Embracing the Wolves

[3] A Silent Bailee and a Collaboration Between Enemies

Returning to school wasn't all what I expected. I didn't have anyone questioning my whereabouts because they assumed I was at a wedding like Andrew told them I was. I had missed the first few days of the week when the school mourned the loss of Preston, but other than that, there was no indication that he was murdered; he was trapped in a fire at an undisclosed location. The lie was nice only because I didn't have people watching me like I was about to crack for the fragility caused by having a homicidal boyfriend...but that would mean he was my boyfriend. According to the people who weren't friends with Andrew or Bailee and hadn't heard of my wedding getaway, they thought I was running from a breakup. I had overheard it a good number of times and it made sense because we hadn't been seen together as a couple for weeks now.

But I didn't care. There were only a handful of people who knew everything going on and they were the ones watching me with mixed gazes. Maybe because the seven wolves under Ryder's control were conflicted or indifferent about the ordeal—I didn't know. I wasn't here to know what the pack had discussed. And even though Ryder wasn't here because the football team had left this morning to get to a notably far stadium for their last out of district game, I didn't want to test any of the boys in fear they were sworn to secrecy.

But as I sat and ate lunch, I kept locking gazes to Colin Bourne's sad eyes that told me otherwise from across the cafeteria.

"So what did I miss while I was gone?" I began to my companions. It was an oddly quiet lunch not only because the football players, cheerleaders, and dance team was gone for the game, but also because no one said a word at my table. It was extremely odd because I knew Bailee Rosatti was my best friend here and she could talk anyone's ear off on a normal day—not to mention when I had been gone for a week. But she only looked down and scrolled on her phone while Evan played a passive boyfriend and sat playing with his food. My eyes shifted over to Andrew, but he was frowning in awe of Aaron scarfing down all his food as if he hadn't seen anything edible in months.

Yearning for a better audience, I looked around and noticed a girl who was commanding attention across the cafeteria from her loud laugh and gorgeous attributes. She was the only girl sitting at the table of tall basketball players or maybe swimmer jocks. She must have been new or I would've already heard all of the presumably slutty stories and reputations about her for how social she was being with a table of disruptive jocks.

"Who's that?" I asked for a more specific talking point.

"Meena Leonard," Andrew answered in a distracted fashion before tipping Aaron's water bottle upwards to spill all over him.

"Dude," Aaron chastised.

"Dude," Andrew mimicked before they both scoffed, rolled their eyes, and excused themselves to leave the table. Great. I didn't even know what was going on with my own brother and his new pack member.

"Weirdos," I laughed as if maybe making fun of them would appeal to Bailee, but no. She was still scrolling on her phone. "So Bailee—"

"There's a party tonight after the game," she interrupted and finally looked up at me. "It's gonna be at Jack Willis' house. I'll text you the address and see you there."

"Um okay," I stammered before she abruptly got up and began to grab her tray to leave. She took two steps away from the table before stopping in place, sighing deeply, and then returned to give Evan an obligatory kiss on the cheek before finally departing. Once she was gone, Evan and I leaned onto the table. "What's going on, Evan?"

"Don't take it personally. She's been like that all week," he began. He sighed once more. "We're fighting."

"What'd you do?" I assumed, prompting him to shoot me a look.

"It wasn't just me," he denied. "It's just college shit."

His revelation only reminded me of that same bump in the road I would have to conquer with Ryder. If he and Bailee—arguably a very stable relationship—was fighting about it despite allegedly having their lives aligned together for the past three years, then Ryder and I were fundamentally doomed.

"It should blow over," Evan dismissed even though I knew it was bothering him. "You going to the party?"

"Maybe. You?"

"Of course not," he smirked. He never went to the parties. Bailee told me it was because of Aaron going missing and not trusting Preston, but now? Aaron was back. Preston was dead. What was his excuse? Evan stood up from his seat and collected his trash. "It doesn't matter who comes back or who dies. Something's going on in this town and I don't trust it." Even though he was human, his instincts were sharp. Part of me wanted to believe he was close to the supernatural secret, but I knew he was let in on it once before for Aaron's sake and Stormy hexed it out of him. "Keep an eye on Bailee if you end up going."

"Yes sir," I nodded before sitting back onto my seat and letting him leave in peace. Not too long after, I was visited by two boys who normally wouldn't be caught dead in association together: the third-semester senior and the golden boy of Tyriette—or better yet a beta werewolf and a half-vampire.

"So you're going to Jack Willis' tonight," Colin assumed.

"Hi Colin, hi Trevor," I responded with absolute sarcasm. "How are you? I'm—"

"Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that later," Colin dismissed.

"How was the wedding?" Trevor asked politely.

"Shut up," Colin groaned. It was funny to see two opposites sit at this table across from me. The reasoning was all the more intriguing. "We need you to go to this party tonight."

I frowned. "Why?" I asked. "To babysit you?" I looked at Colin, "and disappoint you?" I finished looking at Trevor's handsome face.

Colin rolled his eyes.

"Parties aren't my thing," Trevor said with a shake of his head. "I won't be there, so feel free to grind on whoever you want without a hint of my judgment from afar."

"Thank you?" I think.

"You wouldn't be babysitting me, you'd be witnessing us babysitting Ryder like we've been having to do every night this week," Colin notified. I frowned because I thought Ryder was past his excessive partying; at least during the week anyways. He was acting out again.

"Last time I went to a party and he got wasted, he yelled at me and Zander for bullshit and we fought for days afterwards," I reminded.

"It's different," Colin assured.

The concern meant something coming from Colin, who was notorious for acting recklessly. If it was so bad that he brought Trevor Versailles into it, it was serious.

"Then maybe me being there will make it worse," I figured.

"Maybe it will, maybe it won't," Trevor said. "But I guarantee if you're there, people won't be getting hurt because he'll know you're there."

"You don't even have to talk to him if you don't want to, Ash," Colin added. "I just want you to be there to calm him down and see what the rest of us who know what's going on have been seeing. He's not himself."

As soon as Colin indicated that the rest of us who knew noticed a change, I knew he meant about Preston's death. They think Ryder was acting out to suppress and forget and maybe regret killing him. In that case, it was way more serious than partying to relieve stress from some goody-two-shoes vampire threatening your relationship for the sake of the species like it was last time.

"And Willis lives in the same neighborhood as him so if he gets too out of control, his house is right around the corner and we can call Zander," Colin mentioned, but when he mentioned Zander's name, I already made my decision. Regardless of what the other boys knew, Zander knew the most about what happened. A drunken Ryder with a defensive wolf could want to tie up loose ends for complete deniability and I knew Zander didn't deserve that. Nor did he deserve Ryder yelling how much he hated him while hauling his drunken self up a flight of stairs.

"I'll go," I told them.