CHAPTER 146: Rachel~ My skin was itching to get back to Jake. Knowing they were likely out of their cells and making adjustments to our plan gave me some hope, but every touch from this disgusting being made me want to scream. Alright, on my mark, I heard Jake say. Wait. What? I looked around and confirmed Jake wasn’t around. And his voice sounded like it was coming from… in my head? Paul drags me along further and starts unlocking a door. We’ve got to be getting closer to wherever they’re keeping Meg and my mom. Could I- could I be getting some connection to him? Like how the others link? Jake?, I ask the ethos. There’s nothing for a minute. Rachel?, Jake asks back. Woah. How are you doing that?, he asks. I don’t know, I just heard you, I explained. Paul hauled the heavy door open and I gasped. My mom and sister were on the ground in a heap like forgotten laundry. I fell forward and reached into the cell they were in, trying to grab my mom’s hand. “Dove, g
CHAPTER 147 - Rachel~ I dreamed about the moon. Like I have a hundred times now. But this time it was full, and lit up everything around the forest. I recognized the area, it was our packlands. But parts were slightly different. We didn’t have a lake. I ran over in wolf form to see a lovely lady by the lake. I recognized her right away. Selene. “Rachel! Angeline!” She greeted us. “It’s been a while!” We padded over and sat next to her. “We’re all so proud of you and the pack. And I’m especially excited for your little one, she’s going to be a strong, strong wolf,” she said gleefully. I let out a surprised sound. “Yes! Sorry to spoil the surprise, I know it’s very early. But yes, it’s a girl. And you both are going to raise her to be tough and caring like her mom,” she said with pride. I rested my head on her arm. She got quiet for a while and I looked up at her after a few minutes, seeing an odd look on her face. “I’m sorry - I wish I was just meeting you with som
CHAPTER ONE: I dreamed about the moon. It was dark all around except the sliver of light ahead - a few stars out highlighting the empty space. A breeze wafted through that smelled of pine and something more, something that piqued my interest and made me turn. A shadow was there, far down the mountain I stood on. Wolves stood around the figure. I should’ve been afraid. But I wasn’t. I felt safe. I started to walk toward the figure. And my alarm went off. I woke up abruptly to the morning of my first day of high school. Again. After suffering through two years at the worst, most stereotypical high school in all of the known universe, I had had enough. Every day I suffered through the most boring classes, with the least impersonal teachers in the world, walked through hallways suffocated in teenage sexual tension and “bro” attitude. Every day I breezed past fights in the making, and the plastic bitches primping and priming in the bathroom, pushing their bras up and their shirt collars
CHAPTER TWO: Mr. Chiu led me out of the indoor hall that connected his office and the other counselor offices with the main school office. We left the warm air and went straight back into the chilling fog. We passed three dark blue doors on our right, the carved mountain on the left, and at last Mr. Chiu came to a door beside what looked to be another random indoor hallway. I have no idea who the hell designed this school. Mr. Chiu pulled out keys and unlocked the door to our side, just as a small group of students began to appear from the randomly placed indoor hallway next door. I followed him inside, and took a seat at the fourth table from the door. In came students, easily identified by their more mature features and confidence as upperclassmen. Suddenly I was feeling a little nervous. I was now not just the new-girl, but the new-girl in a class of seniors. Trying to breathe through it and tough it out, like the new Rachel should, I didn’t notice the two girls boring holes
CHAPTER THREE: Levi led the class through the rubric of a new project that he had apparently briefly introduced yesterday. We would be working with our teams over the next two or so weeks. Each member would be responsible for part of the project and we would need to meet on our own time to put the whole thing together on a giant poster that we would then need to present to the entire class. After some students passed out different research forms, I got my piece of the assignment. Throughout the class I noticed that the students really liked this teacher. He was strange and excited, in the best way. He was loud and full of knowledge. He was definitely entertaining. Already a thousand times better than the teachers at P.H., who all taught in monotone voices, with dead eyes. I met the other two girls at my table - Lucy and Elizabeth. Both girls seemed to be much closer to each other than to Sarah. Sarah appeared to focus more on Levi. Lucy and Elizabeth seemed to be much more inter
CHAPTER FOUR: I found my way to the nearest bathroom, wetting a paper towel and patting my forehead. I had done way too much sweating today, over some guy, and was probably going to break out as a result. I have always had a bad habit of touching my forehead, a habit puberty tortured me for with litters of little red bumps. Today had been a good skin day and I was probably going to ruin it. After breathing for a moment to center myself, I pulled out my phone while walking out of the bathroom, dialing Ally’s number. She picked up after the third ring. “Rachel! It’s you! Where are you? I didn’t call you, wasn’t sure if you were still with the office people or what,” Ally chirped. “Ally, I really, really need to talk to you. I’ve been here since 9am and I’ve already got a truckload of crap to catch you up on.” Ally found me after a few minutes. In the process I learned that there was another girl’s bathroom on the same side of the building but in the opposite hallway. It really di
CHAPTER FIVE: The bus arrived about ten minutes after the strange encounter with the redhead who had never given his name. I got on and sat next to Ally, receiving plenty of glares from ‘friends’ who still attended Piso High on our way to the back. Well, not all of the eyes had given me glares. I couldn’t name the look Jake gave me. We had been part of the same little group of ‘friends’ who had tried to stick together at lunch time at Piso. We were the six people from the same middle school who didn’t immediately ditch to join drama club or cheer or whatever. The bus took us all first to Melbourne, where most of us unloaded, including me. It would then drop kids off at the border of Drurer City, before at last dropping off Ally and eight other kids in the Northern Hills area of Druer City. I got off the bus in Melbourne, at the one stop the bus made there, at the bottom of the city, at the one and only park. Being in the back of the bus, it took about four minutes of standing behind
CHAPTER SIX: That night I had a horribly vivid nightmare. A series of them. But the one that stood out the most was one where I was in complete darkness while being slowly turned into -something else. I had been standing there, feeling around with my hands trying to figure out where I was - trying to find a light switch or anything really. But there was nothing around. When I felt for the walls, there was air. When I felt up above my head, there was nothing there, and when I tried to feel for the ground, my hands just passed through chilly air. I was in a vacuum in space. There was no light, no sound, and there were no other objects other than myself. Then I felt something on my face, a feather. I reached for it and became attacked by countless birds. There were beaks pecking into my flesh, harsh rough feet grabbing hold of my hair and clothing, digging into my skin and breaking through flesh, making me scream. But I screamed in silence. I couldn’t make a sound as I was attacked. I w
CHAPTER 147 - Rachel~ I dreamed about the moon. Like I have a hundred times now. But this time it was full, and lit up everything around the forest. I recognized the area, it was our packlands. But parts were slightly different. We didn’t have a lake. I ran over in wolf form to see a lovely lady by the lake. I recognized her right away. Selene. “Rachel! Angeline!” She greeted us. “It’s been a while!” We padded over and sat next to her. “We’re all so proud of you and the pack. And I’m especially excited for your little one, she’s going to be a strong, strong wolf,” she said gleefully. I let out a surprised sound. “Yes! Sorry to spoil the surprise, I know it’s very early. But yes, it’s a girl. And you both are going to raise her to be tough and caring like her mom,” she said with pride. I rested my head on her arm. She got quiet for a while and I looked up at her after a few minutes, seeing an odd look on her face. “I’m sorry - I wish I was just meeting you with som
CHAPTER 146: Rachel~ My skin was itching to get back to Jake. Knowing they were likely out of their cells and making adjustments to our plan gave me some hope, but every touch from this disgusting being made me want to scream. Alright, on my mark, I heard Jake say. Wait. What? I looked around and confirmed Jake wasn’t around. And his voice sounded like it was coming from… in my head? Paul drags me along further and starts unlocking a door. We’ve got to be getting closer to wherever they’re keeping Meg and my mom. Could I- could I be getting some connection to him? Like how the others link? Jake?, I ask the ethos. There’s nothing for a minute. Rachel?, Jake asks back. Woah. How are you doing that?, he asks. I don’t know, I just heard you, I explained. Paul hauled the heavy door open and I gasped. My mom and sister were on the ground in a heap like forgotten laundry. I fell forward and reached into the cell they were in, trying to grab my mom’s hand. “Dove, g
CHAPTER 145: Jake~ As much as I think this could work, Aamon is absolutely livid that Rachel is about to be out of sight. Things have been working as she planned so far. Simon screaming down here brought Rosalind down as thought. I have to give it to the guy - he played ‘seizure guy’ very well. Then in the middle of things there was some shouting up top. Likely from the fire Elise set. Which meant that Kyle was pretending to surrender himself and if Rachel was right, Paul wouldn’t be able to fight the urge to have groveling at his feet. Which left Sophie. She was right outside my cell, watching Rosalind move Paul around in this cell, trying spells to stop him from freaking out, not realizing Ally had thrown him something he now had in his cheek like a squirrel that would ward off unwanted magic. “They’re kind of a mess, aren’t they?” I say beside her. “I would have expected more from a Luna in training…” She turned to face me with a look of defiance. “Desperate times…” I t
CHAPTER 144: Rachel~ “Sophie,” I say the name with charged disgust I can’t hide. “You couldn’t just leave and go find something else to do, huh? You had to stick around and try to take what’s mine.” “Yours?!” She screeches. “You mean what you stole from me! I’m supposed to be Luna. Me! I lost my mom and then my dad, and what? You just waltz along and get what’s mine? NEVER.” “So what? Trying to hurt me before by hiring Max wasn’t enough? Now you have to get some more help to do what you can’t handle? Typical Sophie. Can’t do a da*n thing by yourself. You have to wave daddy’s money around to get anything done. Pathetic,” I sneer. She sputters unintelligible words. I’m getting under her skin. “Enough,” Vance’s mom says, her voice cutting through everything. “You can play around when we’re done with our deal.” Sophie bares her teeth at me then turns. At the same time the door down to the dungeon opens again. Who could possibly be joining in on this nonsense? There’s two sets of s
CHAPTER 143: Jake~ It’s the Luna ceremony today. Rachel started getting into the spirit yesterday. She glows around here. And the pack members love her. Even those who were vocally against cross-species interactions. They know what she did out there that day and what she gave up without expecting anything in return. While a few left, including Tiffany’s family - which was expected anyway since Evan’s rejection - things were very different than I had thought they’d ever be. After she came back we all had made plans to leave and start our own little pack, but everyone surprised me. Now here we were. A pack pioneering acceptance of all kinds of love. We even had two newly mated couples join us from up north. A witch and a wolf, and a wolf and a vampire. The last one was nuts to me, but Jeanette had a totally clean background and a highly trusted wolf for a mate. If we ever grow to the point of needing a Delta, I have my eye on her mate, Juniper. A knock comes to the door and
CHAPTER 142: Rachel~ One Month Later It’s moving day. The thought hits me right when I open my eyes. It makes me smile right away in the early morning light. I guess I was too excited to wait for my alarm to go off. I look over and see Meg asleep in her bed, her head to the side, mouth open, and a soft snore coming out when she exhales. It’s all going to be different now. My phone lights up to my side and I don’t even need to read it before I know it’s from Jake. He likely feels that I’m awake. We’ve been getting more in tune lately. I think the bond is on hyperdrive for us. I’m not even a werewolf but I seem to know things too. I know when something’s upsetting him even if I am outside with the pack pups and he’s in his office, and I know when he’s anxiously pacing in his room even if I’m in the kitchen entertaining a visiting pack. We’re still learning about our bond. And he hasn’t even marked me yet, so who knows how much could change. When I came back to life after Th
CHAPTER 141: Rachel~ It felt like nothing. No. Warmth. Dark but warm. Cozy like being wrapped up in my favorite fuzzy blanket at home. Like I’m huddled in warmth on a stormy cold day. “Rachel,” I hear a lovely voice saying my name slowly, like the lyrics of a song I know. I stir. It’s just so cozy here. Can’t I rest just a little longer? “Rachel,” the voice says again. This time there’s a hand on my arm. The feeling has me trying to wake before I can make the decision to do it. “Rachel,” it says once more. It’s dark but warm. But I have to go. I start to stir, to look for the source of the voice. Who is it? Light surrounds me and it feels just as cozy and warm as before but its so bright. My eyes try to open but it’s just too bright. Then a shadow appears, making it darker. I open my eyes and they adjust to see- Oh, it’s not a shadow. It’s a person. I know this person. My mind is groggy like I’ve woken up from a deep stage of sleep. I’m slow. My synapses
CHAPTER 140: Evan~ I kept expecting her to wake up in Jake’s arms. That somehow, his tears would bring her back. But she just lay there, like a ragdoll, in his arms. If it weren’t for how strikingly pale she looked, I would have told anyone she was sleeping. But she didn’t wake up. It’s hours later and Nick was barely able to get Jake inside. We cleared the field as best we could, bringing in the injured and putting the dead together. Amber had removed all traces of The Collective while we had sat there with Jake. I don’t like how shell shocked she was. She didn’t seem to be actually experiencing all of this and I worry for when those feelings will surface. I know she didn’t like those people. But they still raised her. She told me about jokes and kindnesses that she received in little bursts along the years. She’s basically just lost her family. But she doesn’t want to talk about it. She hasn’t even cried about it. And I can’t say I don’t understand that. I can’t even im
CHAPTER 139: Kyle~ I woke up next to the red wolf. Everyone was screaming or howling. It was chaotic and loud, which made everything that much more disorienting. What I saw next killed me. Rachel out on the field alone, with all the shadow Dementor things charging at her. “Rachel!” I’m screaming but no one can hear me. I look to see Jake crawling towards her from too far away. He won’t get there in time. How did it get this bad? How long was I out for? I flail about, my arms and legs pushing to move but I’m not coordinated or strong enough to get anywhere. “Why is no one helping her?!” I scream again, my voice cracking, my throat raw. The red wolf just tugs on my shirt again, trying to bring me inside the packhouse. I have barely any magic left but I send it to the wolf trying to drag me away. “Let go!” I scream. “We have to help her!” I look around frantically for anyone I recognize. Where is Ally? Evan? Nick? There’s so many wolves and people rushing back, I can’t