TWO – Eighteen

I sit at the kitchen counter with an open book of Fairy Lore. It’s my homework, and as Alpha to be, I had been studying and making notes for the past hour. I’m tired. I take over the pack after Alpha training, which starts next year, and as my pack is so close to Fay lands, I need to brush up on my knowledge.

I have one more term of school left, and then the summer holidays, and I’m gone. I’m looking forward to leaving here. I mean, I love my dad, I love my friends, and I love Ashley, but I’m sick of being a punching bag. I’m eighteen in a few days, which means I will get my wolf, and my abilities have been coming in for a while now, but I’m looking forward to having a higher pain threshold and healing quicker than I have been.

“Aviary!” Hailey purrs as she walks into the kitchen. I inwardly roll my eyes, knowing that she wants something.

“Friday night, I’m going out with the girls. Can you watch Ashley?”

“Can’t,’” I reply, tapping my pen on the book.

“And why not?” Hailey scowls, banging her glass of water on the counter, the water sloshing up and down the rim. I avoid her eye contact, knowing that if I look at her, she’ll take it as a challenge and slap my face.

“Because you’re his mum. You go out every Friday night. You do it,” I say, flinching and closing my book.

“Excuse me?” Hailey begins to shout, “who do you think you are? You’re a lazy teenager who grew up with everything she could ever want! You could do this one thing for me!”

“Can’t you hire a babysitter?” I groan. It’s tough to study when you have a needy toddler to look after. Next term is finals, and I need to study and get good marks.

“No. Your father gives me a small allowance, and I refuse to use it for a babysitter when I have you. He won’t let me get a nanny or have an omega care for him. You will do it,” she replies calmly. I’m not too fond of her calm voice. It means she’s up to something.

I begin to shake my head in disbelief. Hailey has this misconception that being the Luna of our pack means she has power over the omegas to treat them as she wants. She doesn’t realise that that is not how our pack works. In fact, from my research, most packs don’t work in a dictatorship like the one she wants. Omegas are the glue that keeps the pack together. With them, we are a pack.

I jump off the stool, taking my book as I go. I can hear and smell dad coming; this is my opportunity to get out of here before anything else happens.

“Let me go!” I growl at Hailey as she grabs my arm, digging her fake nails into my skin to make me stop. Suddenly she does let go, standing up straight and wiping the scowl off her face. I look at her, and that is when my dad walks in.

“Everything okay in here?” Dad asks, looking at me as he walks over to Hailey and kisses her on her cheek.

“Everything is awesome, Brent. Aviary here just agreed to look after Ashley tomorrow night so I can go out,” Hailey replies, smiling at me.

“She did, huh?” dad replies, still looking at me. It makes me wonder how much he’s actually heard.

“Well, unfortunately, she can’t, Hails. Aviary might get her wolf then, so it won’t be safe for her to watch Ashley,” he says, grabbing a bottle of juice from the fridge and pouring himself and Hailey a glass.

“But Brent,” Hailey pouts, “I only get to see my friends once a week, and Aviary usually watches Ashley; I can’t disappoint my friends,” she says as she wraps her arms around dad’s neck, fluttering her eyelids at him.

“No can do. Your friends won’t mind missing you this one week, Hailey. Family comes first.”

Hailey takes her arms off him.

“Okay, I’ll let them know,” she says sadly, taking her eyes off dad and walking away. I watch dad as he walks off, following Hailey into the living room.

>

I’m a late September baby, which I like because it usually means my birthday is in the holidays. Not today, though. Today I have school, and it’s either being here- or being at home, so school it is.

“So, Alpha?” Danni purrs, looking at me as I grab my books from my locker.

“Smelt anything good today?” she asks. I laugh.

“No. No one here is my mate,” I reply. She makes a slight pout with her mouth and then shrugs her shoulders.

“Oh well, at least there’s the Changing Ball next Autumn,” she smiles. I shake my head.

“You’re incorrigible,” I state. Because we are both high-ranking females, whoever our mates will be will have to join our pack, not the other way round. Danni is a couple of months older than me, and she hasn’t found her mate in the pack either, which is sad.

We walk to our last class of the day- history.

“What are your plans tonight?” Danni asks.

“Just a quiet night at home,” I reply. I mean, it’s Thursday; it’s not like it’s a great day for a party anyway, especially with school the following day. Danni had a party for her eighteenth, but since Hailey, my birthdays have become small intimate affairs. I think she started that hoping to take the attention off me and make me look aloof and snobbish, but it didn’t. I was still comfortable in my social standing.

“Happy birthday, Alpha,” Mr Mundoon, our history teacher, greets us as we walk in.

“Thank you, sir,” I reply, smiling back at him. As people walk in, I get the occasional happy birthday greeting from those who haven’t talked to me yet, and I thank them with a smile.

The lesson starts, and we continue to learn about the war of the rogues.

“Aves,” Tanner, one of the boys in my class, whispers to me. I turn to look at him, and he smiles.

“Hey Aves, now that you’re eighteen, are you going to ‘Indifferent’ on Saturday night?” Tanner asks. I look at Danni, whose eyes light up. Since she turned eighteen and didn’t find her mate, she’s been talking about going clubbing and not being able to wait till I turn eighteen so I can go with her.

“She sure is,” Danni replies, giving him a wink. Tanner smiles at me and settles himself back on the chair to continue the lesson.

When the bell goes, Tanner and his friends wish me happy birthday again and tell me they can’t wait to see me at Indifferent. I whack Danni on the arm.

“Ow, what was that for?” she asks, smiling.

“You know what,” I reply. We walk out into the carpark and head for my car.

“You know, Miss. Hailey won’t let me go out,” I reply.

“Fuck her; she’s the worse Luna ever. I don’t know what your dad sees in her,” Danni says. I laugh. Danni doesn’t mince words and says things how she sees it. At first, we all thought Hailey was friendly, but it didn’t take long for her to show Danni and me her true colours.

One good thing about being friends with the Beta’s daughter was that we got to live in the packhouse together, which meant we got to see each other all the time. We lived in a separate wing from Danni and her family, but we managed to meet up in the communal areas as much as possible.

“I’ll see you at dinner tonight?” I ask Danni as we enter the packhouse. She nods. Hailey, the cow, had never wanted to make a big thing about my birthday (although it was a whole other story when it came to Ashley), refusing to let me invite any of my friends over. Little does she know that Danni spoke to her parents, and they have put their foot down and insisted on coming over for dinner.

“Thank you for coming!” Hailey gushes as she opens the door for Gerald and Francoise. They smile and greet her with a kiss on either side of her cheek.

“Hi Gerald, hi Fran,” I smile, going over to both of them and cuddling them.

“Happy birthday, eighteen, huh?” Francoise says as she hugs me.

“Finally,” I say.

“Finally,” she laughs. Gerald greets me with a happy birthday and hugs me, and then Danni walks in.

“I’m here; the party can now start!” she laughs. I smile at her, and we walk over into the dining room.

“Now I would like to say I cooked,” Hailey begins as she makes the first toast of the night, “but I didn’t,” she continues, smiling at everyone at the table who laughs at her joke.

“No, as always, Brent hired some omegas to cater tonight’s events,” she states. Everyone cheers, and she smiles at them, but I know her sentence has a double meaning.

- She’s so pissed – I link Danni, who smiles and nods at me.

“But let’s have a toast to Aviary, happy birthday Aviary,” she says.

“Happy birthday Aviary,” everyone says, clinking their glasses before sipping their drinks. The omegas come in and begin serving dinner.

I’m talking to Danni when I feel pain go through the calves of my legs.

“Are you okay?” Danni asks as I make a face.

“Yeah, fine, just pins and...” I begin, “needles!” I scream as the pain shoots through me once more. I push myself away from the table as another wave of pain shoots up my legs and goes through my body.

“Ave, sweetheart, we need to take you outside,” dad says, coming over to me. I look up at him and nod, and both he and Gerald take me from either side and lift me up and outside the packhouse.

I don’t notice anyone around me; just trying to let the change flow through me. Once I’m outside, dad and Gerald gently lower me to the ground, and I allow my body to shift into my wolf. My bones break and expand to a bigger size, and I hear my spine pop as each vertebra changes and reforms.

My gums begin to bleed as my teeth move and grow, and then I’m on all fours, panting. I look around, and I can see everything clearly, and smell everyone. I hear people clap and cheer, and suddenly my dad is in his wolf, and he nuzzles himself into my neck.

- Run, let’s run! -my wolf links. I try to take a step forward, but I stumble, making my wolf laugh, which is typical because it’s precisely what I would do.

- That’s because I am you, silly. Just your wolf side - she says.

- Come on, let’s run – Danni links me, and I turn to see her brown wolf. I give her a wolfy smile and take off running for the trees.

We run and follow dad through the bush, me running behind him and Gerald and Fran and Danni running behind me. I notice Hailey isn’t with us, and we’re happy, my wolf and I both not liking her.

- Now that I’m here, I can heal you more quickly - my wolf smiles as we run.

- Thank you - I reply, knowing my wolf is happy with my response.

“Wow, Aves, you were amazing!” dad cries after we’ve shifted back into our human skin.

“Really?” I ask.

“Yes! Your first shift took forty minutes! Even for an Alpha, that’s pretty good,” Danni smiles. I look at her and grin. It took Danni almost an hour and a half to shift into her wolf. I did well.