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ABEL
The impending arrival of the O’Connell’s is starting to wear on my nerves. We have trained, I’ve had my butt kicked about a hundred times a day and I kicked some were butt about 100 times a day. All of the fighting only makes me hungry; I can’t get enough to eat. My mom keeps saying I am having a growth spurt but I want to tell her I’m burning about 10,000 calories a day between running and fighting. We do drills of flash cards with every Pack member from the Phelan Pack to the Luthuli Pack of South Africa. I have memorized every smell both enjoyable and disgusting within a fifty mile radius of both Phelan properties. I’m exhausted, yet exhilarated, maybe being an over achiever helps when you’re The Great Wolf. It still made me laugh on the inside any time they spoke of TGW, because I’m just a kid from an average home with an average life and now I’m expected to be extraordinary in a short amount of time.
Allie isn’t sleeping at night. She just wants to sleep all day and will get up at dinner time. Mom is always telling her if she would stop sleeping all day maybe she would be able to fall asleep at night. Mom offered Allie an over-the-counter sleep aid, she gave her chamomile tea, and she made us listen to mood music piped through the sound system in the house. Allie is still wired at night. She likes that I don’t do much sleeping at night but for crying out loud, I do sleep and no matter what, I have to go to school. I have to get up in the mornings while sleeping beauty catches some z’s.
Pru had come to me about Allie and wanted to know if I noticed anything different about her. Well, minus the sleeping I didn’t really see any difference. Her appetite is about the same if not better (she at least ate some meat now. I don’t trust salad eaters). It is getting obvious the Pack thought something more was going on with Allie but they aren’t discussing it with me. They want my energy focused on training.
The final bell rings, I grab my backpack and practically run out to my car. I click the remote, I’m meeting up with Oakley for a run in a few minutes. Next to me is a black SUV I’ve never seen here before. A man gets out and walks over to me putting his hand on my shoulder. I muffled a scream (I scare easy, I can’t help it), I turn around and I’m face to face with the Pack Alpha from Ireland. Great, just what I need, more drama, he is a day early.
I hold my right hand to the Alpha and say “Hello sir, you must be Mr. O’Connell, I’m Abel, and it’s nice to make your acquaintance” a little formal I know, but I didn’t expect to meet him when no one else was around and in the school parking lot. I know that schools are off limits from fighting, too risky with kids around. Where is Pru when I really need her?
Emotionless he stood, all six feet of him, shoulders back and face stern, and then he busted out laughing, his blue eyes full of life. He took my hand and said, “Nice to meet you chap, I’ve waited a long time… the pleasure is all mine.”
It isn’t going so bad, except I have nothing else to say. What do you discuss with the biggest baddest wolf in the world? Hey, I hear you can take down a were with your mind, is it true? No, I didn’t feel that to be worthy of talking about either, where oh where are my little wolf friends, dammit leaving me alone with the big bad wolf. They suck.
Pony tail bouncing I see Pru bopping down the stairs of the school, she looks my way and she turns so pale her freckles all disappeared. She gave a quick excuse to her friends and runs over to me.
“Hi Mr. O’Connell, it’s been a long time.” Pru reached out shaking his hand. “Speaking of time, we need to get home.” She looked at me and said, “You ready? I’ve got a paper to get done, you know me, the study queen.”
He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for a big bear hug, “Pru, you’re so lovely, just like your mother. How are your parents? I’m sure they’ve heard about my travels to the States. I can’t wait to see them again.”
“Yes sir. Abel is about to give me a ride home if you’d like to follow us.”
She jerks open the door to the Mustang, plops down in the passenger seat saying a few cuss words to herself. “Pru, you know you have your car here right?” I look at her like she is nuts.
“Yes, I know where my car is, but I’m here to protect you. I can come back later and get the car.” She leans back and slips her seat belt on. “Hurry and back up or he is going to think we are discussing him and we don’t want him to think there is a chink in our command or training.”
She drives me crazy how calm cool and collected she can be when there is a demented, crazed, Irish Alpha following us and we are just two teenagers one of which is a werewolf and the daughter of the most powerful Pack in the Midwest and there is me, the supposed great wolf of the world. I told my brain to stop stressing and concentrate on getting us to Choctaw.
“Well hell!” Pru yells out.
“What, what? Did I miss a turn?”
“No¸ I left my cell phone in my gym bag, which happens to be in my locker. I kind of flipped when I saw him with you through the locker room window so I rushed to get outside. Let me have yours. Please tell me you have it with you.”
“Yeah, it’s in the glove box. I threw it in there at lunch today. Hey, it’s okay you can stress but don’t holler out like that, it kinda scared the shit out of me. Hey can you get my pike pass? You know those Oklahoma turnpikes like their money.”
Pru calls her dad and the Pack isn’t surprised to hear the O’Connell’s showed up early. They expected it.
“Man, how many people does he have with him, there are three SUVs behind me. I thought they kept their Pack small.”
“They do keep it small, for an Irish Pack. But I’m sure they brought some other supernatural friends as back up if they think you won’t go with them.”
I feel my heart rate increasing, I take a couple of deep breaths and ask the question of the moment. “What kind of supernaturals?”