(Two weeks later)
I wasn’t going to wear that.
Nope.
The outfit in front of my door kept changing.
Yes, it did.
Every single time I reentered my own room.
It was like magic as I shoved them back in the closet and emerged with a new set that felt alright. Two hours later, I went into my room again and shoved that set of alright clothes into the closet to emerge with yet another shirt and pants pair.
It really was pointless.
I was just going to keep second-guessing everything because of the uncertainty I had with Lee and where I truly stood in his life.
Even today.
Today, as in the day we were leaving to head up to the cabin for the reunion.
There was a knock on the door. My door.
“Yeah?”
My voice was muffled in the sheets, but it was loud enough for anybody to hear, shifter or not. As part human and part wolf, we naturally had better senses than the average human, and even better than the above-average humans.
At least, that was what I learned in school. We learned about them… because we weren’t them. Wolf shifters had different rules, different laws and practices the human people didn’t.
And yet, we weren’t just one thing. We weren’t simply human, or just a wolf. We were both. Able to change at will, we stood firmly between the two species. Some of us were able to speak freely with the wolf inside us, others could feel just the second set of emotions, coming from our wolf at certain intense moments.
As it was, we didn’t mingle with humans much in our day-to-day lives. We steered clear, with the help of their government, setting up our lives in places that they didn’t venture. Like ‘radiation zones’, because who the heck wants cancer? Obviously, there’s no radiation there, but… well, they didn’t need to know about that.
Living in packs, in national parks and other locations known for being dangerous and deadly, we kept hidden. We stayed safe…
For the most part.
We stayed safe from humans, that is… but not so much coming from ourselves.
Things weren’t always as safe as they were now.
My parents went through a lot. All of our parents went through a lot in order to bring wolf shifters this far.
Nearly two decades ago, before I was born, there was an Alpha of the Northern Pack who helped regulate and control the laws of our kind. See, there were wolf packs everywhere, small and large, but the one that guided us as a whole was the Northern Pack, with the largest number of shifters, with a big freaking castle as their base of operations.
And though ‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’ were merely titles, not traits, they were treated as the leaders, no matter what they did.
And that meant, those with an ill heart and motive in the position of Alpha could do terrible things. Especially if they were leading the whole shifter community. The Alpha of the Northern Pack, Alein Norcell, was the one speaking with the human government as that leader for our kind, and then… He was the one who did something truly horrific.
He was sitting in his old dungeon for it now.
He named twins a danger because they had abilities. All wolf shifters that had been born within thirteen years of the surge gained these abilities. After all, thirteen? That was when we became adults, that was when we could finally shift into our wolves for the first time.
The twins, though… They could fly. They could control the weather, fire, water. They could see the future, turn invisible…
Anything and everything imaginable?
It could be done with twins.
But Alein Norcell, he had a law made against them, and put as many as he could into prisons where they were tortured, experimented on, even killed…
For two whole decades, shifter twins of all ages and kinds endured through their unfair reality. They did their best to hide, to survive.
Those who were innocent, died for existing.
Until one year, several twin shifters, including my mother, Kat’s mother, and Lee’s father, found their fated partners who accepted them as they were, as twins… with powers. They protected each other, protected their love.
And so, what followed was three packs banding together, sending sixteen of their strongest shifters all the way up to the Northern Pack, where that Alein Norcell resided. And in one night, they tore his power from him and freed twins from that law.
Peace came in the coming dawns when the news traveled across the nation, to all of the other packs. As wolf shifters, as one, we all began to flourish as everyone was able to utilize the special abilities of twins. It was partially due to the new leaders of the Northern Pack. They were both twins themselves, both very powerful – as much as they were kind… one of them was even Alein Norcell’s own daughter who’d been tossed in prisons herself.
The group decided to reunite each year, in memory of the event, as well as making sure they all met again. Because… they had all become good friends before and during the process of defeating him.
I had been born by dawn the morning after their battle.
My mother had said it was nice to be able to hold me in her arms and not have to worry about her powers activating.
She’d told me about her powers a couple of times. About how she could see the future when she touched someone. And that there were only a few exceptions to that. My father, Jack Blackstone. Her sister – sometimes. Me. And finally, my little brother William, who was born two years after I was. She could touch all of us freely, without being bombarded by things she didn’t care to see.
Still, she wore gloves a lot.
And, as a result of the yearly reunion they had with the others, I became friends with all of my mother’s friends’ kids.
Lee included.
Kat included.
Lynn and Josephine and Lizzy, and all of the others.
Even Minnie, though she didn’t come around often, and was absolutely abysmal in the kitchen. Though, I had to admit, she had a knack for not actually burning herself when she looked like she should’ve. At this point, we were all used to it, and instead of jumping up in a panic, we just asked her if she’s alright and she’d show us she didn’t even have a mark on her hands. Such a lucky witch.
Part of me wondered if it was like that for all witches. Were they all absolutely terrible in the kitchen? Were their kitchens different? Did they just use spells and boom, food?
Probably not.
But, Minnie was actually the daughter of the witch who granted twins those powers in the first place. The surge? The abilities? All of that was from her mother, who had become trapped by Alein Norcell, too, never able to leave one room for those two decades, and she was finally freed when the whole of twins were.
But, the spells and stuff?
It was magic.
And I didn’t understand one bit of it, but that was okay. I was happy being a wolf.
Life was much simpler that way.
My door creaked open, tossing my thoughts aside.
“Jane, you’re not ready yet?”
I picked my face up out of the sheets and looked at Kat.
We were practically sisters. Growing up in the same household did that to you, and it was hard not to bond as the only two our age in the pack we lived in. The only other person in the house close to our age was William. And it wasn’t like my younger brother was going to understand the struggles of girls. He wouldn’t. If anything, he was likely clueless about anything to do with the evolution of relationships and this whole thing with Lee.
Who knew what boys even talked about anyway?
Did Lee ever mention me to anyone else?
Oh my gosh. Why was that the first thing that came to mind?
I grumbled incoherently, making it impossible for even me to understand what I was saying and planted my face back into my mattress.
Maybe I could call in sick?
Did I really have to go?
William wasn’t going. He always found an excuse or another in an attempt to avoid attending.
“Is it because Lee’s going to be there?”
My head shot up at his name. Even I could feel the heat rising in my face. Geez, why did I always get like this about him?
Deep down, I knew what lay in the depths of my heart, I clearly knew the reason, but still…
Kat gave me a gentle smile and walked over to my closet to look through my clothes. They were all looking the same to me anyway.
She stayed silent, giving me a chance to come to terms with the questions I truly had. The ones I needed to say aloud.
“What if we’re weird now?”
“What if you’re both the same as always? Hm?”
She tilted her head, glancing back at me for a brief second before returning her attention to the closet of clothes that seemed like a dreaded task to me.
Same as always?
That was impossible.
The letters in my dresser drawer clearly showed that. I’d written to him and there hadn’t been a response yet.
“But, he…”
“He what?” Kat turned to look at me.
“He doesn’t send as many letters… or call much anymore. That’s a sign of something, right?”
Kat sighed and turned back to the closet, taking only a second before pulling out the yellow dress. She held it up and showed it to me.
I was going to wear that, according to her.
Uh… no.
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