“Turn invisible and spy on people. I particularly like the idea of melting people’s brains.” Trey winked at me and I struggled to find a smile to return it.
“Well,” a feminine voice cut into our little crowd and we all looked over. “If it isn’t the two witches of Wolfsbane.”
Katherine stood proudly in her gym shorts and hot pink sports bra, her black hair braided elegantly and hung over one shoulder. Her makeup was impeccable for a wolf who had no doubt shifted at some point today and her green eyes regarded us with contempt. To her left stood a man about two inches taller than her with slicked back blonde hair and deep water blue eyes. He wore black shorts and no shirt and his left arm bore a thick white scar, but it was so intricately done that it looked deliberate.
I felt Aiden’s presence behind me immediately as his palm rested on my hip.
“Didn’t mom ask you to stay at the house until you had dinner with the Alpha family?” Josh asked with a frown. He was always a rule follower. “You shouldn’t be out and about amongst the pack.”
“Calm down,” Katherine rolled her eyes. “I was taking a run and no one usually comes out this far. Well, they never used to.”
Hannah, being her polite and always welcoming self, allowed a small smile to grace her features and she stepped forward. “It’s good to see you Katherine, how are you?”
Katherine’s eyes narrowed on Hannah, the way they would if a mosquito had just landed on your arm. Looking at the girl who had once been part of my insecurities, I found myself feeling less vulnerable to her. I felt stronger and prouder. I knew my place in this pack now and those dark words floated through my mind before I could stop them.
You are everything.
I am everything. What was she but some she-wolf who had more enemies than she did friends?
“I’m well Hannah,” Katherine sneered with a curled lip. “This is my mate River.” She said his name so reverently it was obvious how much she cared for him. “River, these are some of my old friends… Trey and Aiden.”
I didn’t like the way Aiden’s name rolled off her tongue and the way she said it was as if River already knew who he was. Had she really been honest about her past?
“And this is Evelyn,” she raised her brows at me.
“Nice to meet you all,” River said with a friendly smile and I had to hide my look of surprise at his openness. To be honest, I had expected a welcome as cold as the one Katherine had given. “I’ve heard a lot about you all… especially you.” River eyed me with interest. “The rumors about you are flying here, there and everywhere.”
“Most of them are just rumors,” Hannah said.
“I’m sure they are,” River said. “We managed to see a bit of what you girls were doing…it looked incredible.”
“Thank you,” Hannah said with a genuine smile. “How are you enjoying Wolfsbane so far?”
I faded away from the conversation as my eyes caught Katherine’s figure. I followed her gaze and realized they were zeroed in on my finger where Aiden’s delicate promise ring sat proudly. Aiden’s hand remained on my waist, but he seemed more relaxed now when he realized River wasn’t being threatening.
Katherine’s eyes flicked up to mine and the way they narrowed should have made me squirm.
It didn’t.
Good, the kind voice was back in my mind. You are more than her, you are Luna.
I frowned. Was that the good voice or the bad voice? It was starting to become increasingly difficult to distinguish through the two of them.
“Well we should head back,” Katherine said as she tore her eyes away from my hand. “We’ll see you at dinner, Aiden.”
Was she aware she’d be seeing me as well?
She practically hauled River away who looked surprised at the abruptness of their departure and Hannah gave me a look of ‘knew she’d be the same’. Trey and Josh simply shrugged and brushed it off as guys do, did men ever look deeply into anything? Turning to face Aiden I smiled at him.
“Are you almost done?” I asked.
“Almost,” he smiled. “We still need to put Josh through his final paces, given he slacked off in the beginning—”
“I caught up!” Josh spluttered. “I walked for five minutes.”
“So that’s five minutes extra run time,” Trey slapped his back. “Come on, don’t be a girl about it.”
“Oh?” Hannah raised her eyebrows.
“Ah, wrong audience.” Trey smacked his head.
Aiden sniggered before he took my chin and brought my mouth up for a sweet kiss. “I’ll see you later.”
Watching them walk away, I looked at Hannah and chewed the inside of my lip. “What was she like when you saw her the first time?”
“Just as bad,” she muttered as she looked straight ahead. “River seems nice though, like actually genuine. How he ended up with Katherine astounds me. But… did you see… I mean I don’t want to make you uncomfortable—”
“I saw how she stared at Aiden,” I sighed. “She can’t possibly have feelings for him, she has River.”
“I think she just likes the idea of him. He’s going to be an Alpha one day and you’re in the position she craved for so long. River is just a regular pack wolf.” Hannah shook her head. “Sometimes I feel bad about myself but then I remember I’m not Katherine, so life isn’t all that bad.”
“Hannah!” I laughed out loud before clamping my hand over my mouth.
“Well really,” Hannah said with wide eyes. “Look at her, she has no future goals or prospects and has to live away from her family with her nice but somewhat boring mate. Look at us. You’re going to be Luna and I will be a Beta. We have extra talents and we’re going to be responsible for the lives of hundreds of people… like.” Hannah trailed off and rubbed her head. “Sometimes it’s overwhelming when I think about the amount of responsibility we’re going to be facing after college.”
I blinked at Hannah as I realized both she and Josh were experiencing the same stresses as Aiden and I were. Being a Beta wasn’t an easy job and I remembered when Michael would come home looking more stressed than the day before.
“It keeps me up at night,” I admitted out loud.
“Same here,” Hannah said softly. “Josh breaks out in hives from the stress of just thinking about it.”
“I think Aiden wishes he was human.”
“So does Josh,” Hannah whispered. “We talk about it a lot, what our lives would be like if we weren’t wolves. It helps I think.”
“It’s a fun game to play,” I said softly. “Then I start to wonder if giving ourselves that fantasy is helpful at all. We start to think about a life that isn’t remotely possible.”
“Some wolves do it,” Hannah muttered. “They use witches to suppress their wolf side and they live like humans.”
“Would you really do that?” I asked with a frown.
“No,” she chuckled. “I love being a wolf, all serious stressing aside, I wouldn’t swap my life for anything. I heal from injuries in a second and I don’t get sick. We don’t suffer any life-threatening diseases and I’m a witch. There is no way I drew the short straw when I was born.”
I wondered if I’d still hear voices if I was human.
“We better head back in,” I said. “I’ve got to do some work for the fair.”
We walked back towards the compound in silence as my thoughts drifted back to my imaginary human life with Aiden. We’d have human children and do human things and rather than having to run patrols around the border, we’d have a dog and a back yard. It would be simple and easy.
The grass isn’t always green on the other side, The Shadow taunted and I swallowed the lump in my throat as the voice invaded my senses. I’m not going to leave you Evelyn. I’m always here and I’m always watching. I’m waiting.
“For what?” I mumbled out loud and Hannah looked at me confused.
“Huh?” she asked.
“What?” I tried to act surprised.
“You said ‘
for what?’ what’s that?” Hannah looked confused and I used it against her.
“Thinking out loud,” I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it.”
∞
Setting down the hair dryer I stared in the bathroom mirror and tried to see into myself. Where was this voice coming from? Pushing my face up to the mirror, I looked closely into my eyes and could only find the light trim of amber around my iris that Aiden loved to point out. It looked like there was only me in there, but I knew I wasn’t alone. My head was being shared with something that wasn’t natural and the feelings it gave me were not nice.
My mouth was aching tonight and I wasn’t sure why it felt so pressured. My tongue felt like it was on fire and my teeth felt… loose… even though they looked like they always did. Even my skin felt itchy and I was beginning to wonder if Hannah and I had walked through a particularly bad area of the forest and touched something that might be making me feel this way.
I jumped when the bathroom door open and Aiden grinned at me as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a groan.
“This is going to be the longest night ever,” he grumbled.
He was dressed up as well because according to The Luna, this was a formal sit down as River was a member from another pack. Aiden had been forced into black dress pants and a light blue shirt and as always, he cuffed and rolled the sleeves up his arms. His hair had been growing a lot longer these days and I ran my hands through the long tresses knowing he’d soon have to cut it.
“You look beautiful,” he said into my neck before placing feather light kisses along the column and edging down to my mark. His arms wrapped themselves around me from behind and I let my eyes flutter closed for a moment at the feelings of pure bliss that assaulted my senses. “I love you in yellow.”
I peeked at myself in the knee length yellow summer dress The Luna had laid out on my bed. It clung to my upper body before fanning out slightly to my knees, a black ribbon tied around the middle and finishing in a delicate bow at the back. It seemed like overkill to me, but I wasn’t going to ignore The Luna’s orders. The yellow color itself sat in a gentle contrast on my tanned skin and I smiled at Aiden as I leaned forward and picked up my silver clip, sweeping my hair over my left shoulder, pinning it in place.
“All done,” I mumbled as I turned to face Aiden. “How long do you think this will go for tonight?”
“The rest of our lives?” Aiden snorted. “I’m taking a patrol at ten.”
“Aw,” I pouted at the thought of going to bed without him. “Aiden.”
“It’s only until twelve,” he assured me. “Ugh, they’re here.”
“What?” I craned my ears and frowned. So much for thinking my hearing had been improving.
With a resigned sigh I followed Aiden from the bathroom and admired the back of him briefly before we began the descent of the stairs. Loud laughter and excited chatter echoed through the foyer and I caught Grace’s eye at the bottom who looked like she’d rather be tearing off layers of her skin than engage in this evening.
Katherine was wearing a deep blue, low cut dress that ended a few inches above her knees. Her long black hair had been slicked up into a high pony-tail. River stood behind her with a hand around her waist, wearing a nervous expression as he met with The Alpha family.
How many more uncomfortable dinners would I have to sit through this week? First there was Sam and now Katherine.
“Come in,” The Luna said as everything calmed down. “Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”
“I’ll help you!” Katherine’s mother chirped.
The two women wandered off to the kitchen and Alpha James and Beta Ward headed off into the Alpha’s study, leaving the rest of us standing awkwardly in the foyer trying to look everywhere but each other.
“So River,” Grace said brightly. “What are your college plans?”
“Eh, I’m not doing the whole college scene.” River took Katherine’s hand and kissed it. “We’re going traveling for a few years and then we’ll decide what we want to do.”
“Traveling?” Grace asked.
“Europe obviously,” Katherine said as she seemed to tick off some mental list. “Australia, India, and Asia. Then when we come back we might settle in New York for a while… the sky is the limit.”
“What about the pack?” Aiden asked with a frown.
“We might not be… we’re thinking about not staying amongst a pack,” River shrugged as if it were simple. “Heaps of wolves are leaving pack life and living human.”
Aiden tensed and it was in that moment I knew for absolute certainty that as much as Aiden played with the idea of being human he would never actually want to be one.
“Neither of us wants to be bossed around for the rest of our lives,” Katherine announced loudly.
“Katie,” River said quietly beside her. “Not the time or the place.”
“Please,” she scoffed. “These are my friends.”
Grace laughed out loud and it echoed through the foyer like nails being scraped on a chalk board. “Come on Katie,” Grace said. “Let’s not play pretend.”
“Dinner!” The Luna announced at just at the right time.
I stared at Aiden with wide eyes and even he looked stunned as we headed for the dining room. Grace gave me a quick wink before lightly skipping her way through the house and I wondered how Katherine was going to react to what Grace had said. She’d come up with something to get her back, that was her typical way of handling things.
It was easy to observe the couple without being noticed. Everyone was so busy firing questions at the two of them that I was easily forgotten, and I could watch to my heart’s content.
For a male wolf River was considerably aloof and would only touch Katherine for the briefest of moments. Most male wolves could hardly keep their hands to themselves, even now Aiden had one hand on my thigh and one around the back of my chair as he pretended to listen to their conversation about colleges. It could also be though, that River was a shy individual and didn’t feel comfortable being affectionate publicly.
A wave of dizziness washed over me and I rubbed my temple discreetly as I dropped my eyes to my hands, noting they were shaking a little. My throat seemed to be closing and the feeling of deep dread overwhelmed me. This couldn’t be happening again, not here and not now. Praying to Morgana that Aiden didn’t feel the change in my body, I knew excusing myself from the table was out of the question. As breathing was becoming harder and tears pricked in my eyes I wondered how discreet I could keep this emotionally random outburst.
As I reached for my glass of water my vision blurred and I knocked it over. It clattered loudly on a plate and everyone jumped in surprise at the loud noise.
“S-sorry,” I stammered quickly. Everyone went back to what they were doing but Aiden grabbed my hands in his.
“Evelyn,” he said quietly. “Are you okay?”
No! Aiden couldn’t see this.
My skin felt hot and flushed as I quickly got up from the table, but I didn’t even feel connected to my body. It was as if I was watching myself leave the room and head upstairs, Aiden hot on my heels. My chest ached with pain and when I reached the top, I leaned heavily against the wall, Aiden immediately by my side.
“Evelyn!” he demanded. “You’re freaking me out, what’s wrong?”
“Can’t breathe,” I finally gasped as my hand went to my chest. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it. My head throbbed as my blood rushed and sweat coated my skin in a slick wetness. I felt nauseous and my hands shook like crazy as that dark and heavy feeling stormed over me. This was the longest it had ever lasted before, whatever this was. It was terrifying me that it wasn’t going away. I felt like I was dying—detaching from everything that was around me.
“Evelyn,” Aiden’s voiced sounded muted by my side and I looked at him dazedly as I tried to control my thoughts. He looked over his shoulder; he looked like he was shouting and panic was wrought on his face.
I grit my teeth as anger suddenly overwhelmed me and I brought my hands to my head in fury, pressing my palms to my temple.
Enough!
∞
You’ve done my work for me, The Shadow laughed. You brought yourself to me, how thoughtful.
What do you want from me? Why are you here? I pleaded.
If you want to be the hero Evelyn, then you must face the evil as well. You can’t bury it. I’m going to be here for a very long time…my friends will make sure of that.
Who are your friends?
It went quiet and I had the sensation I was floating, like I wasn’t here… I was just gliding along in a dark abyss that I didn’t know how to remove myself from. A flash of white streaked across my eyes and I stared at the lone white wolf running away from me into the darkness. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at me before cold laughter broke the silence and two women appeared. Both had flowing black locks of hair that was wild and untamed. Their brown eyes held nothing but darkness and despair as they seemed to relish in the pain and misery I was feeling within myself.
The wolf howled, and it was so loud it sent a pained scream from my lips as I tried to cover my ears—where the hell were they?
The laughter stopped instantly.
I’m here.
Who’s here? I whined pitifully.
Remember, I am here.
“I’m here,” a soft voice floated through my mind and my skin prickled at the familiarity. My eyes whipped open and I found I was laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Movement to my left caught my eye and I gasped out loud.
“Mom?”
Chapter Seven
“I’m fine dad,” I said. “Really I—it was nothing… it just happens sometimes… I’m fine.”
“Evelyn,” my father’s voice was stern down the line and I winced. “You have been experiencing panic attacks and haven’t told anyone about them. You could have told me when I was visiting—I knew something was off! I trusted you to tell me if something was wrong. You weren’t open with me.”
“Dad… it honestly is nothing, I mean—people have panic attacks all the time, right?” Aiden’s head shot up and he stared at me with fierce brown eyes and I bit my lip. “I’m tired—I’m sick of being everyone’s problem.”
Wolfsbane: The Wolf Within Page 10
