one who looked to be about Gabby's age, but that was where the similarities ended.
Seeing our group in the hall, he sneered but just kept coming. Then, when he was close enough, the little jerk actually spit. Like, a glob of it flew through the air, right toward Seth.
"I bet you think you're hot shit too, huh?" he taunted.
Seth's mouth hung open, but he didn't say anything as the kid walked away. Still, Gerardo's interruption seemed to have brought the class to an end, and more kids were filing out of the room. Gabby was one of them.
The moment she saw us, she hurried over, not caring that she'd just abandoned her father. "Oh my god," she breathed, her eyes on Seth's spit-stained shirt. "I guess you met Mason Kline, huh?"
And that was when I realized that Ian's attention was still locked on the kid. "Who is he?" he asked.
"School freak," Gabby explained. "Pretty sure he's got something wrong upstairs, but he has a serious hate-on for all of us 'rich fucks from Wolf's Run.'"
"Language," I snapped.
She shrugged. "That's his words, Mom, not mine."
"Yeah," Ian breathed. "Just stay away from him, ok?"
"Kinda can't," she told us. "He's the Jabberwocky."
The boy was gone, but Ian still couldn't make himself look away. "Then don't be alone around him. Trust your… friends."
"No friends in drama," she admitted.
"Olivia?" I asked.
Gabby shook her head. "Not allowed to loiter on school grounds. She got busted making out with Xander at the start of the year, and if she does it again, she might get suspended."
So I sighed, knowing I shouldn't do this, yet the intensity of Ian's reaction had me feeling tense. He'd known when I needed help, and he said he had these alpha instincts, right? Well, I was going to learn to trust them.
"What about Roman?" I asked. "If I let you see him, could you promise not to do anything stupid again? And would he be willing to wait through your rehearsals?"
She nodded vigorously. "I swear, Mom. Because he can't even talk to me right now. Not even in the halls."
"Why not?" Gerardo asked, proving he'd followed her over.
Gabby just turned to her father with her face scrunched up. "Because Mom caught me sneaking into the back yard to give him a goodnight kiss. Roman's my boyfriend, but we broke the rules, and now we're both grounded."
No mention of wolves. No blaming me about it. No attempt to tell him that the inability to break the alpha's orders had been beaten into that boy wolf-style. Gabby's answer was so smooth and believable that it made me a little scared. Clearly, my daughter lied very, very well, and yet… This was something she'd need for the rest of her life.
It also proved to me that she'd learned at least a little responsibility. Simply because she'd taken the blame for it all without trying to make me feel bad.
"Ok," I relented. "You can see Roman again, but only at school or when you're with an adult. And by that, I mean myself, your father, his parents, or the Langdons. Am I clear?"
She turned back to me, her new amber eyes dropping to my neck. "Yes, Mom. I promise that I've learned my lesson."
Gerardo just huffed. "And you honestly think that's going to work with her?"
Slowly, I nodded. "Yeah. See, Gabby and I have an understanding. It took us a bit, but from now on she's going to talk to me about things first. Although, I've learned that sometimes she really is right. I trust her."
With a huge sigh, my daughter threw herself at me, hugging my neck. "Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much. I promise you will not ever regret it."
"I don't, sweetheart. Not at all." We both knew I wasn't talking about Roman.
Because this, right here, was what it meant to have a pack. My daughter would always have backup. I would always have someone on my side. When Gabby had asked Roman to bite her, she'd given us both the one thing we truly needed.
Our family.
Dear Reader,
You're probably here because you turned the page, hoping for just a little more. You probably have a messy bun, a house that you've ignored for at least a few hours, and a new found respect for big red dogs. Don't worry, you will see him again. To Preorder Wolf's Call, the Second Book in the Wolves Next Door Trilogy, click HERE, it's going to be a fun one.
I've just always wondered what the traditional YA