by M. D. Butler
I grab my bag that was hidden under the sink when I’m finished and leave through the back door again. I pause outside of the back door to pull my hair down from its confinement to hide the bruises that I know will be ringing my neck for the rest of the morning.
I always have the urge to hide my face, anyway. Having to deal with this shit so often makes me feel ashamed for not trying to stop it, and I know that shows on my face.
Glad that this part of my day is over, I steel myself to get over the next hurdle. High school.
Woe is fucking me.
Chapter 2
Jahla
I get to the bus stop right as it comes around the corner. I have to time it just right because I’ll be exposed to the hellhounds that ride it if I get there too soon. The bus driver is human, so it’s best to be in his view so they’re deterred at least a little.
He doesn’t tolerate bullying on his bus. Doesn’t stop them from sneaking in pinches, kicks, and small slaps as they file past me, though. There’s only so much he can do. They could get him fired if they complain to their parents.
The pack runs this town.
The human kids don’t know why I’m treated the way I am. All they know is that I’m called a freak by the most popular kids at school, but they’d never stop in to make it stop. Hell, some even join in.
The pack kids are the most popular students in school, the most powerful in all ways. Sports are the main thing, but they breeze through classes if someone from the pack is the teacher. They get high grades just for sitting there. They never have to do the work, so they try to get into those whenever possible.
Even though we have our own little community in the middle of town, humans just see it as a private neighborhood where the wealthy and cool live. Our pack owns the town of Lunar Mills; therefore, they have the upper echelon of jobs. You know, the CEOs, restaurant owners, bank executives… you name it. The unranked members work regular jobs, but they still have power.
I just endure the bullshit, as always. Once I’m legal and I graduate, I’m out of this place. If I can put up with this pain for the entirety of my life, I can deal with the pain of disconnecting from my pack without permission.
Going rogue hurts like a bitch, so I’ve learned. We have one shifter-related class during the first semester of freshman year, where we’re taught everything about being a wolf. I was only allowed to sit in on a few of the classes, though. I learned only the barest of basics.
I’m climbing off the bus with that thought when a scent crashes through my nostrils. Not the usual school smells of teenage bodies, overwhelming perfumes, and books. No, this smell is… divine! I hesitate a little, and it’s enough to get me shoved out of someone’s way, so I start moving again.
What the hell is that? It’s like a faint crisp smell, but kind of breezy. Like the wind before a storm. That makes no sense. How can something smell like a breeze?
I don’t know what the hell is going on, but my wolf is alert in my head. Nothing’s ever made her react this way. She is really pushing at me right now, especially when more scents almost knock me on my ass as I turn my head in the direction that the first is wafting from.
I’ve never smelled something like this before. I mean, I’ve obviously smelled it before since I can recognize what it smells like, but it’s never made me feel this way.
Along with the first, I’m getting slapped with a cinnamon aroma mixed with something almost like burnt wood. It makes me imagine what I think sitting next to a bonfire, or a fireplace would be like.
Something also smells damp, but’s not moldy like you’d think. It reminds me of a moist wind, but it’s not breezy like the first one. It just sits there. You know, like when you’re at a lake. Maybe a river? It smells cool and wet, with a minty undertone.
That one is kind of weird, but it’s delectable all the same.
The last one is harder to describe. I drop my head down while slowing my steps as I try to place it. I know I smell pine, but it’s mixed with a dirt smell. Like freshly turned soil. A forest!
The craziest thing is that I can tell that they’re all separate, but they have to be congregated together in the same spot. All the scents are wafting from the same direction. I just know that they belong to four different bodies, but I don’t know how I know that.
Does that make sense?
My wolf is doing this weird little purr/growl/whine thing in my head. Don’t know what the fuck is up with her, but she needs to get her shit together. My eyes tend to glow when she gets too amped up.
Now, I’m glad that I pulled my hair down because it’s easier to hide my face this way. Not to mention, my neck after the luna got a hold of it earlier.
Wish it would help me blend in, though. Instead, my hair color makes me stand out. It’s almost white and super long and curly. I can’t afford to waste my savings on a salon, and I wouldn’t dare risk cutting or dying it myself. Pair that with my brown skin and crazy eye color, and you’ve got yourself a weirdo. It’s why the hellhounds call me freak during the incessant taunts.
I hate it.
I utilize the shield I get from my hair as I subtly peak in the direction of the scents without anyone knowing. I stumble at what I see.
There, standing across the student parking lot by a pretty dope-ass red Chevy Blazer, are four boys. No, I wouldn’t say boys. They’re definitely men. Oh, Mother, are they men. Tall with cut muscles from what I can tell, seeing as we’re a good distance apart. Like, not as stocky as bodybuilders, but you can tell they’re strong as fuck. Not an ounce of fat on them. All muscle, but a couple of them bulkier are than the other two.
I walk to the steps in front of the school and pick a spot on the wall lining the steps to lean on so I can look without standing in the middle of the courtyard. I usually sit but don’t feel like getting my coat sleeve wet by sweeping the snow from the steps.
It looks like they’re looking for something if their crowd scanning is anything to go by. With the way the other students are watching them, I’d hazard a guess and say they’re new. I don’t socialize with the other students, so I don’t know everyone. They could’ve been here since freshman year, for all I know.
I’m sure I would’ve noticed them by their smell alone if they’d been here before, though.
I allow my wolf to come forward a little so I can enhance my eyesight to see them better. I may not be able to shift into an actual wolf, but she comes out enough for me to use her for the good stuff when I need to. Not much, but just enough.
They’re all around the same height, but there’s no way they’re siblings. There’s the blonde with dark brown skin, and a chiseled bone structure standing on the far left. I’ve never seen a dark-skinned person with blonde hair like his, but it looks natural because it matches his brows and lashes. His hair is shaved into a faded style in the sides and back, while the top is longer and really curly. Like, corkscrew curly. Gray. No, silver. His eyes are a striking silver, and his lips are a brownish-red color, and juicy. His body is willowy, but I can see the definition in his muscles.
On his right is a male with hair so black that it looks like it has blue highlights that flow into what seems to be a braid down his back. His skin is a light reddish-brown. I wonder if he’s indigenous. We don’t have any that go to our school, but a few adults have come into the diner where I work. His lips are brown, but they have a hint of pink to them. That’s a cute little feature that I wouldn’t mind studying up close. His cheekbones are so sharp that I’d bet they could cut paper. I blink when he turns my way to scan the crowd. His eyes are a bright golden color. I was not expecting that. His shoulders are broad, but they’d have to be to match his thick build. He most definitely works out, but just enough to keep the fat away.
Oh, my sweet baby mama! I wouldn’t mind having him as a personal trainer.
Next to him is a redhead, but he’s not pale like most that you’d see. Yes, he has a few freckles dotting his cheeks, but he’s more of a peachy color. Not qui
te tan, but not pale, either. He’s leanly muscled than the first one, more equivalent to the second. They could be football players if they wanted to. They would fit right in. Sparkling green eyes, and cherry red lips that are just ripe for kissing. He looks like he’s always smiling. Even now, I can see a hint of a smile on his face, and his cheeks a slight indention in them. Are those dimples? Oh, wow. I kind of hope they are. For some reason, I want to count his freckles by kissing each of them.
Where the hell did that come from? What is going on with me?
I shake my head as I look at the one on the end. He’s cute if you don’t count the sharp jawline and dimpled chin. No, those shoot him straight to the top on the hotness scale. Eyes a beautiful cornflower blue, lips of the strawberry shade, and shiny brown hair make him a gorgeous specimen just like the other three. He’s built like a swimmer, leanly muscled like the blonde Adonis. They’re all what a girl conjures up in her mind when she dreams about being rescued by Prince Charming.
Not that I’d know dreams are for dumbasses, but these men are what I’d want to be rescued by if was dumb enough to dream.
I can’t tell who the different scents belong to from here, but I know that it’s them. These four guys are the owners of those amazing smells that are sending my wolf into an excited frenzy in my head. I’d have to get closer to figure out who they belong to individually.
Not that I plan on that happening. My wolf can shove it.
They all look so different, but they stand together like a pack. They’re obviously all together. Mother, I hope they’re not together LIKE THAT. I don’t have a problem with that. Love is love; you know? I just think the female gender would greatly suffer for it. We’d all wither and die if we could only look, but not touch.
Not that I’m going to be doing any touching. Why can’t I stop thinking shit like that? I have to get my head on straight. There are questions that need to be answered here.
Where did they come from? Why are they here? Why are they all standing together? What makes me so drawn to them?
Why the fuck are they now staring at me?!
No, that can’t be right. They have to be looking at something in my direction. Nobody notices me unless they realize that they haven’t beaten on me in a while. That can’t be the case since they know nothing about me yet.
Maybe it’s my hair. It can catch you off guard if you’re not accustomed to seeing it all the time.
As we’re staring in each other’s direction, my eyes move to each pair of theirs at the same time that they look into mine.
Oh, fuck! I feel something akin to a lightning bolt go through me as I connect with them. It’s like I’ve been shocked with a defibrillator, and I’m coming alive for the first time.
This can’t be what I think it is.
MATE.
Whoa, what the fuck?
My wolf doesn’t speak, but that word is loud and clear.
I’ve never received any in-depth education on mates since the pack sees me as worthless. They believe that any mate I have will reject me on sight, and since I can’t shift, I shouldn’t have a mate in the first place. I’ve only learned about the basics in the shifter class here at school, and even that wasn’t much.
The jolt that goes through your system upon eye contact, a pleasant hum of energy when you touch, and the recognition through scent. I think there’s more. Things that involve your wolf, but I wasn’t allowed in any of the actual shifting classes since I haven’t shifted, so all I have are guesses. Those are just the three out of I don’t know how many identifiers for our human sides. I was sent to the library when it started getting deeper.
I think they could be my mates. That’s crazy, though. All four of them? It’s unheard of, but I definitely felt that shock when I made eye contact with each of them.
And it scares me shitless.
I jump as the warning bell rings, and I rise from the steps as they begin to make their way to the same doors as me with their eyes still trained on mine.
This can’t be happening.
I didn’t even know they were wolf shifters until I felt the jolt. Shifters can’t mate with anyone other than another shifter of their kind. It’s how it’s deemed by the Mother. Now that I know, I can detect the underlying musk that identifies us as wolves. Their overlying scents distracted me from its subtlety.
I’m not staying around for them to get closer to me. I know that they recognize me as their mate if their staring is anything to go by, but I’m not ready for the rejection that’ll come when they realize just how unworthy I am. My bruises of the day are covered under my hair, but I look like a freak with my strange features. They could only see my hair color, and skin from where they stood. No need to let them get up close and personal for the full effect.
I turn around and try to get lost in the sea of students heading into the building. My wolf whines loudly in my head when I’m no longer looking at them, but I shut her up with a swift mental cage. I hate it as much as she does, but it’s necessary sometimes. We have to protect ourselves as much as possible from the inevitable pain.
I can now relate to Garfield. Fuck Mondays.
Chapter 3
Krix
I can’t believe she ran from us. I know that we’re new, but there’s no way she could be afraid of us. A mate should never fear or her male, or males in our case.
You also never run from a predator when it has you locked in its sight. It loves the chase, and to chase a female makes it even more exhilarating. Especially when it’s chasing a mate that it knows will submit when caught.
We’ve always known that we’re to share a female. It’s the way of the prophecy. We’ve been looking for her since we shifted and gained our affinities. We’ve known that she was out there since we were old enough to understand why we were so different and connected to each other.
It’s not every day that a wolf can control an element…
Or any day, really.
Now we have to chase down our mate instead of her running towards us as we’ve always imagined it would be like when we made the connection. The prophecy has made us into dreamers.
“Four males, each wielding an element, will come to be on the same night of the blue moon. A lunar child, born on the night of the winter solstice of the following year. Their purpose, to love the lunar child as her mates. To protect her from those who intend to do her harm. To stand at her side, and aid in the war that may end all.”
That’s the prophecy that has been shouted in our ears from birth.
And yes, we were all born on the same night eighteen years ago. It was a big thing in our pack, and we’ve spent our whole lives preparing for our roles. Nothing could have prepared us for her, though.
She’s… different.
I’ve never seen hair like hers. The fact that it’s practically white makes it almost look like it’s glowing against her brown skin, but that’s all that I could see. I couldn’t see her eyes from where I was standing, but I knew she was looking at me when I felt the jolt of electricity as our eyes connected. She left before I could surface my wolf enough to make my vision better.
I know the others felt it, too. They had all stiffened at my side. Each of them standing frozen at the same moment, just as I was.
Then she ran when the bell rang.
I start to panic as I try to calmly walk through the doors and can’t find her anywhere, but calm myself with her scent. We’d smelled it coming from the courtyard after the bus pulled up, but couldn’t place its source with all the people milling about. She smells so… alluring. Cherry blossoms and vanilla. I feel like I’m drowning in it, but in a good way.
“What the fuck just happened?”
I look at Den as he mutters the very words running through my head, his golden gaze scanning the crowd.
“She ran from us,” I say. “You can tell that she knows who we are to her, but she still ran. Do you think it’s because there are four of us?”
“Maybe she just didn’t want
to be late for class. She took off when the warning bell rang.” This comes from Mav as he stalks towards the hall when the tour guide showed us where our lockers were earlier. He’s always the voice of reason, looking for the positive side in every situation.
“Why would having four mates scare her? Females would kill each other to have multiple mates.” Of course, Cash would throw that in. The redhead is nothing if not conceited. At least he tries to make this stressful moment funny. Even if the joke does fall pretty flat.
“Mental,” I bark, as we near a particularly thin throng of students. We can’t let them know what’s going on, especially since we’re in another pack’s territory. This school is also swarming with humans. I can smell the surrounding wolves and feel their eyes boring into my skin. It’s safer if we keep these conversations within our mental link.
Wolves usually attend a private school catered to their special needs. Public schools are a hassle.
Even though we’re all alphas ourselves, we fall under our pack alpha until we’ve sealed the bond with our mate. He is fully aware of what we have to do, so he plays the role of our guardian while we travel through the packs to find her. Good thing he’s the alpha of the largest pack in the states, or we’d have a hard time getting permission to enter their territories.
Pack alphas can be dicks.
We’ve been moving around on our own for the past two years. He still acts as our guardian, but we have our own money. Accounts were set up for all five of us, our mate included, once the prophecy was foretold two hundred years ago. It’s pretty substantial now, and we only need the alpha to gain permission from the packs and answer if someone calls looking for an adult. We don’t even need him to answer for that anymore now because we’re eighteen.
As we walk down the hall, I leave it up to the boys to scope out our mate while I try to get a plan together. She must belong to the Lunar Mills Pack since she attends this school with them. There aren’t any other packs in the area, so I have to figure out a way to gain an audience with her. Speak to her alpha and parents so she can leave her pack and come with us.