Wild and Free

(Mason’s POV)

If someone told me that I’d be spending my night in a high school gym, painting go team! and red, black, white! on colored paper, with a bunch of perky teenage girls, I’d say you were crazy.

Unfortunately that is exactly where I ended up.

After the seemingly non-optional invitation to participate in the particular boring activity, Greyson, Riley, and I felt inclined to go. Amelia and her friends, whose names I still had yet to learn, chatted about anything and everything. All the guys there just messed around and sloppily painted letters, most of which were thrown away by the girls because they were not ‘suitable’ enough.

Everything about the night had been totally and utterly boring all together forming the most cliche night that a human guy my age would have. It was disgusting. But in the end the boys and I felt like everyone was accepting us more into their group.

The girls were packing up the painting materials and admiring their actually decent posters. I was helping Amelia packing the supply closet.

She tried to put a box filled with large bottles of paint in it, on top of a shelf but her grip slipped. The box started to fall but I shot my hand out, using my ability for a split second before it collided with her sandaled feet. I let it fall into my hands once I was sure it wouldn’t fall.

She gasped and jumped back, all of it happening in a second.

“Oh my god!” she shrieked, “how’d you catch that?”

I shrugged and used my extended height above her to easily put the box on the shelf, “Quick reflexes.”

It wasn’t really a lie but more one of the perks of being and Alpha along with increased speed, strength, and a couple other hidden talents.

“Well thanks,” she breathed, smoothing out her skirt. I nodded in response and grabbed a poster, wet with paint, and set it on the drying rack before grabbing another and repeating the process. She followed my lead and did the same thing.

I could feel her calculating brown eyes studying me intently.

“Spit it out,” I said, not looking at her.

“What?” she asked defensively.

I sighed, “Whatever is swirling around in that head of yours, just spit it out.”

Amelia set a poster down and turned, leaning against a supply shelf.

“I just don’t understand you and your friends,” she stated.

“What’s not to understand,” I replied blankly.

She scoffed, “Well for starters who willingly comes to White Chapel? Why are you and your family, or friends whatever, here?”

“I told, you Greyson, Riley, and I all have families that-”

“-work for the same land developing company. Yeah, I remember. But what kind of company moves here? White Chapel is in the middle of nowhere so why would there any reason to start a project here?”

“Well maybe they want to turn this town in the middle of nowhere into somewhere,” I suggested, brushing it off. Her prodding wasn’t unexpected but it was good lying practice.

She rolled her eyes, “Okay well then how do you and Greyson and Riley, know each other so well?” her arms folded over her chest, both of us sort of forgetting what we were in the closet to do in the first place.

“We grew up together because of our parents,”

“What about your sister? Are you guys close?”

“Extremely,”

She took a step towards me, “Why does that sound like a negative thing?”

For a preppy high school girl she was fairly good at reading people.

“It’s not,” I said, “It’s just her, my dad, and I. He works a lot so we’ve relied on each other since we were kids.”

“What about your mom?”

I sighed and scratched my head, turning away from her to resume cleaning up.

“Not in the picture?” she guessed, “I get it, my mom cheated on my dad when I was fourteen so she moved away. Who knows where she is now.”

“I’m sorry,” I told her, “I bet it was hard.”

She shrugged, “I mean I knew my mom had been sleeping with other people for a while and she only left my father because he had caught her. She wasn’t a really great mother and my dad deserved someone better. I don’t miss her if that’s what you mean.”

Well no wonder she could be so cold to a person so easily.

“Have any siblings?” I asked.

She shook her head, “As far as I know, I’m an only child. I’ve lived in White Chapel with my dad since I was born.”

“Seems like a nice town,”

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah to someone who’s been here for a week. It gets so old being in a goddamn classroom with the same people for twelve years. Seeing the same shops and restaurants everyday when you walk down the street. Nothing here ever changes!”

“It can’t be that bad,” I said, putting the last poster on the rack.

“I’m just waiting for this year to be over so I can escape to some college out in the world,”

“Where do you want to go?” I asked, opening the door of the closet and letting her walk out first before following.

She shrugged, “I want to be a model or a fashion designer so anywhere that offers the best program for those.”

Just when I thought maybe the girl was more intelligent than I initially thought. Don’t get me wrong, people in that business are probably very wealthy but how does posing for a camera and strutting down a runway really benefit you as a person?

We walked out of the front doors of the school to meet with everyone else who stood against their cars, waiting.

“Took you guys long enough,” remarked a guy named Alex.

“Ooh, did you guys do the dirty deed in the art room supply closet?” joked another named John, earning Amelia and I a bunch of cat calls and chuckles from the group.

“Shut it,” Amelia snapped, immediately silencing everyone. “Let’s go. Everyone meets at Mel’s in ten.” each person scrambled into a various car, leaving me, Greyson, and Riley standing there as the cars filed out of the lot.

Amelia poked her head out of a fancy white car’s passenger window.

“You coming or what?” she said, a confused look on her face.

Riley scratched the side of his head and they both looked at me for an answer.

“Um, our car is on the other side of the school,” I lied, “We’ll meet you there.”

She narrowed her eyes but nodded and rolled up the window, signaling whoever was driving to follow the others.

It was only a lie because Kenzie had taken the car earlier.

Once she was gone, the three of us traded a look before we all transformed and sprinted through the woods, towards town.

We got there a hell of a lot faster than everyone else so we camped out in the woods for a few before morphing again and waiting outside the little diner for the rest.

I leaned against a random parked car and stared at the door of the diner.

My mind flashed back to the other day, the first time I’d been there.

Auden was leaving and the guys and I were coming. She was talking to Cassie who was behind the counter, all the while not paying attention to where she was going and then running into me.

Kenz had been pissed about me putting all the blame on Auden for it. I guessed now that I was looking back on it, I was at fault for not looking either but she didn’t have to get all angry when I tried to pull away after her necklace got snagged.

“Hey May,” Riley nudged my elbow, grabbing my attention, “they’re here.” he pointed to the four or so cars that we recognized from school, that pulled up to the restaurant.

Amelia quickly got out of the white one and looked at the three of us quizzically, “How did you guys get here so fast? Didn’t you leave way after us?”

I shrugged and Riley answered, “Short cut?”

“But you guys have only been here-”

“Let’s get some food!” the guys chanted, shoving each other around and also saving us from Amelia’s questions. Our trio didn’t hesitate to head in to escape them.

A little bell chimed above the door when our group entered, everyone flooding over to a big booth in the corner, spacious enough to fit us all. I was about to slide onto the end of the long seat when a quiet voice caught my attention from the other side of the diner.

I looked up to see Auden and Cassie whispering to each other next to the counter. Extended hearing came in handy for listening in on conversations.

“Can you please take them?” Auden asked her friend.

“I don’t know...” Cassie responded.

Auden sighed, “Please? I’ll cover two of your tables for a week. I can’t handle them right now, any of them.”

“They’re not that bad,”

Auden shot her a look, “You’re kidding right? I don’t know about you but I personally would like to avoid the people that are the prime source of my misery. Or some of it anyway,” she muttered.

“Okay I agree but I have other tables, I’ll get Macy to do it,”

“You’re a lifesaver.”

Cassie giggled, going towards the back of the restaurant as Auden went over to a table by the windows. It wasn’t until Auden came around the counter that I saw her apron. It was the same one that Cassie and the other employees wore. She worked there? When I looked, I saw Kenzie sitting at the same table, Auden having taken the seat across from her.

I turned to Riley who sat next to me on the bench, “I’ll be right back.”

He nodded and I went over to my twin.

“Hey Kenz,” I said, startling her.

She put her hand on her chest, “Geez you scared me. Don’t do that! Wait, what’re you doing here? I thought you were painting posters for the pep rally or something.”

Auden attempted and failed to hide a snicker at the terribly cliche activity, to which I ignored. Sort of.

“Yeah we were but everyone was hungry so we decided to get some food,” I snuck a glance at Auden who was playing with a straw wrapper. “What about you? I thought you were supposed to be working on your project?”

“Yeah we were,” she mocked, “Cassie, Auden, and I got a lot of it done earlier and then they both had to work. I just figured I’d stick around and get some food too.”

So I guess she did work there. I opened my mouth to say something but someone came up next to me and cut me off.

“Why are you wasting your time over here?” Amelia asked in a fake nice voice, looking Auden up and down, before turning to my sister. “Come over and eat with us.”

“Amy, always a pleasure,” Auden said, meeting Amelia’s gaze, her voice dripping with disdain and sarcasm.

“Audrey,” Amelia spat. “I knew I smelled something.”

“Well you did just walk over here…” Auden replied with an evil smile.

I looked between the two girls, obviously noting their dislike of the other.

“And you are?” Kenzie asked Amelia.

The blonde’s face fell into a somewhat scowl and this time Auden didn’t hold back her smirk.

“Amelia Colet,” She said flatly, shaking the annoyed expression off her face. “Come on, we haven’t ordered yet. The service here is terrible. We’ll pull another chair over for you.”

To my total surprise, Auden just held the cynical smile on her face, despite the blatant insult she’d just gotten.

“Um, I don’t know-” Kenz started before Auden stopped her.

“Go on, you wouldn’t want to keep her royal bitchness and her ladies waiting,” she said, gesturing to our booth. “Actually don’t worry, Amy will be to busy looking at her reflection in her dinner spoon to notice if you’re there or not.”

“You know, I thought about you today Audrey. It reminded me to take out the garbage.”

“Amy, I think it’s better to let people think you’re stupid rather than to open your mouth and prove it.”

“I would hit you, but that’d be animal abuse.”

“I’ve been called worse by better,” Auden fired back.

Amelia folded her arms over her chest, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that, I don’t speak orphan.”

Auden’s mask flickered. Clearly Amelia had struck a nerve. Kenzie tried to intervene.

“Guys, stop, you’re making a scene,” she attempted, holding her hands up.

“Hey Amy next time, maybe try some perfume that doesn’t make people want to rip their lungs out. Now do you mind moving your gargantuan ego to the side a few miles? I need to get back to earning money I actually deserve and it’s blocking my way,” Auden hissed, standing from the booth and slipping around Amelia, going somewhere in the back of the restaurant.

Amelia made a noise that sounded like a growl, before turning back to us.

“Hmph. Let’s get some food and leave before we catch some infectious disease from these people,” she said before quickly spinning around, her hair flying in my face as she did so.

I held back a laugh and turned to Kenz.

“Come on, they’re not all that bad,” I told her, earning a disbelieving look.

“Okay maybe they are.”

“That’s what I thought.”

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

Comment, don’t hate, and read on!

~your Cheshire Cat loving friend