Page 105 of Wicked Savage Wolves
I’d rather keep my single-mom status a secret if I can help it.
I’m not ashamed to be a mom. César is the best thing that ever happened to me. But I don’t want to broadcast it to everyone in the school either. Teenagers are assholes. I would know. And I refuse to give anyone here ammunition against me. Being the lone hydrokinetic is going to be problem enough.
I make it through my first two classes without incident and spend the second half of lunch—after pumping—alone in the library, which is surprisingly pleasant. There’s something about being surrounded by worn books that I take a special sort of comfort in. I’m skimming through a fantasy novel when voices a few stacks away draw my attention. Setting the book back on the shelf, I edge closer, curious to see who’s there. The library had been empty when I arrived. I wonder if maybe there are others hiding out in here who, like me, don’t blend in with the crowd. Not psykers but maybe other outcasts who might want to, I don’t know, make a new friend?
“Why are you doing this to me?” a girl’s voice whines.
I peek my head around the shelves, spotting a brunette with her arms folded across her chest. Her hair is a tangled mess of near black curls thrown into what I’m assuming is supposed to be a bun, but instead is a riot of crazy that she somehow manages to pull off. She’s wearing red basketball shorts, white sneakers, a black Hellbound High t-shirt, and an annoyed expression directed at whoever it is she’s talking to.
“Meiying, I’m just trying to be supportive,” another girl says, though I can’t quite make her out from my position.
“Liar. If you come to my game, the guys will come and you know it.”
A snort. “And that’s a bad thing because…”
“Because they’re assholes.” A pause. “Okay, fine. Rafael isn’t as much of an asshole, but Jordy and Desmond totally are.” My ears catch on the name Desmond. KeAnna has an older brother by that name and I don’t think it’s a very common one. Is that who she’s talking about?
“I don’t see what the big deal is. Zheng goes to your games. Besides, we’re supposed to get involved with things here. Do the whole mingling thing. Isn’t that what the Pack wants? Your Pack?”
“He’s my brother and he does actually want to support me. The wolves want to go, no doubt hoping I mess up so they can make fun of me later.” I pause at the mention of the wolves. Maybe she is talking about KeAnna’s brother, but from the sound of it, she isn’t his biggest fan. Not that I can blame her. I’ve only met Desmond Pierce a handful of times but he can be a real asshole when he wants to be.
“Oh, so for the same reason you went to their football game?”
“That’s not the—”
Having stepped too close to one of the shelves, I accidentally knock over a few books. They make a loud clatter and the voices cut off from what they’d been saying. I silently curse as I rush to pick them up, kicking myself for not paying closer attention to what I was doing.
Footsteps grow closer just as I place the last book back on the shelf. I turn to head in the opposite direction as a voice calls out, “Hey!”
Shoot.
I spin around, hands raised and a grimace on my face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I just, uh…” I’ve got nothing. No valid reasons or excuses come out of my mouth as I stand there like an idiot faced with two girls I don’t know. God, I hope they’re not the catty type. I’m not prepared for an in-your-face confrontation on my first day back.
The dark-haired girl I spotted initially looks annoyed, but the other girl—a petite brunette with distinctly Hispanic features—eyes me curiously without any anger or annoyance in her gaze.
“You’re new here, right? I don’t think we’ve met before,” she says, offering me a kind smile that takes me by surprise.
“Yeah, sort of.” I tuck my hands into my back pockets. “I lived in El Paso growing up, but I went to…uh…the human school before.” I wince. Probably should have left that part out. There’s no love lost between the two schools. “I moved and did an alternative school thing for a while. Now I’m back. And here I am.” I cringe. “Sorry. I’m rambling. I do that when I meet new people. Just ignore me.” Why can I not stop talking? Oh my God, Jo, get it together.
She laughs off my awkwardness. “You didn’t want to go back to the all-human school when you moved back?” she asks conversationally, and my shoulders relax. “Might have been safer for your kind.”
“Oh, uh.” Do I say anything? I eye both girls for a moment before deciding to hell with it. The entire point of coming here is so I don’t have to hide who or what I am anymore. “I’m not entirely human. I mean, I am. But not strictly human, if you know what I mean.”
Her eyes flash and I take an involuntary step back.
“Oh! Well, welcome.” Her smile widens. “I’m Isabella, but everyone just calls me Isa. I transferred in last semester so I’m new, like you. Well, new-ish.”
I perk up at the mention that she’s a transfer student too. “Really? Where from?”
She nods. “Yeah, really. I moved from Star Valley. This is Meiying.” She indicates the girl beside her who offers me a halfhearted wave. “We’re both shifters. Though Meiying isn’t a badass wolf like I am.”
Meiying growls but I can tell there’s no real heat behind the sound. “Keep telling yourself that,” she huffs. “You know you wish you were a Tiger.”
My ears perk up but I tamp down my curiosity.Just be cool, Jo.No one wants to be bombarded with questions over their kind.
I tuck my hands into my pockets and rock back on my heels. “Oh, I lived in Star Valley this past year and a half. Before moving back, I mean. It’s nice.” I am definitely ruining this first impression here. “So uh, are you both seniors? Do you belong to the same Pack?” Please let me have classes with one of these girls. I could seriously use someone who doesn’t look at me like I’m ruining their day. Maybe they’ll know KeAnna too and that will give me some brownie points or something. I wish she went to Hellbound High, but her Clan is way too protective of their females. No way would they let any of them go to a school without Pack protection. Which is weird because Isa said she is a wolf. I wonder how she managed to wind up here?
“Meiying here is a freshy and an official member of the Southwest Pack,” Isa says. “I’m a senior, though, and on friend-of-the-Pack status since I haven’t officially joined.” That makes sense.
