Defiance: The Hybrid's Tale
Chapter 7: Old Friends.

Nathan Underhill.

After standing around for a while, a commotion from the backroom caught my and my mom’s attention. A skinny woman, wearing a flowery curtain as a dress, strode into the room. More rings that I could accurately count adorned her spindly fingers. Before her sky-blue eyes could graze my face, my mom let out a squeal.

“Selena? Is that you girl?” My mom threw her hands into the air and ran up to the redhead.

“Victoria! What a small world. You look gorgeous!”

My mom and the Supreme hugged tightly. An old friendship lit up in an instant. What a small world indeed. I glanced over at Joshua. He was smirking like an idiot who broke his mother’s stash of happy pills. Why was he happy? I had no idea. But luckily, the plan of getting a meeting set up with the Alpha seemed like a done deal. Funny how things worked themselves out.

My mom and the Supreme drew away from their hug before my mom introduced me to her.

“Selena, this is my son, Nathan, and the pretty sleeping angel is my daughter, Lilly.” At that, my little sister readjusted her head, burying her head inside of my neck. She hugged me tighter.

I moved in and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

She eye-raped me for a second, making my skin crawl before she said, “So this is the hybrid I’ve heard about.”

At that moment, I wanted to kick down the front door of the shop and run for the hills. Fuck! She knows! This isn’t good. I could feel Fenrus making my muscles tense. The tips of my fingers began to itch as my claws began to grow. I was ready to slash her throat before she could move a finger.

My mom’s voice became harsh. “Selena?”

The woman’s eyes fell on my claws. Instead of reacting to the threat, she laughed and touched my hands and squeezed them gently.

“Don’t worry, young one. I’m not your enemy. You saved my son from the Hunters and I’ll be forever in your debt.” She rubbed my sister’s back before she walked over to the counter.

I slowly retracted my claws as my shoulders eased.

“Even if you hadn’t saved my son’s life, I would have helped you. I have no intentions of betraying my best friend’s trust.” The Supreme rubbed my mom’s shoulder. “There are rumors drifting along that your grandfather has completely lost his grip on reality, so I have no intention of aligning myself with such a madman.”

“I heard that he hired the Shadowstalkers to hunt down the coven members who dared to leave his coven,” Jason injected his bit of information. “Dozens of warlocks and witches have disappeared without a trace.”

“OK, Josh. That is enough of that. The depraved machinations of a madman don’t deserve the time on our lips.” She clapped her hands together. “Now, Victoria, if you will accompany me. Let’s catch up while my boy entertains yours.”

Ugh! I came here to replace out why my mom is desperately seeking the ears of the Alpha, not to make friends.

Before I could ask my mom if I could join them, she said, “Nat, stay here. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Since when do we keep secrets?” I scowled at her.

My mom gave me her ‘don’t be an ass’ look. “Not now.” She turned around and followed the Supreme into the backroom.

I let out a low growl that made Joshua yelp out in fright.

“Nat, don’t take that tone with me.” Her voice echoed from the backroom.

Why is she being so secretive? She had never done this before. We always told each other everything; we had no secrets. It actually stung to think that my mom didn’t trust me enough to confide in me. It was becoming obvious to me why we came to this town; it had something to do with the local werewolf pack. I hated it. I hated it when I wasn’t in control. Now there were unknown variables which might smack me in the balls when I least expected it.

I groaned and then took a seat on a green sofa that stood next to the front door. I made sure not to disturb my sister. She could become very cranky when she was woken up abruptly. Seconds later, Joshua walked over with two cans of soda and handed one to me before taking a seat next to me.

After a few awkward moments, he began babbling nervously about his life. He had a giddy personality that put my sister’s bubbly personality to shame. I found out that he was an only child. He was into comic books and fantasy role-playing games (LARPs), which made me chuckle. An actual warlock pretending to be a make-believe wizard. Pfft! How hilarious! He was enrolled in the local community college to become a bioengineer. While I decided years ago that I wanted to focus on becoming a veterinarian because of my ability to communicate with other creatures.

I soon realized that the dork next to me wasn’t as terrible as I thought he was. He was actually funny as hell but a tad brittle around the seams. After an hour and a half, my little sister finally woke up from her beauty sleep, not that she needed it. She was cute as a fluffy bunny. I rummaged through the bag I had with me for a juice box and a tofu wrap. She sat between Joshua and me and ate in silence before my mom and the Supreme finally dragged their asses out of the backroom.

“Mommy!” Lilly cried out as she bolted from the couch and into my mom’s arms.

Before they could continue their hug fest, the front door swung open. Two guys and a girl walked in. The ones from the grocery store. My heart slipped a beat when the leader of the group’s eyes fell on mine. Gold flecks dotted his brown irises. I quickly averted my gaze before it became too obvious that I was drooling over his gorgeous eyes. A skin-tingling scent of sandalwood and vanilla made it difficult for me to keep my wits about me. My body was turning against me; all of a sudden the room became stifling hot while my palms became sweaty as fuck.

“Oh! Good morning, Adam,” said the Supreme in a cheerful voice.

Joshua bolted up from the couch and walked over to shake hands with the hunk in tight jeans. Agh! No! Get your head out of the gutter, Nathan. This isn’t the time to dive headfirst into a crush. I could not risk it, not as long as my grandfather made it his mission to snuff my life out of existence. He’d jump for joy at the opportunity to use anyone I was close to, to make me suffer. I wasn’t about to give him another innocent life to destroy. As I said, life is unfair.

I walked over to my mom’s side, gaining as much distance from him as possible. Luckily, my necklace was neutralizing my werewolf scent and the embarrassing aroma of arousal stinking up my body.

“Hi, Adam... Maisie.” Joshua’s eyebrows furrowed as he addressed the third member of their group. “Riley.”

Ahh! I chewed on my tongue. The asshole from the shop. It seems that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to redecorate his face. Not that it was difficult. The Riley guy wasn’t an unsightly dude with his wavy light brown hair and hazel eyes with light freckles. However, the constant sneer ingrained on his face made my fists itch.

Getting hold of myself, I turned to my mom. “Mom, we have to get moving. We still have lots to do...” I just wanted to get the hell out of this situation.

Having three werewolves in close proximity ruffled Fenrus’ fur, especially in the presence of an alpha. I could feel small beads of sweat rolling down my face. It took all of my restraint to keep Fenrus from challenging him to a standoff.

“Come on, ass! Stop trying to measure your dick to his...” I mentally scolded Fenrus as he prowled around in my head.

“Oh? And you’d love to measure his.” Fenrus hit back, making the heat rise to my cheeks.

“Just shut up and get a grip, before we expose ourselves.”

My mom’s worried gaze made her nod in agreement. She turned to the Supreme. “Thank you, Selena, for your ear and that exquisite cup of tea. I’ll see you soon.” She hugged her friend and walked over to the door. “If you’ll excuse us.” She gave the three newcomers a warming smile until they made way for us.

I quickly followed, nodding to the three as I passed them. I could feel the intensity of the leader’s eyes grazing my neck. A ripple of delight slithered down my back. Ok! I was being rude to them for not introducing ourselves, but I didn’t want them to start asking us what we were doing in the shop.

“Bye, Nathan. Hope to see you soon,” said Joshua.

I froze on the spot and turned around. I awkwardly waved back at Joshua just as the door closed behind me.

“What an idiot!” Fenrus growled. ”We do not need them to know your name.”

“Don’t be that way. He didn’t do it on purpose, so relax! It doesn’t matter if they know my name. It’s not as if we’re going to become best buddies with them.”

I walked up to the SUV and climbed into the car before placing the bag onto the back seat. I turned to my mom.

“Are you alright, son?” She rubbed the back of my head, knowing it would calm me down.

I sighed. “I am.”

“Are you sure?” My mom asked again.

“Sure. I’m not used to being in close proximity to other werewolves, that’s all.” I planted a fake smile while turning the key in the ignition.

My mom’s eyebrows furrowed, not believing my bullshit one bit. At least she didn’t push the conversation any further. I turned around and saw that my sister had returned to her nap. I will say it again. Life was not fair. I yawned again.