Chereads / The Land of Arcana / Chapter 2 - The Child of the Forest

Chapter 2 - The Child of the Forest

To most of the people in Ryland Falls I'm just an ordinary, cheerful boy with an infectious smile that could light up the room. To my pack though I was the next alpha and protector of our part of the forest. And in less than a week I'll be taking the mantle from my farther. A special event every alpha dreams of, where they would discover their destined mate and take their place within the pack.

Unfortunately nothing has ever happened according to plan for me. Especially if it involves my inner wolf Ragnar, who's taken a liking to of the high witches kid. Traditionally, werewolves were expected to have mates of the opposite gender, not species. While the pack has always been accepting and open-minded, there were still those who clung to outdated beliefs. It's not that I'm worried about how my pack and family knowing my mate is a guy, it would just be more of a problem since he's a witch.

Silas Miller isn't the biggest fan of mine, for what reason I have no clue. We've seen each other almost every day of our lives and have never held a real conversation. So for him to be my mate would be crazy, we literally have nothing in common, that's why I've tried my hardest to get as close to him as possible before school started . I want to get to know what makes him tic, who he really is so that I can truly see him.

But lucky for me the pack house my family lives in is getting worked on before the big ceremony. And we moved only three houses down from him, and the only time I've ever seen him is when he's headed for the woods. I have devised an ingenious plan for today though, and so far it's going nicely.

Besides my mom's call, my mom is the most open minded person I know and the first I came out too. So when she saw how I left this morning I just she picked up on it.

I look away from the window to look at him as discreetly as possible during the car ride. He's not very large but not to short in his seat. He isn't unattractive either quite the opposite. Beautiful golden curls adorned his head like a crown, and his skin the color of the perfect tan. 'The more you think like that the creepier you got Derek.' Ragnar's voice said from the depths of my mind 'Butt out of it, your the one thinking the nasty thoughts' I retorted and looked back out the window.

I see the school up the road and glance over one last time "Hey thanks for the ride again. maybe we can hang this afternoon after the ride back." He shook his head quickly 'Nah I'm good, I have to get back home I don't hangout.' He said as he parked his car in the front of the school. "Silas what's your deal with me, I've done anything to you."

He turned his head deadly slow 'My problem with you is that for the 17 years we've known each other, you think now that you're in town we can hang, we've never done so before.' And as he saying this all I can see his eyes glowing with something I could describe as pain and passion. "Maybe we got off on the wrong foot here, but whether you like it or not you'll be seeing a lot more of me. Because I'm not backing down." And with that I left with my stuff and headed for class.

The one and only place I'm not seen as something other than myself is here at school. I've joined sports so I'm always active, but my favorite class is history. There's a lot of it in Ryland falls, and not only human history. Our summer course work was on the legends of the region, one of them being the woods.

A brief history lesson, before the humans came here there were 4 separate tribes lived apart from each other. When the humans did come everyone's way of life was endangered, the trolls and vampires withdrew further into the woods. The witches and wolves stayed as the protectors, diverting any human from them.

Nowadays we live among the humans to learn from them and better our defenses for the occasional hunter or witch hunter who makes it in. Which brings us back to what my teacher is blabbering on about. I feel some shuffle beside me and I look up to find Stella. A smile plastered on her face, "Rumor has it you were seen with that little witch fellow, what's his-face." I've never actually liked her, but as my beta she was a good member.

"Well if you must know I've caught I liking to him, and needed a ride so I killed to birds with one stone. And I need your help with the next part." Hearing that I needed her help she perked up, "So what ya need me to do hoss." she says pulling out a pad and pen.

" I'm not telling you how I know but you'll be in the same period with Silas before lunch, be nice and get him to go to lunch with you but don't mention me." I say as she scribbles on her pad. "So I'm just befriended the dude and inviting to lunch and I have keep your name out my mouth. Gotcha" She said lifting her notepad to show me the attempt at a snake she had drawn.

As I go to say something else a the bell goes off, as I'm packing my things and headed out the door I caught sight of commotion down the hall. I could smell Silas's scent, something that came quite naturally recently. The other was also very familiar, Max, not the first person I'd call friend.

"Should watch where the fuck you're going next time." He said pushing Silas back as hard as he could, and Ragnar did not like that. Before I knew it i was catching Silas, "you okay" i say quietly receiving an almost undistinguishable nod. I helped him up and watched him back away from me and leave. "What the fuck Derek, that ass clown ran into me he deserves to learn a lesson."

For a split second forgetting my title and where I was I punched him as hard as I could. "The one who needs to learn a lesson is you, next time watch your mouth." Smoothing my hair back to be dramatic I turned hoping he was there but he wasn't. Hopefully Stella would still be able to convince him to come to lunch.