Chapter Three Secrets of the Wolf

Chapter Three

Secret’s of the Wolf

 

 

My second day of school went a little better than the first. School wasn’t so bad, except that I had every class with Mark. That was kind of awkward. Lunch was the worst.

“Hey, Aly! Wanna sit with us?” Katrina asked.

I looked over and saw  Katrina sitting with a guy I didn’t know. He was kinda cute with his jet-black hair combed into disarray.

“I dunno…” I hedged.

The guy sitting next to her looked up. His eyes were a sparkling gray/blue. “Hey,” he said, flashing a huge grin.

“Hi,” I smiled back.

“Chris, this is Aly Donovan, Aly this is Chris Gordon, my boyfriend,” Katrina smiled, introducing us.

“So you’re the new girl?” Chris asked casually. I hated being the ‘new girl’. “Mark’s competition.”

“Mark’s competition?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah,” Chris shrugged.

I was interested now. I sat down across from them, wondering what Chris was talking about.

“What do you mean, his competition?” I asked curiously.

“To be alpha, rumor has it that you can take it from him.”

“Oh,” I said.

“So, is it true?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t have any idea. Maybe,” I answered. I really didn’t know, how could I? If I could take it from him… That could explain why he seemed so angry and worried. Was he worried that I would try and take it from him? He had reason to worry.

“Hey, Kat, Chris,” Mark said as he approached the table. “Oh, Aly, hey.”

I flushed bright red. “Hi,” I answered, looking down quickly.

“What’s up with that?” Chris asked, smirking at me.

“I told her about the agreement,” Mark answered, looking anywhere but at me.

My head snapped up. “You told him about that?!” I practically shrieked.

Katrina cringed away from me and Chris stared.

Mark chuckled. “I didn’t have to. He’s my half brother, he already knew.”

“So, why isn’t he in line for alpha?” I was dead curious now but I still wouldn’t look at him.

“I was,” Chris said.

“But he didn’t want it,” Mark shrugged. “He turned it over to me.”

“And now it looks like you may be able to take it from him,” Chris smirked.

“I don’t know about that…” I started.

“He’s right,” Katrina cut in.

“I can?” I asked, looking at Mark.

He frowned. “If that’s true, I don’t know anything about it,” He answered. He sounded like he was telling me the truth.

I frowned but let it go. Could I believe him? Would he tell me the truth about this? I decided not to take his word for that. If he knew, he would regret keeping it from me. But if it was true, if I could take it from him, that would solve all of my problems.

“Seriously, Mark?” Katrina asked. “You told…”

“Quiet!” Mark hissed.

I glared at him. “You told them about it? Then you lied to me. You said you didn’t know anything about it.”

He shrugged. “It’s not definite. I haven’t researched it thoroughly.”

“I will, believe me, I will.” I guaranteed him.

“Uh oh,” Katrina frowned. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

“No, you didn’t cause anything,” I hastened to reassure her.

“Of course not,” Mark agreed.

“I should just go,” I said, rising quickly and grabbing my tray.

Mark just shrugged.

“Ok, see ya,” Katrina said.

“Later,” Chris said, flashing a smile at me.

I moved quickly out of the cafeteria and raced for my next class. I ended up being the first person in the room. I even beat the teacher. That was going to make me look like a teachers pet. Perfect. Just what I wanted. Oh well, I figured it was better than having to listen to Mark and his friends talk about the things they knew about my life and I didn’t. Though, it seemed that might be the only way I would ever learn any of these things.

“Well, well,” Mrs. Ottenson said as she entered the room.

I looked up in surprise. “Hi,” I said.

“A bit early for class, aren’t you?” she smiled.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I didn’t want lunch.” Not if I had to deal with Mark the whole time. What was it about him that irritated me so much? I wasn’t sure I’d ever figure that out.

“Too much drama?” she asked.

I nodded.

“It can be difficult when you have to deal with someone you can’t stand.  Particularly when they have something you feel rightfully belongs to you.”

“What?” How could she know about that? Had Mark lied about how many people knew about it? . I couldn’t trust him for much of anything. Only to give me directions to class. Then again, that could just be because he knew people would find out if he gave me the wrong directions.

“I know everything. The fact that your family was in power until your father chose to give it up. About the deal your father made with Mark’s father,” she answered my unspoken question.

“How do you know all of this?” I asked. It shouldn’t be possible for her to know. Mark had said nobody outside of our families and Katrina’s family knew… Was she related to Katrina? Was that how she knew? Hm, maybe.

“My father was there when the deal was made,” she shrugged. “I heard a lot of things from my father nobody else knew for one reason or another. Neither family wanted the entire town to know what had happened that night, or who was next in line.”

“Oh,” I said quietly. “Does Mark know you’re aware of all of this?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Only you and I know.”

“So, do you know, is it possible for me to take it from Mark without a fight?”

“No,” she replied. “That’s only rumor. My father started the rumor, with agreement from both families, to prevent a fight. Your mother and Mark’s agreed on your being able to rule together, hoping you would choose that over a fight.”

My expression hardened. “Never,” I vowed. “I will never rule alongside him for any reason.”

“Do not make such hasty decisions,” she advised. “You will find that decisions made in haste often lead to disaster.”

“I could never bring myself to rule alongside him. I refuse to.”

“You will regret that later.”

“I doubt that,” I said, tossing my hair.

She shrugged. “Alright,” she sighed. “Don’t blame me if you regret it later.”

“I won’t regret it,” I promised.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” she disagreed.

At that moment the door to the classroom opened and students started filing in and taking their seats, effectively ending our conversation.

I took my seat and waited for Mark to arrive. Moments later he came in, right after the bell rang.

“Ah, Mr. Night, you’ve finally joined us,” Mrs. Ottenson said, observing his arrival.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered. “I apologize for being late, I got held up.”

What held him up? I wondered.

“Is this now a habit of yours?” she wondered.

Hm, so he had made a habit of being late? That seemed to prove my point somewhat that I’d make a better alpha than he would. I was always on time, evidently, he was always late. Not so good for an alpha.

He shrugged, but didn’t elaborate.

The class began then, the Mexican-American war, I’d just studied this for a book I was writing. I didn’t need to study it again. Oh well, I sighed. Not everybody reads as much as you do. I hated that sometimes. Studying the same thing twice was never fun.

I aced the class. So much for fitting in here. I had to face it, I would never fit in anywhere, I was the know-it-all, nobody really liked that.

 

 

♠♠♠

 

 

That evening I was talking to my dad on the phone. Partly because I could confide in him and partly to annoy my mom.

“So, how was your day?” he asked cheerfully.

“Fine,” I lied. I had always been pretty good at sounding cheerful when I wasn’t. Unfortunately, my dad could see right through it.

“Are you certain?.” I could almost hear the smirk.

I grimaced. I may as well tell him everything. “It was awful, aside from being the know-it-all nobody wants to hang around, I also had to deal with Mark Night all day, we have every class together and he sits at the same table I do for lunch.”

“Really? Why do you dislike him?”

“He’s too stuck up and full of himself,” I answered instantly.

“Sounds about like you,” he teased.

I chose to ignore his comment. For now. “He’s so sure I can’t take the alpha position from him.”

“He’s right, you can’t. Not without fighting,” he said seriously.

“It should be mine,” I argued.

“No, it shouldn’t,” he disagreed. “The position of alpha has never gone to a female before.”

“So? I’ll be the first.” I hated when people used that against me. So what if I was a girl? A prissy girl, true, but every bit as capable as anyone else.

“The pack won’t be fond of that idea. That’s why I gave it up. I knew you could never be alpha, and I didn’t want you to try. That’s why your mother never told you any of this, we didn’t want you to fight him for this.”

“The why did you tell him to warn me?” I demanded. His words couldn’t possibly make any sense. Not because they sounded wrong, but because they didn’t match what he had done just days earlier.

“Tell him to warn you?” The disbelief in his voice was even more confusing.

“Yeah, the day I moved here.”

“Warn you about what?” He was irritating me now, acting like he had no idea what I was talking about.

“Not to try and take the position of alpha from him.” How could he not remember what he himself had said to Mark? Unless… Had Mark lied about this too? But, if he had, how had got my cell number?

“I wouldn’t have told him to warn you against that. You weren’t ever supposed to know any of this. It would be counter-productive to have someone warn you about it.”

“But he said…”

“He lied.”

“Then how did he get my number?” I demanded. I almost trusted Mark more than I trusted my own dad. How twisted is that? But my dad was well known for lying, that’s why everyone was glad when he gave up his place in line for alpha. They knew he would lie to them about anything, as long as it suited his purpose.

“That I can’t answer.”

Can’t or won’t. I wondered which it was this time. “Alright,” I sighed. “Well, I have homework to do.”

“You haven’t finished it yet?” he asked in amusement.

“No, I didn’t have time, I had to make dinner.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, sweetheart,” he said.

“Yeah, ok,” I answered.

I hung up and grabbed my books. I had finished my homework but Studying helped me relax, and I didn’t think it could be possible for me to be stressed than I already was. I hated days like this. Oh well, at least it meant I got better grades, since I studied to help myself relax. If I got any more stressed than I had been lately I would skip halfway through college.

I reached to the CD player on my nightstand and grabbed my I-pod. Music was soothing to me. I went to the folder titled metal and started it there. Strange though it may seem, metal music is sometimes the most soothing to me. Also the most inspiring. Minutes later I went to my desk and opened my laptop. I had to wait for it to wake up, but I didn’t mind, inspiration had come to me suddenly from one of my top favorite songs.

As soon as the computer was up, I pulled up my favorite program for writing, and set up the page the way I wanted it. I typed the title of the story, Number of the Beast, across the top of the page. More often than not, you would find the title of the story was the same as the song that had inspired it; this was one of those times. Within twenty minutes I had five hundred words typed for it.

I jumped about ten feet in the air when someone tapped my shoulder.

“What the...?” I cried, whirling in the chair and yanking the ear buds out.

“Sorry,” mom said, startled by my reaction.

“Dang it! Don’t do that to me!” I was irritated but amused when I realized who it was. She knew better than to sneak up on me like that.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she laughed.

“No problem,” I answered. “What is it?”

“What are you working on?”

“Homework,” I answered, minimizing the screen so she couldn’t see what was really there.

“What’s the assignment?”

I shrugged. “We have to write a paper on the Mexican-American war,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s boring. I’ll go start dinner,” she said.

“It’s in the oven.”

“Oh,” she sounded surprised. She shouldn’t have been surprised at all, I had made dinner pretty much every night since I was thirteen.

She turned and walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

I pulled my window back up and got right back to work. Within the hour I had finished the whole story, posted it online, and e-mailed to a couple of friends and my dad. I wished I could e-mail it to my mom too without her getting angry and taking my computer from me. I didn’t think that would ever happen.

My phone rang again and I was annoyed to see my dad’s number on the caller ID, he never called more than once a day, if that.

“Yeah?” I asked in irritation. I didn’t really want to listen to him again.

“Aly, listen to me,” he said urgently.

“I haven’t hung up on you yet, that means I’m listening.”

“This is important,” he insisted.

“Then say whatever it is already.”

“Aly, you have to get out of here.”

“Here? You’re in Jasper?” I demanded angrily. He had said he was in California, he hated it in Texas, he wouldn’t say why, but he did, so he’d moved to California instead. He had lied to me. I was beginning to wonder if anyone in my life told me the truth.

“I’ve always been here,” he answered.

“You’ve lied to me all these years?”

“Yes, but…”

“But nothing!” I interrupted him. “You lied to me.” I hung up on him and threw my phone down on the bed, wishing I had never picked it up.

It rang again and I snatched it up off the bed.

“What do you want?” I practically shouted.

“Sorry, yeesh,” Katrina’s voice said. “I guess I’ll call back tomorrow or something.”

“Sorry, I thought you were my dad. He just called me a few minutes ago and accidentally revealed to me that he’s been lying all of these years, so I don’t really want to talk to him.”

“Oh, I see,” she laughed. “Well, I’m not him, so don’t be mad at me.”

“Sorry,” I apologized again. “What’s up?”

“There’s a Halloween dance at school tomorrow night. Everyone has to where a costume. You’re coming, right?”

“I don’t know…” I said. “I don’t have a costume, and I doubt very many people are going to have much of anything left in stock.”

“Yeah, but we can figure something out. What do you want to be?” She really wanted me to go to that dance.

“I also don’t have a date.”

“Perfect! Mark doesn’t either, ya’ll can go together,” she said happily. That must have been why she was so anxious for me to go.

“Oh no, I’m not going to any dance with him,” I disagreed.

“Come on, please? You have to come. So what if you end up going with him? He’s really not as bad as you make him sound. So he’s next in line for alpha and you want it, does that have to affect your going to the dance?” She did have a point. I shouldn’t let him ruin a dance. I loved dances.

“Fine, I’ll go with him, but only if he asks.”

“Yes! I’ll tell him. What kind of costume do you want?”

“I think I’ll be a vampire.”

“Hm, how do we do that? What kind of dress do you want?” Ugh, I had no idea.

“I think I have an idea… I have a crimson dress left from last years prom, I can fix it up to look a little more vampire-y, do you think you could find some kind of black cloak, or something I could alter to make a cloak?” I suddenly knew exactly what I was going to do.

“Yeah, I think so. I think my mom has one, I’ll bet she’d let you borrow it.”

“Perfect, now for the makeup and fangs…”

“I have a friend who sells specialty fangs, I’ll bet I could get some for you. He owes me a favor.And as for the makeup, I have everything you’ll need here, my sister is going to a Halloween party tonight as a vampire, I’ll ask her about using the makeup,” Katrina said excitedly.

“Excellent,” I smiled. “I’ll get right to work on the dress.”

“I’ll get to work on the rest of it.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. This is gonna be fun!”

“Yeah, it is,” I agreed. I couldn’t help getting a little enthusiastic about this. It would be fun, even if I did have to go with Mark. I could even work that to my advantage. Somehow. The thought of what he would be flashed briefly across my mind.

“Perfect. Gotta go, come to my place tomorrow and bring the dress. Chris can get the fangs in no time and I’ll get the makeup and cloak and we’ll have you looking like a hot vampire in no time. Promise.”

“Thanks again,” I grinned.

“No problem. See you tomorrow!”

“See ya.”

I hung up. Tomorrow could be fun, if I let it, and I was determined to. Nothing was going to ruin this dance for me.