Conflicted Love

Animal Antics

Without fail, the whispers followed me through the school halls like a persistent winter breeze the next day. I didn't catch all of what they were saying, and frankly I didn't want to. The general gist was bad enough... Why did it have to be the Alpha's daughter who had TWO suitors fighting over her? What's so special about her? I bet her dad set it up just so that she'd feel important for a bit, she's so boring! That was the wolf kids anyway, the human ones didn't know the real story. They did know some drama had gone off at my birthday, but they obviously couldn't know the full story. Wolves lived double lives here and now the pack resented me for creating yet another secret they had to keep.

My head was a mess. Scenes from the weekend kept flashing through my mind, so many emotions tripping over one another. I was so distracted by everything, I walked headlong into someone and tripped over my own feet. The person I'd walked into spun round like lightning and strong arms caught me before I hit the floor. I tried to apologise as he helped me upright, but the intoxicating scent of Jasper stopped me in my tracks. His golden eyes glinted in the morning sun and a cheeky smile spread across his face.

"Erin, is that you falling for me, or...?" he stopped short and the smile dropped from his face. He leaned close to me, "I can smell that bastard Felix all over you," he hissed, quietly enough that human ears wouldn't be able to make it out.

I cringed inwardly. After our late-night rendezvous, I overlaid this morning and didn't have time to shower before school, so I still had Felix's scent on me. Being a wolf was a tad inconvenient sometimes.

"Thank you for catching me, Jasper," I smiled, pointedly, "People have enough reason to gossip about me right now, without adding a concussion to the list."

Jasper took the hint, but his jaw line still gave away his tension as he stepped back, finally letting go of me. My skin tingled where his fingers had been and I tried to ignore the hair on my neck as it stood to attention. He eyed me shrewdly.

"Look, can we... can we just, you know, hang out... after school? Please?" He held a hand up to halt my impending argument, "Just to talk, get to know each other a bit. I promise."

Sighing sarcastically, I nodded in agreement.

You know... when you sigh at me like that, it really makes me want to do something to you that would get us both expelled! His mind-link startled me and his cheeky demeanour was back.

Jasper...

I know, I know, he cut me off. Later, he winked and I sighed again as he headed off to class. Shaking my head, I made my way to my own lesson, trying to ignore the accusing stares of some of the girl cliques as I passed by.

~*~

When the final bell rang for the end of school, I was so eager to get away from the gossips that for the second time that day, I walked clean into someone as I turned out of the gates.

"I'm so sorry, princess," the velvet voice of Felix spoke, as he caught my elbow to steady me.

Please don't call me that here, Felix.

He bit his lip, "Apologies. s**t, maybe I shouldn't have turned up here. I spent all day wondering if I should, then I just thought-"

"Whatever you thought, it was wrong!" Jasper had appeared at my side, "And no, you shouldn't have turned up here, because Erin and I are off on a date!" He taunted Felix, slipping his arm around my shoulder. 

Felix looked from Jasper, to me and back again. My stomach churned. I pushed Jasper's arm off me and they started squaring up to one another.

"Jasper!" I moaned, pushing my way between them, "It's not a date! Cut it out, both of you!"

They both shifted back a little from me, but neither took their eyes off the other. Anger radiated from each and I was almost worried that they'd phase in view of the humans. Wolves were not known for their self-control when defending their mates.

"Oh, pur-lease!"

A shrill female voice rang out from the school yard, breaking the their competitive concentration and surprising us all. A tall, pretty human girl in my year group was stalking towards us, flicking her wavy blonde hair over her shoulder as her heeled boots sounded against the concrete with each step. Her short skirt fluttered in the summer breeze. A pit formed in my stomach as I realised who it was.

"Why on earth," she slowly exclaimed emphatically, clearly wanting to cause a scene, "Why - on - earth... are you two gorgeous guys fighting over this... plain, little b***h?"

Shit. I felt both Jasper and Felix bristle either side of me, DON'T! She's just trying to get a rise out of me. Keep your tempers.

She smiled in amusement, still twirling a lock of her hair annoyingly around a perfectly manicured finger. Clearly not satisfied, she continued, as a couple of her friends laughed and pointed in the background, drawing the attention of more of our fellow students as they strolled off home, "Felix, you especially should remember that blondes have more fun!" She winked, pouting her thick, shiny lip-gloss at him, "Why don't you and I have some fun like we used to and let boring old Erin run off home to her books, or her knitting, whatever it is she does for fun these days?"

Some of the students had slowed down to watch the scene unfold, giggling. I noticed a lot of the faces that had looked so scornfully at me in the hallways today were there, looking very intrigued. Most of them were wolves.

A small chuckle escaped Felix as he slowly ambled towards her, "Imogen..." he lazily drawled her name, as he closed the gap between her and where I stood, rooted to the ground in shock, next to Jasper. He was stood right in front of her now. Despite being about the same height as me, her heels meant she was almost looking Felix dead in the eye as he slowly lifted a hand to the side of her face, brushing a lock of hair tenderly into his fingers, "Do me a favour..." he spoke softly, but loud enough so that the growing crowd could hear. I swallowed hard against my dry throat as waves of jealousy shot through me. He wasn't mine to be jealous of, but I couldn't control it. A smug smile spread over her heavily made-up face, thick eyelashes fluttering. Felix ran the long lock of hair through his fingers until it dropped softly off them and back onto her barely-covered chest.

"In fact," he continued a little louder, taking one small step back, opening his arms theatrically wide, "Why don't you do us all a favour? And f**k - OFF!"

Comedic gasps and laughter erupted from the crowd, a few people pointed and someone shouted something about taking her to the burns unit. Imogen gaped at him for a second, as Felix ambled back over to my side, grinning to himself.

I barely stifled a laugh as Imogen finally regained herself, face venomous as she turned to storm off, where she promptly slipped on one of her heels and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. Legs akimbo, most of the watching students got a good eyeful of her pretty pink underwear as she scrambled to get back on her feet. Her catty girlfriends squawked as they ran to her aid, giving Felix the finger as they picked her up and scurried away. The crowd dissipated almost as quickly as it had gathered. Even Jasper almost looked impressed as Felix turned to me, smirking.

"Do you realise how much more drama you just caused me?" I mock-despaired.

Felix ran his hand through his hair, "Sorry... I just, she - she's such a b***h! I couldn't just stand by, do nothing and let her speak to you like that," he looked to his feet, shuffling them awkwardly.

"Well, I think it's time Erin and I got off on our date!" Jasper quipped loudly.

"It's - not - a - date!" I yelled, a little louder than I meant to. Tears threatened my eyes once again, as the emotion of it all overwhelmed me.

"I'll go, give you some space. I left my number at your house, Erin. Call me if you want to talk," Felix backed off quickly, headed a short way down the road, got in his car and drove away. He was good at disappearing.

"Jasper, I'm tired. All this is too much for me. If you want to talk, can you walk me home please?"

"Sure," he said, "Whatever you want... whenever you want it."

I couldn't fail to notice the heavy subtext to his words as we headed on the short walk to the pack house, finally alone after the other students had rushed home.    

~*~ 

For most of the walk, the conversation flowed quite easily. Given we'd never spoken before the weekend, Jasper and I were amused to discover how much we had in common. Pretty much everything I said, he agreed with... or, he was good at avoiding disagreeing with me too much, at least. Maybe he was trying a little too hard to get along, but it felt as though he was genuinely interested in knowing me - something I wasn't all that used to. 

He wasn't either. He told me that he never really connected with anyone before, always preferred to be alone rather than around too many people. His parents were not all that well-off and spent a lot of time working, so he grew up having to spend time entertaining himself. I could relate. Although my family never wanted for anything as Alphas, it was a busy job managing the pack hierarchy as well as maintaining human-friendly jobs and appearances. Given I'm not next in line to lead, I wasn't given as much training and attention as Elijah, so preferred to take myself off and keep out of the way.

"All this time," Jasper shook his head, "I thought I was odd, that there wasn't anywhere I fit in. But here you were all along. And now I don't feel so alone."

A warmth spread through me at his words and I found myself wanting to reach out and stroke his arm. I resisted. I had learned from experience that he didn't need much encouragement.

"I've got to ask. What's the deal with you and Imogen anyway?"

I groaned, "We were friends growing up. As little kids, it's not too much of a problem being friends with a human. But when you hit your teens, you know, your senses start developing more and it gets harder to hide. Throw in living at the Alpha pack house, having to keep her at arm's length from all the wolf business there, we grew apart. She knew I was holding back from her all the time and things turned sour. She got new friends, then developed boobs and discovered boys too, so I fell off her radar completely. I guess deep down she's still bitter about feeling pushed away. More bitter than I realised..."

"That's kind of sad."

"Yeah, but it is what it is. We're forbidden from telling humans that we're wolves, so... that's that."

Jasper looked at me for a moment. Just, simply, looked at me. Sympathy played about his warm eyes and it felt, for once, as though someone truly understood me. No one had ever asked so much about my life before. Most of the important members of the pack already knew enough (or sometimes too much) and everyone else was so busy maintaining their own lives, I just... fell through the cracks.

My cheeks began to flush, "I should probably think about heading inside."

We'd been sat on the low wall that edged in my front garden for quite a while now. The whole house probably knew we were out there and someone was most definitely keeping watch.

Jasper clutched his chest dramatically, "Must you tear yourself from me and break my heart?"

I sighed sarcastically at him and he narrowed his slightly. Suddenly they looked darker; less honey-coloured and more hazel. The air grew heavy between us and I found myself fidgeting under his intense gaze.

"If only you knew what that did to me," he murmured. His voice was barely more than a whisper, but it sent shivers across my skin nonetheless.