"Wait, what did he call you?" Andrea asked. "Um.. Luce Mia," I said hesitantly tripping over the pronunciation. I could hear exactly how he said it but I couldn't get my mouth to shape the words right. "My light" Andrea said. "What?" I asked confused. "Luce Mia means My Light in Italian," Andrea explained. Raiza stood her face paled at Andrea's explanation. "Damn it!" She swore under her breath. "What is it?" Andrea demanded. Raiza shook her head. "I can't explain, not yet." Raiza told her. She glanced down at her watch. "It is time for you both to get to class," Raiza started walking towards the door her hand wrapped around the door knob before she turned back around to face us. "Both of you are under strict orders not to tell another soul about this. Do you understand?" Raiza asked the power of an Alpha laced in her voice and gaze. "As you command," I answered immediately. Raiza nodded in acknowledgement to me before turning the full force of her gaze on Andrea. "I understand," Andrea replied. With that Raiza yanked open my door and swept out of my room. "Protect her," Raiza's voice sounded through my head.
"Well," Andrea said. She was standing in the doorway waiting for me to follow. "Uh..right," I muttered and followed her out of my room. It hadn't even been thirty minutes since she appeared in my doorway this morning treating me like I was an actual person and now she was back to reluctantly admitting my existence. She is so damn aggravating.
Downstairs in the cafeteria it was busier than normal the pups had already left for the bus and now everyone else was in the cafeteria eating breakfast...or rather waiting on Andrea so that they could eat breakfast. Andrea grabbed a plate of pancakes and claimed a spot next to Sadie. I glanced at the breakfast options before grabbing a side of bacon. I might have gone through the change and should be starved but I think if I ate much of anything it would just end up coming back up. After I grabbed my food I turned and started heading for Skye and Ryan's table. Halfway across the cafeteria Andrea's voice rang out. "Kye!" I turned and looked at where she sat at the front of the cafeteria. I raised my eyebrow in reply. "Come here." She ordered. If I had been anywhere else I would have flipped her off and kept walking she might have been the Sigma but she didn't have the absolute power of an alpha yet and to top it off she ordered me but didn't put the power of command behind it. I could have easily walked away...if it hadn't been for the group of gawking wolves watching the exchange like a Friday night tv drama. I glanced at Skye and Ryan before I turned and made my way to the front of the room and before Andrea. Sadie was seated on her left, the spot on her right was empty. "Breakfast and lunch are formal, you sit in the spot your position in the pack gives you," she told me. With a gesture she nodded to the empty spot on her right. I gritted my teeth to keep from cussing and slid my tray onto the table. I was aware of everyone watching as I walked around the table and sat down next to Andrea. As soon as I sat down everyone lost interest and went back to their own breakfast. "Good morning cousin," Sadie said around Andrea. "Morning," I muttered back. I picked up a piece of bacon and took an experimental bite, gagging I tossed it back onto the plate and shoved the tray away from me. "You should eat" Sadie told me. "I don't really feel like it at the moment." I said. I had felt fine when I woke up this morning but now I was in a piss poor mood and really wanted to just go back to bed and pretend like today never happened, and it wasn't even 10:00 yet. "Kye," Aspen said. She stalked over and took the empty spot on my right. After the scene with her in the Rec room I had done a decent job of avoiding her but it looked like that was no longer an option. "Aspen, how are you?" I asked "I've been better," she said as she sat down. I like Ember and Carver and even their little brother, Sage, but for whatever reason I couldn't stand their older sister.
Breakfast passed in silence, at least for me, Andrea ignored me for the most part as did Aspen. Sadie was too far away to really talk and spent the majority of the time talking with Andrea anyway. As soon as I was able to leave I jumped up from my seat and nearly ran from the room. I was half way across the clearing when I remembered Skye an Ryan and turned around. "You look like you had a great breakfast!" Ryan called as he strode over to me. He laughed at my answering glare. "Ryan! Leave her alone!" Skye scolded as she cam up behind him. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and we started walking once more towards the school building on the far side of the clearing.
I didn't say anything as I walked across the clearing with Skye and Ryan, I wasn't sure what to say. We entered the building, it looked like the hallway for some bland office building. Skye lead me towards an empty room on the right halfway down the hall. Surprisingly it looked just like a normal class room with desks and a black board. There were only 7 desks in the room though and in the back was a couple of couches in a circle, a coffee table in the center. I claimed a seat in the back, second row of desks, by the window. I stared out the window as the others began to file through the door. The last person to enter the room was a guy in his thirties, dark circles surrounded his eyes and he looked like he just crawled out of bed.
"Here," he grabbed a text book off his desk and tossed it to me. I caught it in the air before it flew through the window. "Every night do a single page of homework, I don't care what it is so long as you do it. As the year progresses it should get harder." He told me. I glanced down at the book he tossed at me, it was a math text book. In the front was algebra and further back it had Calculus. 'This seemed like a great way to learn math.' I thought sarcastically. I looked around everyone was pulling out their own books and working on some lesson or another. The teacher? sat at his desk looking something up on his laptop. Reluctantly I flipped open the text book and started looking for something to work on.
The rest of the day passed pretty much the same. For history, science, and English the same wolf tossed a book at me. Everything was basically independent study. I was getting sick of everything when the teacher stood up from his desk. "Lunch," he said before walking out of the room. Everyone trickled out of the room separated into different groups. I hung back and let everyone go ahead of me Skye noticed and stuck around with Ryan, like always, at her side. "What's up?" Skye asked. I had remembered what Andrea told me this morning about lunch being like breakfast and I had no desire to be stuck in the cafeteria again. "Feel like eating lunch at your mom's?" I asked hopefully. "Scared?" Ryan asked. "You want to sit between Andrea and Aspen?" I asked him. His face quickly paled as he thought about it. "That's what I thought," I turned back to Skye with puppy dog eyes. "Please." I begged. She sighed and shook her head before pushing my face away. "Fine," Skye said.
The walk through the forest was the same as before as was the little cottage. The door opened and I expected Aunt Laura to come out but instead a tale pale blonde man stepped out of the house. "Daddy!" Skye shrieked and launched herself into his arms. "Hey there pumpkin, don't break your old man's back," he told her as he crushed her in a hug. He released her and took in Ryan and I as we stood back and let them have their reunion. I recalled from one of my memories that Uncle Levi was a border guard and was gone for weeks at a time. "Ryan," Uncle Levi said with a nod before turning his gaze on me. A smile broke out over his face and he enveloped me in a hug, I felt like I was being hugged by Mitch and a feeling of homesickness took over. I hadn't spoken to my dad or anyone else in his unit in a good month, I have exchanged a few texts and emails but I really wanted to hear their voices.
"Kylie, it's been a while," Uncle Levi said as he released me. "Levi leave the kids alone I'm sure their starving and they don't have all day!" Aunt Laura called from the window. Uncle Levi ushered us inside where Aunt Laura was placing the last plate, with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, on the table. In the center of the table was a giant bowl of chips. "Thanks mom," Skye said as she sat down. "Rank uuhhh," Ryan said around his sandwich.
Lunch passed quickly, the conversation focused around Uncle Levi catching up with everyone and only a few questions were tossed in my direction. It was all together more pleasurable than eating in the cafeteria would have been. I even ended up having a second sandwich to make up for missing breakfast. All to soon it was time to go back to class. We said goodbye and made our way back through the forest. I expected to go back into the small classroom and do a good deal of nothing for the rest of the time but when we got back Skye lead the way up to the second floor.
At the end of the staircase it wasn't another dingy hallway, like I was expecting. The stairs ended and the entire floor was open up in front of us. For the most part it was decked out like a gym and in the back right corner there was even a boxing ring. The floor was solid hardwood, that smelt like oak. The four other adolescent wolves were already here waiting, and so where two other wolves that I had seen around before. They were twins, their dark brown hair pulled back from their sharp features and burning red eyes.
"There you are! We were looking for you at lunch side could introduce ourselves to Kye!" The twin on the right yelled across the room at Skye. Her twin knocked her upside the head. "Don't yell," she said. "Um?" I said turning towards Skye. "This is Corrigan and Maren Hamilton." Skye announced I looked at the twins, I couldn't see a single thing that told them apart they were like perfect carbon copies of each other. How the hell could anyone tell them apart?
My nose answered my question for me I was breathing in deeply and noticed the difference in their individual scents. The one who had spoken to me first had a floral scent while her twin's was the brutal burning scent of juniper. "She figured it out pretty fast," the twin with the juniper scent said. "Oh, leave her alone Corrigan and let's start class already," the other twin, Maren, said. Skye pulled me with her towards the middle of the room where everyone else was standing. "Alright, Kye here is the basic run down of the class," Maren said. "The first half of your day is more or less a waste, humans spend time on that garbage but as a wolf, it doesn't matter. Unless of course for whatever reason you are interested in that junk. The second half of your day you get to spend with us. Learning what really matters." Corrigan said. "We teach you how to gain control of you instincts. Of your wolf soul." Maren explained. "After your first shift you take in an overwhelming amount of data: smells, sounds, tastes, noises, sights. Blah blah blah. Anyway you can't process it all at first so you unconsciously block it out," Corrigan said.
My gaze kept shifting between the twins as they spoke. It had to be rehearsed because I have never seen twins finish each other's sentences so smoothly before. "You need to learn how to handle all that information and put it to use. That is what we are here for so while you are getting the hang of it feel free to come to us at anytime with anything." Maren said. "Whether or not it actually pertains to class because if you are stressing over that super cute guy, it could bring out your wolf to a point you couldn't control," Corrigan finished.
I coughed when Corrigan mentioned a super cute guy and I recalled the kiss with Gwynn. Definitely not a guy. "So," Maren said breaking up my thoughts. "Let's get started." Maren tugged off her shirt. I blanched. I glanced around everyone was following suit and pulling off their shirts...even Ryan. My gaze passed right over Andrea and I focused on Corrigan, who was the only person other than me still fully dressed. "Um...what?" I asked. "You have only shifted form because of a compulsion as the two halves of your soul came together. The first thing any werewolf should learn is how to shift on command. Hence the stripping if you leave your clothes on they won't survive the shift and then after you shift back you're stuck butt naked." She tugged at my shirt. Sighing I pulled my shirt up over my head and slid off my jeans. Some of the others had completely stripped while other stood there in their underwear. "You will probably want to leave the underwear on. It can sometimes take a while to change where as after words you can just slip the clothes on without worrying about it to much." Corrigan explained. "The older a wolf the more comfortable they are being nude. Pups spend much of their time around humans and don't have to worry about the change so after their first change they are normally more....modest," Maren said. Maren moved to the center of the loose circle we had formed. Her skin shinning copper in the fluorescent lighting. "So basically all you need to learn how to do is this," she said. With that she seemed to hunch forward her skin moved and rippled like water. I couldn't follow everything that happened and in the next second a large brown wolf stood in front of me. Her ears where tipped with white, her tongue lolled outside of her mouth. A grin plastered on her face. After she had shifted the others started stepping up and tried. No one seemed to manage it as fast as Maren had and most where still trying to get their skin to ripple. I glanced at Corrigan who was watching the seem with a look of utter indifference. "Any tips?" I asked her. A smile popped up on her face. "Don't think," she told me. That seemed to be all the help she was willing to give.
How would not thinking help, can't I just picture being a wolf? How else would this work? I glanced around at the others so far only a few had managed the change! All except for Andrea and Ryan. Both of whom seemed to be concentrating really hard on forcing about the shift. If Corrigan was telling the truth forcing about the change wasn't the way to go about it. I was use to my human form, it was the only one I had for 17 years however I wasn't human I was a werewolf my wolf form was also completely natural as well, even if I wasn't use to it. Instead of trying to force my change into a wolf I thought instead about me being human what made me human and let it fall away.
The shift came over me easily, it was like a swelling of energy, like how when you fill a glass with to much water and it dumps over the side. One second I was standing in the room the next my front paws were slapping against the wood floor. I looked around the group the others were staring at me with surprise, except for one, Andrea was glaring at me with contempt, just like she had the first time I had seen her. "Not bad, for a new pup," Corrigan said. "The next lesson however will be harder," she told me. I glanced at her then to Maren confused. "You need to learn how to communicate," Maren's voice said in my head. I looked at Maren confused, how could she do that? Better yet how could I?
A shadow flashed behind Maren and my gaze shifted to the window that took up the wall behind her. A bird was resting on the edge of the window looking in. 'Hunt' I thought. I lost my train of thought and started towards the window. After the first couple of steps I broke out into a run. I forgot the fact that I was on the second story, that a sheet of glass separated me and the bird. All I thought about was running in the forest chasing after the bird. The feel of the forest beneath my paws, the scents of the forest. Before I reach the window and the bird something knocked into me and sent me flying, away from the window. When I got up a brown wolf with white tipped ears stood in front of me blocking the way. A growl ripped out of my throat as I stood. The wolf's ears flickered back but she held her ground, and that more than anything else pissed me off. "Move," I commanded. I could feel the power of my command and felt it as it traveled through the bond and to the brown wolf before me. The wolf took a few steps back but stayed in front of me. I took a step towards her my teeth gnashing together. This wolf was dominate but not as dominate as me and had no right to try and challenge me. The command still rippled between us as I took another step towards her. A whimper escaped her throat and her head bowed but she still didn't move. I was pissed, I had forgotten about everything else all I wanted was for this wolf to submit or be too hurt to offer me another challenge. My muscles tensed and I was about to leap at her when suddenly a picture flooded through my mind. It was of a bubbly looking human with dark brown hair tied back in a pony tail. Her strange colored eyes were mirrored in the brown wolf. 'Remember'a soft human voice said. My voice said. The world snapped back into focus and I was no longer a simple wolf but a werewolf, both wolf and human. I stepped away from Maren and let my shift swell up around me, I fell back and landed on the ground in my human form. "See now, why we keep such a short leash on young wolves?" Corrigan asked as she walked over to me. I looked at Maren who had changed back into human form, an apology formed on my lips but before I could get a word out I seemed to choke on them. The wolf part of me refused to apologize, I had nothing to be sorry for. Maren should apologize for not obeying me, the other half of myself thought. "Kye," Maren called. I looked away from Corrigan to see Maren walking towards us. "You did well! You communicated well and you also reined in you instincts," she said. "What!?"I asked. ' I did well? I almost ripped your throat out!' I thought. "You communicated clearly. When you told me to move. Think you can do it again?" She asked.