Page 11 of Fallen Wolf
‘I think Callum Jones has a crush on you.’It read. I handed it to her quickly and watched as she read it, she looked over to him and back to me and nodded. I smiled oh my gosh, she knew he did. I wonder how that would go for Ranger. I knew he was still following her around a bit. She scribbled something and handed me the note back.
‘I like Raff, like really like.’I giggled, she likes like Raff. Hell, he was gorgeous, I could see why. I think a lot of girls here at school liked him too. I winked at her. Because I was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to hook up with your foster brother. So, I wanted to let her know I wouldn’t say a thing.
When Friday rolled around and Lexi wasn’t at school again, I was feeling a little dejected. I sent her a text, but this time she replied saying she wasn’t feeling well again. I hoped she got better soon, she’d only just started here and taking too much time off might not help her graduate.
I had been avoiding anywhere that River was, Lexi had said that she didn’t know why he was paying attention now. But that she wasn’t an expert on boys, so to decide what my gut said. My gut said avoid River, so at lunch I sat in my car and called my sister. She didn’t answer, so I just listened to some music.
When the final bell of the day rang, I started to head toward my car when a huge shadow appeared behind me. My heart started to race, I’d parked pretty far out so no one would see me at lunch. I turned and saw it was Ranger Lovell. There were some girls around walking to their cars, but they slowed down to see what he was doing. Hell, I knew I would have slowed down too.
“Hey, Ada. So, I was wondering if you could tell me what girls like when they have their period?” My eyes widened and I looked around to see if this was a prank. Why the hell was he asking me this? He made some sounds then his brow crinkled in the middle. “Like girls talk about this shit, right?”
His eyes darted to the side, maybe looking to see if anyone had overheard him. He never really talked to me and the first time he does… he asked me this? I could see some people had stopped now, Olivia George being one of them. I straightened my spine and acted like this was normal, like Ranger talks to me all the time.
“Ah, yeah—” I guess girls did, I did with my mom and sister, “— but why are you asking me?” Because it was really uncomfortable. He was the hottest guy in our year and he was asking me what girls like when they are menstruating. Was it on a test or something? Was he re-taking sex education?
He smiled and shook his head. “Oh, yeah sorry. It’s for Lexi. Because she’s living with us now, and she got it this morning. I wanted to make her feel better.”
“Oh, wow. Living with you?” My voice rose higher than I wanted. He nodded with a huge grin on his face. Lexi had never said anything about moving houses. Had she been lying to me about being sick? Why the hell was she living with Ranger and I guess the rest of the Lovell’s? I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to speak to Lexi, wouldn’t this be something you told your friend? But he stood there waiting for an answer and I could see Olivia snicker at me.
“Chocolate, um… ice cream is good too. Sugar for the win.” I laughed because my dad would bring home all the goodies for us, with three women under one roof it was the safe thing to do when we all synced up.
“Hot water bottle, a back massage. Um… flowers?” I would love flowers, but I wasn’t sure if Lexi was a flowers kind of person. He seemed to be happy with my answer and thanked me before bouncing off towards his twin.
I was really confused with Lexi, like one minute we are hating on Ranger, then we like him again? Or we still don’t and she was now living with him? Because I was still hating Saint for what he did to Raff. She was my best friend and her enemies were my enemies.
When I got to my car I noticed that Olivia had chased after Ranger and I shook my head as the rest of the female population was now distracted by Ranger. I opened up my door but before I got in I heard a crunching sound. I looked behind me, I was parked right next to the national forest. My fingers started to tingle as my heart rate went up. I quickly got into my car and looked outside.
It only took a split second before I saw it… a wolf. It’s eyes glowed, as I looked right at it. My breathing sped up but I couldn’t look away. Why was there a wolf this close to my car? Was it injured? Before I could put my keys in the ignition it turned and ran away.
I rested my head back against the headrest and took a deep breath. It could have attacked me. But it didn’t, it was like it was watching me.
This was crazy, this wasn’t normal right?
14
Huxley
I didn't meanto scare her, I just wanted to make sure she was safe. I could smell her fear when Ranger approached her. Although I think her fear came from the other students watching her and not from him directly. I still didn’t like it, I wanted Ranger to stay away from her. Why was he noticing her, approaching her?
“What are you doing man?” River confronted me as I stalked out from the woods throwing my T shirt over my head and shrugging it on. I didn't know what I was doing.
“If you like the girl ask her out, she is fair game. Pack Kiba are moving in on her. It won't be long until she's dating one of them. She likes Saint Wood, that’s the word around.” I stopped and glared at my friend, how did he know that was the word around was? Had he been asking others about Ada. When I didn't answer him, he shadowed me towards my car.
“Look I'm just trying to lookout for you, you've had a crush on this girl for a while.” I turned back and the look on River’s face told me he knew. “What you think I didn't know? I'm your best friend.” I snorted at that.
“Mason's got nothing on me, I'm the favorite and you know it.” I couldn't help the small grin that crept across on my face. Mason and River were equally my best friends, Mason probably more so lately as he wasn’t messing with me like River was.
“Smartass,” I called back to him. I was going to go home and do some homework, not that it mattered much. I wasn't going to go to college, when you were a wolf shifter you stay close to your pack. I couldn't just go off to college like some normal teenager, I was destined to live in Rawlins my whole life. Just like both my fathers.
When I arrivedhome mom was drying her hands in the kitchen. “Oh, sweetheart you're home already, your dad is at work, and daddy-G is out back, he was waiting for you to go for a run with him.”
I walked over and kissed her cheek, and snatched up one of the warm cookies she had just baked. She slapped my hand when I tried to take another, but I got it and laughed as I walked out the back to see my dad, who I grew up calling daddy-G. It was the only way I could tell my mom which dad I was talking about. Leo or Grady. But I always called them both dad to their faces, because they were both my dad’s.
“Hey dad,” I turned to see him already shifted and ready to run. He was a large wolf with darker features on his face. Whereas my wolf was just grey. Nothing different to stand out from the crowd of others. After the small run this afternoon at school, I felt like it was a really good idea to stretch my legs. Work out the Ranger stress. I stripped naked; I wasn't embarrassed by my body. When you were a shifter you were bound to be naked in front of heaps of people. So, you learnt not to be ashamed of your body young.
There was one thing that had me ashamed and that was my scar. I had a huge scar on my face, it messed with my lip and my smile always tugged wrong, so I avoided smiling. What most people didn't know is that it ran down my chest also, just not as deep.
It had happened many years ago, when I was trying to protect my brother against a bear shifter. I was only ten years old, I thought we were invincible. My older brother Finn was thirteen at the time. He had hit puberty and gone through the change. The change that every shifter waits for. That first shift. Until then, you can’t shift into your Wolf form. So, when he did it was so exciting. I wanted to be just like him.
