by Noelle Marie
“I like all kinds,” he told her, pretending like he hadn’t heard her at all. “I could have any girl here, you know. All the girls in this class want me.”
She rolled her eyes. Yeah, all ten of them.
Rip continued. “Just now, though, I’m craving a feisty, little brunette who doesn’t know when to shut up.”
Katherine gasped and parted her lips, prepared to show Rip just how feisty she was. “You-”
Bbrriinngg.
The bell signaling the end of class rang, denying her the opportunity to ream the cocky boy. Rip stood up and casually walked out of the classroom. Like he hadn’t spent the past ten minutes harassing her.
Katherine seethed in her chair a full minute before forcing herself to get up and follow Melanie to the gymnasium. “Are you okay?” the girl asked, eyeing the no doubt surly scowl painted on her face.
“I’m fine,” she muttered.
But when they entered the brightly lit gym, Katherine’s day got even worse.
It was Markus. There. In the gym. Wearing blue athletic shorts, a gray t-shirt, and a whistle wrapped around his neck.
“What are you doing here?” Katherine demanded rudely, unable to stop the question from flying out her mouth.
Melanie glanced wearily from Markus to Katherine, obviously confused by her outburst.
Markus’s responding grin was borderline demonic. “What? Didn’t Bastian tell you? I’m the P.E. teacher.”
Katherine was going to kill him. Them. Both Bastian and Markus.
Though this did explain why it was Markus who would be driving her home at four.
The man in question threw a pair of black shorts and a gray shirt similar to the one he was wearing at Katherine’s head. She fumbled to catch them. “What’s this?”
“Gym uniform,” he answered before jerking his head in the direction of a door with a female stick figure painted on the outside out it. “Now get into the locker room and change. I don’t stand for tardiness.”
Katherine ground her teeth together, doing her best to stomp down the irritation that speaking to Markus always seemed to cause. Begrudgingly, she clutched the uniform to her chest and allowed Melanie to show her to the girls’ locker room.
Quickly picking a locker, Katherine stripped and tugged on the clothes Markus had flung at her. The shorts were a little big, but the elastic held around her waist at least. She borrowed an extra pair of sneakers from Melanie. She couldn’t exactly run or do much else in heeled boots.
She was shoving her boots into her locker when she felt someone tap her shoulder. Assuming it was Melanie, she was a bit shocked to turn around and come face to face with Priscilla. Much like earlier, she was wearing a phony smile.
“Do you need something?” Katherine asked when the girl didn’t say anything.
A few snickers sounding behind Priscilla alerted Katherine to the fact that the locker room was still full. Most of the girls were looking on in interest. Melanie, standing near the door, looked furious with the platinum blonde cornering her against her locker.
“Look, Katie…” Priscilla began.
“Katherine,” she immediately corrected, crossing her arms over her chest.
Her smile only widened. “Katherine. You seem like a,” she paused, “nice girl.”
The way she said nice made Katherine suspect she meant something a little more not nice.
“It’s because of that that I’m going to give you a fair warning, but keep in mind that I’m only going to tell you once.”
Katherine raised an eyebrow, utterly unimpressed with the girl despite the fact that she had a solid six inches on her. “What?”
Priscilla’s smile slowly contorted into a sneer. “Stay away from Rip.”
Katherine was flabbergasted. Of all the things she’d expected to come out of the blonde’s mouth, that was not one of them. The small brunette didn’t need to be told even once to stay away from that arrogant boy. She’d sooner spend the day with Markus, for God’s sake. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I don’t kid,” Priscilla assured Katherine, condescendingly patting her cheek. “You’re new here so I know you didn’t realize, but Rip and I love each other. We’ve been together for years. So don’t be getting any ideas.” Flicking her hair behind her, she sauntered out of the room.
Oh. Oh. Rip was Priscilla’s boyfriend.
Well, wasn’t that just dandy? Priscilla reminded Katherine even more of Mallory now. Though Rip was nothing like Brad.
Katherine scolded herself as soon as her mind conjured his name. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking of him or her parents today.
Realizing that Melanie was waiting for her by the door, a seemingly apologetic grin on her face, Katherine hurried to join her.
“Sorry about that,” Melanie said, opening the door for Katherine, “Evil witch seems to be a genetic condition around here.”
Katherine smiled at that.
When they exited the locker room, however, something that had nothing to do with Priscilla or Rip caught Katherine’s attention. Not only were Markus and her classmates in the gym, seven or eight men – the youngest perhaps in his mid-thirties and the oldest well into his fifties – were scattered along the wall opposite the locker rooms. Some were chatting quietly to each other while others were merely observing silently.
Noticing where Katherine’s eyes had been drawn, Melanie gently elbowed her in the ribs to get her attention. “Those are some of the alphas of Haven Falls,” she explained. “Usually only a handful show up on any given day to watch P.E. They do it so they can see our physical strengths and weaknesses. Someone’s explained recruiting to you, right?”
Katherine nodded jerkily.
Smiling conspiringly, Melanie leaned over to whisper in Katherine’s ear. “Three guesses as to why they’re so many here today.”
Before Katherine could respond to that, Markus blew his whistle and the two girls rushed to where the others were gathering at center gym. Before they had even got there though, Markus blew the infuriating whistle again. “Twenty laps, ingrates!” he howled.
Katherine was immediately relieved. Yes, twenty laps were a lot. But running, at least, was something she could do. Running, she enjoyed.
Katherine paced herself the first ten laps, sticking with Melanie for the most part. Soon, however, her pent up energy – it’d been weeks since she’d run last – demanded that she go faster. The dark-haired girl didn’t seem to mind when Katherine left her in her dust. She quickly passed two other girls, one boy, and Melanie’s friend Angus. By the time she’d finished all twenty laps, she was somewhere in the middle of the pack. She beat Priscilla by a good thirty seconds.
When everyone had completed all twenty laps, Markus once again blew his whistle. This time, he allowed everyone to reach center gym, where he told them to line up. “What a disappointing performance,” he immediately wailed into them. “I ask you to run a measly two miles and the last of you clocks in at over seventeen minutes.”
No one said a word.
“Vincent,” Markus snarled, turning to the boy who had finished with the fastest time. “Why is this unacceptable?”
“A pack is only as strong as its weakest member,” he immediately answered.
It was obvious to Katherine it was a slogan that had been nailed into him and the rest of her classmates.
“That’s right,” Markus agreed. “My own pack, in fact, has recently gained a new member,” he continued, causing Katherine to tense. Nearly all of her classmates turned to look at her. Some were subtle about it. Others, not so much. She was hyperaware of the alphas near the wall eyeing her as well.
What in the hell was Markus doing?
“She is, by far, the weakest of us.”
Katherine’s face burned. Her fingers itched to ball into fists and punch the man, but somehow, she managed to control herself.
“As beta of the Prince pack, it is my job, of course, to strengthen her – to strengthen my pack.” Markus finally met Katherine’s ey
es. “I want a hundred push-ups, princess. Now.”
It took a moment for Katherine to get her body to move. When she finally managed, it was an even greater struggle not to pounce on the man. But she refrained. She wouldn’t give him the pleasure of knowing he was rattling her.
Trying her best to ignore the eyes on her, she slowly got on her hands and knees and began doing the push-ups. She knew that there was no way she’d be able to do close to a hundred of them. Not even half probably. She was tired from running and pure strength was in no way her strong suit.
Katherine was right. She collapsed onto her stomach after thirty-seven.
After a bit of yelling from Markus, she was able to handle ten more. But that was it. Forty-seven out of one hundred. If it had been some sort of test – and it was Markus, so it undeniably was – Katherine had failed. Spectacularly.
He had no sympathy for her, of course. “Pathetic,” he’d muttered under his breath – but certainly loud enough for her to hear – before gesturing for her to get up. Using her shaky arms to push herself from the floor, she stood.
Many of the alphas, Katherine noticed, were talking quietly to each other.
Great.
Once she was back on her feet, Markus informed the small group of teenagers that they’d be playing dodgeball for the rest of class.
As if the man hadn’t already proven he hated her.
Markus split them up into two teams and sent them to opposite sides of the gym before setting an array of balls – some small and squishy looking and others large and rubbery – near center gym. Once he was ready, he blew his whistle.
Katherine didn’t think she lasted two minutes in the first game. She’d been pelted by three balls at once. The second game she didn’t do much better.
Then the third game began.
Katherine didn’t know how she’d managed it – probably a mixture of quick reflexes and sheer luck – but she was one of the last two members of her team still standing. Then Vincent had chucked a ball into the chest of Agnes – a member of the other team – at the same time that she had hit him in the leg.
And it was only Katherine. Katherine and the last remaining boy on the other team. Rip.
He immediately began hurling balls at her. Katherine was able to dodge them all, but just barely. As he bent down to pick up yet another one, she took her chance. She grabbed a ball from the ground and channeling all her inner fury – directed towards both Rip and Markus – she lobbed it at him.
And the ball hit him. Right smack in the face. It even left a red mark.
For a moment, the whole gym was silent. Then her entire team cheered and with a gigantic smile glued to her face, Melanie wrapped her arms around Katherine’s torso and squeezed.
The girl could hug, that was for sure.
They played one more game of dodgeball after that – Katherine was out almost immediately – and Markus sent them back to the locker rooms to clean up.
There were no stalled showers, only a large communal one, so Katherine hung back fifteen minutes before finally stripping and quickly hopping under the spray.
Over the sound of the running water, she heard Priscilla talking about her near the lockers. “Poor girl,” she said, “I don’t even know why Bastian is bothering with her. She’s a weakling. Even Markus thinks so. There is no way she’ll survive the change.”
“I know,” a voice Katherine didn’t recognize agreed. “It’s a disgrace that they even let her attend the school before her first full moon. They’re only encouraging her to get her hopes up and well, you saw her performance in the gym.”
Fuming, Katherine bit down hard on the flesh of her inner cheek and cranked the handle of the shower to shut it off. She quickly tied a towel around her torso and stomped back to her locker.
Both girls immediately shut up and took off when they saw her round the corner.
What did they know, anyway?
Katherine had the now empty locker room to herself so she took her time changing back into her regular clothes. Ten minutes later, she put the pair of sneakers Melanie had loaned her back into the girl’s locker before grabbing her bag and finally leaving.
She wondered where she was supposed to be meeting Markus.
She didn’t have to wonder long. He was waiting tensely for her right outside the door.
“What took you so long?” he immediately demanded.
“I wasn’t aware I was on a time limit,” she snapped back. Not that she would have abided by it even if she was.
But he didn’t need to know that.
“Whatever, let’s go.”
Katherine reluctantly followed him to the grassy parking lot. He hopped into a crimson truck that she could only assume was his so she climbed into the passenger seat.
As soon as he pulled out of the lot, Katherine let loose her tongue. “Did you have to embarrass me like that today? Push-ups, really? Christ, you are such a prick!”
Markus, as maddening as usual, only rolled his eyes. No doubt he thought that she was just being dramatic. “Why do you even care what your classmates think? Most of them are as pathetic as you.”
Katherine ignored the insult. “I don’t,” she insisted, “but a bunch of alphas were there and recruiting is-”
Markus jerked his truck so hard to the right, they nearly crashed into a tree. “You care about recruiting?” he immediately demanded, turning to face her, only keeping half an eye on the dirt road.
Katherine was startled by his intense reaction. Then debated baiting him. She decided against it. “No,” she admitting with a sigh.
“Good,” Markus growled, directing his eyes back to the road. “Bastian would never let you go without a fight.”
She snorted derisively.
“If I were him, I wouldn’t either.”
Katherine risked a glance at the man, wondering what he could possibly have meant by that. But his eyes were still burning holes through the windshield. He wouldn’t look at her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The next two weeks passed by in a senseless blur.
Despite Katherine’s initial reaction to Bastian forcing her to attend the werewolf school in Haven Falls, she quickly found that it served as an excellent distraction to the absolute wreck her life had become.
She thought less of her parents.
Of Brad.
And even the ever-looming date of the next full moon.
Instead, Katherine concentrated on learning all she could in her classes and getting to know her new friends. Although she was at first reluctant to befriend the gaggle of teenagers she’d met on her first day, Melanie made it near impossible for Katherine to ignore them. The black-haired girl had dragged her to sit with them at lunch every day she’d been at the school so far. She reminded her a great deal of her best friend Abby. That, of course, only made it more difficult for Katherine to resist her charms.
She was warming to the others as well. Of Nathaniel and Mack, Katherine had grown especially fond. She couldn’t explain why exactly – the boys were virtual opposites. Despite the incident at The Bistro, Nathaniel was quiet and unassuming whereas Mack was loud and often obnoxious. If pressed, Katherine supposed she’d say it was because both had wound up in Haven Falls through rather tragic circumstances and she could sympathize.
The small brunette had learned Nathaniel’s story on the Friday of her first week of school.
“Christ, Katherine, what’d the asparagus do to you?”
Katherine ignored Melanie’s question, continuing to crush the steamed stalks with the blunt side of her fork. She thought if she pulverized the veggies enough, then the awful smell coming from them would cease to exist.
She was wrong – the resulting green sludge proved to be just as nauseating.
Why the lunch ladies even bothered to serve vegetables in a werewolf school, Katherine didn’t know. Potatoes were the only kind she’d encountered thus far that didn’t make her want to barf. And judging by the untouched asparagus on the re
st of her classmates’ plates, they felt the same way.
With a sigh, Katherine gave up on attempting to annihilate her asparagus and tuned in to the conversation going on around her.
“Oh my god! Did you see the shirt Rip’s wearing today? It’s practically translucent! I swear I can see his-”
“Penelope,” Katherine interrupted sharply, immediately wishing she hadn’t tuned in. “I cannot be held responsible for my actions if you finish that sentence.”
She did not want to know what Penelope could see under his shirt.
And Katherine had endured enough of the girl going on and on about frickin’ Rip of all people. Every time Katherine saw her, she was talking about him – usually gushing about what he was wearing on that particular day.
Penelope just rolled her eyes at Katherine’s outburst. “I don’t know why you dislike him. He’s so hot!”
“He may be hot,” Melanie pointed out, “but he’s a complete jerk. If you had to attend classes with him, you’d know that.”
“Uh? Do you guys really have to discuss how dreamy you find another dude in front of us?” Jonathan spoke up. “It’s kind of emasculating.”
“Kind of?” Mack interjected loudly. “I’d like to at least be able to pretend I’m still the proud owner of a pair of testicles, thank you very much.”
Penelope completely ignored the both of them. “Rip’s not a jerk! He’s a normal hot-blooded male. I’m sure that as soon as he dumps Priscilla and actually finds a nice girl to be with, he’ll settle down.”
Katherine could understand Penelope’s abhorrence of Priscilla easily enough. But her mammoth-sized crush on Rip was downright irritating.
“You do realize that he’ll never go for you, don’t you?” Agnes addressed the girl frankly.
Penelope’s face reddened and became pinched. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you’re not a werewolf! And Rip is. Your infatuation with him is inconsequential because werewolves don’t mate with humans. You know that.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t plan on remaining human forever. Ever think of that?”
Her announcement was met with tense silence.