Chapter 1: Our Hero is Introduced

One public school is pretty much like all the rest or, at least, that’s been my experience. Humans always sort themselves into packs. Lots of people like to call them cliques, but ultimately, packs are what they really are. My latest high school wasn’t the exception.

It was obvious the minute I pulled into the senior parking lot on my first day. There were the usual suspects: jocks, drama kids, student council types, tree huggers, stoners, future guests of correctional facilities. Clothes can tell you a lot about what pack someone is in. It makes things easier I guess.

I sat in my car for longer than was necessary that morning before deciding to just get it over with. I wasn’t worried about fitting in; I always fit in. I was athletic, intelligent (even if my grades didn’t always demonstrate that intelligence) and good looking. Those attributes, coupled with having upper middle class parents and a flirtatious manner, usually meant I got away with whatever I wanted.

Unfortunately, that didn’t include getting to take my GED and be done with it all. I was three weeks shy of my eighteenth birthday, this was my third school in four years, and I was completely bored with it all.

Being a Shifter meant I got to experience more of the world than humans did, and it made their interests and dramas seem small and petty by comparison. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew it wasn’t going to involve diagramming sentences or solving for x.

It was my own stupid fault I had to go through the whole ‘new guy’ bullshit again instead of finishing up at the school where I’d spent the last two years. Shoving someone through a window at a party with underage drinking is not the way to win friends, influence people, or earn your parents’ trust.

Nope, instead it buys you a transfer to a different school where an old family friend is a teacher and coach so that he can help keep you on the straight and narrow. In my defense, the shit heel had it coming since he had his pants undone and was undressing a girl who had passed out. Besides, it was a single story house.

I glanced at my watch to see how much time I still had as I moved through the crowded hallways to my first class, English. I’m not super imposing; despite being 6’2”, I’m lanky in build, but humans tend to give predators a wider berth than normal without even realizing it. I got to class with a minute to spare.

I settled in, stifling a yawn as I stretched in my seat. I noticed a few girls checking me out so I gave them a rakish smile and returned the favor. I got the satisfaction of seeing them blush and giggle and decided there might be some perks to my parents’ punishment after all.

School only got interesting the Monday after I turned eighteen. I’d sniffed out a few other Shifters at the school. Some of them I already knew from sports, but others were total strangers. We gave each other the nod of recognition in halls or in class, but that was about it. I found it odd that there were only a few of each kind.

At all my other schools if there was one type of Shifter there were dozens there. That didn’t seem to be the case at Highlands High and for a while I wondered why. Then I realized that most of them were solitary hunters. Bears, wildcats, wolverines, and the like don’t congregate the way wolves do.

I timed my arrival in each class to be just before the bell sounded in an attempt to postpone my boredom and to give myself a challenge. All my teachers were women, save for Coach Hendrix who I had study hall with, and older female humans are the easiest to charm. All you had to do was flirt a little with them and wham!

You had them in the palm of your hand, or at least I did. I was weaving my way to third period when I caught a scent that stopped me dead. I inhaled deeper, determined to find the source. It was electrifying, but I had no idea where it was coming from.

I stormed down the hall, eyes wild, and my fox on the verge of jumping out. I groaned as I suppressed it since I didn’t want to transfer again, and cut down a hall I didn’t normally use. The scent was stronger here and my body vibrated like a tuning fork in response to it. I followed my nose to the end of the hall and took another turn.

What was it? I’m sure I looked as crazed as I felt. I noticed some freshmen scurry out of my way, but I didn’t care. I was on the hunt. One more turn and I found myself outside my third period classroom.

“No fucking way,” I growled and burst into the room.

Standing next to a wiry black guy named James, who I had identified as a lynx Shifter on my first day, was the source of the scent that had almost made me shift in a crowded hallway.

“Papa wanted me to make sure you had a key, in case football practice ran late.” Her voice had a musical quality to it and that combined with her scent struck me mute. Fortunately, it didn’t strike me blind.

She had on a black skirt that was flirting with a school dress code violation as it hugged her perfect ass finishing just inches beneath it with toned legs that went on for miles. Poetry needed to be written about those legs.

Her brown hair, a shade darker than mine, cascaded down to her shoulder blades, smooth and shining like satin. She had on a sleeveless white top and her skin was sun kissed. The bell rang and between that and my classmates muttering at me for blocking their way, I missed his response, but I saw her hand over what was clearly a house key to James.

“Ms. Sinclair, the bell has rung and the last time I checked, you weren’t in my class. Have you moved up a grade, dear?” My teacher’s voice brought me back to reality, but this was short lived.

When the girl turned around I saw that however arousing she was from behind, it was nothing compared to the front. For their sake, I hoped none of her teachers were male because between her face, her rack, and those legs, they would probably forget their subjects. Hell, I had practically forgotten my own name.

“Sorry, Ms. Stephenson. I had to give James a house key. He left his at home.”

Her voice hadn’t lost any of the musical lilt and when she turned she had a smile on her face. But her blue green eyes glinted with something primal. I gripped my backpack to keep from grabbing her, hiking that skirt up and taking her before the entire class. Thankfully my teacher spoke again, helping to break the trance I found myself in.

“You won’t get a hall pass from me,” she replied, her tone smug.

“I don’t need one. Coach Hendrix gave me permission to be out.” The girl left James’s desk and headed for the door, pausing to look me in the eyes as she slipped by.

“Mr. Vos, how nice of you to join us. Take your seat.”

Somehow, my legs moved me to my desk, but I didn’t hear a single thing that Ms. Stephenson said that day. All my thoughts were consumed with her. I tried to fit what little I knew of her with what I knew of James, which was equally lacking. Were they step-brother and sister? Sucks to be him if that was the case. I could tell she wasn’t a Shifter, but humans had never smelled like that.

When the bell rang , I almost vaulted over the seats in front of me in an effort to find her. I was dying to ask James about her, but he’d made it clear that he wasn’t too fond of me. Besides, what could I say?

‘Who is she?’

‘What’s she to you?’

‘Why does she smell like that?’

No way.

Girls might be able to ask each other those types of questions, but you couldn’t do that with another dude, especially if that dude might be territorial. She’d mentioned Coach Hendrix and while I might be able to ask him during study hall, I wasn’t looking for fatherly lectures. I just wanted answers; starting with her first name.

It was another four days before I saw her again, but that wasn’t for a lack of effort on my part. I’m sure a bunch of my classmates thought I had a drug problem from the amount of sniffing I did, but I didn’t care. I was starting to believe that she’d been a hallucination and that notion made me irrationally angry.

The girls I was sitting with at lunch were grating on my nerves and so I left the cafeteria by a different door than I normally used, giving them an excuse of having to check in with Coach Hendrix. I rounded a corner and there she was; standing next to an open locker and talking with Matt Hendrix, Coach Hendrix’s son.

Dressed in a freaking cheerleading uniform. Damn it all to hell. As if my masturbatory fantasies needed any more fuel. She was laughing at something Matt had said as I made my way down the hall towards them.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said as she slammed the door to her locker and twirled the knob. “How can he be gay and sleeping with me? Wouldn’t that make him bisexual?”

“I’m just letting you know what people are saying.” Matt leaned against the lockers with his arms crossed. “I thought it was funny that they believed both of those theories.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “People are idiots,” she said as she bent over to pick her backpack, giving me a peek at her knickers. That flash of blue froze me in my tracks and I tried to get my breathing under control.

Shouldering her bag she said “Devon and I are just friends. I wish people could get lives of their own instead of making up shit about mine. Are you coming to the game tonight?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Matt replied with a wide smile.

She patted Matt on the arm and walked away while I was still trying to get my brain working again. Matt watched her go, and I can only imagine how it would have looked to someone watching us stand there like statues, lust in our eyes. He broke free of the daze she’d left us in first and turned around. He waved when he saw me and motioned me over.

“Who was that?” I demanded as soon as I was in range for a conversation at lower than normal volume.

“Huh? Oh you mean her?” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at her retreating form.

I scowled at him. “No, genius, that other wet dream you were talking to.”

Matt laughed. “That, my friend, is Ellery Sinclair.”

Ellery. I finally had a first name.

“What’s the deal with her and James Cooper?” I asked, crossing my arms. Please say nothing, I thought. If she was dating him I thought I would lose it.

“Nothing. His parents had to go overseas for work or something so he’s living with the Sinclairs to finish his senior year. Elly is the youngest of six kids so her mom has a bad case of empty nest syndrome.”

“Six kids huh? Are all of them as hot as her?”

Matt looked at me with something close to pity. “All the rest are guys.”

“Well shit.” Five older brothers just ratcheted up the challenge. I looked around to make sure we were alone. “Is she cool?”

“Sort of? I mean, she knows about all of it. My parents are good friends with hers…” he trailed off.

I digested that information for a hot minute before asking, “Is she seeing anyone?”

Matt winced and then sighed. “Xander, I get it that you might feel like there isn’t a female alive you can’t seduce, but if you decide to pursue Ellery, you need to be extremely careful.” He punctuated the ‘extremely careful’ by poking me in the chest.

I nodded in understanding. “Five older brothers; got it.”

Matt shook his head. “No, that’s not it. She’s special.”

“I can tell.”

He snorted. “You’re already hooked, aren’t you?”

That earned another scowl from me. “Like you didn’t watch her walk away with your mouth open.”

Matt shook his head again and his sandy brown hair danced around his face. “Looking’s one thing, trying to touch her, the way you want to touch her, is another. I value my life.”