The Challenge (The Pack 2)

“I might be able to pull some strings,” Dom offered, eyeing Monster warily.

“That’s sweet but maybe not the best idea?” I wrinkled my nose and he exhaled, knowing I was right. It wouldn’t help our already questionable relationship if he showed me favoritism at school.

“Maybe someone could keep an eye on him? Sam?” Dom was desperate and I spared half a second’s thought on his suggestion before shaking my head.

“Is Trent around?” I asked, knowing he might be the only one wily enough to keep up with Monster. Dom shook his head.

“He went with your Dad as protection.”

“Then no, he’s with us or I stay here.”

Dom relented with a sigh, moving out of the door so we could pass him. “Why does this feel like a terrible idea?”

“Because it is,” I answered as Monster hopped to the oversize Jeep. He bounced up and down as Dom came toward him.

“I’ll lift you in, little man,” he told him, stumbling over man instead of using the name Monster.

“You can call me Monster, all my friends do.”

“You have friends?” I asked, surprised, and he shrugged.

“You.”

“Well, I bet we can find you some more in this town,” I replied with a grin. “You’re not the only Monster around anymore.”

Dom eyed me like I’d lost my mind and I shrugged.

“Monster, tell him what happened at your last school.”

“I burned it down!”

Dom had just lifted Monster up to the truck seat and he almost lost his grip at that announcement. He tossed him into the back and spun around to me. “What the hell?”

“It was just a trash can,” I reassured him, bracing my hand against his chest as I scrambled into the high seat. I patted the hard muscles of his chest as he continued to stand there. “We’re going to be late.”

Dom shut his mouth, shaking his head as he slammed the door shut and went around the front.

“He’s not like us,” Monster commented from behind me. “He smells funny.”

I turned my head as it felt like time slowed down. “What?” I breathed, staring at Monster with new eyes. He blinked at me, those wide brown eyes a duplicate of mine and with a stunned clarity I realized, our Dad’s.

“He’s not like us,” Monster repeated. “You know that right?”

I nodded, unable to speak as Dom reached for the door handle. I lifted my finger to my lips and Monster smiled, nodding. I turned back around as Dom hopped in and turned on the heater for me.

“This should be an interesting day,” he murmured and as I glanced back at Monster, I thought to myself, you have no idea.

Chapter Six

The ride to school was silent as Dom kept glancing in the rearview mirror at Monster. His forehead scrunched as if he was puzzled by something and I suddenly wondered if Monster smelled funny to him too.

Like…

Not human.

The words buzzed through my brain as I started to put things together. The innuendoes our mother had made implying Monster wasn’t my Dad’s. The bright copper hair that didn’t seem to belong, but the eyes. God, the eyes. They’d been staring me in the face for the past five years.

How could I have missed the damn eyes?

Shit brown was my favorite description and Dad always corrected me. “Chocolate, Bunny. We have dark chocolate eyes.”

He’d been right but when he said we I’d never realized he’d meant the three of us. The implications were almost too huge for me to comprehend, especially with Monster’s revelation that Dom wasn’t like us. I knew that, of course, but the fact that he’d realized it so quickly – I glanced over my shoulder at him, his body too small for the seatbelt, and knew.

He had the right genes.

The genes that would make him different.

Special.

A shifter.

He caught my eyes then and I forced a smile, turning my head to face forward again.

Monster? Please tell me he has a real name.

A smile twitched my lips involuntarily at Dom’s mental pleading, the note of horror I detected in his thoughts that we actually called him Monster to his face.

Theodore, but only use that if you want to set him off, I warned him seriously, but I couldn’t help my smirk. I had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to resist and would eventually see why we called him Monster.

Uh huh. He glanced in the rearview at Monster again and I could almost hear his next thought. How much trouble could he be?

***

“Jess Carter, report to the nurse’s office.” The intercom squealed, making all of us wince. “Immediately!” I recognized the sound of an adult at the end of their rope and scooped up my backpack. The teacher waved me from the room, clearly, he’d already gotten the gossip from the teacher’s lounge.

“Oh, crap,” I breathed as I took in the destruction. “Monster? You alive in here?” I entered the room slowly, a cloud of what I hoped was baby powder hovering in the air and coating every surface. Every surface that hadn’t been destroyed, that was.