Wynter's Bane (On Hiatus)

Chapter 9

Edited with Grammarly: 4/30/2020

Weeks go by quickly when you juggle a job, classes, and stolen time with friends. Kal, Markus, and I have grown closer, but it's made my life hell at school. Human and wolf females alike don't care for my friendship with him, Mythine most of all.

We all know nothing will come of it, I especially know that. Even if I do want to see him as more, I know it can never be, so I'm content with how things are. Myth doesn't see it that way and is determined to see me ruined socially, as if being so any more than I already am is even possible.

She almost cost me my job, but I was actually surprised when our Alphas stepped in on that. Probably because a big chunk of what I make is sent to his home for the Pack as a whole. They may not claim me, but they shelter and feed me, and that's better than nothing.

Even though I excel at my Phys.Ed. class, I dread it. No matter how much time I spend out in the sun, my skin doesn't darken, so I'm the palest chick around for miles. Every day I am reminded of that fact as if I magically forget about it overnight.

You don't know cruel until you see high school females in a locker room. You don't know how deep words can cut till they slice at you while cornered by benches and metal. They know better than to try and strike at a Werewolf, but Myth has pretty much called open season on everything else.

It's not till today that I realize it isn't all Mythine, but Markus that is causing all this.

Just stepping out of the showers into the locker area, wrapped in a towel and heading for my locker as quickly as possible, I hear them in the next aisle over. Mostly humans, but a couple are wolves.

"Can you believe it?"

"No! It had to be his father that ordered it."

"No, it was all Markus. He wants us to leave her alone."

"Why? This like a sympathy bid for his Alpha thing?"

"I heard he was sweet on the little thing, like a lost little puppy."

The cutesy noises being made with those words have my jaw clenching, their combined laughter has the hair along my spine raising. I dress, acting as if they don't even exist, but that becomes difficult when they come around the corner. I don't even look at them, pulling up my pants and grabbing my shirt before they can take off with it...again.

"Hey there, Puppy. We were just talking about you, but I guess you already knew that, huh?"

The ring leader is one of the girls either on the cheer team or the swim team, I'm not sure which, the rest are members of the designated group. The three wolf tag-alongs are those that make up the meat of the Grotto Falls Pack, lower than Betas and higher than Omegas. These would be the three that the other girls are getting their wolf info from.

"I said..."

"I heard what you said. Frankly, I don't give a damn. You want Markus? Get the stick out of your ass and get him yourself. It's no wonder he wants nothing to do with any of you, you're all shallow, self-centered, ignorant twats who have the brain capacity of a squirrel."

Grabbing up my bag, I turn to leave, but I'm shoved hard into the lockers, the scent of wolf at my back. I see now, the popular girl has a few bully wolves with her to do her dirty work for her. Considering each one of them outweighs me by at least 25 pounds, and several inches...yeah.

"Who do you think you're talking to? Do you realize what I could do to you right now?"

"You? You can't do anything. The wolves you have with you would be doing it, not you."

I bite my tongue even as my teeth are being pushed and sliced into my cheek from being ground into the metal wall. Kal and Markus have been helping me come out of my shell more and more, but that might not be such a good thing. As is proven when I'm spun around and I get a fist to the gut.

I think I've been hit more in the last couple of weeks than I have in the last several years. My lungs burn as the oxygen is forced out of them, my organs aching where they've been bruised. Wolves have a lot more strength than what humans think, even as kids, we can be lethal if given the chance. Not saying regular humans can't, but a regular human can't hit like we do either.

Before I'm allowed to fall, my cheek explodes in pain as I'm slapped, I taste blood. We can take the abuse, we can take quite a bit of damage before we're really hurt, but I'm not exactly used to it. It was a wolf that slapped me, the human girl wouldn't dare unless she had a death wish.

The wolves with her wouldn't have done anything, but I would have. Maybe not here, maybe not today, maybe not in the school, but I would retaliate. One big thing wolves are known for is their revenge against a human who does them wrong.

On my knees between the wall of lockers and a bench is where Kal finds me, relearning how to breathe. Knowing it was her Packmates makes her all the angrier because there's nothing she can do. Sure, she could attempt to do what Markus has apparently done, but look how that turned out.

"We'll sneak into their houses and rub their beds down with poison ivy, then stick some up in their washing machines. Then we'll put poison oak in their cars, rub-down the seats, steering wheels, gearshifts, all of it."

That gets me to smile, but it still hurts to try and laugh. One thing I can proudly say though, not once after that first day have they gotten me to cry. I've come close, many times, but I kept it at bay by sheer will, refusing to let them see it. I'll be damned if I give them that pleasure.