In The Shadows (Teen Wolf) (Shadow Series #1)

Chapter 19

I read my latest text message from Stiles, exhaling in relief. This whole fake date has made my blood pressure sky rocket through the roof. I look up, careful not to be noticed by Lydia or Allison, and smile at Stiles, a few tables away in the lunch room. He smiles back before turning his attention back on Scott, who is currently hiding from my sister behind a book.

"The what of who?" Lydia's voice captures my attention.

I tune back in to what my sister is talking about. Apparently, Aunt Kate visited her room last night to tell her to look up some family history that will help her with a project.

"The beast of Gevaudan." Allison answers, "Listen. 'A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and south Dordogne areas of France during the year 1764 to 1767. La Bete killed over a hundred people, becoming so infamous that the King Louie the 15th sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it."

Lydia twirls a piece of her strawberry blonde hair around her finger. "Boring."

Allison ignores her comment, still reading. "Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan."

"Still boring."

"Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a subspecies of hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid."

Aunt Kate suddenly wants Allison to know about our family being hunters? She's the one that said Allison wasn't ready.

"'Slipping into a coma' bored." Lydia adds while fake yawning.

"While others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape-shift into a man-eating monster." Allison reads.

"Any of this have anything to do with your family?" Lydia glances at me.

"Really, Allison? This just sounds like a bad children's book." I brush off my apple before taking a bite of it.

"This. 'It is believed that la Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renown hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature.' His name was Argent."

"Argent?" I allow myself to sound a little curious. Allison grins, happy that I'm finally showing an interest.

Lydia half shrugs. "Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?"

Allison shakes her head, adjusting the book for us to see. "Not just a big wolf. Take a look at this picture. What does it look like to you?" She points to a picture of a large wolf with creepy red eyes. "Lydia?"

Lydia zones out while staring at the picture, almost like she's seen it before. The night of the video store accident; I wonder if this is what the Alpha looks like?

I set my hand on Lydia's arm. "Lydia."

Lydia snaps out of her daze. "It looks-like a big-wolf. See you in History." She quickly leaves the table without another word said.

"So, what? You think our family was hunters?" I take another bite of my tart apple.

Allison sets the book back down on the table, sighing. "I don't know what I think."

"Well, maybe you should ask Aunt Kate again. She sounds like she probably knows more about the Argent Family history."

She hums in response, absorbed in the book once again.

+

"Put your phone away." Coach Finstock points to me as he walks towards his classroom door, where students are filing in.