Time seemed to slow when the new arrivals got into the building. Katie couldn't help but notice just how much attention they were attracting. Three guys who could easily have passed for bodybuilders, heavily muscled that it was easily noticeable even through their jackets although that wasn't what was the most frightening thing about them. The most frightening thing was their eyes. The ones of the two guys on both sides of the one in the middle were searing red. They stood on both sides of a guy whose eyes shook every human in the corridor to the core… bright blue. If it hadn't been for the bright blue that came from his eyes, they probably would have been ignored, but this colour was a perfect reminder that he was from one of the two Royal families. The students in the hallway that noticed them immediately cleared the hallway for them to pass.
The three walked in, the Royal staying in front of the two alphas, a show of respect that Katie knew all too well. The longer she stared at them, the more she realized she was just wasting time, but then again, that was the same that was happening in the entire hallway. Katie turned away from them and walked up to her locker keeping her senses up as trained by her guardians. "Hey, Katie, wait up," Sandra called out to her as she opened her locker.
"What is it?" she asked, her voice coming out normal, well as normal as it could be. The feeling of nervousness in front of a werewolf was new to her.
"So that's Katie Chase," a deep voice came, tearing straight through her mental defences. Something in her wanted to listen to this person longer… 'What am I thinking?' she thought to herself bewildered by the emotions. Something Katie was not used to, for a brief moment, Katie could feel the weakened wolf within her stir although it was not enough to shake her. She got her books and closed the locker before setting her eyes on the new arrivals.
Cole gasped on seeing Katie, "Your eyes," a reaction that was the same for the other two alphas.
"Hey, Cole, you didn't tell me you had company," Sandra said laughing nervously, interrupting the exchange.
"Yeah, my parents were like… if the hunters at this school are really that dangerous, then take these two 'hoodlums' for protection," Cole said, Katie's mind unconsciously analyzing his voice. 'It's got a nice ring to it,' she thought before mentally face-palming herself and turning to walk away. "Meet Caden and Jason," he introduced them pointing at the two alphas that flanked him right as she was leaving.
"Just don't cause trouble and you should be fine," she said as she walked away, 'I have to get out of here before I embarrass myself. Werewolves can hear heartbeats and tell emotions using that information. This ability is even stronger in alphas and Royals. If I stay too long, they will soon realise I'm not as composed as I seem to be.'
"Someone's intimidated," Cole said behind her, goading her.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," she said waving at them blindly, a smirk on her face. Her biggest worry was that she would have scanned every inch of his face had they continued talking.
"I'll catch up with you, Cole. Excuse me," Sandra said to them before jogging up to Katie and matching her pace.
"You guys got close in one afternoon," Katie voiced her observation.
"I gave him a tour of the school..." Sandra said.
"I see… Lycaon… That's a name I thought I would only hear in stories," she said, sighing.
"Does it worry you?" Kyle asked her.
"Not for obvious reasons," Katie said after carefully thinking through her options. Her reaction to Cole's presence was new to her. Each time she spent in his presence seemed to rile up something deep inside her. Something that was supposed to remain buried until the day of her birthday.
"That's a curious answer," Kyle said, watching Katie rub her temples in thought before she nearly collided with someone. It was rare for someone to bar Katie's way unless it was Dexter who was trying to pick a fight with her which Sandra would quickly take care of.
Katie opened her eyes to take in whoever was standing in her way and came face to face with a smirking Shaemus. "I was right. The mighty Katie Chase is all talk and no bark. You turned tail and ran from werewolves… all because you were intimidated."
"Oh, I'd forgotten about your little outburst. They told me you want to fight me. I probably heard them wrong, so I want to hear it from you," Katie said staring him straight in the eye.
"Those eyes… are probably the reason why everyone is so afraid of you, but I'll tell you this. You don't scare me one bit. Today evening, I'll dethrone you, boy wonder."
This seemed to hit all the wrong buttons within Katie, "I advise you to reconsider. I would hate to lose my cool with you as my punching bag."
"Big talk from a hotshot whose time is coming to an end. Change is coming Chase and I will be the one who brings it," Shaemus said before walking away from Katie. Katie closed her eyes and went through the breathing practices that they used in the Chase family to soothe anger. Sandra held her shaking hand to cool her down and as expected, she soon stopped seething. Katie walked on without another word of what had happened and made it to her next class. Kyle bid them farewell as he did not share the same period as they did.
"Sandra, a favour," she said, taking his seat at the back of the class.
"What is it?"
"If I lose control in the fight against Shaemus, I want you to stop me."
"Okay, I'll do my best… though you have more control than anyone I know. Dexter hasn't managed to piss you off and he has been doing it for years," she said even though she did not leave like she thought she would, "Hey, Katie. About…"
"Yesterday…" she interrupted her, staring out the window, her mind soaring into thought. "Walls have ears." This was what she said every time she was warning her that the information she was asking for her confidential and she would tell if and only if she was sure no one was listening in on their conversation.
"I wanted to apologise for…" Panic leaked into Sandra's voice.
"All is forgiven, Sandra. I don't think I would have handled that situation if I was in your shoes either," she said before the bell went signalling the start of the lesson.
......…..
Cole stood in the spot Katie and Sandra had left them, frozen from the brief moment he had gotten the chance to see her face. Katie was not what he had expected, her eyes had captured his attention and even now that she was gone, the image refused to leave his mind. A reaction that he was not used to, "Hey, Cole, shouldn't we get going?" one of the two beside him said, chuckling.
"Oh, yeah, let's get going," his rushed footsteps only proved that he had been affected by the brief encounter.
"Someone is falling for a bad girl hunter," one of the alphas said, the two of them chuckled.
"Shut up, Jason. You saw nothing… She was just…" the Royal couldn't shake the fact that he was more interested in the girl than he was the day before.
"Perfect, pristine, amazing, wonderful, you want to eat her up," Jason said quickly providing all the options she did not want to hear.
"Unbelievable," he groaned, hitting Jason's shoulder playfully, "Ugh, you are such a pain." Caden and Jason continued to laugh at his reaction which he just ignored. His mind was too focused on trying to wipe the images that plagued his imagination to care about their childishness.
"I have watched you reject so many girls back at the palace. Many of them were even alphas. What's different about this one? Her name though… brings back memories," Caden spoke when they started walking towards the examination block.
"I know what you mean. Her name was the reason I was so curious to know what she looked like. Those eyes… it was like she was mocking me," he said, agitation clear in his voice, finally stabilizing his pace and leading them to administrative offices to pick their schedules.
"Then what was that? I know it was too subtle to be something of a reaction to meeting one's mate, so…" Cole looked at both of them as they eagerly waited for an answer. 'Just how many people are watching out for who I get to pick as my partner,' he thought to himself even though that did not get her out of trouble with these two.
"How may I help you?" a lady interrupted them, freezing up when Cole looked her in the eye, recognition as well as shock evident in her expression, "Oh, you must be Cole Lycaon. How may I help you?"
"Never time for proper introductions!!!" the statement came out rhetorical, "we just need our class schedules."
"Oh, okay, follow me," the teacher said, leading them on through the necessary procedures before getting them their schedules and bidding them farewell. Cole walked ahead of the others, leading them to the room. Having missed orientation, the two alpha bodyguards were completely at a loss. Despite the lack of interest, she had towards knowing what class was what on the day before during her tour with Sandra, Cole had actually been paying attention and was in a position to lead them to the room they had been assigned for their first period without having to ask for directions.
They got to the classroom, the teacher already inside and far into the lesson topic of discussion. A knock at the door was enough to throw him off his rhythm. At first, the teacher seemed to be reluctant to attend to the new arrivals as he was in the middle of an explanation… that was until he took the time to at least see the faces of the intruders. The lesson came to a stop at that point, attracting the attention of the students who had also lost track of the lesson. This gesture attracted all the students in the class… all except for one who remained staring out of the class.
Cole could not forget the features of the absentminded student at the back of the class. After all, even the very clothes she was dressed in were burned deep into his memory… the memory of Katie Chase.
"So class, if I could have your attention, we have new students that are going to be joining us this term," the teacher's voice came, finally penetrating Katie's shield of absentmindedness. She merely sighed and barely spared the new arrivals a glance as she continued to stare out the window. Some of the ways she worked of her nerves was by watching nature. In the distance outside the school, a squirrel chased another, or maybe the two were all running toward the same thing. Upon further inspection, it turned out, they were headed to the same nesting they had set up in the tree where they placed their findings of the day's meal and settled in.
Katie's eyes were about to scan through the forest for another sign of life when someone tapped her shoulder. 'Oh, damn, I'd forgotten the introductory speech,' a troubling thought travelling through his mind while Sandra shook her.
"Katie, if you would?" the teacher spoke.
Katie stood up to speak, looking on to the new arrivals before she began the speech she had now made each year that she was in this school. It was the job of the head of the hunters in the school to initiate the new werewolves so that they knew what to do and what not to do in order to stay in peace while they attended the school. "As you all know by now, the name's Katie Chase. I represent the hunters at this prestigious school. I hold the position of head hunter. Anyway, to get straight to the point, the same rules that apply in the real world apply here. The only difference here is that as a hunter that studies within the same school, I am much nearer to you in case of an emergency. Violence between a wolf and a human is strictly forgiven. Any form of violence against a wolf from a human is to be reported straight to me. Retaliation of any form will automatically plead the human innocent. Hunters are to be respected as they have the power to use violence where they see fit. And finally, anything concerning these rules or the conduct of a hunter is to be reported directly to me."
With that said, Katie took her seat, her mind flashing the last statement that she had missed, "Oh, and welcome to Dark Moon High School."
"Scary speech," one of the alphas spoke, "So are you supposed to be the toughest hunter here? You don't look so tough…"
"And yet many werewolves seem to be finding themselves in the infirmary," Katie replied, her eyes back on the forest. Her interest in the new arrivals was already fading or was it simply an act that she was using to show them that they didn't mean much in this school. Nonetheless, she kept her senses sharp like she had been taught growing up. There was nothing that hurt more than to act cocky and not be able to back it up when the need arose.
"If there isn't something more that is to be said, you can take your seats," the teacher said to them.
There was a bit of silence and shuffling while the wolves took their seats. Katie being in the last seat at the back corner with a great view of the forest and the class as well, only had one seat that was closest to her on one side, and another that was the one directly in front of her. The one beside her was occupied by Sandra and this meant that no one could get…
"Hey, Sandra, can I sit there?" the whole class went silent when they heard the Royal ask one of the most feared girls to scooch. Katie slowly turned to see what it was that was going on and found that Sandra was being asked to vacate her seat. 'Oh dear, Royals sure are confident,' Katie thought.
"Why not?" Sandra replied, smiling and getting up, before whispering something into Cole's ear to which he laughed. Cole took the seat beside Katie while Sandra went for the seat in front of her. The alphas took the other seats that lined the back of the room away from Katie.
The teacher shook his head in an effort to get his mind back into the lesson before he continued exactly where he stopped as if his class had not gained three new extremely intimidating students. The constant feeling of having someone staring at you couldn't let Katie lose focus again. Rubbing her temple, she got out one of the books she carried and started scribbling down something from what she knew the teacher was teaching just to pass the time.
"Does the big and tough hunter actually pay attention?"
"No, she simply knows everything that is going to be taught already. And I am not big."
"Oh, that must be fun. Is there some way the petite tough hunter can help me with this after class then?"
"That's quite straightforward. Sorry, I have no time for that. Like you just said, this hunter, meaning I probably have something else to do in my so-called free time," Katie was expecting him to be a talker, but this was going too fast for someone that was seeing him for the first time.
"What's the deal with your eyes, Chase?" he asked her, bringing back her memories of the day before; the headache, the wolf, the pills, the fact that on her birthday, she would have no way of stopping this one bit and the fact that it was a full moon on that day.
"Weird question, Cole, does the full moon affect werewolves?"
"Weird question indeed even after hearing that the werewolves believe in the moon goddess," he replied matter-of-factly.
"Never mind, just a rhetorical question. I've just never seen a werewolf actually showing signs of being affected by it," Katie said, turning her attention back to the forest looking for yet another distraction.
"Can you look at me when you are talking to me?" Cole tried, but as it was right now, the hunter was not going to spare him another second of his time which nagged him a bit. Thoughts of her peculiar behaviour bothered him. He could hear her heartbeat and from the moment they had gotten in till now, it had been steady, neither rising nor falling, except when she asked the weird question. As soon as she began getting agitated, she dismissed it. The question probably meant something to her although Cole was at a loss as he could not figure out how a useless question such as that one would matter to anyone, not to mention a hunter with as much experience as a Chase.
He turned his attention to the teacher and soon found that ignoring the absentminded hunter was even more agitating than he would have liked. He was getting more and more curious to know what was on the mind of the blue-eyed hunter, but she was keeping to herself right now. Even Sandra whom he had known to be a very close friend to her, wasn't making as much progress with her as he was.
Katie, on the other hand, after careful thought was finally at the conclusion that this was probably her last week in school. After the founding festival the coming weekend, everything was going to change for her. She began closing her books and packing them into her bag after taking a look at the time on the clock before saying one last thing.
"It would be best for you to just lose interest in the bad blue eyed hunter," Katie said before picking up her bag, slinging it over her right shoulder and starting the walk to the exit of the still-seated classroom.
"Hey, the class is…" the bell, as if on queue, rang while Cole tried to stop her, "not yet over."
Sandra turned to him while the rest of the class filed out. Cole stared into his book, having barely written a thing from the lesson. His mind could not stop soaring in confusion. "You must be used to being undeniable," Sandra said.
"That's not it, Sandra. Is she always like this?"
"No… not really. Something is bothering her, but one thing I know about her is that she will reveal that in her own time. For now, there is nothing any of us can do about it," she said.
"That is troubling to know. Do you have any pointers on what buttons I can push to get a reaction out of her?" he asked sheepishly.
"You're desperate, royal boy. Assuming I follow all you are saying, which I don't, Katie is impossible to get to. On the outside, she seems emotionless… at least, that is what she shows everyone she comes across who she has nothing to do with," she said.
"She didn't seem emotionless to me," it was Sandra's time to be surprised.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"She is clearly hiding a lot although I cannot put my finger on what it is exactly. Curiosity won't let it slide," Cole said, her eyes now stuck on the door that Katie just went through.
After a short period of silence, Sandra shrugged it off, rolling her eyes, "Royals have weird taste."
The two alphas that were still waiting on Cole burst into laughter on hearing that as Sandra got her bag and bid Cole farewell. "Why do you follow her around?" Cole asked Sandra before she was out the door.
"Is that what it looks like?" Sandra asked before completely stepping out of sight.
'Am I missing something?' Cole thought to himself after the reply from Sandra but decided to put it aside for the meantime.
................
Katie's new self-assigned task was to find out what she was going to do about her situation with the full moon transformation. She avoided much discussion with anyone else and went to the library once more, skipping her lesson like she had done the day before. She wanted to find out more about the werewolves and the way the full moon could affect them. As a matter of fact, it now occurred to her, just how wrong she had been to ask the Royal a question such as that one as it was one that was only going to cause suspicion.
She went through the section she had visited the day before, her eyes landing on a cover that said, 'the Wolf and the Moon.' She picked the book out and took a seat in one of her usual places. Being a hunter of her calibre made rules quite loose on her that she no longer really cared for boundaries concerning the school and conduct. The book started with how the moon goddess was the source of the werewolves' power and it was through the moon that she would grant them even more of it. It was suicide to fight a werewolf under the light of the moon without the right equipment. This was something that hunters were taught, although Katie learnt that later on from Sandra when she was trying to warn her of it. The Chase family never did care about that detail as a werewolf was still a werewolf whether the moon was out or not.
She skipped through the pages looking for what could be a bad side effect of the full moon on a werewolf. Much to her dismay, she found what she was looking for. 'Werewolf moon training…' A title that began the entire topic of how wolves trained their young control from the moment they could first shift. A werewolf was not allowed near any humans until it was clear that they could control themselves when the full moon was out and make it look the effect look non-existent even when agitated. Before that happened, getting such a wolf angry alone was enough to activate its primal instincts. The training that her guardians had taken her through was now starting to make sense. Katie was just about to close the book when she saw a caption at the end of the page.
Whoo! Chapter ten....
Been one hell of a week...
I uploaded this book into the werewolf contest, so for those of you who have made it this far, your votes would be helpful and don't be afraid to comment. Helps the author.
xoxo... author.... :P
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