Being Casey

Chapter 3: Ah Crap

I was walking home with Troy when Ethan walked up.

"Albino got a boyfriend." Troy teased. I punched him to shut up up. "Still," he said. "You still got a boyfriend Casey."

I grabbed his head, turned him around and pushed him away. "Hey Ethan." I said.

"Hey," he said. "I heard about what happened in the woods yesterday."

I cringed at the thought. "How'd you find out?"

"It doesn't matter. But you couldn't protect yourself. Look, I need to talk to your dad."

I looked at him, puzzled. "Why?" I asked.

"Look, your dad will explain." He said. I nodded and walked with him. We started walking when we met

"Love birds..." He said smirking. I gave him a shut up! look, but with his stupidity, it didn't seem to register.

Ethan spoke up. "No kid, no." He said sternly. Troys face darkened. He looked up at me.

"Your boyfriend scares me." He said. We had arrived at the house and he ran inside.

"Hold on Ethan, I'll go tell my dad your here." I said, quickly jogging inside. I turned the corner and saw my parents. "Umm mom? Dad? There's a guy here named Ethan Gradd. He said you knew him." My dads face got worried.

"Bring him in." He said, setting the newspaper down. I ran back outside.

"Come on in Ethan." I said, turning back into the house. He walked in and saw my dad.

"Hey Bill."

"Ethan," My dad said. "I've been treading this day for a long time....bring her out to the woods, middle, so no one will see. But first." He said. "Casey, tell me what happened yesterday."

"Umm...I was walking in the woods with Kelsey, a bear tried to kill us and a wolf saved my life. Nothing to tell." I said quickly.

"Ethan," my dad said in a worried tone. "Go show her. Explain everything. Everything." He said. Ethan nodded and grabbed my hand. He pulled me outside to my backyard and lead me into the woods. Once we had made it to a clearing he let go of my hand.

"Your going to be freaked out," He said, walking out in front of me, so he was a good five feet away. "Just bear with me okay?"

I nodded at him and stepped back. Ethan took a deep breath. And he jumped. But when he landed, he was no longer a human. He was a wolf. I fell backwards. I crawled backwards, trying to get away from the beast in front of me. Once I was trapped behind a tree, the wolf walked up. He knelt his head. "Ethan?" The wolf howled. I stood up. All of a sudden, the Ethan I knew was in front of me again. "What the hell was that?!"

"Casey, I'm a wolf."

"Yeah! I noticed."

"Casey, listen," he said sitting down on a fallen log. "I'm not the only one who can do that. I saved you yesterday. That was me. But listen, you can do that too."

I stood there, in shock. "No I can't."

"Yes you can. You just have to let your human mind go, and let you mind go blank." He said.

"No! Explain this now! How can we do this?!"

"We are some of the people with these weird genes. I don't know all of the reasons but once our genes are activated, we can't switch them off. I mean, we can, but we can't. Our genes will always be activated, but we can go back and forth from human and wolf by will."

I nodded slowly. "Who else...can...you know..do this?"

"Me, you, Jackson, Zach, and Bailey."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Who's Bailey?"

"A girl in our school. I moved here because the rest of the pack was here."

"Wait, pack? Like...alpha?"

He face expression changed. "I'm an alpha, and so are you."

My mouth dropped open. "Alpha? What?!" A thought pops into my head. "Ah crap, that means your my mate doesn't it?"

He laughed at this. "No, not unless you wanna be." He said with a wink. I hit his arm playfully.

"Shut up." I said. "So I'm an alpha?"

He nodded. "Yeah, you took this better than I thought." He said getting up. "You need to learn to phase."

I shook my head. "No, I'm not ready."

"Yes you are, you need to be able to protect the people." He said, holding his hand out to me. I took it and stood. He walked me over to the middle of the clearing. "Close your eyes, let your mind go blank." Ethan said. I did what he asked. "Let your senses get the most of you." He said, stepping back. "Now jump forward." I leaped into the air, and when I landed, I had thought I had fell. But I looked down. Snowy white paws were where my hands should have been. I looked back at my body. But it wasn't a human body anymore. I was a wolf. An albino wolf. I looked at Ethan.

"It's okay Casey," he said. "I'm going to phase and we're going to run okay?" He said. He leapt in the air and landed in wolf form. He nodded his head and started running. I took off, falling a lot in the process. As I ran, I realized that we weren't enormous wolves, or those creepy hairless wolves, we were Minnesota Northern wolves, except for the fact we were werewolves. You know, nothing different. Ethan ran faster and faster, making me trip more and more. Then we were in the dead center of the woods. I could tell, my senses were more active. I looked at Ethan, he jumped and phased back to human form.

"Casey, I have to teach you how to phase back, dull your senses, think of human form, and jump."

I howled, an epic fail of trying to say yes. I thought of my human form, and tried to dull my senses. I leapt and I landed on two feet. I looked down and I still had my clothes on. "Thank god." I said. "Can I leave now?"

"You know how to defend yourself, so yeah, I'll see you around Casey. And by the way, you have to tell Zach and Bailey." And with that, he phased and ran off into the woods.