Chapter 3: Freaking werewolves?

~ Gwen ~

I woke up to faces hovering over me, all staring down with varying levels of concern and curiosity. 

The ceiling above them was unfamiliar and the floor beneath me was hard and cold and I had absolutely no idea how I had gotten there.

"Her eyes are fluttering, she's awake," someone said.

"Give her space, move back." That was Elodie. I recognised her voice before I could fully focus on her face. She was pushing people away from me with both hands and honestly it was the best thing she could have done because the crowd had been about three seconds away from suffocating me completely.

I sat up slowly. My head felt like it was full of wet sand.

"What happened?" I asked, pressing my palm against my temple.

Then the memories came back all at once. The rink. The fight. The growling. The way their bodies had changed shape like it was nothing, like bones were meant to rearrange themselves in public, like two boys becoming two massive wolves in the middle of a hockey game was just a regular Monday.

"That was a dream," I said immediately. "I had a horrible dream. Two guys on the field, they turned into…"

"Shh." Elodie clamped her hand over my mouth so fast I didn't even see it coming. I grabbed her wrist and tried to pull it away but she was surprisingly strong for someone her size. She held on until I stopped struggling, then she grabbed my arm, pulled me upright, and steered me out of the rink before I could protest.

I looked around as we moved. The stands were almost empty as students were leaving. The players were gone, the cheerleaders were gone, the crowd had scattered like the whole thing had never happened.

That did not make me feel better.

Elodie pulled me into a building nearby — a science lab by the look of it, with long benches and equipment lining the walls and that sharp chemical smell that every science room in every school in the world seems to share. She checked that we were alone, then she closed the door and turned to face me.

"Are you seriously that clueless?" she asked.

The way she said it was not mean. It was more like someone who had just found out their friend had been walking around with their shirt on inside out all day and couldn't believe nobody had said anything sooner.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What is going on? Was it really not a dream? Did they really turn into animals?"

She pressed her lips together. Took a breath. Looked at me like she was trying to figure out how to explain something to a person who had never heard of the concept before.

"Okay," she said finally. "You are in RavenBane."

"I know that."

"RavenBane is a werewolf city, Gwen."

I stared at her.

"The whole city," she continued. "The school. The people. Almost everyone here is a werewolf. That is not a metaphor and it is not a rumour. What you saw on that field was real."

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

"I knew RavenBane had that reputation," I said slowly. "But I thought it was just a slogan. Like a tourism thing. A brand."

"It is not a brand."

"Right." I nodded. Kept nodding. "Right, okay. So those guys on the field actually…"

"Yes."

"And everyone watching just…"

"Yes."

"And nobody thought that was a reason to…"

"Gwen. It is normal here. That is what I am trying to tell you."

I sat down on one of the lab stools because my legs had made it clear they were not going to keep holding me up out of politeness. I put both hands flat on the bench in front of me and stared at them and tried to get my thoughts in order.

"What is your surname?" Elodie asked, watching me carefully.

"Casteel," I said without thinking. "Guinevere Casteel."

Something changed in her face immediately. Her eyes went wide and she took a small step back like I had said something alarming.

"Casteel?" she repeated. "As in Maya and Israel Casteel?"

Now it was my turn to be shocked. "You knew my parents?"

"I know of them." She came closer again, lowering her voice even though we were completely alone. "Gwen, listen to me carefully. You must not let anyone in this school know that you are the daughter of Maya and Israel…"

"Why? What does it mean?"

She hesitated. Then she said, "Your parents were from a werewolf bloodline. Which means you are too. But something is off about you — you smell completely human, you had no idea what RavenBane was, you fainted when you saw a shift." She tilted her head and studied me like I was one of the experiments in this lab. "Have you ever shifted? Ever felt anything strange, like something moving under your skin when you got really emotional?"

I thought about it honestly.

"No," I said. "Never. I am just a normal person, and my parents are normal too."

Elodie laughed wryly, “Your parents are rebels, Gwen. Everyone in RavenBane knows that”

I burst out laughing, begging myself not to believe a damn word to say, but she looked fucking serious, “No, my parents were humans”

 "Nobody with Casteel blood is just a normal person," she said quietly. "Your parents left this world a long time ago. I guess they raised you among humans and apparently never told you a single thing." She paused. "There are people in this school who will not be kind to you when they find out who your parents are. You need time to get your footing before that happens."

My head was spinning. I wanted to laugh it off the way I had laughed at the slogan thing, but I couldn't anymore. Because I was thinking about Aunt Anne and her sense of smell comments. I was thinking about Elodie's unnatural grip when she covered my mouth. I was thinking about the cheerleader whose eyes had changed colour when she looked at me. I was thinking about the way everyone around me had watched two people turn into wolves like it was mildly dramatic but ultimately fine.

The dots were connecting and I did not like the picture they were making.

"Okay," I said. "Okay. Let's say I believe you…"

"You should believe me."

"Let's say I do. What am I supposed to do with this information? I came here to study Mass Communication. I did not sign up for a supernatural identity crisis."

Before Elodie could say any other thing, the door snapped open.

We both froze. Elodie's eyes flicked to the space under the long bench nearest to us and she grabbed my wrist and pulled me down without a word. We folded ourselves underneath it just as footsteps entered the room, voices low and amused.

I counted at least three pairs of feet from where I was crouched. I pressed myself as flat as I could against the floor and tried to breathe quietly.

"That was too good acting, Yates" one of the voices said, laughing. "Coach's face when he realised the game was done…"

Yates… the verandah guy that shifted into a wolf. Why is he everywhere?

"He will be gone by Friday," Yates agreed. More laughter.

I frowned. I looked at Elodie and she shook her head slightly, telling me to stay still.

The voices continued, relaxed and unbothered, congratulating themselves. From what I could piece together, the fight on the field had been staged. All of it — the aggression, the shift, the chaos — planned deliberately to ruin the game and get the coach fired. They were proud of it. They sounded like boys who had just pulled off the best prank of their lives.

Then there was a knock at the door and someone else entered.

"Hey." A girl's voice this time.

"Hey baby." Yates replied.

I immediately realised that the girl was Fanny. She was saying something about the performance being perfect, and him agreeing and thanking her, and then the kissing sounds that followed.

"Eww," I muttered under my breath.

Elodie's hand was over my mouth before the word finished leaving it.

Too late.

The room went quiet.

"Do you smell that?" Yates voice was different now. Focused.

"What?" the other guy who I haven’t gotten his name asked.

A pause.

"Human."

I looked at Elodie. Elodie looked at me. Her eyes said everything — they said I told you to be quiet, they said why didn't you listen, they said we are in serious trouble right now.

Two faces appeared below the edge of the bench, looking directly at us.

Yikes didn't even begin to cover it.