Chapter 1: A New Start

Hemlock Grove, what a hellhole, I thought to myself as I drove into the town. It was surrounded by lovely side roads that wound for miles but that was all the pleasures that this town had offered me at first sight. I wouldn't have been there but I needed to leave New York, things were getting a bit too complicated in my life. And my father told me if I ever need to go somewhere safe; I should go home to Hemlock Grove. Home? New York had always been my home. I didn't understand what he meant.
New York City: I loved the bustling streets, the constant movement and closeness of everything. If I wanted to shop in the god-forsaken town of Hemlock Grove, I would have to do it online or some other larger city in Pennsylvania. My parents had already rented and furnished a loft for me that was near the town square since they knew how much I wanted to be around people. I hated the feeling of isolation, which was all this town was going to be offering me. I knew I wouldn't have problems making friends, it was one thing I had always been good at. It was the weekend though; I would start at Hemlock Grove High School on Monday, my father made sure that all of my records from my private school had been transferred here.
I knew that my parents wanted what was best for me and my current situation but I didn't understand why they wouldn't come with me. My father left me with one number, he told me if I needed help I was to call Olivia. I had no clue who this Olivia was but he told me she would answer any questions I might have. Great, nothing like leaving his daughter in the arms of strangers hundreds of miles away.
I pulled up to an old building that must have been a warehouse at one time but was now converted into trendy lofts. There was a man standing outside smoking a cigarette, he took a long drawn out drag as if it was his last one. I grabbed one of my heavier bags out of the back seat of my Audi; it has been a gift from my parents for my 17th birthday, right before they decided to ship me away.

"You need some help?" The man asked, I could smell the stench of liquor on his breath that was intermixed with cigarettes and sweat. I heard his heart beat speed up when I turned to look at him. He devoured me with his eyes, I was sure he was thinking about what he would do with me in bed.

"No!" I was abrupt and somewhat rude as I pushed passed him, making sure that I locked my car before I left it. There was the New Yorker in me. There was something about the way he smelt that made me sick to my stomach it was like death. Great way to start. There had to be something good about this town. I unlocked the door to my loft and opened the door not knowing what to expect but it was perfect. Thank you mother! I smiled knowing she had, picked out this place for me because of the large windows and wonderful lighting. She even had her decorator come in and design it the way I would like it, modern with a shabby chic twist. It was pretty much an open floor plan other than the bedroom which was lofted upstairs overlooking the living room and kitchen. It took me two more trips to get all of my luggage in, thankfully the death man had left. After I lugged all of my bags upstairs I plopped down on the couch. I thought about everything that brought me to that very place at that very moment. It really was all my parents fault for not preparing me.

On my fifteenth birthday, my mother brought me into the woods near our cabin. It was on the night of a full moon, she turned into a fucking wolf. That was the first time that I had ever felt the itch of the change and the pull of moon. I completed my painful transformation that night. My mother told me that I was a lucky one because I could refrain from changing when the moon was full because of my father. Seriously? What the fuck was he? I asked her. She told me he was upyr, he was part demon, part man. Nothing like turning a teenager's already rollercoaster of a life upside down. I learned as time went on that I could do things that other people my age or "race" (if that is what you would call it) couldn't do. I could hear, see and smell better, I could also make people do what I wanted them to do. I also had some curses that came along with my lineage, I craved blood and if I didn't drink it my body ached with deep gut wrenching pains. That is where I got into some trouble and that is why I was sent to Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania.

I parked my car in the parking lot of the high school. I pulled down the mirror and looked at myself, my green eyes gave away my distain for this town. But my golden blonde hair was still holding the curls and my make-up still looked perfect. It was one of the first times that I was allowed to wear what I wanted to school. Private schools tended to have a strict policy on uniformity. I spend a large part of Sunday evening deciding what to wear. I decided on my favorite light grey Henley with a black tank to that peaked out under it with a light teal scarf, a dark pair of skinny jeans that hugged my curves and gray knee high riding boots that I had bought right before leaving New York.
I opened my door and got out of my car. Here goes nothing, I thought to myself. I walked into the doors of the surprisingly nice high school surrounded by other students who looked at me with curiosity. My father told me I was to go to the office first thing when I arrived on Monday. I stopped off to the side of the hallway and looked around, where could the office be? There was a small red haired girl by her locker, "Excuse me. Where is the office?" I asked her, it wasn't beyond me to ask for directions.

"Oh…you go straight down this all and turn right when you cannot go anymore, it is the second door on your left." She smiled at me.

"Thank you." I waved as I walked down the hallway that was becoming more crowded with students.

The office was exactly where she said it would be. I entered just as some jerk was walking out and not paying attention and ran right into me making me drop my bag on the floor. "Hey watch it," I bit at him.

"Shit, I'm sorry." He picked my bag up off the floor and handed it to me. "Are you new?" He asked with curiosity.

"Have you seen me around here before?" I shot back. I hated stupid questions, because he already knew the answer to it.

"No." He responded with his big brown eyes looking me up and down like I was a piece of meat.

"Then there's your answer." I pushed past him and entered the office. The secretary was busy answering phones and held up a finger to me letting me know she was acknowledging me and would be with me in a second.

She finally hung up the phone and looked up at me, "Yes dear how may, I help you?"

"It's my first day here and I was told I needed to check in at the office and get my schedule." I replied.

"Ah yes, you must be Arenda Lawsen." Here we go again, there will be questions about my name and how strange it is blah, blah, blah. She handed me my schedule and smiled at me, "Would you like one of our student council members to show you around?"

I shook my head, "No, that is fine. Thank you though. I am sure that I will figure out how to get around on my own. If I can navigate the subway system in New York, I am sure I can navigate this school."

She smiled at me politely and nodded, "Good luck dear and have a good first day." Oh, I'm sure it will be marvelous, I thought sarcastically as I walked out of the office and straight into another person.

"Fuck! Don't people watch where they are going around here?" I had already been bumped into once going into the office, what the hell they needed to put flasher on when people were coming and going.

"Sorry about that." I looked at the boy and he big blue eyes and his features were all very delicate. His lips, holy shit they begged to be kissed. "If you keep running into people maybe it is you who needs to watch were they are going." He said boldly as he smirked at me. My heart sped up at the sight of his smirk.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I navigate just fine, thank you very much." I turned to walk away from him and head to my class. He turned and followed me, walking next to me. He smelt intoxicating, like no one I had ever smelt before. "Are you following me now?"

"I thought I would make sure that you didn't walk yourself into anyone else." He teased me. I gave him a sideway glance. "What classes do you have?" He snatched my scheduled out of my hand. "Ah, look at that we have your first class together."

"Great." I said with a slight amount of disdain. As much as I was annoyed by the boy, I was also equally intrigued by him and to some extent attracted to him. He was tall and lean, he knew how to dress which that alone was a huge turn on. As we walked down the hallway people stared. "What is up with this school and staring? Didn't their parents teach them it is rude?" I asked.

"They are staring at me." He jested.

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows

"Yeah, it's because I'm excruciatingly hot." He smirked, that fucking smirk would be the death of me.

I laughed out loud, "Oh?" I looked over at him. "I hadn't noticed." I was very matter of fact.

"Come on, you know I'm scorchingly attractive." We stopped at what must have been our class room.

"You're not really my type. I like my men build like football players, and can$ bench scrawny guys like you." I jested as we walked into the classroom. He took his seat as the teacher stopped me when we walked in.

He was a short stocky man who stood only about five and half feet tall. He was balding but tried to cover it up with his remaining hair which was salt and pepper gray. The bell rang and I was still standing in front of the class. "This ladies and gentlemen is your new classmate, Arenda. Why don't you tell us about yourself?" Great let the first day grilling commence.

"First of all, my parents and grandparents are the only ones who call me Arenda, I go by Wren. I just moved here from New York City, where my parents still live." I heard one of the boys say something about how he would love to see what I looked like without my clothes on and someone else say something about parties at my house if my parents weren't around. I shook my head, "Before coming here I went to an all-girls private school, so it's going to be different here." Another voice quietly said something about girl on girl action. I glared at him after he said it. He shut up after that.

"What do you like to do in your spare time?" The teacher pushed…ah yes the intimate details…I wondered if I said turn into a wolf, if it would shocked them.

"I like to go to the theatre, which you do not have any here so that is going to be crossed off my list of things to do. I dance, I used to cheerlead at my old school and I shop which also is now out of my list of things to do. So pretty much my spare time will be nothing." I shrugged and looked at him smugly.

"Okay. You can take a seat next to Mr. Godfrey." He pointed at the empty desk next to boy who walked with me to class.

I sat down in my desk and he leaned over and said to me, "I hope you're well versed in Shakespeare because that is what we will be doing for the next hour." I thought I heard him whisper, "I know something you could do in your spare time." I looked over at him but he was looking at his book as if he had anything; I shrugged it off as if it were in my head. The hour of class was excruciating, we were reading, Hamlet. I had already read it at my other school, seen the play and both of the movies. I did have to have to admit that I saw the Ethan Hawke version only because I thought he was hot. Thankfully the bell rang before Mr. Jones assigned new readers, I had a feeling he was going to make me Ophelia. I collected my bag and started out the door onto my next class which I was not looking forward to.

"So what class do you have next?" the boy whose name turned out to be Roman asked me.

I looked at my schedule, "Chemistry. Finally a chance to make something, other than my head explode." I saw him smirk.

"Too bad you don't have phys ed. or we would have been in the same group for tennis."

"I enjoy hitting balls around. I am quite good at it, I have a firm hand." I glanced over at him, he was still walking with me. "Are you seriously going to follow me around all day?"

"Only for your safety." He smirked as if he had some inside joke he was thinking about.

"What are you protecting me from? The big bad wolf?" I asked innocently enough.

"Something like that." He smiled.

I looked down at my schedule, I stopped. "Well this is me. Thank you for escorting me to class, Roman." Several girls walked by and whispered to each other, I was too focused on Roman to notice what they said.

"Never say chivalry is dead Wren." I laughed at him and walked into class.

I did the same thing in Chemistry as I did in English Lit, introduction but then I was placed in a group. I was placed with the two girls who were whispering when they walked into class. Their names were Stacy and Danica.

"Oh my god!" Stacy exclaimed, her features were too large for her face. Her nose looked like it belonged on a man, her teeth were crooked and in dire need for braces. She also had long black hair that was pulled back into a pony tail. I raised my perfectly sculpted eyebrows at her. "Did Roman actually walk you to class? I mean we were behind you most of the way but really?"

Was she seriously asking me something she knew the answer to? "Yeah, he did." I humored her hoping to get some information on him, other than his name and his alluring smell.

"He is the hottest guy in school!" Danica exclaimed, her brown eyes glinting with jealousy.

"So he has told me." I said blankly.

"You're so lucky…he's also the most popular, even though he chooses to hang out with the biggest loser in school." Stacy was green with envy.

"So he takes in charity cases?" I asked as if she was implying I was one.

"Only that gypsy. You and Roman would be cute together, like Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield cute." Danica smiled warmly at me.

"Awesome. But I am not interested in dating him. I didn't realize there were gypsy's in this area." I remarked, my mother was from a long line of gypsies but she hid it from others because of the repercussions that would face her. Gypsies were looked down upon even in modern day society.

"Well there is only one family, Peter and his mom. He's trashy. I heard he's a werewolf." I turned to Stacy and stared.

"What did you say?" We never our let our secrets out. That was the one main thing about being a werewolf my mother told me, we only told those we needed to tell. I looked into her hazel eyes and could see she really believed it.

"One of my friends told me he is a werewolf." She repeated with such utter confidence.

"Oh my god, Stacy! You are so stupid; you know there is no such thing as werewolves." Danica scoffed at our lab partner.

I rolled my eyes at Stacy, who was going on about it, I finally had enough, "would you just shut up about it!" I said in a low angry tone. She looked shocked. "How would you feel if people went around telling nasty rumors about you? How would you like it someone said you screwed the whole football team, cheerleaders included?"

She glared at me, "Nobody would believe it."

"Then why do you believe such a ridiculous lie?" I replied, small towns, small minds. "There is no such thing as werewolves, just like there is no such thing as the boogie man. Unless you still sleep with a night light on." I was getting mean, nothing like trying to make enemies on my first day. My New Yorker was coming out, strong and assertive.

Stacy was quiet for a second and then piped in, "You're right. It is silly for me to believe such things."

"Maybe you should apologize to Peter for spreading rumors about him." She looked at me with disbelief. "If you do that, I am sure that I could get Roman to say hi to you in front of your friends." I sweetened the pot.

"Oh my god, really?" I knew her kryptonite, Roman Godfrey. I smiled as she nodded to me, "Okay if you can get him to say hi to me by name."

"Oh totally." If he refused I could always make him, I thought to myself with a smile.

The rest of chemistry passed without any more mention of Roman and me or Peter being a werewolf. We actually made a very cool smoke concoction. I made it through phys. ed with flying colors. It was one class that I actually liked. My teacher, Ms. Winchester was very pleasant and my classmates were great. I made acquaintances with a few more people, one of who was Jennie, a tall ginger who had as much distaste for this town as I did and she loved to shop as much as I did. We were already planning an excursion for the following weekend. By the time lunch came around I was feeling quite comfortable with my surroundings. I had brought my owner lunch from home because cafeteria food seriously made my stomach turn. I made my way to a spot that was empty near one of the trees. The shade was inviting under the brightly beating sun. As I pulled out my lunch someone plopped down next to me.

"Hey." I looked over it was Roman.

"Hello, annoying one." I turned back to my salad. What I really wanted was some steak, medium rare, okay more rare than medium. It was close to a full moon and my skin had the same itch that it always did when the moon called. My eating habits tended to change around that time, but then again the rareness of my steaks could have also had something to do with my upyr side. I salivated at the thought.

"How were your classes?" Roman inquired.

"Educating. Did you know that you're the hottest guy in school?" I smiled at him as another boy walked over to us. He was tall, with longer dark brown hair and blue eyes. He looked like he rolled out of bed and put on the closest thing on the floor he could find and threw on a leather jacket for good measure. But he smelt like sex on a stick, I closed my eyes momentarily to control my beast within. He must have been Peter, I had never reacted this way to anyone before.

"See I told you, I am the hottest guy in school, tell her Peter." He stood there for a second staring at me as if he knew something was different about me too.

Peter laughed as he sat down, "Sure, I have heard several girls say that about you. But then again there are also pretty nasty rumors that go around this school now and again."

"I'm Wren by the way." I smiled at him.

"Peter." He held out his hand to me, I took it into mine and shook it. It felt like electricity as flowing from his fingers. He looked at me strangely as he let go. "It's nice to meet you."

I looked over at Roman who was digging through my lunch, "Seriously Roman! I'd share with you if you'd ask." He pulled out a cookie and starts to eat it. "You might be the "hottest" guy in school but you certainly have the poorest manners. I will let it slide this time because I need a favor."

"A favor? And what do I get in return?" He smiled sly at me.

"My undying love and affection." I said sarcastically. "Seriously, it's super easy and it will at least start to clear up one rumor that seems to be going around this school."

"And what rumor might that be?" Peter asked knowing what the answer would be.

I looked directly at him, "That you're a werewolf." Roman spit out the food he had in his mouth and tensed up as if he was waiting for me to ask if it was true or not. From Roman's reaction I knew he knew about Peter.

"What do I need to do?" Roman demeanor turned serious.

"All you need to do is say hi to one of my chemistry partners, she was spouting off about how Peter is a werewolf. She happens to have the largest crush on you so I used you as leverage." I replied. It was a simple task.

"And what is she going to do?" He asked.

"Stacy is going to apologize to Peter in public because we all know there is no such thing as werewolves. I am pretty sure that she thought I was going to go all east coast on her ass when she started gossiping." They were both relieved that I didn't dig further, honestly I wasn't interested. I knew that Peter was a werewolf I could smell it coming out of his pores. Especially now that the moon was almost full.

"Thank you, Wren." Peter said, "Pretty sure that is one of the nicest things anyone has done for me."

"Think nothing of it. Rumors are horrible things and most of the time it is because people are ignorant idiots. And they are scared of things they do not understand." I smiled at him.

"I thought us becoming friends was the nicest thing that happened to you here." Roman intervened.

"Oh, of course. That is the best thing that happened to me since I moved here." We laughed as we started to go back to classes. The rest of the day went by quickly but I couldn't help but find myself thinking about Peter and Roman. If you put them together they make the perfect man. Mysterious, handsome, knows how to dress and sex on a stick. I had made plans to meet Jennie on Friday for dinner at one of the local diners. But as for the rest of my plans during the week in the evening it would held up in my loft fighting my urges. It was going to be a long week.

Welcome to Hemlock Grove.