Abducted

~ Chapter 5 ~

I spent most of the night tossing and turning.  The last time I remember looking at the clock it was 3:30am.  I finally fell asleep and slept through my alarm.  Maggie woke me up when she burst into my room and yelled,

             “Alyssa, you’re still in bed?  You’re going to miss the bus!”

             I looked at the clock, 7:32am.  Crap!  I jumped out of bed and threw on the first clothes I could find.  Luckily, I had packed my backpack the night before.  I ran to the bathroom and quickly threw my hair up into a ponytail, swished some mouthwash around in my mouth and ran out the front door.  I made it to the bus stop just in time!

             Madison was not on the bus, so I sat on the seat we usually shared alone.  By the time we got to school I was lost in my thoughts.  Stefanie nudged me as she when past, startling me.

             “You coming?”  She asked.  I grabbed my bag and followed her off the bus.  I figured Madison would get a ride to school from her mom when she went to work, but she was not at her locker.  She was not in class either.  I sent her a quick text message to see where she was.

             “Where’s Madison?”  Alexis asked as caught up to me in the hallway after class.

             “She’s off for the day.”  Stefanie answered as she walked up to us.  “She’s still sick apparently.  Super contagious according to my mom.  She’ll probably be out for a few days.”  I shrugged.  Okay, not super weird if she is just out sick.  The three of us all walked to our next class together.

             The rest of the morning dragged on.  I was glad when lunchtime finally rolled around.  I was the first one from my group of friends to make it to the cafeteria, so I sat at our table and waited for the others to arrive.  Xander was the first one to show up.

             “Hey, have you seen Madison?”  He asked me, visibly upset.  “I haven’t seen her all day.”

             “She’s at home.  She’s pretty sick and expected to be away for a few days.”  I told him.  “Have you talked to Stefanie yet?  She was trying to get a hold of you yesterday.”  I asked him.  He looked down at the table for a few seconds before responding,

             “Is she really mad?  I don’t know what to tell her.”  He said.

             “What do you mean, ‘you don’t know what to tell her?’”

             “She’s not my mate.  I know who my mate is, and it’s not her.”  He told me, and lowered his eyes to the table again.

             “So, who is your mate then if it’s not Stef?”  I asked.  “Hold that thought, Stef and Brett are coming.” I told him as they walked through the door and headed straight for our table.

             “Hi!”  Stefanie said happily as she sat down next to Xander at the table.  She smiled at him.  “Where were you yesterday?  I was messaging you all day.”  She asked him.

             “My phone was dead, sorry.  We need to talk.”  He told her.  He stood up and held out his hand for her.  She took it and they left the cafeteria together.

             “What was all that about?”  Brett asked as he sat down across from me where Xander was just sitting.

             “Hard to say.”  I told him, not wanting to share information that was not mine to share.  I opened my lunch bag and took out my turkey sandwich.  If there was one thing my mom could make really well, it was a turkey sandwich.

             “Hey, what’s up with Ben?  He’s not messaging me back.”  Brett asked.

             “I didn’t know there was something up.”  I replied.

             “Are you sure?  He wouldn’t answer me all weekend.  It’s weird.  He’s not even reading the messages.”  He told me.

             “No idea, I was at the packhouse all day Saturday and did homework in my room all day yesterday.  When I did see him briefly, he was ok.”  I told him.  Luckily, our conversation was interrupted when Alexis and Charles joined us at the table.

             “Where are the others?”  Charles asked.

             “Madison is home sick today.”  I said.

             “You just missed Xander and Stefanie.  They went to talk about something.”  Brett added.  We spent the rest of our lunch break talking and playing Euchre, girls against the guys.

             The rest of the school day passed by slowly.  At the end of Calculus class, I handed in my extra credit assignment to Mr. Buchannan before leaving for the day.  I caught up to Stefanie in the hallway on our way to our lockers.  She had been more quiet than usual all afternoon.  I could tell she had been crying at some point as well.

             “Hey, you ok?”  I asked her.

             “No.  Xander told me I’m not his mate.  He says he knows who is and it’s not me.”  She told me.

             “Did he say who it is?”  I asked, genuinely curious.

             “No, he wouldn’t say.  Just that it’s not me.  His mate doesn’t even know yet from what he told me.  He is still waiting for them to shift.”  She answered.

             “I know you were hoping you were his mate after he shifted early.  If you need anything, just let me know.”  I told her.

             “Can I sit with you on the bus?”  She asked.  “I can’t sit with Xander.  Not after what happened today.”

             “Sure.”  I told her.  “Let’s go so we don’t miss the bus.”  We made our way out to the bus together.  I could hear Xander and Brett talking behind us as we walked.  Stefanie sped up to put more distance between us and them.  She went straight to the seat I usually share with Madison and took the window seat.  She sat down quickly and stared out the window.  She refused to look away from the window until she knew that Xander had passed us and was at the back of the bus with Brett.

             “It’s all good now.  He’s past us.”  I told her.  I saw her visibly relax.  She had tears in her eyes when she looked at me.

             “Thanks!  I don’t know what I would have done if you wouldn’t sit with me.”

             “It’s going to be ok Stef.  You can sit with me anytime.”  I told her.

             “What about Madison?  You normally sit with her.”  She asked.

             “She’ll get over it.  Or she’ll sit with you and I’ll sit in another seat.  Either way, you don’t have to sit with Xander.”  I told her.

             “Ok.”  Stefanie said and smiled through her tears.

             We talked about a new project we were given in Family Studies class about family trees for the entire bus ride home.  When we got off the bus Stefanie said,

             “Gotta go, I’ll text you.”  Then ran home to the packhouse before anyone could say anything to her.  I walked home from the bus stop with Brett.  He usually played video game with Ben after school until supper time.

             “You hear from Ben yet?”  He asked me.

             “No, but I didn’t message him, so I wasn’t really expecting to.” I replied.

             “Oh.  You think I can still play video games with him today?”

             “I have not idea.  You’ll have to ask him.  I’m not a mind reader Brett.”

             “He’s not answering me.  I’m just going to go home, I think.  I’ll logon from there and we can play online if he wants to, I guess.”  He said sadly and kept walking once we got to my house.  I watched him walk away before going into the house enjoying the view.  I still hoped that he will be my mate when I turn eighteen.

             I went right up to my room to start on my homework as I had a lot of it today, plus the new family tree project to get started on.  I threw my backpack onto the bed and turned around to turn on my stereo.  I jumped and squealed when I saw Ben sitting at my desk using my laptop.  He turned around quickly and put his finger to his lips telling me to stay quiet.

             “What are you doing in my room?”  I whispered.

             “Hiding from mom.  She thinks I’m still in my room and she keeps trying to get me to come out.”  He whispered back.

             “Ok, so why don’t you just go out then.”  I asked again in a whisper.

             “I can’t.  Not until I figure out what the hell is going on.  I want to know why I didn’t shift.  I can’t find anything out though.  I’ve been looking online for 3 days!”  Ben said, clearly upset.

             “You ever think of asking someone?  Like I don’t know, our parents, or Dr. Ruben, or Alpha Davis or an Elder? ...”  I questioned further.

             “Ask them what though?  Hey, how come I didn’t shift?  Am I not really eighteen?  What are you hiding?  I have a lot of questions to ask.”  He told me.

             “Ok, so any of those is probably a good place to start.  What have you found online?”  I asked him.  Then I heard a loud gurgling sound come from his stomach.  “Ummm, was that your stomach?”  I laughed and asked him.

             “Yeah, I haven’t eaten since I snuck down to the kitchen last night.  Mom stayed home from work today, so I couldn’t risk going downstairs.”

             “Ok, stay here.”  I said and left to go downstairs to the kitchen to get him something to eat.  My mom was in her home office when I went past it on the way to the kitchen.  She followed me.

             “Hi mom.”  I said and smiled at her when she came into the kitchen behind me.

             “How was your day at school?”  She asked.

             “It was ok.  I got a new project in Family Studies about family trees.  I need to draw ours out and go back as far as I can find information.  Do you have any records I can look through?  I asked her quickly, hoping she would not ask me about Ben.

             “I’m sure I can dig something up for you to look through.”  She replied.  “Have you seen your brother today?  He is still hiding in his room.  I am really worried about him.”  She told me.

             “I haven’t seen him.  I figured he would have gone to work today.  Did he not?”  I asked, hoping she would not see through the lie.

             “No he didn’t.  I don’t think he’s eaten anything all weekend either.  Maybe you can get him to come out or at least eat something.”  She pleaded with me.

             “I can try.  But I make no promises.  Are we having something he likes for supper?”  I asked.

             “Your dad is making burgers on the bbq when he get’s home from work today.”  She told me.

             “Ok, I’ll see if he will eat supper then once it is ready.  I’m just going to grab a snack for myself now.”  I told her.

             I quickly added some deli meat, cheese, crackers, and a dill pickle to a plate and grabbed and apple from the fruit bowl on the table and a bottle of water from the fridge.

“I’m going to work on my homework.  I have a lot of it tonight.”  I told my mom.  She kissed me on the forehead and hugged me before I left the kitchen.

“I love you sweetheart.”

“I love you too mom.”  I told her.

When I got back to my room, Ben locked the door behind me.  I handed him the plate of food and water bottle.  I kept the apple for myself.  I turned on stereo so we could talk above a whisper.

“Thanks!”  He said before he inhaled the food.  He must have been really hungry.

“So, what answers have you come up with during your internet sleuthing?”  I asked him.

“Absolutely nothing.  Do you know how hard it is to find any information on werewolves when we are not supposed to exist?”

“Probably pretty hard.  Let’s go over everything we know about werewolves.  If we review all we’ve been taught growing up, maybe the answer will be there.”  I suggested.  I went to my closet and pulled out my notebooks from the werewolf classes we had to take when we were children.  Until we turned thirteen, we had to spend every Saturday in class learning everything about werewolves.  We learned about our physical makeup, werewolf law, elder law, who the elders were and how they are selected, werewolf hierarchy and so much more.  I flipped through my notes to a page that was title Facts and read aloud:

-        Werewolves are supernatural beings that are believed to be imaginary by humans.

-        Werewolves have super-heightened senses.

            o   Sight

            o   Sound

            o   Taste

            o   Touch

            o   Smell

-        Contrary to legend, werewolves can shift at any time, not just under a full moon.

-        A male werewolf will shift for the first time at midnight at the end of their eighteenth birthday.

-        A female werewolf will shift for the first time at midnight at the end of their eighteenth birthday; or when they are within close physical proximity with their destined mate who has already shifted for the first time, whichever happens first.

            o   A female werewolf shifting early is not common.

-        Silver can and will injure or even kill a werewolf.

-        Wolfsbane can and will injure or even kill a werewolf.

-        There are five werewolf ranks:

            1.      Alpha/Luna

            2.     Beta

            3.     Gamma

            4.     Warrior

            5.     Omega

            o   Warrior’s and Omega’s will be either high level or low level within their pack.

-        All werewolves must obey the command of a werewolf with a higher rank.  If they do not, they will be in physical pain until they do.

-        It is not unusual for regular wolves to follow or remain near a strong werewolf alpha and their pack.

-        Second chance mates do not exist.  They are a myth.  You only get one destined mate.

            o   If a werewolf rejects their chosen mate and is the werewolf in the mated pair that initiated the rejection, they will lose the ability to pro-create.  The rejected werewolf in the mated pair will not lose this ability.

            o   The werewolf in the pair that initiated the rejection will be unable to feel a mate bond with another werewolf, even if they choose a new mate.

            o   The werewolf that was rejected will be able to feel the mate bond if they choose to mate with another werewolf who was also rejected.

            o   For these reasons rejecting of a mate is rare.

-        Not all Alpha’s are created equal.

“It looks like that is all I wrote that day.  Pretty basic facts about us.”  I finished reading aloud.

“Yeah, the part about the male werewolf shifting on their eighteenth birthday though.  Does that mean I’m not eighteen?  Or am I not a werewolf?”  Ben asked.

“I’m not sure.  It is strange.  It’s not the only strange thing that has happened recently either.” I stated.

“Tell me about it.  What else should we search for?”  Ben asked returning his attention to my laptop.

“I’m not sure.  I have a lot of homework to do though.  I have to get it done, then I’ll help you.”  I went to my bed and pulled my books out as Ben turned back to my laptop.