Fire And Ice

Chapter 60 - Uncovering Side Effects

Natalia's P. O. V

The winter break had given us the opportunity to visit three packs.

The first one, a micropack close to Canada that very much still bore the effects of the Lightwood pack's sabotage, had gone over smoothy. Up until the point that one of the guys took notice of me, then proceeded to follow me around, which drew the attention of others to me. One of the younger guys had even mistaken the feeling of attraction to me for the feeling of finding his mate. It had taken baring my fangs and Hailey shooing them off to get them to leave me alone.

During our visit to the second pack, Kaesha had cast a spell to keep me invisible, so the visit went better than with the first. Timothy had suggested we use that spell going forward with the rest of the visits, but I didn't want to. I was going to be the Alpha of our pack, and I wanted most of the leaders of the packs we visited to have at least seen me, even if not all of them.

We tried the third visit without using Kaesha's magic. It didn't go nearly as chaotic as the first, but I still ended up drawing the attention of three guys, one of which had a mate that didn't appreciate the fact that his attention was wandering. When she spoke to me face to face though, she'd said she understood why he was so taken, and explained that they were chosen mates for each other, cause both their original mates had died.

By the time the semester was about to start, I was tired of being around people.

Back from our trip, I was unpacking in my room when I passed my vanity mirror and caught sight of my reflection. Then it dawned on me.

'How am I gonna explain all this at the Syren School?'

'What do you mean?'

I gestured to my reflection, 'I told them I'm a Werewolf. I mean, I am, but you can't be both under normal circumstances. Aubrey will never let me hear the end of this. And Lucy and Jenna already know for a fact that I'm a Werewolf.'

'You're right... What are you gonna do?'

I ran a hand through my hair. I knew that Mrs Burton had mentioned it when I visited, but I hadn't thought about actually dealing with the people I went to school with. The Syren School resumed a few days before Killdrain, so I'd have to face them first.

This was what I got for mixing parts of my life that needed to stay separate.

'I guess I'll just have to make up something about my genes getting my traits messed up and hope for the best. Hopefully, not many people will notice.'

People noticed.

I'd visited the main office in the morning to get my Special Abilities class assignment but hadn't stuck around in order to avoid people seeing me. But I couldn't skip my afternoon classes.

I could feel all the eyes following me as I walked to my first class. People that weren't in any of my classes and had probably never heard of me were gawking as I passed. My hands and face warmed under their gaze so I decided to redirect my eyes to the floor.

Explaining my genes was gonna be hard enough without the apparent strangeness of my hair and eyes. When I walked into my first class, all heads slowly turned to me.

Jenna and Lucy were already there. Jenna, who was perched on a table and facing the door, noticed me first and stopped mid-sentence. Lucy followed her gaze and turned to look at me.

I took a breath and walked up to them. When I reached them, we just ended up looking at each other. They stared, confused and silent, while I shifted my weight, turning my words over in my head.