Julian

When I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Ms. Adams was standing in the kitchen, smiling kindly as always. She had already stowed the groceries in the cupboards, and it looked like she was just waiting for me.

“I don’t know what her problem is, but I really appreciate you helping us out,” she sighed, smiling in my direction.

“Anytime, Ms. Adams.”

My selflessness was at a point today where it hadn’t been in a long time. I didn’t know what had driven me to help this rude girl.

“Julian.” She looked at me urgently. “How many more times? Feel free to call me Diana.”

“Okay, ...Diana,” I corrected myself uneasily.

It wasn’t often that I was treated so well by people of her kind.

Get a grip, Julian. She’s nice. So you are, too.

Maybe it was actually because she was the first of her kind who didn’t make me feel stupid or want me to get out of her part of town.

“Could you please tell your father I said hello? I haven’t seen him in a long time.” I tried to find something sneaky in her smile. Failing. “How are you all doing, anyway?”

“Pretty good so far.”

I wasn’t much of a talker. She already knew that, which is why she just smiled and didn’t dig any further.

“That’s good to hear.” She sounded genuinely interested, which made me feel guilty about whether I had been too curt in answering her. “I don’t want to hold you up any longer.”

“You’re not holding me up, Ms. Ad... Diana.” It was strange to be on a first-name basis with her. She was my father’s age. “But my father just called me to dinner, so from there...”

Diana nodded in understanding and wiped the dust off the stove top with a rag.

I turned to leave.

“Oh, and...” she continued. Attentively, I paused. “Please tell your family that you are invited to dinner with us tomorrow night.”

“That’s kind of you. I’ll pass the word along.” With those words, I disappeared through the squeaky front door and skipped down the porch.

The Adams’ front yard looked like someone had driven his car into it. Dried-up plants lined the ground, and a lot of weeds had grown since Diana had last been here. The garden fence had also been standing three weeks ago. Now it lay across the front of the garden, propping its last standing end against the crooked mailbox.

Something really needed to be done here.

I made my way past the tall shrubs until I stopped on the sidewalk.

A flicker flashed next to Ms. Adams’ car, blinding me for a split second. The setting sun seemed to be reflecting in something...

When I looked closer, I realized it was a sapphire blue charm. I moved closer to get a better look.

A crackling sounded behind me.

I jerked around.

I was prepared for anything. If necessary, I would be able to kill my opponent.

My gaze searched first the footpath, then the garden fence. But there was no one there.

Then I smelled it. Another Senseque was nearby, and I knew for sure that it was not my father. She was here.

I turned cautiously in all directions but felt rather stupid myself because I could always assign all sounds to their sources. Over the years, this ability had clearly faded.

Another crackling sounded in the undergrowth. This time, it came from the direction of our garden.

I quickly picked up the charm, then ran and set to jump, skillfully pulling myself over our high fence without knocking it down this time. I landed with both feet in the garden behind our house.

“You can’t hide,” I shouted into the adjoining woods. “Your smell is too strong.”

She must have realized it, too, because, with a leap out of the thicket, she landed in front of me. Her dark brown, almost black hair was a mess and made her look more threatening. In her dark brown eyes was that gleam I only saw when she and the pack were on the hunt.

If I didn’t know her, I would have expected a serious threat now.

I took a step toward her. She did not back away. Instead, she did the same until there were only a few inches between us.

“What are you doing here, Emely?” it escaped me.

She knew perfectly well that she wasn’t supposed to be here at this hour. But above all, there was one thing she wasn’t allowed to do in this area: hunting .

“I’ve been watching you,” she growled, looking around cautiously. “You were talking to one of them.”

Her gaze was full of hostility. She seemed almost dangerous with her yellow glowing Senseque eyes.

I wasn’t forbidden to talk to them . And anyway...what business was it of hers? Just because the pack didn’t like it? Screw the pack.

“I can talk to whomever I want. And I won’t be forbidden by you.” My brows narrowed. “How many more times?”

She clenched her teeth.

I was right, and she knew it.

“You really still think that because of this arrangement, you can enjoy any freedom and do whatever you want. But you don’t. They want to control you.”

I sighed. “They don’t want to control us. We chose to live here.”

In fact, I wasn’t saying anything new.

“If your father wasn’t a cop working for the city, they would have chased you guys away long ago. Believe me. They’re just using you. And you’re going to be a problem for them sooner or later.”

Her words hit the mark.

I kept silent because I had to try to control the rising anger inside me. Unrestrained blood noticeably pulsed in my veins, which slowly began to stand out. But I would not turn. Not here. Not after all this time.

Emely must have noticed because her eyes turned yellow. Her expression became more serious.

“My father wants you to join us.”

Now she started again. Of course , Nickolas wanted me to do that.

“And Maverick?” I countered.

“Maverick is not the Alpha. Nobody cares about his take on the whole thing because he has to accept my father’s opinion.”

And that was exactly the problem. I would not submit to some bossy Alpha whom I then had to obey without resistance. It might be that as long as we lived here, we had to abide by the rules of the witches. But it was still better than belonging to a group where one’s own opinion did not count. I didn’t need a manipulative pack. End of discussion.

“My dad already knew why he left,” I murmured.

“Everyone needs a pack, Julian. That’s where you’ll get help if you’re in trouble.”

Her voice sounded calmer now. More insistent. I knew what she was trying to say.

“But I’m not in trouble, and I don’t need you,” I drove at her a little too harshly.

She looked hurt. I hadn’t meant for that to happen. Then again, what did it matter? Maybe, at some point, she’d finally let it go.

Pretty quickly, she managed to hide her emotions again, which was unusual for Emely.

“You’re cocky, Julian. Has anyone ever told you that?”

I was cocky, then. If it kept me from wanting them to keep me around, I was just fine with making them beg until they finally realized they might as well have been talking to a fucking wall.

“And you shut yourself off completely. When was the last time you let anyone get to you?” she added.

My expression darkened, and I clenched my hands into fists.

I didn’t need to let anyone get to me . That was exactly what had made me bleed. If you let other people get close to you, you became controllable, vulnerable... It was probably the pack’s ploy to keep members from suddenly disappearing. I wouldn’t fall for that.

Emely took a deep breath as if it was me who was causing trouble right now.

“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t always ask you. My father just wanted you to know that we always have a place for you.”

“Then tell him I don’t need that place,” I growled, turning around.

I was sick of Nickolas’ offers. If they needed newbies, they should go recruit others. Maybe some wild wolves who roamed the woods and purposely harmed others. That scum needed a pack much more than I did.

“What did she want?”

My father’s voice startled me.

I looked around quickly. Emely had disappeared.

Annoyed, I looked back at Dad.

“The usual.”

“What did you say?”

He looked at me with concern.

“Don’t act like you weren’t listening, Dad. I’m not going to be a part of this bullshit.”

My dad didn’t say anything about it, but I knew how he felt about the pack.

“Any news?” I asked, not in the mood for small talk, but my dad knew what I meant and quickly got to the point.

“Just some hikers I stopped from going into Fogs Forest.”

I nodded pensively.

While I wanted nothing to do with that town, these missing people cases had caught my attention. Because if the pack had anything to do with more and more people disappearing in the woods around here, it didn’t look good for my family either, even if Dad was the town’s police chief.

“You shouldn’t throw away your friendship with Emely.”

With those words, Dad turned and went back into the house.

Once again, I clenched my fists. Something sharp was digging into my skin.

I remembered that the blue stone I had found a few minutes ago was still in my hand.

I opened it and looked at it more closely. Only now did I see that the charm dangled from a subtle silver chain. The stone, a crystal, was about the size of my thumbnail but not particularly heavy.

It must have fallen off the Adams girl earlier when she had tried to lift the suitcase out of the trunk. That strange girl.

She was Ms. Adam’s daughter, but she didn’t smell the least bit like a witch. Maybe I was just mistaken, but nothing like this had ever happened to me before. The sharpness of my senses must really have reached a drastic low point.

The thought of earlier made me grin again.

I put the necklace in the pocket of my jeans.

She would get it back—just not today. She had made me understand that I had gotten on her nerves, and that was something I had to get over first. Usually, girls would run after me unasked. I hoped that would change on campus.

This girl here was different, not my type, though, and way too stubborn, even though she looked really cute with her different-colored eyes.

“Are you coming in, little brother?” Mia’s asked from our porch.

According to Dad, my little sister was much more mature than me at the age of 15. To be exact, she was the complete opposite of me. I was the stubborn loner, while she owned the role of the responsible angel in the family and gathered a bunch of friends around her in high school. And even though she drove me crazy sometimes, I loved her. Without her, I probably would have been screwed.

“Yeah, pain in the ass,” I grumbled, the corners of my mouth automatically moving upward.

Mia grinned back. “First one to the table!”

I didn’t need to be told twice.