Rise of the Moon (Moonlit Series Book 1) (2 page)

“Line?”

“You’re kidding, right? That has to be one of the oldest pick-up lines in the book,” I said. “You just moved here –what are the chances that you’d run into someone you know here?”

“That’s true,” he laughed, showing fanged teeth. Sharp, pointy. Different that most people I knew. Maddie would have gone crazy to see them, her obsession with vampires rivaling mine of werewolves. A chill ran down my spine and to the tips of my fingers as the moon glinted off them. “Do you live around here?”

“Well, yeah,” I uncrossed my arms. I found myself not knowing what to do with them, and settled for putting them on my hips. When I felt like a tool, I crossed them again. “I wouldn’t just be walking around here in the middle of the night if I didn’t.”

“That’s also true, I suppose,” he chuckled. “Though, I’d hardly call ten-thirty the middle of the night.”

We fell into silence. I took the moment to take a better look at him. He was Maddie’s type; her type being really attractive. Was he my type? Did I have a type? As I looked at him, I couldn’t tell.

“Well, I should probably get going,” I said, brushing my hair over my shoulder.

“So soon?”

“I don’t see why I should stay,” I told him bluntly. “I don’t even know you.”

“So let’s change that,” he said, getting up from the car and taking my hand as I began to walk away. He moved really quickly, I had barely blinked before he was at my side. His fingers were only slightly colder than mine, but I shivered at his touch.

“You’re very forward, aren’t you?”

“Being forward is a good trait to have,” he told me.

I sighed. “Well, if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll see me around.”

“I’ll bring out my lucky rabbit’s foot,” he smiled.

He wouldn’t be saying those kinds of things to me after seeing some of the other girls at my school. Or once he caught sight of Maddie. She had a huge chest that seemed to attract the boys better than flies with honey. She’d been a full C-cup in grade
seven
. They’ve only grown since then. I didn’t stand a chance. I was in a training bra in grade seven –I was barely a C-cup now. And I mean barely.

“I’ll see you around,” he said, releasing my arm.

“I suppose you might,” I replied.

“Unless you want a lift home,” he offered as I began to walk away.

“I’m alright,” I glanced over my shoulder. “But thank you.”

When I was a short distance away, I heard the car door slam and the engine start. I looked back again to see him driving up to the house. And so what
could
have been a glorious moment where I was swept off my feet by a handsome stranger had passed instantly. Damn.

I needed to stop reading my mother’s romance novels.

The sound of the piano greeted me as I neared the intersection that I lived on. It was faint but, in the quiet village I lived in, I could hear it pretty clearly. We never got complaints, so I don’t think the neighbours could hear it inside their own houses. I followed the fence from the corner to the driveway to the rusting front gate, unlocking it before slipping through. It squealed in protest as I shut it, and Shadow ran at me, jumping up and nearly knocking me down.

“Hey! Get down,” I scolded him. He continued to run around me. For being such a large dog he sure had a lot of energy. I smiled and scratched him behind his ears. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve been gone, what, hour and a half? Give a girl a break…”

I walked up the brick-porch steps and opened the front door. I loved my house. It was old, the brick aged, even crumbling in some places. Ivy crawled up the brick left of the front porch, but the right was bare except for the doghouse that sat against the house between two basement windows. Inside, parts of the house were under minor renovations –like they have been for the past ten years of my life –but, like my mom always said, it had character.

Slipping my shoes off, I glanced at Mom. She continued to play, positioned on the bench in front of the piano that sat across from the entrance of our front hallway. Beethoven’s
Moonlight Sonata
. That was her favourite piece to play. I pulled the heels of my shoes together, placing them on the mat in front of the closet door.

“Hi mom,” I said, heading immediately for the stairs.

“Hi sweetie,” she barely glanced up. “I thought you were spending the night at Maddie’s.”

“I was –but then things came up. It was just easier for me to go home.”

“Did they drive you?” she asked.

“I walked,” I replied, having the feeling that she already knew that though.

“Walked?” Mom stopped to glance at the clock. “Honey, we’ve talked about this. It’s dangerous at night. Someone could easily grab you off the streets. And do I smell alcohol?”

“Mom, I’m fine. I jog those same roads every other morning.” I deliberately ignored her question.

“The night is always different. The night brings out the worst in people. Maybe we should buy you a whistle –”

I forced a laugh. “A rape whistle? Mom! Seriously?”

“Well, rape is a serious thing,” she said.

“We may live out in the country, but it’s safe. We know our neighbours, and really, a whistle wouldn’t help on the walk between here and Maddie’s place,” I took another step up the stairs. “I’m fine. I’m always fine.”

“I’m just worried about you,” she told me.

“I
know
I’m still a child in your eyes, but I can take care of myself. It’s why I’m saving up for my own car.”

“I’ll chip in –”

“You’ll chip in no more than we already agreed upon,” I climbed higher up the steps. “Goodnight, mom.”

“We’re not done talking about this,” my mother got up from the piano bench. “Come back down here.”

“I’m safe. I’m safe today, I’ll be safe tomorrow, and the next day. Worse comes to worst I’ll run like my life depends on it.”

“Why do you always…” she sighed loudly. “Just be careful. In today’s society, there’re all kinds of creeps.”

“Goodnight,” I called over my shoulder. I sighed as I ascended the stairs. In the upstairs hallway, I ran into my little sister. She, like the rest of the girls in my family, was blond and blue-eyed, a direct contrast to my mousy brown hair and green eyes. Height varied greatly in our family, Sophie being the shortest at five foot one. My oldest sister, Sydney, was the tallest at five eight. I would have thought I was adopted if my father didn’t have brown hair similar to mine. Mom always told me I got my looks from his side of the family.

“I don’t know why you bother telling her the truth,” Sophie told me. “You can do as you like, and she doesn’t have to worry so much. Everyone’s happy.”

“I don’t like lying,” I said. And it was true. I would get immense guilt when I lie, and I couldn’t shake the feeling for hours. Days, depending on what I was lying about. I was good at it, too. I just got lousy side-effects that I didn’t like. It was a good thing, I guess. Too many people lie too much these days.

Sophie rolled her eyes. Our relationship was unsteady, my little sister’s and mine. Some days we didn’t get along, and others we got along so well that my parents would tell us to be quiet when we couldn’t stop giggling. Today was one of those rougher days for us.

“What?” she scowled at me.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re looking at me funny,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Then you should stop being funny looking,” I replied instantly, unable to stop myself from being rude to my little sister. She just made it so easy.

She huffed, going into her room and closing the door loudly. I blew a hair out of my face, going into my own bedroom and changing my clothes. In my sheep-covered pajama pants and tank top, I crawled into bed, plugging my phone into the charger and quickly shooting Maddie a text.

What a night.

Chapter 2: Blake

The Alpha stared me down across the living room’s coffee table. He sat in ‘his’ chair, which was big, old, wore in; the royal blue fabric was faded and there was a small hole in the armrest, right next to where his hand rested. When he was in a good mood, he pulled lightly at the loose strings. When he was serious or had business on his mind –a thing that I liked to call ‘Alpha mode’ –he refrained.

Carlos was in Alpha mode now. Black hair grazed his shoulders, the longest I’ve ever seen him have. His eyes –the same golden-brown that seemed to come with lycanthropy –were focused on me. Most of my Pack brothers squirmed under his stare –but I’d grown up with it. I met it evenly, even when I knew I should be more humble.

Having finally gotten back from the town of Eiden, I’d put in my request to move the Alpha house south. He’d been surprised, and while I never tried to understand my father, this I could comprehend to a certain degree. I’d left angry, and had come crawling back with a personal request. And I never asked for anything from my father.

“We have the beach house along Lake Erie,” he said finally. “It’s a half hour drive, but –”

“It
has
to be in town,” I interrupted. I knew of the beach house. When I’d gotten a grasp of where I was, I had headed there for a day, scrounged up a bit of money and borrowed one of the cars left there to drive back to the current Alpha house. It sat between Timmins and Sudbury, surrounded by lakes and kilometers of forest.

What if he said no? The thought hadn’t occurred to me until I sat on the sofa across from him. Would I have to choose between him and the girl that had captivated me instantly? I may have gotten frustrated with him, but at the end of the day, I knew that Carlos was the only person I could rely on no matter what the circumstances. He’d proven that over and over again as I grew up. Carlos had always been on my side when it came to dealing with people like the past Alpha –his father –or my twin brother, Keegan. Two forces of evil that I was glad had disappeared, even if it was slightly concerning.

“This girl… she’s your mate?” the Alpha asked.

Mate… a term that hadn’t occurred to me, but felt like it hit home the moment it was spoken. I didn’t hesitate: “Yes.”

He let out the smallest of sighs. I straightened up; I recognized that sigh. That was him about to give in. “I’ll start searching for a place to live, Blake –but on one condition.”

“Anything,” I answered.

“In exchange for all of this –you can’t go against anything I say. Or, for that matter, anything Noah says. You acted rashly in your last mission with him –I can’t have that happening again.”

“Fine,” the word fell from my mouth quickly. “I won’t.”

“Not a single step out of line,” he warned. “Or else I’ll have to fall to desperate measures. As my son you can only get away with so much.”

“Would you kick me out? Like Keegan?” I asked. It would be harder to watch over the Pack if I wasn’t allowed in the same province as them. And it would be harder to win over my mate.

Mate.

I liked that.

“Just don’t step out of line,” he sighed.

“I won’t,” I promised again.

My father watched me for a long moment before nodding. A small grin broke his Alpha mode, and his fingers found the loose strings. “I can’t believe you found your mate. You, out of all your Pack brothers.”

“What’s that’s supposed to mean?” I snorted.

“Nothing –but I’m glad. You were starting to worry me –like you had nothing to fight for anymore. I think this is just what you need.”

It wasn’t that I had nothing to fight for –I would put my life on the line for my Pack. But I worried that my brother and I were more alike than I imagined. And if we were, the Pack was better off without me. But I never could muster the courage to completely cut myself out of the Pack. I think it mostly had to do with the man that sat in front of me. I still owed him so much.

And I kept putting myself deeper into his debt.

Chapter 3: Evelyn

First day of school, grade twelve. It was scary that the first three years of my high school life had flown by so quickly. And it was going to fly by even faster, since I only had one semester this year. With the help of the guidance counsellor, I’d managed to get all the credits I needed to graduate a semester early. It probably helped that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my future, so the courses required to get me into college, or university, were really the bare minimum. That, plus sacrificing my spare periods where I could, meant I could earn a bit of money before I even tried to enroll in whichever post-secondary school I ended up at.

There were two very special people to thank for graduating a semester early. Those two people were none other than Cole and Marissa. Their bullying in grade nine was what sparked my wanting to get the hell out of high school. The school had fought against me, but there was finally a reward for my mother’s persistence. I didn’t mind the heavy semesters. In fact, I think I surprised everyone with how well I’d come out of all of my classes –at an academic level, no less.

Things were better now. I liked to think I’d grown a backbone, again, thanks to them –and Maddie, of course. And all that hard work had paid off tremendously. My final semester at school was by far the easiest. I started the morning off with gym and music and ended with English and a spare.

“Aren’t you excited?” Maddie asked. We sat beside each other on the bus, neither one of us having our own car –though I did have my license.

“For school?” I rolled my eyes. “No.”

“Come on. We’re in grade twelve, and you, of all people, can’t complain. You’ve only got this semester. Lucky,” she nudged me. When I showed no real response, she grinned and lifted my pant leg. “Well, even if you’re not excited, at least you shaved your legs.”

“Seriously?” I raised an eyebrow, slapping her hand away. “A girl’s not allowed to shave her legs now?”

“You’re telling me that you shaved your legs to wear full length denim on the first day of your final year in high school because you’re not excited?” she gave me a look that said she knew me better than that. And I’d be the first to admit that she was right. “Besides… it’s
way
too hot for jeans. Aren’t you dying?”

She was right again. If I could rewind to this morning, I’d change into –at the very least –a pair of capris. I was never quite fond of my thighs, though I did wear shorts and bikinis in the summer. Wasn’t quite fond of my love handles either, hence the high-rise jean. I wasn’t fat, by any means, but the only good ‘muffin top’ came off an actual muffin.

“Hey Maddie,” Philip called out from the back of the bus. The two of us glanced back over our shoulders to see him and Cole sitting in the very back seat. They didn’t have cars either. Marissa did, but I’d never seen her give a ride to her brother.

“I’ll be back,” she grinned, touching my arm quickly before standing up and going to the back of the bus. I watched her as she went, catching Cole’s eye momentarily. He sneered at me, and I rolled my eyes.

Just one more semester.

I glanced at my phone to check the time. The bus route to the high school was a long one for me and my sister. It picked us up in the village and drove the long way around to pick up kids out in the country –including Maddie –and took us to the nearest elementary school, which was several country blocks away from where I lived. There, we were shuffled from that bus to another that would take us to our high school. A few of the kids from the village had decided to go to rivaling schools, so they got on other buses. Essentially there were three schools they could choose to go to: Eiden Composite School, Hightown District High School, and Reidman High. Hightown was the closest school, a fifteen minute drive north of where I lived. Eiden was the largest, and only twenty minutes west of my house. Reidman was the furthest away, being twenty-five minutes south.

As the bus pulled up in front of the school, she came back to my side. I stood up, and the two of us filed off the bus with the other students, grades nine through twelve. My little sister had sat near the front of the bus with her own friends, and through the rectangular windows I watched her hop off the last step and head to her first grade ten class. Maddie stretched as our feet touched the pavement, waving to Philip and the other guys as they walked away.

“Ah, sweet, sweet high school,” she sighed, looking up at the large building. “Three floors of kids we’ll never speak to again as soon as this year ends.”

“I can live with that,” I grinned.

“You say that, but you’re pretty popular right now. I’m pretty sure more people know your name than mine at this point,” she laughed.

“I think that’s mostly due to my sister,” I said. “Her friends adore me.”

“She’s taking mechanics this year, right?” Maddie asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I think she’ll enjoy it. She’s always liked things like that. Sophie used to help my dad all the time in the garage.”

“It’s pretty cool. She’ll be catching the eye of all the boys,” she pulled her cell phone out and looked at the time, “Well, the bell’s going to ring, and I don’t want the front seat in calculus. See you later.”

“Bye,” I waved to her as she headed off.

“Evelyn,” someone called from a distance, and I turned to see Kristy approaching. She was short, but her blond hair came down to the middle of her back. Hazel eyes with tiny green fragments shined in the September sunlight. She was so bubbly that it was impossible to not like her on most days. “Was that Maddie running off?”

“Hey,” I greeted before answering her question. “The one and only. She’s making a mad dash to Ezak’s homeroom. I don’t think she’s prepared for the day, let alone the semester. What about you, ready for Gym?”

Kristy stuck her tongue out, “Gym in the morning sucks.”

“It could be worse,” I shrugged as we fell into step together. “We might actually have to use our brains first thing every morning. Besides, I don’t mind the class.”

“I’m kind of surprised they let you into the grade twelve class, since you ended up giving up grade nine gym for grade ten science.”

“I think being on the volleyball team helped,” I said.

I held the door open to her and then headed for the gymnasium. Our school had three floors, but the building was both long and wide. On the east most side of the building was the gym. On the west side was the music room –which meant I’d have to book it when class was finished. No dillydallying with friends between the first two periods.

Kristy and I walked into the gym, not surprised to see a plethora of friendly faces. After three years in a school, you tended to know nearly everyone, and became friends with, well, nearly everyone. Grades eleven and twelve meant a co-ed class, though the males outnumbered us females.

“Evelyn,” Chantelle called out to me, waving me over to the benches. She was even shorter than Kristy was, and the two of them couldn’t have been more different. Chantelle’s hair was dark, short, and cut into a smooth bob, and she was quite a bit quieter and less outgoing. She, like me, wore glasses, though she wore contacts more often than I did.

I looked around at the rest of the class, recognizing everybody. Including Philip, which meant I could rub that in Maddie’s face when I saw her at lunch.

“Welcome back, Evelyn,” the teacher, Mr. Alan greeted me as he passed out first day handouts. The pages mainly outlined the course and the basics of school protocol, not like any of us would spend much time reading them. They didn’t change much year to year.

The teacher gave us our locker assignments, and we put all our things there immediately, sliding our locks into place before heading for the locker rooms. The thing about gym was that there was no “let’s just talk about the summer since you’re not going to listen to my lecture” time. It was immediately go-go-go, and today it seemed like we were going outside for a game of soccer.

“It’s so hot outside I almost wish that we’d stay inside,” Chantelle groaned as we got changed. “How on earth are you wearing jeans?”

I didn’t reply. What was there to say? I regretted it more just knowing that it would be even worse to get back into the jeans after running around for an hour.

“Oops,” One of the girls said, ramming me into a locker. I recognized the auburn hair of Marissa as she walked away.

“If you’d asked, I’m sure she would have made room for your fat ass, Marissa,” Kristy called out after her.

“Just leave it,” I told her.

“I just hate how much of a bully she is. This is grade twelve. Like, she needs to grow up,” Kristy muttered, shoving her clothes into her gym bag and zipping it up.

“Well, she wants a rise, and she’s not going to get one,” I zipped up my own bag. We left them there on the bench, just like all the other girls. I wondered why we didn’t have lockers in our change rooms like they did in the movies, but the teacher would lock the change room after we were all done in here anyway.

“As far as I can remember, you’ve never given her a rise,” Kristy pointed out. “So I can only wonder why she keeps at it.”

“And it’s not just her,” Chantelle reminded me.

“Well, Cole’s a jerk. Simple as that,” I sighed as we filed out of the change room. “And Marissa’s a bitch.”

“Such is the way of the universe,” Kristy laughed.

An hour or so later, the bell rang, and I was glad despite the easiness of the class. I got changed quickly, towelling off the sweat and letting Kristy spritz me with her body spray. Gathering my things, I said bye to Chantelle and Kristy, then headed across the building.

Maegan was in my class, one of the girls I’d more than likely be hanging out with at lunch, along with Maddie, Kristy and Chantelle. A few people waved as I headed over to her, and I called out greeting and age-old jokes drawn out from three years of music classes. It was the one thing I hadn’t sacrificed –I needed a moment of peace somewhere, after all.

“Hey, Evelyn,” she greeted with a smile. Her mother was Japanese, giving her gorgeous brown eyes and black hair. Her father’s side gave her the Angelina Jolie lips. She was an inch taller than I was, though she was just as curvy as Maddie. Honestly, Maegan had the potential to be the sexiest girl I knew, only she was often distracted and clumsy.

“Hey,” I returned the gesture.

On the first day of school, none of the classes seemed to start anything big. We didn’t play any instruments, though it’s not to say we didn’t work, because we were handed sheets containing the boring part of music; naming notes, counting beats, etc. We were a grade 11/12 advanced music class, I was sure we knew our notes by then.

“How was your summer?” Maegan asked as we settled down with the worksheets. Most people used the music stands –including myself –while others used their binders from first period.

“Good. Yours?”

“Mine was great,” she began, “Kristy and I went to…”

I stopped paying attention as Evan walked into the room, which sounds bad, but I had the biggest crush on this guy. When I first met him, I wouldn’t have called him attractive; he was nerdy, short, baby-faced –but he was outgoing, and the more you got to know him, the cuter he became. And as the years passed, he grew taller, broader. He was late for class, which wasn’t typical of him, especially on the first day of school, but he handed Mr. Jordan a late slip and sat down beside me, brushing his dirty blond hair out of his face so that I could see his blue eyes. He had braces, but that didn’t stop him from being cute. I would have sighed happily, but he was within earshot. So I just smiled at him.

“Hey, Evelyn,” he grinned at me. He looked passed me to Maegan, the smile extending to include her, too. “Hey.”

“Hi, Evan,” I was surprised at how smooth my voice came out.

“How was your summer?”

“Great,” I told him. “I spent a week in Thunder Bay and a week in Edmonton, visiting my older sisters.”

“Sydney and Bree, right?” he asked.

“The only sisters I have,” I grinned. A pause and an eye roll, “Well, besides Sophie.” I could die of embarrassment. How lame could I be? “And what about you? How was your summer?”

“Good,” he stretched, and spread his arms over the back of my chair and the empty one on his other side. I fought the urge to smile. “In the last two weeks my parents took me and my little sister to Florida. The rest of it was Philip, Cole and I spending most of our time at the beach.”

“I hate him,” I muttered, scowling instantly. My scowl deepened when I made a simple error on the paper in front of me.

“Cole? I know,” he tossed his head to get the hair out of his eyes again. Admittedly, he could use a haircut, but I felt he realized that himself. “But you shouldn’t care about what he thinks.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when he’s being a creepy little snot,” I said, grabbing my eraser and getting rid of my mistake on the worksheet.

“He does have a tendency to act that way,” he nodded.

“And you’re friends with him, because…?”

“I like being popular,” he cracked a smile that made me melt. He was joking, of course. He was sociable all on his own, but he didn’t really care what others thought of him. Or, I would have said that once upon a time. It was harder to tell these days. Just like I couldn’t assess his feelings, I couldn’t assess his morals.  I liked to think that Evan liked me. Maybe. Probably not. “He’s… he’s not as bad as he seems… though I’ll admit that he’s changed over the years that I’ve known and hung out with him.”