Masked SheWolf

by Yara Gharios

  The bigger three, Connor, Mason and Nathan, are old enough to do whatever they want and Dad won’t object, but for whatever reason, they continue living with the rest of us and abide by the rules Daniel and I have to. I’m not sure why they do that, but secretly, I’m a little glad. I don't know what I would do if they left.

  "That’s a bit harsh, darling," Mom says in my defense. "You know it’s not their fault that they’ve never had that kind of connection here."

  Dad looks at her tiredly. "I know, Brooke. But Dylan’s safety takes priority over that. We all know it. It’s why we’re all still here, because we care about you, Dyl."

  I look up at him and suppress my weakening eyes. "I know, Dad. But I don’t get what else you want us to do. I mean, honestly, what more can we do? We can’t really be friends with the SMP members for the same reason that Danny and I aren’t friends with the humans he hangs out with at school."

  Dad frowns in confusion for a second. "The what?"

  "SMP," Connor repeats for me. "You know, the pack."

  Recognition dawns on his face and smoothes his eyebrows apart. "Ah. Right. Well, nevertheless Mickey, these wolves didn’t just let us live on their land for nothing. They didn’t invite us to join them or you to shift with them just because they felt nice. Alpha Underwood is really trying to form ties between us."

  The five of us are all confused by what Dad says.

  "But why?" Daniel asks the question I know we’re all thinking.

  "By my guess, to respect the wishes of his predecessor," Dad tells us. "Or actually, the guy before that."

  "Still, that doesn’t explain why he’s jumping at every chance he gets to play nice with us," Nathan comments. "I’m almost this close to being flattered, but it’d just be too weird."

  My brothers snicker and I half-smile. Of course, only Nathan would say something like that at such a serious moment.

  "Well then you better get used to it, because I have a feeling that- what did you call them Mickey? SMP is one very persistent pack," Dad says. This is the closest I’ve ever seen him get to sarcasm.

  There’s a moment of silence while we process that before I finally speak again. "So… what does that entail of us, exactly?"

  Dad shrugs like it should be obvious. "Hang out with them. Go to their parties, do plans with them after school, have study groups if you even need it. Do things normal teenagers would do. Just don’t shift with them, and don’t say anything that would put Michael’s secret in danger."

  He makes it sound so simple, when in fact, it’s anything but.

  When we get to school later that day, I meet up with Sadie in the hallway, at her locker. I seek her out because I know Dad will expect us to start the friends plan right away, and Sadie’s the only one I’m genuinely comfortable around so far. She’s putting away her books when she sees me coming and beams gigantically at me like she’s been waiting for me. It actually brightens my day a little.

  "Morning!" she says in her cheerful manner.

  "What’s up Sadie," I say back.

  "I hear you met the guys in the clearing yesterday."

  I scratch the back of my head nervously. "Yeah, um, I hope they didn’t that too personally, it’s just that it’s still weird for us being around other…" I look around hesitantly. "You know. Others."

  She flashes me a reassuring smile. "I know. I’m glad you don’t have that problem with me."

  I grin at her. "No offense, but you’re not as intimidating as they are."

  Holy shit, did I just admit to being intimidated out loud? To Sadie, of all people?

  Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to notice the slip and instead laughs at the part directed at her. "I’ll have you know, I grew up beating up Cade and Logan’s asses, so you better believe I can hold my own."

  "You mean before they shifted for the first time and had their strength spurt?" I tease her, grinning.

  She mock-glares at me. "That is an unfair advantage."

  I chuckle in amusement and decide not to push her on this."I actually meant that you don’t radiate testosterone animosity like they do."

  I just did it again!

  "Oh." She smiles softly. "Trust me, they’re softer than they look, even if they don’t admit it. Especially Logan."

  An eyebrow shoots up. Logan, the stare-you-down-till-you-pee-in-your-pants alpha, a softie? Somehow I doubt that, but I don’t say anything.

  "Walk me to class?" she asks timidly a moment later.

  Knowing exactly what she means by that, I give her a teasing smirk. "Have you lost your way again?"

  Sadie blushes with a faint smile on her face. "I forgot my schedule at home this morning, and I haven't memorized my classes yet."

  "Oh?" I tease. "Did someone distract you?"

  She understands what I am insinuating, which makes me like her even more. "Oh shut up," she complains, blushing again. "When you find your mate, we’ll see if you act differently. So are you going to help me or not?"

  I hide the uneasiness in the pit of my stomach and finally roll my eyes at her. "Let’s just go to the admissions' office and get your schedule again."

  We’ve got a good fifteen minutes before class starts, so I know I’m in no hurry. Once we know which classroom she's in, we start walking at a slow pace together, and she’s asking me questions about myself.

  "When's your birthday?" she wants to know.

  "June 6th," I tell her.

  "Where were you born?"

  This is a fairly safe question, if I know how to answer it. And I do, because I’ve practiced telling it since I was seven. The same way my parents practiced explaining to people that they left their pack to raise us in a quiet place. The real reason is that they found out one of the new twins my mom was pregnant with is a girl.

  "In my house," I say easily.

  Sadie seems surprised by my answer. "What, really? Your mom didn’t go to a hospital?"

  "She went to a hospital twice before that to give birth, and she wanted to try the 'real experience'" -I make air quotes- "without any doctors or medicine," I explain, which is still 20% true.

  "Didn’t your dad put up a fight?" she wondered.

  "Sure, but she was determined to do a home delivery at least once," I tell her. Then, I grin. "Whenever he talks about it, he says it was one of the longest, loudest and filthiest nights of his life."

  She smiles but doesn’t answer for a moment, and I can feel she’s not quite done yet. "It seems to be very easy for you to talk about this," she remarks, confusing me.

  "Why wouldn’t it be?" I wonder, my eyebrows furrowed.

  "Because you’re a guy," she simply says.

  I ignore the guilty feeling rushing through me at that moment. I’ve never felt bad about lying to anyone before, but Sadie’s different. She’s someone I can actually be friends with, like Marianna.

  "So?"

  "So, if I ask Cade or any of the guys in my pack about live births, they’d squirm and call it gross female stuff," she says.

  Other than the surprise I feel that she said the word pack in public, it dawns on me that she’s right. I’ve never paid attention to that particular piece of information, because I practically recite it by heart every time I’m asked about it. No one’s ever asked what Sadie just did.

  The lie rolls off my tongues smoothly, but it still pains me to deceive this girl, whom I very badly want as a friend. "My parents drilled the story of my and Danny's birth into me so much that I became sort of immune to it."

  "Which one of you is older?" she asks excitedly.

  I mentally breathe out a sigh of relief that she’s changed the subject all on her own, and half-smile. "Danny," I reply. "By only twelve minutes. But he, like all my brothers, treats me like the baby of the family."

  She laughs out loud. "Oh, believe me, it’s better than being the eldest. Everything falls on you, and you’re expected to be the better sibling so that you can put a good example for the younger ones."

  "Connor’s never been wor
ried about that with us," I laugh. "He’s the one who got Mason his first condom and Nathan his first fake ID."

  We’re almost at her classroom, and we’re laughing so loudly that people are staring at us. But for once, I don’t really care; I’m having fun, so I’m not about to stop just because me laughing is unusual public behavior.

  "Your family seems so incredible," Sadie comments, still laughing. "I can’t wait to really get to know them all."

  A part of me is trying to convince myself that she only said that as part of SMP’s plan to get chummy with us. But she seems so truthful that it’s impossible to doubt her. Whether she’s executing a plan or not, Sadie is as honest and genuine a person as she appears to be.

  "Thanks," I tell her truthfully with a smile. "You should be warned, though, we're a little crazy, especially on Sundays."

  She frowns. "Why Sundays?"

  That's when I tell her about War Day with pride. She finds it incredibly amusing and laughs for almost a minute straight when I tell her what sort of pranks we've done on each other. Obviously, I change the story of what I did to Connor last time.

  "Jared and Sam have a friend called Tyler," she informs me. "Whenever those three get together, they are huge troublemakers. But they've never done anything like War Day."

  "Maybe you should suggest the idea," I say.

  She smiles. "Nah, that's your family's thing. They have their own little games they play."

  I nod and change the subject. "So what's your family like?"

  Her smile brightens even more. "They're pretty amazing," she says. She's about to add more, but suddenly, she has an idea. "Actually, now that you mention it, we’re going out to the movies after school today, and I would love it if you could come, so I could have someone to talk to. I comment a lot during movies, and none of them can stand it."

  I briefly smile, amused. "Isn’t Cade going to be there?" I wonder.

  I find it odd that they're able to be separated from each other for so long. My brother and Marianna start texting or talking endlessly on the phone when they're away from each other for more than two hours. Even Connor and Andrea have to check in five times a day if they don't see each other.

  "No, not really. He and Logan have some work to do a few miles north of the boundary, and they won’t be back until tomorrow morning," Sadie tells me.

  "Oh," I say again. "Then sure, I’d love to go with you guys."

  She grins as if I just brought her favorite present just for her and flings her arms around me in a hug. "Thank you Dyl!" she squeals.

  I chuckle and awkwardly pat her head. Her enthusiasm is something I'm going to have to get used to, apparently.

  "No problem," I assure her. "Now get to class or I’m going to be late for mine."

  With a final squeeze of my shoulders, Sadie pulls away and scampers off to class, throwing a backward glance at me with that same beam on her face. So far, it feels nice to have a friend. I didn’t even think about Dad’s instructions when I agreed to hang out with her; I did it because I wanted to.

  Later that night, I meet up with her at the movies at exactly seven pm. I find her waiting at the food counter, with a middle aged couple who I’m guessing are her parents, a teenage girl around fifteen who must be her sister, and a ten year old boy who can only be her brother.

  Sadie, her sister and their mother are all brunettes, but Sadie’s father and little brother have dark auburn hair. Their eyes are also different; while Sadie’s are pure brown, her mother’s and sister’s are green, and her brother’s and father’s are hazel colored.

  Her sister is an exact replica of her mother only in a younger version, especially with the oval shape of their faces. Since Sadie’s face is actually heart-shaped, I’m guessing she takes more after her biological father than her mother. As for the little boy, he’s like both his parents in many ways, and I have to admit he's kind of adorable. He's sitting on his father's lap, laughing his little heart out as his father told a funny story. His mother is watching them with an affectionate glint in her eyes while Sadie tries to talk to her sister, who is too busy typing on her phone to give more than one worded answers.

  Sadie spots me a second later and waves frantically, bringing her family's attention to herself. The sister whispers something to Sadie that makes her frown and whisper something back, to which she shrugs then resumes texting on her phone. Sadie's brother stands up immediately and goes to stand in front of me. I halt and look at him.

  "Are you Dylan?" he asks, and he sounds so much like Sadie.

  "No, I'm Michael," I deadpan.

  He grins and puts his hand out. "I'm Zack!"

  I take his hand to shake it and feel him putting a little pressure on it, although this is probably what would be considered a hard shake for him.

  Is he trying to show off his strength? I wonder.

  I pretend to be in pain. "Go easy on that hand, Zack," I beg. "I kind of need it for writing my homework and stuff."

  He grins and grabs it a bit harder. I pretend to quake and fall to my knees.

  "Stop it, you're killing me!"

  Then he starts giggling and lets go of my hand. Two pairs of converse shoes come into my peripheral vision and I look up and find Sadie and her sister standing there.

  "Are you bothering my brother, Dylan?" Sadie jokingly asks.

  "His name is Michael," Zack corrects. "Don't worry Sade, I scared him enough so that he won't hurt you."

  Smiling, she bends her knees until she's at eye level with him and she ruffles his hair. "Aw, my protector." She stands up again and puts her hand behind her sister's back. "Dylan, this is my sister Zoey."

  Zoey looks up from her phone to spare me a single glance and a nod.

  "Nice to meet you," I say dryly.

  "Hey Michael?" Zack calls again.

  I look down at him. "Yeah, little man?"

  "Do you have any brothers and sisters?" he wants to know.

  "I have four brothers but no sisters."

  His eyes are wide. "Whoa! That's more than Sadie's boyfriend has! You're so lucky you have brothers. I only have sisters."

  "Hey, you know I would kill to have a sister as awesome as yours," I point out. "You're the only one who does, so you're a pretty lucky man."

  "Not true," he objects. "Reena's brother has a sister."

  I frown and look at Sadie. She gives me a look that says later, and turns to her brother. "Come on, Zack, let's go back to Mom and Dad. The movie starts in a few minutes."

  Sadie's parents are very nice people. They ask me about my family, my school and what I want to do in college when I graduate; the usual things normal people ask their daughter's friends. I play it aloof, because I can't very well talk about wanting to be a musician.

  Once we’re inside and the trailers start showing, I lean towards Sadie to ask her about what Zack said.

  "Oh, Reena’s adopted," she tells me. "Her parents wanted a girl when Jason was fourteen, so they got permission from the alpha. She was ten when she started living with the pack, and she’s been with us ever since."

  "So then you, Zoey and her are the only girls in the pack?" I ask and then backtrack. "Not counting the adult mothers, I mean."

  "Unless you count the few mates that some of the guys have chosen, then yeah," she replies. "But we're the only ones whose families are werewolves and part of the pack."

  I stare at the screen in silence for a bit. I silently wonder how it must have been like for Cade and Logan to grow up with girls their age around. I didn’t have any female presence, other than Mom, until my brothers started dating. The only girly thing my mother ever talked to me about was where babies come from. That conversation was done with Dad and the rest of my brothers, so that means I felt compelled to make the same jokes they did.

  "So what’s her and Logan’s story?" I wonder.

  She smiles sideways at me. "Well, you know that the plan originally was that Logan and I would get together in the end, right?" I nod. "When I chose Cade instead, L
ogan’s parents set their hopes on Reena. Obviously, they never pressured him; they weren’t that controlling. But they did give subtle hints that they would support the relationship. Five years ago, they started dating and they’ve been mates for two."

  I don’t know what to think about this. The one time I saw them together, they didn’t strike me as a couple that was that much in love. To each their own, I guess.

  Still, I can’t help noticing that a sliver of melancholy settles in my stomach.

  "Hey, listen," Sadie sharply whispers as the title begins to appear onscreen. "About Friday. You're coming, right?"

  I frown. "My brothers and I already agreed."

  Didn't we?

  "Yeah, I know that's what you said in front of the others, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't just say that out of politeness."

  "We'll be there," I promise. "Why are you asking?"

  She sighs out of frustration. "Because Cade and Logan are going to be gone that night, and Zoey can't drink but she's going to be a bartender, and Reena's not really my favorite person to be around when she's intoxicated, so there's really no one for me to hang out with."

  I'm really curious about how a host can miss his own welcome home party. But I doubt she'll tell me what they're doing, so I don't ask her about it.

  "Yeah, sure, it'll be just the two of us," I agree.

  She grins. "Thanks Dyl."

  When Friday does come around, I'm ashamed to admit that I'm a little nervous. I've never been to a party before, and I've certainly never thought I ever would go to one out of my own free will. I even spent ten minutes thinking about what to wear. Ten minutes! I usually just grab the first thing I find in my closet.

  In the end, I put on the usual jeans and hoodie, and head out to find my brothers still wrestling in the living room over who gets to sit in the passenger seat.

  "You had shotgun after school!" Danny roars.

  "And you had it this morning, remember?" Nate fires back. "You bargained with Mickey and gave him forty bucks to give it up."

  "You know he only agreed to that because he knows he's driving after the party," Mase points out.