Sneaking Out

‘November 24th, 2017’

‘Lumen’

Anya

will u cover for me

Anya

say i just had to go for a walk or something

Reyna

At 9 on a Thursday?

Reyna

She’ll never believe that Anya

Anya

then say i had to go get tampons

Reyna

No

Reyna

Stop texting me

Anya

i have to go to the party!!!

Anya

or else my social life is OVER

Reyna

You dont have a social life

Anya

coming from U?!?!

Reyna

Stop. texting. Me.

Anya

ok sry

Anya

plz

Anya

look its rly important 2 me ok bc its not just high school kids thatll be there

Anya

its at this seniors house and shes cousins w zack

Anya

u know zack the mw beta

Anya

its a vip party!!!

Reyna

Who else will be there

Anya

idk a lot of ppl

Reyna

Millennium wolves?

Anya

prob

Anya

y?

Anya

OMG

Anya

U LIKE THE 1 U WERE TALKING TO AT THE DINNER

Anya

THE DELTA

Anya

I KNEW IT

Reyna

Shut up

Reyna

I dont

Anya

U SO DO!!!!

Anya

hell be there for sure

Reyna

I dont care Im not going

Reyna

Stop texting me

Eve

I was just about to crawl into bed when I heard footsteps leaving a bedroom and walking down the stairs. They were too light to belong to Martin. I shrugged it off. Maybe one of the girls was hungry.

But then I heard the sound of the front door opening. And closing.

~Jesus.~ This would require me to do something. And I really wasn’t in the mood to do anything.

Before I could finish sliding my jeans back on, I heard a different set of footsteps emerge from a bedroom and run down the stairs. The front door opened again then closed.

I slipped my boots on and left my room, my annoyance level growing by the second.

I pulled the front door open and saw the two teenagers paused down the block, having some sort of argument.

I smirked. They couldn’t even agree on sneaking-out protocol.

I headed over to them, but they didn’t see me coming.

“Admit it. You do like him. That’s the only reason you’re here.”

“I don’t like him, Anya. Drop it.”

“Then why did you come? You never go to parties.”

“I just needed to get out of the house, okay? Eve gives me the creeps.”

“Do I?” I asked, and they both jumped.

“Why are you, like, stalking us?!” Anya demanded, hands on her hips.

“Do you understand that a high school party means no supervision, tons of teenagers, and free-flowing alcohol and drugs?” I asked. And then hated myself for asking it.

I had nothing against parties or kids having a good time. I wasn’t some crazy parent.

“Yeah, we know.” Anya smirked at me. Like I was some crazy parent.

“Okay, Anya. So what happens if you go to the party, a cute boy offers you a drink, and you get drunk? And the cute boy, he knows about you. He knows who your mom was. He decides to get rid of you, so there’s one less Morgan guarding the fortune.”

Anya’s eyes went wide.

I turned to Reyna. “And you, I don’t think a boy could fool you. But I don’t think you’re strong enough to handle yourself. You’re in a strange house, walking around, watching the dumb kids around you. A hand pulls you into a room. It’s three men, three rogue wolves, and they scented you the moment you walked into the house.”

Reyna crossed her arms.

“You think you can scare us out of living normal lives? We’re teenagers. You can’t keep us locked up.”

“Reyna, maybe we should go back,” Anya said, her lip trembling.

“~No~. I won’t have some random woman come into my life and order me around!

I don’t care that we’re in danger. So what? We’re always in danger! We could get run over by a car any day! That’s part of being alive.”

“You really want to go to this party,” I surmised, looking at the oldest Morgan girl.

Her arms might’ve been crossed, but she didn’t look nearly as goth as usual. She had less eyeliner around her eyes, and she was wearing a white tank top under her jacket, not a black one.

“I don’t care about the party. It’s the principle.”

Her eyes were fiery, and her jaw was set.

This was definitely about the party.

My curiosity was getting the best of me. I had to know why she was so determined to go. “Fine,” I told them. “You can go. But I’m coming with you.”

Reyna

I ran my hand through my hair when we got to the front door of the house.

It was the party of some girl Anya had met at school. I guess she was a senior.

I’d never gone to any parties when we were at our old school, not that I was invited to many.

But Anya said a bunch of Millennium Wolves would be here. And I was… curious.

It wasn’t that I was obsessed with them like the other teens.

I didn’t care about celebrities or anything. But the one I’d talked to at the dinner… Jed… he was cool. Cooler than most guys my age, anyway.

“Are you gonna knock or just stand there?” Anya snapped.

I rolled my eyes at her and knocked on the door. A few seconds later it opened, and all I could see was people.

Everywhere I looked there were throngs of teenagers. And every single one of them held a red plastic cup.

It looked exactly how I’d imagined it’d look. And I hated it.

“Okay, maybe you were right. Maybe we shouldn’t be here,” I said to Eve, trying to push past her. But she held up her hand, stopping me.

“Too late. Anya’s already inside.” She shrugged.

I looked beside me, where Anya had been standing five seconds ago, but it was empty. “Can’t have you walking home alone this late.”

I looked back inside the party. It still looked terrible.

“Don’t worry,” I heard Eve say from behind me. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

As soon as we shut the door, the blasting music drowned out everything, my hesitation, my thoughts.

I watched as Eve snaked her way through the crowd, heading to the kitchen. I followed her, and I could see every guy she passed checking her out.

She was beautiful in a doesn’t-give-one-fuck kind of way.

Like, I don’t think I’d ever seen her put makeup on or do anything to her hair. And she was always wearing battered black jeans and old combat boots, like she was some angry hipster or something.

But what did I know? I was just the emo girl.

As soon as we walked into the kitchen, I felt a hand grab my elbow. I turned, and there he was. Jed. Damn, he was cute.

“Hey, you came.” He smiled at me.

“Yeah, my sister told me about it. What else was I doing on a Thursday?”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Can I get you a drink?”

Eve’s words rang in my ears, that every person was a potential threat, that drinks could lead to us being killed.

But Jed was a Millennium Wolf. His literal job was to protect people. To make sure everything was okay.

And besides, the way he was smiling at me, the way his light green eyes were sparkling... I didn’t think I could’ve said no if I’d wanted to.

Eve

As soon as I saw that shaggy-haired boy approach Reyna, it all made sense.

Of course that was why she wanted to come to the party. She was a teenager, and teenagers were always motivated by their crushes.

I knew the boy was a Millennium Wolf.

I remembered the first time I’d seen him with Raphael. Maybe a decade ago.

He looked to be around twenty, wearing the same clothes as the other kids at the party were wearing. But I knew better.

Those of us with great powers were always older than we looked.

I left the two lovebirds alone to awkwardly flirt, thinking I’d make my way around the house, try and spot any real threats to the girls.

At first glance, it just looked like a bunch of kids drunk off cheap liquor. But in my 499 years of life, I’d learned that you could never be too careful.

I was pushing open the fourth door when I heard someone say, “Eve?” behind me.

I turned, and there was Zachary. Raphael’s Beta.

“Hi, Zachary. This is your cousin’s party, right? I didn’t know your family was part of the West Coast Pack.”

“Well, we don’t know each other that well, do we?” he responded, his eyes narrowing even though that smile was still plastered across his face.

“I guess not.”

“Can you come with me for a sec?” He nodded toward a room down the hall, a room I hadn’t checked out yet.

Something was off here, but again, my curiosity overruled my hesitation.

I shrugged and nodded, following him. He opened the door, and we walked inside.

The room was dark, but I didn’t need to see to know that we weren’t alone. “Who else is here?” I demanded.

Someone flicked the light switch. I looked around, seeing two other Millennium Wolves.

Shade and Omar, the Gamma and the PR guy. If this was supposed to intimidate me, it was an adorable effort.

“What are you doing?” I sighed, directing the question at Zachary.

“We just wanna get to know you a little bit,” he responded.

“What are you?” Shade asked.

What was I? What did that even mean?

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t smell like anything we’ve come across before. You’re not a wolf, you’re not human, you’re not a vampire or a vampyre. So what are you?” Zachary demanded.

“Why is that any of your business?” I responded, my hand reaching for the door. But Omar grabbed my wrist before I could reach it.

“We’re not done talking,” he said.

“I think we are,” I responded, yanking my hand away.

“What’s between you and Raffe?” Zachary asked.

“What?” I snapped. Now I was more than annoyed.

“We see how he acts whenever you’re in the room. He’s not his normal self. He’s erratic, he disappears. What do you have on him?” Shade asked.

“I don’t ~have~ anything on him.”

“Something’s up. And we deserve to know,” Zachary commanded. “We’re his team.”

“You’re his ~entourage~,” I clarified.

Zachary lunged at me, pushing me up against the wall. I could feel his Beta strength through his hands, and if I were anyone else, I’d probably have been scared shitless.

But I was me.

“Get your grimy hands off of me. Now,” I demanded.

“I’ll let go when you ~answer my questions~,” he replied through clenched teeth.