Chapter 2: A not so brief explanation

October 10th               

A couple of weeks after the great break up, life had moved on.

To begin with, I'd felt lost and betrayed and spent many hours staring at the ceiling of my bedroom wondering what on earth happened to the boy I thought was so right for me. But after a bit of time, I saw it for what it was. Just a silly teenage romance.

I was a wolf. He was human. I hadn't even told him my secret.

Deep down, I always knew we'd never last. I had a man or woman out there destined to me and that filled my subconscious with guilt every time I looked at Cameron. If we stayed together, one day I'd suddenly have to end it and not even explain why. So in hindsight, I'm kind of glad he turned out to be such a douchebag. It's worked out for the better.

And from now on, it's no more pointless relationships. I'm waiting for my mate, whoever he or she may be, and however long I have to wait.

Meanwhile, I'll focus on school and trying not to murder the boy sat behind me in American history class with his ruler as he repeatedly prodded me in the back with it.

"Hey rogue," he said.

It was Logan Wilson. He was a sixteen-year-old wolf boy, heir to the Alphaship in the Cerridwen pack and incredibly proud of it.

The territory covered the whole of Kellington but after my family was forced to move from our previous pack, the Alpha, Logan's father, had permitted u to settle there and live as rogues alongside the humans of the town.

But whilst his father took pity on us, Logan certainly did not.

In fact, he had taken it upon himself to make my life a living hell.

"What?!" I hissed.

"You free tonight, Miss Feisty?"

"No, fuck off," I answered as I turned back around, trying to focus on what our history teacher was telling us about Rosa Parks.

"Are you sure, babe? I was thinking maybe you could come round now that you're single and everything," he said, leaning over and whispering in my ear, "How is Cameron by the way?"

I ignored him. He was trying to provoke me and I would not give Logan Wilson the satisfaction of a response.

"Hey rogue, don't ignore me. I'm your future Alpha."

Our teacher, Mr Greggory, turned from the whiteboard he was writing on and stared silently in that irritating way teachers do.

"Excuse me Mr Wilson, Miss Jones, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything?" He asked.

"Yes, you were actually," Logan said.

My mouth gaped open. And so did Mr Greggory's.

"Well, in that case, maybe you can finish whatever ever it was in detention. You too, Miss Jones," He said, writing our names on the whiteboard under the detention box.

"But-" I started.

"No buts, Miss Jones," He said.

"I didn't do anything!"

"Unless you want a week of detention, you will be back here at four o'clock sharp," he said.

I sighed with exasperation and injustice.

"Yes, Sir," I murmured before shooting a glare at Logan who still wore the same cocky smirk.

Just to make matters worse, in the last five minutes of the lesson, Mr Greggory assigned an essay for Monday.

It was currently Friday.

I shoved the sheet into my bag, crumpling it out of spite before heading out with the bell.

But as I reached the door, something blocked my way.

Logan.

"I'm sorry, Ella. How about I make it up to you and give you a lift home after detention?"

He looked down at me like I was a tiny scrap of broccoli he just picked out his back tooth.

"Just fuck off, Logan. I am so done with your shit," I said, trying to push past.

"You know I'm the Alpha's son, right?" He said, still towering over me.

"Whatever, he's not even my Alpha.”

He stepped to the side, blocking my attempt to get past him.

"But you're on our land, aren't you? So you abide by my rules otherwise I will make kicking you and your brother off my territory the first thing I do when I become Alpha. And my seventeenth birthday is in a few days, so you better start respecting me ASAP. Understand?"

"Fine," I said. "You can give me a lift home if you really want."

Logan didn't scare me. He was just an immature kid dressed as an Alpha. But the concept of being kicked off this territory wasn't exactly comforting. I was happy living here in the human world. 

"See you tonight," He whispered in my ear before winking and finally letting me get to my friends waiting for me by the lockers.

"What took you so long?" My friend, Charlotte, asked.

"One word: Logan.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"Being a jerk as usual?"

"I can't believe you got detention because of him," Abi, our other friend said.

"I know and I still have to do that damn assignment," I groaned.

"Another two hours of school to do tonight, just in case seven hours during the day isn't enough," Abi whined, looking down at the essay sheet whilst madly trying to get a curl of hair out of her mouth.

"Just do it on a computer and make the font enormous," Charlotte replied with her usual optimistic tone.

Abi laughed, "Knowing Mr Greggory if you don't stick to the 12-pt. font-size rule, he'll make you do it three times over."

"Nothing but facts," I said with a sigh.

Abi and Charlotte were my only two proper friends. When I first moved to Kellington at age eleven, they'd been the first to take pity on me as I sat eating lunch at school on my own for weeks, not quite sure how you're supposed to socialise in the human world.

I'd been moved around constantly as a kid and never once been to a school. My parents taught me the basics but we were rogues just jumping between packs and living in the wild for the first decade of my life. So despite probably being kinda weird and wolfy to start off, they stuck with me and we'd been best friends ever since.

In the first year of high school, I entrusted them with my secret. They'd taken it surprisingly well. They said they always knew there was something odd about me and my family. But they still treated me as normal and refused to ditch me.

Now, in Junior year of high school, we were a solid trio who occasionally brushed alongside some of the other social groups of the school.

"So... we’re invited to Cameron's party tonight," Charlotte said, glancing at Abi before looking to me, "Are you coming, Ella?"

"Cameron? As in Cameron wood?" I mumbled, "Fuck no..."

"Look, that was all in the past Ella," Abi said.

I raised my eyebrow, "What? A whole two weeks ago?"

Charlotte let out a whine and grabbed my hands.

"It'll be fun. Loads of people are going and we might not even see him," she said.

"No," I said firmly, "Besides I have loads of homework and since my Mom's been gone it’s been hard to juggle housework, homework and social life. But you two have fun. I don't mind."

"Can't Connor help with housework? He could make dinner or something?" Abi asked.

Charlotte and I looked at each other with half-terrified, half-hysterical glances.

"That's coming from someone who hasn't seen Connor in a kitchen trying to toast a piece of bread before," I said.

"Oh please. Just because he's a boy doesn't give him an excuse to learn to cook. This is the 21st century, right?" she argued.

Connor was supposed to be my older brother. But since our Mom left, I've felt like the parent of the house. I gave him chores but I never let him anywhere near the oven for fear of burning the house down - something we definitely couldn't afford to do.

Having grown up with practically no friends except each other, we were pretty close. He was only a year older and we moved in the same social circles so we went to all the same parties together.

Although that's not to say we always came back together.

He'd taken full advantage of the absence of a real parent at home and usually stayed out until the buttcrack of dawn before stumbling home. This was because he had a habit of either staying out after a party with his friend drinking far more than they should or since I banned him from bringing girls into his room (which shared a thin plaster wall with mine), he ended up in someone else's bed.

But he was alright.

Not the most responsible, smart or focussed kid in the world but we didn't have it easy and I didn't want to stop him having fun.

Easy.

Easy wasn't a word I would describe any aspect of our lives.

Our father died four years ago.

It was a car accident. We don't know how it happened. His car appeared to have just spontaneously flipped over and he landed dead in a ditch. But he was an alcoholic. The autopsy showed a lot in his system and it was ruled unsuspicious.

We didn't have much to thank him for. He'd argued with every Alpha to ever let us into their pack and was the reason we never had a place to call home as kids. But he was still our Dad and we still missed him dearly.

We missed our Mom too. After the accident, she was never quite the same. She'd lost her mate. It was expected.

But a couple of years ago, she couldn't face living in the house any longer. Sleeping in the same bed she'd shared with him, seeing his photos, smelling the lingering scent on his clothes, seeing post come in the mail with his name on the envelope.

It was all too much.

So she left to live as a rogue again. She wanted Connor and me to join her but we liked our lives in Kellington. We had friends, an education, a home. So we stayed, got jobs in a little diner on the edge of town and started paying the bills ourselves.

As I said, nothing was 'easy'.

I sat with Abi and Charlotte in the cafeteria, picking at the dry sandwich I'd spent two dollars on. It was limp and had one singular slice of cheese inside that sweated in a way cheese definitely shouldn't.

"You know what, you're right," I said, chucking the poor excuse of a meal down onto my tray, "I'm coming. I deserve some fun-"

I was cut short as Charlotte squealed in excitement before bringing me into a bone-crushing hug. Abi laughed as she watched my eyeballs almost pop out my head.

"Okay, Charlotte. I think we get it. Now let the poor girl go," she giggled.

"Let's get something better to eat, I'm starving," I said, sniffing the air. 

It smelt like they'd brought out some hot fries and my stomach grumbled just at the smell.

"You're always hungry," Abi laughed.

"It's not my fault I have an inhumanely high metabolism," I said. "Literally."