by S. Young
She wanted to be angry at Irini—she really did. But it wasn’t in her nature to growl and hiss and spit; neither was it in her nature to hold grudges. And how could she when Irini’s face was flushed with a happiness she’d never witnessed there before? Her eyes bright with what she could only imagine was a new lease on life. Irini looked so young. As if the eleven years had melted away and she was eighteen again.
No, Caia couldn’t be angry with her. Irini was ecstatic to be home. If it hadn’t been obvious before, it definitely was now—she had genuinely been too upset to discuss anything of the past with her young charge.
Caia’s thoughts and musings were interrupted by the doorbell, and both her and Irini’s heads whipped toward the sound. Always alert. Lucien’s eyes narrowed as if he understood. For years now, both young women had been living quiet, isolated lives where the doorbell ringing signaled a potential threat.
“It’s okay,” he reassured them. “It’s just Jaeden for Caia.”
Caia frowned, her mouth forming an o shape in question. But Lucien was up and out of his seat before she could speak, returning to the room a few seconds later with a tall brunette around Caia’s age. The first thing Caia noticed about her was the warm friendliness in her eyes, but under perusal, she realized that the girl, with her piercing blue eyes and luscious curves and curls, was as outrageously attractive as the rest of these creatures. She had a feeling her self-esteem was going to take a hammering among this crowd.
“This is Jaeden.” Lucien nodded to Irini and Caia. “Irini, you remember Jaeden, Dimitri’s daughter?”
Irini smiled at the mention of the Elder and got up to hug the girl who was at least three inches taller than she was. “Of course.”
Jaeden laughed, and Caia was warmed by the pleasant sound. The girl’s blue eyes found her. “Do you remember me, Caia?”
Studying her in concentration, Caia had the vague impression of a gangly young girl who coaxed her into playing with her. She smiled. “Yeah. I do.”
Lucien appeared pleased. “Good. Jaeden’s taking you to school.”
“School?”
“School.” He nodded, enunciating the word as if she were an idiot. “It’s Monday. I’ve got it all sorted. They’re expecting you. I told them your guardian died, that despite no longer being a minor, you wanted to be live among friends of your guardian. It smoothed over the questions about your transfer one semester from graduation.”
“Oh. Okay.” She was thrown by this news. She thought she might get to skip the whole high school thing and get a job.
Obviously, that had been wishful thinking.
Goddess, she couldn’t wait until she graduated. “I’ll grab my backpack.”
It was awkward at first, climbing into Jaeden’s—
“Can I ask, what is this?” Caia indicated the rust-colored rust bucket she had just climbed into.
Jaeden laughed. “I think they call it a 1982 Buick Skyhawk.”
“Wow, I’ve never even heard of a Skyhawk.”
“She runs like a dream,” Jaeden reassured her, lovingly stroking the wheel of her car.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
Again, the girl laughed. “Don’t worry. I’d fear for my life as well if I was taking my first look at this baby. But she’s fine. I swear.”
Caia didn’t have a chance to reply because Jaeden launched straight into the questions. “So, what’s it like living with Lucien?” Her eyes sparkled as she ran her tongue along the tips of her top row of teeth. “He’s really rather delicious.”
It was Caia’s turn to laugh. “I suppose. To be honest, I really don’t know what it’s going to be like living with him. So far … pretty intimidating. The man is huge.”
“Well, you get used to that. I forget you haven’t been around males, they’re all huge, but yeah, I suppose Lucien is one of the largest. He’d have to be, to be Alpha; there are the Elders, though, and maybe Mal, and you’re just about to meet him.” She had an endearing way of rushing one sentence into the other as if afraid she wouldn’t have time to discuss everything she obviously wanted to.
“Mal?”
“Malek,” she explained. “He’s Morgan and Natalia’s oldest son. He’s a sophomore.”
Caia looked at her blankly. She couldn’t put names to faces yet.
“Mal,” Jaeden insisted. “You’ll recognize him when you see him; huge, dark, and has a handsome but smug face you want to smack.”
The vague image of a lykan she’d noticed standing head above others in the sitting room last night flitted across her mind. “I think I know who you’re talking about. He goes to school?” she asked, incredulous.
“Uh-huh. All the human girls are in love with him.”
“I’m guessing not you.”
Jaeden sneered. “No thank you. He’s so arrogant. You think Lucien’s bad? Ugh. Mal messes around with Dana. Watch out for her, by the way.”
“Dana?”
“Yeah, you’re going to meet her. She’s Daniel’s twin sister, and you’ll meet him too.”
“Anyone else I should know about?” Suddenly she was extremely nervous. She forgot that there were pack members her age, other than Jaeden, that she’d have to see every day. Would they all be as friendly as Jaeden? Somehow, she didn’t think so.
“There’s Sebastian. He’s seventeen, the same age as the twins—so is Mal. Their little brother Finlay, too, he’s fifteen.”
“So … you’re a senior, like me?”
“Yeah, so is Alexa. But, you know, we eat lunch with Mal, the twins, and Sebastian as well. So, you’ll have nearly all of us to keep you company.”
That’s not what Caia was worried about.
Jaeden was full of questions about her life in isolation with Irini, and Caia tried to answer as many as possible, but the girl was like a questionnaire machine gun. Before she knew it, they were pulling into a parking lot behind a large, modern school building. There were lots of kids already buzzing around, the air filled with the scent of teenage pheromones.
Caia held her breath. Although Lucien had come up with an excuse, no doubt the school thought it incredibly inconvenient her transferring one semester away from graduation. It wasn’t going to interfere with her schoolwork, but she had a 3.8 GPA and had scored a 1250 on her SATs last year, which meant she would have to go another round of explaining to teachers why she hadn’t applied to any colleges. Irini told her she couldn’t because they didn’t know when the pack would call them home, and since she didn’t know where home was going to be, she couldn’t even apply to a college nearby. Dimitri had told her there was a community college here, however.
She felt the twinge of disappointment again that she wouldn’t be able to go off and enjoy the thrill of college life elsewhere. And if she couldn’t do that, then she just wanted her academic career over and her adult life to begin.
“Here we are.” Jaeden’s eyes filled with sympathy when she took in Caia’s expression. “You’ll be fine. I promise. And if people think it’s weird that you’re transferring at such … well, a weird and pointless time in your high school education, then we’ll do what we usually do. Ignore their existence.”
Caia smiled, grateful to the girl. Her acceptance of her into the pack was going to get Caia through what she sensed would be a rough first year. She took a deep breath, her nostrils filling with those icky pheromones and a hint of damp earth mixed with individual fragrances she would soon come to identify with the other pack members her age.
They were close.
“I hope you’re right.” She released her breath and got out of the car.
“I’m always right,” Jaeden teased. “Come on, the guys will be waiting.”
Jaeden led her across the parking lot toward a group of teenagers standing around an SUV.
“Jaeden?” she asked as her eyes wandered over the group. She recognized, due to his immense height and build for a sixteen-year-old, Malek. He was standing in the center with five other teenagers
crowded around him.
“Yeah?”
“Do you know why Lucien pulled me out of school and back to the pack now? Doesn’t it seem like a stupid time? Couldn’t he have waited until after graduation?”
Jaeden’s answering smirk was sneaky. “I heard my dad talking about this with mom.”
“You were eavesdropping?”
She grinned cheekily. “Well … I heard him say that Lucien wanted you to connect as much as possible with the pack. He thought a semester at school with lykans your own age would do that.”
“I guess that makes sense.” She wasn’t convinced but just then, Mal looked up as they approached and any overhanging anxiety she had over Lucien’s reasoning disappeared. She felt Mal’s black eyes burn through her from head to toe. He murmured something to the others, and they all turned their bodies toward her. Caia was struck by disbelief that humans could think these “kids” were just like them. They moved with a grace that bordered on predatory.
“He’s doing it again,” Jaeden grumbled.
“Huh?”
“Looking at you like you’re a snack.”
Caia was confused. Who? What? “I’m sorry?”
“Didn’t you see the way Mal was looking at you last night? You’re fresh meat, baby.”
Caia winced at the thought. From what Irini had told her about pack wolves when they turned sixteen, they were fully mature (somehow she doubted that) and were more than welcome to start sniffing around other wolves to find a possible mate. Caia had no intention of becoming involved in that part of the lykan life cycle.
No mating for her.
No. Uh-uh, Haaades no.
“Hey, guys,” Jaeden greeted the pack, standing as close to Caia as possible. Caia was comforted by this small gesture of protection. “You all remember Cy, right?”
“Jae.” A tall blond stepped forward, smiling widely, his eyes twinkling. “Hey, Caia, I’m Sebastian.”
Caia was transfixed by him; he had a feral quality to his movement, and of all the lykans she had met thus far, he was quite simply the most beautiful—if it was possible to describe someone so masculine as such. The contrast between the smooth, aristocratic sculpture of his face and the sinewy wildness of his physique was intimidating. In fact, he bordered on downright scary, except for the gentle light that played in his eyes.
Finally, Caia managed to nod back with a smile in acknowledgment and was quickly introduced to them all. Finlay was the smallest, being only fifteen, as well as the shiest of the lykans surrounding her. The redheaded Daniel was as friendly as Sebastian, whereas his twin was practically spitting, her eyes flicking between Caia and Malek in outrage.
Malek stepped right up to Caia, closing her off from the others and deliberately surrounding her with his scent. He reached out and took her hand into both of his in a flirtatious shake. “Nice to meet you.”
Okay, she could see why the human girls were falling over this one. He oozed charm and confidence and that illustrious hint of danger. If only they knew.
Fortunately, for Caia—otherwise she might have found herself in a bitch fight with Dana—she didn’t feel that explosive shiver of heat at his touch that a certain other someone had elicited. She took a step back, releasing her hand from his and giving him a polite nod. His eyes narrowed, but he covered his irritation with a smile and retreated to place an arm around Dana’s waist. She curled into him like a happy kitten and flashed her blue eyes triumphantly at Caia.
“And this is Alexa.” Jaeden indicated a girl who was so beautiful, it was almost sickening. She had long, blue-black hair and large onyx eyes. She didn’t say a word but her burning stare was enough to make the devil himself want to curl up under the bed.
Caia had been right. Not everyone was going to be as friendly as Jaeden.
“Well, guys”—Mal looked around at them all—“we better show Caia around.”
Lucien had taken care of everything. All she’d had to do was go to the office and pick up a timetable that had been produced based on her classes from her previous high school. Most of her teachers were okay. Only one, her calculus teacher, had decided to pull the “stand up and tell us about yourself” card. The students were curious; they whispered to one another, weighing her up from a distance, intrigued by her.
Caia was used to it. Irini had explained that lykans were supposed to be natural predators. In their original state when Artemis first blessed them, their hunger had gotten the best of them and they fed on humans, stealing their flesh and souls. The goddess’s plan had been for them to mate with humans to produce a superior race she could call her own—it had taken a couple hundred centuries for that to be the result—and one of her genetic gifts from way back had been special pheromones that attracted humans. At first, this had only made it easier for the wolves to hunt, but as the centuries turned, so did they.
Present-day lykans were the product of the mixed heritage of wolf and human, and so their predatory instinct had died over the centuries and they learned to control their appetites. Nowadays, it was rare for a human and lykan to mate—supernaturals put this down to the fact that humans no longer believed in the gods, and so Artemis was punishing them by refusing their entry into their wondrous world.
Still, speaking of appetites, there was the odd lykan who got off on murdering humans—they were rogue and always hunted down by their own kind. Thanks to the conflicting results of her special pheromones, Caia wasn’t surprised when no one approached her to introduce themselves.
Back at her old high school, she used to eat her lunch in her car. Here, well … she had the pack. Jaeden was in her French class just before lunch, so they made their way to the cafeteria together.
“So.” She smiled the wide smile Caia was coming to expect from this sweet girl. “How has the first morning gone at Human High?”
Caia laughed. “To be honest, not much different from before. Classes are the same, the people are the same.”
“Meaning, they don’t talk to you?”
“Exactly.”
“Ah, you know why. We’re all the same. Well … except Malek. He’s always flirting with the humans.”
As they entered the cafeteria, Caia zeroed in on the pack teenagers. They sat sprawled around a table together as other students watched them but didn’t go near them. They were looking at her as well, huddling close to whisper when they realized she was with Jaeden. Caia couldn’t understand how they were supposed to go undetected by these people when Jaeden and the others not only looked the way they did but stuck together like … well, like a pack.
Nonplussed, she grabbed a roast beef sandwich and soda, and followed Jaeden to the table. As it had been that morning, Sebastian, Finlay, and Daniel offered friendly smiles. Sebastian pulled out the chair next to him for her so she didn’t have to sit beside Malek. Dana grimaced at her presence, while Alexa didn’t even acknowledge it.
Malek smirked. “So? How was your first morning?”
“It was fine. The usual.”
“You don’t say much, do you? She”—he pointed to Dana—“never shuts up.”
“That’s what Lucien said.” Caia shrugged, frowning. Was she weird because she liked the quiet?
“What?” Dana’s mouth opened and shut like a fish, and everyone, even Alexa, laughed. Caia realized her blunder and blanched under the girl’s glare.
“No. I mean … Lucien said the same thing about me not saying much.” Her explanation produced nothing more than a look so evil, she was sure the girl was muttering some kind of curse against her in her head. Caia felt Jaeden kick her under the table in amusement and decided looking at her new friend would only make her laugh, and that would definitely incur further wrath from these lykan girls.
Malek ripped off a piece of his sandwich like the animal he was and then talked with his mouth full, “Were you dating anyone at your old high school?”
Caia’s brows knitted together, as did Jaeden’s, she noticed. “No. It’s frowned upon … that’s what Irini sa
id, anyway.”
Malek laughed. “It’s frowned upon. You’re very cute, you know that?”
“Mal,” Jaeden warned.
“What?” He huffed and then explained to Caia, “It’s frowned upon to try to make a ‘forever’ deal with one of them, but dating and sex isn’t out.”
“It’s not in either.” Sebastian glowered.
Daniel scoffed. “Ah, come on. It’s harmless fun.”
This set off a debate about the ethics of dating humans. Caia noticed they were very careful not to use the word human—it was always “them.” Jaeden and Sebastian were obviously dead set against the whole idea, so Caia got the feeling it was definitely “frowned upon” by the pack.
As they argued among themselves, Caia noticed that Alexa wasn’t saying anything but was watching Caia with her dark eyes narrowed in dislike. She felt herself flush under the scrutiny. If Caia didn’t know any better, she would guess that this lykan was threatened by her. Funny how she’d worried only about returning to pack life—it had never occurred to her that she was returning at a time when many of the young wolves were in competition with one another to snag the mate of their choice.
She looked at little Finlay who sat across from her watching the goings-on. She caught his eye and shrugged as if to say she was sorry for causing the argument. He merely blushed and looked away.
“Ignore Mal,” Jaeden finally spat. “We’re allowed to be friends with one of them, but nothing more.”
Caia nodded while Malek chuckled at having so thoroughly annoyed the group.
His next question caused even more of an undercurrent. “Caia … you got your eye on anyone in the pack yet?” He leaned back in his chair, puffing out his muscular chest and grinning, his eyes blacker than black with heat. She squirmed, completely uncomfortable with such blatant attention, but before she could say anything, the table jumped, and Mal growled. Someone had kicked him hard, and she had a feeling it was Sebastian.
Jaeden grinned. “Be warned.”
Caia hid her smile. Oh boy, was she in for a ride with this lot.