Leena woke up in a bed, in a strange room, in a stranger's house. At first, she about had another panic attack, but then she noticed her sister was right beside her.
"Relax, everything is okay." Lacee comforted her.
For a moment, things felt safe, but then she remembered the fangs, and the claws, and the hands that went over her mouth in the barn. Who were these men? Whose house was this? Why was she kidnapped? What exactly were these men? She had so many questions. Her sister tried to answer them the best she could, but it seemed as though Lacee didn't have many answers either.
But apparently, werewolves were real and all around them. Even more shocking, Lacee was one too, and Leena was part werewolf herself. They supposedly had the ability to turn into wolves, hair and all. Leena imagined herself more like a chihuahua with a pretty pink collar than a beastly wolf with sharp claws and deadly fangs. It was comical; something out of a silly dream she might wake up from and laugh at. Werewolves. Literal werewolves.
There was so much to take in, and not much time to comprehend it before Lacee was heading out the door to train with one of the men from the day before. Rinc was his name, and this house was his that he shared with other werewolves. Lacee said she was going to be training to turn into a wolf. Leena didn't know whether to laugh in her sister's face or pinch herself to wake up again.
Now, her sister was out playing in the mountains somewhere and she was stuck in the house with monsters that she'd heard scary stories about her whole life. No one told her to stay put in the bedroom though, so she decided to explore the place they would be staying for a while.
"Whoa, where are you going?" A male voice asked as she stepped outside of the bedroom.
As she turned to see who was questioning her, she recognized the young man as one of her kidnappers from the day before, Laran.
"You." Leena pointed at him. "You kidnapped me!"
"I was only doing what I was ordered to do." His cheeks blushed pink as she called him out.
"Do you commit every crime someone asks you to commit?" She asked with a touch of attitude.
"Rinc is not just someone, he's my Alpha, and I trust that he wouldn't order me to do anything unless it's important and necessary."
"So, kidnapping innocent seventeen-year-old girls is necessary, got it." She rolled her eyes.
"Well, it's necessary to keep you safe." He told her. "He just wants you and your sister to be protected."
"How sweet of him." She said with sass.
"Look, things weren't supposed to go like they did yesterday. I feel horrible about what happened. Gideon and I didn't know you didn't know about werewolves. It's unheard of. So, things got out of hand and went wrong, but I would've never let you get hurt, and I'm sorry." He said as his cheeks reddened more.
Leena wanted to stay mad at him, but Laran seemed young and innocent himself, and his apology appeared to be sincere. It was so strange, he just looked like a boy she would've met in the hallways at school, a jock with broad shoulders and muscles. She possibly would've accepted a date to prom with him or sat next to him in the lunchroom. He hardly looked like the monster she imagined a werewolf would be.
"Am I a prisoner here?" Leena asked him, not saying whether she accepted or denied his apology.
"No, but I'm in charge of looking after you." He told her.
"Oh, perfect. Like old times, huh?" She teased him, referring to the day before.
Laran crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. His black cotton shirt tightened around his shoulders, and she tried not to stare at his attractive physique. Leena headed to the stairs, but he stopped her again.
"Wait!"
"What now?" She turned to face him again.
"I told you I have orders to watch over you." He said.
"And?"
"And I thought you wouldn't leave this room."
"Were you told I wasn't allowed to?"
"Not exactly."
"Good, because I'm hungry and since you're in charge of me, you can make me breakfast." She walked past him and headed down a large staircase.
The house was huge, and she wondered how many people lived in the lodge-sized place. Laran led her through the house and into a big kitchen. To her surprise, there was a group of people in the kitchen. They looked like teenagers and young adults, most likely her age and older. She smiled awkwardly as they all stopped what they were doing and looked up at her. None of them looked happy to see Leena.
"I lost my appetite." A pretty redhead slammed the fridge door and made a disgusted face as she looked Leena over.
"Yeah, something stinks bad." Another girl added, as she held his nose and made foul gestures.
The other guys and girls made sickened noises and glared judgingly at Leena and then one by one stalked past her and left the kitchen. It made Leena think back to grade school when her classmates would make fun of the less cool kids, or the students that didn't have the best clothes. Leena clammed up and froze, she didn't have a backbone back then, and she didn't have the guts to speak up for herself now.
"Enough, guys!" Laran yelled at them, but they all laughed and hollered more rude comments from the other room.
After a long, uncomfortable moment, their voices quieted down as they disappeared into another room far away in the house. Confused, Leena looked up at Laran for an explanation.
"What the heck was that about?" She asked him.
"You're a half-breed." He explained.
"And?" She sat down at the counter and sighed.
"There's a lot for you to learn."
"So, teach me."
"I think you should wait for the Alpha to explain things. I don't know what I should and shouldn't say, but I'll just say this, you are a half-breed, and a lot of pack members look down on that. You may not be accepted by everyone."
"Okay, great. So, if I understand this correctly, I'm out of high school now, but I still have to deal with popular groups and bullies?" Leena asked as she thought about the clique that just ruled the kitchen like a school lunchroom.
"Basically." Laran shrugged. "And females can be very territorial."
"Lovely. Mean girls with fangs." Leena sighed.
"I won't treat you like that, though," Laran said kindly. "I mean, I never cared much about popularity in high school either."
Leena smiled at him, but she was still uneasy by the guy that had kidnapped her the day before.
"Okay, now how do you like your eggs?" Laran asked.
"You're really going to cook for me?" Leena was surprised.
"After kidnapping you, it's the least I can do." He grinned as he went to the fridge and started pulling out ingredients. "Also, bacon or sausage?"
"Oh, no eggs, bacon, or sausage for me. I'm a vegetarian." She told him.
Laran almost dropped the carton of eggs as she informed him.
"You're kidding me, right?" He looked at her, expecting her to add the punchline, but it wasn't a joke, Leena was a vegetarian.
"No, I'm serious. I don't eat meat." She said.
"You're a wolf that doesn't eat meat. It's uncommon for a wolf to grow up without knowing their true self, but a wolf that doesn't eat meat, now that's just impossible." He shook his head. "You're really going to make it hard to fit in with the popular crowd, huh?" He winked at her but just started laughing as he grabbed some bread and popped it into the toaster.
"Nothing is impossible in this world," Leena told him.
It was a truth that she was learning each day, but this new knowledge was not only a bright awakening, it was also a dark scary reality that meant accepting that the world she lived in was an even more dangerous place with deadly secrets around every corner she may turn.
How would she deal with such terrifying dangers, when she could barely handle the mean girls in the kitchen?