Blackmailing A Werewolf

Chapter 7:

Tessa makes sure she is the first one out the door. Walter leans against the wall of the corridor drumming his fingers into his biceps. She can smell the wolf on him, a salty smell swirled with pine that tells her the wolf is fighting beneath the surface. Her own wolf wriggles beneath her skin trying to force its way out through her fingers, veins, eyes. Count to ten. An old pack trick for calming enough to keep the wolf at bay. It doesn't stop the wolf though.

Nothing stops the wolf on a full moon.

"I found him." It's a whisper through the footfalls of students, chattering, bags banging against sides. "He's the new boy. Still inside the classroom." She watches students burst from the classrooms like fizz from a bottle of coke and mentos. None of them are Rye.

"Are you alright?" She knows he wants to reprimand her, tell her off for approaching the wolf alone, for not notifying him sooner. But Walter wouldn't do that in public, he'll wait until they are alone to tell her how hopelessly irresponsible she is. As if Tessa needed reminding about that, she might as well get it tattooed on her forehead.

"I will be when he is off our territory."

"Walter," Simone smiles, sliding up next to them, Keri in tow. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Otto were always joined at the hip during free periods?"

"Otto got held back after class for throwing paper aeroplanes." Tessa can't even tell if Walter is lying because that is the kind of thing Otto would do in class, even if he is supposed to be a mature Year 13. Mrs Monroe steps out of the classroom flicking the lights off behind her. She swishes past them in a flurry of floral patterns scowling at Keri. Everything fell away. Tessa stared at the closed door. There was no way Rye could have slipped past them. But he must have. He's probably telling the rest of his pack about them, mobilising them for the fight, following their smell to the Den where Tessa's pack lay oblivious.

Fingertips burned while her ribs were made of ice. Was it the wolf or the anxiety doing this to here?

"You know Simone," She hears the spike in Walter's heartbeat when he talks, he must have caught onto how she failed at her one job. "Jerome was telling everyone in the common room he sealed the deal with you on Saturday night. Is it true-"

"No it isn't bloody true! I'm going to skin that butt-chin of a bastard." Throwing her arms in the air, sapphire acrylic nails glinting in the light like tiny knives. "C'mon Keri, I need to go tell everyone how he has the hairless body of a pre-teen girl."

Once they left, Tessa dove into the classroom. She was met with the odd sense of imbalance which hits you when you know something should be there, but it's not. Nevertheless, she finds herself crawling around the floor, for all she knew he could have faked them out and hidden under the desks. She would be able to smell him though. The room would be saturated with his scent, not the fading wisps of it which trickled out the window.

"I thought you said he was in here?" Smacking his hand on the table Walter widely looked around the room, she'd never seen him so agitated. Taking a step back she counted to ten.

"He was." She reaches to fiddle with her pack necklace. Even if she doesn't deserve to wear it right now. All she had to do was watch Rye and she failed. "He must have gone out the window." Glancing at the window her stomach tugged, she should have thought about that, the second storey drop would have been cub's play for a werewolf.

Leaning against the windowsill the paint flakes away under her fingers, her grip on it threatening to rip it off entirely. The schoolyard is empty except for the odd sixth former lingering in the shadows definitely not up to something dodgy. Then there's the empty rugby and football fields, then there's the woods where pine trees cross their leaves together to make green blackness and then there's the hills which roll all the way to their den. To where her mum will be sandpapering a chair, where her auntie Delilah will tend the cows and the rest of the pack will just be existing in peace. Well maybe peace is a stretch because her aunties could attack each other like banshees if provoked, but at least they weren't in a territory war. Not yet at least.

If she was an invading wolf she would be in those woods. The perfect place to hide until the full moon rose and they could launch their attack.

"Come on. He must be in the woods." Hands grappling at the window, she perches on the windowsill pushing herself off -

Rough fingers grab the scruff of her neck and yank her into the room. She sprawls across one of the desks with a shout, the back of a chair jamming itself between her ribs. Yowling, she cradles her side giving Walter a look which could make Dracula squeal.

"What was that for?"

"Trying to save your hide." He dragged her off the table allowing her to stumble, using her bicep to drag her to the door. "What do you think would happen if someone saw you jump from a second storey building then run off?"

"Whatever." Her chest prickled as she accepted that Walter was right. He usually was. Although it didn't stop her glaring at the back of head as they ran down the corridor and barged through the doors at the end. At an acceptably human speed of course.

"Walter!" Otto stumbles into them, catching himself on Walter's bicep. Tessa pretends not to notice how both of their breaths hitch. "Where's the fire, mate?"

"Nowhere, we are just late for something is all." Swallowing thickly, Walter's eyes dart to the window above the stair, the trees outside screaming at them to hurry up. Before Rye has the chance to get to his pack for reinforcements. They need to cut him off.

"Suddenly keeping secrets, are you now?" Otto never sounds serious, but his tone makes Tessa look at him. Eyebrows furrowing Walter stumbles, looking prepared to move and replant every tree in the woods if it would lead to Otto's forgiveness. "Only kidding mate, I know you'd never keep a secret from me. You'd be too bad at it."

"Yeah." The two of them bump fists with a laugh and shake of the shoulders. Only Tessa can smell the stench of sweat dripping down Walter's back.

"Speaking of secrets, I never finished telling you about Mrs Clare's great nephew."

"We really don't have time right now Otto, but tell us at break, yeah?" They pound down the steps with each word. Halfway down the first set of steps a thought strikes Tessa. "Wait!" Almost breaking her ankle on the stairs, she does a u-turn stamping back to Otto. "Mrs Clare's great nephew, he's not called Rye Frost, is he?"

"Yeah," Otto frowned, peering round her to look at Walter who shrugged. "Mrs Clare's sister couldn't look after him no more and none of the rest of the family wanted to take him, so Mrs Clare said she'd give him a bed as long as he helped in the cafe. Speaking of which Walter, she's got a new hot chocolate in, we should give it a try this weekend."

There was no enemy pack.

Simply Rye. A lone wolf. 

The thought shuddered through her like a tarantula crawling over her neck. An enemy pack is dangerous, but they are predictable. They only want to expand their territory, take resources. Therefore, they can either be fought or negotiated with. However, a lone wolf has nothing to lose. Some of them don't even value the secret. Their wolf's go deranged without a pack to keep them steady, without an alpha to keep them in line. They are the wolves of fairy tales. 

And on a full moon they will attack anything and everything. Even entire packs over wolves. All they care about is satisfying their deranged wolf's thirst for blood.

Her wolf writhed beneath her skin. They better find Rye before the full moon. 

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Next update: Friday