Fangs Beneath the Ice

Chapter 5: Cornered

Wren's POV

“Asher's our mate.” Elise said for the umpteenth time on our way home.

I refused to acknowledge all that she'd been saying to me since we left the locker room but it was hard not to think about what that cocky Asher had said.

“You're a werewolf, just like me.

Ughhhh, I facepalmed. All my efforts at being subtle had gone down the drain now I had a mate and he knew I was a werewolf because he was one.

I managed to get a shut eye at home but once morning came, I was over it a bit.

Maren and mum were downstairs making cookies for the cookie jar. I stole some from the pan and Maren went on a tirade about how I'd been in bed all morning but I got to have the cookies first.

“Wren, you and your sister should go for a walk in the town.” Mum suggested and Maren was quick to agree.

“Yes mum. My friends told me that Fenwick has so many beautiful places.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, enough places to drive you crazy. I'll just rest for the day, I don't have the energy to walk.”

Maren looked at me like I'd just shoved her head to the hot oven. “Mummmmmmmmmmm.” She cried out. “Wren doesn't wanna go with me.”

Mum frowned at me. Did anyone really let me have my moment in this house?

And that was how I found myself under the scorching sun with my hood pulled up walking down the busy streets of Fenwick Hollow with an enthusiastic Maren who was going on and on about some nice places in town.

“Gosh Maren,” I finally snapped at her. “I'm tired of you yapping in my ears. You're fourteen, not four. I don't think you need a babysitter.”

“Never said I wanted one.” She hissed. “I just needed you to come with me because mum wouldn't let me leave the house so try not to feel too important.”

We continued the walk in silence and when we got to a building that had Belle's dance class boldly written Maren said she was going to check it out. We decided to meet here at sixty thirty.

I wandered round the town, stopping to buy two scoops of ice cream to cool myself.

“Why don't you come down here and try your luck out at the bowler's bowling court?” A man yelled, twirling a sign that pointed into the building.

Bowling was kind of my thing and I had a few dollars on me so I decided to try luck.

I paid the entry fee, went to the bowling alley, picked up one and let it fly. The ball rolled, knocking down all the pins and for the first time since the day started, I was happy.

"What's a little girl like you doing here all alone?"

I didn't bother turning around right away, lining up my next shot instead. "Winning, apparently. You're blocking my light."

I let the ball fly and just like before I knocked out all the pins.

The guy laughed, loud enough that two of his friends looked up from the next lane over, drifting closer with that particular swagger college guys got when they smelled an easy target. "Feisty. I like it." He nodded at the pins I'd just leveled. "Lucky shot."

"Wasn't luck." I hissed. “And can you genuinely leave me alone. I'm trying to concentrate here.”

"Prove it, then." He grinned, gesturing at his friends to gather round. "Fifty bucks says you can't do that again."

I straightened up. "Make it a hundred and you've got a deal."

That got a round of laughter out of all three of them. Typical for fools like them to immediately look down on someone because you were a girl.

I was going to teach them the kind that assumed they already knew how this ended.

They pooled their cash on the ball return, and I picked up my ball, feeling the weight on my shoulder as I held it.

“Time to teach you big babies how it's done.” I bowled a strike then another and by the third frame the laughing had stopped entirely.

“No damn way.” I heard one of them say as they looked at me with utter disbelief.

By the time I finished my run I was three hundred dollars richer and they were all staring at the scoreboard like it had personally betrayed them.

"Rematch," the first guy said, jaw tight. "Right now. Double or nothing." He was fumbling in his pocket for some cash.

"I'm good." I pocketed the cash, already grabbing my bag. "I won you dweebs fair and square so maybe practice before you start betting money you don't want to lose."

I left them there, sputtering, and let myself feel smug about it the entire walk toward the alley behind the dance studio, cutting through early since I still had twenty minutes before I was supposed to meet Maren.

A thin, scraggly orange cat was picking through a stack of flattened boxes near the dumpster, one ear notched, wary but not quite feral.

I crouched down slowly, clicking my tongue, and it let me get close enough to scratch behind its ears, a low, rusty purr starting up almost immediately.

"There you go," I murmured, gently rubbing it's back and it purred with delight. "See, some creatures actually like me."

"There she is."

I looked up. The three guys from the bowling alley stood at the mouth of the alley, blocking the only easy way out, all traces of the earlier laughing gone from their faces entirely.

"We want our money back." They said.

"I won it." I straightened slowly, the cat darting off behind the dumpster at the shift in energy. "Fair game. You lost so get over it. That's why every betting platform tells you to bet responsibly.”

"Yeah, well, we've decided we don't like how it worked out." The guy in front, the loudest one from earlier, stepped closer, and the other two fanned out on either side of him, boxing me in against the brick.

Ughhh, do I really have to do this?

"So here's how this is gonna go. You're gonna hand over the cash, and we're gonna forget you ever hustled us in front of half the bowling alley."

"Or?"

He smiled, and it wasn't a nice smile at all. "Or we're gonna hurt you bad enough that you remember not to do that again.”