Feral

by Nicole Luiken

  Her dad glanced over at her, alarmed. “Possibly. But, Chloe, promise me you won’t put yourself in danger. Your Change will come in its own time.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Chloe said sharply. “I didn’t break my leg on purpose.”

  “Glad to hear it,” her dad said.

  Chloe continued to think out loud. “So, if adrenaline can trigger the Change from human to wolf, do you need to be extra calm to Change back?”

  Her mom pursed her lips. “It helps. When I first Changed back, I did it while I was asleep. It took me a while to master the trick consciously.”

  Disappointment tightened her chest. If Changing back were as easy as falling asleep, Marcus would have done it on his own already.

  chapter

  5

  Chloe’s stomach clenched when Judy didn’t get on the bus Monday morning. Did the Alpha still cling to life or had she slipped away?

  But minutes before the second bell rang, Judy bounced into homeroom. She seemed so cheerful that Chloe risked nudging Kyle.

  “Is her mom better?”

  He forgot his scorn and grinned at her. “Word is she turned a corner.”

  Chloe’s spirits rose, but caution tinged her hope. Please let this last-minute reprieve not be followed by an even swifter collapse. People didn’t generally ‘recover’ from terminal cancer. But maybe werewolves, especially Alpha werewolves, did.

  Surprise turned to shock when Judy went up to Ilona and hugged her.

  Ilona’s pale eyebrows flew up. Her arms hung loose as if she didn’t know what to do with them. Finally, she gave Judy a small pat on the back. “What’s going on?” she mouthed at Chloe.

  Chloe shrugged.

  Judy released Ilona, beaming. “That’s for your mother. I’m sorry I acted so skeptical before. Please apologize for my rudeness. I thought all that holistic stuff was nonsense, but the crystals your mom gave my mother are working! She’s sitting up and smiling. She even ate toast this morning!” Judy danced away as if toast for breakfast was better than rock concert tickets.

  Chloe would feel the same way if her mother had cancer. She shuddered.

  Chloe eyed Ilona thoughtfully. “I didn’t know your mother practiced holistic medicine.” Chloe didn’t believe in crystals herself, but illness could be affected by a person’s mood—placebos proved that. So if the crystals made the Alpha feel better, Chloe was all for them. Plus, they were pretty.

  “She’s not my mother,” Ilona muttered under her breath.

  Probably only someone with werewolf senses would have heard her, but Chloe’s curiosity sparked. She leaned across the aisle. “What do you mean she’s not your mother?”

  Ilona’s eyes widened. “Nothing. I was just kidding.”

  “No, you weren’t.” Chloe pushed harder—from concern now. Anything touching on the Alpha was automatically Pack business. “Who is she, if not your mother?”

  “Not so loud!” Ilona grabbed her arm. Chloe allowed herself to be hustled over to the window where they wouldn’t be heard over the class clamour.

  “So?” Chloe repeated.

  Ilona squirmed. “My mother’s dead. Basia is my … aunt. She looks exactly like my mother.”

  “Her identical twin?”

  “Yes.” Ilona bit her lip. “When we emigrated, there were some legal issues. My aunt didn’t want to wait for paperwork, so she used my mom’s passport. Look, would you mind not spreading that around? As far as the principal knows, she is my mother.”

  “Uh, okay.” It was still weird, but it wasn’t any of her business.

  Class started, ending the conversation.

  Chloe kept her head down and ignored the Pack teens as much as she could. They returned the favour—until last period of the day. Gym class. Which was, of course, taught by Coach Wharton.

  In the locker room, Chloe changed into sweats. She followed the others outdoors to the sports field with a stone face. Whatever taunts came her way, she wasn’t going to let them know she cared.

  Coach stopped her halfway through her warmup lap. “Chloe, why weren’t you at practice on Saturday?”

  Fury engulfed her. Because you told me not to come unless I could Change. “I bro—hurt my leg.” At the last moment Chloe remembered their townie audience and substituted hurt for broke.

  “And are you all healed up now?” Coach asked, disdain in his face.

  She fought to hold his stare. “Yes,” she said, even though her dad had warned her to take it easy today.

  He waited until she dropped her gaze, then said, “Get a jersey and go to the other side of the field. You’re on team blue.”

  Judy, Kyle, Dean and Brian were all team red. He’d slotted her with the townies.

  Chloe clenched her hands into fists and tried not to snarl. Be stone. She spied Ilona sitting cross-legged on the sidelines, still in her regular clothes, reading a book. Ilona often sat out of gym. Chloe didn’t know why—Ilona seemed healthy otherwise. “Why aren’t you playing?” she asked.

  Ilona glanced up. “I’m anemic.”

  In the bright sunlight, she did look a touch pale. Chloe’s lip curled. So much for the healing powers of the crystal charms provided by Ilona’s aunt. If they actually worked, then Ilona wouldn’t be sick.

  Pride forced Chloe to play soccer as if her life depended on it. She chased the ball relentlessly. Despite her efforts, Blue team quickly fell behind. Though she did get the satisfaction of faking out Dean and scoring on him. Chloe smirked. “Nice try.”

  His face turned red. “I hear you reported a feral. Funny how no one else has seen this mad wolf.”

  Crap! She hadn’t mentioned the feral since she’d figured out it was Marcus, but her dad must have told the Alpha about her first sighting. Now everyone would be looking for a strange werewolf.

  “Maybe it was a coyote,” Brian said.

  She was on the verge of faking a laugh and agreeing—anything to get the pressure off Marcus—when Judy chimed in. “I bet she just made it up. We all know how Chloe likes to be the center of attention.”

  Words curdled in her throat. Hurt stabbed her.

  You were my friend last year.

  But apparently the Alphas’ daughter couldn’t be friends with a Dud.

  Chloe skipped track and field practice and boarded the bus to go home. Not because she was sick and tired of being treated like a leper—though she was sure everyone would assume she’d crawled off to lick her wounds—but because her problems were an anthill compared to Marcus’s Mount Everest. She needed to focus on helping him before he got shot.

  She leaned her head against the windowpane, studying the school yard as if fascinated, to ward off anyone who might try to talk to her. Some bushes moved and Dean pushed his way out, his hair mussed. A minute later, Ilona emerged from behind the screen of branches. Her smile looked self-satisfied. Well, well. So Ilona had caught him then. Happily, Chloe’s main feeling was amusement. She was so over Dean.

  A pang went through her as she remembered how she, Abby and Judy had naively assumed they would marry within their own Pack, mentally pairing Chloe with Dean, Abby with Brian, and Judy with either Kyle or Marcus. Then Conrad Wharton joined the Pack and they all conceived massive crushes on him, even though he was at least ten years older. Chloe’s infatuation had only lasted until Coach’s first brutal training session. Abby’s had lingered.

  Thinking about Abby reminded Chloe of her teddy bears, and she grinned as an idea hit her.

  After scrupulously leaving a note for her mother, Chloe jogged through the woods to the Alphas’ house.

  She’d expected Marcus to appear and tag along. When he didn’t show, her belly fluttered. What if he’d left? What if someone had seen him lurking and raised the alarm?

  She took a deep breath. Stick to the plan. Get Hyde.

  Judy was at practice. Nathan’s pickup was gone, but, of course, Olivia was still too weak to be left alone. Two cars sat in the driveway, a candy-red old Chevy that Brian sometimes drove and a te
al-green Mazda with a crystal dangling from the mirror.

  Luck favoured her. Brian’s ditzy mom, Kristen, opened the door. She squinted at Chloe as if not quite recognizing her. “Chloe? What are you doing here?”

  Ditz or not, she was still Pack and outranked Chloe. Chloe lowered her gaze respectfully. “I’m here to pick up something from Judy’s room, and my mom will want me to ask if the Alpha needs anything.” There, no lies.

  Someone else might have asked questions. Brian’s mom just waved her on in.

  To Chloe’s surprise Olivia was sitting in the living room. Swaddled under an afghan and wearing pajamas, but still a far cry from Friday’s bed-ridden condition.

  A large red crystal hung on a silver chain around the Alpha’s neck, which looked odd with the jammies. Underneath her black wig her cheeks had actual colour in them.

  Sitting in the easy chair across from the Alpha was a stranger, but judging by the crystals she wore this must be Ilona’s mother. Aunt. Whatever. She had the same wheat-blonde hair as Ilona. Her skin was tanned, and she wore an embroidered peasant blouse and a long, flowing skirt. She glanced at Chloe with disinterest, then picked up a polished green stone—jade, maybe?—and handed it to Olivia. “Hold this against your heart chakra. Meditating on it will promote physical healing.”

  Chloe suppressed a snort. The Alpha had stomach cancer. There was nothing wrong with her heart.

  Olivia accepted the jade stone, but didn’t put it to her heart. “Just a moment, Basia.”

  Basia sighed, clearly not liking the interruption.

  “Chloe,” the Alpha said. “Was there something you needed?”

  Chloe smiled cheerfully. “Just dropped by to borrow something from Judy. Is there anything my family or I can get you?”

  “No, no … I’m fine.” A small smile. “We still haven’t eaten the casserole your mother brought on Friday. Though it looks delicious.”

  Chloe bobbed her head, then turned away. As she edged down the hall to Judy’s room Basia said imperiously, “Your flow has been disturbed. We must start over from the beginning.”

  Chloe opened the door to Judy’s bedroom.

  Hyde, Abby’s teddy bear, sat on top of Judy’s dresser. Unlike Jekyll, who’d mostly sat on the shelf, Hyde had been part of the girls’ games for years. Chloe couldn’t help cuddling him for a moment. Grief for Abby clogged her throat.

  Chloe wasn’t sure if she believed in an Afterlife—heaven or reincarnation or anything—but in case Abby’s spirit could hear her, she made a promise. I’m going to save your brother, I swear it.

  Except now, a pang of doubt hit her. Would Marcus even recognize Hyde? Would it be enough? After so much time in Judy’s room, would the toy even smell like Abby? Maybe she should try to find an object that Marcus had owned.

  Kyle and Marcus had been best friends. Chloe pictured herself going over to Kyle and Dean’s house and asking for one of Marcus’s possessions. Yeah, not a good plan. Kyle would laugh his ass off then shut the door in the face of a Dud. Would anyone else have something of Marcus’s?

  She doubted it. Hyde was it then.

  Hmmm. She should have brought a bag to conceal the bear. She didn’t want the Alpha asking questions.

  One couldn’t lie to the Alpha.

  She held the bear casually down at her right side and kept her left side to the living room. Fortunately, Olivia and Basia ignored her, still doing chakras. Brian’s mom was surreptitiously checking her phone and barely nodded. One small wave and Chloe hurried out the door, home free—

  A car door slammed as Dean dropped Judy off. Crap. Practice must have ended early. Chloe stepped back into the shadow of a juniper. Dean drove off, but Judy marched up the walk straight toward her.

  Wanting to move any conversation farther away from the house and the Alpha’s ears, Chloe met her halfway. “Hey, Judy.”

  Please let Judy assume she was here running errands for the Alpha.

  Chloe tried to just keep walking by, but Judy blocked her path, scowling. “What are you doing here? Why weren’t you at practice? Are you quitting?”

  Wouldn’t Coach like that. “No,” Chloe said, “my leg was starting to twinge by the end of gym. I figured I should give it a rest.”

  Judy lifted her eyebrows. “Oh, right. Your broken leg.”

  Chloe ground her teeth. “Look, call my dad if you doubt me. He’ll show you the X-rays.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you did hurt your leg,” Judy said. “Coach said you probably did it on purpose. To get out of practice,” she added helpfully. “So, you’d have another month’s worth of excuses for not Changing.”

  Chloe gasped in outrage. “That doesn’t even make sense! First Coach says I can’t Change because I’m too afraid of the pain, and then he claims I purposely broke my leg? Hello, broken bones are kind of painful!”

  Judy frowned uncertainly.

  “Jeez, can’t you think for yourself?”

  Judy narrowed her eyes. “I’m Pack. Maybe the reason you can’t Change is because you aren’t. You don’t belong, Chloe. You never have.”

  Her words stabbed like an icepick.

  Chloe sucked in the hurt, refusing to show weakness. “You’re wrong,” she said coldly. “I am Pack.” She started to move past her ex-friend, but just then Judy saw the teddy bear.

  “Hey! What are you doing with Hyde? He’s mine.”

  “Calm down. I’m just borrowing him. I’m doing a kind of memorial for the Jennings.”

  “A memorial?” Judy wrinkled her nose. “Why now? I mean, the one year anniversary passed three weeks ago.”

  Chloe shrugged. “Because I want to.”

  Apparently, that was the wrong answer. Judy held out her hand. “Give him back. You can’t take him unless I say so.”

  Since Judy was now technically Dominant to her, Chloe was supposed to bow and scrape and beg her permission.

  Screw it. She didn’t have time for dominance games. She pushed past the smaller girl. “I’ll bring him back tomorrow.”

  Judy grabbed for the teddy bear. But Chloe had half a foot of height on her and easily held him out of reach.

  Judy’s face turned bright red. “You have to listen to me! I outrank you.”

  “Oh, yeah? Well, if you really are Dominant then take it from me,” Chloe challenged. “No calling on the Alpha for help,” she added. “Just you and me. Let’s go.”

  She stared into Judy’s eyes. The other girl tried to Dominate her, bend her to her will. Chloe expected to have to fight her own instincts, but in truth she didn’t feel the slightest urge to hand the bear over.

  Weird. Chloe’s stomach squirmed. Was Judy right about her not belonging to the Pack? Did being a Recessive put someone outside Pack power games?

  In any case, she wasn’t about to back down. While Judy stared open-mouthed, Chloe put on an expression of unconcern and sauntered away.

  The girl’s scent on the wind brought the wolf to his feet.

  He left the small hollow where he’d been drowsing, waiting for her return, and trotted forward. His tongue lolled. He was so happy to see her that he wanted to roll on his back and show his belly. Happy, happy! His tail thumped.

  She dropped to her knees and took his head in her hands, an intimacy that would have made him shy away only days ago, but now felt so right. He closed his eyes in bliss as she dug her fingers through his ruff.

  He opened them again when she stopped.

  “Hey, Marcus, I brought something for you. Remember this?” Reaching behind her back, she pulled out something small and furry. It wasn’t alive, nor did it smell dead.

  Curious, he nosed it, breathing in deep.

  Memory burst over him. Abby. The stuffed toy had been Abby’s. Something detonated in his chest as pictures of his sister flooded back … along with the knowledge of her death. Grief crushed him, its weight rolling over him like an avalanche. Remembering pushed splinters of glass under his skin.

  This was why he’d chosen to stay a wolf—not bec
ause of his human physical frailty, but because the death of his family had crippled the boy.

  Being human meant pain. He’d only survived these long months by becoming wolf.

  The overwhelming emotions needed an outlet. The wolf threw his head back and howled.

  chapter

  6

  Chloe tossed the teddy bear aside and threw her arms around Marcus’s furry neck. “Hush! It’s okay,” she lied, frantic to quiet him before his howls attracted too much attention.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. Instead of reminding Marcus of why he should turn human, Abby’s bear had reminded him of his grief. The wolf shuddered in her arms, keening.

  After a moment she started talking, trying to dredge up better memories. “Hey, do you remember that time my mittens got soaked and my fingers were freezing? I sat between you and Dean on the bus so I could stick one hand in each of your jacket pockets. The seat wasn’t wide enough, and you had to sit half in the aisle. Every time we went around a corner you almost fell off.” At the time, Chloe had mostly been interested in snuggling up to Dean and had paid little attention to Marcus.

  Under her hands Marcus stiffened, his snout lifting to sniff the air.

  “What is it?” Chloe asked, getting to her feet.

  The feral’s lips peeled back, his shoulder tensing. Deep growls ripped from his chest.

  Dean jogged around a bend in the path. “Has Little Chloe finally Cha—” he broke off.

  Crap.

  Dean sniffed. “Who’s that? He’s not Pack.” Dean bared his teeth.

  Though Dean had at least twenty pounds on the feral, Marcus didn’t retreat. Any second now, Dean would Change, and the two werewolves would tear into each other.

  “Out of the way, Chloe.”

  “No. Leave him alone.” Chloe kept her hand on Marcus’s back.

  The feral growled again and moved in front of her. Did he think Chloe was part of his Pack?

  “This is our territory. Leave.” Dean bared his teeth and stripped off his hoodie, a hair away from Changing.

  “Stop it!” Chloe yelled, but neither werewolf listened. Coach Wharton had trained them for situations like this; otherwise wolf instinct took over. And Dean had only been a wolf for twenty months. … If only she could Change.