New Beginnings: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 1

by C. C. Masters

  “Because of the school?” I asked as I watched him take the flat sheet off his bed.

  He shrugged and handed me the sheet. “The school hasn’t really asked a lot from us now that we’re no longer on their property. It’s more the isolation. Four of us isn’t really enough for a pack.”

  “Five,” I corrected softly.

  “Five,” he agreed with a happy grin.

  I started to tuck the sheet in around the head of the bed while he grabbed the other side and stretched it to the foot, doing his best to secure it in place. “We’re going to have to get you some real sheets,” he told me. “What’s your favorite color?”

  I gave him a shy smile. “This is okay for now. I don’t really make a lot of money at my job.”

  He shrugged and handed me one of the blankets on his bed. “Maybe I just don’t want to share my stuff?”

  I grinned at him. “Really? You don’t want me covered in your scent all day?”

  He blushed. “I do kind of like that part of it.”

  He moved his pillow to my bed but I promptly moved it back. “I’m not taking your pillow,” I told him firmly. “I can roll up a part of the blanket and use that.”

  He looked at me doubtfully so I decided to change the subject. “What locker can I have to put my things in?”

  He waved his hand towards the other side of the room. “Most of the lockers over there are empty.” He pointed to the row of windows to our right. “We keep our clothes and stuff in the trunks over there.” The trunks had been partially hidden under the long curtains that trailed down to the floor so I hadn’t noticed them until he pointed them out.

  I wandered over to the line of trunks to do some snooping. The first trunk was all black with gold hinges. “This is Corey’s, right?”

  Kannon laughed. “Yeah.” He walked over to me with a playful look in his eyes. “See if you can guess mine.”

  The trunk next to Corey’s was also black, but had Fender and Apple stickers on it. Interesting, who was the musician? I couldn’t picture Wyatt or Grayson playing a guitar. Wyatt was too closed off and a little uptight, whereas Grayson seemed gruff and uncomfortable with emotions. I decided to pass by this one for now.

  The next trunk was blue with stickers from surf companies. Once again, I was stumped. None of the guys seemed like the stereotypical surfer. I was quickly realizing that I had a lot to learn about my new pack.

  The last trunk was green, but the Avengers sticker on the front gave it away. “This one is yours.” I smiled triumphantly at Kannon.

  “Are you sure?” Kannon teased me.

  “Um.. eighty percent sure?”

  Kannon laughed. “You’re right.”

  “Okay, you have to tell me who the other two belong to though. I’m stumped,” I admitted sheepishly.

  “Grayson’s the surfer and Wyatt plays the guitar,” Kannon explained.

  “Huh,” I turned around to retrieve my bag from where I had dropped it on the floor next to Kannon’s bed. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

  Kannon laid down on my new bed and watched as I went through the lockers, looking for an empty one. “Wyatt kept his laptop, but sold his guitars and amps so we had enough money to get out here. Grayson said it was pointless for us to bring our surfboards since we wouldn’t be able to use them, so we sold those too.”

  I turned to look at Kannon, he sounded so sad. “That must have been rough,” I said softly.

  Kannon shrugged with one shoulder. “Surfing was kinda our thing. You know, something that we could all do together.”

  I nodded. “My mom and I didn’t have a lot. But watching Gilmore Girls together was our thing.” I pretended to be really focused on examining the lockers so that he wouldn’t notice the tears that were gathering in my eyes. Talking about my mom without being overwhelmed with sadness didn’t seem like it was something I could do. I couldn’t even think about my mom without becoming misty-eyed.

  I found a locker that looked clean and had a working latch. Claiming it as my own, I lined up my little bottles of trial sized toiletries on the top shelf. “Is that why you wanted to join the military to get into another pack?” I asked Kannon quietly.

  He got up off my bed and wandered closer to me. “Partly,” he admitted. “I miss the ocean and I miss our life before it all went to shit. It’s tough being here on our own, all we do is work.”

  “And you think that if you joined a pack again, that there would be others to share in the responsibility?”

  Kannon looked at me in surprise. “Yeah, I didn’t think of it in those words. But there’s all this pressure on us, especially Gray and Wyatt. It’s changing them.”

  “Being out on your own sucks,” I told him. “But isn’t that what adulting is all about?” I sighed sadly.

  He leaned on the locker beside mine and gave an equally sad sigh. “I hate to prove them right when they say I’m immature, but I kind of just want to be a high school kid for a little longer.”

  I laughed. “School starts for you in another couple of months, you’ll get your chance.”

  “Along with you.” He gazed into my eyes and I admired how the light lit up the gold in his hazel eyes.

  “Maybe,” I murmured. Getting me back in school wasn’t a done deal. It would be smarter to just give up on the idea of graduating from high school and going to college. It would certainly attract less attention. But I wasn’t ready to give up on my dreams just yet.

  I looked in my bag to see what else I had to put away. I was wearing my only pair of sneakers, but I still had my cheap pair of flip flops. I put those in the bottom of the locker. That left my uniform for the ice cream shop, which I needed to put on before going to work. And one other outfit. The locker only had a single hook, which I planned on using to hang my bag. What could I do with my clothes?

  I glanced around the room, but there was no closets, dressers, or wardrobes to be found. Kannon must have noticed my dilemma. “You can put your clothes in my trunk,” he offered.

  I glanced up at his earnest face. “Thanks, but I’ll just keep them in my bag for now.” As much as I appreciated everything that Kannon had done for me, I didn’t feel right just moving into every bit of his private space. It felt too intimate.

  Kannon’s face fell and I saw the disappointment in his eyes. “I’m smothering you, aren’t I?”

  I shook my head with a small smile. “I appreciate you being willing to share everything you have with me, but all of this is just too overwhelming,” I tried to explain. “I’ve been scared and on my own for a while. I need to ease into this a little more slowly.”

  Kannon nodded with relief. “I understand that you want to be cautious.” He hesitated as if there was something else he needed to say.

  “What is it?” I asked curiously.

  He swallowed and avoided my eyes. “I know you hinted that the males in your last pack were… bad. I just want you to know that I would never… that none of us would ever…” He waved his hand and looked to be at a complete loss of words.

  I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, catching his nervous gaze. “I know, Kannon,” I assured him. “I have never felt as safe as I do with you right now.”

  He searched my eyes and whatever he found there made him relax. I felt a little bad for what I needed to say next, but I wanted to be completely honest. “I really just want to be friends for now, Kannon,” I said softly. “I’m struggling with a lot of emotional stuff right now…” I felt like such a terrible person when I looked into his sad puppy eyes. “I want to get closer to you, but I feel a little intimidated by what you might expect from me. Like there’s this pressure, or obligation…”

  His eyes widened and he shook his head adamantly. “No pressure,” he promised. “I just really like you and I want you to stay. I want to make sure you have everything you need.”

  I gave him a warm smile. “Friends?”

  He nodded. “Friends.”

  I gave a sigh of relief. That had to be o
ne of the top ten most awkward conversations of my life. I think the only thing worse was when my mother had to explain to me why I wasn’t allowed out of the house, or even my room, whenever I went into heat. Thank god I wasn’t going to have to worry about that again until December.

  I pulled my work uniform out of my bag. “I gotta get dressed or I’m going to be late.”

  Kannon smiled at me. “Meet you downstairs?”

  I nodded and headed to the bathroom. Time to get ready for work.

  Chapter 10

  Lori

  I got dressed as quickly as I could and ran back downstairs. Kannon was waiting for me in the kitchen and slid a brown paper bag over the counter towards me.

  “What’s this?” I asked curiously, reaching for the bag and peeking inside.

  “I made you lunch,” he said shyly.

  I looked up at him in surprise. “Thanks, Kannon. You didn’t have to do that.”

  He gave an embarrassed shrug. “It’s just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips, nothing special.”

  I drew him into a hug. “You are seriously the sweetest,” I murmured. “Thank you.”

  He hugged me back and I enjoyed it for a moment before I had to pull away. “I have to get to work,” I said reluctantly. I always tried to be at least fifteen minutes early for my shifts to make a good impression on the boss.

  “I’ll walk with you,” Kannon offered. “Grayson needs me to get some stuff from the hardware store on that side of town.”

  “Okay, cool,” I said gratefully. It was nice to have company after being completely alone for so long. Kannon held the door open for me and I murmured a thank you as I walked through.

  None of the males in my old pack would have even considered doing anything nice for me like Kannon had. Making me lunch and holding the door for me would’ve been considered signs of weakness for a male. But I really liked the way that Kannon made me feel wanted and taken care of. No one had ever cared for me like this except for my mom.

  Sadness threatened to overcome me as thoughts of my mom passed through my mind but I steadfastly pushed the emotion away. This was not a good time to wallow in my sadness; I needed to put a smile on my face and have a cheery attitude when I stepped into work.

  I gave Kannon a shoulder bump. “So, what do you like to do for fun?”

  Kannon gave me a small smile. “The usual guy stuff- play video games, watch movies. There’s not really a lot to do around here.” Kannon shrugged. “But it’s been kind of a good thing since there’s not a lot to distract us from getting a lot of work done in a short amount of time.”

  “Wyatt said you handle all the tech for the business?” I asked curiously.

  “Yeah, a lot of cars come with sophisticated computer systems so there’s a lot that can go wrong there.” Kannon hesitated. “But I don’t think I’ll get to work on too much of that stuff around here. It seems like most people in this town opted for the more basic models.”

  “Well, there’s not really a lot of money in small towns,” I pointed out.

  Kannon gave a sad smile. “It’s definitely different here from what I’m used to.”

  “Where did you guys move from?” I couldn’t believe that I had neglected to ask that so far.

  “California.” Kannon smiled at me. “We didn’t live in LA or anything, but the culture was definitely a lot different from here.”

  I looked at him in surprise. “Isn’t that Mr. Morgan’s territory? I met him once when I was a kid; he didn’t seem so bad.” He had passed through our territory looking for females to join his growing pack, but our pack master had refused to give him any so nothing ever came from it.

  “He’s not so bad,” Kannon admitted. “But he oversees over fifty small packs scattered over his territory from southern California to Oregon. He doesn’t get involved in petty pack squabbles or anything. As long as the pack master maintains allegiance to him and we don’t go around killing humans, he pretty much ignores us.”

  “So he didn’t care when your pack was taken over?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Our new pack master made it sound like he was doing us a favor and Morgan bought his bullshit,” Kannon said bitterly.

  There was a beat of uncomfortable silence so I decided it was best to change the subject. “So, how did you learn to do all that stuff with computers?”

  Kannon’s face brightened. “My cousin was really into computer programming when I was a kid. He was ten years older than me, but let me tag along and taught me some stuff. He gave me his old equipment when he was done with it, and I used to try to do everything I could to impress him.”

  The thought of a little Kannon sitting eagerly in front of a computer made me smile. “What kind of programming did you do?”

  “I started out with writing code for games but I lost interest in that when I realized I would never be able to make anything as good as the stuff out there with a hundred programmers and graphic artists working on it. Right now, I’m working on an app.”

  “What does the app do?” I asked curiously. I never had a smart phone before because my pack didn’t see any reason for the females to have phones at all. But I had played on my cousins phones before and I always wanted one for myself.

  “It’s called SplitShare,” he told me enthusiastically, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Whenever you go out in a group, you need to split the bill, right?”

  I nodded. I didn’t really have any experience with that, but it made sense. I stopped walking so I could watch what he was doing on his phone.

  “I have a quick calculator on there so you can figure out how much each person owes,” Kannon told me as he showed me the app. “But the harder part is keeping track of who still owes money because they didn’t bring cash, which person paid last time, or who you owe money to.”

  I nodded along as he showed me all the features. “I’m still working on building in the reminders, and I need some better graphics, but the basics are all here,” he told me enthusiastically. “This is the app to end all money arguments.”

  “This could be really useful for schools and clubs, too,” I told him with an excited grin. “Clubs are always collecting annual dues and money for events. This could help keep track of who already paid and could help with tracking expenses while planning events.”

  Kannon’s eyes lit up. “That’s an awesome idea! I didn’t think of that.”

  I gave him a shy smile. “If we get to go to school together, we should join some clubs and try to get them to use it.”

  “I think I can get a prototype made by the end of August.” Kannon had a determined look on his face as he spoke. “Class registration is in a couple weeks and school starts the last week in August, so we need to get you set up soon.”

  We started walking again as Kannon put his phone back in his pocket. “What kind of classes do you like?” I asked him. It would be nice for us to have some classes together.

  “Math and science,” he answered without hesitation. “I hate any classes that make me write papers.”

  I laughed. “I’m the opposite. I hate math but I really want to take AP Calculus to be more prepared for college. I’m dreading it though.”

  Kannon smiled at me. “That’s why I like you so much.”

  “Because I suck at math?” I teased him.

  “Because you aren’t afraid of a challenge. You don’t shy away from the difficult path to take the easy road.”

  I gave an embarrassed shrug. “I haven’t really done anything impressive with my life.” A wave of sadness hit me. So far, I had gotten my mom killed and ended up homeless and alone. That was the exact opposite of impressive.

  “You have,” Kannon said softly. I’m sure he picked up on the cloud of depression that had surrounded me, because he immediately changed the subject.

  “Do you like writing papers?” he asked hopefully.

  “I love anything to do with reading and writing,” I told him with a smile. “I can help you with you
r papers if you help me with my calc.”

  “Deal,” he said with a grin.

  “This is my stop,” I said reluctantly. We had made the short walk to the ice cream shop more quickly than I would have liked. I tried to shake off the last vestiges of unhappiness that clung to me from thinking about my mom so I could paste a happy smile on my face for work.

  “If you want to stop by when I get done I can make you the sundae I owe you,” I offered to Kannon.

  He gave me a broad grin. “With chocolate fudge and sprinkles?”

  “And whipped cream and a cherry on top,” I promised him.

  “Deal. What time do you get off?”

  “Six.”

  “I’ll be here,” he promised.

  I turned to go in as he walked away, but then stopped and looked over my shoulder. “Thanks again for lunch!” I called after him.

  He gave me a wave as he headed over to the hardware store, and this time I didn’t have to fake the happy smile that spread over my face.

  I stepped through the door and Taylor looked up at me from where she had been texting on her phone. Taylor was Mr. Reaven’s niece and one of the three other girls that worked here. Well, ‘work’ was an exaggeration. She got paid to hang out with all of her friends who came into the ice cream shop while the rest of us worked. “Was that one of the guys from the garage?” she asked. “Is he your boyfriend?”

  I blinked in surprise. “Um, yeah but we’re just friends.” Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to have Kannon walk me here if it was going to attract attention. Taylor was one of the biggest gossips I had ever met. And I hadn’t been surprised to find out that she was one of the popular girls with her perfect blond hair and stylish clothes. All the girls my age wanted to be her, the guys wanted to date her, and parents wanted their kids to be more like her. She was an expert at appearing sweet and helpful in front of any adults like her uncle.

  “Lacey said she saw you come out of their place this morning,” Taylor told me with a sly grin.