Ch. 32: Outside Perspectives

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:
Nick~
Goddess help us. You would think Evan had never had to tone down his wolf traits in front of humans before. Will I be that bad after my first shift next month? I had been making my backwards shot from across the court when Evan’s scent changed. He was exuding excitement, and one glance over at Jake confirmed it was Rachel. I have no clue what it was about her that made these two this crazy.
Jake had had a crush on her for years. Even thinking back to first grade I could remember him teasing her about one thing or another to get her to chase him. They chased each other over all kinds of things back then. He seemed alright when she had moved, but when she came back to start 6th grade, you could see it all over his face. He was totally smitten. We were just pups back then. And while we knew about fated mates, it all felt so far away. I mean I had had a few crushes myself on a few human girls throughout middle school, but Jake - he never changed his mind. He never got distracted from his efforts to talk to Rachel, to be around her.
The end of 7th grade they met in the library after school a few days a week, and he always looked forward to it. Goddess, Valentine’s Day of that year was something else. Over summer it all cooled down between them. The three of us had training and studying to do in preparing for our roles as adult wolves. It was time to grow up, we weren’t carefree pups anymore. But Jake wouldn’t let go. The fights the three of us got in were rough. But we still helped him, we still covered for him to our Alpha and Luna. Put our necks on the line so he could be with her after school nearly every day in 8th grade. Evan and I told ourselves this was all only temporary, I mean it had to be, right? We would go to high school, get our wolves, and start being able to sense our mates. And mates were supposed to make you forget about everyone else like that. Right?
But now I was worried it was only going to get more complicated from here. I had never heard of a human mating to a werewolf, but the tiny voice in the back of my head told me this was a real possibility. It was only made more likely with Evan’s wolf acting this way. He was trying to impress her! Almost blabbering out about our real athletic limits. I made a mental note to talk to Jake about this later. I hadn’t wanted to tell him about yesterday’s events, but Evan (or maybe Xavier) was really backing me into a corner here.
“You coming?” Jake asked me.
I had been lost in thought and hadn’t paid attention to whatever had just been said. But like a good Gamma (other than my lacking listening skills, I guess) I nodded. It appeared that we were all walking over to the park. I stayed close to Evan, ready to jump in whenever he started acting like an idiot again. Yeah, that’s right - when, not if. I could feel his need to impress on my skin. As I got closer to my first shift my senses had begun to heighten. Well, I’d find out soon about how my wolf would react, my birthday was at the end of the month. Maybe then we could narrow this question down. The looming answer gave me assurance but it also worried me to no end.

Ally~
We all headed towards the playground after deciding to walk around a bit. I saw Rachel beeline to the swings, and I sat in the one next to hers. Lana sat down, shoes in the sand, sitting on the edge of the playground. Jake sat down on the tire swing, well leaned against it, more like. And we laughed as the whole thing groaned a little under his weight.
“Looks like those were rated for regular sized people, huh?” Rachel joked.
“Very funny,” he smiled out in reply.
“I know,” she quipped back.
“Did you all hear that?” he asked, laughing. “Who knew we were so lucky - we’ve got our very own comedian.”
Evan chuckled harshly like the laugh had had to fight its way out. Evan had been lying down on the slide looking up at the clouds, Nick standing near him. Leaning against the play structure. He kept eyeing Evan.
Something about him had changed recently. I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly. But every once in a while I felt the presence of something dark and strong rising up in him. Not, dark - like evil - no, more like something not quite human. I was starting to believe Evan was like me, different.
“Yeah,” Evan said loudly, sitting up on the slide, “she’s just gre-” he stopped, getting elbowed in the ribs by Nick.
Jake snapped his head up to Evan and glared for half a second, then shook his head shaking his thought out. Evan had looked - smitten? What was that on his face? It was hard to read.
“Well,” Jake paused, “Once you’re both done hogging the good swings do the rest of us get a turn? Or are those reserved to just ‘regular sized’ folks?”
“Hmmm,” Rachel glowed in his direction, “We’ll see.”
She looked up at the sky and started swinging really high, putting all her force into it. I saw how he watched her, captivated.
They were cute to watch. I found myself grinning at their natural interaction. I liked her with Sean, I did. Although, I couldn’t help but think that what Lana was saying earlier had some truth to it. My mind seemed to move away from those doubtful thoughts quickly though. Which my gut was starting to be worried about. There were times lately when I felt like my feelings and thoughts were being… influenced.
My grandmother had always told me to trust my instincts. We had a bit of a family secret, and it meant that as I got closer to my first 18th-year full moon, my soul would be able to feel things other people couldn’t. My mom was the same way, although we used to believe I won’t be as strong as her. I could still feel it building over the years, though. I was also starting to think we were wrong. I don’t think my magic was going to be as weak as we had assumed.

Nick~
I’m this close to ending this whole night. I just elbowed Evan in the gut. Dude will not quit! His eyes were all shining, looking between the two of them. A flash or two of dark eyes, telling me his wolf was part of this outburst. I tried to make eye contact with Jake. We couldn’t quite link yet, but he should be able to feel me trying to send him some sort of message.
After a few moments of bantering with Rachel he looks over to me, and I use my face and eyes to signal for him to look at Evan. He does, but he doesn’t seem to grasp the whole concept. Oh Goddess, help me. I had to be at my wit's end.
Rachel slows her swinging and jumps off, puts her hands on her hips and points to the tire swing Jake has been laying in and asks, “So are we switching or what?”
Jake groaned loudly, exaggerating the effort to get up out of the seat, an extreme exaggeration for a fellow werewolf.
Instead of getting out he let himself slowly fall back down, “I think I may be stuck here. I think I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” The charisma in his voice and the sh*t-eating grin he put on his face while he looked up at her made me sick. Yup, that was it, the final straw. We were leaving. Goddess? What have I done to deserve this?
I pulled my phone out and texted Evan and Jake, then hit send as I announced, “Oh sh*t! We forgot!” Everyone looked over at me, “Guys, check your phone, we totally forgot. We’ve got to go.”
I sent a text to Mitchell that we were coming over. He lived a few blocks away and we could wait there for our rides home. He and his family were some of the few wolves who lived in Melbourne.
“Man, what are you talking about?” Jake asked me and I reiterated the need to look at his phone.
<< Group Text >>: 911 - We are leaving NOW.
“Oh,” Jake said aloud, “That’s right. Da*mn, we forgot. Sorry ladies.”
He looked as dejected as Evan and I needed to get them the hell away from here. I pulled Evan up and started walking behind him quickly, pushing him to get moving. Jake stood there a second waving, and I shoved into his shoulder while I barrelled through. After a few steps, Jake tried to stop me.
“No Jake, we need to go. I’ll explain more once we’re at Mitchell’s. There are some things we both,” I pointed at Evan, “need to tell you.”
He looked back and I barked, “Eyes forward!”
Sophie appeared by us along with a few other girls in our group.
She held up a hand to try to stop us and asked, “And where are you three going?” in her entitled tone.
“Out of our way Omega,” I snarled.
I had no patience for Sophie’s bullsh*t today. I heard her growl, but one glare for me had shut her up. She had become even more of a nuisance in the last two weeks since her 17th birthday. I had seen her eyeballing Jake before, but it was going to get out of hand soon - and I couldn’t handle that on top of everything else. Not today. We marched on to Mitchell’s.