Wolfsbane: The Wolf Within

by Bethany Shay Porteous

  My clothes generally consisted of jeans, T-shirts and a pair of muddy worn sneakers that had once been white. I needed a new pair but I didn’t dare ask mom in front of Michael, he’d throw a fit.

  It was Tuesday morning so my next session was art, hopefully no one would call me out on the fact that I had missed the whole first period—the fewer questions I had to lie over the better. This class was relaxing for me, there was only one other werewolf in this class however she didn’t even look in my direction so I was able to enjoy this one solid hour of peace.

  “You are all aware that today is the final day you have on this assignment, and that I’ll be marking them over the weekend so I expect that when you leave here today, your easel will hold a completed portrait. If it doesn’t…” Miss Fields gave those who she knew wouldn’t be finished a sour smile but didn’t continue.

  The assignment was supposed to be a painting of the vase in the center of the room and we could choose whatever we decided to be inside it.

  I wasn’t putting anything inside it; instead I was focusing on the vase instead, the intricate details. Everyone else was doing flowers—though Amy, the cliché looking emo girl was drawing thorn sticks coming out of hers.

  As the class neared its finish I leant back on my stool to admire my work. I had done a plain white vase with light pink triangle patterns going across it. I did put one flower inside after changing my mind, but seeing as I had rushed it, it looked limp and wilted.

  Jumping as the siren went I dropped my brush and hurriedly picked it up as people gathered their bags and left their pictures on their easels. Miss Fields was already circling the room like a vulture, murmuring to herself with her marking sheets.

  I slung my bag over my shoulder and made to leave; tripping on my shoe as I haphazardly grazed my foot on the floor.

  “Oh, Evelyn?” Miss Fields chirped.

  I cringed and shut my eyes. “Miss Fields?”

  “I hope to see you enter last semester’s piece into the winter festival. I think you’d place well and if you wish to go on and study art it would be good for you to start building up a portfolio.” Suddenly she was in front of me, smoothing her blonde bob and pressing her lips against her teeth, I watched in avid fascination as her lipstick got stuck on her front tooth. “Every year you say you will but I never see it.”

  “I’ll try Miss Fields.” The lie sounded overused and exhausted, even to my ears.

  Michael never let me get involved in anything outside of school and as I mentioned earlier, no need to single myself out further.

  Miss Fields looked at me with a firm gaze that had me dropping my eyes nervously to the floor. “I hope so,” she said after what felt like centuries. “Have a good day.”

  I managed to slip into my English class unnoticed by Mr Maller who sharpened his row of pencils as the room bustled with chatter. People were planning their weekends, it was a typical Friday, and the school was less doom and gloom.

  I’d never planned my weekend before. I didn’t have any friends to plan anything with, plus it was safer to hide out in my room and not get beaten for two days.

  Sitting down with a sigh I pulled out my copy of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, our assigned book for the month. We had to read it as a class, together. It was tiring because I had read the page seven times before it was my turn.

  All my classes were remedial. Michael wouldn’t let the school move me up and I was stuck doing work I did in eighth Grade. I spent so much time at home on the computer, teaching myself what students my age were learning now, that I could probably be a teacher.

  “Alright!” Mr Maller barked, bits of apple spraying out of his teeth. “Pages open to fifty-six. Jenny, you start.”

  “I did the last reading, it was Ella’s turn!”

  “I have a sore throat today sir, my mother advised I shouldn’t be doing any extra talking.”

  “We all know why she has a sore throat,” coughed someone in the back of the class. Her face went red as people giggled.

  Even humans were cruel.

  In this class there were a couple of werewolves, most of the time they did harmless stuff like flick clips at me, or gum or something like that. Nothing violent like some of the others did.

  “I hope that wasn’t a derogatory comment being announced in my class Mr Jones.”

  “Absolutely not sir.” Max Jones was always saying filthy things. He was crude and disgusting and spent more time on his iPhone watching porn than actually doing any work. He didn’t even use earphones.

  “Jenny read from where we left off,” Mr Maller ordered looking flustered.

  “Oh my God!” Her annoying pitchy voice cried out, “It’s like you have a thing for me sir, you always pick me.”

  I crinkled my nose in disgust. He was forty years old.

  I watched as the tip of his nose turned white and I sunk further into my chair as he began his verbal lashing about how he shouldn’t be teaching a class of idiots. It happened every session. I focused on the book, continuing to read and by the time I had gotten through five pages, he had given up and was behind his desk. Jenny had been sent to the principal’s office and the rest of the class did what they wanted to.

  My palms began to sweat as the class was almost over. I had gym next and that class was—it is—Hell with a capital ‘H’. Jonah, the Alpha’s son, is in that class along with his friends and mate. They were the main instigators behind my attacks.

  Jonah’s mate, Heather, she was the giver of my weekly swirly’s along with her friend Jackie. The boys wouldn’t be seen dead going into the girl’s bathroom after all.

  Gym was one of the many places where he could get me.

  I had copped a lot in this class and it was a miracle my bones still functioned properly.

  I could never really grasp why Jonah hated me so much, above all the others. I get that I wasn’t a purebred wolf but he took it further than shunning. The physical and mental abuse I received from him was astounding to me. It hurt my head to try and understand it, so I had given up and just accepted it.

  Changing for gym was an awkward and awful event. Heather and all her cronies would be up near the mirror, squawking away while shooting looks down the back of the change room to me. Thankfully the room was always too full for them to do anything to me in here, and if I changed quickly enough, I wouldn’t be alone with them and could follow the crowd outside.

  “You know Evelyn,” Heather called out. Some people lifted their heads in vague interest as they usually did when Heather was ready to insult me. “The point of wearing a bra is to keep your boobs in place. You don’t have any.”

  How original.

  They all found themselves hilariously funny though, giggling away as they finished getting ready.

  Slipping out of the room and into the gym I slowly made my way over to my class; positioning myself as far away from Jonah as possible. As I looked around the room my heart slowly sunk into a puddle of depression.

  The class was going to consist of rope climbing, archery and trust exercises.

  “Everyone needs to pick a partner,” ordered Miss Winde as she rubbed her forehead. Miss Winde was probably the best looking teacher at this school—according to the male population. She was a werewolf so no wonder she was beautiful. “We are doing group cycles today. I’ll group each pair and you will either start with rope climbing, archery or the trust exercises until you get rotated out and move on. Questions?”

  Met with silence she nodded and began moving people toward their first exercises.

  Feeling a tight grip on my arm I jumped in shock, my skin crawling as I was turned to face Zac Keenan.

  “Hey Evelyn,” Zac smirked down at me, his platinum blonde buzz cut glinting under the lighting of the gym. “You look like you need a partner.”

  My palms felt slick and I rubbed them on my shorts as I tried to swallow the lump of fear in my throat as his hold tightened. Zac is Jonah’s closest friend, if he was partnering with me, then they had
something up their sleeves.

  Sometimes I wish I was strong enough to be totally feisty and just punch him in the face or shove him off—I tried that once. Normally people learn from their mistakes and I make it a point to do so.

  I wondered what injuries I was going to sustain in this class.

  “Zachary and Evelyn,” she wrinkled her nose as she said my name, and her eyes glanced at Zac as she tried to grasp why a wolf was pairing with me. Her eyes glazed over slightly and I realized she was using the pack link to speak to him. Coming back to awareness she shrugged and said, “You two over to archery.”

  “Alright!” Zac nodded and slung his arm over my shoulder. “Come on team mate.”

  Dragging me like a ragdoll I stumbled on my footing and tried to ignore the whispers and hisses in my direction. I considered feigning an illness, pretending I was having cramps or anything that would get me away from Zac and whatever he was planning on doing to me.

  As the leader for this section listed the rules and demonstrated how to use the bows I found myself increasingly nervous that I was paired up with someone so sadistic and was going to be shooting flying objects into the air.

  At least the ends were blunted, they’d still hurt if it hit you though.

  “I think I’ll go first,” Zac said cockily as he prepared his arrow. I stood back and toyed with my bow, thinking up ways to get out of this mess. I watched as his arms flexed as he pulled back the string, aiming at the target.

  It was just a formality for any watching humans; a werewolf didn’t have to aim.

  He hit the target perfectly.

  “Alright, your turn.”

  My heart was beating too fast and I knew his senses would have picked it up. He wolfishly grinned at me, and not in a nice way, his canines poking out, glinting. My arms shook as I lifted the bow and aimed at the target and I jumped in fright when his hands went to my waist, his back pressed up behind me.

  “Your posture is off,” he purred into my ear.

  My eyes shut in disgust at how his hold tightened briefly and he maneuvered my body. The boys did this a lot. Jonah didn’t get involved anymore, not when he found Heather as his mate—hell if he touched me like that she’d kill me and him.

  Werewolves were crazy possessive over what was theirs.

  Zac however hasn’t found his mate yet, which left me susceptible to his … assaults.

  Making to move out of his hold his hands tightened and held me in place, his lips at my ear. “It’s almost not as fun anymore, having you all to myself. As weak and pathetic as you are, you still have a hot body.” My skin crawled and I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat as his hand ghosted across my mid-section.

  Where the hell were the teachers? This was practically foreplay.

  “I think even Jonah misses it, wouldn’t want Heather to know that would we?” He bit my ear and I ducked my head, clutching the bow. “You know if I didn’t have a mate out there somewhere—boy, I’d have some fun with you. I don’t know why you don’t enjoy this,” he murmured, his grasp tighter. His wolf was getting worked up; I could feel the evidence pressing into my back. “It’s not like you’ll ever have a soulmate.”

  Smack.

  He jumped and stumbled backward as my arm came back and hit him in the chest, my arrow hitting the target dead on. I blinked back the stinging assault of tears and turned to face him, his evil smirk still in place.

  “Your turn.”

  BOOK TWO

  Read On…

  Chapter One

  Deep breaths Charlotte, I told myself for the millionth time that morning. I focused my gaze back on the scenery that floated beneath me. The stewardesses walked up and down the aisles, serving food or drink before gathering behind a curtain together periodically to share gossip and update each other on the people they had just served.

  Sighing, I shut my eyes and rested my head against the uncomfortable seat, briefly regretting not taking my father up on his offer to fly me first class, although I believe that was more of a sarcastic offer than a serious one. A red haired boy with buckteeth and huge glasses was kicking my chair from behind and for a second I hoped puberty wouldn’t be kind to the little brat.

  “Stop doing that Jason!” His mother hissed from behind me trying to be quiet, though with my sensitive hearing I could pick up on her words easily.

  “But I’m bored!” He whined and the sound grated on my ears. I closed my eyes and grit my teeth as my wolf itched within my mind.

  “We could have run!” My wolf hissed at me. My skin tingled as I tried to calm myself, feeling her pushing within the confines of my mind.

  “Oh sure, one wolf vs a whole bunch of rogues we’d no doubt stumble into? Get a grip!” Regaining control I opened my eyes, pushing my wolf into the background just as the stewardess came toward me.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, trying to ignore the tension in my voice.

  “Yes ma’am?” Her brown eyes regarded me with curiosity, as did any human. They could sense that there was something unnatural about us; they could just never put their finger on what exactly was unnatural.

  “Can I please have a glass of water?” I’d prefer a bottle of Wolfsbane but I doubt she’d know what the heck that was.

  “Of course!” She promptly turned and left and I rested back into my seat, closing my eyes, only to flick them open moments later when Jason the brat kept kicking my chair.

  Peering slightly behind me I noted his mother was no longer present so I turned around fully, curling my lip into a snarl and making a point to show my canines. I let my wolf forward and I felt my eyes glow amber and I watched as the boy’s face paled.

  “Kick my chair one more time and I will hide under your bed and eat you in the middle of the night!” I hissed angrily. The boy’s eyes widened with fright, his mouth dropping open with shock as his spine stiffened and he sat straight up in his seat.

  I quickly turned around, once again pushing my wolf to the back of my mind as I smiled softly at his approaching mother who must have been returning from the bathroom. She smiled at me in surprise; she was probably expecting a scowl seeing as her arrogant child had been kicking my chair for the past three hours.

  “Mommy,” the boy whispered in panic.

  “Enough Jason,” she scolded. “I have heard enough out of you on this flight. Sit still and please for the love of God be quiet.”

  I sat smugly in my seat, feeling a little better now that my chair wasn’t being kicked every five seconds. The kid will be dreaming of amber eyed monsters eating him in his sleep. That poor mother is going to have a rough time trying to get him off to sleep in the future.

  “You are a terrible person,” my wolf scolded. “He’s just being a kid.”

  “And I’m just being a tired adult who doesn’t want some grimy little twerp kicking the back of my chair,” I told her. Once again I turned my eyes to the passing view below me while my wolf shut me off. It looked to me like a patchwork blanket below; there were so many different colored fields.

  “Your water ma’am.” She all but shoved the glass in front of me and I took it gingerly, careful not to spill it. How much water did she think I needed? “So are you going home or visiting?”

  My skin prickled at her question. Why? Why could she not just give me the water and leave? Clearing my throat I calmed myself and took a breath. “Home for Thanksgiving.”

  “Oh, that must be nice.”

  “Not really,” I said tersely. “Really, I’m hoping that this plane will crash and I won’t have to set foot in Cody, Wyoming.” I took the water in one gulp and handed her back the glass. “Thanks, that’s all I need.”

  “Oh,” she blinked in surprise, her cheeks a little red. “Uh…okay.” She walked away, looking back with a small frown before going back behind her gossip curtain.

  “God, she’s rude.”

  “She’s done nothing but scowl on this whole flight.”

  “Well apparently she wants the plane to crash. I’d prefer
it didn’t, I’ve got an excited four year old that can’t wait to have some turkey with his mom.” Her voice was haughty and I rolled my eyes. Yippee for you sweetheart.

  “You need to run, you’re getting bitchy.”

  “Maybe I’m bitchy because you haven’t shut up for the past three hours!” I snapped at my wolf. “I’m nervous enough as it is about going back home, I don’t need you in my ear. Not now.”

  She didn’t say anything else and I grumbled under my breath. I hadn’t been home since I started college, not even for Christmases or birthdays. This was the first Thanksgiving I was having at home in two years and I was not looking forward to it. The only reason I was coming back was because my father used the Alpha command on me, so I assumed he was tired of my disappearing act.

  I wonder if he would be worse now than he was before.

  The death of my mother had destroyed him and he was a changed man. At first it hadn’t seemed like he’d been altered at all, but it didn’t take long for the cracks to show. How he’s still Alpha I have no idea. Brennan should have gotten some balls and taken over by now, given that he was next in line.

  My mother died in my senior year of high school. Rogues kidnapped her to get back at my father for killing one of their own. I never got told the full extent of what happened to her, I’d heard enough when the word ‘torture’ had come up. I didn’t need to hear anything else, I didn’t want to.

  My father was never the same again.

  I could understand why he changed—all wolves would understand why. Losing your mate was one of the most painful experiences for a werewolf. A wolf’s mate is specifically chosen for you by the Moon Goddess herself. You could identify your mate at the age of eighteen but before that you had to learn who your wolf was. For a wolf’s childhood up until age eleven, you’re really only human. You have no extra senses, no wolf in your mind—you live human and that’s an important process. If a wolf didn’t learn their humanity young they’d be too primal and volatile as a furry creature.