NightStar Summit

3. Bench Warmer

COLTON

"Something's wrong with you," my dad said as he hurriedly walked through the woods, in the direction of our pack's home. I quickly followed behind him, fearing that he might get more upset if I didn't. "There was a threat right in front of you, Colton, and you didn't do anything about it. You were more worried about the other girl."

Colton...?

God, I was in trouble.

"Sorry," was all I could say. Yeah, I knew that Sadie and her parents were threats, traitors to our pack, but they weren't a big enough threat for them to have precedence over her. God, I needed to stop. I don't even know her.

"Who has hoodooed you?" My dad asked and I almost laughed at the question, but immediately thought of how worse that would make my situation.

So I chose the more honest route, "A girl."

He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face me, the most serious look on his face, "She go to your school?" He turned back around and kept walking.

"Yeah."

"Good. You can get your homework from her in a couple days when we get back from a hunt."

Fuck, "Really?" I liked hunting, I really did, but I knew he was doing this on purpose and that upset me a lot.

"Yes, really? Do you have a problem with that?" His stance became painfully straight, his glare serious and almost frightening.

I didn't dare challenge him. He was my dad, but before that he was the Alpha and I could easily get kicked to the curb.

"No."

"Great. You can tell me all about this girl then."

"I'm so excited," I mumbled.

KATARINA

"Oh my God," Sadie said to get our entire lunch table's attention, there were eight of us total. "Kat and I got attacked by a pack of wolves when we went hiking at the summit yesterday."

"The summit?!" Hannah squealed, she was more Sadie's friend than mine. We were sort of just acquaintances, "Like NightStar Summit?"

"I didn't know it had a name," I confessed. That was kind of stupid of me to assume now that I think about. Everything has a name.

"Well, we didn't get that far," Sadie said.

"Nobody ever does!" Zack, another one of Sadie's friends said, "Thats where the wolves live. The NightStar Summit Pack. They're like the nicest and meanest people you've ever met before...I mean that's what people say anyway."

"You make them sound like people, not wolves," I added. Wolves can't be mean and nice, they're one or the other.

"They're both. Haven't you heard of werewolves?"

"They're not real. What are we in? The third grade? Are you going to try to tell me vampires exist too?"

"They're real. I've seen them with my own eyes. There's this kid on the football team, his name's like Forrest or some hippy s**t like that, little sophomore but I watched him walk into the locker-room and no one ever came out but a wolf was spotted like seconds later."

"So yeah totally...werewolves do exist," I said very very sarcastically.

"Forrest McGregor?" Some random chica asked and suddenly this conversation was super interesting. Colt's last name was McGregor, maybe they were related. "Like Colt's little brother?"

"Ah s**t, yeah you're right," Zack said, "Dude, Colt's cool. His bro is hella weird though."

"He's so perf. I wish he actually put himself out there like all the other f**k boys though. I'd be on that so fast. Colt, that is. Not Forrest."

Same. I added mentally.

"Um..." Sadie mumbled, "Yeah, lets change the subject."

"Why?" Zack asked, "What's wrong with Colt?"

"I hate him. He's an asshole and so is his family. Can we move on or are you guys going to be jerks?"

I didn't know that she knew them. Why didn't she tell me that?

"You're just mad because you can't have him."

"Ok who..." Zack changed the subject just as Leah and Sadie were about to get into a huge fight, "Is going to the football game tonight?"

I think I heard it was at 7. Today was one of the few days I didn't have to work so I was planning on going so I could mingle with my friends outside of school. "I am," I said.

"Yeah, girl."

COLTON

I tried to distance myself from them. There was no way I was going to be seen with my dad and little sister after they learned everything I knew about Kat.

Nosy people.

I saw her as soon as I walked onto the football field to get to the stadium. She was hard to miss, and I wasn't so sure that was a good thing.

I found my group of friends and coincidentally they were sitting next to her group of friends at the very top. They liked me for some reason and I found that annoying as f**k, because I couldn't stand them.

"Stop staring," Noah pestered whilst waving his hand in front of my face. "It's so f*****g obvious. You need to be the one that plays hard to get. Girls dig that s**t, man."

"Yeah," Paisley leaned into be closer, "I wouldn't listen to him, Colt. Do you remember the girls he's dated?"

I thought about it before laughing along with her. Noah didn't have the best reputation with the ladies in our pack. He settled and took what he could get and they hardly ever lasted long.

Nobody had worse exes than him though and I found that hilarious.

"Wait," I deadpanned, "I wasn't even staring at her. What are you guys talking about?"

Paisley, her boyfriend Chance, and Noah all went silent and I rolled my eyes as my dad and sister took a seat next to me.

"Family time, Colt. We're here to cheer on your brother."

"He's a bench warmer!" Felicity clapped. She pretty much didn't know that being a bench warmer was not a good thing.

"Do you want some popcorn or something, Fliss?" I asked. I needed to take a walk already and the game had hardly even started.

She nodded and shot off the bench, "Yeah. I'm coming with you.”