His Breath of Fire

Chapter Two

    “Bren!” Sarah calls and I turn around to see her bright smile as she pushes through the crowd to reach me.

    “Hey,” I greeted, hugging a textbook to my chest to hide behind. The stares are starting to get to me whether I show it or not—and I’m definitely not.

    Sarah and I walk to the cafeteria line, catching up on the two classes we had since second period and how boring they already seem. It was one of the most normal conversations I’ve had in a while that didn’t involve my life being on the line. It felt nice. We walked to a table where two girls and one boy sat and Sarah greeted them cheerfully while introducing me. Annabelle and Anastasia, both red headed, green eyed twins, and Drake, a brown haired, blue eyed boy greeted me with pretty open arms, and just like that I had friends on the first day.

    “So, Bren, your name is pretty unique,” Anastasia commented, but grunted when Annabelle immediately elbowed her. “What?”

    I laughed, shaking my head. “Yeah, my mom wanted me to have a unique name due to my unique looks. Bren means flame.”

    “Flame?” Drake echoed, leaning his head on his hands. “That seems like it would fit those two more than you,” he comments, tossing a thumb towards the twins who in turn scowled at him.

    “Perhaps if you’re only going by hair color,” I say, smiling at them. “My mom had me after a hard period in her life and she said that my birth reignited the flame she had for life. Hence the name.” The others nodded in understanding but thankfully chose to not inquire more about my mother.  The main reason I’m named Bren is because I’m part dragon but I obviously couldn’t say anything about that to them.  I asked questions about them more, trying to come across open and approachable. It seemed to be working as they were laughing and joking, telling stories about their childhoods.

    “Did you hear?” Annabelle asked, looking at her phone before glancing up at us, eyes lit with excitement.

    “What?” Sarah asked, shoveling food into her mouth. I stifled a laugh, she ate like she hadn’t had a meal in days.

    “Easton’s coming back,” she squealed, turning her phone so we could look at the screen.

    “Who’s Easton?” I questioned, concentrating on my sandwich while everyone else looked at Annabelle’s phone.

    “Only the hottest guy in school! He’s been gone on a tr—” Annabelle stops, eyes widening for a split second before she caught herself.  You see, I already gathered they’re wolves by their scents so this Easton fellow must be the Alpha—or the future Alpha.  What Annabelle was about to say is that he was off on a training trip, probably to get a last minute trip to gain more training on how to lead a pack.  “He’s been gone on a traveling trip,” She finishes, trying to cover up her mistake.

    Telling humans about wolves unless they're your mate is forbidden, so I understand the minor panic attack when she thinks she’s slipped up.  Fortunately I already know about wolves, but of course they don’t know that.  I play the part of a confused human by raising an eyebrow but shaking my head after a moment and continuing on with the conversation.  “Why is his return important?”

    “Well, it’s been a while, so it’d be nice to have him back.  Plus, he’s hot,” Anastasia answered, smirking at her comment.  Annabelle elbowed her sister who grunted at the abuse.  “What?”

    I laugh at the twins’ antics but am still playing the part of the confused human.  “I still don’t understand.”

    “He’s one of those guys that all the girls want and all the guys want to be,” Drake answers, seemingly bored with the conversation.

    “Keep him away from me then,” I mumble, taking another bite from my sandwich.

    “You haven’t even seen him yet, how could you already know you want nothing to do with him?” Sarah questions, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

    “I’ve just had a lot of experience with guys like that before,” I answer, shrugging off the seriousness of the issue.  “Just not wanting to deal with that again if I can help it.”

    “Here, see for yourself if that’s someone you don’t want to be around,” Annabelle passes her phone to me and I take it before looking at the picture on the screen.  The image on the screen was of a man, not a boy still in his senior year of high school.  His midnight black hair was long but tamed, framing his face and giving him a rugged look with his facial hair.  His eyes were hazel, but in the picture they looked almost golden as they seemed to stare at me from beyond the screen.  Something about his image tugged at me and my wolf, Blaidd, howled in my head.  Could he be?  No, it’s impossible to tell from just a picture.

    “I have to admit he is good looking,” I answer, handing the phone back to Annabelle.  “I won’t judge a book by its cover but I’m still cautious.”

    The conversation around me continued but I went off somewhere in my mind.  There can’t possibly be a way to know if someone is your mate by just a picture.  For wolves and dragons you need to be around them to smell their scent and when your skin touches, sparks fly from the contact and butterflies flutter within your stomach.  But the way that Blaidd howled and Blaise twitched her wings at the sight of him, clearly my other forms are intrigued and interested at the prospect but I can’t make any rash decisions before I can confirm anything.

    “Bren?” Sarah called, drawing me from my thoughts.

    “Yeah?” I ask, looking at her.

    “The bell rang, lunch is over,” she tells me, gesturing to the room around us.  True enough students were packing their belongings and leaving the cafeteria.  “Are you okay?”

    “Yeah,” I answer, gathering my things and standing up.  “Sorry, I’m just tired.  I didn’t sleep all that well last night.”

    “First day nerves?” She asked, walking with me out of the cafeteria.

    “Yeah,” I lie, smiling at her.

    “It’s okay, it’ll get better,” she says, pulling me in the direction of our next class together.  “Plus, now you have friends here so the transition will be easier!”

    It’s hard not to get sucked into Sarah’s energy and I find myself laughing and getting excited with her.  It distracted me enough that I didn’t think about my possible mate for the rest of the day, and she helped make the school day go by faster rather than killing me with boredom.

    However I need to get home so I can talk to my mother about Easton.  If he is my mate I need to figure out if I can trust him with the secret of my identity, and if not, how to reject him without him knowing I know about the mate bond.