3. A Lesson in History

Slamming my locker shut, I glared at my best friend, Krista. “What do you want?”

“Maybe…it would be your face on Friday?”

“Absolutely not.” I walked past her.

Krista had been by my side since we were eleven. Her family had been part of the Moon Shadow pack before it was absorbed into our pack. They weren’t leadership but they were one of the original founding families. Alpha Damian, and his father before him, made sure that when the packs were combined that many of the families were given similar status.

She transferred into our school when we started Middle School and somehow I became her best friend. I had no control over it and I still didn’t. Krista was the one person who I could rely on no matter what and sometimes that got her in trouble. She’d run her mouth a little much and we’d both end up in deep shit.

“But Winter, come on. Hunky Jackson is having a party at his house. Everyone is going. Everyone. And you can’t say everyone if you’re not going. I need my wingman! Wingwoman. Whatever. I need you. I am going to finally get my claws into Jackson.”

I rolled my eyes. Krista really didn’t even need to try. She was effortlessly beautiful. As she said, she was black, bold, and beautiful. Once a boy fell in love with her, they were hooked for life. Her confidence was always admirable. I loved her as I would a sister; a relationship that didn’t exist between Rebecca and I.

Speaking of, I pushed my backpack into Krista’s arms before storming over to Rebecca. She had one of the Freshman cornered between the wall and lockers. He looked absolutely terrified in the face of her and her cronies.

“Becca, leave the poor kid alone.”

No one else would have the audacity to touch her. Other than me. I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. She stumbled a little since she wasn’t expecting anything to come between her and her latest victim.

“You okay?”

I stepped between them and squatted down, grabbing up the books that had fallen on the floor. Handing it to him, he gave me a shaky smile, his eyes still darting over my shoulder. Giving him a soft smile back, I rose up. He nodded quickly once he realized that Rebecca wasn’t coming at him again.

“Alright. How about you head off to your class? You don’t want to be late.”

The boy slipped out between the wall and where I was standing, racing down the hall. My sister behind me growled and spun me around.

“What the hell do you think you were doing?”

“I was saving a Freshman from being traumatized.” I shook my head at her. “Stop trying to get other people to do your work. If you just did it to begin with, you wouldn’t be having this problem.”

I held my ground as her hand connected with my cheek. It was so expected that I managed to not even move my head. She just hit my face without it moving, like slapping a wall. Her eyes started to darken with her wolf and I gave her a fake smile.

“Careful, Becca. Principal Miles already warned you that if your wolf came forward again, you’d be kicked out. Not even Dad can save you if the Alpha steps in. It’s the one thing he doesn’t tolerate.”

Her chest rose and fell before she shifted her claws, tearing four marks into the front of my sweatshirt, before storming off. Goddess above, she was childish. If the Alpha did choose her to be the next Beta, we were going to be in trouble.

Krista came up next to me, handing me my backpack. “The hell was that about?”

“She’s failing too many classes.”

“But it’s not even October! We are two months in!”

I chuckled, swinging my backpack over my shoulder. “I know. Dad was pissed yesterday when he got the news.”

Krista took my face in her hands. “Are you okay? He took it out on you, huh? That…that…”

“Krista.” I gave her a hard look, cutting her off. “I’m fine. Alpha has been running him around and he is coming home more tired than I’ve ever seen. I think his age is finally catching up to him.”

“Alpha Damian is technically the next generation. How old is your dad now?”

I hummed, thinking as we walked to our biology class. “This year he will be forty-four.”

“Damn. That’s…”

“Retirement age? Yeah. I mean, technically, once we turn eighteen we would start to step in as Beta. Or rather, Rebecca would. Since she is his choice as successor.”

Krista fake gagged as we opened up the door to biology class. Mrs. Finch wasn’t here yet but there were still a few of my classmates sitting down at their assigned tables. Krista and I had one on the far right. It was a long high table with two stools that we each took a seat on.

“I am abandoning the pack if Rebecca becomes Beta. I’m sorry, but she can’t even get through a day without making a scene. She’s supposed to run the pack while the Alpha is busy? This pack is going to burn to the ground.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Maybe she will get a rude awakening? Or, you know, her mate ends up being from somewhere else?”

“True. One can hope. We have the Summer Festival that has a bunch of other packs coming in. Maybe she will find her mate if she doesn’t find one within the pack. That will take her far away and be someone else’s problem.”

Mrs. Finch stepped in and clapped the class to attention. She started to pass out papers for the next month’s section on werewolf anatomy, specifically while shifting. I found it fascinating how  our biology allowed us to shift from human to wolf and back. It was the section I was most looking forward to. Krista looked about as excited as she ever was for Biology.

“Please open your books to section three. We are going to go over the specific differences between wolves and werewolves before we delve into the bone structure and how they adjust.”

Daniel, one of the smarter jocks, raised his hand. “Mrs. Finch?”

“Yes, Mr. Harper?”

“Will you be shifting in class to demonstrate the process?”

Mrs. Finch narrowed her eyes, probably wondering where the question was coming from. Yes, Mrs. Finch was younger but she had a mate and two kids. There were definitely other teachers who the guys tended to get a little too horny for but I didn’t think Mrs. Finch was one of them. Daniel might have specific tastes though. She decided to take the question at face value.

“No, I will not. There will be a day of demonstration. However, the Alpha will be coming in to do that. He does it every year so that you may decipher between an Alpha wolf and any other wolf.”

He didn’t look disappointed, the exact opposite actually.

“Some of you may be shifting this year, since many of you are turning eighteen. Miss Winter, you have already shifted, correct?”

My eyes widened as the whole class turned to me. “Y-yes, Mrs. Finch. However, I do not have my wolf.”

“Such a shame. Still though, you are ahead of the curve. If you have any questions about the first shift or what it’s like, I’m sure Miss Winter would be happy to answer your questions.”

I forced a smile. It would not be my pleasure. I would do it, of course. I did my best to keep my head down though. Part of me wanted to say that Rebecca could shift as well but then if anyone went to her for questions I would be scared of the answer she would give them.

“Now, let’s go ahead and start at the first paragraph. Mr. Adler, please start to read and then I will have someone else swap with you.”

Flipping my notebook open, I took out my pen and highlighter. Krista rolled her eyes as she scribbled in her own notebook. I kicked her leg and she wrinkled her nose. She did swap over to taking notes rather than scribbling that she loved Jackson in the corner of her page.

Her obsession with him I found silly but I knew better than to say anything. One, it was cute to see her fawn over someone. Secondly, there could always be something to it. Sometimes our hearts and souls knew before we did who our mates were. Our wolves were born within us; as were the ones chosen to be our mates. Even if they hadn’t come along yet. So this could be a simple matter of an early sign.

The only problem was that Jackson was completely wrapped up in his rugby games. He zero time for anything outside of that. Girls have been, literally, stripping for him since he hit puberty and he never gave a single one a glance. My sister tried for about three months before writing him off. She told everyone it was just because she deserved someone better. Everyone knew the actual reason was because he didn’t give her the time of day.

“Miss Winter, please read the next paragraph.”

I nodded and picked up the fifth paragraph, putting my pen down. “While some wolves can be found to have very close anatomy to werewolves, their inability to shift leaves them less mobile and less flexible. Werewolves have the ability to partially shift. It points to the ancestral trait of the original lycanthropy where the shift resulted in a hybrid state between wolf and human. Most werewolves don’t have much link to original lycanthropy gene but it is said that those who are considered ‘Alphas’ have a stronger connection to their ‘lycan’ side and therefore are stronger, smarter, faster, and have larger wolves than others.”

“Thank you, Miss Winter. Now, I will dive into the history of lycanthropy and where it lands within our timeline and explain why we are getting a history lesson in Biology.”