Haunted and Holy | T|Raeken

Chapter One

There was a time before we moved to California when I didn't believe my grandfather when he told me about how quickly things could change. I grew up in big sky country. You may also know it as Montana. My family's cattle ranch was one of the oldest in the state. I grew up running horses bareback as far as the wind could take us, learning to ride from the Native American tribes still living in the area. However, my family also had a secret. My grandfather and many other members of my family had fey blood. I was adopted and wasn't born with it, but that didn't mean I didn't benefit from it. My family is a band of warriors. Known as the Rattlers, we help protect wolf packs from hunters. This long, run-around story starts out in Montana, but shifts to California during my junior year of high school. The year that my dad got a job in this little town in the middle of nowhere named Beacon Hills, and where I first met the pack that would eventually forever change my life.
It all started the first day of junior year. Walking into a new school sucks. It's better when you meet some friends already because thankfully you now have a nosy neighbor who's your age, but still.
I walk in with one of my older brothers, a senior named Jamie, and my younger brother, a freshman named Vince. The oldest is Lane, but he's in college at Montana State. My parents couldn't have kids, so they adopted us out of foster care. I'm grateful to have known my adopted mom for the six years I knew her before she was taken far too soon by cancer. I'm grateful for their decision to take us in, because I don't know where I would be without Lane's leadership, Jamie's quiet support, and Vince's goofy personality.
"Selah!" Kennedy, our new neighbor comes running my way, almost body slamming Vince into the ground before I pull him out of her warpath.
"Hey!"
"We have English together in the first period! We have like 6 minutes to get there!" She grabs my arm and starts pulling me with her. "Oh hey Jamie and Vince!" She yells back over her shoulder as they both stand there mouths agape at her energy levels at like 7:45 am.
"Catch y'all later? Are you good?" I dig my feet in for a second and check in with them before continuing on. Jamie laughs and nods, waving me on as one of his new buddies comes up to him to help them out. I turn back around and almost smack straight into a very solid human.
"Oh sorry!" I somewhat stumble over both my words and my feet. They let out a laugh and the hazel eyes that meet mine *almost* get me to give him a second glance. But I simply do not have time, with Kennedy yanking me away again.
"Dude! Gentle! Bad shoulder, be nice!" I remind her, and she quickly lets go of my arm.
"Sorry! But you had to get out of there!" She whisper-yells back.
"Why?!" I whisper back, now confused, "and why are we whispering?!"
"That was Theo Raeken! The chimera I was telling you about!" Now it all clicks into place. She had warned me about what the school calls the "puppy pack", a smaller band of wolves, humans, and apparently chimeras that branch off the McCall pack. She had said Theo and Liam, the two older ones, were the most easily angered, and to watch out for them. Well, that's scary.
"Gotcha." I follow her like a blind mouse to the English classroom, where she points out another member of the puppy pack, named Alec. We get through the period with minimal chaos before heading off. Lunch comes quickly, and I meet up with Vince because Jamie isn't in the same lunch as us.
"How's it going?" I ask him.
"It's ok." He smiles at me before he gets a harder look in his eyes. I don't even have to look to know who moved to the table behind me. From that look alone I know it's the "puppy pack" because Jamie had sent a photo in the sibling group chat.
"How's your shoulder?" He asks, pointedly.
"It's ok, a little sore but ok." I tell him. I separated it when I was 15 and should have had surgery on it then, but with Grandpa being able to do a small amount of healing we've been able to manage it fairly well. Some days are better than others though.
"Dad was telling me Grandpa is planning on visiting next month." He tells me, and I nod. Kennedy and our other friend Elli are talking with each other but Elli gives me a look that tells me the boys behind me are listening. We're not stupid, when someone is paying attention it's easy to tell.
"Did she tell you about him? He has a long story."
Elli whispers, and I'm no idiot, I know about wolves hearing and although he's a chimera, I know she's talking about Theo Raeken and I don't want to be known as someone who gossips.
"Well if he's got a long story, it doesn't seem like yours to tell, does it?" I ask with a quiet smile, hearing someone behind me choke on something while someone else definitely smacks them on the back a couple of times, followed by a weak cough and an "I'm ok."
I try not to laugh, and Kennedy looks wide-eyed and down, holding back laughter. She mouths "Liam" to me, and I really have to try and hold it together. Looking at my phone to cover myself, I notice that I have a text from Lane, my oldest brother who is a sophomore in college, checking in about my day, responding to it quickly, and showing the responding "you've got this" message to Vince, who smiles.
Just then, a fight apparently breaks out on the other end of the cafeteria, and with that the normalcy of high school is restored.
I manage to navigate through the school day with minimal problems until my last class of the day. WWII History. I'm lost, and have no idea where it is.
"You look lost!" A voice breaks me out of my confused thought process.
"I am." I turn and look, and no surprise, the puppy pack is everywhere because here comes Liam, the other wolf I was told to be wary of.
"Whatcha looking for?" He asks, cocking his head at me clearly giving me his full attention.
"Room 164, for WWII History with Mr. Ramerez?!"
He smiles, trying not to laugh.
"No one can ever find his room. You are not the first. I'll walk you there!" I start following him before he tries to start a conversation.
"You must be new. I'm Liam."
"Yeah, just moved here from Montana. I'm Selah."
"Nice to meet you. Why did you move here of all places?"
"Dad got a new job, Beacon Hills has cheap housing." He smiles and nods, before pointing to the door to the right classroom.
"Here's your stop. Nolan and Alec are both in your class and are buddies of mine, if you need anything just ask." I smile and say thanks, before walking in. There are a couple open seats still, as the bell won't ring for two more minutes, but I get voluntold to sit next to Nolan by Nolan.
"You're Jamie's sister right?"
"Yeah?!" I respond, a little confused as to how they know Jamie.
"Cool! He's in class with my buddies who are seniors and asked if we could help look out for you and Vince, and we figured why not."
I smile, shrug, and respond with "seems like Jamie." Before the teacher starts his spiel about how he expects the class to run. I'm good at history, always have been, needing to know a lot about a lot of different local tribes, supernatural creatures and such, so I follow along very well. We have to take a stupid 10 question quiz about how much war history we know, and I ace it going 10/10 while the best Nolan and Alec do is 7/10 from Alec and a whopping 4/10 from Nolan. I try not to laugh at the indignant squawk from Nolan over his score.
"How the hell do you know all this? This is such random information!" He whispers at me as the teacher drones on about the correct answers.
"Simple. There's nothing to do in Big Sky Country except distract yourself from boredom, and this was one of the ways I did that." I whisper back.
Very quickly we find out that the class is going to be project heavy, and very quickly Alec and Nolan offer to be a group of three with me.
"No way in hell. I'm not doing all the work for you two to do nothing!" I whisper to Alec who just grins.
"We both work hard, I promise. We just don't have a lot of history experience, that's Liam's department."