My alarm clock’s insistent beeping started again, and I smacked the snooze button for the third time. For a split second, I thought about faking sick, but deep down, I knew that wasn’t really an option. Sooner or later, I’d have to face him, and I figured it wasn’t going to get any easier with time.
Marcy was waiting in the kitchen when I dragged myself downstairs. She was back to her old girly girl self, decked out in a cute, and way too short, pink dress that ruffled around her thighs. She was perched at the island with a jumbo-sized jar of strawberry jam and a plate of toast in front of her. She was giving me an odd look, as if she had something to tell me, but couldn’t decide if she actually wanted to say it.
“You stay here last night?” I asked, too groggy to try to figure out what the look was about. I padded over to the coffee pot and dropped my backpack to the floor. After our shopping trip yesterday, I had hidden in my room, tackling a stack of homework, and frankly, I couldn’t remember hearing her leave.
Marcy, I assumed, had set out my travel mug and prefilled the mandatory three heaping spoonfuls of sugar. I snagged the coffee pot and filled it to the brim with steaming goodness, before switching off the coffee maker and dumping the last little bit down the drain.
“Nope, came in about twenty minutes ago,” she said. She opened the jam, and slathered a thick layer onto her toast and then took a bite. “Mom left while you were in the shower,” she continued after she swallowed her mouthful. “She’s back on mornings this week. Oh, and Dad’s coming home today.”
“Huh,” I said, as I made my way over to the fridge, and rummaged through the crisper. Mom being gone already wasn’t really a shock. Being an emergency nurse at the hospital meant that she often left the house before me. But Dad on the other hand, well, I was dying to know where he had been all weekend.
I glanced over my shoulder at Marcy, and didn’t miss the fidgety way she was sitting. She crossed and uncrossed her legs, and slid the butter knife around; she just couldn’t sit still. Her lips kept parting as if she was about to say something, but then instead of speaking, she shoved the last of her toast in her mouth.
“You ready to go?” she asked, around another mouthful of toast. She gave me an overly bright smile, popped up from her chair, and made her way over to the fridge, putting away the jam.
I snagged an apple from the crisper. “Yeah, I guess,” I said, and shut the fridge. I dragged myself over to my coffee, and snapped the lid onto my travel mug. I shouldered my bag, and with a quick glance around, finding nothing that could delay leaving, I followed her out the door, and locked it.
Not having a car sucked. It wasn’t a bad day outside, but this whole walking to school thing was not for me. I really wasn’t an exercise kind of girl, especially not in the morning.
The air was relatively warm for September, although by no means was it hot. I could already see the small goose bumps popping up on Marcy’s bare arms as we walked against the breeze. The forest was a bit more red than it had been on Friday and a few leaves had already fallen, scattering the gravel path with rich fall colors.
“I talked to Dominic,” Marcy said casually, breaking the silence.
Hearing his name made a vein at my temple throb like a pulse, and I really didn’t know if it was because I was nervous about seeing him, or if it was because he talked to Marcy about me. I cut her a look and said, “Don’t want to hear about it, Mac.”
She grabbed my wrist, pulling me to a stop. “He told me about this Aidan guy.”
I groaned and shook her hand off. “He’s over reacting. I met the guy for like thirty seconds and I haven’t seen him since.” I shrugged my shoulders, and took a deep gulp of coffee as I started walking again. The gravel crunching under my shoes suddenly sounded too loud. “And besides that, Aidan was only trying to foil Dominic’s kidnapping attempt.”
Marcy laughed. Hard. So hard that she actually snorted. “Wow, seriously? And you say I’m dramatic,” she said, and shot me a rueful look. I opened my mouth to snap out a defense, but she threw her hands up and silenced me with a hard glare. Her laughter died instantly. “Don’t even try it. Dom told me the whole story.”
Two years had gone by without so much as a glance from my former best friend, and now this. I huffed noisily. And men said women were confusing. “Why does he even care? If I was into this guy, what does it matter to him?”
“Jade, he loves you,” she said, solemnly, giving me one of those looks that said that I should have already known it.
Ha! Loves me. What a joke. I didn’t even bother to acknowledge that comment, and thankfully, Marcy didn’t push it. If Dominic loved me so much, then where the hell had he been all this time? Ignoring me. That’s where. Or playing cruel pranks on me and then pretending he couldn’t remember my name. Sure, the cruelness wasn’t only directed at me, it was directed at all the outsiders, but still … one weekend of playing nice didn’t make up for all the nastiness.
We broke through the trees, stepping off the gravel path and into the parking lot, just as the warning bell rang out. The lot was full of empty cars with only a few stragglers rushing into the school.
“We need your car back,” Marcy said, as we both began to sprint across the parking lot.
The hallways were packed with students rushing to their lockers, or darting into homerooms. Marcy and I quickly parted, both mumbling ‘See you,’ before taking off to our lockers.
Dominic’s locker was only a few down from mine, and I heard his laughter even before I rounded the corner and he came into view. He was leaning against the wall of metal, with Aidan and they were laughing. Laughing!
I was stunned, gawking at them. Aidan was the first to notice me, and he smiled and winked at me. The way he looked at me was as if we shared a secret. And darn it, but those pesky butterflies started to wake up in my stomach. What was it about this guy that made my nerves all jumpy? He was cute, he had helped me out, but really, this was a bit ridiculous. I wasn’t, and would not become, one of those boy crazy girls just because a boy winked at me, even if he did have a knee-melting smile.
Aidan hadn’t shaved. That was the very first thing I noticed after getting over the shock of seeing him acting all buddy-buddy with Dominic. He was in dark blue jeans and a deep green hoodie that almost looked black. His hair was messy, not in a messy style, but just messy, flipping up at the sides. Everything about him, the way he held himself, the way he dressed, said that he didn’t care what people thought. And that alone made him, well, it made him seriously attractive. I loved confidence, and he emitted it like a tidal wave.
I snapped my mouth shut, realizing that my jaw had started to drop, and steeled myself, letting the thick doors within me slam shut, sealing off my emotions. It was something my father had taught me. ‘Just imagine big doors, honey,’ he had said. ‘And when you want to hide, just pull them closed.’
It worked for about two seconds.
All the doors were sealed tight. I took a deep breath, gripped my travel mug a bit tighter, and I started down the hallway again toward my locker, focusing on my footfalls instead of staring at them. I could figure out why they were suddenly friends later.
I focused on walking, counting the tiles as I went. Anything for a distraction. I didn’t get far. A pair of bright red heels came into my line of vision and I looked up. Erika. The black leggings and a black, frilly empire cut shirt made her look extra-thin. Her pouty lips were painted to match her shoes, which, personally, I thought seemed like way too much effort for school, and her jet-black hair fell straight over her shoulders.
“I’m only going to tell you this once,” Erika said, drumming her fingernails on her hips. “Stay away from them.”
My eyebrows lifted so high it felt as if they were in the middle of my forehead. I didn’t have to ask who she was talking about. It was clear by the way she stood in front of Dominic and Aidan, as if she was trying to block them from my view. “And if I don’t?” I asked, with a strangled laugh. I don’t know what mad
e me say it, but it came out before I could stop it.
She made a tsk sound and wagged her finger from side to side. “It’s really not up for debate, Jade. I know you’ve been sneaking around, trying to get Dom’s attention. And I saw you checking out Aidan. They’re mine. Both of them.”
Erika held my stare and she looked … threatened, as if I was standing in her way and all she had to do was knock me over and the prize would be hers. And that was confusing as all hell. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Aidan was watching me intently with a half smirk and curious eyes, and Dominic, well, Dominic looked as if he was about to burst out laughing. I couldn’t say if it was at me, or at Erika. His eyes were darting too quickly between us to really tell.
I smirked. “We’ll see about that.”
Her jaw dropped, and I stepped around her, feeling almost giddy from the dirty look she shot me, and I went straight for my locker. I know it was a horrible thing to think, but honestly, I was absolutely thrilled (and royally pissed off) that one of the she wolves was considering me a threat, even if I really had no clue why.
~ AIDAN ~
Jade was livid when she stormed past me and it was the cutest thing I had ever seen. It was also the most confusing thing I had ever seen. She shot me (or maybe — hopefully — it was to Dominic) an ice-cold glare. It was penetrating, and commanding, and my inner-wolf clawed at my stomach, wanting to run after her and make her happy.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Dominic said.
My blood ran cold. He couldn’t know that she was making me crazy, none of them could. If they knew … “What’s that?” I asked, glad that my voice sounded uncaring, and I glanced his way.
He laughed. “That she’s adorable when she’s mad.”
“That she is,” I agreed, watching as Jade disappeared around the corner and Erika scowled after her. My heart started to beat again, and the knot in my stomach loosened. He didn’t have a clue. Who was that girl? The question echoed through my mind again, relentlessly. I just didn’t get it. I could take down an alpha, command an entire pack of twenty-nine werewolves to submit and grovel at my feet, but this … this … human girl could make me cringe with just one glance.
Erika turned to us with a big grin on her face and started over. I snapped my gaze to meet hers and said, “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” It came out harsher than I had intended, but it worked, and without a word, she backed up a step and then took off down the hall.
“Stay away from her,” Dominic said, casually, as if he was talking about the weather, and not really trying to tell me what to do. I had heard the line more than I could count in the last forty-eight hours, and each time I heard it, it only made her all the more interesting.
“That’s her call to make, not yours,” I retorted, keeping my tone just as light. He still refused to enlighten me about his obsession with Jade, and spending the weekend following her around hadn’t helped me figure it out either. The most I had gotten from that was confirmation that she missed him.
Dominic pushed off from the locker, and stretched his arms lazily over his head. He smiled a little. “She wouldn’t even look at you if she knew who you were.”
The second bell rang, signaling that we were late for homeroom, and we started down the hallway, neither of us in any rush to get to class. “Why are you so concerned about her?” I asked.
“I’m not,” he said, cutting me a murderous sideways look.
I chuckled. “Not sure if I believe that this is your I could care less face.”
Dominic stopped just outside our homeroom. The morning announcements began, and the distorted buzz of our principal’s voice droned through the old speakers. “She’s lost enough to this pack,” he said in a low whisper, just barely audible over the announcements. “She doesn’t need to lose more than she already has.” His voice, his body language, his scent, everything about him said he was guilty. I just wished I knew why.
I pulled the classroom door open and gestured for him to go in. “You’re really going to go through with this class stuff, aren’t you?” he asked with a huff. “You know I don’t need a babysitter.”
I grinned. “Think of it as bonding time.”
CHAPTER 10
~ JADE ~
Erika watched me. I felt her eyes burning a trail along my back in homeroom, and then in English, and still in Math. Every move I made, she was there, watching. And it was starting to drive me batty. But she wasn’t the only one that watched me. So did Dominic.
And I watched Aidan, if only to piss them off. Well that and I couldn’t bring myself to directly look at Dominic.
What was it about this guy that had them on edge? I really wanted to know. When Dominic wasn’t staring at me, he was watching Aidan, and Erika … Well, Erika looked as if at any moment she was going to cock her leg and pee on him to mark her territory. Did female dogs do that? Well, if they did, I was sure she would do it soon. The whole thing was starting to make me feel a little sick.
Erika wasn’t the only she wolf acting like that, though. Linda, Becca, and Tiffany were all following Aidan around, giving dirty looks to any girl that looked his way. And they were snapping at each other just as much. They stared each other down, and shoved each other around. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. Weren’t girls usually more tactful than this? What happened to the snide comments and mean girl manipulation?
Aidan took it all in stride. It was as if he didn’t even notice. He talked to everyone. He was friendly. He smiled. Everyone seemed to like him, especially the pack, and darn it, but I did, too. And it made my stomach sink. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with anything that would get the pack away from him. It was clear that they were recruiting him, and the more I thought about it, the more the sinking feeling in my stomach grew.
But the weirdest thing was that no one was talking about Ray. The police still hadn’t said anything. His death hadn’t been in the paper, and as far as I knew, the pack hadn’t had any kind of a service. The only thing that I managed to find out was that Ray’s wife had vanished. Their house was empty. It was almost as if neither of them had ever existed.
I still hadn’t talked to Dominic, but then, he hadn’t made an effort to talk to me either, and I was beginning to think it was better that way. All I was getting from him was a bunch of what I thought were supposed to be meaningful glances, except I didn’t know what the meanings were. I figured he was trying to make a point, but the joke was on him, because whatever the point was, I wasn’t getting it. I was pretty much ready to chalk up the weekend to a weak moment. It was probably better to just forget it. And if he had stopped watching me, I would have done just that.
I sat in class, watching the clock slowly tick the minutes away. Lunch couldn’t come soon enough. I needed a break, not that I had been doing much in class. I couldn’t focus on anything other than the burn of Dominic’s eyes and the sneer on Erika’s face.
When the bell finally rang, I forced myself to stay in my seat until they left. For about half a second, Dominic looked as if he was going to approach me, but before he could, Aidan slung a loose arm over his shoulder and led him out the door.
The cafeteria was already packed by the time I got there. I glanced at the overly long line of students waiting to be served and spotted Marcy at the front. She waved what I thought was a boxed salad at me, and then she pointed to a table and mouthed, ‘I got it.’
Ben and Ann were chowing down on French fries and gravy when I plopped down at my usual table. The fraternal twins were dressed the same, as always, in blue jeans and black hoodies. I’ve always thought that they secretly wished they were identical. They sure tried hard enough to look the same. Ben had even dyed his blond hair brown to match Ann’s, and Ann always wore blue contacts, the same shade as Ben’s natural eye color.
“Hey, Jade,” Ann said, and smiled. “I’m surprised you’re sitting with us.” She didn’t mean it to be unkind; I could see that from the soft smile she was giving
me, but the statement got my back up anyway.
“What? Why?” I asked. My voice sounded harsher than I had intended.
Ben cut Ann a narrowed eye glare, and said, “We heard that you and Dom made up.” He smirked at me, and then dropped another fry in his mouth.
I snorted. “Hardly.” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table and my chin in my hands. Rumors. How did kicking Dom out of my house translate into us making up? It took everything in me not to turn around and look at him. I could hear his laughter, and it made my heart twitch. It wasn’t quite a squeeze or a twist, but it was enough of a twitch that I noticed it.
Thankfully, Marcy slid into the chair beside me and pushed a salad (or what was considered a salad by high school cafeteria standards: a bowl of lettuce and a single cherry tomato) in front of me. I was about to ask her when she was leaving for the police station, desperately wanting to change the subject, when she said, “And another one gets taken.”
“Another what?” Ben asked, looking at Marcy with an utterly blank face, and Ann let out a loud groan.
Marcy rolled her eyes, and then nodded in Aidan’s direction. “The new guy seems pretty close with Dominic.”
There goes trying to change the subject. “He doesn’t look like he was taken,” I said dryly. “He looks willing.” And that made my head spin. I could have sworn they hated each other, or at least that Dominic really didn’t like Aidan. Why else would he tell me to stay away?
Ben sighed, and he dropped the fry he had been about to shove in his mouth back into the container. “I didn’t think it was possible, but Dominic is getting hotter.”
“I know, right?” Ann said with a grin, and elbowed her brother playfully. She didn’t even try to hide the long and very appraising look she gave Dominic, and as she stared, the grin melted away. “Jade,” she said, still watching him closely, critically, “have you noticed the way the pack is hovering around Dom?” Frown lines began to litter her forehead and she scrunched her nose. “It’s like he’s … more important somehow.”