Page 16

Melanie is Eleven Years Old

Melanie was nervous. My network of people listening out for rumors that I needed to warn people about had grown exponentially. Pups were unassuming and people talked around us. Plus, I was certain some of them were in bad packs.

My network was of dancers and general word of mouth. This tip was important because I’d verified it… Ok, I verified them all. I should feel bad because, well in a way I was taking advantage of those pups… but I was helping. No one ever wanted to let me help.

So, I might have had a network listening for subjects I wanted to know about. Did they do that because I’m kind of an amazing dancer? Well… yes. I did talk to them though… so it wasn’t all bad. I watched the clock, ready to finish this experiment.

My dad was coming to pick me up from school then I was heading to my dance competition in California. That’s where I’d enact my plan to protect Xander. I had to. I was finalizing my competition experiment for the science fair next week when I got back.

I wanted to check my financial portfolio before I left though too.

I’d been investing since I was little. I felt a little bad I’d used a fake I.D.

but I mean… I had to, when you thought about it.

My parents gave me an allowance… and they did have a lot of money.

No one took me seriously though and I wanted to prove I could invest and make my own money.

So, I used my allowance as my spending money. All the money from my grandparents at Christmas and my birthday I’d put into investing. My grandparents on my mom’s side always gave me money… because I guess it was hard to buy me presents.

Me, Jason, and Tristan were their only grandpups since my mom was their only pup. They were rich too…and I did know that made me very privileged… but I’d turned quite the profit. I smiled to myself because I was a millionaire, and no one knew it.

I had a diversified portfolio, and I even set up a profile using Prince Gunner Cambridge’s tips, to advise people on their finances. I hired a guy who was the front guy, but the ideas came from me. Those genius genes from my dad really came in handy.

My mom is smart too though so I should thank both of them really.

My dad says I’m smarter than he is which feels like a tradeoff…

because he’s better at not saying everything he thinks out loud.

I’m bad at it… like very bad. I love it when people say I remind them of him though. I’m a proud daddy’s girl.

My teacher came over and hovered in close.

He inhaled, “Hmm, that’s brilliant.” I muttered, “It’s not done yet.

” I was working on a tool that identified elemental components.

I wanted to turn around and use that and combine with jewelry for Supernatural’s.

Uncle Duncan had been there when I thought of it, but I hadn’t worked on it until recently.

If I could it worked out Supernaturals could know if they were around something that hurt them. My teacher trailed his finger down my arm saying, “It’s brilliant. I love the way your mind works.” Because I was smarter than he was.

Ok, that sounded mean, but it was true. I was much smarter than this human teacher. He groaned, “Wow, you smell good.” I made a face because humans weren’t supposed to have an enhanced sense of smell, but I’d found a lot of them liked my scent.

I smelled like strawberries so I could understand people liked it.

It was the scent of candles, bodywash, shampoo, condition, perfume, lotion, and all kinds of other things humans sold.

I was about to say I used strawberry shampoo…

.which was true when I heard an all out snarl. My dad was early. Good.

I jolted up and my teacher jumped five feet back.

I grabbed my backpack, “Hi, daddy! Let me clean this up and…” He ordered, “Go outside.” I frowned, “Oh…umm well… it’s just class procedure to clean up your…

” He growled, “Outside.” I blinked in surprise at Pepper.

My dad’s wolf was firmly in charge now. I quickly left the classroom, but I heard him hit my teacher.

I linked Peter, “Umm…” He laughed, “What’s wrong?” I admitted, “I’m not sure, but… well so… Pepper is beating up my human science teacher… he definitely growled… and…” He popped in front of me with Warriors, Garrett, Sharon, and Zane, our Male Lead Warrior.

Peter ordered, “Sharon stay out here with Ladybug.” He pointed at two Warriors, “You too.” I offered, “I could help.” I could. I trained with Zane, my mom, Chelsea, and former Alpha Nick Kyle. He was like my grandpa though.

We trained with Elise too. She was the best!

She was practically my sister. Peter didn’t answer me and took off.

Sharon asked, “What happened?” I explained what I’d been doing and she winced.

I asked, “What? I don’t understand what’s wrong?

” She chuckled, “Oh, Ladybug.” I hated when people said that.

It was the tone that said I was so cute and didn’t understand.

I didn’t like not understanding things. It irked me.

She ruffled my hair, “One day, you’ll understand.

You’ll be getting a new teacher though.” I shrugged because he wasn’t really a good teacher.

I basically did his job and taught the class.

I must have said it out loud because she asked, “You what? What do you mean you do his job?” I admitted, “Umm… well, I plan the lessons because… through a series of events… we already learned what he taught prior… so I plan his lesson and give it to him for the week… and…”

She cut me off, “Why didn’t you say anything?

” I answered, “Because I liked the challenge of planning the class.” She asked, “Was this just for your class?” I admitted, “No… it’s…

well… it’s for all his classes.” She rubbed her temples, “Goddess that won’t help the situation.

” I wasn’t even sure what the situation was.

I whispered, “Will they make me stay home from the competition? Because I…” She cut me off, “No, you’re still going.

Why wouldn’t you? You didn’t do anything wrong.

” I pointed out, “I never do, and I still get punished all the time… like literally… all the time.” She winced and made a face I knew all too well because she knew I was right.

It was maddening that I followed the rules all the time, but I was punished for breaking rules I never had. I was tempted to break them to prove I could. Because I TOTALLY could break them and get away with it.

Someone definitely didn’t want me to meet my Xander.

That was the only explanation. I’d bet it was Robert.

He was the worst. You’d think people wouldn’t listen to him though.

We had a history of disliking each other.

He was the one with the problem though, not me.

I just defended myself from him and annoying Charline.

She was SO obnoxious that even ROBERT thought so.

Sharon tugged my hair asking, “Where did you go?” I shrugged saying, “No where… just thinking about how people don’t like me.

” She knelt down, “Everyone likes you, Ladybug.” It was crazy she believed that.

She couldn’t lie since she had Fairy blood.

It was obvious people didn’t like me… especially Robert.

Though I stopped telling them when he bothered me.

So, maybe she did believe that. Well, she had to believe it.

Obviously….the whole can’t lie thing. We waited and chatted outside for over an hour before my dad came back out.

He knelt down and picked me up and squeezed me so tight it was hard to breathe.

I whispered, “Daddy.” He pulled back, “You’ll never have to see him again.” That definitely meant the teacher got fired, but it could mean he killed him. I still didn’t get what happened. He put me in his SUV, and we drove away.

I asked, “Did I do something wrong?” He answered, “No, you did absolutely nothing wrong. That man will never be near you or another pup.” I questioned, “Is he dead?” He gripped the wheel hard before he answered, “No, he’s alive.

” Huh. I definitely thought given how he squeezed the wheel the teacher was dead.

Humans would consider us over aggressive, but we lived by a different way of life. Plus, ya know… they were human, and we weren’t. We were supernatural’s and it was still very much a different version of justice we lived by.

Humans had to wait a very long time for justice with the court system. I felt sad for them with that. Even if we waited for the Werewolf or Supernatural Council to render a verdict, it was swift. Sometimes Human cases went on for years.

When we got home my brothers were outside waiting with my mom.

She urged, “Hurry up and pack, Ladybug.” I quickly ran inside, not mentioning I was in fact packed.

I went and checked my portfolio. I’d had a massive cash influx from a stock when I’d first started everything.

I traded some and bought another startup company’s stock that I saw going places.

Prince Gunner recommended real estate purchases, but I hadn’t done that yet. I checked my boards to see if he’d put out another paper. He was my hacking and computer skills mentor… he just had no idea that he was.

Which was totally a thing in my head… but probably not really. He hadn’t put out a paper, but my Xander’s dad did. I quickly downloaded his latest paper and noted King Aiden Holloran, my Xander’s Uncle, had put out another paper one second before Jared popped into my room.

Jared winked at me, “Do you have my paper I gave you to proof?” I handed him his research paper. He took and snorted, “You changed the entire paper I gave you. You were just supposed to edit it.” I frowned, “I did… I mean… it’s just that the parameters could be expanded and far more interes…”