Say What?

Chapter 1

Is it wrong to want love when you’re only sixteen? Is it unnatural that every time I see a couple snuggling or holding hands my stomach contracts and I’m filled with the yearning for the thing they call love? Sometimes I think so.

 Sprinting through the woods I keep my eyes on the shaggy shape I hope is my brother. Four legs come in handy when you’re trying to kill someone, especially brothers. Of course, chasing my pre-shift brothers is easier, but the ones that can morph into wolves are just a bit more of a challenge. Sam glances back at me with his beady black eyes, and I hold his gaze with a glare. He trips over a tree stump, face-planting the mossy ground. I growl in triumph and leap the stump with ease, landing directly on my brother. He snarls and tries to wriggle out of my grip, but all he does is tire himself. I grab the box of tampons from his mouth with my own and trot back to the pack house. As I approach the greenhouse I turn back to human form and grab the dressing gown hanging from a hook on the shed wall. Stuffing the box of tampons deep in one of my pockets I walk briskly back to the house. Being on heat isn’t fun. When I’d gotten myself fixed up with clothes and-ahum-other things, I gallop down the stairs, following the scent of cookies. As I step into the kitchen I crash into Sam. I shoot him a dirty look and punch him, hard, in the shoulder.

‘Ow! What was that for?’ he exclaims, rubbing his shoulder.

‘For stealing my necessities, idget,’ I growl. He sniggers and mutters something that sounds a lot like ‘midget’. ‘Dickhead’ I breathe, just loud enough for him to hear. As I begin to eat one of the scorching-but delicious- cookies from the cooling rack the phone bleeps.

‘Hello, this is Jay speaking,’ I say through a mouthful of cookie, but it sounds more like ‘mero, is us jae sptheakin’.

‘Howdy, Jay, I need you to come help me set up the house for the guests tomorrow. There’s twenty bucks in your horizon if you do a good job.’ It’s Mia, a southern girl that works with kids the few days after they change. Yeugh. Dad’s alphas-in-training are arriving tomorrow. He’s gonna train them to be proper Alphas before they step up to take the role as pack leader. They’re all around my age, and they come from packs all over. We house them in the guest quarters across the road from the pack house. I trudge over to the guest house, and she hands me a mop and bucket as soon as I step in the door. This place hasn’t been used or cleaned for two years. It’s only morning and I know I’m gonna be in for a long day of work. I’m gonna need more than twenty bucks.

Six hours, eight cups of coffee and three bottles of carpet cleaner later we have a sparkling guest quarters for the trainee Alphas coming tomorrow. I stumble back to the pack house just in time for dinner- a massive shepherd’s pie- a fresh fifty dollar note in my pocket. Since I already had a shower at the guest house I settle into one of the mismatched chairs and scoop a huge portion of shepherd’s pie onto my dinner plate, ignoring the wide-eyed looks coming from Mom and Dex.

Allan’s just staring at me like I’m some rare species of bug.

‘How can you DO that?’ he exclaims, his curiosity getting the better of him.

‘Cleaning makes me hungry. I cleaned for six hours straight with only coffee to drink. Therefore I’m very hungry,’ I reply, and immediately resume shovelling in shepherd’s pie.  

‘If you keep that binge eating up you’ll get fat,’ Ali says matter-of-factly.

‘It doesn’t count as binge eating if you’re actually hungry. Mom tells us to eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re full, so I’m eating because I’m hungry.’ My last words sounded really snappish, but I get like that when I’m half-starved. Jed sucks in a breath like he’s about to ask me something, but I cut him off.