Chapter Four

Something about those eyes gave me the willies. Weren't wolves supposed to have yellow eyes? Pups had blue ones, and this wolf certainly wasn't a puppy.

This was unnatural.

So I hightailed it outta there. I like the outdoors, and pride myself on my knowledge of animals, but if I learned anything, it was that nature wasn't a force to reckon with.

I thought back to my list; Pack, mutt, territory, and now a wolf. It all fit word wise, but not reasonably or logically. What did wolves have to do with the Danvers? And according to Logan, me.

I planned on finding out.

XxXxXxXxX

Beep! Beep! Beep! Pause, Beep! Beep! Beep!

I let out a grunt that was meant to be an evil laugh as my alarm clock met its very timely demise.

To say I wasn't a morning person would be a tragic understatement.

Those people who say they like to watch the sunrise every morning should die. (For future reference, I have an overzealous liking of death threats. Don't take it personally, I don't mean them. Usually.)

So I dragged my sorry ass out of my super-comfy, twin-sized bed. And I made my way to the bathroom, successfully navigating the boxes cluttering the hallway.

I went through my normal morning bathroom routine –pee, brush my teeth, and then do my hair- then went back to my room to get dressed.

Damn I was itchy! My arm muscles occasionally twitched too. Even as I picked out my outfit, which consisted of jeans, a blue Aeropostale shirt, and black flip-flops, I couldn't stop scratching.

Luckily though, by the time I finished my breakfast, the itching had subsided.

I bid farewell to my parents and Willy and hopped into my truck, then drove off in the direction of the high school.

I arrived in about twenty minutes, and was disappointed, but not surprised. The building looked exactly like every other public high school in the U.S.: two stories of boring brick, two to three windows per classroom, and two main entrances with about four side doors. And don't forget the shortage of student parking. I had to admit though, the student body looked pretty big, and that meant the faculty was doing something right.

The secretary was polite but to the point as I collected my schedule, map and rulebook. I already liked her just because of her attitude. But somehow I didn't think she'd count when my parents inevitably asked if I had made any friends.

Ah, well, I still had six hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-eight seconds (I feel if I round up it would give the false impression that I want to be here) to get to know my fellow seniors.

I arrived late to first period, but I was excused given my state of 'newerness' to put it in Mr. Thornes' grammatically incorrect words. You gotta love the elderly history teachers. Note the sarcasm.

The rest of first period history passed in an unwanted, uneventful blur, even though history is usually my favorite subject. Lots of the other students stared. I attempted to talk to a few, but as it turns out, they don't mind talking about you, just not to you.

Oh well, I didn't really care anyways. I'm not a very people friendly person.

The bell rang, and I was out of the room like a bullet, too many people at once for a long time make me feel like I'm suffocating.

I made my way to my locker, number 229, and inhaled somewhat clean air, before the halls were crowded by bodies. I guess I was too distracted to notice a very angry one-time stalker, and the smell he came with, barreling down on me.

"Great. Just fuckin' great," I muttered. Logan stops within five inches of my face. He was totally in my personal bubble.

"Why. Are. You. Here?" he managed to grind out from his clenched teeth.

"I go to school here dumbass," just to piss him off I said it as condescendingly as I possibly could.

"Logan?" A worried female voice called out from about twenty feet away. I didn't remove my gaze from Logan's face, not even to see who the newcomer was, although I did catch myself absentmindedly scratching my arm again. I could tell I was going to have another full out scratching session again.

"Logan, what's wrong?" The voice said again, closer this time.

Logan's eyes briefly flickered towards the newcomer before resting on me again, "Kat, she's the mutt!" He growled at me.

This guy had serious problems.

"Jesus Christ! Do you mind not fucking calling me things I don't fricken understand?" I turned to the girl, "And who the hell are you?" My self-reservation was non-existent at this point.

"Kat Danvers," she replied shortly. She was tall, about five-eight, with blonde hair the same color as Logan's, and blue eyes slightly darker than his. Overall, they looked like twins, actually, I'd bet anything that they were.

"Why are you in New York?" She asked it curiously; at least she wasn't Logan's twin in personality.

None the less, the question was seriously starting to piss me off. "Because," I took a slight pause for emphasis, "I live here." My voice took on a wondrous tone, as if I couldn't believe it myself.

"This was the one you told us about? The one I saw in the woods?" Kat asked her brother, like I wasn't here.

"Yeah, her," he spoke as if he was disgusted with me.

"I will ask you one more time before I kick your asses. What are you talking about?" I was practically spitting it out, but I was beyond caring.

Logan seemed a little shocked, and Kat looked confused.

"You really don't know," Kat breathed.

"I thought we went over all this yesterday," I snapped.

"Well yes, but we didn't seriously think you didn't kn-" Kat was cut off by the sound of the bell. The halls were empty, and as if on cue, an authoritive figure strode toward us.

I didn't like her; I just didn't trust the little grey eyes under the thinning cap of short brown hair. Or the way she wore her grey pencil skirt right up to her armpits (I mean, EWWW), and her equally drab blouse that went over it.

"Three detentions, follow me please."

Told you I didn't like her.

But, we followed her like the good little students we all were. I was spending my walk of shame carefully distributing my glares among Kat, Logan and the woman who was leading us. We entered the office, received a few disparaging looks from various faculty members, and left with our detention slips, scheduled for that afternoon.

I made my way to second period chemistry (late but excused) without incident.

English literature, study hall, P.E., and calculus passed in relative silence. Apart from the gawking. What was wrong with these people? All they did was stare, not one person talked to me!

Walking through the hallways to lunch, a girl I recognized from calculus approached me.

Finally! Someone with a backbone! Hallelujah!

"Hi! I'm Tara, I'm in your fifth period calculus, you're Kaine right?" Tara seemed like someone I wouldn't mind being friends with; straightforward, mildly bubbly, in possession of a brain, and fun.

"Yeah, Kaine Arden. Do you mind showing me where the cafeteria is?" she nodded her head and took me on my way. Of course, I already knew where the cafeteria was- I did mention the photographic memory right? - I just felt that it was a polite tradition to act the part of the lost new girl.

We walked into the cafeteria and went to wait in line for our food.

"So do you like it here?" Tara was making polite conversation.

"Umm… Honestly? I can't tell the difference between here and my old school. Except I had friends there." Tara chuckled at my response.

"Where did you live before?"

"Hartford, Ohio, it's just a tiny town, mostly farmland. What about you, did you always go here?"

"Since the third grade, I moved here from New Jersey. And in case you didn't notice," She went on playfully, "it's not exactly the biggest town here either. Just replace fields for forests, and you never moved!" Tara grinned, her white teeth standing out against her dark complexion. She raked a slim hand through her long mahogany hair, and her brown eyes twinkled. Instantly, I realized how incredibly beautiful she was (and I don't roll that way, if you know what I mean). And short, she barely reached my shoulders.

We payed for our lunches, consisting of a toasted cheese and fries, and looked for a table. Only three were empty, located in the very back of the room. Surprisingly, Tara led me straight past all of the crowded tables to an empty corner one. I would have thought she was popular, or at least have a couple friends to sit with.

"Is this your usual table?" I ask, trying to make small talk, and learn about the girl in front of me.

"Yeah, Kat Danvers sits with me too. Have you met her? She's really nice. Oh! Here she comes!"

"Hey Tar…" The all too familiar voice trailed off as she realized who I was.

But Tara didn't notice and plowed on with the introductions.

"Kat, this is Kaine. Kaine, thi-"

"We've met," I cut in, feeling a little guilty. After all, Tara was just trying to help.

Kat carefully set her loaded tray down, and sat warily across from me, beside Tara.

Soon after, Logan plopped himself down as well, uncomfortably close to me. Again with the personal bubble!

"Hey Logan! You never sit with us, what's up?" Tara, who was blissfully unaware of the tension, asked.

"Just thought I'd get to know our new student." And he's such a good actor, that if I didn't already know him, I'd totally believe his lie. And I had also just caught on as to why he sat beside me- I was trapped. The wall about ten feet to my left, Logan to my right, and Kat and Tara across from me.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath as I understood their placement. Oh well, time to play nice.

"So Kaine, where'd you move from?" Kat asked, at least she sounded genuine. I didn't know why, but I thought I was going to like her.

"Ohio. Have you lived here your whole life?" If she was getting information from me, I was going to get some from her as well.

"Yup! I'm glad I did too. It's just so beautiful here, lots of trees." I noticed that neither twin had spoken about the mutt/pack thing at all since being in Tara's company.

"Yeah I know, it's great here, although the wolves are a little freaky," everyone's eyes widened a little. Kat had said she saw me in the woods, presumably last night, I wonder if she saw it too.

"Wolves?" Tara repeated slowly. I looked up at Logan, feeling his eyes on me; they were hard, with a warning glare.

Warning of what?

"Wolves," I confirmed, "I was driving around last night, trying to familiarize myself with the area, when I saw one by the road." I conveniently left out the part about the trespassing, I figured the Danvers Twins hated me enough already- for reasons unbeknownst to me.

"That must've been interesting, I don't think I've ever seen one. I didn't think they lived in this area. What did it look like?" Tara was definitely interested in the topic, although I wasn't paying much attention. Instead, I noticed the gaze passed between the twins. I couldn't tell what it meant, but I'm sure they did.

I turned back to Tara, "It was really big, with blue eyes and blon-"

"Kaine," The look Kat was giving me was either urgent, furious, or both. My vote was gonna go to both. "I want your opinion on this new lipstick I bought, you look like you'd have fashion sense. Not that I have much, got that from my mother I suppose… Anyway, come to the bathroom with me? Tara, you can come too."

Kat was clearly used to leading between her and Tara. And since Tara was going too, I figured that I could trust Kat enough.

"Sure," We all stood up and left Logan sitting by himself.

We stacked our empty trays- I hadn't even realized I had eaten- and walked to the bathroom. I was sort of sad to say that nothing eventful happened. I guess Kat really did just want lipstick advice.

Lunch was over by the time our giggling selves (what can I say? Those two were funny) made it back to the cafeteria. So we split up and I went to my final period, which taught as many languages as they could possibly cram into thirty-two weeks, with a four week culture course. They had something like this at my old school; it was an advanced program, just like it is here.

I was taking it because I thought it would look good on a college application, especially since I was getting my degree in anthropology.

I entered the classroom and selected my seat- the one in the back-right corner, closest to the door- and waited for my fellow classmates to join me. Soon, the two seats, one in front of me, the other cattycornered, were taken.

Then Logan walked in, looked around, saw the other desks in the room all filled up, glared at me like it was my fault, and sat down beside me.

As my teacher Ms. Pinkerton swept into the room gracefully, the itchiness in my arms flared up again.

As I was furiously scratching my arm, I saw Logan send a concerned look my way.

Huh? What did that mean?

Instead of dwelling on things I had no hope of understanding, I turned my attention back to Ms. Pinkerton.

She had that effortless grace everyone was envious of, and long limbs that looked perfect on her. Anyone else and they would have looked gawky. She couldn't have been older than twenty-four, and had a shock of red hair that went to her shoulders and flopped over her long, semi-crooked nose.

She seemed like an overall nice person, and a good teacher. She cracked a few jokes- that were actually funny- but she made sure to get her point across.

She started going over the test dates for the next three weeks and giving us a handout detailing the class. Again, I silently thanked my parents for having the sense to at least change schools at the start of the school year.

Our teacher gave us a little background information about herself:

"I graduated from Penn State University four years ago with a degree in linguistic anthropology. Somewhere along the line, I ended up teaching here. It's been nice, but I'm leaving after this year.

"So the first language we'll be learning is Latin, after all, it's the base of all languages." She continued talking, but I quickly lost focus. My head was spinning and I felt like I had a high fever. On top of it all, my damn skin still itched.

Logan slightly turned his head towards me, "Are you okay?" He plowed on without waiting for an answer, "you need to get outside." For some reason, I didn't think outside would help, but whatever.

"Ms. Pinkerton?" Logan interrupted the wrap-up of the classic first day speech. "Kaine doesn't look well, I think she needs to see the nurse."

She looked at me, "Do you need to go?" It wasn't really a question seeing as she was already writing out a hall pass.

"Logan, you can take her," Then she thrusted us the hall pass, shooed us out and slammed the door.

God woman! It's not like I was rabid! I thought, hoping my mental reprimand somehow made it to the teacher.

"At least the witch has some sense," Logan muttered to himself.

I could only manage to force out, "Your calling our teacher a witch?" before I started stumbling.

Only now did I realize we had taken the hallway away from the nurse's office. Instead, we were headed toward one of the side doors.

"Where are we going?" I was sweating now. What the hell was happening to me?

"Outside," Was all that he said before he scooped me up, ran out the doors, across the empty soccer field and into a copse of trees. He set me down.

"I can walk on my own than-!" That would be about the time I started vomiting.

Logan finally decided to let me in on the big secret; "Okay, first, you're a werewolf, please don't freak out; two, you're starting your first Change; and three, please do as I ask. It'll make things so much easier on you. Kat and I are werewolves too. Understand?"

Hmm… I'd have to think about this when I didn't feel death was imminent. For now, I'd see where all this was going, so I nodded my head.

"Okay then, take off your shirt and jeans and get on all fours. Now." That was definitely something I was not okay with. I mean, seriously, in how many situations have you been in that required you to strip for a guy proclaiming to be a werewolf? I'm hoping not many, and if you have, two words: seek help.

By this time the pain- and vomiting- was subsiding, and I could speak, actually yell would be a better word. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Kaine, just do it please, it'll be much better in the long run if you do. And I won't look, I promise." And then he turned his back, something I knew took a heavy amount of trust.

Something made me want to trust him and I did, to and extent. So I found a little ring of bushes that were about twenty feet away from where Logan was now standing and hid my clothes. Then I dropped to all fours in the middle like he had said.

"Now what?" I heard him settle down into a sitting position.

"Just breathe, and think about the Change," Logan said calmly, like he does this sort of thing all the time. Which, if what he said was true, he does.

"I can't think of something I've never done!" And then suddenly, I felt like a complete idiot. Here I am, half naked in a ring of bushes, being told how to turn into a werewolf by my hot one-time stalker. I get up to pull my clothes on when a searing pain rips through my body, and drops me back onto my hands and knees.

As I writhed in pain on the grass, I started to think about what might support Logan's claim:

I've always been different; heightened senses, and being a little stronger and faster than everyone else. And I'm adopted, who knows who my real parents were? Then the day I met Logan I started smelling that strong woodsy, wet dog scent, different from anything I've ever come across. Then Kat says she saw me in the woods last night, when all I saw was a wolf with the same eyes and blonde hair as Kat. Pack, bit, mutt, and territory all fit in with classic werewolf lore.

And then it hits me.

Oh. My. God. I'm a werewolf! And I'm Changing! Holy freaking cheese on a stick!

He said to breathe and to think about Changing, but damn this was painful! It felt like every bone in my body was breaking and reforming into those of a wolf.

I must have been screaming bloody murder because Logan called out, "I know it hurts, but you have to stop screaming, someone will hear you. Calm down, relax, give in, it will be over soon."

'Hurt' was an understatement, I'm not usually dramatic, but I bet you getting hit by a bus would be less painful than this.

I mean, you can imagine my discomfort when my bones started snapping like twigs, then reforming. Or when my organs shrunk or expanded to fit my new body. My favorite part was when my skin started to sprout fur in various places. Wasn't that fun! (That will probably be the most serious sentence of sarcasm I will ever say. (Did you even understand that?) (I'm not sure I did…))

After about fifteen minutes of this torture, I was a wolf. That's all I knew. I didn't know what I looked like, what I could do, or even remembered where I was. Honestly, I didn't care. I just wanted to sleep.

I gave in quickly, curled into a ball and went to sleep right there on the forest floor, with my bushy tail touching my wet nose, and Logan humming softly.