Wild and Free

Chapter 5: Strength in Numbers

(Auden's POV)

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious.

Another werewolf pack house? Near White Chapel? Of course I'd be interested to see what it looked like. Two and a half years of never seeing another of my kind, yes I might want to see.

But even knowing about it was a risk. I overheard, or more eavesdropped on Riley and Mason talking about their pack house in class the day after the mindlinking thing. It made me nervous to think that a pack was out there, so close to White Chapel. So close to me.

"Okay everyone, I'd like you to get in sets of three for your literature groups," Mrs. Bradford instructed, right after I stopped listening to their conversation, "You together will choose a novel, read it collectively and do a presentation on it."

Cassie and I looked at each other. Holden would've been our automatic third pick but he wasn't in our class so it was just the two of us and we weren't close with anyone.

"This is a big project and I expect you to work hard on it because I'm giving you time in class to work as well as out. I'll dismiss two groups at a time to go to the library in this period to pick your novels." our teacher went on. "And please pick appropriate books, please." she pleaded and a group of guys in the back laughed, high fiving each other from that time that they picked out some little fourth grade books for their project. Cassie and I just smiled and rolled our eyes.

"You have ten minutes to pick your groups, come to me and i'll note them and let you go to get your books,"

She turned and went to sit at her desk while the room erupted in chatter, everyone fighting to get with their friends.

"So definitely us but we need a third," Cassie said. We both scanned the room looking for anyone who didn't have a group.

I noticed Mason whispering something to his sister to which she rolled her eyes. She sat there for a second and I couldn't sworn I saw her eyes turn white for a moment but it went away quickly just as she got up and started in the direction of our table.

"Hey do you guys need an extra person?" she asking nicely when she approached us.

"Yeah, we do actually, you're Mackenzie right?" I asked.

She smiled and nodded, "Yeah but you can call me Kenzie, only my father calls me Mackenzie." she joked, to which Cassie and I both laughed. "I also wanted to apologize for the seating thing yesterday, we didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"Oh no it's fine. Not a big deal, we could've asked for you to move but we didn't so it's our fault too," Cassie laughed.

"Yeah we got here early to get our transfer things worked out and my brother just grabbed the first seats he saw," she explained, tucking a strand of her coffee colored hair behind her ear.

I looked over her shoulder, "That one's your brother right?" I pointed my chin at Mason.

She nodded, "Unfortunately."

I laughed in agreement and the three of us went to Mrs. Bradford who wrote down our name before letting us leave for the library. We were the first group to leave because the others had mostly just gotten together and started talking.

"So how are you liking White Chapel so far Kenzie?" Cassie asked while we were walking in the deserted school corridor.

She shrugged, "It's pretty nice, different than I'm used to but still nice. I haven't gotten to see the town much though because I live kind of far away."

"Why not in town somewhere?"

"My father found a spot he likes out there. Honestly I have no idea," she laughed. "But it's a really nice place."