As the Moon Teaches

Tingles? Part 1

Loren Whitaker looked down at the list he was writing. He was working on a small list of people he was inviting to a birthday bash. Only a couple weeks left until his eighteenth birthday, and he decided on a small party instead of inviting a bunch of people he barely knew. As the class droned on, he managed a list of seven friends, including his sister. Carleigh and Loren got along very well, which he attributed to her being the kind to care for the pups.

As the teacher assigned homework, Loren quickly jotted down the notes, just before the bell rang to dismiss class. Fourth period over, lunch was next. For Loren, lunch was when he went to the library to prepare for any tests or recheck homework before turning it in. He made his way to the lunch room, intent to grab something packaged to take to the library with him.

Once in the lunchroom, a weird tingle in the air caught Loren by surprise. It was an odd tingle, not something he was familiar with. Looking around, he caught the gray/blue stare of Gregory Wright Jr. A fellow ‘in training’ pup from a ‘cousin’ pack, Darkstone. Loren’s inner-wolf Zeala normally would have given a small snort at the other’s presence, but its response was very lazy compared to normal.

Loren’s green eyes turned steely as the young man watched him as well. Zeala shook its fur a bit, as if shaking off water. Loren was startled when Eric Gunn patted him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.

“Loren, what’s up? You figure out what we’re doing for your party?” Eric grinned when Loren looked at him and had to shake his head to clear the cobwebs.

“I did. Night bowling with pizza.”

“Seriously? Why not a club or something fun?”

“Rude… Bowling is fun, you’re just whining because I kick your ass at it.” Loren laughed as Eric grumbled and went off to find a table. He was always asked to join at the table, but Loren just preferred the library.

On the other side of the lunch room, Gregory was still caught in the strange tingle that filled the air. He had never felt that kind of sensation, and it seemed to permeate the whole area. All he could think of was finding the source of the feeling, but how to search when the only thing his inner-wolf focused on was the other werewolves in the room, particularly the one from Morningbrooke pack that dared stare down Gregory.

Normally the two packs were amicable, nothing really causing tension, other than the typical ‘my pack is better than yours’ from the teens. This was also common between Gregory and the young wolf on the other side of the room, Loren. They had a mostly ‘friendly’ rivalry, but at this moment, that blonde wolf was the only thing on his mind, and Gregory was not sure if it was a good or bad tingle in the air.

He barely managed to pull his musings from the other wolf when the black haired boy distracted Loren. He watched the two split ways after chatting, and Gregory found himself following the blond with his eyes until the young man vanished from the lunch room.

Once Loren made it to the library, he found his usual seat near the fiction section. Fiction was not the reason he chose the seat he had. It was the fact that the area always smelled like the girl that helped the librarian out during her lunch period, right before Loren’s. She smelled of cocoa and vanilla beans. She was a baker at heart, and always smelled like she had baked something.

Loren was attracted to her because of her hobbies and personality, but he rarely ever spent time with her. This was the closest he could be to her without it being unnerving for him. Today she also smelled like a leaf, one he couldn’t quite place, but that she smelled like every couple weeks.

He pulled out the assignments for his next three classes and enjoyed the scent she left behind while he double checked his work. Finding a few mistakes, he tried the problems again and rewrote his answers as he found them. He would reward himself with a deep inhale of the leafy and chocolate based scents everytime he fixed an answer.

This is how he spent the next thirty-five minutes. Reveling in the scent filling the fiction section while correcting or rewriting answers for his homework. It was not until his watch beeped a five minute warning that he brought his attention from his papers. He had to pack his stuff before standing, but then headed out of the library to finish off the day.

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“Seriously, I’ve never felt this kind of tingle before. It was like it was saying ‘Here I am’ and saying ‘watch out for me’ at the same time. Kind of enticing but also warning me.” Loren continued explaining to his sister, Carleigh, as she had met up with him to walk home with him. 

She was not a student any more, but a teacher’s assistant. She wanted to be a teacher and this was one way to get credits for a college class.

“Loren, you surprise me with how much you read into things sometimes.” Carleigh flapped a hand at him in dismissal.

She had never felt a ‘weird tingle’ such as what her little brother was describing. She was certain it was just the usual ‘another wolf’ twinge they get when they enter a space with another of their kind.

“No I don’t…” He grumped as he followed along with his sister.

Loren was certain it was a different warning or whatever. He would have to ask his parents… or maybe the pack Witch. She always knew stuff that seemed weird to them. For sure she would know why this sensation was totally different from the normal.

“On a side note, Night bowling for my party. You can bring Kaity if you’d like, I know she’s your best friend.” Loren smiled when Carleigh turned her head to look at him.

Nodding at her smile, he laced his fingers together behind his head, thumbs rubbing at a dread that felt extra lumpy today.

The rest of the walk was quiet, except the sound of Carleigh texting Kaity, and the thunderous thoughts in Loren’s head. How would he explain the sensation to Winnie? She was not exactly a wolf, so maybe she would have a little trouble understanding his explanation?

He kept contemplating it as they walked. It was not long before they met up with Lucy Welsh, the Witch’s daughter, and Marcus Morningbrooke, the son of the Alphas. They all began talking about Loren and Marcus soon approaching their eighteenth birthdays.

It was an important time for a young werewolf. It was when their human bodies matured to a point of being able to survive the powers of being a werewolf. When they would finally meld with their wolves completely.

Everyone expected a lot of Marcus, that he would most likely be an Alpha in training once his wolf fully melded, but Loren was bound to be a Gamma like his family. He was not worried about having expectations on him, but he was worried about finding his mate. He knew it was not common for a wolf to be mated to a human, unless that human was a Witch, but he really wanted to get to know the girl from the library better, maybe be her boyfriend.

Marcus was likely to have to leave the pack lands to find his mate, to find another powerful wolf that the Moon Goddess matched him with. Loren was hoping he would only have to look as far as the next town over at most.

This is the train of thought Loren was on while Marcus, Carleigh, and Lucy all talked about the upcoming party for Marcus. Of course the soon to be Alpha wolf’s party mattered more, Loren contemplated silently.

When a question was thrown Loren’s way, he had to shake himself out of his thoughts to respond. “What?”

“Are you going to join the Moon Service Friday?” Marcus asked.

It was not required, like on a full moon, but it was a time the younger generation were able to join in on hunt planning and patrol routes.

Loren sighed and nodded. “I never miss it, do I?”

Carleigh and Lucy laugh a bit as they watch the boys stare at each other. Loren was more reliable to do pack duties, but Marcus always managed to look like a lost pup when it came to dealing with him.

Loren treated pack meetings like he did high school classes. Necessary but unfavorable. Marcus was hoping to have a strong pack behind him, but Loren was an enigma when it came down to it. Was the boy going to really step up when he and his wolf really melded?

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Gregory managed to make it through three more classes without running into any Morningbrooke pack members the rest of the day. He was thankful, because if that sensation was going to be the way his wolf felt every time there was a wolf nearby, he would go crazy. It left a buzzing in his head.

When he made it home, he decided to sit with his father and Godfather, Gregory Wright Sr. and Carlton Andersen, respectively. He explained how the sensation was to his Alpha, thinking he would have the best chance of explaining what was going on. It did not take the Alpha long to figure it out.

Gregory just stared at the two men as they managed to explain what that sensation might possibly be. Overall, they stated he would have to wait until his eighteenth birthday and his melding with his wolf, because that would be the only real way to know what Pelian, his wolf, was experiencing.

He sighed, at least it would only be about a week until he came of age and would fully embrace his powers. Now if only that sensation stayed away until then. He did not think he could handle the headache that came with the tingling and ringing. He would just have to try and avoid others the best he could during that week then.