Vance looked shocked to see me standing there. His face was flushed, which could be because of his recent activity of the fact that I caught him red-handed cheating on me.
The girl, or should I say, woman, grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around herself. “Renko—I, u-uh…” Obviously, she had no words for what was going on.
“Sorry, uh, Linda, uh, Mrs. Greene, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” I looked over at Vance, who had his head laying on the pillow. “It’s over…like really over this time.” I couldn’t keep the tears from falling. I knew he cheated on me before, but to have him say he would never do it again, then to catch him with Tori’s mom blew my mind.
I had to get out of there and far away from this party. I slammed the door shut on the way out. I raced down the hall and ran down the steps. I heard Vance yelling my name from the second floor and knew he was going to try and find me.
My eyes were all blurry from crying, but I could make out Ashlyn still in the same spot as I left her. I touched her arm to get her attention. “I have to leave.”
“Renko, what’s wrong?” She tried to follow me as I walked around all the other kids but stumbled as if she had two left feet.
I saw my destination of the front door wasn’t too far away. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I have to be alone.” I gave her a final wave and raced out to my car before Vance could find me.
I grabbed my keys off the passenger seat and started my car. I was thankful this group of kids wasn’t into stealing cars since a majority of us usually left our keys in our cars so that we wouldn’t lose them.
I pulled out of the grass area where I’d parked and onto the small road that led to the main street. My head was pounding, my eyes were burning from the tears and makeup runs, and my heart felt like it had been ripped out and stomped on until it was in a million pieces. I saw the main road was coming up and made the left turn that would take me home.
The images of Vance with Ms. Greene kept flashing through my mind. I slammed the steering wheel out of anger and frustration.
Why did he have to ruin everything again?
Why couldn’t he just wait until I was ready to have sex?
Why did he have to go and sleep with Tori’s mom?
So many questions kept popping into my head. So many questions, but never any answers. I leaned my forehead on the steering wheel for just one second. Just one second to regain my concentration and to get my eyes focused amidst all the tears.
I looked up and thought I saw something, like a wolf, standing in the middle of the road. I swerved my car so I wouldn’t hit it, but when I looked back in my rearview mirror they were gone.
The sound of something crashing together and a bright light were the last things I saw and heard before it all went black.
MAXAre you freakin serious?Now, what the fuck was I supposed to do?I ditched the so-called happening party an hour ago. Not my crowd or scene, but me and the guys had a special invite by Suri, who promised lots of beer, food, and girls.Again, not exactly what I was looking for. But my boys wanted to go, so I caved in. They were all hitting up with a few townie girls, ones that were shallow and pedantic, not of our kind, but I didn’t want any part of it.How could I?I wasn’t the average eighteen-year-old waiting to graduate high school, go to college, have fun before real life kicked in. Nope, I was next in line to follow after my father, the alpha shifter, who reigned over the whole Appalachian Trail.But now, I had an issue. A fuckin big one.I was running across the road, in wolf form, and a car came upon me.What the fuck was a car doing out here, in the middle of fuckin nowhere, late
MAXI heard and smelled some of the pack as I made my way home with Renko. Thankfully, most were on patrol and didn’t have time to see why I was out and about. My father met me at the door but never asked why I was naked and who the girl was I carried in my arms. I knew as soon as I laid Renko down and got dressed, I would be bombarded with questions.“Care to explain?” My mother confronted me as soon as I entered the kitchen.I grabbed bottled water out of the fridge and sat down at the table. “About?” I knew what she meant but might as well prolong the agony.Mom sat down across from me. Her expression already said she wasn’t happy with this scenario even before she said any words. “Max don’t play stupid. Your father told me what he saw tonight. Who’s the girl? Why were you carrying her here?”“Long story short, I was out running, a car came up the back road behind ou
Did you ever have that feeling that you weren’t whole? That something or someone was missing from your life. No matter who you were with, you always felt alone. I feel like that every day of my life. I have my friends and even a boyfriend, if you can call him that, but they just aren’t filling the void that seems to surround me all the time. It’s like the other half of me is someplace else, and I’m just this casing of a body that’s walking around trying to pretend that happiness is all around me. My mom even wanted me to go to counseling at one point in my life, during my tenth-grade year of high school, she was worried about me not being socially receptive. Whatever the fuck that is, right? So, I started going out more with Ashlyn, mainly to parties that her ‘social’ friends held. I even accepted Vance’s proposal that we date exclusively, meaning I only go out with him while he fucks the rest of the female populat
Renko“Because I don’t want to.” I mean really, isn’t that a good enough reason not to want to go somewhere?“Renko, you have to.” My best friend, Ashlyn wouldn’t give up on the pestering of wanting me to go to the big upcoming party next weekend.Our friend Suri, well not really a friend but more of a rival in the social ladder competition that we were all trying to climb in our last year of high school, was supposed to be throwing this huge get-together for all the big who’s who of our school. Usually, that meant that the usual crowd would show up, like all the popular kids, and then they would be so drunk halfway through the party, that no one cared who else showed up. I mean I’ve been there and done that so many times that it was becoming routine anymore. The only thing about Tori’s that was different from all the other parties is that the group of partiers didn’t have to snea
“Oh. My. God. You are going to totally rock the night.” Ashlyn slipped her arm through mine. She’d come over early so we could get ready for the big Tori party together. We did the two-hour shopping trip last weekend to get all the things that we would need to make our appearance known. The thigh-high stockings, high-heeled ankle boots, and of course, the tight little black dresses that clung to our bodies like a second skin.“Yeah, but this is like the most uncomfortable outfit I have ever worn.” I twisted and pulled the skirt part of the dress down so that maybe it would cover another half-inch of my skin. I don’t know why I allowed Ashlyn to talk me into getting matching outfits, but she always seemed to have that effect on me. I say no and she gives me some reason my answer is wrong, and why I should listen to her. Her rationale was that if I dressed like this, there would be no reason for Vance to have wandering eyes.“It&
I stood there for a few moments. Like did that shit just happen? Just because I didn’t want to fuck him on the deck, he gets all pissy.A few more people came out to join in on the big party, well really it was just me since everyone else disappeared. I so wanted to go home and leave all this shit behind. I knew if I didn’t leave, Vance and I would get into some nasty fight and who knew how long that would last—come to think of it—did I care? That’s all we ever did anymore was argue and fight. We both needed some serious help or just to step away from each other for a while or maybe call it off for good this time.I walked back into the house in search of Ashlyn. The crowd seemed to thicken since I was in here last. I saw her with Reese and several other people we hung around with on a regular basis. She looked like she was enjoying this party way too much for us to leave early.“Renko!” Ashlyn squealed and pulled me int