by JK Cooper
“Not over.” Chelsea stomped off. Amanda followed. Trish stared at them for several seconds more before she followed.
Shelby turned back to her locker. “What was that?”
“I have never seen her go quite that bat-guano crazy before. We need to change. I can’t even count how many pushups we have ahead of us now.” Sadie pulled on her locker and it fell off the hinges. The metal flopped on her like it was made of rubber. She dropped it and it bounced twice before it clanged more naturally on the tile floor, still bent in the middle. “Am I hallucinating now?”
Shelby leaned down and picked it up. The metal was solid once more. “If you are, I saw it too. Not sure if that’s better or worse.”
“At least we can be crazy together.” Sadie jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the exit the whorey trinity had just used. “You don’t think?”
“There’s no way.” Shelby shook her head. “Prank?”
“Maybe.” Shelby wasn’t convinced and felt Sadie’s shock as well.
After gymnastics, Chelsea Gittrick slammed her way into the restroom on the first floor. Some blonde with a pixie cut, unfortunate enough to be there after school and washing her hands at a sink, flinched and swore as the door slammed into the wall next to her head.
Chelsea lowered her gaze. “Get. Out.”
The pixie-haired freshman, hands still dripping wet, opened her mouth to protest.
Chelsea raised a finger. “Not a word. Out.”
The girl lowered her gaze and seemed to scurry more than walk out of the bathroom, mouth closed tight.
Someone who knows her place. Chelsea went to the sink, put her hands on the edge, and exhaled while squeezing her eyes shut. After a moment, she raised her head and stared in the mirror.
“What's wrong with you? A child can do better spells.”
They should have worked, both the small one in the classroom the day before and the larger one in the locker room today. She’d practiced them and made them work more often than not.
Is it nerves? Do I perform them better without the pressure of doing them to real people with real audiences that might notice? Maybe her dad was right. Maybe the old magic really wasn't with her the way it was with the rest of her family. Even stupid Sean can use it better than me! She gripped the edges of the porcelain sink harder until her nails went white from the pressure.
Shelby and Sadie weren’t alone in being saved from her spells. She had tried for so long to get Kale to like her, weaving spells and incantations around the boy, into her clothing, her hair, her perfume, her lips.
She was the most attractive girl in the school. She knew it. Seriously, just look at those cheekbones and lashes. Why can’t Kale see it? And the spells she had pushed toward Shelby seemed to have absolutely no effect at all. Nor, for that matter, did her spells appear to work on or against Sadie.
Oh, how she hated that redhead, with her fake swearing and hypocritical attitude about bullying. She glared at the perfect face in the mirror. “What has happened to all my influence? Teachers used to bend over backwards to please me. Other students would fall at my feet, metaphorically speaking most of the time.” But all that seemed to be lessening this year, and it started with those two girls joining forces.
People still gawked at Chelsea, of course. They made paths for her as she walked the halls. Amanda and Trish didn’t even require magical prodding anymore. They had taken to their training well. But Mrs. Lloyd had all but ignored Chelsea’s request to shun Sadie and Shelby. Did I say the words wrong? The pronunciation?
She repeated the spell in her mind. Her suggestion to Mrs. Lloyd should have been irresistible, even painful if not complied with. She’d seen those with strong wills wince their way through such defiance, but Mrs. Lloyd didn’t have that kind of will. Did Kale? Sadie? Shelby? Chelsea sneered at her reflection. “I doubt it.” Only the second day of the school year, and it was already the worst day of her life.
Maybe Shelby is a witch too! “Why haven’t I thought of that?” She could be more powerful than me. It would explain how she’s winning when she isn’t as pretty. She could have placed protection charms over Sadie and Kale. It was the only thing that made sense.
She could ask her dad about discovering and undoing such protective spells. He would like to know if another of their kind had come into his town. But she didn’t want to admit weakness to him. Which would be worse? That it turns out she is a witch and more powerful than me, or she isn’t and my spells just fall apart? Either way her father would not be pleased. But either way she had to act fast, before the witch wove too many more spells around her beloved.
Shelby had known Kale a couple weeks, at most, yet they walked arm in arm to classes together, staring at each other with doughy, dreamy eyes that made Chelsea sick. She should have been the one at Kale’s side, staring into those deep emerald eyes, dreamily letting her mind drift into their future together. He belongs to me!
She huffed. Perhaps a different spell? She resolved to look in her father's private library, where she would find more powerful magic. Stinging concern rolled through her chest at the thought. She was forbidden from going into her father's private library, but she was also desperate. And desperate times call for desperate measures. Or something like that.
She also suspected that some of her fear and concern were due to spells her father had woven into his library to keep those with weaker wills out. It was time she proved to herself and her family that the old magic was with her, that her will was strong, that she could be a force in this world, like her father, her mother, her grandparents.
She caught her reflection in the mirror and reached for her phone to take a selfie. She had never seen herself so determined, her perfect, full lips transformed into a pretty thin line that worked better than she expected on her face. Hot. Decisive looks good on you.
Yes, desperate measures indeed. All she needed to do was get into the library without setting off any alarm spells. Her father would have layered them. Then she would begin in earnest her research to defeat her foes.
Kale Copeland will turn his eyes, his thoughts, and his whole heart toward me.
“And that tramp, Shelby, will heel to my call, like an obedient dog.”
Shelby Brooks closed her eyes and tried to ignore the smell of new paint and plaster that barely covered the too recent scents of death in the Copeland complex. Her overly sensitive Lycan nose could pick out blood and scorched wood, bringing the night back to her. Kale dying. The Southebys suddenly not a part of the link, dead and gone in an instant. Fear piled on top of loss in her mind.
“Stop! Focus!” Gennesaret sounded slightly out of breath.
Shelby opened her eyes and looked across the table at Kale and then at Sadie to her left, both wearing the same grim expression. She glanced at Genn, who tapped her pen. Shelby could feel a twinge of annoyance and impatience amid the other mesh of emotions. “I was projecting?”
“Yes, and we’ve all relived that night enough.” Her expression softened. “It isn’t your fault, but please try to focus on Kale and the bond you share instead of your surroundings.”
Shelby nodded. “Got it.”
Throughout the rest of the day at school, the bond had seemed to fray further until she could only feel the faintest echo of Kale. Eira was unnerved by this change as well.
Kale reached a hand across to Shelby. She took it, feeling their connection deepen with the electrical sensation of his touch. Sadie radiated child-like disgust with their display of affection but said nothing.
Shelby smiled, closed her eyes once more, and sent a thought out, swallowing the brief flicker of anger at the Hunters for letting the pack find out about the bond. It was bound to come out eventually, but Shelby had wanted a few days to explore what it meant to her and Kale, before the pack explored what it might mean for them.
Genn tapped her pen. “Take a deep breath, relax, and push the thought toward him.”
Shelby followed her instructions. I’m hungry.
Can you order us a pizza? She cracked one eyelid open, but Kale had his eyes closed. “Doesn’t look like it worked.”
Genn jotted down a note. “I didn’t really expect the first time to have much success. Give it another attempt, please.”
Shelby closed her eyes again. She could feel the connection with Kale almost like a vibrating string that linked at their hands. She thought of the tin can telephone she’d made with Grant as a kid, stringing it from a tree house to the kitchen. I can do this. She took three deep breaths and poured the thought out along that line, feeling it buzz with new life. Can you hear this? Seven eleven elephant pants.
She felt a sense of a reply, not words exactly, but a feeling of acknowledgement, recognition, and confirmation.
“Seven eleven elephant pants? Really?”
“Was that what you said? Word for word?” Genn held her pen over the notebook. “Nothing left out?”
Shelby nodded.
Kale squeezed her hand. “That’s so weird.” His face went red at her expression and he stammered the rest. “Not what you said. That was perfect. You just . . . you shouldn’t be able to do it is all.” He slowly took his hand back and coughed into it to hide the awkwardness of letting go. “Only Alphas can use the link in human form, and it takes a lot of effort.”
“Not to mention years of practice,” Genn added without looking up.
“Bond, bond, bond!” Sadie slapped the table. “I fornicating told you!”
Shelby grimaced. “Yes, you’ve been telling everyone plenty.” Shelby immediately regretted snapping at her friend, but Sadie shrugged it off right away.
She gave a devious smile and began chanting while tapping the table, “Bond, bond, bond! Now you join in, Kale.”
Kale grinned and began pounding the table with his fists. “Bond, bond, bond.”
“Now you, Shelbs. Bond, bond, bond.”
“I’m never doing that.” But she couldn’t help but laugh as the two continued their chant, getting quiet and loud in waves. It was so obviously an attempt to get back to normal after the horrors of the other day, but it was welcome. “Stop! You’re annoying Genn.”
“They are doing nothing of the sort, though I am a little hurt they didn’t ask me to join in.” Her half smile didn’t truly say whether she would have participated in the childish chant or not. “But your grossly descriptive packmate seems to be correct. There is some documentation of bonded individuals having special links of their own, along with other abilities.” She jotted down more notes. “Bonds are rare though, so—”
“Why are they so condemned rare?” Sadie asked, suddenly serious, almost wistful. Shelby felt a pang of something bittersweet inside the girl.
Does she hope she’ll find a bond of her own? She does love her romance novels. I can never tell her I know.
Genn gave Sadie a sharp look for interrupting her but answered after a long sigh. “Because love, real lasting love, between two beings is rare enough. Add the wolf side to the mix, and you have a recipe for imperfection. Bonds aren’t one connection, but two, crosslinked together due to our unusual circumstances.”
Shelby started. Our Immortal wolves were mates, and our previous human lives were as well. That’s what makes us special. That’s what makes us bonded. Part of her had known this instinctually, but she had not consciously considered it until this moment. Does Genn not know about Immortal Wolves? Does she not have one? Do I dare ask? She decided to hold off while she considered what that might mean. Surely the legends she loves to study speak of Immortal Wolves, or something like them. Then she realized that the legends may just have originated with her and Kale, long ago.
Shelby thought back to the night she had met her pack. She had felt a wolf lurking inside each person, but they had not been separate and sentient, simply another aspect of the person she saw. That wasn’t to say that the wolf side didn’t have its own flares of personality and desires, but again, those elements were not independent of their human side . . . simply manifesting more strongly through the wolf. She had to admit this difference fascinated her, and she wondered what Sigmund Freud would say about a werewolf’s “id.” Alas, she probably wouldn’t be writing a paper on that for her psych class anytime soon.
She flashed through each person in the pack in her mind with the benefit of this new knowledge, and only one had felt different: a hint of a masculine wolf within, sullen, angry, intelligent, proud. Chenoa? Shelby peered deeper into her memory, questioning her Omega insight. Yes, the Native American woman did indeed have a separate being within her. An Immortal Wolf. Shelby knew it, now that she knew what to search for. But that would mean that Chenoa’s wolf—a male wolf—was from Alsvoira as well, right? Her head hurt, but she felt Eira’s confirmation that this was true. You knew her? But Eira remained silent. Shelby felt herself blinking a few times as she silently tried to work this out in her mind. Was it odd that Chenoa had a male Immortal Wolf within her? That actually might explain some things, Shelby thought. Perhaps there was more to the story as to why Chenoa was always so ready to Hulk-smash her. Eira, anything you want to share on the topic? Her wolf held her silence. Wait, that meant that Chenoa was from Alsvoira too, didn’t it? She and Kale were, originally. Or their spirits were. Or . . . something. She wondered if an Immortal Wolf’s spirit or essence or whatever could unite with someone not originally from Alsvoira.
Chenoa is from Alsvoira, Eira said.
Oh, finally joining the conversation, are we?
And nothing. Awesome. Thanks Freud. Regardless, Shelby now had an inkling of a greater insight into the seemingly frozen-hearted Chenoa. Maybe she would start calling her Anna. Or was it Elsa? She could never keep Disney characters straight.
I need to treat her and Kale differently. As Omega, I must remember that two beings sometimes have different emotional needs. This is going to take work.
Eira nodded inside her with approval.
Sadie accepted Genn’s answer, bowed her head slightly in deference to her elder, and apologized in the only way Sadie knew how. “Sorry for the fecality of my interruption.”
Genn grinned at her. “Pay no mind, child. I simply was saying I hadn’t had such an opportunity to study a bond in person. I’m looking forward to comparing the reality to my research.”
“Yay for being guinea pigs.” Shelby smiled sheepishly at Kale.
Kale smacked his lips. “Don’t even joke. Those are delicious.”
“No! Tell me you don’t eat cute, fluffy guinea pigs!”
Sadie put a slim, freckled hand on her arm. “Don’t worry, feces for brains over there,” she stuck out a tongue, “is joking with you.” She squeezed. “Guinea pigs aren’t worth hunting. They could barely be called an appetizer.”
Shelby felt the blood drain from her face. Panic welled up inside her.
Sadie’s hand started sweating, Kale pulled at his collar, and the pen shook in Genn’s hand.
“Projecting again, aren’t I?”
All three nodded back at her.
“Sorry.” She buzzed the growing connection between Kale and herself again, enjoying the warm familiarity of it. I’ve never been hunting, not really. I guess once, but I was twelve, and it was with guns, not teeth. I shot a rabbit. Cried for days.
Kale blinked at her and leaned forward. “You’ve seriously never been hunting? Real hunting? Wolf hunting?”
Sadie pulled her hand away. “Not fair talking without including me, oh bonded ones. I’m still in the condemned room.” Her hungry smile said she wasn’t as hurt as she sounded. “Sounds like we have a hunt to plan.”
Shelby wasn’t so sure. “Is this really the best time? After all that happened?”
Genn bit the end of the pen. “We’ll have to run that past Elias, of course.”
“He already agrees.” All three of them jumped as Elias stepped through the doorway and came to his wife’s side. “Let’s say this Thursday evening to avoid any teenage plans for Friday?”
They all nodded.
; He smiled at their surprised faces. “Sorry to interrupt, but it’s hard to ignore all the emotions flooding out of this room.”
Shelby felt the blush crawl up her face. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. You seem to be getting control over it faster, which is a step in the right direction. I hate that this is coming out of my mouth, but I agree with Sadie.” He growled at the thought. “It may be good for us to come together as a pack in a safe, controlled way. We have to start somewhere.”
Kale stood. “In the meantime, let’s order a pizza. I’m starving.”
Shelby smiled. Maybe my first attempt worked better than we thought. “Pepperoni, pineapple, and green olives for me, please.”
“Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza. And green olives? How are we bonded?” Kale winked at her, making her heart thrum, as he pulled out his phone and opened an app for a local pizza place. “But as you wish.”
Sadie hugged her arm. “Sounds copulating delicious. Make it two but add anchovies to half of mine.”
Elias growled again and looked at Sadie with disgust. “I may take a drive down to the city with Grant, so I don’t have to smell that monstrosity.”
Athena closed her eyes, blocked out the teacher, put her palms flat on the cool desk, and poured emotions out. Don’t really care about Biology anyway. Not here for the grades.
She had wanted to get started before the first day of school, maybe show up while the lovebirds caught a movie, but she needed a couple days to remove her father’s scent. So, she’d spent time running through the woods and desert with the few natural wolves in the area and a couple Feral who seemed to like the company of such lesser wolves. They had not talked to Athena but had allowed her to join their ragtag pack.
Athena shuddered. Better than full humans, but not by much. And so much work to break one girl. She opened one eye to peek at Shelby. The great Eira-mit-Thyra, savior of our kind? Doesn’t look like much. This should be easy. She closed her eyes again and focused on her task, but some of the memories of the past week tugged at her.