Book 1 : Chapter 2 A Not So Brief Explanation

October 10th

It was a couple of weeks after the great break up and life had moved on.

To begin with I'd felt lost and betrayed and spent many hours staring at the ceiling of my bedroom wondering what on earth happened to the boy I thought was so right for me. But after a bit of time, I began to see it for what it was. Just a silly teenage romance.

I was a wolf. He was human. I hadn't even told him my secret.

Deep down I always knew we'd never last. A man or woman out there was destined to me and no matter how much I thought I loved Cameron, nothing would compare to how I'd feel about my mate. That gave me a sense of guilt every time I looked at Cameron because I knew if we stayed together, one day I'd just suddenly end it and he'd have no idea why. So in hindsight, I'm kind of glad he turned out to be such a douchebag. It's worked out for the better.

And from now on, it's no more pointless relationships. I've decided to wait for my mate, whoever he or she may be and however long I have to wait.

Meanwhile, I'll focus on school and trying not to murder the boy sat behind me in American history class with his ruler as he repeatedly prodded me in the back with it.

"Hey rogue," I heard him say.

It was Logan Wilson. He was a sixteen-year-old wolf boy, heir to the Alpha ship in the Cerridwen pack and incredibly proud of it.

The territory covered the whole of Kellington but after my family had been forced to relocate from our previous pack we'd been permitted by the Alpha, Logan's father, to settle there peacefully living as rogues alongside the humans of the town.

But whilst his father took pity on us, Logan certainly did not.

In fact, he had taken it upon himself to make my life a living hell.

"What?!" I hissed.

"You free tonight, little Miss Feisty?" He asked with a smirk.

"No, fuck off," I answered bluntly as I turned back around, trying to focus on what our history teacher was telling us about Rosa Parks.

"Are you sure babe? I was thinking maybe you could come round now that you're single and everything," he said, leaning over and whispering in my ear, "how is Cameron by the way?"

I ignored him. He was trying to provoke me and I certainly wasn't going to give Logan Wilson the satisfaction of a response.

"Hey rogue, don't ignore me. I'm your future Alpha."

Our teacher, Mr. Greggory, turned from the whiteboard he was writing on and stared in that irritating patient and silent way teachers do.

"Excuse me Mr. Wilson, Miss Jones, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything?" He asked.

"Yes, you were actually," Logan said.

My mouth gaped open. And so did Mr. Greggory's.

"Well, in that case, maybe you can finish whatever ever it was in detention. You too, Miss Jones," he said, writing our names on the whiteboard under the detention box.

"But-" I started.

"No buts, Miss Jones," he said.

"I didn't do anything!" I protested.

"Unless you want a week of detention, you will be back here at four o'clock sharp," he said.

I sighed with exasperation and injustice.

"Yes, Sir," I murmured before shooting a glare at Logan who still wore the same cocky smirk.

Just to make matters worse, in the last five minutes of the lesson, Mr. Greggory assigned an essay for Monday.

It was currently Friday.

I shoved the sheet into my bag, crumpling it out of spite before heading out with the bell.

But as I reached the door, something blocked my way.

Logan.

"I'm sorry, Ella. How about I make it up to you and give you a lift home after detention?"

He looked down at me like I was a tiny scrap of broccoli he just picked out his back tooth.

"Just fuck off, Logan. I am so done with your shit," I said, trying to push past.

"You know I'm the Alpha's son, right?" He said, still towering over me.

"Whatever, he's not even my Alpha."

He stepped to the side, blocking my attempt to get past him.

"But you're on our land, aren't you? So you abide by my rules otherwise I will make kicking you and your brother off my territory the first thing I do when I become Alpha. And my seventeenth birthday is in a few days, so you better start respecting me ASAP. Understand?"

"Fine," I said. "You can give me a lift home if you really want."

Logan didn't scare me. He was just an immature kid dressed as an Alpha. But the concept of being kicked off this territory wasn't exactly comforting. I was happy living here in the human world.

"See you tonight," he whispered in my ear before winking and finally letting me pass and to my friends, already waiting for me by the lockers.

"What took you so long?" My friend, Charlotte, asked.

"One word: Logan."

Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"Being a jerk as usual?"

"I can't believe you got detention because of him," Abi, our other friend said.

"I know and I still have to do that fucking assignment," I groaned.

"Another two hours of school to do tonight, just in case seven hours during the day isn't enough," whined Abi, looking down at the essay sheet whilst madly trying to get a curl of hair out of her mouth.

"Just do it on a computer and make the font enormous so you don't even have to write that much," Charlotte replied with her usual optimistic tone.

Abi laughed, "knowing Mr. Greggory if you don't stick to the 12-pt. font-size rule he'd make you do it three times over."

"Nothing but facts," I said with a sigh.

Abi and Charlotte were my only two proper friends. When I first moved to Kellington at age eleven, they'd been the first to take pity on me as I sat eating lunch at school on my own for weeks, not quite sure how you're supposed to socialize in the human world.

I'd been moved around constantly as a kid and never once been to a school. My parents taught me the basics of reading, writing and speaking but we were rogues just jumping between packs and living in the wild for the first decade of my life. So despite probably being kinda weird and wolfy to start off, they stuck with me and we'd been best friends ever since.

In the first year of high school, I entrusted them with my secret. They'd taken it surprisingly well. They said they always knew there was something odd about me and my family. But they still treated me as normal and refused to ditch me.

Now, in Junior year of high school, we were a solid trio who occasionally brushed alongside some of the other social groups of the school.

"So... we're invited to Cameron's party tonight," Charlotte said, glancing at Abi before looking to me, "are you coming, Ella?"

"Cameron? As in Cameron wood?" I mumbled, "fuck no..."

"Look, that was all in the past Ella," Abi said.

I raised my eyebrow, "what? A whole two weeks ago?"

Charlotte let out a whine and grabbed my hands.

"It'll be fun. Loads of people are going and we might not even see him," she said.

"No," I said firmly, "besides I have loads of homework and since my Mom's been gone it's been hard to juggle housework, homework and social life. But you two have fun. I don't mind."

"Can't Connor help with housework? He could make dinner or something?" Abi asked.

Charlotte and I looked at each other with half-terrified, half-hysterical glances.

"That's coming from someone who hasn't seen Connor in a kitchen trying to toast a piece of bread before," I said with laughter.

"Oh please. Just because he's a boy doesn't give him an excuse to learn to cook. This is the 21st century, right?" She argued.

Connor was supposed to be my older brother. But since our Mom left, I've felt like the parent of the house. I gave him chores but I never let him anywhere near the oven for fear of burning the house down - something we definitely couldn't afford to do.

Having grown up with practically no friends except each other, we were pretty close. He was only a year older and we moved in the same social circles so we went to all the same parties and events together.

Although that's not to say we always came back together.

He'd taken full advantage of the absence of a real parent at home and usually stayed out until the buttcrack of dawn before stumbling home. This was because he had a habit of either staying out after a party with his friend drinking far more than they should or since I banned him from bringing girls into his room which shared a thin plaster wall with mine, he ended up in someone else's bed.

But he was alright.

Not the most responsible, smart or focused kid in the world but we didn't have it easy and I didn't want to stop him having fun.

Easy.

Easy wasn't a word I would describe any aspect of our lives.

Our father died four years ago.

It was a car accident. We don't know how it happened. His car appeared to have just spontaneously flipped over and he landed dead in a ditch. But he was an alcoholic. The autopsy showed a lot in his system and it was ruled unsuspicious.

We didn't have much to thank him for. He'd argued with every Alpha ever to let us into their pack and was the reason we never had a place to call home as a kid. But he was still our Dad and we still missed him dearly.

We missed our Mom too. After the accident, she was never quite the same. She'd lost her mate. It was expected.

But a couple of years ago she couldn't face living in this house any longer. Sleeping in the same bed she'd shared with him, seeing his photos, smelling the lingering scent on his clothes, seeing post come in the mail with his name on the envelope.

It was all too much.

So she left to live as a rogue again. She wanted Connor and me to join her but we liked our lives in Kellington. We had friends, an education, a home. So we stayed, got jobs in a little diner on the edge of town and started paying the bills ourselves.

As I said, nothing was 'easy'.

I sat with Abi and Charlotte in the cafeteria, picking at the dry sandwich I'd spent two dollars on. It was limp and had one singular slice of cheese inside that sweated and moulded in a way cheese definitely shouldn't.

"You know what, you're right," I said, chucking the poor excuse of a meal down onto my tray, "I'm coming. I deserve some fun-"

I was cut short as Charlotte squealed in excitement before bringing me into a bone-crushing hug. Abi laughed as she watched my eyeballs almost pop out my head.

"Okay, Charlotte. I think we get it. Now let the poor girl go," she giggled.

"Let's get something better to eat, I'm starving," I said, sniffing the air.

It smelt like they'd brought out some hot fries and my stomach grumbled just at the smell.

"You're always hungry," Abi laughed.

"It's not my fault I have an inhumanely high metabolism," I said. "Literally."

When the bell rang at 4 o'clock my heart sank.

Detention.

I walked to Mr. Greggory's classroom to see Logan already sitting at a desk.

Shit.

I was kind of hopingexpecting that he wouldn't turn up.

"Oh hey, little Miss rogue," he said in his usual arrogant tone.

"It's bad enough that I'm even here, let alone with you and because of you, so do me a favour and don't even fucking breath in my direction," I said, sitting down as far away as possible from him.

He immediately picked up his rucksack and scooted across a few desks until he was next to me.

I looked at him and scowled, shuffling to the very edge of my chair before Mr. Greggory came in.

"I know you two are no strangers to detention so I won't bother you with the rules," he said. "Just get on with some work and make use of this time."

I often landed myself in detention. I always did my homework and didn't go out my way to break the rules but my problem was: if I don't agree with something, I'm going to make it known to the world.

Arguing with teachers about stupid policies, unfair dress codes, irrelevant content, pointless pieces of homework and unfair treatment of students was my speciality and adults don't like it when you point out something wrong. Especially if you do it with curse words and a fairly short temper.

But I mean well. I'm just trying to make the school less of a shit hole and the world a fairer place.

Logan, however, was just an all-around horrible student. As the Alpha's son, his future had been determined since the word go and has no reason to work hard. Or at all really.

"I've got some test papers to collect from the office, I'm sure I can trust you for a few minutes," he said, leaving us alone.

I don't know what made him think he could trust Logan but okay. I got out my history essay and started to go over what I was going to write in my head.

"Do you wanna play truth or dare?" Logan asked, prodding me in the stomach.

"Um, personal space and no."

"Twenty-one dares?" He asked, prodding me again.

"No," I hissed, smacking his hand away, stopping it from coming in for prod number three.

"Come on babe loosen up a bit, just imagine I'm Cameron. Or maybe that wouldn't help considering-"

"Can you just leave me alone before I am forced to punch you?" I interrupted.

"No need to get pissed. I think we both knew that your relationship was never going to work anyway. What were you planning on doing when you find your mate?" He asked, rocking his chair back slightly so it was leaning on only two legs.

I stood up to move to another seat. The thought of pushing him was a tantalizing one.

Maybe that story that the teachers always tell about the kid they knew that smashed their head open and died from swinging would finally come true...

"On a scale of 16-72, how much would you hate to have to marry me?"

"108."

"Imagine living in the same house as me, sleeping in the same bed as me, having pups with me and spending the rest of your life with me..." He said with an evil smile that put me slightly on edge.

"I think I would off myself," I replied, looking back at the essay sheet and my blank piece of lined paper.

"Could you think of anything worse?" He asked.

"Hmmm, let me think," I said, pausing for effect, "no."

"Perfect," I thought I heard him mumble under his breath.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing."

"Can I finish my homework now?"

He grinned, "alright, I'll leave you alone but at least let me give you this."

He then delved into his pocket and pulled out a golden envelope.

"What is it?" I asked, looking at the shining paper.

"Oh, just something about you and your brother getting kicked off pack territory if you don't meet some... conditions," he said.

I quickly got out of my seat, alarmed by the words kicked and territory in one sentence. I lunged forward to grab the envelope, but he held it above his head about 6 ft 6 off the ground.

"Give it to me," I ordered.

"Come to my house at 8:00 pm then you can have it," he said.

"There is no way I am going anywhere near your house and I'm going out anyway."

His eyebrows raised and his lips curled into a grin.

"You're going to Cameron's party?" He asked, "awe, do you miss him?"

I gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Fine, then I'll meet you there," he said and with that he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out into the corridor, gold envelope still in his hand.

"It's only 4:05!" I shouted, but he just waved his hand dismissively and carried on.

A few moments later, Mr. Greggory came back into the room.

"Where has Wilson gone?" He asked, looking down the corridor.

"Shockingly, he left," I said.

Mr. Greggory sighed, "well, you may go too, Ella. I understand that you are here because of him, but in the future, don't let him provoke you. You are a smart kid, but boys like him easily lead you astray."

Lead me astray? He wants to fucking evict me!

"Yes, sir."

"Get home. I'm sure you've got Friday night plans to be getting on with."