Hope Springs
Chapter 9

After school I had headed to Clara’s and Claire had given me the work schedule. I was delighted that most of my work shifts were with either Meaghan or Hadley. After that I just hung around Clara’s waiting for Max to show up so we could talk about whatever we needed to talk about. I tapped my foot on the floor anxiously and as five o’clock rolled around I debated on whether I should go home or not, it didn’t seem like Max would be showing.

Soon after I had thought that, Max showed up with Rhea, Josh and Keith behind him. Rhea looked nervous and although Josh and Keith both had stoic expressions on their faces, I could tell that they were nervous too. Hadley appeared in front of us and the expression on her face was also nervous. Her whole body was tense.

“Table for five?” Hadley asked, her voice wavering slightly and Max gave a curt nod of his head.

Hadley led us to one of the tables near the back and I briefly pondered why before remembering that this was a private conversation and had something to do with their lives and so they wouldn’t want it to be overheard by anyone else. Max pulled out my chair for me and I gave him a small smile in thanks, but I knew that he was trying his best to get on my good side hoping that if he had gained a little favor that I wouldn’t react harshly.

“What would you like to drink,” Hadley asked, whipping out a pad and a pen and I glanced at the menu.

“Water,” I finally decided.

Max and Rhea had also agreed on water while Josh went with a coke and Keith had decided on orange juice. Josh and Keith made small talk but I wasn’t really paying attention to them. My eyes were drawn to Max who was fidgeting, his eyes darting around the restaurant nervously. He was clearly trying to think of what to say.

Hadley set our drinks down on the table and took a step back pulling out her pad and pen once more, “Are you ready to order?”

Max swallowed hard, “Yes. I would like the double cheeseburger, sausage and chili fries.”

“So the Heart Attack,” Hadley questioned with a grin on her face and Max nodded.

Rhea fiddled with the ends of her blonde hair before saying, “I would like the Blueberry Brigade.”

Blueberry Brigade? I flipped the menu open and scanned the menu items. The Blueberry Brigade seemed to be an assortment of items that had lots of blueberries. Blueberry muffin, blueberry pancakes, blueberry cheesecake, and sausage.

“What about you Keith, Josh?” Hadley asked and Josh flipped through his menu.

“I would like the Heart Attack as well,” Josh said, “But replace the sausage with mashed potatoes please, if you could.”

Hadley nodded jotting that down on her pad before turning to Keith who also ordered the Heart Attack. Then it was my turn. I was still undecided on what I should order and I bit my lip in thought. Everything on the menu sounded so good. Finally I decided on a bacon cheeseburger, chili cheese fries, mashed potatoes and a cheesecake of my choice. The Barnyard Diner. Interesting name, and I didn’t completely understand the name for it but it sounded good.

“Okay and do you know what kind of cheesecake you would like Trinity,” Hadley asked looking at me and I sighed, glancing back down at the menu.

“Strawberry cheesecake please,” I asked nicely and Hadley nodded, writing that down and then gathering all of our menus. She walked back to the kitchen and I watched her leave for a moment before turning to Max. “Tell me now,” I said, “The anticipation is killing me.”

“This isn’t going to be easy to explain,” Max started, “And it will be really hard to believe. Just remember, keep an open mind and don’t freak out.” I nodded. He took a deep breath, “I don’t really know how to start this...You know the wolves in the forest? The ones that I told you to be careful around? Well most of them won’t hurt you, but some will. Some wolves aren’t like the others, they aren’t in packs and they are called Rogues.”

“How do you know most of them won’t hurt me,” I interrupted and Max closed his eyes, a pained expression crossing his face before he stared at me again.

“I know because four of those wolves are sitting at this table,” He gestured to Rhea, Keith, Josh and himself. “My father is the Alpha of our pack and we are based here in Hope Springs. I know that none of my pack members will hurt you. But Rogues, might. Rogues don’t really have any morals or law. They kind of do whatever they want whenever they want. If they feel like going on a killing spree they will. But if you are in a pack you have a set of rules and if you break those you will go before the Council. The Council presides over all the werewolf packs and deals with wolves who have broken the law, or situations that could impact one of the packs greatly.”

“So werewolves,” I breathed and Max nodded. “Werewolves,” I repeated, I felt tears start to well in my eyes. “I don’t know if I can deal with this right now.”

“Just wait until I’m done,” Max pleaded and Keith snickered. Max glared at him before turning back to me his expression pleading and I slowly nodded. I would stay to hear the end of the story. “So the Council presides over all of the werewolf packs. There are fifteen members on the Council. But the Council isn’t important. The Alpha is the leader of an individual pack and my father is the Alpha, when he dies I will inherit the position. But an Alpha can’t rule without a Luna. A Luna is the alpha female of the pack and if I haven’t found my mate by the time I have graduated school I’m supposed to go on a journey around the world trying to replace her. If by the time I am twenty-four and I still haven’t found her then I am to return to the pack and rule by myself.”

I was about to ask why this was important until Max hurried on, “I know this doesn’t seem important but it is. You are my mate. My Luna...Well my future Luna.” At that I nearly stopped breathing. He was a werewolf, and while I didn’t completely believe him the werewolf lore that I had read made werewolves seem a lot more real. But I needed proof.

At that moment Hadley came back with our food and my mouth watered at the sight of the bacon cheeseburger. I immediately dug into the food and after she left I paused to ask if she was a werewolf. To my surprise, Max nodded.

“I thought werewolves were supposed to have perfect eyesight, perfect hearing, perfect everything,” I commented and Rhea smiled sadly.

“Hadley...Hadley is a special case. There was an accident with a coven of vampires a few years ago and Hadley got hurt really bad. They weren’t sure if she was going to wake up and when they did they were surprised, but Hadley’s eyesight wasn’t as good anymore. So she had to start wearing glasses,” Rhea murmured, scratching at her arm before digging back into her Blueberry Brigade.

We finished eating in silence. Max paid for the bill, which I thought was really nice. We all stood and before we exited the restaurant I stopped them.

“I can’t deal with this whole werewolf thing right now,” I admitted, “Not when I am trying to figure out what my parents are hiding from me. Not to mention this whole werewolf thing is pretty unbelievable, and...and it’s so strange and I...I just can’t deal with it right now.”

Max’s eyes turned sad, “Trinity...”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I just can’t Max. I have a lot of stuff going on and I just don’t want to add on the whole you guys being werewolves to my life right now.”

“So what?” Rhea asked, “Do you want us to just suddenly avoid you? Or do you want to just pretend that we aren’t werewolves?” Her voice lowered as she said the rest of her sentence.

“I can’t just pretend that you guys aren’t werewolves and I don’t want you guys to avoid me but...” I shrugged, helplessly. I didn’t know what to do but I knew that I didn’t really want to be involved in this whole werewolf thing. Not yet. I felt tears welling up in my eyes and I squeezed them shut. I didn’t want them to see me cry. When I opened my eyes I saw the pained expression on Max’s face and I could guess that it wasn’t easy seeing his mate in crying and not being able to do anything about it, especially since he was partly the reason why I was crying.

“We’ll give you three weeks to sort this out Trinity,” Max finally said, “I can’t stay away from you any longer. Sort out what you need to in three weeks, and if you can’t then we can help you.”

I sniffled and wiped the tears off of my face, “I can’t just sort through it in three weeks, Max.”

He shrugged, “Trinity, I can’t stay away from you longer than three weeks. Even three weeks is pushing it,” His eyes flashed gold, “We still have to explain things to you and prove it. Three weeks.”

“Explain now and prove now, then give me three weeks,” I bargained, “I need three weeks or more to process and sort through stuff.”

Max sighed, closing his eyes. When he reopened them his eyes were his normal blue and I was about to ask him about it when he held up his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine,” he said, “Come with me. Rhea, Josh you come too. Keith get back to Raven.”

Keith nodded and jogged towards a silver Prius. I turned away from him and followed Max, Rhea and Josh into the woods. As we went further into the woods I felt nervousness start to creep up on me and I stopped in my tracks.

“I’m not going in any further, so explain now,” I demanded and Rhea looked around her eyes searching the trees.

“We are far enough away from human sight,” Rhea murmured and Max nodded.

“Shift,” He commanded.

I could practically taste the power in the air. Rhea’s eyes flashed silver for a brief moment and then blonde haired Rhea wasn’t there any longer. Instead, standing in the place of Rhea was a golden colored wolf, with Rhea’s green eyes.