Grace [On Hold]

Chapter 2

When I reached to council building, I shift back into my human form and walk through the door. I see the desk lady and nod a greeting. She smiles at me and turns back to her work. I climb the stairs to the Alpha's office. Even before I reach the door, I hear yelling. Having sharp hearing would let me pick it up, but a mere human could hear it from here.

I just lean against the wall out of the way and listen to the argument. I know for sure the person yelling is Alex. Alpha never yells unless it's to punish me. I tune in to hear the last part of a sentence.

"--not going unless I go too! She doesn't need to go through a high school for you to make your point! She's not going, unless you want to send both of us."

He's playing the ego card. Alpha would never be caught sending two kids to school, and Alex knows that. But I don't think Alpha does.

"School starts Monday. Now if you could leave so that I can discuss training with Beta Nathan, I would be more than thrilled."

His emotionless voice shows how thrilled he is.

"Now apologize to Beta Nathan for wasting his time listening to the nonsense that came out of your mouth."

I can hear Alex shuffle his feet and can picture him looking at his feet before meeting Nathan's eyes. "I apologize for wasting your time, Beta. And I apologize for barging in, Alpha."

Suck up.

"You're forgiven," comes from both Alpha and Beta, dismissing Alex from their presence. Minutes later, he rounds the corner, head down in concentration. Then his head snaps up, catching my smell. All weres have a distinct smell. Maybe humans would too. But I wouldn't know, not until--

"Monday?" I ask, humoring him. He puts his head back down and walks past me. I follow, two steps behind him the whole way. "I told you didn't I? You should have just talked to me to spare you the shame." I see his shoulders tense, then slack.

"Yeah, yeah. You made your point. It was stupid. I was stupid. I know. Now leave me alone." He runs a hand through his hair, stopping to sit on a bench in the lobby.

I sit beside him and lean my head on his shoulder. "You're not stupid, Alex. You can be stupid but you aren't stupid. If that made any sense at all. It didn't. I don't know why, it sounded good in my head. Well I think it did. Probably didn't--"

"Grace! Shut up. Of course you thought it sounded good in your head because you were thinking it. Anything sounds good when you're thinking it. That's why we decide to say really stupid shit. Because we thought it was good. When in actuality, it's a piece of shit. And good job on trying to make me forget the dumbness in my decision. It helped to think that you can be stupid, too."

"Now you're blabbing," I tell him, standing up. I reach a hand out to him. "C'mon, I'm starved and I can smell Luna's pot roast."

Grinning, he licks his mouth, ditches my hand, and sprints towards the door. He yells, "Race you there!" before throwing the door open and shifting.

When I heard the word race, I was running. "You cheating bastard!" I say before mimicking his departure. Even though I was the youngest pup, I had all the strengths, where Cindi, my older sister, was as weak as a newborn. Sure she was strong, but compared to me, no competition there. That's why I could smell Luna's roast before Alex.

And it was also why I was winning this 'race'.

I burst through the yard and run through the open door mid-shift, sitting in my designated seat. Luna places a full plate in front of me. "Were you guys racing, again?" she asks. I nod in response, my mouth already stuffed. "Doesn't he know better?"

I swallow my food and shrug. "He should. I even gave him a thirteen second head start. Thirteen! Next time I'm gonna give him thirty, see if he can win," I say as she places a glass of orange juice in front of me.

I only drink orange juice and water. Nothing else. If I even get offered something else, I feel bile rise in my throat. It's like I have claustrophobia of every drink besides orange juice and water.

I down the orange juice and am halfway through with my plate when Alex bursts through the door exactly like I did. "Fucking A man!" he screams, plopping down.

"Alexander Robert Aleseki! Do not use that language in my household!" she yells, swatting him with a pre-rolled magazine. She keeps one handy because of the mouth she swears we got from Alpha. He's never home and he's so dignified at work, so we never hear it. The world may never know.

"Where's Cindi?" Alex asks, and a low growl comes from my throat. Seconds later the magazine hits me. I never get along with my sister, mostly because Alpha and Luna actually pay more attention to her. You could say that I have minimal jealousy towards her. Minimal.

"Her and Rodrick are at a concert even though she said she was studying with Kaylen." Luna, like many other mothers, can track their pups until they have pups of their own or have completed the mating process. Ugh, talk about horrible visions. How she didn't learn this in the actual 'school' work of training, I don't know. Yes, I actually do my assignments and turn them in on time, making me the best in my age group.

"Has she told him yet?" I spit out. Her 'mate' Rodrick, is human. I completely despise of were/human relationships because they are, A, too loud, B, completely weak, and C, because not a lot of them approve of the whole werewolf lifestyle. I hope to the Goddess that my mate isn't a human.

"No she hasn't and it's none of your business if she has anyway, so quit asking," she saying in an equally bitter voice.

Finished with my food, I put my dishes in the washer and grab two bottles of juice and head out the door, slamming it on the way out. I run through the woods without shifting, not going as fast but still faster than any human could, that's for damn sure. I climb up the giant willow tree in the center of the pack's part of the forest and climb up it. I have one juice gone before I even get to my nook in between the branches.

Well, I have the weekend before school starts.

Great.

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Pic is Alex...he is hawt...no joke

~MissalinaVanceTommo