Chapter Two

“So what exactly are we going to be talking about at this whole tribe meeting thing?” I asked.

        Koda and I made our way to the light of a bonfire that sent silhouettes of light dancing off of the large pine trees. The leaves crunched underneath our feet, as we came around a log cabin like house, the rest of the houses of the tribe coming into view. Although, the bonfire was freshly lit there was no one tending to it.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Inside, the bonfire isn’t until after the meeting and to answer your question we’re going to be talking about why you haven’t changed yet” Koda smiled.

“Well I can answer that one easily; I’m a late bloomer like always, because I’m lame.”

Koda laughed lightly, as we walked pass the shrubbery and started up the stairs to one of the small cabins.

“What do you mean like always?”

“Well…I was the last out of my friends to grow out of training bras, I was last to lose my baby teeth, I was last to get my first kiss and I was the last one to get my period” I explained.

“Whoa, whoa, you could have kept the last one” Koda laughed.

“Whatever” I said, punching his arm playfully. “I kind of wish I’d never gotten that last one” I half smiled.

“Well for you that’s one of the advantages of being a werewolf.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well because your body will be constantly going through changes, you won’t have any of those…you know, unless you don’t change for a long period of time. But other than that you’ll have unbelievable speed, heightened hearing, seeing, smelling, your body will change, you might even get sexy” Koda grinned.

“Shut up” I giggled, pushing him.

“And lastly remarkable strength, like out of the word.”

 “Really?” I asked.

Koda nodded.

My face became straight and serious and I sighed looking down.

“So what are the disadvantages?” I asked.

“Well if you’re not pure blood on both blood lines like me and Jacob, the transformation is more painful the first time” Koda said looking away from me.

“What do you mean more painful?” I asked.

“I mean it’s painful anyway, but its worse when it’s not in all your chromosomes. You know how you see those old western movies where the bad guy gets tied to four horses, a limb per horse and then the horses run, pulling and jerking at each limb?” Koda asked.

I was in complete terror now as I listened to Koda’s explanation. My mouth felt dry like cotton as I pictured the pain of being pulled by rogue horses by my arms and legs. Without realizing it I had crossed my arms in front of my chest and began rubbing them nervously with my hands.

“At least that’s the best way that I can describe it” Koda shrugged.

“That’s horrible” I said softly, as I looked down at the porch. “What if you don’t want it, is there a cure or anything?”

Koda shook his head slowly, a look of remorse on his face.

“The first signs of it, is you get very short tempered even with the littlest things, you have time lapses and then lastly the fever hits.”

“Fever?” I asked looking up at him.

“Yea, the average werewolf has been known to get temperatures up to one hundred and ten degrees. Once that hits it’s not much longer,” Koda said. “You should….”

        Just then the door to the small cabin came open and light poured out onto the porch, forcing Koda and I to cover our eyes and squint into the light. Someone ducked and stepped out onto the porch.

“We were wondering what the hell happened to you guys, have you been out here the entire time?” Jacoba asked, as he looked from Koda to me and then back to Koda.

“Yea sorry” I muttered as I turned and began to make my way passed him and into the cabin.

“No fraternizing” Jacoba frowned narrowing his eyes at us.

        Koda shot him the bird as he stepped inside and if I saw correctly, out of the corner of my eye, Jacoba swiped his right foot and nearly sent Koda stumbling to the wood floor. Inside, sitting around a table, was Mika, Eli, two older men, and one older woman. One of the men looked like he was near his forties, while the other man looked like he was in his sixties. They both had wrinkled faces, one with graying hair, and one, hair the color of new snow. The woman was thick, with long black hair to her waists and a kind smile. I felt so at home here, everyone looked like me. Jacoba jogged over and had a seat in between Mika, Eli and another kid I knew as Leo, shoving Mika to the side to make room for himself.

        Mika, like the others, was a very beautiful creature. He had tanned skin, cropped black hair, and the perfect amount of muscle in the perfect places. He had thin lips, but a smile and hazel eyes that would send you over the moon. Leo was just the same only with long black hair that he kept in plaits and he was a mute.

“Jess this is my Grandfather, Chief Sionshee Ateara, my Grandmother Meadow and Eli’s Dad Thomas and of course you know his cousin Leo” Koda introduced.

“Hey everyone” I waved shyly, before sitting down in between Koda and Leo.

“Welcome young Jessica I-“ Meadow started.

“No, it’s just Jesse” I corrected.

“Oh” she nodded.

        Chief Sionshee stood up from the table and held his hands up to quiet everyone. You could tell he was a man of power, because once he asked for silence, it seemed like the entire earth shut up. He cleared his throat and looked around the table.

“So much youth among us, it is these times when we must learn where we stand and where we are going. Our past, present and future. Our tribe, your brothers and sisters as one, come from many generations of ancestors who have fought and shed blood and tears for you to have what you have today. I look among your faces and I see an endangered clan that will soon be fruitful in many things and multiply” Chief Sionshee said.

“How the hell is that going to happen with one girl in the pack?” Eli snickered.

“Doggy style” Mika whispered.

Jacoba elbowed him hard in the diaphragm and Mika let out a yelp of pain. He narrowed his eyes at Jacoba as he rubbed his side. Jacoba gave him a threatening grimace and shook his head with warning. It wasn’t hard to see that Jacoba ran things amongst his brothers, while Koda on the other hand was a free agent.

“We have come here for two reasons, this is not a meeting, but a gathering and celebration of a family to welcome our new sister Jesse in hopes that she will soon fully become a part of this family” Chief Sionshee announced.

Suddenly I felt something big and hard hit my foot under the table. I cringed in pain and looked up. Jacoba grinned at me and mouthed ‘you’re my sister’. I rolled my eyes and smirked. Could he be anymore immature?

“Hopefully as the quarter moon comes upon us, this young woman will become a part of this family, my youngest Grandson Jacoba will reach the peak of his changes and become Beta and my eldest Grandson Kodaly…” Chief Sionshee started.

He reached around his neck and took off a gold and black medallion, with a wolf paw engraved in it and held it up.

“Will lead this tribe and this pack as Chief and Alpha, when I have passed on in the wind.”

“He said passed wind” Eli giggled to Mika.

        The color in Koda’s tan face drained white and his eyes went big as he looked up at his Grandfather.

“W…what?” he said with confusion.

“Please come before me Kodaly, for you are next in line as Chief and Alpha, your deceased father, my son, was next, but he had you and was killed” Chief Sionshee explained.

        I could feel Koda trembling beside me, as he slowly slid his chair from the table and stood up. He swallowed nervously and slowly made his way to the head of the long table. He stood next to his Grandfather and sighed. It was so scary how much Koda and his Grandfather resembled, even in height and body makes. It was like looking at a before and after picture.

“Do you accept the responsibility that is given to you my son?”

        Chief Sionshee held up the band of the medallion and Koda lowered his head. Chief Sionshee slid the medallion over his long, loose mane and then pulled the hairs out of the band. Everyone bowed their heads; I looked around and followed suit. I peeked up at Koda, who stood bold and bravely next to his Grandfather. But as I looked up into his eyes I saw a desperate need for escape; Koda didn’t want this, he just wanted to be free and free spirited. The music and laughter from the bonfire rang out through the forest as everyone roasted marshmallows and hot dogs and had a great time. I sat on a log next to Jacoba, who sat on the ground, and handed me a stick with a marshmallow on it.

“So how does it feel to be the new Beta?” I smiled, as I held the stick out to the fire.

“It’s okay I guess” Jacoba shrugged, as he adjusted himself against a large rock.

“You act like it doesn’t bother you, it’s a big responsibility.”

“It’s not really bothering me, I mean I had no other plans to do anything else with myself. Koda is the one who’s pissed. He wanted to see the world, now he’s stuck here protecting his people” Jacoba explained.

I looked across the fire and noticed Koda making his way through the trees towards the pond.

“Hey, hey, you stopped turning it” Jacoba announced, snapping me out of my trance.

“Whoa” I gasped, pulling the burning marshmallow out of the fire.

        Jacoba blew out the marshmallow and then snatched it off of the stick and shoved it into his mouth.

“Hey that was mine” I pouted.

        Suddenly Jacoba started making faces and opening and closing his mouth like a beached fish. I knew immediately that the marshmallow was burning his tongue.

“Ow, ow, sh..” he muttered.

“That’s what you get you marshmallow thief” I laughed.

        I got up from the log, walked around the fire and made my way through the brush and trees, until I had joined Koda at the water’s edge. The almost quarter moon glistened and danced in the water, from the ripples caused by the dragonflies. Koda’s face was twisted into an angry grimace as he looked down at the water around his feet. I rolled up my pants legs and stepped into the water beside him, looking up at the moon.

“How long?” I asked softly, not making eye contact.

“Two days” he muttered.

“Not long at all, I can almost feel the change, my fever will be back tonight.”

“I know, so will Jake’s, and Eli’s, Leo and Mika have already made the full transformations, we all did together, but I was the only one of royal blood” Koda said through bared teeth.

His hands were clenched in fists at his sides, and his chest heaved violently in and out under his gray t-shirt.

“So?” I shrugged.

“You don’t get it do you Jess?” Koda growled.

“Obviously I don’t” I said narrowing my eyes at him.

 

“I’m only nineteen Jess, nineteen. In two days how am I supposed to lead a pack and a tribe, when I just barely graduated high school?”

“You can do it Koda” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re missing the point” he growled, shrugging my hand away. “I never wanted this, I wanted to have a normal life like you, but I never had it. All my life I’ve been trained the ways of the wolf and my people…to be a savage and an animal.”

“I don’t think you guys are savages.”

“Hmph. Please” Koda smirked.

“What you think being normal is easy?”

“I just wanted to go to college, get out there and see things, live and get the best out of life. Now I’m going to be stuck right here in Maine.”

“That’s not normal, that’s not even realism. Realism is having your family pass away and getting passed on from one foster family to the next and not knowing who you truly are or where you came from. And then going to a school where you feel alienated because you’re not bulimic, or because you’re shaped funny, or not a bleached blond. And then for once finding a group of people that look exactly like you and accepting them, just as they have accepted you, and I would not have found that if I hadn’t met you. You led me to my people, so why couldn’t you lead your people?” I asked.

Koda turned slightly to face me, his expression sincere.

“That’s just one person-.”

“And that’s just eight back there, and it’s not like they’re not going to listen to you, they know you Koda and they are willing to let you lead them.”

Koda sighed and held his head down.

“You wanted normal, this is our normal. I’ve never felt like I fit in anywhere, except for with Gladys, but I fit in here, so just lead your people.”

Koda lifted the medallion around his neck and looked down at it.

“I need to be alone” he insisted turning from me.

“Wait Koda” I said softly.

        He turned his back from me, sprouting black fur, on all fours and trotted off into the woods, the medallion still around his neck. His t-shirt and jeans fell into small shreds over the water and flowed with the current of the ripples.

“I told you so” someone said.

I turned to face Jacoba leaning against a tree above me, by the Cliffside of the pond.

“What do you think he’s going to do?”

“Well either he’s going to blow off some steam and accept it, or step down for me and run away” Jacoba explained, reaching to help me out of the pond.

“You should talk to him Jake, he needs to lead his people.”

“There’s nothing I can do he’s not going to listen, he needs to make this decision alone.”

        I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up out of the water and beside him. I rolled my pants legs back down and we both looked out into the dark forest. I could still hear Koda running, I just couldn’t spot him.

“I hope you’re right” I sighed.

“Trust me I know my brother” Jacoba said, moving some of my hair behind my ear.

I looked up into his eyes and he smiled slightly. Our eyes met in a way they never have before. It was like I was drawn to Jacoba, like two magnets pulling together. I know Jacoba felt the same, because I could tell that our expressions were identical. I blinked a few times and cleared my throat, then stepped passed him, heading back to the bonfire. I could feel his eyes burning into me as he watched me walk away. Was Jacoba attracted to me or even worse, was I attracted to him? That was impossible he was too young, he was only fifteen, that wouldn’t make me any better than Bethany. But then again had I told Bethany to leave him be, because of the age difference, or because secretly I wanted him? I knew then that it was time to go home.