Natalia’s P. O. V

We studied till the sun fled the sky, Hailey noting everything she thought was important and me soaking up the information like a sponge. Comfortable silence reigned, only broken when there was a term Hailey couldn’t find the meaning of and had to ask, or when one of us had to use the bathroom. I’d finished my book a little before dusk and was currently writing up a summary of what I’d read, completely immersed in my task till her stomach growled.

“Sorry, I guess my appetite’s caught up to me.” She said, apologetic, stretching in her seat then caught sight of the time on her phone screen, “Whoa, it’s late! How did the time pass so quickly?”

I stood, stretching out the stiffness from my joints, “I guess we should find something to eat.”

She glanced at her book, only a little more than a quarter of it left unread, then her stomach growled once more. We laughed.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

Together, we made our way to the kitchen without turning on any lights since, as werewolves, we could see well. In the kitchen we flipped on the light and the one for the storage room.

“I made some granola bars yesterday. You can have some of those while I look for what we can whip up. They’re in the fridge.”

“Alright, thanks.” She nodded and migrated, in search of them.

I went into the storage room and scanned the ingredients present. It was a good thing I’d gone grocery shopping that time, “There’s some leftover spaghetti from this afternoon but we can have a sausage, tomato and mozzarella melt done under fifteen minutes if we hurry.”

She swallowed what she was chewing as she came into the room, handing me a freshly microwaved bar, “I can already taste the goodness from its name. Tell me what to do so I can help.”

“Alright, there’s some ciabatta and mozzarella in the fridge and there’s leftover pasta sauce in the freezer compartment. I can make the sauce while you top the ciabattas and put them in the oven.”

As I grabbed the ingredients, she stared quizzically, “Do we really need that much? We’re werewolves so I know we eat a lot but I don’t think we can finish all that tonight.”

I laughed, “I know, but I like to make extra so that there are leftovers if I ever feel too lazy to cook.” Shooting her a look, I added, “It comes in handy for surprise visits.”

Her cheeks pinked and she let out a laugh laced with realisation, “Now I get why you were in such a hurry to get rid of us that day. You didn’t want us to see your hand heal itself. I thought you’d stopped liking us cause of what Keily did.” She paused, “But what was that thing you did with your voice?”

“That was my wolf talking with me.”

“It sounded scary but so cool in hindsight. How did you do it?”

We carried the ingredients to the kitchen countertop, “I don’t really know. That voice thing and half shifts are things usually reserved for Alphas and some strong Betas and Lunas.”

She nodded, “I read about that in the book. But since we’re technically from an Alpha bloodline, it makes sense, right?”

“It would if I’d shifted, but I haven’t so half shifts and the voice thing should be impossible for me.”

“It’s obviously not. Maybe your genes from Clark mutated with the ones from your mom. You said you didn’t know what she was. Maybe you’re the chosen one. Or we’re in an anime series and you’re the MC. On another note, we need to stop calling it ‘the voice thing’. How about we name it… Alpha voice?”

“Alpha voice is different. It doesn’t involve the wolf’s vocals and is used to command and forces obedience in every werewolf in a pack who isn’t an Alpha.”

“That is also cool, like compulsion. How about dual vocals?”

“Dual vocals it is. Now, let’s get food into our stomachs before we think any further.”

Her stomach growled again and she grinned, “Excellent idea.”

Over the next half hour, we sped around the kitchen, preparing our meal at a lightning fast pace. More than once, Hailey lightly splattered the pasta sauce on my face and I’d return the gesture. We ended up spending about fifteen minutes chasing each other around the kitchen, pasta sauce spotted lightly on our faces that were split with playful grins. We ran with all we had. I could finally move without restrictions around her. I didn’t have to pretend; didn’t have to lie.

As I caught her, for the eighteenth time since placing the mozzarella melt in the oven, she tripped and pulled me down as she fell. On the ground, in a heap of limbs, hair and tomato-y faces, we broke into laughter.

Hailey finally exhaled, the pinkness of happiness in her cheeks as we untangled ourselves, “I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with anyone in my family.”

I smiled, “You and me both.”

I got to my feet and held a hand out to her. She took it and got to her feet, panting softly.

“You sure you haven’t shifted yet?” She asked

I shook my head, “I’m sure I haven’t. Why do you ask?”

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“You’re so fast!”

I shrugged, “I don’t think so. Maybe you’ve been out of practice.”

“Maybe but you caught me every time and I couldn’t catch you even once. I might not be an experienced werewolf, but I’m pretty sure no werewolf should be this fast before shifting.”

“I never really paid attention to the other wolves at the pack when they ran so I didn’t have anything to compare myself with.”

I was the Omega back then. Omegas were notably weak. I was weak. That’s why they picked on me. That’s why Clark hated me. That’s why I needed allies.

Hailey put the mittens on and opened the oven, retrieving our hard work in the form of a hot, delicious smelling, mouth-watering batch of goodness. As she set the tray on the cooling rack, she turned to me, face cast in unsteady conviction.

“I don’t know who lied to you but I know you’re faster than most werewolves. I might not know much, but I know this in my gut and Opelene thinks so too.”

‘Candy? What do you think?’ She’d been silent since morning. I wanted to hear her.

‘I think I don’t know. I was hidden from your consciousness till the night of your rejection and we haven’t been around any werewolves since our encounter with Kirstin. There’s nothing to compare to other than Hailey and she’s been living like a human her whole life.’

‘I know… Wait, what do you mean by you were hidden?’

She didn’t answer.

‘Candy? Candy?!’

As I called for her, I felt her slink back into a corner of our shared mind space, almost out of reach, ignoring me.

“Hey? Ari?” Hailey waving her hand in my face snapped me back to the moment. She stared quizzically at me, a plate of our joint effort in her other hand.

She handed me the plate and picked another one from the counter, “You okay? You were spacing out for a while. Are you that hungry?”

“I’m fine, just thinking about what you said but” I smiled, “it might also be hunger too.”

Lie.

“C’mon, let’s go dine in your extravagant dining room and pretend we’re Arabian queens.”

I laughed as she dragged me along, “Or Greek goddesses.”

“Oh, nice.”

So we sat and ate, talking between bites.

“Where will you station your pack?” She finally asked, on her last piece after having eleven.

I shrugged then swallowed, “I don’t know. It can’t be here, it’s a bad idea to have werewolves live in a city. But it can’t be too far away that I won’t be able to go to and from Killdrain easily.”

“Why not have a temporary base? I doubt it’d be a good idea to station werewolves within hearing distance of a city, even if it’s on the outskirts. The pack doesn’t have to start out big, you can keep it small for the four years of college before relocating and making it larger. Then we’ll climb to the top…”

“… And accomplish our goal.” We shared a look. The expression in her eyes mirrored mine.

After a content silence, she suddenly smirked and, I knew, that I’d end up with a hard decision once she was done.

“So, what are you gonna do about your love square problem.”

“Not again.” I sighed and stuffed food in my mouth to avoid answering.

She leaned forward, “Oh, c’mon. You can’t tell me you’re not even a little curious about the outcome.”

I gave her a side eye, still chewing.

She continued, unfazed, in a voice I assumed was supposed to sound dreamy, “The handsome and noble Geranomy brothers, both vying for your affection. In one corner, we have Gregory, already the object of obsession of a notably beautiful girl.”

She placed the back of her hand on her forehead, exhaling breathily as she fanned herself with her other hand, “But, alas, he ignores the obsessed girl’s advances and, instead, does his best to woo you with his callous charm and charisma. He even allows himself to get hurt as he helps you in the kitchen. Oh, how noble!”

She made a large, sweeping motion and I had to duck to avoid getting smacked in the head, “On the other hand, we have Trevor. A dashing cutie who’s a little on the shy side. A plus, he has no crazed girl on his tail and was the first one to make your acquaintance in this big, bad city. He even brought you flowers and everything. So sweet!”

She looked at me from the corner of her eye and took her hands away from where they were clutched at her chest, holding them at her sides like balance scales.

“Who will you choose? Will it be Trevor, the sweet shy guy? Or will it be Gregory, the noble mischief maker? Will the obsessed girl get her way in the end? Who will be left heartbroken and which ship will become a canon?” She fired off the questions in an ominous voice.

I swallowed, “I choose neither, Keily can be with Greg if they work their drama out, what is a ship and what is a canon?”

“A ship is like when someone wants two people to be together. It gets a ship name, which is just the potential couple’s names combined. A cannon is when the ship becomes official. And what if one of them is your true love?”

“Even if they are, I don’t want to date them so I won’t. You read too many romance novels.”

She nodded, “You’re right. If you’re really not interested, I guess there’s no need to force it. It’s unrequited.”

“Exactly.”

As I finished the last of my meal, she picked her phone out of her pocket and powered it on. Immediately, the thing started pinging with missed calls and unread messages. As she read over them, her eyes widened. Then, her phone rang.

“Hey, Gre-”

She was interrupted by a panic stricken Greg, “Hailey! Where are you?! What happened?!”

“Greg what-”

“Tell me where you are?! Where did she take you?!”

“Greg, back up. What are you talking about?”

“We’ve been driving around the city for hours, looking for you! Tell us where you are.”

“Why? I’m not lost.”

“Keily said that you swung by Ari’s place in the morning and she hasn’t heard from you since. When she went to check, she said the house was empty and there was a ransom note on the front door from that sadist. Your phone’s been off. Where is she keeping you? She hasn’t hurt you, has she? I should’ve known her sudden move and gain of money was suspicious! Trevor warned me and I didn’t listen! Where are you?!”

Growling, I slammed a fist on the table and Hailey jumped. On the other end of the line, I heard Greg inhale sharply.

“Hailey, is she there? What is she doing to you?!”

‘I hate that bitch.’ Candy growled from her corner.

“Greg, Ari didn’t kidnap me. I came to her place to get a break from Keily. My phone was off cause I didn’t want her blowing the thing up.”

Silence.

“Shit…” I heard Keily mutter in the background.

Without a word, Hailey handed me the phone.

“Shit is right, Keily.” I growled.