No, she didn’t smell of lollipops, but there was something else there. Something powerful.
“What is she?” I asked before I thought better of it.
Jase just blinked at me. The fear coming off of him was palatable. Scout, however, didn’t seem to have the same sense of self preservation.
“What she is, is offended and quickly becoming angry.”
Jesus, if she ever Changed there would be no holding her back. Even as a human there was a ridiculous amount of dominance coming off of her. And if she did Change…
“Leave my sister out of it,” Jase said, finally breaking out of his trance.
“Do they know about her?” If the Alphas found her, she was dead. She would never have a chance to Change and unleash that dominance on the world.
Jase didn’t say anything, but his fear spiked again. That was good. He needed to be afraid of the Alpha Pack.
“I’m staying.” There was no way I could leave now. Not with her here. Not with what she could mean to our world. Not after everything I had been working towards for the past five years. There would be issues with the Hagan Pack, issues I normally tried to avoid, but this had to be done. That didn’t mean, however, I couldn’t try to ensure those problems were minimized.
“I’ll take out anyone who crosses me.” So, please, don’t cross me. Then, so I didn’t show my hand too soon, I added, “Even her.”
Although, harming Scout was the exact opposite of what I intended to do. I stayed in Timber to protect her. I know she thinks she has never needed protection - that it was everyone’s misguided attempts at protecting her that caused everything that came after that day to happen - but it’s why I stayed in Timber. It’s why I couldn’t leave, even when I knew it was the smart thing to do. It’s why I made the choices I did. Maybe she didn’t need protecting, and there is no doubt I did a horrible job of it, but I tried. And if I had it all to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing, because for me, who she is, who she was able to become, was worth it.
Alex
I have been in love with the same girl since I was eight years old. I stumbled across her in a dream, her white-blond hair shining in the sun as her pale blue eyes sparkled with laughter. I looked and looked for her in the waking world but only succeeded in chasing false hope.
So, of course I was too busy thinking about the latest version of Halo to notice her sitting in my math class.
“Harper, is there something you would like to share with the rest of the class?” I almost gagged from the smell of stale coffee and fresh arthritis cream as Mr. Beck stood by my desk. Liam would have told me to breathe through my mouth, but I didn’t want the atoms carrying those smells anywhere near my tongue. It was bad enough they were stuck up my nose.
“It’s Scout,” said a girl’s voice behind me. “My name, I mean. It’s Scout. You can call me Scout, please.”
Mr. Beck sneered. “I think we are a little old to be going by nicknames in class.”
“Then you can call me Miss Donovan,” she replied, her voice shaking with rage.
Man, this girl was ballsy. My new math teacher might have been as old and outdated as a landline phone, but what he lacked in youthful vigor he more than made up for by being a demon sent from the special hell reserved for high school bullies. Within a week of the full moon I can bench press 300 pounds, but I wasn’t about to mess with this guy. I glanced over my shoulder to give this Harper “Scout” Donovan a nod of approval.
My heart kicked in my chest at the sight of her face, which was mostly obscured by the white-blond hair spilling over it.
Stay cool, Cole. Lots of girls have white-blonde hair. Do not freak out like you did with that girl in Terre Haute. Not only was it embarrassing, but you don’t want to walk around with another busted lip until the full moon.
But no matter what I said to myself, no matter how much I tried to make my inner-voice sound like Liam, I couldn't stop myself from hoping.
Look up, I urged her. Come on, Scout. Look up.
Scout. God. What a cool name. I loved that name.
The guy sitting between us noticed me turned around in my seat and lifted his head. From the set of his jaw, I could tell he thought I had some sort of problem with him, which I hadn’t until he blocked my view. Finally, just when I was going to have to either rip his out throat or turn back around, she lifted her chin and…
Holy shit.
Pale blue eyes, lit with recognition, met mine. It was her. After all this time, I’d finally found her.
Thank God for crappy transmissions.
Color touched her cheeks, which made me aware of the way my face was heating up. Luckily, she ducked her head back down before she noticed.
“Didn’t your mama ever tell you that staring is rude?” The guy sitting between us leaned as far forward as the desk would allow. “Don’t be a jerk.”
It was hard to override my instinct, which was to rearrange this guy’s face for getting between us, but I somehow talked myself into turning around. This wasn’t the time or place. I may have forgotten for a minute or two, but we were still in the middle of Calculus. Causing a scene with thirty-something witnesses would be the exact opposite of discreet and unassuming, both of which are fundamentals for survival when your last name is Cole.
I told myself I would keep my eyes forward until the end of class. That lasted about thirty seconds. Over the next excruciatingly long twenty-three minutes, I glanced back about forty-six times. Every time she was looking down at her desk, fastidiously taking notes. Even though I was disappointed that she wouldn’t look up, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at the sight of her bent over her desk working. It was something I’d seen a million times in my dreams - Scout is a bit of a nerd - but seeing it in real life was different. It was like getting an ice cream cone after only ever having eaten frozen yogurt.
When the bell rang at the end of class, it sounded like Soviet missiles were about to land on our heads thanks to Lake County High’s ancient PA system. I was out of my seat so quickly the other students’ human eyes probably didn’t even catch the movement. It was a screw-up, a fairly big one, but I was too excited to care. I bounced on the balls of my feet, waiting.
Finally, she got up. She was still looking down, so she didn’t even see me standing there until she was practically stepping on my feet. She was so close I could feel the heat coming off her. She lifted her head, and her eyes met mine. I opened my mouth, and…