The Wolf Read online

  “Yeah,” Wolf said.

  “Oh, I get it,” Belle pointed out the obvious. “She wants you to take over as coven leader.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “And you don’t want to?” I asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Why not? It’s a cool gig,” Belle said. She shrugged, as though it wasn’t anything more than that: a gig, or a job, or an activity. “You get paid well and you get to do spells with your friends. What’s not to love?”

  “It’s just not what I want to be doing,” she said. She twisted her hands and blushed a little. So that was the problem. Her mom had tried to plan out her life for her, but that wasn’t what Wolf wanted. She wanted more than that. She wanted something different.

  Hell, maybe she needed something different.

  “What do you want to do?” I asked, but I had a feeling that I already knew. There was something about Wolf that not many people realized: not even people who lived with her, like Stacy and Belle. The three of them had lived together last year, too, but they’d all been caught up in their own lives and their own issues.

  Me?

  I was new.

  Everything about this world was fresh and strange and beautiful to me, which was great in some ways because it meant I really understood what was happening, at least in some ways.

  And I knew that Wolf had a secret dream of being a writer.

  That was what she wanted to be more than anything else.

  She wanted to create.

  She wanted to write.

  Yeah, I be that would go over well with her coven-leader mother. There was no chance that someone who led a group of witches and crafted spells, created hexes, and practiced different kinds f magic was going to be okay with a child who wanted to go into art. That sort of thing just didn’t happen.

  The reality was that I didn’t even know if she’d admitted it to herself. There was a chance that Wolf hadn’t really accepted the fact that she wanted to create stories for people to read. Maybe she had. She was constantly writing in notebooks, though, and drawing. She was always reading stories and taking notes about the things she liked and didn’t like in different books.

  Wolf looked at me for a minute, and I thought she might tell me honestly, but she just shook her head. She pressed her lips together and sighed, and I realized there would be no emotional heart-to-heart today. That was fine. We didn’t really need one.

  “Who knows?” She shrugged. “I have plenty of time to decide, but I do know that I don’t want to lead my mom’s dumb coven.”

  “Harsh words,” Belle pointed out.

  “Yeah, well,” Wolf shrugged. “Who cares?”

  The energy in the room was getting anxious and angry and antsy and even though I totally adored my roommates, I also thought that maybe, just maybe, it was time for a change of pace. Maybe changing the subject would lighten the mood. There was encouraging Wolf to open up and then there was just forcing her to think about people who didn’t like her. I wanted our relationship to be centered on sharing and openness: not on thinking about her parents who didn’t like her.

  “Um, anyone want to play a game?”

  They looked at me like I was an idiot.

  “You know, like charades?”

  “What?” Wolf asked, wrinkling her nose. “What’s that?”

  “Charades?” Belle echoed, looking equally confused.

  Okay, so apparently, charades wasn’t a staple in the world of magical beings. Got it. Noted for future reference. I wondered if they played bored games, or like, Simon Says. Everyone liked that game, right? It was on the tip of my tongue to suggest it, but I thought better of it. I didn’t need to further alienate myself from my beloved roommates. Not today.

  “What do witches do when they’re bored?” I asked.

  Belle and Wolf exchanged knowing glances and then started laughing. I sat there for a second, realizing there was some sort of inside joke that I wasn’t privy to. The realization kind of stung a little.

  “Hey!” I said. “Let me in on this.” I frowned playfully, putting my hands on my hips. This just made my friends laugh even more, which was good. I was glad the mood was slowly calming down. The tension was easing, draining away. Finally, they stopped laughing long enough to give me a real answer.

  “We cause mischief, of course,” Wolf said. She raised an eyebrow and looked at me. “What do you think, new kid? Want to go cause some trouble?” She and Belle looked at me as though they thought I’d back down. They thought I was going to be scared or afraid, but I wasn’t. I could do this. Hell, I could do anything because I believed in myself.

  I’d learned a lot about inner-strength since coming to Enchanted Academy.

  I wasn’t scared.

  Far from it.

  “Yup,” I said. “Ready when you are.”

  Chapter 2

  As it turned out, Jessica was braver than Wolf had given her credit for, which was fine. She was a normal, ordinary human with a magnificently boring back story, but apparently, she had bravery in spades.

  Good for her.

  Wolf didn’t personally understand how the human girl had come to be at Enchanted Academy. She’d won a prize of some sorts – a scholarship – but Wolf had been under the impression that students had to have a magical background in order to be accepted to the academy. Wasn’t that kind of the point? If you didn’t have to be a magical student, it didn’t make much sense to have a magical academy, now did it?

  It wasn’t really up to Wolf, though, and besides, she liked Jessica just fine. It was just that Jessica wasn’t used to being around magic and she had a lot to learn. Wolf and Belle had secretly agreed to help her as much as possible to make sure she succeeded at the school. They would do whatever it took to make sure that Jessica was comfortable and that she was able to keep up with her classes.

  Some of the students could be vicious and mean. Wolf was nervous that one of those students was going to cause trouble for Jessica. What if they drove her away from the school? What if they turned her off to the idea of magic altogether?

  Beast was one of the biggest troublemakers in the school. Wolf hadn’t missed the way he’d been looking at Jessica, and she knew that Belle hadn’t missed it, either. Jessica was new, and young, and she still had a lot to learn about the way things worked at this school. Wolf wouldn’t tell her what to do, but Beast? He was bad news. Jessica should stay away from him. Wolf made a mental note to tell her just that.

  It was dark out when the three of them left the dormitory suite. Stacy had locked herself away and most likely wouldn’t be opening the door until much later. Chances were that Wolf would have to bang on the door and beg and plead for Stacy to let her in, which was a bit ridiculous, to be honest.

  If they hadn’t been friends, she would have complained to the school.

  But they were friends, so Wolf dealt with it.

  She could sleep in the living room and it wouldn’t really be a big deal. It was more annoying than anything else. She didn’t like the idea that she couldn’t get into her bedroom more than she minded crashing on the cozy pillows that were spread throughout the living room.

  “Where are we going?” Jessica asked. They walked quietly down the hallway and started the descent to the first floor. They lived on the 8th floor of the dorms and there was no elevator. It was hellish, to say the least. Wolf was convinced that the headmistress only put students she strongly disliked on the top floor.

  Either that, or the students she felt needed to be in better physical shape.

  Wolf looked down at herself and frowned. She was slender, but she had almost no endurance these days. Oh, when she shifted into her wolf form, she could do anything. She could run any race. She could jump. She could hunt. Anything she wanted to do, she could do. Her human form, though, well...it was lacking. She hated how weak she felt as a human. If she shifted more frequently, she’d probably feel healthier and stronger, but Wolf knew that witches like her mother didn’t like shifters to
begin with.

  They definitely wouldn’t approve of her shifting on school grounds.

  Besides, making it quickly up the stairs to the 8th floor wasn’t so bad.

  Was it?

  Some of the students, like Tinkerbell, for example, had no problem jaunting up the stairs. She lived on the third floor with Snow White and many of the other fairies and princesses, but she never complained about visiting other floors, and in some ways, Wolf was quite envious of her. Tinkerbell made life at Enchanted Academy seem very easy.

  She made it seem almost idyllic, actually.

  “You don’t need to know where we’re going,” Wolf finally answered Jessica’s question.

  The human frowned.

  “That’s not very fair.”

  “Life isn’t always fair.”

  “Come on, where are we going?”

  “Out,” Wolf said.

  “Natasha,” Belle hissed. “Maybe we should rethink this.”

  “Natasha?” Jessica looked at Wolf in surprise. “Is that your first name?” Oh, great. Now there was another thing the non-magical girl knew about Wolf. She was going to have to chew Belle out later. Once they were alone, anyway.

  She’d never told Jessica her name. Wolf made it a point not to tell most people her name. Going by Wolf was so much easier. It was a fierce sort of name, and it suited her. She was a wolf-shifter, after all. Not that everyone knew that little tidbit. There were a few other students at Enchanted Academy who were shifters, too, but they all seemed to keep to themselves, and they all kind of just minded their own business. They didn’t cause a ruckus and in return, the other students almost completely ignored them.

  It was the circle of life.

  “Thanks a lot,” Wolf said to Belle, rolling her eyes. “You didn’t have to call me that.”

  “She was going to find out sooner or later,” Belle pointed out. “I mean, we do live together.”

  “I’d rather it be later.”

  “What’s wrong with your name?” Jessica asked. “I think it’s quite nice.”

  Of course, she would.

  “Nice?” Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow. “Do I look like the kind of girl who wants to be nice?”

  She wasn’t exactly fierce to look at. She wore her hair in twin buns as much as possible. Coupled with a scowl and canines that were just a little bit too long for her to blend in with ordinary people, Natasha wasn’t anyone’s idea of nice.

  Not once people knew who she was.

  Not once they knew what she was.

  “Well, I guess not,” Jessica said slowly.

  By then, they had reached the bottom floor, and Wolf was grateful for that. She shook her head and motioned for the girls to follow her. They walked nonchalantly through the lobby, past the old woman baking cookies and brewing coffee from her nice little stand, and out the front door. There wasn’t really a curfew at Enchanted Academy. How could there be? Some of the students had classes at night and besides, they all knew magic. They could just magic themselves back into the building if they wanted to.

  That said, it was strongly suggested by the headmistress that everyone return to their bedrooms by ten each night. It was a suggestion that wasn’t exactly a rule, but that most students chose to follow because they didn’t want to get on Helena Hex’s bad side.

  Wolf didn’t blame them.

  Helena could be a bit...intimidating.

  Wolf wasn’t scared, though, and it was 9:45PM when the trio walked out of the dormitory building and into the night. If Jessica was worried about their decision to leave the dormitory so close to bedtime, she was smart enough not to say anything. Good. If she had, Wolf would have just sent her right back inside and gone off on an adventure without Jessica. She didn’t mind exploring the woods or the school grounds on her own. She’d done it a million times.

  “Stay quiet,” Wolf told Jessica. “And act normal.” She raised her eyebrows at the girl, silently asking her if she was going to be able to be cool.

  “Uh, okay,” Jessica shrugged, but she nodded. She wouldn’t do anything weird or crazy. Good. That was what Wolf had thought her response would be.

  Jessica was a pretty normal girl, at least for the most part. Everything about her was totally ordinary. She was very plain-looking and she spoke in a way that was really blunt and to-the-point. She didn’t seem to be affected by the fact that there were magical kids from rich, wealthy, or powerful families attending the school with her.

  Jessica either didn’t know or she didn’t care.

  Wolf both loved and hated that about her friend.

  In some ways, it was nice that Jessica treated everyone equally. In other ways, it was endlessly frustrating that she didn’t seem to notice or care when important students were around. Some of the students at Enchanted Academy had incredible influence in the world of magic. Jessica would need to learn to tone down her antics and her comments when working with them in classes. If she stepped out of line or upset the wrong person, those kids could ruin her chances of having a magic-centered career.

  Like Beast, for example.

  Wolf shook her head a little.

  That guy was big trouble.

  Big trouble.

  She knew Jessica wouldn’t listen to her if she tried to warn her, though. After all, Beast was handsome. He was one of the best-looking guys on campus and he rarely dated. He always seemed to have trouble finding someone who could put up with his attitude for very long. He was a grumpy sort of guy, and a little bit of a troublemaker, and Wolf thought that if he and Jessica dated, that Beast would hurt her.

  Wolf didn’t want anyone hurting her friend.

  Not now.

  Not ever.

  “It’s a nice night,” Belle commented, breaking the silence.

  “Definitely,” Jessica agreed. “And you can see the stars.”

  Wolf looked up.

  So, they could.

  “Don’t get too distracted,” she said. “We’re just getting started.”

  They walked away from the dormitories. There were two buildings located side-by-side: one for the boys and one for the girls. Wolf thought it was antiquated and a little bit strange that the dormitories were separated like that. She wouldn’t have cared if there had simply been one big bunkhouse where the students stayed, but some parents still had old-fashioned ideas about where the students should sleep, and the school abided by those.

  They made their way past several other buildings. In the darkness of the evening, the stars shined down and illuminated the campus. Any other night, Wolf might think it looked beautiful or lovely. Normally, she’d stop and admire them with her friends. She could see Jessica peeking up at them every so often, but Wolf couldn’t do that tonight.

  Tonight was different.

  Tonight she wasn’t out to have fun with her friends because it was a silly thing to do or because she wanted to unwind.

  Tonight she just wanted to forget.

  Everything.

  She knew what people thought about her.

  She knew that people looked at her and saw some private school whiz kid who had gotten into an incredible high school that was unbeatably wonderful. She understood. People saw her and thought she’d gotten lucky, or that she hadn’t earned it. They saw her and went, “Wow, that kid must have good parents.”

  They thought she was a stuck-up brat who was superior to everyone.

  But they didn’t know how lonely she was.

  They didn’t know how much she wanted her mother to be proud of her.

  They didn’t know how hard it was to keep going when your own parent couldn’t accept you for who – and what – you were.

  Tonight had been the worst night in a long time. Usually, Wolf managed to keep her pain under wraps. She managed to keep things civil with her mom and she managed to keep her emotions in check. Something had bothered her about tonight, though.

  Maybe it was the way Stacy was so self-assured about her cooking.

  Maybe it was t
he way everyone else seemed to have their lives together.

  She didn’t know.

  All she knew was that tonight was another example of how she just didn’t fit in, and oh, she wanted to fit in. That was what Wolf wanted more than anything else, and she hated herself for it. She would never fit in with the other kids because she was a shifter, and shifters were weird.

  That was just the way it had always been.

  They walked quietly, the three of them. They went past a greenhouse and a garden shed and the big, main castle where their classes were. There were a few smaller buildings they walked past, too. The path they were on curved down around the school and went behind it. Together, the three of them walked in silence.

  Wolf knew where they were going. So did Belle. Jessica, however, had never been over here, at least as far as Wolf knew. While Jessica was curious and brave, she was also usually quite the rule-follower. She’d broken several in order to save Belle from an enchantment gone wrong, but Wolf suspected that was about as wild as Jessica got.

  “So how much homework do you have when we get back?” Jessica asked, breaking the silence.

  “Stop,” Wolf said.

  “What?”

  “This is a school-free zone,” Wolf said.

  “Yep,” Belle agreed. “No talking about classes or homework or responsibility out here, okay? This is a happy place.”

  “But you love school,” Jessica pointed out. She seemed surprised that Belle wouldn’t want to talk about classes.

  “I enjoy my classes,” she agreed. “But I also enjoy taking a break. Jessica, this is like, the one chance we have to just let it all go. So, let it go.”

  They stepped off of the path and kept walking. Wolf could see perfectly in the darkness. She knew that her friends couldn’t see nearly as well as she could, despite the fact that the stars were shining very brightly on this part of the campus. It was one of those weird perks that came from her genetic makeup. She could see just about everything. The others? Not so much.

  “Woah,” Jessica said. “Kind of dark out here.” She looked around and squinted. Wolf could tell her friend was getting a little nervous. Jessica was much too polite to actually say that she was scared or that she wanted to go back or that this wasn’t working for her. Belle noticed, too.