Deanna Kinney - Raven's Rose

I turned to face him full on. “And what exactly explains your attitude, huh? Is the big bad wolf afraid he’s met his match?”

He snapped. “You are no match for me! I am the alpha of this place!” He motioned around the room. “Everyone around here listens to me. Maybe you should too.”

My face turned red with anger, and I ignored all the curious faces fixed on the two of us. “And just when I thought this place had potential.”

If he was in his wolf form I would have seen the hair rise on his back. “And just what in the hell does that mean?” he demanded, his voice rising.

I put my hands firmly on both hips. “It means, you overgrown pig-headed dolt, that this place would have potential if everyone didn’t listen to you!” I snapped.

His eyes went wide and he began shaking his head around. “Oh yeah! And who are they gonna listen to? You?”

We both stood and began yelling at each other with arms flailing, and I stood my ground despite him towering over me by more than a foot. Within seconds, his elite came, and with great effort, ushered him from the room as we continued to yell. If this guy thought he was a match for me, he was in for a rude awakening, and I couldn’t wait to see his face when that realization hit him.

Wesley

I paced back and forth just outside of the dining hall. My hands were balled tightly into fists. My elite were trying to make me calm down but it wasn’t working at all. My head jerked up when Nana exited the room and came to a stop in front of me. “I tried to talk to her, Nana, but you saw how she was! She’s unreasonable! She’s nothing but trouble! Trouble! I should send her back to her father in Alaska!”

Nana was calm when she took my face in her hands. “That was the poorest attempt at apologizing I’ve ever seen. Now, you need to try again.”

“What?” I yelled. “No way! She needs to apologize to me! She’s the one who went crazy in there! No way, Nana. No way!”

She took my face in her hands once again, looking me sternly in the eyes. “Okay, calm down and listen to me. You were just as unreasonable as she was. The two of you are very much alike, and you’re both wounded. Now, you will benefit more from being friends than enemies. Am I right?”

I had to admit, she made it sound reasonable. “Fine. I’ll give it another try, but if she goes all crazy on me, I’m done with her. Got it?”

She smiled, rubbing my arm gently. “Of course, sugah. You’re doing the right thing.”

It took over an hour or so for me to cool off before heading to Petals, my Nana’s greenhouse, to give my apology one last shot. Once I entered the door to Petals, I heard music. As I got closer to Hope’s door, I realized she was playing her guitar. I stood there for a few minutes listening. She was really good, but the song seemed sad. She stopped and I wondered if she knew I was there. Suddenly, she opened the door and plowed right into my chest.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Her eyes went wide when she realized it was me. She crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?”

Okay, here we go , I thought. “Okay, here’s the thing. I’m not really all that good at apologies.”

“No, you’re really not,” she said sarcastically.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Okay, fine. I won’t give you a hard time.” She gestured with her hand. “Go ahead.”

I was lightly kicking the door post with my foot and looking at her through my lashes, hoping the puppy dog look worked. So far nothing else had. “Well, I’m sorry for earlier. It got out of hand. I mean, I got out of hand. And I guess I haven’t made this transition very easy for you. Will you forgive me—please?”

She studied me for a moment, and I had no idea what she was thinking. I shifted my feet nervously. This was clearly out of my comfort zone.

“Okay. I guess I forgive you.”

I huffed. “You guess?”

She laughed. “I’m kidding. I forgive you.” She looked at her feet. “I guess I’m sorry too.”

By her expression that was harder for her to say than even me. “Well, the guys and I are going to Happy’s for ice cream. You wanna come along?” I shrugged. “You know, get out of this place for a while?”

“Um. What’s Happy’s?”

“It’s an ice cream parlor located in the nearby city of Happy. It’s not too far, maybe twenty minutes or so. We’ve been hanging out there some lately.”

She smiled a little. “Oh, okay, sure. Just let me get my jacket.” She walked into her room and returned moments later wearing a black form fitting jacket that accented her slight curves. I couldn’t help checking her out, but I tried not to be too obvious. She was wearing skinny jeans that were a normal shade of blue, not black like before. Her fiery red hair was in soft natural waves just touching her shoulders, and her lovely round face was pale with just a touch of pink on her cheeks and lips. And of course there was the adorable light dusting of freckles across her nose.

“Are you ready then?” I asked.

“I think so.”

I motioned for her to take the lead, which I thought might please her and followed at a safe pace behind her. I caught sight of Nana peeking around the corner, hiding behind one of her huge plants. She was giving me thumbs up. I rolled my eyes and kept walking.

Hope

Thirty minutes later, Wesley, Li, Andrew, and I strolled through the doors of Happy’s Ice Cream Parlor. The atmosphere of the room seemed cozy and friendly, with cheerful faces and laughter surrounding us. We took our seats at a booth near the front. Andrew said he liked to people watch. I thought about my friend Cathy. She often said the same thing. Sometimes we’d end up at the mall just so she could people watch. She said people were much more entertaining than watching T.V. I missed her. Many times since arriving I’d wanted to message her but my dad confiscated my phone and iPod weeks ago after my fight with Amanda in the school parking lot. It had been my third fight with her within the year. She had been bullying Cathy a lot this year, and I couldn’t allow that. Even though I’m smaller than Amanda, I gave her something to fear—redheads. I smiled thinking about it.

“You wanna share what’s so amusing?” Li asked from across the booth.

I straightened. “Not really.”

He shrugged. “That’s cool.” I actually liked this Li guy. I had never met an Asian before but I had always wanted to. Not many lived in our small town in Alaska. They seemed like such neat people, and Li didn’t disappoint. He was funny and he had really cool hair that was spiked on the top and shaved on the sides. I wondered how I would look with that cut.

Just then the doorbell to Happy’s rang. We all turned to see a small group entering the front door. The biggest man I’d ever seen led the way. He must’ve been seven feet tall. “Hector, you get Charity’s order and I’ll get Ashley’s,” another guy called out to him. Wow, Hector was a good name for a guy like that . All the guys at my table jumped up and greeted the others in friendship.

Wesley ushered them to our table. “Guys, I’d like you to meet Hope Mason, Sergeant Mason’s daughter. Hope, these are some of the guys from the Drake Pack.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that Levi set it up for her to stay with you for a while,” the one that spoke earlier said. “Hope, I’m Josh, Levi’s beta. It’s nice to meet you. How are you liking it here in North Carolina?” He seemed like a friendly guy with thick blonde hair and sleepy eyes. He was cute.

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you too. I like it okay. This is really the first chance I’ve had to see it.”