Jana stood nervously watching out of the window as she waited for Shannon to arrive. The clock on the wall showed that it was just past eight, and the sun glowed low on the horizon, illustrating how the days were becoming shorter.
It's midnight in Canada; Jana thought to herself, it would be too late to call Rhydian.
She let out a sigh. Rhydian had only been gone a little over a month, and whilst he called her every other day, Jana still felt like a huge part of her was missing and couldn't help but be reminded of the years she had spent waiting for Rhydian to return to the pack.
To return to her.
She wasn't jealous of Maddy; in fact she wanted Maddy and Rhydian to be together. She wanted her brother to be happy. But his family was split between two continents now and knowing that Rhydian couldn't have both Maddy and his family in Stoneybridge made Jana miserable.
She understood why the Smiths never wanted to return. They might have lived in Stoneybridge forever but they belonged in Canada now, Jana could empathise with them, she had spent her whole life with her pack, but now her home was Stoneybridge- that was where she belonged.
Her phone beeped and after a few moments of pressing several buttons she managed to read the text message. Rhydian had taught her how to use phones, but whilst she was adept at using the house phone and simple mobile phones, the I- phone he had bought her for her birthday confused her immensely.
Good luck. Rhydian. X
Good luck to you too **winky face** Jana replied.
Hopefully they won't eat me.
You'll be ok **smiley face**
Jana felt excited knowing that soon she would be able to tell everyone their little secret. She recalled the conversation she'd had a week or so earlier. Rhydian had called her up at three in the morning sounding scared, telling her to go outside so that his parents wouldn't hear. Jana had been worried sick, thinking there was something seriously wrong, but when Rhydian told her the truth she burst out laughing, much to his irritation and then chastised him for making her worry so much and waking her up in the middle of the night.
She turned to see Ceri and Gerwyn sitting at the table, Gwyn and Cadwr were there too looking the boxes of kids cereals with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. When the cubs had joined the pack many of the members had begrudged their presence, complaining about more mouths to feed (although with Jana as leader the pack had been better fed and happier than when Alric was in charge). Now Jana was no longer alpha it was safer for the cubs to remain in the human world. Cadwr was ecstatic of course, he couldn't wait to start school in the autumn, but Gwyn wasn't so impressed by the human world and was glad that she had Meinir to complain to- the pack still hadn't reached a decision on whether Meinir would be allowed to live with them.
The story at the moment however was that Gwyn and Cadwr were children from her stepfather's previous marriage and that Meinir was Gerwyn's youngest sister. The humans were luckily buying it, probably because of the paperwork that Segolia had created for them.
"Excited" Ceri asked, breaking the silence.
"It's her first day at work," Gerwyn replied, "Why would Jana be excited about spending the whole day stuck in an office instead of running free like she's done all holiday?"
"I am excited," Jana said- she was filled with a nervous excitement, "I won't be stuck in an office all day, Sweeney wants me out on patrols as soon as possible."
"I thought she wanted you to go through training first," Ceri asked puzzled, "Not that you need much training, we taught you to fight before you could walk."
"I know," Jana said, rubbing a long scar on the back of her arm. Meinir and Aran has been cruel but good tutors.
"I wonder if Jana's going to be working with the guy that's very warm," Cadwr pondered, "What? Don't give me that look; Shannon said the guy was hot."
Jana laughed loudly. Shannon had been working part-time at Segolia since they'd finished school but it had taken Jana a while to complete the application for the junior security position. The application was a formality given that Jana had been promised a job with Segolia anyway.
Jana waved as she saw Shannon and opened the door to let her in.
"Sorry I'm running late," Shannon said, "I stayed over at Tom's last night and didn't realise how long it would take me to get here."
"It's cool," Jana replied, surprised at how casually she used human slang. She grabbed her lunch from the fridge- removing one of Rhydian's strategically placed post-it notes. They didn't need to be reminded anymore to put the food in the fridge but Jana didn't have the heart to throw them away.
"I'm sure Rhydian will visit soon," Shannon said.
Jana supressed a laugh as she thought of how likely it was that Rhydian would be fleeing to Stoneybridge soon.
Shannon gave Jana a puzzled look, but didn't question her when she shrugged her shoulders.
Jana rummaged through the sweet cupboard; looking for the food she'd stashed away the cubs reach.
"Fizzy worms?" Shannon puzzled.
"Don't ask," Gerwyn replied, "Should we get going?"
Xander stood nervously pulling at the hem of his jumper. Only a week ago he'd been called into head office and given a file of classified information to read.
It contained everything Segolia knew about wolfbloods.
A large chunk of it referred to the red haired girl who was now his responsibility.
He knew she was exceptional, even amongst wild wolfbloods, a sort of psychic werewolf, he thought with a smile- wondering why no comic writer had invented a character like that.
As she walked towards him, all he could think was that if he'd seen her on the street he would never have guessed she had all of these superpowers. He knew that if he had seen her on the street, he wouldn't have just overlooked her however.
She was cute, Xander admitted, not hot, but very pretty.
She looked a lot younger than sixteen, about fourteen or so, and as she raced towards him, flustered, he couldn't help but think that she was so adorable.
"Sorry," Jana apologized, not in the slightest bit out of breath, "I'm not usually this bad at time keeping. I'm Jana but you probably know that, don't you?"
"Nice to meet you Jana," Xander replied smiling, "My name's Xander. It's not short for Alexander before you ask. I'll be your partner, training partner I mean."
Jana nodded slowly. She could understand what Shannon meant when she'd called Xander hotter than a flamethrower in a volcano. She was mesmerised by his shining sapphire blue eyes, messy jet black hair and muscular build, and wondered what it would be like to reach and touch him…
"Jana, are you ok?" Xander asked concerned, she looked so delicate, he wanted to protect her.
"Yeah," Jana in a drawn out way, nodding eagerly. When they'd mentioned company perks, they'd never mentioned anything like this.
Xander smiled with relief and Jana gave him a goofy grin.
"Let me take that," Xander said, offering to take Jana's bag.
"Thanks," Jana replied, he's a real gentleman, she thought, "So where does Miss Sweeney want us to patrol?"
"Just the local woodland," Xander explained, "A little bit of special survey if you get my drift."
Jana looked at him shocked, "You know."
"You're the first wolfblood I've ever met," Xander nodded, "Apart from Miss Sweeney of course."
"When did you find out?" Jana asked.
"Only a week ago," Xander replied, "You don't need to look so worried. I'll protect your secret. As long as you don't try to eat me."
"I brought lunch with me," Jana replied smiling.
"I can tell," Xander answered, earning a laugh from Jana.
"So how did you find out about Segolia?" Jana asked.
"Everyone knew I was obsessed with martial arts from a young age," Xander began, "Well to be honest I was obsessed with Marvel comics, Superman and Batman- I wanted to be a superhero as a kid, but I realised that I was able to climb buildings or anything awesome like that, so I decided to take up karate and aikido. I absolutely hated school, as well, and used to bunk off lessons to practice. My teachers realised, of course, and I got excluded and sent to boarding school in Exeter- not that it stopped me. The teachers there encouraged me, however strange that might sound- teachers encouraging fighting. They put me in contact with Miss Sweeney and as soon as I was old enough to leave I started working here."
"Boarding school in Exeter?" Jana asked, trying to recall something Rhydian had said, "That's near Cornwall, isn't it?"
"Close enough," Xander replied, "Are you from Cornwall? I mean you sound Welsh, but were you from their originally?"
"I was born in Wales," Jana explained, "A little place called Cadir Idris."
"That's where Will Herondale was born," Xander said on impulse, "Sorry my sister is obsessed with books. He's her book husband- whatever that means."
Jana laughed, "My brother's obsessed with manga- it's a new obsession of his, he's an artist."
"Your brother?" Xander asked, they had never mentioned a brother.
"Rhydian," Jana explained, "He's not my actual brother, he's sort of adopted, or well I was sort of adopted by his family. It's a wild wolfblood thing. I asked about Cornwall because he went to a boarding school there when he was ten. He's got blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was probably really tall, even then."
Xander smiled, "I think I do remember him. He was a couple of years younger than, I think he was in my mentoring group. Kept on mentioning about a girl called Maddy."
Jana beamed, "I can't believe you went to the same school."
Xander laughed at her exuberance, "Neither can I."
"But that means you were," Jana began, "You were in care too. Rhydian said it was a school for care kids."
Xander tensed, it wasn't that he didn't want to trust Jana, she was very sweet and loveable and that's what concerned him. He didn't want to tell her about his past because he didn't want to hurt her.
"I'm sorry," Jana said, "I shouldn't have said anything."
"It's ok," Xander replied, "We should probably get going."
Jana raced through the woods laughing at the pure joy of running. Xander followed her, breathing fast and loud and she stopped near a large fallen oak tree waiting for him to catch up.
"How do you do that?" Xander asked trying to catch him breath, his lungs burning.
"Super-speed," Jana explained, "And caffeine- but don't tell Shannon, she's nagged me about drinking decaf for weeks."
Xander laughed, "Can you pick up on anything unusual?"
"There are no obvious scents," Jana said, "Just give me a minute."
Xander watched as Jana kneeled next to him, her long thin hands touching the warm ground, the midday sun making her hair shimmer. A gust of wind blew a few curls into her eyes and Xander reached out to brush them behind her ear.
Jana smiled, her cheeks turning bright crimson, "I can't pick up on anything using Eolas. Either there's no one here, or else they're to shield their scent amazingly well."
"Wolfbloods can actually do that?" Xander asked.
Jana nodded, "Although few ever need to. They usually mean trouble."
"Maybe we should get some lunch," Xander suggested, wanting to get out of the woods as quickly as possible. The report said that there were definitely wild wolfbloods, in the local area- not Jana's pack of course- they were travelling through the Midlands for a bit before returning to Wales for the winter. He didn't want Jana out here if there were dangerous wolfbloods waiting to attack them.
"They won't be here for a while, maybe we should," Jana began before hearing a loud growl, "Xander."
At any other time he would have been thrilled at the way his name sounded when she spoke.
He grabbed her hand and began to run quickly.
"We need to climb one of the trees," Jana said, "Otherwise it'll easily catch us."
Xander nodded and began climbing the tallest tree. Jana hesitated, remembering how she'd fallen out of a tree as a toddler.
She heard a menacing growl and grabbed onto a low branch just as jaw snapped at her ankle.
"Why did you hesitate?" Xander asked worriedly, "Jana don't ever do that to me again."
Jana stood next to him, her mind racing trying to think of a plan. She was aware of his arm around her waist, trying to keep her steady.
The wolf snarled at them, it's brown fur ruffled and its eyes murderous.
Xander reached for his phone with the hand that wasn't holding the branch above him, hoping to call for reinforcements.
His heart almost stopped when he saw Jana jump from the tree and land in wolf form. She was so beautiful- a bright crimson colour, with large golden eyes. She was so small compared to the other wild wolfblood but was fearless as she challenged him. Xander could tell that the jump hadn't gone exactly to plan, Jana kept the weight off her front right paw, it was obviously hurting her.
Xander reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a tranquiliser dart, waiting for a chance to use it. He watched as the wolfblood lunged at Jana, and saw how she expertly dodged the attack. She didn't need any training, she was already perfect, Xander thought.
Xander aimed the dart to land in the wild wolfbloods back and threw it, however the wolf sprang and Jana dodged to the side, the dart hitting her injured leg.
She yelped, looking up at Xander for help. He jumped down from the tree, landing close to the wild wolfblood and threw a dart at the animal, this time it hit the target and the wild wolf fled into the distance.
Any satisfaction Xander felt was short lived. He watched as Jana transformed back into human form, yawning frequently. The dose of sedative was too much for someone of her size and Xander reached Jana just as she collapsed. He pulled her into his arms. He thought love at first sight only occurred in fairy tales but he knew he was completely wrong.
He watched as she slept, her breathing slow but even. He knew he had to get her to a wolfblood doctor, the sedative could have done a lot of damage and her wrist was badly sprained if not fractured.
He knew he would be in trouble when Miss Sweeney heard about this, but all cared about was Jana.
He had to protect her.
Jana woke up to bright lights shining above her, and felt someone's hand in hers. She knew she was in Dr Whitewood's lab and smiled as she saw Shannon.
"Are you ok?" Shannon asked.
Jana nodded, still feeling exhausted.
"Becca's gone to tell Miss Sweeney about what happened," Shannon explained, "Xander's been so worried about you. I think you really made an impression on him."
"Do you want to see him?" Shannon asked.
Jana nodded.
Xander walked through the doors moments later, his face was pale and creased with worry. He rushed to Jana's side holding her hand- the one that wasn't wrapped in bandages- he was grateful it was just a sprain, but felt guilty- if he had done something then Jana wouldn't have got hurt.
He brushed a stray curl away from her face, she was feverish and still exhausted, barely able to stay awake- but at least there wouldn't be any permanent damage.
She smiled before falling asleep, snoring gently and for the first time in his life Xander let himself believe that he could be totally completely happy.