The Lonely Wolf

4

Rodricks

First day completed. No one reported anything bad back to me about the rogue girl, although quite a few have reported some concerns about her being a vampire hybrid. Sharron didn’t seem so concerned but is hoping to get some more information from her group later today.

((Whistle blows))

“Alright team! You have 15 minutes to change and meet me at the start of the trails. If you haven’t noticed, we have a new transfer in. I expect you all will be welcoming. Ladies help her find the practice uniforms. Miss Parker, I have seen your times, so I’m expecting you to keep pace with my top runners. Rodrick Jackson is your captain. For practice, he’ll be keeping watch from the back of the pack, motivating everyone and making sure no one gets lost on the trail. Sebastian Wilson is going to be leading the pack. That is the runner I’m expecting you to be keeping up with Miss Parker. I have a feeling this year will be our year folks. Now hurry and get changed.”

The coach loves those pep talks at the beginning of the season each year. If he thinks she can keep up with Bass, she must be a good runner.

“Aaahhh” I hear a scream from the girls' locker room. “What the f- ugh… I….ca--ant…”

“What is happening in there?” I asked one of the she-wolves from my pack as she nonchalantly exited.

“Wolf test.” She shrugged and continued walking by.

Veronica

I actually thought they were being nice when they handed me a practice uniform. As soon as I put the shirt over my head, I felt the burn in my lungs and on my skin. It was like I inhaled fire. I tried to pull the shirt off but couldn’t breathe to get it up.

“What is going on?” I asked Sasha.

“I think it’s Wolfsbane. Try to get to the shower we have to rinse it off and breathe in the steam so you can try coughing out the poison.” She suggested.

I forced myself up to unlock the door. I could barely stand. Walking felt impossible.

“Keep going,” Sasha urged.

“F-ugh-kk!!”

I try to breathe through each step, although I feel like I’m losing my vision.

“I got you.” I heard as Maggie wrapped her arm around me and held me up.

“Do you need help to get that shirt off? Looks like you are trying to…”

“Sho-wer” I managed to get out.

“Okay. You’re almost there. Here. “ She gets me into a stall.

I fumble around until I figure out how to turn the water on. I rip the shirt off and pull my hair loose to let the water rinse the poison out of my hair. It took a while for the steam to cool off the burning in my lungs. Then I began coughing uncontrollably. I run to the toilet as my body forces the yellow poison out of my lungs. I felt Maggie holding my hair back until I got it all out. I blow my nose and stand.

“I’m sorry. You’re late for practice because of me. You can go ahead. I’ll be alright.” I wheeze out.

“Nope. They’ll be warming up for the first 15 minutes. So I'm in no rush. Here’s a fresh poison-free shirt. If you give me a minute, I can make an antidote if you like.” She says, watching me.

“I can feel the healing starting already. Is that wolf poison or vampire poison? My wolf thinks it’s wolfsbane,” I inquire.

“From your vomit it looks like yellow wolfsbane. It looks to be mostly affecting the wolf side,” she said, frantically looking through her bag.

“So triggering the vampire side might help?” I asked with an idea.

“Maybe. Please don’t bite me.” I can smell the instant fear and she looks to have something in her grasps in her bag.

“What! No. That dude gave me synthetic blood earlier, remember? It’s disgusting, and I meant to throw it out but forgot. It may trick my body to react like a vampire,” I say as I open my bag and take a big gulp. It was hard getting it down. I tasted like copper and was the thickness of tomato juice. I gagged and coughed up more yellowish fluid a few more times but that seemed to have done the trick.

“Better?” Maggie asked, putting her bag back into her locker.

“Yes. Thanks for staying. I’m ready for a run now.”

“You sure? The coach will excuse you since you were technically poisoned.”

“I’m good” I say, walking out still holding the disgusting blood.

I forced myself to finish the blood down and tossed the container in the trash as I walked over to the trail.

“Thanks for the blood Edgar. I really helped get the poison out of my system.”

“My name is Edwin.” He corrects me.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes and continued on.

“Do you want me to stay back and warm up with you?” Rodrick asks.

“No, I want you to control your pack. Someone just tried to kill me,” I scowled.

“I heard and I’m sorry about that. I promise to get to the bottom of it and will punish the responsible people,” he says.

Yeah right they never do punish the other people.

Rodrick

“It’s just a little hazing. It’s not like she’s full wolf. It was just a spray of watered-down wolfsbane. It shouldn’t hurt her too badly,” Stephanie, one of the pack warriors, says.

“We’ll just wait until my dad hears about this. I am not holding back that you were involved.”

We just finish warming up when the new girl comes out of the locker room. She is pissed. She must have had to rinse it out of her hair. Earlier it was tightly pulled back. Now its wet and pulled loose. With her hair like that, she reminds me of my younger sister Rebecca. Becca likes to wash and go letting her waist-length curls flow like that. The new girl's hair is just shorter and lighter colored than my sister’s.

“Be careful. She’s pissed. Look at the steam coming from her head,” Silas warned.

“I’ve noticed. I just hope she doesn’t attack anyone. Just when I thought today was going to be an easy one. Now I have to be on guard because my pack members are provoking her.”

“Hey, why don’t I run with you?” I suggested. She shrugged as the coach blew the whistle for us to start our run. I had to try to defuse the situation.

“Whatever” she says as she plugs her ear buds in her ears and begins to run.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t have to push yourself.” I’m sure her lungs are still burning. Only an Alpha can recover so quickly.

“ I’m fine. You don’t need to babysit me,” she says as she takes off.

One by one, she quickly passes by the other runners.

“Don’t push yourself. You will get a cramp since you’re not warmed up,” I warned.

“I said I am fine!” She ran off and I stayed close behind.

This chick is so stubborn and is going to hurt herself.

“Roddy, you’re supposed to stay in the back. "You’re on my heels,” Bass says through mind link. I hadn’t even noticed we made the front.

“Yeah, I’m not sure what is up with this chick. She’s going to burn out.”

“Do you like her or something? She is pretty.”

“No. Nothing like that. I don’t know if it’s because she reminds me of Becca, but I just feel like I should be protecting her.”

“Now that you mention it. With her hair like that, I can see the resemblance. She’s not slowing down. I’ll fall to the back. You lead the pack,” he says as he slows down and I speed up.

I am now at the front, and she’s keeping up with my pace. She’s definitely caught in her thoughts and looks like she’s talking to her wolf.

She's running faster than I thought she would. It looks like she is following the markers more than taking my lead, since she's forcing me to run faster than my normal pace. We lead with a huge gap from the other runners the way the whole trail and soon make it back to the start.

“Now that’s a good start, Miss Parker. Your timing is great. Nice motivation, Mr Jackson,” Coach says.

I grab a drink of water from my bottle. She must not have brought water, or maybe she doesn’t trust it after what they did.

“Here you can catch a waterfall drink from my bottle.” I poured a little water into her mouth and she gave me a grateful look.

“Thanks. I left my water unattended over there and didn’t know if it was safe to drink. You don’t have to be so nice to me. I hope you don’t think I have an interest in being part of your pack. I probably will only be here until I graduate", she says, looking around like she doesn’t want anyone seeing her talking to me.

“Are you applying to Philmore University? It’s a private university run by supernaturals. My parents are on the board if you’re interested.”

“No. I don’t want to be around any supernaturals,” she says, side-eyeing me.

“So you like being a rogue? You know pack life isn’t that bad. You’ll be able to network, and we'll take care of our own."

“I’ve noticed,” she says sarcastically, "but seriously, I know I would never be accepted in a pack. No need to candy coat things. I'm a hybrid. I will never be accepted by anyone," she says right before the rest of the runners come out of the woods.

“Of course, you would be here cozying up with the Alpha," Stephanie says, brushing past Ronnie.

I dated Stephanie a short period of time last year. She still believes we are destined to be fated mates. She's pretty but she tries way too hard and is way too possessive.

“Yo! Chill. No one is cozying up with anyone” I try to defuse the situation. I could feel the new girl was trying hard to control her emotions.

Ronnie rolls her eyes and walks past Stephanie towards the woods as Stephanie steps back to be in front of her.

“Just know I don’t like her. I don’t trust her and I don’t want her here especially near you.” She says, eyeing Ronnie but talking to me.

I thought that would set her off. Rogues are known for their violence, but instead she just started laughing and walked back towards the trail.