lucy shared a weird look for the briefest of moments that I wondered if I imagine but all I could think about were those cold and determined words.

  You are everything.

  Chapter Six

  The bedroom was cloaked in darkness and the only light present was that which streamed under the door from the hallway. The house was silent and we were well and truly in the middle of the night as we lay in each other’s arms, our hearts beating in sync and our breaths in unison with each other. Aiden’s hand rested on my waist as my cheek pressed against the warmth of his chest and we both sighed together at the same time.

  It was an unusually warm night, so Aiden had popped the window open and the warm evening air filled the room. It smelled like summer and it wouldn’t be too far off anyway. Scents were changing lately, and it astounded me that I could pick up more accurately on these subtle changes. I had been picking up on a lot lately. My hearing seemed to be improving and my appetite had increased to match Aiden’s.

  I couldn’t understand why or how, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of that awful voice in my mind or because of the nightmares and the visions… thankfully it had been quiet in my mind for most of the day and even with the knowledge that Katherine was back in the compound my mood had remained calm and stable.

  The bed creaked lightly as Aiden shifted and tightened his grasp on me waist, his warm breath brushed over my hair and I relaxed even further into the bed.

  “What do you think our lives would be like if we weren’t wolves?” Aiden asked into the darkness. “Say we were human and there was no pack… nothing supernatural whatsoever—that we are regular teenagers about to graduate high school and head off to college.”

  I thought on his words as I tried to picture my life and I frowned. “I never would have come here; I’d still be living in Idaho…but maybe my life wouldn’t have been the way it was.”

  “Yeah,” he mused. “I would have joined the football team.”

  “I would be considering art as a professional career,” I said wistfully.

  “We still would have met,” Aiden said. “In college though, I reckon.”

  “You think?” I murmured.

  “Definitely,” he said. “We’re still destined to be together. Sometimes, I like to think about life if I wasn’t a wolf.”

  “What does it look like?” I asked as I peered up at him. “Not the football or anything, the real fantasy.”

  Aiden was quiet for a moment as he stared at me and I wondered what he was thinking. “Well, I would probably own a mechanic shop in town. We’d live in a modest two-story house with a mortgage and a leaking roof that we patch up every winter because we can’t afford to fix it. The two kids take up every extra penny we have, see?”

  My body warmed at the mention of kids. “Go on.”

  “Every room in the house would have a feature wall you designed and you’d teach art classes at the local primary school,” Aiden said with a grin.

  “I’m an art teacher?” I laughed at the thought, although I could picture it. “We have two kids?”

  “We do… a boy and a girl but we want more. I’m just trying to convince you. Life would just be normal… we’d take the kids to their sport games and ballet recitals. We’d stress about how we’re going to afford to send them to college and worry about them when they turn into hormone driven teenagers. I wouldn’t have to leave my bed in the middle of the night to run in the woods and defend four hundred odd other people.” Aiden sighed and rested his head back on mine.

  I said nothing as I closed my eyes and picture
d myself in the life he had envisioned and I found that I ached for it—the normalcy. I wouldn’t have my mind haunted with the horrors I had committed and couldn’t escape from. I’d be a plain art teacher with a husband and two children and that would be that.

  “We can be as human as we want in college,” I promised him.

  He said nothing but the light squeeze on my thigh was acknowledgement enough. I knew the stresses of the future were getting to Aiden. More and more these days he would lie in bed with me and talk about his fears. It was a huge responsibility and it would be hard for anyone to take on. We still had at least five years and I knew when the time came he would be ready. For Aiden, it felt like tomorrow and he was thinking with the mind of a teenager, that was all.

  All I could do was be by his side and keep him calm and on track and listen to him and help him through his fears. He wouldn’t be alone.

  Aiden’s breaths soon evened out as sleep took him and I lay wide awake in the warm night air as a million different thoughts made their way through my mind. They mostly circled around Aiden’s fantasy of us not being wolves and I knew deep down I never wanted to be human—or think I was human—again. My life had been miserable and I had never felt more myself knowing I was a witch. I knew the main reason behind Aiden’s emotions were that he was scared he wouldn’t be able to live up to his father and the amazing pack he had built so far.

  This was one of the reasons why I couldn’t tell Aiden about the extent of my nightmares or how I had been seeing Jonah. It would no doubt be the straw that broke the camel’s back and I felt like he was barely holding on as it was. He was doing far more patrols than he used to and would half the time only be functioning on two hours sleep.

  He did not need my drama.

  It was one of those nights where no matter what position you lay in or how many mundane thoughts you had; there was no chance in Hell you were going to sleep. So as I stroked Aiden’s arm and questioned the universe for six hours, I watched as the sky changed color and the room slowly filled with light, dim and muted at first, before the sun cast its rays across the room and I rested my eyes for a moment.

  “Evelyn,” a voice called my name softly and something touched my cheek. “Wake up.”

  I blinked my eyes open and frowned as the room appeared brighter than it had when I shut my eyes. Aiden hovered over me wearing a smile and his gym gear. “What time is it?” I mumbled as I sat up reaching around for my phone.

  “It’s nine o’clock,” he told me.

  “I swear it was five o’clock a moment ago,” I said in surprise. “I literally shut my eyes for a second.”

  “Didn’t you sleep last night?” he asked.

  “Couldn’t,” I mumbled. “I had too much on my mind. Where are you going?”

  “On a run with the boys,” he said. “Mom needs you downstairs… now don’t freak out. She’s invited the Beta family over for dinner… Katherine will be here with her mate.”

  I made a face. “It’s too early in the morning for this information. Why?”

  Aiden shrugged but took my hand. “I promise you it will be fine.”

  “Can’t we go somewhere?” I whined loudly.

  “I’d be down for that,” he said. “But mom will get mad, so, kind of have to weigh it up there.”

  “Have you heard?” Grace burst through the room with a scowl on her face. “It’s coming over for dinner.”

  “On that note,” Aiden leant down and gave me a kiss. “I’ll see you later.”

  When Aiden left the room, Grace threw herself on the bed dramatically as she groaned loudly, and I knew the Luna would be rolling her eyes downstairs at her antics. “This is going to be the worst night of my life.”

  “Do you think maybe she’s changed?” I asked hopefully.

  “Please,” Grace snorted. “People like Katherine are born as bitches.” We were both silent for a while and the image of Katherine sneering at me filled my mind. “What are you doing today?”

  “I have a piece to finish for the fair,” I said, “and I’m also seeing Hannah to do work on my magic.”

  “Bummer,” Grace muttered. “Lucy and I are going into town to see if we can scout any good hire cars for prom. We’ll send you guys some photo’s so keep your phones on you, okay?”

  “No worries,” I said as she got up from the bed and danced out of the room. Resting back into the pillows, I knew I would have to get up soon but as the comfort of the bed overwhelmed my thoughts, I rolled into the sheets and inhaled Aiden’s scent.

  Five more minutes couldn’t hurt.

  ∞

  “Hold it around you,” Hannah instructed me. “Your magic needs to be good defense as well as attack, Ev. I’m going to send some assaults your way and you can either block them or throw them back at me, it’s your choice.”

  Hannah circled me in the small space as she held a glowing ball of light in her hands. She had spoken with my father before he left and his instructions were to teach me how to fight a witch. I hoped the day would never come, but it was always good to be on the safe side. Hannah moved quickly and each orb she threw at me I blocked just as quickly, imagining them shattering into nothing and that’s what they did. Each time they exploded, they appeared to disintegrate into nothing. When I sent one back at her she released another at the same time and the two lights hit each other with such force it almost sent me on my ass.

  It was a case of seeing who could hold on the longest and I felt myself breaking a sweat as I grit my teeth and threw as much of my energy as possible into it. It wouldn’t hurt her if it did break; it was simply going to be enough pressure that she would most likely be winded. I wondered what magic she had thrown at me and the curiosity of it almost made me went to let go to see what she had mustered.

  I stared at the glowing orange light that came from my hands and frowned as it seemed to go dark in color. Was it just my eyes or was it turning black? A cold shiver danced up my spine and I panicked when my nails began to turn gray and then black. In a frantic move to stop whatever was happening, I relinquished my defense and Hannah’s power hit me so hard it sent me flying backward, eight feet away from where I had been originally.

  “Evie are you alright?” Hannah called out as she rushed over. “I wasn’t expecting you to let go.”

  “I got distracted,” I gasped as I tried to catch my breath. A quick glance at my nails let me know they were back to normal and I frowned at myself. Had Hannah seen what had happened? Had she seen the darkness my hands had taken on? Had she felt the evil?

  “Well that wasn’t too bad,” she said brightly. “I could definitely feel the energy there and let’s face it, I know you could melt my face off. Your only issue is defending yourself over a long period of time. Your attacks are outstanding if not downright frightening.”

  “Can we play with it now?” I asked. “We’ve been at the boring stuff for hours.”

  “You sound like a whiny four-year-old,” Hannah laughed. “But yes, we can do some fun stuff with it now.”

  “Watch out boys,” Trey’s voice cut into the silence of the clearing and Hannah and I turned in surprise. “We have two armed witches who aren’t afraid to use it.”

  “Aren’t you guys supposed to be running?” Hannah asked as she raised her brow. “You don’t even look as if you’ve broken a sweat.”

  “Come on show us some stuff,” Aiden encouraged as he shot me a wink. “What have the two of you been working on today?”

  Dread filled my body as the blackness that my nails had taken entered my mind. I couldn’t continue to practice the heavy stuff today—I couldn’t risk that darkness emitting from my hands again and have everyone see it. It was easy enough to cover up when Hannah wasn’t focusing too much on what I was doing but with spectators…

  “We’re done for the day,” I said as firmly as possible. “We were going to…”

  “Play, in Evie’s words.” Hannah laughed softly. “Create stuff.”

  “We can watch that,
” Aiden said as he sat down. His enthusiasm was clear; he loved watching me use my magic. Every time I created something whimsical I always thought he’d eventually get bored, but he just seemed to want to witness more and more of it.

  “Okay,” Hannah said. “Should we do that thing?”

  She whispered it quietly as if it was a grand secret, but I knew what she meant. It made me smile every time that we did it and I nodded at her as happiness bubbled in my throat. The sun rayed down on us as anticipation rose up in my chest. My fingertips buzzed with energy and I felt static all over as I danced on the tip of my toes.

  As if looking into a mirror, I watched as Hannah lifted her arms the same time as I did before we closed our eyes and breathed in deeply. I could feel the earth beneath my bare feet and my toes curled into the warm soil as my skin broke out in goosebumps. When Hannah started using her words, I used my mind and when the ring of flames shot up around us out of nowhere, the boys shouted in surprise.

  Our eyes flashed open at the same time the flames turned to a beautiful violet colored water ring and as we waved our palms in unison, the water curled and folded in on itself, moving along elegantly and complying with our demands. Hannah and I mirrored the movements of the water and it was as if we were like magnets, forced to come together. Both our giggles echoed after the other and with a loud exaltation the waves turned to butterflies that swarmed the area.

  They tickled their way across my skin and got caught in my hair as they flew this way and that. The boys watched in wonder and I met Hannah’s gaze, she was ready to release it and so was I. With a thrust of our arms the butterflies simultaneously shot into the sky, almost looking like a bunch of marbles that had been thrown in the air, before they disappeared into nothing and fat drops of water washed over all of us.

  “Woah!” Josh shouted as he tried to avoid them.

  “That was wicked!” Trey grinned. “Man, I wish I could do that. I would do all kinds of crap with that magic.”

  “Like what?” Aiden asked.