Fire in the Heir

3.

It had taken me forever to finally fall asleep. Once I was in control of my body, I slowly and as quietly as possible slipped back into my room.

I had closed the door as softly as possible and quickly turned off my light, grabbed my phone, and jumped into bed.

Holding my phone in my hands ready to text Monika, I stopped because the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had no idea what to tell her.

Typing out messages was easy, but after about ten different messages, I ended up erasing them all and sending nothing.

Fluster because I could feel my anxiety building and I could feel my wolf getting more and more worked up, which just made things so much worse.

Since I never sent any of the many messages to Monika, I just laid there with my phone in my hand. Letting the thoughts that had begun to fill my mind run wild, I had begun to create impossible ideas and scenarios.

Why did my parents feel that I was something that they needed to hide? And from who? Was there something wrong with me or were they embarrassed by me for some reason?

There were questions without answers and trains of thought that were so large and all over the place it felt like I could demolish a small city.

It was well into the wee hours of the night before I was finally able to fall into a restless sleep. The dreams and nightmares that ran through my mind last night were a combination of old ones that had plagued me as a child, and new, more terrifying ones.

Of course, it could only be attributed to the novels I read and the bad acting on the shows I like to watch that helped my nightmares be so damn dramatic.

Breakfast was hard because as my mother flitted around the kitchen I kept staring at the back of her head as if I could find a way to pluck the answers to these gnawing questions, right out of her head.

My anger was getting the better of me, so I swallowed my oatmeal so fast I practically burned all of my taste buds off my tongue, but I needed to get out of the house as quickly as I could.

Right before I was about to run out of the house, I remembered that stupid paper I needed signed. I grabbed my bag from the back of my chair and while my mom was reaching into the fridge to grab my lunch, I practically shoved the paper into her face as she turned towards me.

“Goddess Tay, were you trying to smack me in the face? And what is this? Why are you just handing it to me now?” She both pushed my lunch bag into my hand and grabbed the letter from me at the same time.

“It's a form that I need signed so that I can go on the senior trip to the city.” My mom stilled so quickly and I saw the prickles run up and down her forearms. Shocked, I wasn’t sure what she could possibly be feeling. She was mad, scared, worried, anxious, nervous.

“The trip is next week and we are supposed to be having our trip off the compound to encourage everyone not to skip and to attend the trip. I’m sure that the teachers have already planned everything with the guard, dad, and the alpha at this point.”

No matter what I was saying, she didn’t move. She just stood there looking at the form in her hand as if it might come to life at any moment.

Time moved so slowly as her eyes started to move over the letter. “Why is this the first time that I am hearing of this,” she asked me without looking at me.

If I wasn’t so damn tired from my lack of sleep I probably would have handled this better, but instead I c****d my head to the side and snapped, “is there something wrong, it’s just a field trip. Why are you acting so weird?”

Finally, she looked up at me, and for a split second, a feeling of power ran through me as I looked down on her. The difference in our height is so large now. I was six inches taller than her and she had to bend her neck to look up at me fully.

It was so odd because at the same moment that feeling passed through me, she caught my stare and I saw her flinch. It was so quick and ever so slight that both I and my wolf felt both discomfort and dominance all at the same time.

“Nothing is wrong honey, I was just caught off guard by this. That’s all. Do you have a pen with you?”

Quickly, I turned away from her and reached down to grab a pen from my bag. As I handed it to her, I not only saw, but felt her hand shaking.

As she grabbed the pen and walked towards the counter so that she could sign the form, I felt the oatmeal churning in my stomach and I began to feel nauseous.

Walking to school gave me a few minutes by myself to try to get my mind organized, but the only thing I kept thinking about was the way that my mother had looked.

As I walked down the road that led from my neighborhood, I was almost sure that I could hear the sounds of paws running through the trees, but I purposefully ignored it. My hearing was good, but not as good as I would have liked.

The ten minutes I had to myself were over faster than I would have liked, because as soon as I went down the small hill that separated the houses from the school center I could hear Monika’s voice carry through the air.

As I walked closer to the school, there were kids and wolves everywhere, and unfortunately, most of them were around her.

By the time I passed the middle and grade school buildings, I could feel the excitement coming from the group of our friends and other students that were huddled together in the shared quad.

As the schools continue to grow, our pack builds up and encircles the original buildings so that there are still three schools. While all grades can access the quad, the younger students usually stick to the playground and play scapes and leave the quad for the older kids.

I plastered the world’s most fake smile on my face as I got closer to the group. It was Xander who noticed me first, but I paid little attention to him.

Too bad I could feel the blush rise in my cheeks as I felt him continue to stare. Monika had her back to me and was talking so loudly and with so much excitement her hands were flying around all over the place.

“Yeah, so we’re gonna have, like, this huge competition here on campus with as many of the surrounding packs who want to send their teams to come play in the tournament.”

“The winning school is going to get a prize and they are going to have it broken down by age groups, by boys and girls, and by sport. I don’t know all the details, but that is what I could get out of my parents last night.”

Monika finally turned to look at me when I was already by her shoulder but she was already on a roll and there was no stopping her.

Questions were being thrown around by everyone, even those in other areas of the quad who were not even part of the full conversation.

“Taylor, oh my goddess, did you hear what I was saying, isn’t this crazy,” she cried out, as if we weren’t right next to each other.

But I was so shocked by everything I had heard and not heard. If Monika knew all of this from her parents, there is no way that my dad wouldn’t know, and if he did, why didn’t he tell me last night.

It was hard to tell who was more excited, the boys, the girls, or Monika. As everyone started to break off into their own conversations, I pulled Monika toward our usual table to sit for a few minutes before class started.

“So when is this all happening,” I asked her. She threw herself down with enough force that the bench shook under me. “From what I can tell, the tournament will be in the next two to three weeks.

“Well,” she said, “it seems that they have been working out the main details for a while already. All of the leaders are taking part in planning the event, and they are about to announce it to the entire pack tonight.”

Monika gave me a weird look, “I’m surprised your parents haven’t told you about this already. I would have thought they would have been the first to know, since your dad is the Beta after all.”

Oh, I’m sure they were!