Chapter 4

I stared at the board blankly. My wrist hurt too much to concentrate on my work and I felt a strange feeling. A pull. But it was going two ways, a part of me pulled towards the forest while the other pulled further into the school. I did not understand why. Everything was suddenly confusing. My birthday was two days away. Gray said maybe it was my mate being close and I was beginning to connect to them so I could find them. I did not want him close! Did he have something to do with the symbol on my wrist? I really did not want a mate from our pack… The only guy my age that had always been nice to me in our pack was Corey.

"Izabella, why haven't you written anything?" I looked up at Mrs Bryers. She was one of the few human teachers.

"I... uh... I..." I could not even think of an excuse because of the pain.

I heard Sean mutter something about me to his friends before they all began laughing, I had not been paying enough attention to hear exactly what he said.

"Do you have something to say, Sean?" Mrs Bryers looked at him.

"No, Ma'am." He said.

"That's a shame, because you'll be having detention after school." She said. I smirked when he gasped.

"What? Why? I didn't say a thing!" He protested.

"And I guess all your friend are laughing at nothing?" She frowned. Sean frowned before turning to the front of the classroom. "Thought so. And you, Izabella, will have time to finish your work after school too," she said.

"No, I can't. I have an... appointment." I said contemplating using my eyes on her. My father had said it was called compelling and only really special wolves could do it, I was not even surprised. I did not intend on telling anyone about it even if it was pretty cool.

"Don't talk shit." Sean muttered under his breath.

"Shut up." I said to him.

"What?" Mrs Bryers said. I looked up at her shocked.

"I-I mean- uh... I wasn't saying that to you." I said.

"I was the only one speaking. See you in detention, Izabella." I glared at Sean and he smirked back at me.

"What an asshole." Hayley said. Sean looked at her and winked as he smirked but she just glared at him.

I sighed. Detention with Sean in the same room for an hour and a half? This was undoubtedly going to end badly for one of us. Given his temper lately, it would probably be me.

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I walked into detention relieved to find that I was alone. Hopefully Sean would decide not to show up. He would get called to principle Mr McCartney's office and probably get a warning or something but I didn't care as long as it meant I would not have to see him again in the next few hours.

"Izabella? What are you doing here?" I smiled looking at Mr Taylor as he walked in.

"Kevin!" I smiled but he glared at me, "Mr Taylor." I rolled my eyes and he smiled, "Sean." I said.

"Ah. Sean. Speaking of Sean. Why are you here?" Mr Taylor asked and I frowned as Sean strolled in.

"Mrs Bryers was being a bored, old, lonely bit -" Sean was saying.

"Sean." Mr Taylor warned. Sean smiled as he walked over to the older man.

"So, Mr Taylor," I rolled my eyes, it was obvious he was going to ask Mr Taylor for something, "Can I leave?" Sean asked smiling.

"No, actually, little Alpha –” Mr Taylor was saying.

"Kevin, I swear to God if you do not stop calling me that..." Sean muttered.

Mr Taylor smirked at how annoyed Sean suddenly looked, "The boy's football team changing room needs some serious cleaning. Guess who the lucky cleaners are?" He basically sang the last sentence.

"No." Sean said clenching his fist.

"Alpha Ian says you two have to do it or you're on pup sitting duty for a month." Mr Taylor smirked.

"No!" We both yelled instantly. The pups were cute and all but they were stinky and dirty, and seeing as we could shift as soon as we were three, they were a serious amount of work to take care of.

"Well then, the things you need are in the changing room already. I'll check on you in an hour. Play nice." Mr Taylor smiled walking out of the detention classroom.

I ignored Sean completely as I walked out without even looking at him and made my way towards the changing room. It was a long walk but I was way too tired to run like a wolf should, if I had it would not have taken me five minutes to get across the football field to the locker room.

I grabbed a bucket of soapy water, a scrubbing brush and a cloth and went to clean the walls that were littered in dirt for some reason. I heard Sean come in about fifteen minutes after me and he began doing whatever it was that he was doing. I decided to use my speed because the job was annoying and I was finished within two minutes.

"You missed a spot, can’t even clean properly." Sean sneered. I clenched my jaw as I stared at the wall annoyed by what he said and the sound of his voice. I really did not want to interact with him anymore than I had to with everything that was already going on.

"I didn't ask you what you thought of my cleaning." I replied.

"I don't recall me caring whether you asked or not." He said.

"Well, keep your thoughts to yourself." I said looking at him.

"Don't tell me what to do, Freak." He spat the name.

"What is wrong with you?! Why won't you just leave me alone?! I’ve never done anything to you." I snapped suddenly.

"Right," he snorted. "You're the reason my mother's dead!" He shouted loudly. I was stunned for a moment before my anger flared as I was convinced that he was just saying that to pin it on someone, but it hurt because I loved her too and would never have done anything to hurt her.

"I don't know what you're talking about! No one even knows exactly what happened to your mom!" I exclaimed. He gave a humourless breath as he stepped closer to me. My hands were shaking at my sides as I tried to breathe properly while he seemed to have gone calm very quickly.

"Oh, we know what happened.” He said, “It was you. Your kind. Your pathetic excuse for a wolf pack."

"We’re in the same pack." My voice was lower than his, I didn’t like it but it sounded somewhat cracked.

"Yes, but we shouldn't be!" He shouted. I stumbled back when he slammed his bucket of water against one of the mirrors making the bucket bend as the mirror shattered and the water splashed everywhere, "You're not one of us, Izabella! Don't you get that? How fucking stupid are you?!" He shouted.

"I –” I began. I stepped back when he advanced toward me.

"Yellow eyes? Who else in my pack has that? Those freakishly long canines?" He asked before grabbing my arm to shove my wrist towards my face causing me to tense back as it seemed like he was using my own arm to hit me but he did not do that, "Weird symbols no one has ever had in the pack. You know why? Because you're not one of us, Izabella. That's why no one can link to you. That's why your wolf doesn't look like ours. You're not supposed to be part of our pack." He said lowly. I looked down at my wrist in his hand and tried to tug it from him but he held on tightly. Of course that was not a thought I had never had, but my parents assured me I was theirs and it hurt to have someone other than myself question that.

"L-Let me go, I'm not messing around anymore, Sean. Stop it." I said.

"Messing around? You think I'm saying this to make you angry? It's blatantly fucking obvious, Izabella. You can tell a zebra from a horse, can't you? You weren't born into my pack, you don't belong in it. That's why no one ever liked you." He said. I was shocked.

"Shut up." I said feeling a knot in my throat.

"You know I'm right, Freak. And if you looked in the Elders' house's attic, you would see it." He said. I opened my mouth but only a croak came out past the growing knot in my throat. He smirked, "See you at home, Izzy." He chuckled and let me go before walking out. I stood frozen before I swallowed as I looked at the mark on my wrist and quickly wiped my eyes as a couple of tears slid from them. It didn’t matter what Sean said. He was Sean. A lying asshole that I had no reason to believe.

I cleaned the rest of the locker room quickly and then I left without reporting back to Mr Taylor. I did not want to see anyone else at the moment. The Elders' attic, right? Maybe he had just said that to tick me off, but I needed to know… I had to see what was up there.

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I tiptoed down stairs slowly. It was eleven at night and everyone was already asleep, it being a week night. I was going to break into the elders' house. Yes, break in. I knew if I just asked them they would clear out the attic if there actually was something in there. I froze when I heard my dad's voice but he stopped when the stair beneath me creaked and I cursed in my head hoping they did not get out of bed to see what the noise was.

"Did you hear that?" I heard Dad from his office. I held my breath as I covered my chest with my hands. Dad and Cole had amazing hearing ability being so highly ranked in the pack. I was afraid they would hear my heart beating.

"It's probably just a stair. Old house, Ian." I heard Cole.

"Yeah, must be." I heard my father say.

I stood still as I released my breath slowly and silently. I began to move again but stopped when they continued to speak.

"Maybe you should tell her, Ian. She's bound to find out sometime," I heard Cole. I narrowed my eyes. Who were they talking about? Me…?

"I can't, Cole. That would mean surely losing her. I'm just going to hope she doesn't get too curious." I heard Dad.

"Izabella? Not curious?" I heard Cole. They were talking about me. Find out… I felt a sick tightening in my stomach. Sean… was he right?

"Yeah, you're right. I just don't want her thinking... I don't want her to know she's not mine. Not ours, you know? I don't want to lose her. I can't imagine what that would be like, Cole. She's my daughter. My little girl. I won't be able to take her hating me… She’s going to be upset if she realises we’ve lied to her all this time." I felt my heart pound harder as my breath caught in my throat.

Sean had not lied. Was I adopted? Is that what all of this meant? I was scared of the answers. But I felt like I needed to find them. I had to be sure. So I swiftly ran through the house and out of the back door making sure to shut it without a sound. I sprinted through the trees to avoid passing by houses, down the path created by us constantly walking there and jumped when I got to the Elders' house so that I landed on the second floor balcony silently. I looked up, much to my luck, their attic window was open. I jumped onto the roof and crouched down so I would not fall off as I listened for sounds within the house. I heard nothing.

I crawled across the roof, feeling for anything that would make a noise before I climbed into the window and then dropped to land lightly on the floor. I thanked God I was not as bulky as our head of army, Lance, was or I would have made a noise when I hit the floor.

I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the dark. The attic was empty, save for a faded brown, dusty wooden chest just across me. I crawled over to it and opened it slowly before laying the lid on the floor. It was filled with books. Books. Is that all? Was this what Sean meant for me to see? I grabbed the first book and read the cover.

'The Mighty Amarelo Wolf - Wolf Species 6th Addition.' It read. I opened the book and my eyes fell onto a picture of a wolf that looked like almost exactly mine did. Same topaz eyes, same claws. The only difference was I was black and it was grey.

I had never heard of the Amarelo wolf. I had read every book on wolf species in the library, but I had never seen this one. I grabbed three more books and closed the box before I snuck out of the attic quietly.

After I home with the books in my arms taking the same route I had used to come to the elder’s house, I snuck into my room's window which I had left open. I had snuck out going downstairs to check who was awake, I did not need to sneak back through the house, I just needed to avoid the basement windows that lined my father’s office. Once inside, I hid the books in my wardrobe and opened the one I had first looked at in the attic. Looks like I won't be getting much sleep.