10. Jolly Rancher

First rule for successfully avoiding all the other werewolves in your pack: stay away from pack meetings.
At all costs.
Everyone attended pack meetings, no matter how far they lived from the alpha. It was where werewolves reestablished their dominance over other pack members, caught up with current events and had a big dinner before leaving with a promise to the alpha that they'd be good wolves.
Dominance assertion usually never happened to me or my mom since we were both omegas. Omegas have no interest in challenging anyone, they're neutral wolves and therefore it was every single member of the pack's responsibility to protect them. Which was why my mom was always swarmed by people during these meet ups. They asked about her health and job, trying to be nonchalant as they asked about my dad, giving her the occasional pitying look as they did so.
Needless to say, not my cup of tea.
Over the years I've pretty much excelled at the art of lying my way out of the stupid meetings. Colds, tests, work, I used any and every excuse I could come up with. The majority of these lies were quite lousy but since my presence wasn't really important the alpha didn't seem to mind. The last one I'd been to was when a couple of troublesome lone wolves had been in the area. That was about a year ago and considering the fact that we have meetings twice a month, which made it twenty-four meetings ago.
Impressive, I know.
I would've considered making that record twenty-five today if I wasn't the reason for the meeting. There was no escape this time.
I walked cautiously down the hallway- still wincing from sore muscles but just eager to get to the library, accept the blame, apologize and get the hell out of here. Then I caught sight of a figure. Black hair, pretty yellow dress, floral scent that drifted pleasantly in the air.
I cringed. Kane's mother, May Wilder. Also one of the top five on my list of Spot and Run.
It's not that she was a bad person, she was way too much of a good person. Always asking about my classes, inviting me over for lunch and shopping dates, showing me pictures of her new food creations. Once she even offered me a room in the house, for free. Like living under the same roof as Kane wouldn't be a catastrophe.
Then there was her husband, Theo Wilder, my alpha and person number two on my list. Like a magnet that can't resist the magnetic field May induces, he always ends up hovering around anywhere she is. And when he wanders over I have to put up with two lines of polite conversation while ignoring the alpha's almost accusing expression whenever I refused any of his wife's offers. Throw in Kane glowering at me from some corner and it was a battle on three fronts. I couldn't handle that much pressure.
Get to the meeting. Go see Ian.
I sucked in a breath and walked over to her.
"Hi, Mrs. Wilder," I said with a small wave I knew was as awkward as I felt.
She lifted her head, blue eyes widening with recognition.
She swirled on heel and ran for the library doors, swinging them open roughly before sprinting inside, not bothering to close it behind her.
She ran away.
From me. What in the world?
There was a laugh beside me. "Now that's quite the sight. You're lucky Theo wasn't around or he'd be on you in a second for scaring his mate."
"I didn't scare her," I protested, turning to Darius. "Did you say Theo isn't here? Why are we having a meeting without the alpha?"
"Oh, the alpha is around," Darius smirked. "Speaking of scary men, did Kane show you anything in the infirmary?"
Show me anything... What I saw in the infirmary was certainly something.
I waved a hand, dismissing the thought and Darius. "Nothing but a hallucination."
I started towards the library, stopped when he caught my elbow. I made an annoyed sound, one he ignored. He was grinning, eyes shining with glee.
"Hallucination? What makes you say that?" He asked.
I bit my lip.
Because despite all the obvious reasons why Kane was incapable of being nice to me, there was also one more thing. Me. I fought against men who were supposed to be stronger than me, and I won those fights. Lots of times. Mostly because I pretended they were the one person I couldn't stand- or stand up to- and that hatred is what gave me strength. But back there? In the infirmary? He only had to flash a single smile and I'd rolled over and showed him my belly, tongue lolling from my mouth happily. Ready to do his bidding. Insults, pranks, domination, none of them were as pathetic and shameful as my behavior had been.
No, I wouldn't, couldn't believe my will was that weak. I didn't need another vulnerability for them to exploit and judging from the look on Darius' face, that's exactly what he was searching for.
I shook his hand off me. "Nothing. Can you- can you just leave me alone?"
He laughed, the sound so carefree and soft that his next move caught me completely off guard.
He grabbed me by the shoulder, shoved hard. My feet stumbled backwards a few steps, twisted in a circle as he spun me around and suddenly we were in an empty room. His fingers were iron on my wrist, the other flipping the lock on the door handle.
His face wasn't happy anymore, and his eyes were as cold as a snake's. "Leave you alone?" He chuckled humorlessly. "You see, I've lost a very precious thing tonight because of you. I'm not feeling very...lenient. I think I might be a little mean to you."
* "I think we might be a little mean to you. But it's really all about perspective, you know? The way we see it, this is actually us doing you a favor," Hector smiled, the reassuring kind that could only work on someone stupid. His words, along with his smile said that's precisely what he thought, that I was stupid.
My eyes drifted towards Darius, who was leaned against a bench a few lockers down. He wriggled his fingers at me with a smirk and went right back to playing angry birds on his phone. My heart sank.
"Eyes on us, monkey," another guy- I didn't know his name- moved closer, obscuring my view of Darius. He was close enough I could smell his sweat.
I resisted the urge to crinkle my nose.
The third one, I think his name was Don, laughed. "You think she expects Darius to help her? He hates her as much as Kane, maybe even more." He twisted his head around and called, "isn't that right, Darius?"
I couldn't see him, but I heard a door open. "Yeah, whatever. You know what? You guys have your fun, I'll even keep an eye out for you outside."
"Thanks dude," Don said. His knuckles were white where they gripped the towel at his waist.
All four of them were shirtless. They'd stuck around the locker room after P.E, one of them grabbing me when I was walking by. They probably planned it too, since most of the school was in the auditorium. The only reason why I wasn't either was because I kept tripping during class- courtesy of my classmates- and Mr. Leroy had me stay behind to pick up the basketballs as punishment for 'disturbing' his class. As if any sane person would purposefully fall down repeatedly just to irritate a teacher.
"Want me to drop it?" Don leered, referring to his towel no doubt.
I imagined grabbing it, twisting the towel around his neck and watching calmly as he chocked. Slowly.
But no, I didn't have my mask with me, and even if I did Darius was outside. He'd show up at the slightest commotion and then there would be four of them.
The three here huddled around me in a semi-circle, eyes glowing amber. "How about we get a taste of what Wilder hates so much?"
They reached for me-*
"Hey," a finger snapped in my face.
I gasped.
"Now where did you go?" Darius mused.
He knew fully well what I had been remembering, had said those words on purpose. I shut my eyes, chest heaving with every erratic breath.
Go away. Go away. Go away.
The ground shuddered beneath me. No, it wasn't the ground- the door. I turned at the exact moment the door was wrenched apart. Jett set the door aside gently, his gaze on Darius the whole time. When he was done, he stalked into the now door- less room, between me and Darius.
"Any problem here?" Darius asked, smiling up at Jett. He had to look up a bit since Jett was taller.
"I want to hurt you," Jett replied calmly, as if discussing the weather. "I won't now because Kane doesn't want me to. Yet," he added. "But it's not going to stop me from killing you the next time I find her alone with you shaking in fear."
Darius' smile was all teeth. He bowed mockingly before he moved around Jett, whistling as he left.
I waited for the sound to fade before I leaned on the wall with a sigh.
I ran a hand through my braids. "You didn't need to do that," I mumbled.
Large, warm fingers took my hand and I nearly jumped out of my skin, paused when I felt the crinkle of a wrapper placed in my palm. A jolly rancher candy.
I raised my eyebrows at him in question.
"Sugar calms children down."
"I'm not a child," I seethed.
"Sure," he agreed, tone hinting otherwise.
I scowled at him. The scar faced hybrid dropped another candy in my hand and pushed me into the hall. He opened the library door and led me in with a large hand at my back, closing the door for me.
For a moment I could only stand, staring down at the candy.
I did love jolly ranchers.
And what I saw when I lifted my head definitely called for some calming. I popped them both in my mouth as I took a seat.