Masked SheWolf

by Yara Gharios

  When my heart rate has calmed down once again, I look for another werewolf scent nearby, but mine is the only one. There's also no sound that I can detect. If someone did see me, then they didn't follow me, which means they're not onto my secret. There's no point in hiding out here. When I get back to the campsite, if the person who saw me asks, I'll make up an excuse for running.

  There's nothing to be afraid of, I tell myself.

  Gathering up my courage, I leave the safety of my hiding spot and calmly find my way back. The trail I left behind while walking this morning is still strong, and I follow it back to the campsite.

  The guy who was patrolling when I left is now joined by five other people, two of whom are Sadie and Cade and the other three are Cade's brothers and some guy I don't know. They're engaged in quiet conversation. Something tells me they've been here this whole time and that none of them were the one in the forest. I decide to put that incident completely behind me and not even tell my parents about it. There's no point in worrying them when nothing's happened.

  I don't bother hiding myself as I walk to join them because it wouldn't matter now anyway. The point in me leaving in secret was not that no one finds out about it, it was that no one discovered me while I was there, although I did come pretty close. Besides, I left a pretty strong trail behind me. It's hard to hide that.

  The guy who was patrolling notices me first, and his head jerks up to look at me with a confused expression. "Where the hell did you just come from?"

  I stick my thumb to point behind my back. "I went for a run."

  "Whoa," Sadie laughs. "How did you get past Tyler?"

  Ah, so this is the Tyler she told me about, Jared and Sam's friend, I conclude.

  Reflexively, I grin at her. "I have awesome ninja skills."

  She laughs again as her mate glares at me from behind her back, his arms tightening around her waist possessively. I do a mental eye-roll.

  Seriously dude, you've got nothing to worry about, I want to tell him.

  "Why didn't you wait for the rest of us?" the guy I don't know asks.

  I shrug. "I like to fly solo from time to time." The truth is that it was kind of lonely to shift alone, but I'm not about to admit that.

  "Oh, Dylan, this is Tyler by the way," Sadie suddenly remembers, gesturing to the guy on patrol, and then to the last one I don't know. "And that's Blake."

  I nod at them respectively. "Nice to meet you."

  "You and your brothers still don't like to run with strangers?" Cade retorts as if neither of us has spoken.

  His dislike for me is obvious in his voice, even though he's trying to suppress it in front of his girlfriend.

  "You can ask my brothers if you want, I just got too restless and had to shift," I calmly reply.

  "That'd be nice," Sadie comments before he could say anything and gives him a meaningful stare.

  Seeing her expression, he sighs and nods. I wonder what the pack normally does during the day when they're out camping. We spent the whole night sharing stories, I must have lost count how many of them actually told one. There were more histories about mates before the pandemic, some about the pack's ancestors fighting battles, and a very long but interesting story of how they rose to the status they have now.

  What can they do on this camping trip during daytime if they don't shift? Obviously, there has to be something or else the human mates wouldn't have stayed. Whatever it is, I wonder if it will be possible for my brothers and me to join them.

  Suddenly, I remember that it's Sunday. What am I supposed to do about War Day with all these people around? I had such a good prank planned, which would be even better because of the location of the campsite near a river. I don't want to have to wait until I'm home; the surprise element is the best part of it.

  "You okay Dylan?" Sadie asks.

  My eyes focus back to my surroundings. "Yeah, I'm just thinking."

  "About what?"

  I contemplate telling them; it wouldn't be the worst thing if they helped out. Maybe we could have fun together and do some more of that "bonding" Dad keeps demanding we do.

  I make up my mind and smirk. "It's Sunday," I remind Sadie, who suddenly beams. I look at the others. "There's this family tradition I'd like to let you in on."

  I don't want to lose precious pranking time so I tell them the short version of how War Day works with its rules. Sadie is so excited about it that she talks over me a couple of times to let the others. They seem to find it hilarious, except Cade, who just sits there stone-faced.

  "Who's the target this week?" Blake asks eagerly.

  "My eldest brother, Connor," I tell them.

  "What do you want to do to him?" Tyler wants to know, and his grin tells me he's in no matter what my plan is.

  They like my idea and they all want in, although Cade has to be convinced to do it by Sadie.

  However, before we can really start planning how to do it, Logan and Reena join us from their tent along with a few other SMP members. The alpha and his mate are holding hands, which kind of makes me sick because of what happened with Reena at the party. I honestly cannot understand how these two could be together. I'm not one to judge, though, so I just focus on having a normal conversation.

  "Morning guys," Sadie is the first to say in her cheery voice. "Want to help us prank Dylan's brother?"

  "What are you talking about?" Reena asks with a frown.

  "Apparently, they do this every week to one of them," Cade sarcastically announces, which I ignore and explain to the newcomers what I just told the others.

  "Sounds like fun," Logan comments. "But I'm going to have to pass. There's something I need to do."

  "What? You're bailing on us already?" his beta replies.

  "You're coming with me."

  An understanding passes between them. "Oh."

  "What about me?" Reena complains, looking a little hurt. "You're just going to leave me here?"

  Logan stares at her with confusion. "Uh, I don't think you'd like this, Ree. Besides, you can stay with your parents. I'm sure that's got to be more interesting."

  She rolls her eyes and lets out the most ridiculous sound; something like psh-ah!

  "Fine, whatever," she retorts.

  Suddenly, the group of people witnessing their interaction, especially me, is very uncomfortable with the direction the conversation is headed.

  Logan grabs her wrist when she tries to move away from him. "Hey," he says, surprisingly very softly. "Don't be upset. I do want you with me."

  She smiles and looks up at him from beneath her eyelashes. "You do?" she asks in a really whiny and annoying voice; like nails on chalkboard. Apparently though, I'm the only one who hears it, because no one else winces.

  "Of course I do," he assures her, and there's so much emotion in his voice that can melt even the toughest rocks. "I always want you with me. But you'll get bored on a trip like this."

  A silent conversation seems to pass between them, in which Reena sends Logan accusatory looks and he pleads with her not to do this in front of everyone watching. She's being very stubborn, but he doesn't back down either, and it's hard to guess who's going to give in to the other first.

  Finally, Reena huffs, although it's more resigned than nagging this time. "Fine," she agrees. "We'll talk about it later."

  Then she leans over and kisses him shamelessly in front of everybody, making the level of discomfort rise by at least two hundred per cent.

  He slowly pulls away after a moment. "I'll miss you," he smiles.

  She smiles back coyly. "I'll miss you more."

  Would you just leave already and spare us the PDA? I mentally groan.

  As if they're heard me, they finally separate. Logan and Cade then leave, and I feel a weight lift off my chest when I can't detect their presence anymore. It's like the tension created by Logan's intimidating presence dissipates when he's not around.

  Grinning, I turn to the others. "Alright, let's go humiliate Connor. I'm just going to wa
ke up my other brothers first; I'm sure they have their own pranks planned."

  The twins are up almost immediately, but Danny takes a while to be revived from his coma-like sleep. As I expected, they complain about being woken up so early. Then I tell them the reason, and they hop out of their sleeping bags like kids on Christmas morning.

  "I need a sharpie," Mason says and starts searching for one in his bag.

  That's the lamest and most unoriginal prank I've ever heard of. Then again, it's Mason; loving but sappy and cheesy, be-nice-to-everybody Mason.

  "Are there any jars around I can use to trap bugs?" Daniel wants to know.

  "I'm sure there must be some," I respond.

  Although disturbing and disgusting, Danny's plan is much better than Mason's. He disappears for a minute while the rest of us prepare our stuff. When he comes back, he's carrying a big jar with writhing worms in it.

  But Nathan is the one who wins 'best prank' award out of the three of them when he holds up a big balloon. "I've been saving this fart since Thursday," he announces with a proud grin.

  My brothers and I stare at him incredulously. "Oh, my God," I grimace, completely repulsed.

  "How the hell did you get it inside a balloon?" Danny wants to know, and he sounds unnaturally impressed with the idea.

  "It's not mine, obviously," he scoffs. "It's fake; it came in a spray bottle. I just used it to blow the balloon up."

  There's a stunned silence, tinted with admiration. This is definitely a first. And here I thought I am the master prankster.

  "Well, to each their own," Mason relents, shaking his head in disbelief at his twin. "Everybody ready?"

  "Yup," we all say in unison.

  I clap my hands once to get everybody's attention. "Let's do this."

  Mason goes into the tent first, to draw on Connor's face. Daniel slips in second and lets the worms loose all over Con's sleeping body. Nathan then crouches beside him, a plug covering his nose, and releases the fart from the balloon out of the hole and directly into Connor's nostrils. Jolting awake, our older brother thrashes around in his sleeping bag, scratching his nose repeatedly and letting gusts of air out of it.

  "What the f-?" he screams once he registers the worms squirming on top of him.

  He swats them away like they might actually bite him. Before he has a chance to recover from the shock, Jared, Sam, Tyler and I rush into the tent and carry his struggling body by his arms and legs.

  "Hey! Come on guys! Stop it! It's not funny! Let me go!" he shouts, which wakes up all the sleeping campers.

  But we ignore him and carry him all the way to the river, where we proceed to throw him in the cold water. Some come out of their tents to follow us and see what's going on. Everybody starts laughing the minute Connor emerges from beneath the surface and starts sprouting threats randomly at people.

  "Now, now big brother," I playfully scold him. "You know you're not allowed to retaliate on War Day this time."

  His eyes narrow as they zero in on me. "I should have known," he mutters. "Michael, you are the devil's spawn. I swear, if I had any choice in the matter, you would be dead by now."

  "But you don't," I remind him. "Ain't that the beauty of it?"

  Laughs resonate through the trees. Sadie steps out of the crowd and stands next to me, grabbing my arm and jumping up and down excitedly. "Who can we prank next?" she cheers.

  Chapter 14

  Daniel

  Partly to prove my point, I call Zoey on Monday during her lunch break. Our school cafeteria cannot accommodate all of its students at once, that's why lunch is divided into two periods. Seniors and juniors eat together, and freshman and sophomores after them.

  Zoey is sitting with a couple of freshman at one of the rarely used tables. I had to skip English for this, but it's not like I need any help in that subject. She doesn't know I am just outside the cafeteria when her phone rings, and she frowns as my name flashes on the screen.

  "Daniel?" she whispers, bemused. "Aren't you in class?"

  "Nah, the view was boring in there," I reply lightly. "It's much better here. By the way, how can you not like tomatoes? That's like the world renowned best vegetable."

  She looks around in surprise as she humors me. "Actually, tomatoes are fruits, and I don't like the taste."

  "But you like ketchup," I point out.

  She glances down at her salad, where she's replaced the tomato slices with extra ketchup in the sauce, and then she searches for me again.

  "Ketchup doesn't taste like tomatoes," she argues.

  "It's the exact same taste," I disagree.

  "Not to me," she disputes with a tone of finality. "Where are you?"

  "Your eleven o'clock."

  She finally spots me. Without thinking about it, I grin and wave. Zoey simply sighs and hangs up. Seconds later, she stands up and starts walking in my direction. Knowing she will follow me, I slip back and head for a corridor I know will be empty at this time. It doesn't take her long to catch up to me.

  "You know, if you were going to talk to me at school, maybe a direct conversation would be a better way to go next time," she suggests.

  I grin again. "Where's the fun in that?" I counter. "Besides, you said you don't want anyone to find out, and you dared me to call you. Don't blame me, I'm just following up on that. I'm not one to back down from a bet. And we're here now, aren't we?"

  She sighs and shakes her head patiently. "Fine, have it your way," she relents. "What do you want?"

  My eyebrows shoot up in surprise. I thought it was obvious. "I'm asking you out, like I said I would. I know you already agreed, but we didn't decide on when and where."

  She's even more surprised. "You... you were serious about that?"

  Now I'm just confused. "Of course I was. Why would you say yes if you weren't sure whether or not I was serious?"

  She crosses her arms and avoids eye contact, looking uncomfortable. "I didn't start questioning it until later. I mean, it's a little weird. You don't even know me; why would you want to go out with me?"

  When I realize she's only being insecure, I am slightly more confident. I almost thought she was going back on her word.

  "That's sort of the point of dating," I tease. "To get to know each other."

  "But getting to know me isn't going to get you anything," she states.

  I tense up immediately. This is a new one. Never in my life, when I asked a girl out, did she talk about what I could expect from the relationship so soon before it even began. But then again, maybe I misunderstood what Zoey meant. Is she talking about what I think she's talking about?

  "I already said I won't tell on you and I will keep your secret, so you don't really have to do this," she adds.

  That immediately clears up my confusion.

  "I know," I assure her. "But I want to."

  She doesn't break eye contact for a good long moment. I can feel her assessing my honesty and possible motives. It's not just because I think she's cute, which I do. The truth is she's not like any girl I have ever met before. She's two years younger than me, not to mention she is in a position where she couldn't possibly have had very close friends at her old home. She's therefore socially less experienced.

  But the way she treated me when I was a jerk to her made me feel like the child. I have never known anyone who could bring me down to Earth when I'm having a bad moment so quickly after meeting them, especially not someone younger than me.

  "Alright," she finally agrees, again. "How about Friday after school?"

  I nod triumphantly. "Done. I know just the place we could go to without being bothered. We'll have to meet up somewhere else, but that's going to be the easy part."

  "I'll text you where you can pick me up from," she says, right before she spins on her heels and returns to her boring lunch period with her not-even-friends.

  That Friday, when final period ends, Zoey texts me that she won't be leaving with her sister. She's going to wait for me a few blocks down the school buil
ding. I feel a little uneasy about her being out alone. I tell myself that I will be very quick and won't make her wait.

  It occurs to me that we could have just met up at school and walked from there. But then I realize I wouldn't have been able to drive her home, and I needed to because if her parents were the ones to pick her up after, she would have to explain to them why she isn't at a friend's house, tutoring.

  Michael is apparently going back with Sadie to hang out at the pack house, so I'm standing alone in the parking lot, waiting until the rest of my brothers show up to pick me up.

  Nathan is riding shotgun, which explains the smug smile he throws my way. However, since Mason appears to be attempting to decipher a difficult math problem on his phone in the backseat, I'm assuming he didn't get the honor because he earned it. It was for lack of trying on Mason's part. Wordlessly, I hop in the back.

  "Hey Con, can I borrow the car when we get home?" I immediately ask, not bothering with greetings.

  "Nope, sorry," he replies. "I'm taking Andrea out. We're going out for Chinese, and then we're going to some museum she's always wanted to visit since she was a kid."

  "Wait, wait, wait," Nathan rushes to say, looking like a mad scientist on the brink of a great discovery that he can't believe he just made. "Andrea likes museums? We are talking about the same Andrea, right?"

  "Is it actually a shoe store?" I joke.

  "Or maybe it's a shoe museum! The History of Heels!"

  Connor pretends to laugh, and then says, "Shut it," in a clipped tone.

  "Since when do you do nice things to girls you're not serious about?" Nathan goes on like Con didn't say a word.

  "I've done nice things before," he protests.

  "Not like this," I point out. "Never like this. Are you sure you're not in love, bro?"

  Connor sighs in annoyance. "Fine, if you shut up about this, I'll let you have the car," he proposes. "We can just take a cab, I guess."