Prince Caelestis are you going to be ok?

The mortal world. They lived in peace and in many ways made a lot more progress than the mythical world. Or at least their technology had almost caught up with magic. That’s how I saw it, with awe and wonder. The other wolves beside me hated it. They much preferred the forest where they could run wild and shift. They thought I was stupid for seeing the beauty in such a place.

I was being shown one of the patrol routes which happened to venture into the mortal world. Our pack lands merged with the mortal world and we protected the myths who lived among it, much like Sahar, Yami and Deion. They would pay us a little and we would keep them safe from the myth hunters.

We tried our best to blend into the mortals, though the other wolves around me kept sniffing the air quite obviously. I tried to hold back my laughter at that. But it wasn’t just the sniffing that made us stand out. Four extremely tall buff guys with one small girl. It was like I was some kind of celebrity and they were my bodyguards. Which wasn’t entirely wrong, they were here to protect me.

I looked around at the street, a ramen shop with a stream of customers lining up. Must be the best place in town. There was a cafe with a bunch of teens in their high school uniforms all chatting loudly. I smiled to myself. Despite the differences between us, teenagers were the same. I wished I could be going to a cute cafe with my friends rather than on patrol with Mr sniffy here. I regretted not bringing along Ryan.

Although there was someone young with me. Hugh Munson. He was a few years older than me. Now a junior warrior in the pack. We grew up together as pups. He had amazing artistic talent. And would always show us up in class with his amazing doodles, sketches that would just about bring things to life. I had a few of his drawings framed in my bedroom in fact. One of the forest he had captured a sunset over the tops of the trees so perfectly when we sat together as a group on top of the pack’s mansion. The others were busy playing around but I was mesmerised by the way he brought the scene to life. From a blank piece of paper to something that looked better than what I had seen before my eyes. I was so jealous of him back then, as I struggled to draw even one flower. But he told me, everyone had their strengths, that just happened to be his. He gave that drawing to me and I treasured it. The second was one he did of me and Ryan. Done from a photo, Ryan was resting his big hulk-like arms on top of my head. I loved how he captured the short person rage in my eyes.

A few years ago Hugh turned 18. When wolves turned 18 they were invited to a debutante ball, where they would meet other wolves from all over the country with the purpose of finding their mate. Now days there are so few female wolves at these dances. Most of them are wolves that have been recently bitten, not werewolves that were born a wolf such as myself. But still it takes a while for the males to find someone acceptable as a mate. Hugh returned to these balls for 6 months before he found a mate. A recently bitten wolf. That’s when he changed. The drawings stopped. It was all about her. Before long she was pregnant and to support her he became a warrior rather than an artist. It paid far more and would give him a far higher position in the pack. Now here he was, a shadow of the old Hugh.

I missed the old Hugh.

As I looked at him I wondered if he had thought about drawing at all recently.

He didn’t show me the kindness he once did. That had all faded away, he stood beside me now alert and stiff. Not even so much as a smile.

We came to an intersection, a large highway. Cars rushed past at high speed.

“This is the edge of our territory Varinia,” one of the wolves told me.

I nodded, “what, too scared to cross the road?”

Not even a smile from Hugh.

The patrol was boring, though it could have been worse, seeing the mortal world was always exciting. It would please the Luna that I got something like this done. She wanted me to be familiar with all of the patrol routes.

We turned down Blue Star Court. The pack’s street, it was a dead end with the forest behind it. But at the end of the street before the forest was the massive pack mansion. The other buildings on this court were all owned by the pack and what housed most of the werewolves within the pack. Or at least the most important ones.

I walked toward that mansion. Its horseshoe shape inviting me in.

It was strange to be taking my shoes off and not having them be caked in mud after a patrol. Mortal world patrols were nice. I put my shoes into their place and looked up to see Racheal standing before me.

“Varinia, come with me,” she led me through the mansion and into her office.

I closed the door behind me. This was clearly something important, perhaps private. Or she was just going to yell at me.

“The patrol went well Luna,” I told her sheepishly.

“I am glad but I have some bad news Varinia,” the Luna sat at her desk and gestured for me to sit.

“How bad?” I sat down.

“Well there has been a disturbance at the Hirasawa mansion.”

My eyes nearly fell out of my head, “Myth hunters!”

“Thankfully and disturbingly not. It came from within. One of Koneko Hirasawa’s youngest daughters has attacked and harmed members of the household.”

“She was acting really strange at school last week, attacked a teacher and Haven. Who did she hurt?”

The Luna squinted at her computer screen. It seems that the one who sustained the most injuries was Koneko herself but several of the vampires were attacked. Pureblood Queen, princess and one of the princes.”

I stood up, “Which one?”

The Luna shrugged, “Doesn’t say.”

My heart fell. Was it Caelestis, was he hurt? Damn werecats, why didn’t they do more to stop her after what had happened at school with Haven. How many people would she have to hurt before they did something? Thankfully she hadn’t been back at school since the incident but she was still a danger.

I slumped in my chair again. There wasn’t much I could do from here anyway. School was tomorrow. I would find out the details then.

I arrived early that day. The only other person from my year that was there was a goblin boy named Woll. I don’t think I’d ever had a conversation with him, he seemed very nervous around me. We stood awkwardly next to each other waiting.

“So….” I started.

“How is your study for the Fae test going?” he asked, without making eye contact with me.

“Well I think. Mermaids are a little difficult though.”

He nodded, “It’s not like we could go talk to one either.”

“Yeah,” I replied and the conversation faded back to silence.

Modesta walked over to us not long after that. I smiled at her.

“Did you hear about what happened at the Hirasawa Mansion?” I asked her.

She thought about it for a second, “No but there is that crazy girl.”

“You actually guessed it, Crimson attacked them.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Right?”

“Who got hurt?”

“It seems a lot of the purebloods got hurt.”

Modesta’s eyes widened, finally a reaction out of her. She grabbed my shoulders. Ok too much of a reaction.

“Please don’t tell me it was the hot one.”

“I don’t know Modesta, that’s what I want to find out.”

She let me go and looked toward the gate as if the dragon would just show up like that. I looked with her. I knew it would just make the time go slower but I needed something. Caelestis, a guy I had barely even spoken to, I was worried he was hurt just because he was hot. I guessed the potential of winning him over excited me a lot.

More and more of the students arrived. Yami was chatting about her exciting weekend shopping and showing off the clips she had bought. Modesta got distracted by the shininess of them, like the magpie that she was. But I had an eye firmly planted on those gates.

Not before long the bell rang and we were rushed off to our various classes.

They were all late, that wasn’t a good sign.

Our Werecreature homeroom was rather empty without those from the Hirasawa mansion.

Mr S stood at the front of the class, “As you know there has been a disturbance at the Hirasawa mansion, unrelated to Myth Hunters. We will have to be patient with them today as they have all gone through something difficult.”

Kaipo was the one other person in the classroom and she was shocked to hear about this and launched into questions.

I sighed and looked out of the window. Most of the windows were either stained glass or very small. Not much light came from them but I could see outside, Spring was starting to give way to Summer. I could feel it within the room as well. Summer was difficult for werewolves, we had a massive coat of fur as a wolf and it was almost like a phantom coat of fur while in human form. Needless to say, we ran hot. Summer holidays would be fun I supposed. For all myths, collective holidays were the two solstices, so needless to say our Summer holiday centred around the Summer Solstice. My pack was only just starting the beginnings of the preparation for the occasion already. It was a big deal for us, and with all the wolves in one place the ice cream order was huge.

With loud talking the Amanes burst forth through the doors, followed by Ephvangeline and her brother. The Amanes surrounded me, Rome wrapping his arm around me once again. Lately, it had seemed like a habit. Lucius was very intensely staring at Ephvangeline’s chest. I ignored that and looked up at Rome, “Which pureblood prince did Crimson attack?”

Rome shrugged, “Don’t know, don't care.”

I sighed, of course that was his answer. What else was I expecting?

Haven at least had recovered a lot from his encounter with the rouge werecat a week ago.

Rose looked at me, “I really can’t get Arlen to notice me, what do I do?”

I smiled at her, “What’s the problem?”

“He always has someone around him, like his sisters or that weird kid Jun.”

Ironic.

“Well he probably doesn’t sleep in the same room as any of those people so you should ask him for help with homework or something really late at night.”

Rose’s eyes lit up, “Oh that’s a good idea, I’ll try that.”

Lucius had an eraser in his hand. I was distracted by this, it couldn’t end well.

He threw the eraser, it arched through the air before hitting Ephvangeline’s chest. She looked in the direction it came from and glared at him. She opened her mouth to give him an earful but the bell rang.

Saved by the bell, yet not quite - she was in his class.

He winked at her and she looked disgusted. Rightly so.

I slapped him on the shoulder, “What was that?”

“Flirting.”

“Boobs are sensitive!” I yelled at him.

“Oh I know,” his eyes flicked down to mine.

I slapped him across the face, “Firstly, ew, and secondly would you consider it flirting if I gave you a sack tap?”

He instinctively protected himself.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm, “Come on we have religion next.”

I wasn’t going to be late because of this idiot sexually harassing the most powerful girl in school. I pulled him down the corridor and we passed Lizette, a half elf half vampire girl, who always wore extraordinary makeup.

Lucius decided he wasn’t done and wolf-whistled at the girl as we walked past.

“What is wrong with you today?” I growled at him.

“Hey Lizette and I hooked up at that party you know.”

I watched the girl run for her life down the corridor, “Oh I’m sure that was consensual.”

Lucius just winked at me.

Disgusting.

We turned the corner and waited outside the classroom. I let go of Lucius’ arm and my eyes scanned the students. To my relief, there was Prince Caelestis standing among the vampires. He was ok.