CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT: Jake~ She hadn’t responded to my most recent text. I know I probably came off a little too flirty in that earlier message, I knew that Sean guy was still in the picture, but I knew it couldn’t last with him. I know we are supposed to be together. So what was going on? It was already 1pm, and I felt something was going wrong. Not quite the deep panic from those other times something had happened to her, but I felt a dark, cold, squirm. Something was off. “We need to go check on her,” I looked at Nick. He had been finishing some explanation about what he had found earlier in Mitchell’s family’s attic. We were at a bench in the park to get some privacy for this very sensitive conversation. Nick looked at me, slightly annoyed. I must have cut him off or something. “Something’s… off,” Evan added, “Let’s go.” I was up and after Evan with Nick close behind. We ran quickly up the streets, up the hill, and started to make our way down the stairs. Nick put a h
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE Jake~ She was on a date. With her boyfriend. I wanted to die. I wanted to rage. “LISTEN,” Evan seethed at me. “Will you let me finish?” I shook my head, trying to regain control of my thoughts and nodded. “I think her mom knows something is up. I mean not werewolf-mate stuff, and all that. But she guessed that you had been part of her life lately. She told me basically that she didn’t like that guy and always thought you guys would be good together. Okay now I needed to keep shaking my head, this was not what I wanted to hear right now. Nick mumbled to himself next to me and all I wanted to do was start a one-sided fight with this tree next to me. “WHAT THEATER?” I asked Evan. “She didn’t tell me, J,” Evan answered. Not what I wanted to hear. “We’re going,” I said decisively and turned to run towards Evan’s car. “NOW!” I commanded from a few flights ahead of them. I heard their footsteps behind me as we jogged across town. Rachel~ “Extra lar
CHAPTER SIXTY Nick~ This had to be the craziest Sunday of my life. Jake’s eyes were still going nuts. I had luckily found a pair of shades in Evan’s car, which he was now wearing as we were in the mall rushing to the movie theater. “Three tickets for the 2:30pm showing?’ Evan asked the guy behind the counter. Jake was bursting out of his skin. “It’s wrong, it’s wrong,” he muttered to me. “I know man, I know. We’re working on it,” I told him as I started guiding him to the escalator. She’s here, Asher said to me. Thank the Goddess. The first theater we went to, she was nowhere to be found. She had to be getting out of whatever movie soon. Evan caught up to us and we followed Jake as he walked up the escalator. Evan rushed past him a bit and gave our tickets to the ticket-taker who was a second away from getting his face smashed in if he took any longer. Jake was completely stiff, tensed up and ready to strike. “Door 14, all the way down to the left,” the oblivious
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE Monday morning came around and I was waiting near the end of the line to get on the bus. Sophie was there, clearly glaring at me. But I couldn’t remember why. Was she still mad about me changing schools months ago? Get a life, girl. I got on and made myself comfortable in my first seat, putting my backpack down next to me and pulling my earbuds out. Ready to drown out the world. I was exhausted. I didn’t sleep well the night before and couldn’t remember why. I have been forgetting a lot of things lately. The bus pulled away from the curb and I closed my eyes hoping to snag a few minutes of sleep. Nick~ Well my life just blew up. Jake had spoken to the Goddess, and she had confirmed Jake and Rachel were mates. Evan’s wolf, Xavier confirmed all of that, as well as the fact that Jake had something surfacing in him that wasn’t all wolf. My mind kept racing back to the hellhound-wolf hybrid from our pack’s supposed history. I had more questions than ever. But at
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO Jake~ Something was happening to my mate. She was in a panic. I had run out of my class and was outside in the parking lot. I was just about to ignore the Goddess and run to her school when it changed. She was.. Relieved? “What’s up?” Nick asked me, he must have seen me leave campus. My face scrunched. “I’m not sure. Rachel was in trouble. But I think she’s okay now. She’s relieved.” “Are we supposed to ignore the level you can sense her right now?” Evan said from behind a few cars. “I’m not even questioning how odd and strong our Alpha is Ev, just accept that they’re different. And I have no clue how things work anymore,” Nick said, running his hand through his hair, clearly exasperated. The bell rang, the period we had just ran out of was over. “How are we supposed to focus on math and English when all this stuff is going on that we don’t know anything about?” Nick complained. I just chuckled and turned to him. “What’s got you in such a good moo
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE Ally~ Nothing. We hadn’t been able to find anything. And I was so tired of hitting dead ends. I had woken up after my connection with my grandma and been so excited to tell my mom all about it. But other than the orange stone on a necklace, we hadn’t found anything of use. And I haven’t been able to channel any help from my grandma. At least not yet. Another thing that would need to wait for my first phase. Which looked like it would be in a few days. But until then, my hands were tied. Mom and I checked out of our motel and hit the road back home. On the road my mom tried to console me with reassurances that we wouldn’t need to wait long. But I still knew that things felt wrong and I felt unconfident that I would be able to seriously help in time. I fell asleep somewhere in the desert to my mom singing along to old country songs. I dreamed about my grandma on the ride home. She was in a forest with her coven, wolves howled in the distance. The smell of the
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR Rachel~ At school the next day I met with Ms. Arnhem again, along with Mr, Chu, and my mom. Apparently after meeting with us they would be meeting with Vance and his mom. I tried to not let the thought of him in this space make me squirm. My mom was crushed when she learned about everything. I had texted Ally about needing to talk with her but all I got back was a message that she was heading back from her family emergency trip and would talk to me soon. “The school, everyone in it, is so incredibly struck by the horrible actions of this student and we want to assure you both that we are taking this very seriously,” Mr. Chu assured us several minutes into the meeting. Ms. Arnhem added for him, “Unfortunately at this point all the school can do is suspend him until we have other proof. Now if you would like, you both can pursue other actions with a lawyer. In fact, off the record, I would advise that you do. Our district is tied up in policy at this time. V
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE Rachel~ The next day at school was peaceful. I spent my break and lunch with Sean and we worked in the garden a bit. It felt nice to dig my hands into the earth. The chill in the air did not lessen the entire day. Instead it seemed to seep into my bones. I daydreamed a bit about warmth and comfort. And I felt like there was something I was forgetting, that was just on the tip of my tongue, on the crest of my mind. It felt important. Sean reassured me that I would figure it out when I figured it out, or it just wasn’t as important as I thought. But it still tugged at me. It was starting to feel safer at school now that Vance was not around. But I knew this wouldn’t last forever. I informed Sean, Maxine, Marsha, Simon and Ally about what I was told in regards to Vance’s return and how I could finally get him gone. They all devised a plan for Monday so that I would never be alone. I missed Kyle. Ally had almost brushed me off earlier today when I had asked her if