Defiance: The Hybrid's Tale

Nathan Underhill.

Joshua pulled me along the corridor until we entered a massive room lined with rows of bookshelves. The ceiling, three stories above us, let sunlight through the skylights that provided light for the students who sat at the reading tables. The sweet, musky scent of books lingered in the air. There’s nothing better than the smell of old books, the feel of the paper beneath your fingertips and the sound of pages flipping. E-books be damned!

Seconds later, I slammed my ass onto a coffee-brown chair while Joshua sat down opposite of me on another sofa. A small glass coffee table separated us. Joshua’s face said it all—I fucked up.

“What’s wrong with you?” he whisper-yelled.

I groaned while hiding my face in my hands in shame. What did I do? Growling in front of them? Seriously!? I’ve never allowed anyone to rattle my bones like that. Why was it happening all of a sudden? He was right! What is wrong with me?

“I don’t know, alright. That fucking nut caught me off-guard, shoving me away like that.”

Joshua’s eyes narrowed. “And why’s that?”

“Someone has a crush.” Fenrus snickered.

“Oh, shove off! He’s just a nuisance really. A nuisance we don’t have time for.” I fought back, trying to gain the upper hand on the problem before it became worse. I couldn’t allow myself to fall for Adam. Damn, he was hot! Shaking Adam’s hand made my balls curl up in delight.

“HA! You just admitted it!”

I grumbled under my breath. “No, I didn’t! Stop making it more difficult.”

“Hello! Nat. Are you still with me?” Joshua snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“Oh, sorry. Had to deal with an annoying inner voice in my head.”

“Annoying! Little! How dare you!”

“Shush! Be quiet. The adults are talking.”

I redirected my attention to Joshua and cut the link to Fenrus. He could be annoying at times. If it were up to him, he would have rolled over and bared his stomach to Adam in a jiffy. I would even go so far as to say he would have handed my ass over to Adam on a silver platter.

“Now, who’s the one with the dirty ideas?” Fenrus snickered as he broke through my mental barrier.

“I said shush!”

Fenrus’ laugh bounced around my head, giving me a slight headache. Damn, fur ball.

“I asked you a question? How did Dillon catch you off-guard? Shouldn’t you have been able to sniff him out before he ploughed through us?” Joshua’s eyes lit up. “Oh my spirit! You were totally enamored with Adam, weren’t you?”

I quickly shot back, too quickly. “No, I wasn’t.”

Joshua didn’t swallow my excuse. “Yeah right, and Arno is the virgin Mary.”

He scooted closer to me, sitting on the table in front of me. “Do you like him?”

“No,” I deflected half-heartedly.

“And the drool running from your mouth back there when you shook hands with him was just a mild case of an aneurism?”

“Come on, not you too! I don’t have time for a romantic relationship.” I groaned.

Joshua squealed, jumping up and down. “So do you like him to the point that you want a relationship with him?”

“I didn’t say that.” I squirmed in my seat. Shit, Nat. Keep your mouth shut before you give Joshua another fit.

“Oh no, Nathan. Keep digging that hole deeper while you’re at it. Just admit that you like the guy. You cannot keep on shutting the world out because you’re afraid of getting hurt again.” Fenrus pushed his opinion.

“Can you two just lay off me? And get on another topic other than my lack of a boyfriend? I don’t want one.” I kept rubbing my temples trying to rub away the throbbing in my head.

“You two?” Joshua asked.

“You and my wolf. He’s just as annoying as you.”

Joshua slapped my leg. “Well, maybe you should listen to us. I heard all about what you have been through from my mom. Hell, it sucks that you never had a moment’s rest in your life to enjoy it. But that doesn’t mean that you have to continue like this. Live a little.”

I got a bit irritated at his words. How could my mom blurt out our life stories to strangers?

Joshua stood up from the table and sat back on the sofa. “Come on, man. The whole reason your mother came to Shadowdale was for the sole purpose of giving you and your sister a bit of stability. With the backing of the coven and the Raven’s Hill pack, you have nothing to worry about.”

I scoffed. “Really? Do you know who my grandfather is? He’s twisted enough to obliterate this whole town and all of its people as long as he can kill me. I don’t want innocent people to die on my part.”

“I know who he is, but what you have to understand is that you’ve got two of the most powerful women in the world at your side, a coven that specializes in destructive magic, and you’ve got over nine hundred wolves to back you up.”

A flicker of hope and assurance bubbled inside of my heart, but as I’ve already experienced before, you can’t trust blindly. I burned myself once before, not again.

“I get that the coven’s on our side and I’m grateful... but I don’t trust those ass-sniffers as far as I can smell them.”

Joshua laughed. “You think they’ll betray you like the previous pack did?”

His words scraped painfully across an old wound inside of my heart.

“I don’t want to talk about that.” I got up and slung my bag over my shoulder before walking toward the exit of the doors of the library. The conversation was beginning to rub me the wrong way.

Joshua grabbed my wrist and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up a painful memory.”

I sighed. “I’m not mad but it was my fault--”

“Bullshit! You couldn’t have known that it would end that way. You were sixteen years old, a teenager—”

“It was!” I growled at him, making Joshua flinch out of fright. I quickly dragged my anger down. “Sorry for snapping, but it was. It was my phone call to my cousin that allowed my grandfather to lay a trap for us. My stepfather, the one man that I loved like my own father, died out of my arrogance.” A tear slipped down my face and a whimper escaped my throat.

I was a fucking stupid, arrogant kid who threw a tantrum because my mother had been keeping me on a tight leash and, as a rebellious teenager as I was, did what all teenagers do. I ignored my mom’s warnings. I called my cousin, Alex. I missed my home and wanted to return. I thought that my mom was overreacting when she said that my grandfather wanted us dead. My ignorance taught me a harsh lesson when, after I told my cousin what my parents were up to, my grandfather laid his trap.

My stepfather wanted the protection of a pack and my parents decided to ask a local pack in Atlanta for protection; the Highland werewolf pack. They organized a meeting with the Alpha to join, but when we got there, my grandfather’s minions and a group of Shadowstalkers ambushed us with the pack’s help. My stepfather and mom fought against overwhelming odds, but in the end, the Alpha had killed my stepfather. He ripped my stepfather’s throat out in front of our eyes. It was my mom who got us out alive, but still, if it weren’t for me, he would still be alive. It would always be my fault.

Joshua placed his hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think it is... We cannot always predict the future and nobody can fault you for trusting your own family. Who could have known they would betray you? They were your family. Do not let what happened prevent you from finding happiness in your life. Not everyone is going to betray you.

“I know Adam. He’s an awesome dude. A big-muscled teddy bear with a heart made of gold. And besides, the pack who allowed your shit-stain of a grandfather to manipulate them into betraying you was not a real pack worthy of the name. I can honestly tell you that your grandfather will see his ass in a mirror if he tries to fuck with this pack, I’ll tell you.” He gave me an assuring smile.

“I’ll believe it when I see it”

“Oh, you will. Now let’s get moving. We still have to see if you haven’t scarred Arno for life.” Joshua started nudging me toward the exit door.

As much as I wanted to believe in Joshua and climb on his bandwagon of optimism, I could help the sense of dread seeping into my skin. I had no idea if relying on others was such a smart idea; however, it was out of my control. For some reason, my mom was adamant about gaining the help of this particular pack. Why? Only she’d know.

***

As we neared the nurse’s office, a slapping sound echoed through the doors, accompanied by moaning and cursing that made my ears sizzle. Fenrus was prowling around my head licking his lips for some unknown reason. I glanced around the hallway to see if Adam and Maisie were around but luckily, they weren’t. I’d rather avoid being in the same space as Adam.

“Do we really have to check up on him?” I said, getting more anxious as we neared the door.

Joshua grabbed onto the handle on the door. “It’s the least you can do. You scared the living daylights out of Arno. Who knows how much damage your stunt did?”

I groaned, rubbing my forehead. For the last couple of hours, Joshua rode my conscious to the point that I wanted to sell all of my organs to make up for what happened earlier.

“Fine! Let’s get this over with. Just to let you know, I’m not kissing his ass.”

Joshua shook his head derisively and yanked open the door. Before we could come to grips with what was happening in front of our eyes, the musky aroma of sex made me choke on my spit. My eyes stung at the scene in front of my virgin eyes. Dillon had Arno bent over on the hospital bed while he was busy embedding his johnson into Arno’s ass. Arno mewed like a kitten in front of a saucer of milk.

I quickly snapped up the handle and slammed shut the door before I lost control of my stomach’s contents. Joshua, too, was as white as a piece of chalk. His mouth agape in horror at the fuck-session he had just witnessed.

Trying to jolt Joshua out of his stupor, I slapped him on the back of his head. “Really!? Do you still think he’s traumatized? I don’t think so, seeing that he’s already playing with Dillon’s dick.”

I scoffed and stormed off. I was trying to get out of earshot of the sex games. This was kind of difficult because Fenrus was cranking up my hearing to get a better shot at the sex talk back at the nurse’s office.

“Stop it! You pervert!” I clamped my hands onto my ears, drowning out the world.

“Come on! It was getting steamy.” Fenrus groaned.

“Urg! That’s nasty.”

“Stop being a prune and get laid already! If it were up to you, we’d die virgins.” Fenrus growled back. ”Maybe we can get Adam to fling us over a counter and bang our—”

“Stop it!” I hissed, walking around the corner toward the exit.

Just then, I bumped into someone. Oh fuck! Not him! In front of me were Riley and his two stooges, scowling up a storm. The guy on Riley’s right was a blonde and the one on his right was a redhead. They definitely wouldn’t win a beauty contest, but it seemed to me he was using them to scare people off with their muscles and secondhand imposing demeanors. Fenrus wasn’t impressed, to say the least.

“What the fuck! Watch where you’re going, twinkle dick!” Riley spit in my direction.

I didn’t have time for his games. I walked past them and ignored the runt. But as I shoved past them, Riley yanked on my jacket and threw me against the wall. Wrong move, asshole. Before Riley and his goons could register, I turned the table on him and shoved Riley onto the wall in my place. This caused his feet to hover an inch from the ground.

“Try that again, Mutt, and I will shove your head up one of your boyfriend’s asses,” I said.

His face whitened at my threat. His eyes flicked to his minions for assistance. But before I had to kick their asses, the one person I wanted to avoid made his presence known.

“What’s going on here?” Adam asked.

This day is getting ridiculous. “Nothing. Just reminding him of his place,” I said with a huff.

Maisie, who stood next to Adam, rushed forward, yanked Riley from my grip, and pushed me back. “Don’t you dare touch my brother,” she said. Her brown eyes glared back at me, trying to incinerate me into a pile of dust.

“I wasn’t. But your dear brother didn’t want to take no for an answer,” I replied.

Riley’s face scrunched up out of anger and said, “It wasn’t my fault! He’s the one who didn’t look where he was walking. He bumped into me!”

What he said was true, but I wasn’t planning on letting the rugrats walk over me. Before Maisie could open her mouth, Joshua entered the party. “Hey, what’s—”

“Nothing’s going on here to get nervous about.” I replied hastily “I was about to leave. Come on, Joshua.”

I walked off before they could stop me. Joshua continuously apologized as he flitted past the group.

“You really know how to make enemies, don’t you?” Joshua whispered as we walked out of the building.

“I wouldn’t call them enemies, more like a couple of nuisances.”

I still could feel the glares from the group cutting into the back of my skull as the doors slammed shut behind us, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to make friends with them. Both of my introductory classes went well and I was looking forward to the rest of the year. Hopefully, I will be able to finish my third year in Veterinary sciences without those mutts being too much of a nuisance.