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1024 Words
She smiled. “I know. Can you take me home?”
“You’re sure you want to be around me? The animal is still restless, but I promise you I have him under control.”
“Yes. Can you take me home or would it be a problem to have someone drop off my car?” She felt the need to reassure him again. “I’m not scared of you.”
The lines on his forehead smoothed a little. “I can take you home. I’ll call up one of the enforcer packs doing rounds in this area.”
She patted his hand. It was nice to be able to give him some reassurance in his time of insecurity. “Good. Let’s do it.”
“Guess who called me,” Kel said the following day at end of their long school day. They headed for the parking lot behind the gym.
They were the most unusual looking triplets. She and her sister were physically identical, while Kel was the total opposite. Where they were short, he was tall. They were curvy, he was muscled. The girls had their mother’s lighter skin tone, and he had his father’s bronzed.
“Oh! I know. Was it that TV show to let you know you are NOT the father?” She laughed.
“No, smartass. Kass.” He hugged her to his side and planted a kiss on her head.
Oh. Not the news she’d hoped for. “What did she want?”
Their sister had stayed away from them for years. She’d chosen to live with their mother and follow in her footsteps. Only Kass had a much meaner personality than their mother. And with the way Karla had felt lately, she’d likely tell Kass off than try to get along.
“Said she was headed this way and would come visit.”
Karla stopped at the entrance to the gym and turned to her brother. “You’re messing with me, right?”
He grimaced. “I wish I were. She said she misses us and wants to spend time with you.”
“Me? What the hell did I ever do to deserve that kind of punishment?” She groaned and yanked the door to the gym open.
Her question went unanswered when they saw Ellie, Jordan, and one of the Wolfe pack enforcers in the center of the gym, fighting.
“What’s going on here?” She yelled, rushing toward her friends.
Ellie had the enforcer in a headlock, while Jordan was twisting his leg in a weird direction.
“Hey, Karla!” Jordan grinned and blew a strand of hair away from her very flushed face.
“Um, hi?” She pointed at the guy. “What are you doing?”
“We’re training,” Ellie answered before letting the poor man go. “Thanks, Mike! We’re good for today.”
The enforcer nodded and rushed out of the back door. “I’m running late for my shift, Ellie. I’ll see you ladies next week.”
Karla moved closer to the yoga-geared women. “Is a zombie apocalypse happening that I’m not aware of?”
The roar of Mike’s bike sounded outside as he left the parking lot.
Ellie laughed, tossing a towel at Jordan along with a water bottle. “Nope. We decided we need to be better equipped to deal with more attacks, should they come.”
Kel nodded. “Makes sense. I’d love to take some of those trainings too.”
Jordan practically bounced on her feet and did a karate chop. “You should! It’s really fun, and we’re learning lots of new moves.”
“I’m not getting taken down that easily again.” Ellie’s eyes flashed with anger. She’d taken a massive beating along with Jordan a few weeks back. Karla had felt bad seeing Ellie angry. It hurt all of them when one of them was injured. And Jordan had suffered enough in her life. She didn’t deserve any more pain.
“You know,” Kel turned to Karla, “you should take a couple of these self-defense classes too. I mean falling on your ass would be normal for you anyway.” He grinned.
“Are you PMSing, Kel?” She struck her tongue out at him.
Ellie and Jordan shook their heads at his suggestion. Jordan glanced down at Karla’s belly. “Our Karla is a lover, not a fighter.”
Karla growled. “Is everyone out to tick me off today?”
Ellie grabbed her school bag, and they all headed outside. “Never you, darling. You’re just too quiet sometimes. We like to see a reaction.”
Karla smacked Ellie on her ass, making her friend gasp. “There’s your reaction.”
“I don’t know if I should be watching this,” Kel mumbled. “But what the hell? Don’t mind me.”
“Men,” they all said at the same time. Jordan’s car was closest. She unlocked the doors as they closed the distance toward Jordan’s car.
A forest green van passed in front of them. Three men, growling and half-shifted jumped out of the van and then the van sped off. Kel, Jordan, and Ellie were ahead of Karla when everything went crazy.
“Kar, stay back!” Ellie shouted and met one of the men head on. She shifted to her black and white wolf, pushing the man with her paws on his chest. He landed on his back with a loud, hair-raising growl.
Jordan was grabbed by one of the men around her waist from behind. That lasted all of a second. She stomped on his foot and yanked back one of his fingers until it broke. The sound of cracking bone filled the air along with the man’s angry cry. Jordan turned the moment he released her. She swung hard and drew her claws deep into the man’s face. His long blond hair swung in a halo around him as he tried to pull his face away. He released a loud, angry growl and fully changed into a large gray wolf. Jordan shifted too.
- Writer
