School

Muttering curses to myself I rolled out of bed, glancing at the clock on my nightstand 11:10am. Great I had already missed my first three classes for the day, if I hurried I’d make it in time for my afternoon classes. I yanked off my work uniform I had fallen asleep in, irritated I didn’t have time for a shower and pulled on a basic pair of jeans and one of my favorite band tees. Tossing my hair into a ponytail I dashed down the stairs grabbing my car keys and a banana for the road before bolting out the door to my banged up Ford truck. She was a older beast but she was what I could afforded when I bought her at sixteen with no help from James or Cathy; I had needed a better way to get to work then walking so she fit the bill. I pushed the key into the ignition and smiled as she roared to life, Cathy always complained when I first got my beast of a truck that it was to loud but stopped when I said the only way I could afford another car was if I had help with the bill, she clearly didn’t want to spend any extra money on me so my big ol beast of a truck stayed. Driving to school luckily wasn’t a long drive but gave me enough time to scarf down the banana I had grabbed from the house, I mentally remind myself to set a louder alarm before bed that night as I pulled into the crowded parking lot finding one remaining spot at the farthest corner of the lot. I grabbed my book bag from the back seat and walked towards the buildings in front of me wondering if forcing myself through my senior year was worth the hours I was enduring, yet knowing if I didn’t it would make things harder when the Alpha kicked me from the pack. I knew it wasn’t a if anymore it was a when, Alpha James only tolerated me because I was still not eighteen yet; I was hoping that maybe I’d get lucky since I was still in school that he’d let me stay in the house or at least let me stay on pack lands till graduation. Making the quick dart to the lunch room doors I was so thankful to see my best friend Scarlet sitting at our usual table. I quickly enter the lunch room hoping to avoid Charlotte and Liam, it sucked because at one point when I was very young I thought of them as siblings but it didn’t take long for it to be made clear by the Luna especially that their kids were not my siblings.

Scarlet was the only one that knew my wolf had been pushing against the door in my mind since my thirteenth birthday, that day we realized I had alpha blood in my family line but we also knew if I shifted and Alpha James saw me as a threat to his children taking over I wouldn’t just become a rouge I would be killed. It was that day I decided not to shift till I was eighteen, but my wolf never stopped trying to push through the barrier in my mind, to cause me to shift. Scarlet handed me notes from my morning classes “over sleep your alarm again?” She asked I could tell she was worried about me. “Yeah” I replied trying to hide a yawn. “Well I took down extra notes for you and if you hadn’t shown up I was going leave them in your locker at work.” She sighed. The Luna didn’t like Scarlet for reasons neither of us pretended to understand so she wasn’t allowed at the house unless for pack related reasons, never just as my friend. I adored Scarlet she had been my friend since before my father died and had always had my back when things were hard at home, sometimes if I caught the Luna in a good mood I had even been able to spend the night at her house; I was even there the first time she shifted even.

Sometimes I was tempted to shift, at least with Scarlet but I knew once I shifted the higher members of the pack would smell the fact I was of alpha blood and I couldn’t risk that. I shoved the notes into my book bag forever thankful that Scarlet was my bestie and headed to gym at the sound of the end of lunch bell. I quickly changed into my gym uniform. Today I’d be running laps while the rest of the class shifted and went over basic defensive moves in wolf form incase of a attack. I watched closely from the corner of my vision trying to memorize the movements. The only great thing about the fact I had resisted the shift so far was the fact I didn’t have the pack link yet, I needed my own mind for moments like this; if the pack link worked they would be aware of me far more then I wanted them to be. I could see Scarlets copper colored wolf perfecting the moves quickly, in any other pack she would have been so popular; or if she hadn’t stuck by me as closely as she had. Her blue eyes glanced at me as I made my normal laps, I knew she worried about me. School was always rough and she knew first hand what happened on some of these laps. Just as I was about to smile back at her a large black wolf came barreling at me from another part of the field, I knew immediately that it was Liam and braced for the impact. I knew if a dodged it things would get more complicated; so as per usual when the younger warriors were training I waited as Liam came charging forward before he knocked me down.

Liam had learned years ago if he told the instructors that we had a agreement that he could “attack” me randomly to keep his skills up that they would allow this bull, only one instructor ever stopped to ask me if it was okay with me seeming suspicious of the arrangement but I had said it was fine because at that point I was used to it. I landed on my back with a hard thud, he growled in my ear before prancing back to the other warriors to continue normal training. Liam was attempting to show that although years younger then me that he held more power and in a way he was right. Him or his sister would take over in a few years time and he knew I would most likely become a rouge wolf, little did he know the blood in my veins could change that if I wanted to take the risk. My wolf was pushing hard against the barrier in my mind, trying to force its way out to handle the situation with Liam.

Scarlet came over and helped me off the ground with a sigh “I wish you could just put him in his place once.” She mumbled. She didn’t like Liam or Charlotte due to their behavior towards me and the fact they walked around believing they were better then the rest of the pack all because their parents were Alpha and Luna. Sometimes I wished I could too but again I had to be careful, I wanted to finish school before James tossed me out of the pack. I knew from previous history the less complicated I let things get the better it would be for me in the long run. I remember the one and only time I dodged Liam when he pulled this bull it lead to questions on how I moved so swiftly and how I knew he was coming at me, it was soon after Liam’s first shift; when I dodged his attack James had started questioning if I truly didn’t have a wolf. Sometimes I wondered if he sensed my wolf but he never pushed to hard and when I didn’t shift at sixteen even when the Omega’s shifted he dropped the topic completely; sometimes I wondered how I kept my wolf in control, normally this would weaken the wolf but I still felt mine as strong as ever if not stronger pushing against the barrier trying to get me to shift. I lapped a few more times as Scarlet went back to join the rest of the class before heading to the locker room to change.

Quickly tugging on my clothes again I tried to hurry so I wouldn’t be running late to my next class; history of werewolves.

Meeting Scarlet out in the hallway, she was able to head in to the locker room before me because our teacher always made me finish my lap no matter what; saying if my wolf ever woke up my body would need the physical strength to handle the shift especially if I ended up shifting as a rouge. She also knew since I smelled like a wolf if I was made rouge I’d need the ability to run for a distance because my only hope if I couldn’t shift was to try to stay ahead of the rouge wolves long enough for them to tire out and go after a weaker target. To others it didn’t seem like a kindness she was showing but I knew the reality of things, she knew the likely hood of me being rouge was high and knew my physical body needed as much strength as possible, she also pushed me just as hard on days we did defensive training in our human forms as those who had shifted and due to that I could hold my own, even without my wolf’s strength. I thought about if I shifted and was able to stay on pack lands seeing if she would train me in my wolf form but that would really depend on my eighteenth birthday.

Working out ways through the hall to my least favorite class of the day minus math I attempted to calm my nerves, Alpha James’s Beta, Jacob ran the history class and often made things harder on me, drilling me with questions compared to the others. He made me nervous most of the time asking me questions very few knew the answers to unless they studied ahead. Today probably wouldn’t be any different. He tutored Charlotte and Liam at the house often and for some reason pushed me the same as he pushed them but I attempted not to let it make me nervous, pushing the thought he smelled my alpha blood back into the farthest edges on my mind, feeling my wolf pacing on the other side of the barrier. My wolf always seemed to stir more in history, another reason I disliked it so much was feeling the pressure of my wolf and having no way to ease it until I shifted. Just one more week I promise my wolf unsure if it could hear me but the feeling subsides just a little so I’m hoping they did. I knew my wolf most likely would be female like me but due to history class I knew that wasn’t always the case so I didn’t assume my wolf’s gender like so many did before their shift. Scarlet squeeze me a little extra hard as she hugs me before going and taking her seat towards the back of the classroom as I took my regular seat towards the front. Beta Thomas had selected out seats for the year at the start of term and at first allowed me to sit near Scarlet but after the first break we came back to our seats moved him saying we distracted each other to much, I always felt like it was due to the Luna, she seemed to want me to be alone.

Class sped by, as usual he called on me to answer far more then anyone else; even when I didn’t raise my hand to answer and others did. I couldn’t let my mind wonder and focused on the questions about alpha genes and why they created larger wolves, why betas weren’t much smaller and the most difficult for me to answer; why mates were so important and what happened if a mate died or if you rejected your mate and the physical pain and the physical changes there after. By the time class ended tears were built up in my eyes; I managed to not let them draw attention to me to much, it angered me that Beta Thomas would ask me such questions knowing what happened to my mother and father. I tried to accept it for years but knowing the pack knew what would happen to my mother if she had rejected my father angered me, why couldn’t James’s father just let mine stay with her here; why didn’t the elders over rule his decision. I’d never understand why what happened, happened the way it did and basically no one had answers to my questions yet alone would actually answer them. Rushing to my last class for the day, art I felt a sigh of calm pass my lips walking into Miss Daisy’s classroom; something about art always calmed me it’s one of the reasons I was glad it was my last class of the day. Scarlet and me stood at our incomplete paintings from the week before, the weekend had allowed the paint to dry well so finishing the paintings wouldn’t be to difficult. Miss Daisy had asked the class to paint what we thought our wolf would look like, most of the class had already shifted so had to call on memories of before seeing their wolf which resulted in a lot of arguments but for me it was easy, I thought they’d be a soft grey or creme colored; probably with my purple eyes.

Painting made the next hour pass by quickly and in the end my painting of a wolf in the woods was done, wolf looked back at me, grey tipped ears and muzzle the rest was creme colored, their eyes were the same violet purple as my own; I wondered if I was even close to how it would actually look. Sighing I left my painting on the easel to dry as I gathered my stuff, I had about a hour and a half before work which if I slipped quietly enough into the house meant enough time to shower and change before leaving again. I hugged Scarlet before heading to my truck hoping maybe I’d beat everyone else home but loosing that hope when I see Charlotte’s red mustang is gone from it’s usual spot already, meaning she probably used the my dad is alpha card to get out of school early again.