Chapter 167

It's been just a couple weeks since my birthday and I'm already done with being a legal adult, like right now…

"Mom? I need a bowl for cereals." I request, standing in the kitchenette, all dressed up for school.

"Of course, baby, it's just in the cabinet over the sink." She says sweetly from somewhere else in the house.

Exasperation washes over me but I swallow it down. "I know, mom but I can't reach it." I say slowly, unhappy.

She makes an exaggerated sound of surprise. "Really? Aren't you an adult?"

I glare in the general direction that her voice is coming from hoping she can feel it through the walls. "Mom, it's been three fucking weeks, that joke is already very old."

She bursts out laughing. "But I'm still laughing."

A familiar presence brackets me and I angle my head to let Virgil kiss me. "Stop torturing him, Renee." Virgil scolds her playfully, reaching up to get the bowl for me.

"Thanks, V." I kiss his cheek, quickly making my breakfast.

We didn't have to go to school today because it was the last day but it didn't hurt to go either.

"You know, since I'm an adult now, I can move out." I shrug indifferently when my mom makes her way out of her room dressed in a 'dobok', the traditional 'Taekwondo' uniform.

She drops the purple belt in her hands, genuine horror painting her face. "W-What?" She stutters, looking lost.

I burst out laughing, nearly choking on milk.

She frowns when she realizes I was just messing with her, crossing her arms in a peeve. "That wasn't funny."

"Exactly!" I exclaim, dropping the bowl on the tray harder than I intended.

"Okay, I think that's enough socializing for one morning." Virgil helps me up. "Bye, Renee, let's go love."

"Bye, baby, have fun at school!" She waves me out with a grin on her face.

"Bye, mom." I reply wryly with a fond smile, hoping I wouldn't come back to find broken boards littered all over the house, again.

"You think she'll be fine?" Virgil asks in concern, lacing his hand with mine as we make our way down the flights of stairs.

"She hasn't killed herself yet or anyone else." I shrug, bracing myself for the walk down to the parking lot, it was one of things I knew I wouldn't miss when we moved back to the house.

Mae is extra hyper in the car, babbling about how she was almost done with school but Shana is the direct opposite, moping at how soon college was coming and all the extra studying she had to do for the SAT's.

Luckily there's no school program for Christmas, I doubt I would have gone anyway.

Halloween had been boring because the entire Pack House was more or less empty because they had gone on a Pack run I think, I didn't want to prod about it and no matter how much Shana explained I couldn't picture it.

My mom and I had spent the night eating candy in bed and trading ghost stories which were quickly stopped when eerie sounds from the Pack House spooked us silly.

"What are we going to do this Christmas?" Shana asks lazily, leaning back on her chair.

Our homeroom teacher doesn't even seem bothered by the chaos going on in her class, giving us free reign to do as we wished on the last day of school.

"The Alphas are probably going to throw a Christmas party to bring the packs closer." Dale shrugs.

"W-We don't even celebrate Christmas." Nina mumbles.

"Well, we're not humans but Christmas is also a season of giving and love." Mae counters.

Shana snorts. "You sound like those cheesy commercials."

"It keeps getting colder so no doubt we'll have feet of snow pretty soon." I pipe up, Virgil is sitting close to me, he had wanted me to sit on his legs but that's a total no-no…

"Snowball fights!" Shana exclaims happily.

"W-we could b-build a snowman." Nina stutters, she had been sitting beside us for the whole term and Shana had managed to drag her somewhat out of her shell but the stutter still stubbornly stuck.

"Or sit inside where it's warm and drink hot cocoa." I say dryly, not entertaining the thought of getting wet and cold.

"Snow angels!" Dale throws in the fray, bubbling with as much energy as the girls.

"Do you think we could ski? I mean there's never enough snow where I moved from." Mae asks hopefully.

"We probably could." Virgil says thoughtfully.

"U-um, t-there's a tradition at the P-pack House where a huge Christmas tree would be placed in the foyer and everyone gets to put ornaments on it and instead of a star, they'd put a moon at the top of it, it's so much fun because on Christmas Eve, they'd light up all the plenty fairy lights and… oop!" Nina hiccups, slapping a hand over her mouth and going red when she realized how much she had been saying.

The others look equal parts surprised and intrigued.

Virgil has a small smile on his face. "I had no idea they still did that."

"Y-Yes." She murmurs shyly, adjusting her glasses and looking down. "W-we do! It was Luna Lily that made the tradition but we haven't done it for a while now." She continues sadly. "Because everyone left the Pack House."

"I'm pretty sure they'd do it this year then." Shana reassures her. "The Pack House has never been this full, they definitely will!"

The day passes lazily and I'm surprised when Miss Nate tells me to wait after classes that she wanted to see me.

I tell the rest that I'd meet them at the school's parking lot and I wave them out.

"Um, Hello, Miss… I mean Jhené." I greet timidly, still feeling weird about calling my teacher by her first name.

"Hi, Hayden, please take a seat." She says nicely, gesturing to a seat.

Today she's wearing a cashmere sweater dress, a mink coat wrapped around her, high boots strapped high on her knees and I can't help but wonder how she can afford her wardrobe with her salary.

Turns out she just wanted to check up on me and how I was coping in a school filled with supernatural creatures. All in all it was a weird conversation and I had never been happier to walk out a door before.

I hadn't seen or heard of Elise ever since the window issue, there were rumors that she got thrown out of the Pack and left town but I wasn't curious enough to find out more, that and I didn't particularly care.

I walk down the familiar hallways, lost in thought but thinking about nothing in particular, I make my way across the parking lot to where the cars are still in that state of mind.

So it takes me a while to process what is happening when a strange car skids in front of me and before I can step back, the back door gets thrown open and arms pull me in.

Panic settles in like a heavy stone in my gut, a huge palm covering my mouth quickly to stifle my scream, my struggles futile as arms effortlessly hold me down, a blindfold taking my vision away.

In the chaotic struggle that ensues I vaguely feel the faint sting of a… needle?

My movements slow down and become sluggish, consciousness slipping from my gasp. Beside my nauseating fear is a deep confusion…

Who the fuck would want to kidnap me?!

It doesn't take long for whatever has been injected into me to kick in, my eyes heavy and slipping shut no matter how hard I struggle to keep it open.