ABEL
I spent the next couple of days at school trying to randomly hear people’s thoughts. Most of the teachers are pretty easy, the older a person is, the easier they are to hear. Most teenagers’ thoughts are scattered and random. On our way to the lockers I can hear people recite their combinations in their heads… now that might come in handy. Freakish Julie Tidsdell started crushing on me. On me of all people. I am def not into her.
Julie did everything in her power to get me to notice her. She would go to the bathroom and adjust her cleavage and wonder if I was a boob man. Geez! She would randomly drop things in front of me so I’d pick them up. She even went as far as parking next to me and thought about making her car door whack my car so she could pay to have it fixed. She thought it’d make me give her my cell number. I conveniently foiled that plan. Every time I turned around I had Julie all up in my face. She was turning out as hard to shake as Arien.
Bryon and I are driving over to Pru’s. I’m listening to him babble about Shaynie, how hot she is, how funny she is, how creative she is, how she is such a good kisser. I’m about to put him on the side of the road when he starts asking me about Pru.
“I think your old girlfriend Julie has the hots for you.” Bryon teasingly says.
“Right. She won’t leave me alone. I can’t even go to the vending machines without her offering to buy my soda.” I still haven’t told anyone about my ability to hear thoughts.
“We need to get you a girl. You know Oakley and Pru are hooking up don’t you?”
I’ve been suspecting they were more than friends but I didn’t think they were actually hooking up. “Hooking up? Really? I can’t see her doing that,” I say, defending her virtue.
“I don’t know that they are doing the deed, I just know they are kissy kissy. I actually think they make a good couple. I know you’ve been crushing on her, but seriously you know as well as I do she’s never taken her eyes off him.” Bryon says as he takes his straw up and down making it screech.
“I know.” I said as we pull onto her street.
Thankfully the storms from the night before are over.
“Oakley is out back boys. After your workout I’ve got some homemade protein bars for you.” Dolly says as she smiles at us. “Trust me, they’re really tasty.”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll be sure to try them when we get done.” I give her hug before heading outside.
Meditating with Oakley is serious business. He is all about clearing the mind and opening our lungs. As hard as I try, I don’t think my mind is ever clear. I just realize that Oakley doesn’t randomly answer the questions I’m thinking anymore. Crap. I think to myself. I’m supposed to be all clear minded. Why isn’t he answering anymore? Stop thinking! Clear your mind. Ughh. I hate meditating.
Oakley said, “Hey, I want to talk to you about something before we start.” We walk over to the patio table. “Look, I was wondering if you know anything about General Phelan’s meeting. Usually I don’t ask much about his comings and goings but he said he’d be back before dinner today and the guys from the farm called to see if he was eating here.”
I did my best poker face and said, “No, I just heard Pru tell me he went on a business meeting, I wasn’t told when he’d be back. You don’t think that something happened do you?”
“No, not really. When you’re Pack you feel your Alpha, when we shift we can hear him talk to us. None of us sense anything wrong, we just weren’t sure if we misunderstood. His calendar only has him marked out through today. Oh well, I’m sure everything is fine.” He says as he flips the switch to turn the fountain off. “I’ll meet you in the garden.”
We sparred for the next twenty minutes, me mirroring his moves. It all of the sudden occurred to me that I might be able to read his thoughts and can anticipate his movement. I grin to myself at my cleverness.
“Wow! You’re getting really good at this.” He growls ever so slightly when he realizes he can’t get a move in on me. “Okay, I hope you’re ready for some serious hand to hand combat. In case you’re wondering why we’re doing this, it has to do with us not always able to have a weapon with us. Our brains, agility and alertness make us lethal.”
“So, my hands are now a lethal weapon? Awesome!”
We flipped around, crouching and throwing punches. I find the ability to hear his thoughts is pretty awesome. He came at me with his drop sweep roll and for whatever reason I jump up like Superman flipping in the air… catching the limb of the tallest tree in the canopy and hang there.
“What the?! How’d you do that?!” He squints and holds a hand over his eyes to shield out the sun as he looks up at me.
I finally decide that I’d try to drop down in a roll. Probably not the best way to dismount. I hit the ground hearing both my ankles snap. All I feel is burning, throbbing pain shooting through my feet. I hear screaming and suddenly realize it is me doing the screaming.
Everyone in the house came running outside. I roll around back and forth as the pain sears through me to the core of my existence. Dolly hunkers down next to me, checking my vitals. She starts telling everyone that they need to clear out while I started to heal. She is all business and everyone pays attention when she gives orders.
“Oakley, go in there and get in my first aid kit and bring me the vial and syringe, I’ll give him something for the pain, his body will probably sweat it out before he leaves.” Dolly ordered.
“Nothing for the pain, I don’t want anything.” I grabbed her arm. “Please. I figure that the pain reminds me that I’m alive,” I say to her.
“You’re alive, but you don’t have to be in pain. You’re not going to get addicted from one shot, dear.” She takes a cool washcloth and wipes my forehead.
“No drugs!” I yell too loudly. “I’m sorry; really I just don’t want any drugs. Please.”
Dolly stayed calm throughout the crisis. The guys are all keeping an eye on me, I guess they think I will turn out like a rabid dog and act a fool.
Pru is sitting next to me holding my hand in hers. “How the hell did you do that?”
I take a deep breath trying to focus like we do in meditation. “I don’t know, one minute I was practicing with Oak and for whatever reason my mind told me to jump, so I did.” I close my eyes, remembering the feeling.
She let go of my hand and said, “Have you done that before?”
I shake my head no, telling her that it was just this overwhelming feeling to just do it. I didn’t even think about the consequences I just acted on it. She went on about how we had to always keep in mind that for every action there is a reaction. As if I’m not aware of that.
I start wiggling my feet to see if the bones have healed, since I’m not screaming it is a pretty safe conclusion that I am good to go. Dolly tells me that I should be careful about jumping off of high places until we were sure I was back to 100%. I listened in to Dolly’s thoughts and hear her worry about General Phelan. It is out of character for him not to call when he would be late.
Instinctively I put my hand on her’s and tell her he is okay. No sooner have I said it when I realize that I blew my cover.
“How did you know what I was thinking?” Before I have a chance to answer, she starts having some sort of breakdown. “Oh Lord! Oh Lord!” She cries as she walks back and forth. “He’s dead and you’re Alpha! Oh Lord! You’ve become Alpha! That is how you knew what I was thinking. Oh Lord!”
“No, no, no! You just seemed worried, that’s all.” I was backpedaling out of my predicament. I stand up on still shaky legs and put my arms around her. “No, it’s okay Dolly. Stop crying, I haven’t become Alpha.” At least I don’t think I have. “I thought everyone was tied into the Alpha and if he was in trouble you’d sense it.” I pulled back, holding her at arm’s length, her tears were starting to subside.
“You’re right Abe.” She grabs one of the tissues and wi
pes her eyes. “You all probably think I’m a fool. I just don’t know where he is and with those…those… those… those damn vampires and the killing of that boy, I just worry that he is taking risks that he doesn’t need to. He should have taken someone with him from our Pack.”
Everyone gathered around her trying to offer her some type of soothing words.
“Dolly? What did you mean by someone from our Pack?” I ask.
“Oh, that limo driver…he escorted him. He is very good at what he does, but I just would rather someone from our Pack be with him.” She went back to pacing.
Shaynie came over and put her arms around her and said trust her that he is very safe. I look over at Pru and see her roll her eyes. I caught her eye and winked at her. She winked back and slightly moved her head trying to get me to follow her. I grab my tennis shoes and went to catch up with her. We headed for the basement so we could talk without ears listening in.
“Whatcha thinkin’ Pru?” I put my hands on her shoulders trying to hold her still so I can look in her eyes.
“I don’t know. It isn’t like him and I think the vamps have us all on edge. It doesn’t make anything any better that we have the Great Wolf and you’re coming into powers we haven’t even begun to understand. I’ve never seen my mom react like that… and to top it off, she is up there with her arms around my mom. I’m just hypersensitive, no worries.” She looked around to see if anyone was around. “Abe, we have to talk about your death. I think we need to do it.”
“Pru, we’ve talked about this before. I don’t know that I’m the great one, but I don’t want to die. You keep telling me that it would be better for them, but I really don’t think so. Mother’s Day is next weekend, and Father’s Day is a month after that. I don’t want to do anything around those days.” I feel my temper flaring, I try a calming exercise that Oakley showed me.
“You know Abe, I think it’s great that you don’t want to hurt them around those dates but what will happen if you shift before then?” She said, crossing her arms and pulling her moody teenage girl routine.
I cross my arms in reaction to her arm crossing. Hell, two can play that game. “Prudence, it is easy for you to say that I should die, but you still have your parents.” I try to keep my temper in check but it is getting harder and harder to do. “I am NOT going to let my vampire sister be around my family and not be around to protect them. We will find another way. We must find another way.” I lower my voice and say, “Pru, please.”