by Holly Hook
They walk away, leaving me at my locker.
An act. That's all it is.
But Cayden has all but broken up with me. And all to escape his mistakes.
I'm one of them.
I face my locker for a long time, knees quivering.
"Yo, Brie."
Noah jars me from my thoughts as he leans against the next locker. But this morning, the light's gone from his eyes.
We're both hurt. At least I have Noah and he has me.
"Man," he says, rubbing his hand through his hair. "That was some horrible twist yesterday, wasn't it?"
I lean on Noah. He smells like the props room and of fresh paint. Of creativity. For the first time in a while, I feel like I'm home. He pats me on the back as I breathe out, holding back tears.
I thought turning would make me finally belong with Cayden. It's just driven another wedge between us.
"Let's get to class," he says.
"I want to skip. Don't you? The last thing I want to see is Olivia looking at Cayden and fluttering her eyebrows."
"Or Cayden smiling at her," Noah says. "He couldn't stay away from you before, Brie. What happened? I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, I get it, but if you do, I'm here. There's a spot by the picnic tables where the teachers won't find us."
Instead of heading to Economics, where Cayden, Olivia, and Matthew all wait, Noah and I go back outside. The woods invite me to escape into them, and the tug pulls at my insides. The full moon's getting closer. I feel it.
Noah and I sit at the farthest table, a rickety one with a crooked leg. It tilts as we sit. But no one comes out to get us.
The bell rings inside. Noah and I are skipping.
Cayden will know why, and the thought satisfies me. He can continue pretending to date Olivia all he wants. But at the same time, my heart aches for him.
"So," Noah says. "You're working at the dance this Sunday."
"Yes." The thought sickens me and not just because I'll see Cayden and Olivia together. I must get out of there before the tug takes over. And that's if Olivia puts her pendant on. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'll do.
"I'll go," he says. "We can feel disgusted and disappointed together."
"Noah, you don't have to," I say.
"We're best friends. Maybe if you don't have to work too much, we can even dance again. We did it at the play. Revenge doesn't hurt, right?" He grins.
Noah and I have no feelings for one another other than friendship. He's suggesting a way to screw with Cayden and Olivia, maybe even make them jealous and nothing more. "Might not be a good idea," I say.
"But friends need to stick together. I'm coming with you, even if it's just to hang out. I think Ellie's going, too. But I don't know about Matt. Knowing him, he'll ask another girl to go. Cayden's the only guy he won't go up against. And if go, I might come up with a way to warn girls away from him."
"No kidding about the Cayden thing." I scoot away from Noah an inch as I think of my reaction to Matthew.
What if Noah sees--
"Let us help you out," Noah says. "We're showing up and there's nothing you can do about it."
* * * * *
Noah and I don't go back inside the school until the bell rings to dismiss the first class. Only then do we return, sneaking in through the band doors to avoid most of the students. Cayden and Olivia never come down this way unless it's to fake making out.
The more I think about it, the worse I feel.
And worse yet, I can't escape the pack. He's alpha. No one can stop what he's doing now that I'm no longer at his side.
Noah and I eat outside at lunch, avoiding the cafeteria and the fact that Matthew's now glaring at Cayden. But Matt doesn't dare to do it for long, or while Cayden's looking. The fear remains.
And true to Noah's prediction, Matthew has his arm around another girl, Devyn from the varsity cheerleading squad, by the end of the day. And he calls Olivia a slut.
I almost skip Money Management, too, but I don't want to worry Aunt May since the school sends robo-calls home whenever a student doesn't show up to a few classes. It takes everything I have to walk into class. Cayden's already seated. And he must have already scented me because he has his face buried in his Physics book as I walk into class. Adrenaline fills the room.
We don't speak a word to each other.
There's a new rift between us and it's Cayden's guilt.
Doesn't he realize we're the same?
But when the bell rings, he darts out of class.
And I know he'll meet Olivia.
At least she'll be wearing her pendant now. She won't have to become a Savage Wolf. But Cayden has to make sure it stays that way. He's trying to protect the rest of the pack in any way he can and that's by sacrificing his happiness and mine.
And I've never felt more alone in my life.
* * * * *
"Why does Cayden tell us we don't have to worry about Olivia anymore?" Everly asks. "Is he sure Olivia believes he gave her the pendant? I haven't seen her wearing it yet."
I hold the phone up to my ear and pace my bedroom as Everly continues to bombard me with questions. They only make me feel worse than before. With each one, Everly reminds me that Cayden and I still can't be together.
And now, neither can Noah or Olivia.
I eye the darkness outside. Yawning, I flop onto the bed, wanting nothing more than to sink into the covers. Even my shift at the Grocery has done nothing to take my mind off the events of the last two days or of what I'll see on Sunday.
"He's been kissing her and disappearing to be with her," I confirm. "He'll make her wear it, I suppose."
All along, it was the one idea almost guaranteed to stop the transformation. We have to be cruel to Olivia. And how can I kiss Cayden ever again, knowing his lips have been on another girl's? Sure, he's faking her, but it won't be the same.
"Cayden," Everly says with a sigh. "He's not home right now. I would have rather done this the old-fashioned way. The last thing my brother needs is more bothering him. That girl is poison."
"I...I agree," I say, hating that I'm changing my tune with Everly. Before, Everly assured me I'd change and fight on Sunday. I'd lose any cares about hurting new Savage Wolves. "Maybe fighting would have been better." Hot tears gather at the sides of my vision. By protesting the original plan, I've made Cayden do something worse. "It's sort of my fault. I kept telling Cayden I didn't want us to have to kill Olivia."
"You were just trying to follow your morals," Everly says. "I forget you're new to the whole werewolf culture. And you can't fix Cayden. I've been trying for years, and trust me, it's futile. The best I can do is try to keep him out of trouble."
It's the closest Everly's come to apologizing. She's warming up. Maybe now we have a common ground and that's our frustration with Cayden. "Is there no chance?"
"Cayden will have to fix himself," Everly says.
"I don't think he'll do that."
"He needs to work things out," Everly says.
"But he needs my help," I say.
"You can't fix another person. Trust me, I know."
I think of his tension and his pain. Cayden's trapped in a hole. He risked his life for me, and the least I can do is—
I know how to help him and Olivia without losing him.
My plan will involve a huge risk, but it might pay off.
"I have to go to bed," I say. "Thanks for talking, Everly. I hope Cayden can come around after the dance."
"Same. I'll see you."
I end the call and get off the bed. Wiping away my already-drying tears, I let a new hope fill me.
There's a way to make sure Olivia wears her pendant and keeps it on forever.
And to free Cayden from her.
He'll hate my plan, but he doesn't have to know about it. Maybe.
I listen to Aunt May shuffling around downstairs. She's getting ready to patrol, as much as she hates it. I head downstairs and find her standing by the door with her long jacket
on. Pajama bottoms hang on her skinny form as she forces a smile at me.
"Long night?" I ask.
"It's my duty," she says. "The Savages might be close to our borders tonight and I have renew the scent. My turn. Remo says Cayden needs a break."
"He just plain needs a break," I say.
If I don't give him one, he'll kill himself from guilt.
"So, you're staying in tonight?"
Translation: stay in tonight.
"Yes. I have to rest up for the dance. Mr. Saffron has me and Cayden working there. We'll make sure nothing goes wrong."
"Be out by around seven or eight at the latest," Aunt May says. "And if you feel the pull, get out right away. I'm not sure how long we Nobles can hold back on the full moon. Even if we don't like to attack people, scaring them isn't in our best interests. Or theirs."
I gulp, thinking of Matthew and my instinct to kill him. A human being. "The dance starts at five. Cayden and I will be there before then."
"Then you had better get sleep," Aunt May says. "I won't make you work the store tomorrow. Take the day off."
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"You take too much on yourself."
Aunt May sweeps out the door, in just her jacket and pajamas. I listen to her walk around the house in her bare feet, sweeping drying grass out of the way with her toes until she reaches the field in the back of the house. Then, unmoving, I listen as she crouches and joints pop. Even after two weeks, my mind has trouble connecting the grayish-blond wolf with Aunt May. Or that she, too, killed one of the Baltic Wolves.
And I worry about her.
Every time one of us goes out, there's a chance we won't come back.
But Olivia. I can't linger. If I hurry, I'll catch her before she goes to bed.
And after Cayden leaves her.
There's one guaranteed way to make Olivia keep my silver pendant on without having to date Cayden for the rest of her life.
And that's to show her what she's dealing with.
Chapter Twenty
The moon, with just two slivers of light missing, hangs overhead and provides light. But I don't need it to see. The streets of Breck have plenty of street lamps. And besides, my vision adjusts in the dark.
I jog through downtown to the other side of town, passing small restaurants, a tourist hub advertising skiing opportunities, and Teeyah's. I can't help but glance inside to see if Cayden and Olivia are inside. Nope. Olivia became too good for Teeyah's after her parents divorced and she hung with the shallow crowd.
Olivia's street is clear except for a party happening well down the street, but the sounds of drunken adult voices tell me it's not one she'll visit tonight. The gate to her house waits, closed, and I eye the driveway from the street to find her mother's Hummer gone. The garage is shut, and I hope she hasn't moved it inside for the night. And her father's long gone, having left years and years ago. The man who opened the gate must have been an employee.
Tonight, I don't touch the speaker. Instead, I eye the fence. No cameras perch other than at the front gate. Dr. Bertram doesn't have infinite money, then. Without Mr. Bertram, some household income must have vanished. The messy shrubs and the weeds now growing in the lawn tell me that.
I'll need another way around, anyway. So I keep walking, looking natural with my hands in my jacket pockets. The Bertram property butts up against another without a tall fence. The big brick house is dark and I hear no occupants inside yet, so I cross through the yard and towards the woods that line the back of the property.
I'm breaking a lot of rules tonight.
But I won't let them shackle Cayden.
The fence to Olivia's place towers over my head by a few feet, but I can climb it. Removing my shoes so my feet get a better grip, I drop my jacket in the trees, resting it against a trunk. A cloud moves over the moon, casting the world in gloom, but my eyes adjust to where I can see the outlines of the trees' pine needles. I sniff, catching the faint scent of Aunt May from a few miles away, but the wind's blowing from her direction, so she won't detect me.
And I smell nothing of Cayden.
Makeup, however, flows through the air. Olivia's home and I pick up no other scents. She seems to be alone, which is unusual on a Friday night.
I dump my grocery bag of clothes near my jacket. I could run back to my house as a wolf, but there's the chance Aunt May or worse, Cayden, could smell me since I must run around the outside of town to get back. So the worst happens here.
Climbing the fence proves hard, but not impossible. The rails are smooth, designed to allow no foothold, and my bare feet freeze as I curl my toes around them. But my arms pull up my body weight without a problem, and if I tried in gym class, I'd be able to do a hundred pull-ups without an issue. In just thirty seconds, I find myself at the top of the fence, balancing between two spikes with my hands on both. Jumping to the ground, I land with a soft thud.
A single light is on inside Olivia's house: one on the second floor. Her bedroom. I walk over across the back yard and past the pool, which is drained and covered. The area reeks of algae and moss. It hasn't opened this summer and maybe not once for the past several years.
If I knock on the front door without requesting the gate opened first, Olivia will suspect the worst. She'll call the police and say someone climbed the fence, and she'll be right. So instead, I vault over the fence separating the pool area from the rest of the property and grab the handle of the back door. With a tug, I break the lock and pull it open. It's not as sturdy as the doors in the hospital.
I step into a back hallway and pass a small, dark bathroom. The house is quiet except for the humming of a fridge in the kitchen and the impatient ticking of a clock.
Upstairs, Olivia talks.
I freeze.
"I'm not going with Matt," she says. "He canceled it, not me. Stop blaming me, okay?"
Silence.
Then she speaks again. "Look, the selfies won't happen. If you're so crazy about it, you go out with him."
She's talking on her phone upstairs. Alesha or Tiffany. They're fighting. Olivia has dared to break the mold. It might be the reason she's not out with them tonight.
But I smell no Cayden or anyone else. If he were here, he would have detected me already.
"Yeah. I know. Matt's being weird," Olivia says. "But I have someone to go with now. And yes, it's him."
My chest hurts and another lump forms in my throat. I suppress the urge to run up there and confront Olivia. But I can't until she's off the phone.
"Matt's what?"
I don't care about Matt. The farther I stay from him, the better.
"Great. But I think it'll be fine. No, Alesha can't tell people yet." She sighs. "I've got to go. And no, Matt won't harass my date."
A pause.
"Yes, my mom's gone like she always is, and no, I'm not having anyone over tonight." A beep follows. Olivia has ended the call.
I stalk across the kitchen and up the stairs. The closer I get to Olivia, the more the tug to transform vanishes. The instinct shrivels at the thought of walking up to Olivia and showing her the worst. I'll take her phone and force her to listen to me.
The carpet in the upstairs hallway keeps my footsteps silent. Olivia's door waits at the end of the hall, and I pause and listen. She sighs as her finger scrapes the glass of her phone. My old enemy has no clue there's an intruder outside her door. I adjust my sweatshirt and workout pants before I pull the door open and step into a room I haven't seen since junior high.
Olivia's space is purple, and I glimpse a poster for Cats as I stride across the room to her canopy bed. Olivia's sitting against her headboard and she smells faintly of Cayden. She looks up at me, and her jaw starts dropping as I snatch her phone from her hand, open the drawer to her neat computer desk, and shove it inside.
"B...Brie?" she asks.
I know what she must be thinking. I'm the jealous ex here to hurt her. "You might not believe me, but I'm not here to hurt you," I say.
&
nbsp; "How did you get in?" she asks. Then her eyes widen. "Is this a joke you and Cayden are playing on me? Did he let you in when he left?"
My breath catches. Cayden was here. Then I realize what she's asking. She suspects Cayden's faking her out. And as I study her neck, I see it's bare. Olivia hasn't given in yet. And she's right to be suspicious, which will only force Cayden to up his act.
My heart races. "The silver pendant is from me."
Olivia grabs her pillow and scowls. She throws it at me, and I let it hit me in the face. "It's a setup. I should have known. I thought it looked familiar." She picks her casted leg up with her hands and scoots it to the end of the bed. Adrenaline fills the room. "I was right to kick you out of my yard. My family has money and we're going to make sure you pay for this." Her voice goes hollow with the last line. She's in doubt.
"No, you don't. Olivia, listen to me. I'm not trying to hurt you. I gave your mom the pendant to give to you because you're going to need it in a couple of days and probably for the rest of your life. Cayden's only trying to get you to put it on by saying it's from him. We're trying to help you and I'm sorry it's happening in such a crappy manner." Even Olivia doesn't deserve to have her hopes raised and dashed.
Like me.
"Help me? With what?" She pulls her leg over again. Noah's name is on the heel of her cast, written in a large, boxy print with a blue marker. Olivia eyes her crutch leaning against her closet door. She wants to hit me with it and I don't blame her. I broke into her house and it's her right.
"Don't move," I say, reaching for the animal within. I won't want to kill her yet, right? She's not a Savage Wolf and doesn't smell like one. "Let me explain. Those wolves who attacked you were werewolves."
Olivia pauses, hand in midair. Her fingers point at her crutch. "Excuse me? Werewolves?"
"There are good werewolves and bad ones," I say. "And one of the bad ones might have infected you. The full moon is Sunday. The pendant I gave you is silver and it can stop you from turning so that's why we're trying to get you to put it on. Just wear it, Olivia, and never take it off again. You'll stay normal for the rest of your life so long as you don't take it off. It's pure silver and can save you."