Pack, page 20
part #3 of Five Fangs Series
"Oh, yes," Mr. Varner and Mrs. Terrell said in unison with an eye roll on the principal's part, making me giggle.
"Are you sure you want your little brother hanging out with Wayne and Archer?" Mrs. Terrell joked. "They're well-known pranksters around here!"
"Arch and Wayne are my besties!" Thoreau crowed, looking up from his toys for a moment. "Oops. Sorry! Inside voice."
"Make sure at least one of them is in Reau's classes, please," Emerson said. "They can help him if he goes off the rails."
"They have the same schedule, which I'm sure they planned, so that's easy to do," Mr. Varner said as he stared at his laptop screen. "I'm looking at their electives, though, and they signed up for Italian I, sculpture, and auto mechanics. Reau, are you interested in those things?"
" 'Talian?" Thoreau's curly head popped up again. "Gelo speaks 'Talian."
"Yeah, I can help him with it so that one's okay. I'm not sure about the other two, though." Angelo looked at Emerson.
"Auto mechanics is fine since they're always at Nathan Barlow's garage, but he's not going to like sculpture," Emerson said. "He got cookie dough on his hands the other day and that turned into major drama. I can't see him working with clay."
"What electives am I in?" I asked, looking up at Wyatt. "He could be with me. Or Tyler or Peri."
"Be—" Thoreau caught himself before saying beta. "Ty and Peri? Ooh! Ty is so handsome and Peri is so pretty!"
"Oh, dear, does someone have a little crush?" Mrs. Terrell teased with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Crush?" Thoreau's head tilted to the side. "Orange Crush? No, I like milk!"
"Ty and Peri are dating, and Reau is obsessed with how cute they look together," I told the guidance counselor. His head tilt had reminded me of something, and I brought it up before I forgot it again. "Reau has a therapy dog. Will he be allowed to come to school, too?"
"Of course." Mr. Varner nodded. "There was a girl here last year with a service dog, and his photo was even included in the yearbook. Do you remember, Wyatt?"
"Yes. Mesia was blind," he told me, "and her dog, Freddy, was a yellow lab. Freddy attended school every single day for four years, which is way better attendance than Ash and I can claim. Of course he deserved his picture in the yearbook."
"Spring can come to school with me?" Thoreau bounced up and down in his seat. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Sure thing, buddy." Mr. Varner chuckled, then motioned to his laptop. "Instead of sculpture, you and Posy could take photography together. Landry Benson is in that class."
Who? I linked Wyatt.
Ash's gamma. You'll meet him today at your self-defense training.
Oh. Okay.
"Sounds great. Reau?" I turned to him and waited until he met my eyes. Well, kind of. He always seemed to look at my forehead instead of making eye contact. "Would you like to take photos with me and Landry?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" He clapped his hands excitedly.
"Good." Mr. Varner nodded and referred to his computer again. "Posy, you can't earn enough credits to graduate this spring since you have no recent formal schooling. Do you think you'll continue working on your diploma after this year?"
"I want to experience high school, but I'm not sure I'm smart enough to pass a single class," I admitted, dropping my eyes to my twisting fingers.
"Oh, baby, you're plenty smart." Wyatt grabbed the arm of my chair and hauled me closer, then cupped my cheeks in his palms. "We'll help you go as far in school as you want, whether that's one year of high school or getting your doctorate."
"Thank you, Wyatt," I whispered with a little smile, then looked at Mr. Varner. "I'd like to see how this year goes before I decide anything."
Mason had explained what a GED was, and how I could work on it online from home. If regular high school was too much for me to handle, I could go that route if I wanted to later. I wasn't sure a diploma was all that important for a luna of a werewolf pack, but I wanted to be more educated.
I did not want to shame my mates.
"Very well." Mr. Varner nodded. "Let's focus on real-life skills and electives, then. How about Number Sense? It's a basic class, but will teach you real-world math skills that you'd actually use. I'd suggest the same thing for Reau. There's no way to tutor him enough in a few weeks to take algebra, which is the lowest math we have after Number Sense. Um, the only thing is, no one on your list is in that class, Wyatt."
"Can I see the rosters?" Wyatt asked. "I might have missed someone I can trust."
"There's only two sections, and this is the only one that would work to have Reau in it with Posy." Mr. Varner turned his laptop around, and Wyatt's eyes skimmed down the screen.
"Oh. Crew's little brother, Grey, is in there. Neither of you have met him yet," Wyatt looked at me, then Thoreau, "but he's a great kid. He's your age, Reau, and could be Crew's twin as far as personality goes. I think that will be all right, if you two are okay with it?"
"Sounds reasonable," I said, "and Reau and I will have each other."
"Cutie, I am not leaving the two of you unsupervised. Who knows what mischief you'd get into?" Wyatt grinned down at me, and I rolled my eyes.
"What else would you be interested in, Posy?" Mr. Varner asked.
"Jayden told me what social studies meant, and I'd like to take a few of those classes. And English because I want to be able to write and speak well so I don't sound dumb."
"Baby, stop calling yourself dumb!" Wyatt groaned.
Mr. Varner asked in a gentle way if I could read and write before we went any further with planning my schedule, and I assured him I could read and knew how to physically write, but not how to do essays or papers or anything. He asked what books I'd read and, when I listed the most recent, he asked if I understood them. We had a good conversation about To Kill a Mockingbird, and he nodded, satisfied that I could read well enough to do the work for social studies, even though I'd admitted there were some words I didn't know in the book.
"As far as writing, how about Introduction to Academic Writing?" Mrs. Terrell suggested. "That class focuses on grammar and how to compose essays, which helps improve how you organize your thoughts. You also present your essays to the class, so it helps with public speaking."
I said yes, then Mr. Varner listed off social studies classes that worked in the puzzle of schedules he was juggling. I chose Survey of World History, which I'd have with Tyler, and Geography, which I'd have with Peri.
"Now, for your other two classes, you could do home economics with Peri, keyboarding with Tyler, or, um, well, are you interested in weightlifting with Landry?"
"No, thank you, sir." I smiled a little. "What is keyboarding?"
"How to type on a computer."
Oh. That was disappointing. I wasn't good with computers, and that would probably help me get better, but it sounded boring!
"And home economics?" I asked more hopefully.
"How to run a house. Cooking, meal planning, doing laundry, cleaning."
"All the stuff you already know how to do," Wyatt interrupted with a chuckle. "You'd be bored, even though I know you want to be with Peri."
"There are a couple more options," Mr. Varner continued. "We could make your schedule work to do sculpture with Archer and Wayne and creative writing with Peri."
I could guess what sculpture was from Emerson talking about clay earlier, but I asked what creative writing was about. He explained that it included writing stories and poetry alone, with partners, and in small groups, and having the opportunity to compete in a bunch of different writing contests.
I asked for time to think about everything, so Mrs. Terrell explained the daily schedule and told Emerson and Angelo that Thoreau could have alternative areas to go for lunch if the cafeteria was too loud. By the time she was finished, I'd made my decisions.
"Mr. Varner, I'd like to take creative writing."
"Very good. I'll get that set up for you." He typed away on his laptop.
"So, let's recap." Mrs. Terrell smiled as she looked down at her notepad. "You filled out the registration forms online. I'll assign a case manager to Reau, who will organize everything related to his child study and be in touch with your private psychologist. Posy and Reau's schedules are set up, and I put an alert in their files about the list of their safe people that Wyatt provided. Did I miss anything?"
"Can Wayne and Archer bring them in to tour the school sometime before opening day?" Wyatt asked.
"Sure. Any time they want during regular school hours. Just stop and get badges from Mrs. Grizzard in the office first."
"And can you mark in their files that only people on Wyatt's list are allowed to sign them out and pick them up from school?" Emerson asked.
"Of course I can."
"Then I believe that's all." He turned to Thoreau. "You feel better about coming to school now, Reau?"
"Oh, yes, Bubba! Do we start tomorrow?" He blinked his stone-colored eyes up at his brother.
"No, honey. Not for a few more weeks."
"Aw." Thoreau's bottom lip poked out in a pout.
"We have to get ready, Reau," I told him. "We have to get our supplies first."
"Supplies? What are supplies?"
"A backpack. Pens and pencils and stuff like that." I reached over and petted his soft curls.
"Oh. Shopping." He made a disgusted face.
"Wayne and Archer will have to get their gear, too," Angelo reminded him. "What if we tag along with them?"
"And maybe get pizza and ice cream afterwards?" Emerson was not above a bribe, apparently.
Thoreau screeched with happiness and nodded really fast.
That settled that. We said goodbye to Mr. Varner and Mrs. Terrell and waved to Mrs. Grizzard, who was busy on the phone, but waved back with a smile.
We were on our way to the vehicles when Angelo asked what Wyatt and I were going to do now.
"Posy's starting self-defense lessons in," Wyatt paused to look at his watch, "about half an hour at the training center."
"Oh, Reau, you should come, too!" I clasped my hands under my chin. "You can learn with me!"
"Can I?" He looked at Emerson and Angelo with sparkling eyes.
"If that's okay with you, alpha?" Angelo looked at Wyatt.
"Pfft. If Posy asked, I have no say in it." Wyatt grinned when I elbowed him. "Hey, Gelo, maybe you and I could have a sparring session!"
He gave Angelo a wolfy grin in challenge, which Angelo returned, and I rolled my eyes.
"Alpha, if you're sparring, who's doing the training?" Emerson asked.
"The gammas."
"The gammas?" Emerson came to a dead stop right in front of Wyatt, crossed his arms, and frowned. "All of them?"
"Yeah. They're the best in the pack at fighting in human form against other human forms."
"And what if Landry hurts my luna bunny?"
"He would never." Wyatt shook his head and draped one arm around my shoulders. "A gamma is compelled to protect the pack, and a luna is the heart of a pack. He'll respect and protect her, whether he likes her or not."
"Well, he better not say so much as a mean word to my baby sister or I'll smash him," Emerson growled with Cove glinting in his eyes. "You and Gelo can spar away. I'll keep my eye on luna bunny."
"Why would Landry hurt me or say mean things to me?" I asked, confused. "Will he be mean to Reau, too?"
I was very nervous about meeting the gammas and trying to learn from them. They were going to have to get close to me or maybe even touch me, and I didn't know if I could handle that. Add in one of them being dangerous or mean, and I knew I'd just panic faster.
"No, baby," Wyatt said and kissed my temple. "Landry hates women, but he won't hurt either of you."
"Why does he hate women?" Angelo asked before I could.
"He found his mate a few months ago."
"And?" I asked, confused as to why that would make him hate women.
"She rejected him on the spot."
My hands flew up to cover my mouth.
I couldn't even begin to understand how much pain Landry was in, but I knew it had to be crippling.
As much as a shifter feared and worried about it, rejections rarely happened. Maybe once every four or five years, you heard of someone rejecting his or her mate.
It was a dangerous thing to do for several reasons. Unless they were the ones doing the rejecting, females usually didn't survive it, although males sometimes died, too, regardless of who was rejecting who.
Also, you only ever got one mate. There was no such thing as a second chance. You could take a chosen mate, but there were no sparks, no special scents, no unbreakable bonds to hold you together. Either of you could call it quits at any time and walk away.
Maybe she rejected him because Landry is one of those types of males that Quartz warned me about? Who'd want to be mated to an abusive, controlling monster like my stepfather? I stopped and frowned at my reasoning. No, that can't be right. That would mean she was also a monster, because the Goddess pairs you with your perfect match.
No, Lark spoke up for the first time today. Your mates not allow someone like Kendall Briggs to live, let alone give him position of power in pack. Specially not gamma rank. Alphas trust him, and they not trust him if he a bad person.
True. So what reason would she have had for rejecting him?
Ask your mates, she suggested before going back to sleep.
Frowning, I decided to do that, but later. I wanted to meet Landry first and see what I could see on my own.
I knew I couldn't show him pity, so I had to get my emotions under control before we got there. I also had to prepare myself for how he'd react to me, understanding that he could be anything from silent to aggressive.
Be brave, Posy, I told myself. Even if he scares you, remember that he's broken and in pain.
As his luna, I knew I could help him heal and find peace and, with each mile Wyatt drove, I became more and more determined to do so.
Whether he hated me or not.
23: A Little History
~Six months ago: January 21~
Ash
"Mate," Landry Benson murmured and his nostrils flared as his eyes scanned the cafeteria.
"Who is it? Who?" I demanded as I looked up from my sandwich. "Who?!"
"Dang, Ash, you sound like a freaking owl." Wyatt laughed and jabbed an elbow in my ribs.
Of course, I retaliated and punched his shoulder, which knocked him out of his seat. He got up and grinned in challenge, ready to wrestle, but Landry suddenly stood up and took off toward the doors at the front of the room, and we both turned our attention back to him.
We were almost as excited as he was for him to find his mate. I was going to be eighteen next week and Wyatt in April, and then my brothers and I could look for our special girl.
Sid squealed with delight at the thought, and I rolled my eyes.
As Landry jogged away, I used my height to peer over everyone's head and saw three girls standing by the doors. Two were humans happily talking to each other, but the third was Nia freaking Hashimoto, who strutted in by herself with a smirk on her lips.
Oh, Moon Goddess, please let it be one of the human girls, I begged. Even as complicated as that can be, anyone is better than her.
There weren't many good things to say about Nia Hashimoto. She got into a lot of trouble, then used her father's name to get out of it. Yuki Hashimoto had been Uncle Jay's beta, and a good one, too. His daughter, instead of living up to his respected name, dragged it through the mud.
She'd never had any boyfriend for longer than a week and even then cheated on him while they were together. Sure, lots of unmated shifters chose to play around until they found their mates, but wolves valued loyalty above all else, and that was what they expected from their partners. Needless to say, once the males of the pack caught on to her constant infidelity, they had little interest in anything she had to offer. Even the man whores, who went through girls like toilet paper, were faithful to the one they were with at the time.
Realizing the pack males were a lost cause, Nia targeted the human males at school. She broke up countless couples and even cost a teacher his job two years ago when she accused him of seducing her. Mase had investigated, found she was lying, and cleared Mr. Liberman's name, but his reputation in the community would never be the same. Mr. Liberman ended up moving to the other side of the country, and we'd paid for his moving expenses out of our own money.
Her offenses weren't all centered around her libido. She bilked an elder of the pack out of thousands with a fundraising scam, then stole a couple of credit cards from a human's wallet at Roger's Diner and maxed them out.
Mase ordered her to pay back every cent through community service, which resulted in even more drama. He assigned her to the orphanage because he thought she could handle working with kids. Sadly, she discovered that Tyler James, who was only fifteen at the time, lived there. On the last day of her sentence, she stayed after clocking out and snuck into his room. When he came home from football practice, he found her lying naked on his bed and was so upset and horrified, he ran away. Dad found him sleeping at the Busted Knuckle the next morning and made Ty tell him everything. Furious, Dad personally dragged Nia to the alpha offices for my brothers to issue consequences.
"Although disgusting and immoral, two-timing isn't a crime," Mase growled, "but having sex before you're an adult at eighteen is, according to werewolf law. After that debacle with Mr. Liberman, you were already treading on thin ice. Now you tried to seduce a fifteen-year-old kid!"
"We only gave you this many chances out of respect to your father and his years of service," Cole added. "But this is your last warning. Screw up again and you're gone, no matter who your daddy is."
As for Landry, he couldn't have been more opposite of Nia. Like me and my brothers, he had decided he wanted to wait for his Goddess-giving mate to experience all of his firsts with. He wouldn't have been upset if his mate hadn't waited for him, since that was a personal decision. However, your mate was supposed to be your perfect complement, so of course he hoped she saved some firsts only for him, and Nia Hashimoto had no firsts left to give anybody.
