Things were all of a sudden clear. “So that’s why Wesley said that you hadn’t claimed me yet and there was still hope for him?”
“Yes. Wesley’s senses told him you were untouched and that I hadn’t marked you. And now he wants you for his own.”
“But don’t I have a say in the matter?”
“In a normal situation, yes, but not according to Wesley. He wants you, and he’ll do whatever he has to do to get you.”
“But why didn’t he try anything on our dates? He barely touched me.”
“He was most likely trying to win your trust and to get information about your relationship with me. Didn’t he ask you questions about our relationship?”
“As a matter of fact, he did.” I gasped as the realization hit me. “Can he get me here?” As I asked the question I fought the tears forming in my eyes.
He reached up to stroke my face, his blue eyes piercing. “No, you’re safe here. He can’t cross the boundary line into my territory. It would be considered an act of war. I won’t let him take you, Charity. You’re in this mess because of me. I have a responsibility to protect you and that’s what I plan to do.”
“Oh, so you’re protecting me out of guilt. Well, that’s nice to know,” I snapped.
“Charity, that’s—”
“You know what? I’m tired, Levi, so I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.” I pushed him gently out the door, shutting it behind him. So, he felt responsible for me. Levi didn’t really like me after all. I guess what he said that day at school was true. Suddenly I felt completely overwhelmed.
I went into the bathroom to wash up. Wow, a fully functional bathroom underground, and something I’ve always wanted; a claw-foot tub. How cool was that? Now if you’re gonna take a bath, that’s the way to go. After I came out, I looked in the closet, expecting it to be empty, and there hung some exquisite nightgowns, all in different colors. I thought Levi said this room didn’t belong to anyone. How odd. But I was too tired to wonder, so I grabbed a white one, pulled it on, and was about to climb into bed when I heard a knock at the door.
When I opened it, Levi was standing there with a bottle in his hand. He swallowed hard as he studied me. “Um, here’s your pain medicine.”
“Oh, thank you,” I said, taking the bottle from him.
“I’m sorry if I said something to upset you earlier.”
“No, it’s not you. I mean it’s not totally you. Okay it’s you.”
He smiled, looking down at his hands clasped.
“I guess I’m just a little overwhelmed by all this, and I’m tired. I’ll be fine tomorrow, I hope. Goodnight, Levi.”
“Okay—well, goodnight.” He turned reluctantly and crossed the hall.
Chapter Eight
I slept well, thanks to the pain medicine, until the nightmare woke me. It was about Wesley. He was in his werewolf form, attacking me, with claws ripping at my clothes and flesh. I jerked awake, screaming and confused, gasping for air. Suddenly, I felt two hands wrap around my shoulders. I screamed and slapped them away until the melody of a familiar voice soothed me.
“Charity, it’s me, Levi. It’s okay, it’s me.”
“Levi?”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m right here.”
Without hesitation, I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung myself to him just like I had the day he rescued me from Frank, my discretion once again eluding me.
“It’s okay.” He held me tight, his arms engulfing me. “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He stroked his hands down my back in a reassuring manner.
I have to admit it was a little unnerving being so close to his bare chest, but soon all was forgotten and, with the help of the pain medicine and in the security of his warm embrace, I drifted off into a sound and dreamless sleep.
When I woke in the morning, I was alone again. I washed up in the bathroom and got dressed, pulling my dark strands up into a tight ponytail. I decided to venture out into the hall. It was quiet. I somehow managed to remember my way to Ashley’s room, but it was empty, so I headed back down the hallway and out into a huge lobby. It resembled a lobby of a very expensive and elegant hotel. I stood dumbfounded, looking around at eight different wings of the facility with letters elegantly scrawled over each arched doorframe. I tried to remember what Levi said each letter stood for, but it was too much to process. I heard laughter coming from the left wing labeled D, so I entered it and walked until I came to a huge room filled with rows of long tables. It was a dining room, hence the letter D, and despite the number of tables, it was a very elegant room, decorated in deep red and gold.
“Charity!” Ashley called as she got up and danced to my side. “Are you hungry?”
“Are you kidding? I’m so hungry my stomach’s eating itself.”
“Good. Come and eat breakfast with us.” She grabbed my hand and led me back to the table where she’d been sitting. It was full of people, some of which I recognized.
I glanced around and noticed at the far end of the room was an open wall with people working feverishly on the other side, obviously the kitchen. They were sitting food trays out on the ledge like they do at a restaurant.
“Good morning, Charity,” Levi greeted me. “Let me introduce you to everyone. This is my father, Joseph, and my mother, Irena. This is my sister, Tara and her husband, Kevin. And these guys you already know from school, Josh, Jared, Jordan, Ian, and Cody. Please, have a seat.”
“Thank you. It’s very nice to meet all of you.”
Levi stood up and motioned to someone and in less than a minute I had a smorgasbord sitting before me with every kind of breakfast food you can imagine; a bagel, a blueberry muffin, two eggs, three slices of bacon, two pieces of toast, and every flavor of jelly ever made.
“Wow! I wish I could do that at home,” I remarked to everyone’s amusement.
I have to admit I was caught off guard at seeing Levi with his family. It made him seem so normal, and yet he was far from normal. I was puzzled by the idea that Levi was the alpha male when his father was still alive. I hoped he would explain it to me later.
To my surprise, I enjoyed breakfast a great deal. Everyone was very relaxed, even teasing and having fun. It was like an extra-large, tight nit family. I noticed that Ashley and Josh were holding hands and looked totally enchanted. When did that happen? Levi’s sister, Tara stared at me frequently. She looked to be about 22 and was very beautiful. The resemblance between her and Levi was undeniable. They both had those same beautiful bluish-purple eyes. Levi’s parents also watched me. It was as if they knew something I didn’t. They seemed very much in love, and held hands all throughout breakfast. They looked at Levi with great admiration—in fact, everyone did, just like at school. He has this great presence about him.
After breakfast, Levi stood and took my hand, “Come walk with me?” I nodded helplessly in response. He held my hand as we walked through the long hallway. It felt nice, but confusing. Just when I thought he didn’t like me he would do something that made me question.
I ran my hand along the wall, amazed at how strange the texture felt. It was made out of something I wasn’t familiar with, a cross between concrete and brick perhaps. The hall was drafty and I wrapped my arms around myself as we reached the end and stepped up an incline. Levi pushed a little, red button I could barely see on the left wall and a door slid to the side, making a whoosh sound. I looked on in amazement as we stepped out into the forest. I turned in time to see the door slide back. However, it wasn’t a door at all, but the face of a tree. Cool! I felt like I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone.
“Levi, do you mind if I ask you a question?” I asked once my amazement dissipated.
“Let me guess, you’re curious as to why I’m the alpha male while my father’s still alive.”
I nodded.
“Well, one becomes an alpha through blood lines. The alpha gene passes down through the males. An alpha rises every third generation, giving each alpha enough time to le
ad his pack without too much time, if that makes any sense. When the eldest son of the third generation of alpha turns eighteen, he comes into his birthright and takes over, and then the older alpha retires, so to speak. Do you understand so far?”
“I think so. So, is your grandfather here too then?”
“No, he died when I was eight.”
“So, who’s led your pack until now?”
“Wesley’s grandfather.”
“I don’t understand.”
“A pack always has to be led by an alpha. If the alpha dies and the third generation isn’t ready, or even born yet, then that pack has to submit under the leadership of another pack’s alpha. When my grandfather died, the pack left this place and went to the east pack, led by Wesley’s grandfather. He became our alpha until my eighteenth birthday. Then my pack and I came back here.”
“Is that why you and Wesley are enemies now?”
“I don’t like the word enemies, rivals would be more like it. We used to be friends growing up. We understood each other. Being raised as the only alpha male can be lonely, with everyone constantly watching every move you make, making sure you’re safe and protected at all times. We would sneak off to have fun, but of course we always got caught, and of course Wesley always blamed me. Even then he felt threatened by me, going the extra mile to get me in trouble, though it usually backfired. Everyone knew he had a mean streak, even his father. His resentment toward me built, and that’s what we’re seeing now.
“You see, a pack can only have one alpha, and he became alpha on his eighteenth birthday, same as me. I wish we could’ve stayed friends, but the rivalry is too strong. This rivalry between the east and west side has been raging for almost a century. You’ve felt it in your society as well, but what you don’t know is it stems from the rivalry between our two packs.”
“And here I wanted the rivalry to end, but I’ve only succeeded in making it worse.”
“It’s not your fault. Packs should never live so close together—mostly because of our competitive nature. We came here over a century ago before this land was inhabited. Our plan was to build our facility up in the mountains so we could be away from other packs and therefore be free to hunt on the full moon without any interference. And afterward, we planned to build the town and name it Drake Mountain. However, the Windsors came in, saw the beauty of this place, and staked their claim as well. We refused to leave—they refused to leave, as a result a fight began that lasted for weeks, after which time we declared a truce and split the land in two. We took the west and they took the east, hence the rivalry was born.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that. It’s sad really. I’ve always heard the rivalry was between two families who lived on opposite sides of the town.”
“Yeah, that’s us; The Drakes and the Windsors. It took us a year to agree upon a name for the town, and of course we had to split that too.”
My breath suddenly caught. “Windrake Mountain, that’s you guys?”
“Pretty cool, huh? But about this rivalry, I think it says something that six of us transferred over and we’re still alive, don’t you?”
“Were you scared?”
“No. Everyone was easier to win over than I thought, except maybe the jocks, and of course you.”
“What about ten years ago when you transferred to the east side schools?”
“I didn’t. All pack children are home schooled until high school age. Think about it, we can’t have a child mouthing off. I can just hear it, ‘My dad’s a werewolf and he’ll rip your dad’s head off’. Little ones have difficulty keeping secrets, and we don’t take chances when lives are at stake. By age 14 the maturity level is safe enough for them to enter the school system. Remind me to show you the C Wing where our classrooms are held. They’re impressive, and we have great teachers.”
“Hmm, I guess that makes a lot of sense. Do all pack members live here?”
“No. Pack members are free to live wherever they choose and pursue whatever career they want. The majority of the pack stay together, mainly because they’ve been raised to believe in our way of life. But if a member wants his freedom, he’s free to leave. Women, more than men, leave. Because the women never shift into werewolves, only the men shift, so men are more likely to stay close. It’s important to say that even if a member leaves, they always remain in close contact with the pack and are willing to be available if trouble comes.”
“Wow, that’s very interesting. So there are werewolves living among us in town then?”
“Oh yes, you’d be surprised. Some only live in town on a part-time basis, while others live there permanently.”
“So, if you got pulled over by a policeman who turned out to be an east pack werewolf, would you be in trouble?”
“Not really, I mean there could be trouble I guess. It depends on what orders the alpha gives them, but we’re usually civil to one another outside of pack business. And remember, we were part of the same pack for the last ten years. It’s only been since Wesley’s taken over that the rivalry’s been rekindled. His birthday was several months before mine, so it became very hard to live under his rule. My pack was counting the days, literally, until my birthday so we could leave them and come back here. Most of us are still friends deep in our hearts though, or at least I’d like to believe that. Actually, it’s kind of funny, but the human members of this town are having a harder time with the rivalry than the packs are, at least until recently.”
“You mean until I came along.”
“Charity, if this wasn’t about you then Wesley would find something else to quarrel about. Can’t you see that?”
“I guess. So, how old is a boy when he first starts shifting?”
“Well, most boys are eighteen before they shift for the first time. Every male is born with the inner knowledge of what he is, so by the time he shifts for the first time, he’s already grown into that knowledge. He pretty much knows what’s happening. However, he can’t control when he shifts for the first year or so. It takes that long to gain control over it.”
“You just turned eighteen. Can you control it?”
“Since I’m an alpha I started shifting about six months early. As a result, I have a good sense of control, but sometimes I still have a hard time, especially when I’m angry, like last night with Wesley, and the same with him.”
“That must’ve been why your eyes shifted briefly that day at school when we argued.”
“You caught that, did you?”
“It was kind of hard to miss.”
“I’m sorry about that. I was pretty angry and a couple of times I really had to have a lot of self-control. Sometimes it’s easier than other times.”
“So, what would’ve happened if you had shifted right there in front of me?”
“You would’ve wet your pants.” He laughed.
“You’re definitely right about that.” Then we both laughed. “Um, you said some pack members choose to live outside of this facility. Could you ever do that as the alpha?”
“Probably not. I mean, I could, but it would be hard to lead from somewhere else. I do have a house in town though. It’s been in my family for many years. I pretended to move back there when I transferred to W. W. High. I stay there sometimes, you know, in order to keep up appearances.”
“Wow, this is so much to process.”
“I know it is, and I apologize.” At that moment his phone beeped, alerting him to a new text message. He checked it and sighed. “I’m sorry, Charity, but I have something to take care of. I probably should be getting you and Ashley home anyway. I don’t want to do this, but I’m going to have to ask you to wear blindfolds when we take you out of here. I know it’s weird, but we have to be extremely careful. I hope you understand.”
“Yes, of course.”
Stacy’s car was parked at the same place, off the side of the road, just where we left it the night before. Ashley and I said our goodbyes and headed home, discussing the ridiculousness of the situation all
the way back.
“Did you get to see the Recreation Wing?” Ashley asked.
“What—they have a Recreation Wing? What’s in it?”
“You wouldn’t believe it. One room has sofas and the biggest, flat screen TV I’ve ever seen along the back wall for watching movies. Another room is a game room with pool tables, arcade games, and TVs set up for Wii games. They also have an awesome workout room. You’ll have to get Levi to show it to you next time. Josh says a lot of the pack are big gamers. They especially like Xbox.”
“Unbelievable. Who knew werewolves had it so good? And here I thought they were scary.”
“Oh no—they’re still scary,” she said right before we burst into laughter.
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