[Stephanie's POV]
7:02. A few minutes longer than I expected to get to school.
"Hey, long-legged beauty! Wanna join us?"
"New girl, I can teach you. "
"Don't trust them. Leggy, I'm a better coach."
I was accosted by my 3 pack members playing basketball on the playground as soon as I stepped through Gate 1 of my school. They didn't recognize me and wolf-whistled at me.
I could clearly see their faces even at a distance of 70 yards because my vision had been upgraded after shifting.
The tallest guy possessing ginger hair was Kane. The thinner one with brown curly hair was Javed. Allen adjusted his pair of glasses and reshaped his straight black hair. They should be in the second year today if my memory was still good after the rebirth.
"Come on. Leggy girl, you'll enjoy it." Allen was bouncing the basketball. He hadn't recognized me yet. Probably I would advise him to get a new pair of glasses.
"Thank you, Allen. You guys have fun." I raised my voice and shouted back.
"Wait, is she Stephanie? " Kane recognized my voice and took two steps forward.
"What the fuck are you saying? Doesn't she always wear like a princess?" Allen's eyes widened. His glasses almost slipped from the bridge to the tip of his nose.
"That's incredible. She is surprisingly a long-legged."
Although they lowered their voices, I could still hear their discussion I was not interested in. Carl and Freya were not here. The teaching building hasn't opened yet. Maybe I should ask those three gossipy boys.
"I heard from my mother that Stephanie hurt her head while riding her motorcycle yesterday. Is that the reason she suddenly changed her dressing style?" Allen continued after the three of them formed a circle.
"No! It must be because the fucking dick has changed his preferences."
"Has he? But I saw those forest girls still wearing dresses yesterday. "
"Really? How many girls, Javed?" It sounded like their discussion also contained some interesting secrets.
The three of them gasped at the same time after hearing my question. Allen was so scared because of my sudden appearance that he even threw the basketball directly at me.
I caught the basketball, smiled, and asked, "Relax. Javed, how many forest girls did you see yesterday? Where did you see them?"
"Did I just mention that? You must have misheard me. I was talking to Kane and Allen about a couple of human girls wearing dresses in a magazine I read about yesterday, right?"
Javed turned to his two friends standing next to him instead of looking me in his eyes to answer my question. Without Arthur's super-sensitive olfactory sense, I could spot that Javed was lying.
"Okay! Your lie is accepted. I can pretend I didn't hear anything." I sighed and didn't pursue the matter further. If I wasted any more time talking to them, I might not be able to bring the special breakfast I had prepared to Freya.
I chose to let Javed go, but Javed's mouth was temporarily opened in surprise.
I glanced at the basketball hoop behind the three of them. I distracted myself by thinking about the shooting techniques I learned in junior high gym class. Jumping, aiming at the basket, using wrist force. Three-point shot, I did it.
Kane whistled at me, and Javed retrieved the basketball.
"Nice shot, girl." Allen gave me a high five.
"Three-point shot for my last question. "I smiled at them.
"Did you three see Carl and Freya before I came to school? Or, did you guys ever see them on the way here?"
"Uhh~ " Kane looked down at his watch, "I saw Carl about half an hour ago near Gate 1. He was alone, though."
"He wasn't with Freya?" I raised my eyebrows.
Almost an hour and a half had passed since Carl said he was going after Freya. Why hadn't the two of them come to school together? Also, Kane had bumped into Carl at Gate 1, which was only accessible for our White Star Lake pack members. Why was he hovering around Gate 1?
"No. You know Carl hardly ever talks to us he-wolves except for you and the other girls in our pack." Kane spread his hands and shrugged.
"Speaking of the other girls in our pack. Do we have any white she-wolf in our pack?" Javed always had a lot to say when it came to girls.
"Dude, you haven't given up thinking of your morning illusion, have you?" Allen said, checking Javed's forehead with his fingers.
"White she-wolf?" I suddenly had a bad premonition. Patrick and I were alpha's children. That meant that we two were the oldest in the next generation. So it's unlikely that any other young members of our pack would shift ahead of us.
"This morning, almost 6, I guess, I got up to get milk from the kitchen. I saw a white she-wolf running past my door. She looked very young and rather thin in stature. I thought it was one of the girls from our pack who had suddenly shifted, and I wanted to ask her who she was. But when I opened the kitchen door, I found nothing."
"I told you to spend less time reading 'Hot Wolf Girl'. See? you're hallucinating now, aren't you?" Kane poked Javed's shoulder with his elbow.
"Hey, shut the fuck up." Javed punched Kane's chest with his fist and reminded him quietly, "Stephanie's here."
"I'm not listening." I was lost in my thoughts.
Figuring the time when they left, the white she-wolf Javed saw must be Freya.
That bitch had concealed her true age after being accepted into the Demon Forest Pack three years ago. I always thought she was a year younger than me. Now it appeared that her actual age was at least a year older than Patrick and me. She told me a fake birthday. She had already passed 18 and had shifted.
Javed's home was located close to the top of the hill on the south side of Mt. Wright. The north entrance to Mt. Leyte was about 1 km away to the southeast of Gate 1.
The information about the two locations that seemed to be unrelated was linked to both Freya and Carl. They split up and headed to Mt. Leyte. Their destination should be the north peak of Mt. Leyte. There was a cliff at the North Peak, which was the cliff where Patrick fell and died in my last life.
What the hell were the two assholes planning? I clenched my fists, my eyes fixed on the direction of Mt. Leyte.
"Stephanie, what's up? Are you alright?" Allen noticed my unusual behavior, and he pushed his glasses. The expression on his face was also serious.
"What time is it?" I asked Kane.
"7:17."
It's late. I couldn't make it into Mt. Leyte to find Carl and Freya. They must have been on their way to school by now, whatever they were doing in the mountain.
"Stephanie, did Carl and that slu... omega annoy you? Do you need our help?" Kane restrained himself from talking dirty in front of me. But I still guessed what he was going to say.
He seemed to already know what kind of girl Freya was. Not only that, but he had just called Carl fucking dick, which meant he didn't think well of him either.
Allen and Javed also understood why the she-wolves in Carl's pack wear skirts every day. It was related to Carl's preference. I didn't understand why they hadn't told me in my last life.
"Steph~"
I turned around and saw Freya standing at the edge of the playground with a smile as innocent as a baby's, calling my name in the sweetest voice.
A gust of wind blew by, and the long white dress she was wearing and her blonde hair fluttered in the air. She was like a pure and flawless white lily, attracting a crowd of male beasts to stop for her, including my ex-boyfriend, my brother, and my mate.
Hold on! I blinked and recognized that the tall figure standing between Carl and Patrick was Arthur.
What was he doing at my school?