The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2 Read online

  Brianna and Carolyn both gave me weird looks.

  "She broke it the other day," Kannon chimed in. "It's taking forever to get the new one in the mail."

  Carolyn gave me a sympathetic look. "That sucks, I don't think I could make it even a day without my phone."

  I shrugged. "Yeah, it's tough." It wasn’t, considering I’d never had my own phone. My old pack didn’t see any reason to provide females with phones. But I wanted to blend in with the humans here and Kannon had already given me a perfect excuse. I handed the clipboard over to Kannon. “When do practices start?”

  “The rest of the team has already been practicing for two weeks now,” Brianna told me snidely.

  “But you and Kannon can start tomorrow,” Carolyn interrupted with a smile. “We’re hoping to get at least two more people signed up today, so you won’t be alone.”

  “Cool,” Kannon said with a grin. “What kind of gear do we need?”

  “Just sneakers and workout clothes for now,” Brianna told him sweetly. “We’ll go as a team to get our race shoes and uniforms next weekend.” Could Brianna make it any more obvious that she liked Kannon and hated me? What a bitch.

  “Here’s some consent forms for your parents to sign. And we have a schedule for practices and meets.” Carolyn handed us a couple of papers. I just took mine and didn’t say anything. The last thing I wanted to do was announce I didn’t have a parent to sign my form like everyone else. “And there’s a fifty dollar club fee that you can pay tomorrow. We also get a huge discount on our uniforms when we all go to Dushard’s together to get our shoes and stuff.”

  I nodded along. It was a good thing that I had negotiated with the college for a paycheck. It sounded like cross country could get expensive.

  “So we’ll see you after school tomorrow?” Carolyn asked. “Coach wants everyone to meet outside near the trail to go over the rules and everything before we start to practice.”

  “We’ll be there,” Kannon said with a grin.

  “Fantastic!” Carolyn said with a bright smile. “It’s going to be nice to have new faces there.”

  Brianna simpered at Kannon. “I have a feeling this might be our best year yet.”

  Carolyn met my gaze and deliberately rolled her eyes behind Brianna’s back. I smiled over Brianna’s shoulder at her and she gave me a small wave before approaching another group of students. For the first time today I started to feel some hope. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad.

  Chapter 3

  Lori

  Kannon and I walked the mile back home underneath the warm sun. The heat of the summer sun hadn’t started to fade to the cooler weather of fall yet, but there was a breeze today. I shifted the straps of my backpack to get more comfortable and glanced over at him. “What do you think Lynn was trying to warn us about?”

  Kannon shrugged but I could see the frown on his face. “Didn’t you say the girls were less than welcoming to you? Maybe she meant that it’s difficult for newbies like us to blend in.”

  “Hmmm, maybe. I can’t help worry that it’s something more serious though.” I chewed on my lower lip as I tried to think of what might cause Lynn to tell us to get out of town. She was human, so she had no idea that the college nearby was full of lamia and witches.

  Kannon stopped walking and grabbed a hold of my hands so that we were facing each other. “No matter what it is, Lori, you won’t be facing it alone. I’ll be right there with you and I’ll keep you safe.”

  My heart warmed and I couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across my face. “And I’ll keep you safe,” I murmured softly.

  The serious look in Kannon’s eyes faded and he flashed a grin at me. “I’m glad I have you to watch my back.”

  “Always.” My heart felt lighter as we started walking again. Soon, we were home again. Home. It was strange to think that my entire life had been completely different a few months ago. I had been living with the pack that I had grown up with, dreading the day that I would turn eighteen and be considered ‘mating’ age. I had lost my mother and been thrown into a completely new world.

  But as terrible as parts of the journey had been, I was grateful that it had landed me here in the end. I had found a group of wolves that were kind, honorable, and hard-working. They had been banished from their last pack because they disagreed with the brutal leadership they were forced to live under after their original pack had been subjugated by a rival pack. The lamia had agreed to let them live here in Hollow Crest in return for being part-time lab rats for the college. I was still learning what that entailed after signing my own agreement.

  Kannon opened the door to the old firehouse and I stepped through after thanking him. That was something that I still wasn’t used to. Kannon and the other guys treated me with respect and saw me as an equal, whereas my last pack had treated females like slaves. Opening the door for a female would have been seen as weakness and severely punished by the pack master and his cronies. I was incredibly lucky to have met the guys here and escaped from a life with my old pack.

  Kannon and I set down our bags and headed out to the garage to check on the other guys. Grayson looked up from the car he was working on and gave us each a nod in greeting. Grayson was the oldest among us and was our pack master – well, kind of. I had to force my eyes away from the way that his tank top showed off his muscular arms and clung to his chiseled abs. He brushed his dark hair back before focusing again on what he was doing to the engine.

  I knew very little about cars. I knew that they had engines, but anything beyond that? Nope. I left that side of the business to the guys and instead focused on the area that they could use more help– customer service. I wanted to make this a comfortable and welcoming place where the residents of Hollow Crest wouldn’t mind spending some time while their cars were being worked on. So far, it seemed like our female customers were enjoying the comfortable waiting room I had insisted on. And Gus definitely wasn’t offering his customers free coffee and bottled water while they waited. We needed every advantage we could get over our competition.

  Corey gave us a grunt of acknowledgment from where he was digging through a drawer of tools. He was the rebel of the group as evidenced by his faux hawk, piercings, and all black clothes. Corey liked to pretend that he was an asshole, but I had seen glimpses of what lay beneath his hard exterior. He had been the least welcoming so far, but I was determined to win him over.

  Kannon stayed in the garage to help out while I walked further into the office area that the guys had built. Wyatt greeted me with a relieved smile. “Hey, Lori. I’m glad you’re here. Any chance you could get started on this paperwork?”

  I nodded and started gathering up the papers from the messy desk. Wyatt and Corey were twins, but they couldn’t be less alike. Wyatt was the businessman of the group and managed all of our finances. His khakis and polo shirt were pressed and his hair neatly combed in a side part, making him look the part of a young entrepreneur. He did share the same face, dark hair and grey eyes of his brother, but no one would ever have a difficult time telling them apart.

  “How’s it going today?” I asked curiously. We had just opened the shop a week ago and had been slammed with business. The only other mechanic shop in town belonged to Gus, a man of questionable integrity. There were quite a few people in the town who were more than happy to have an alternative to Gus and a lot of them had shown up this week to check out what we could offer them. We were banking on differentiating ourselves by proving to our customers that we were honest, hard-working, and could provide reliable and expedient service.

  “Still busy,” Wyatt said happily. “I’ve been focused on keeping the customers moving in and out, so things have kind of piled up.” He grimaced when he looked around at the messy office. Wyatt liked to have everything in its place and hated disorganization.

  “I got this,” I told him confidently. “Go schmooze the customers and I’ll have all of this filed before you know it.” I needed a break from people after the d
ay I had at school, otherwise I would have volunteered to go out in the waiting room with him.

  Wyatt hesitated and searched my eyes. “I should have asked how your first day at school was.”

  I gave him a bright smile. “It was high school.”

  He grimaced. “Right. I don’t envy you there.”

  I shooed him towards the door, regretting reminding him that I was just a high school kid. Wyatt had been warming up to me as we worked together on business and marketing plans but always took a step back when he was reminded of my age. He was only a couple years older than me, but he seemed to think it was an insurmountable gap.

  While Wyatt headed out to the waiting room, I gathered up all the receipts, invoices, and order forms that were scattered around the office and filed them where they needed to go. It was at least an hour until I had the office straight. I still wasn’t ready for customer interaction so I headed back into the garage. Kannon had disappeared, but I could smell the faint scents that drifted from the door that led into the kitchen telling me that Kannon had started making dinner. Corey was in the corner putting away tools, but Gray had just slammed the hood of a car closed and started rubbing his lower back as he stood up straight.

  “Was that the last one?” I asked hopefully.

  “Yeah,” Gray confirmed with a wince. “And I am more than ready to be done.” He turned to Corey. “Would you mind taking the last car out front? Wyatt will handle all of the paperwork.”

  Corey gave a mock salute but climbed in the driver’s side and started the car. “Is your back bothering you?” I asked Grayson.

  He shrugged, but I knew it would take a lot to make Mr. Tough Guy wince like that. “It’s just from leaning over the cars all day,” he grumbled. “I’ll be fine by the morning.”

  “Let me see,” I suggested. Grayson’s eyes widened a little in surprise but he turned around so that I could examine him. “The muscles are probably strained,” I murmured. “It might help if I rubbed them.”

  Gray grunted in acknowledgment and took off his shirt. His body was a work of art and it was difficult not to admire it. He was the first one up in the mornings before the sun had even risen to work out before the day started. I knew that he had a past with MMA fighting that kept him fit and toned, but I had never gotten to see him in action. The guys had dropped hints that Gray had been expected to fight at the college as part of the training program for the lamia, but I hadn’t witnessed any of that yet. I had the suspicion that Dr. Green was easing me into the program slowly, but that he would soon be asking more of me.

  I ran my hands along his spine and his muscles tensed. I kept my touch light to give him a chance to get used to the feel of my hands on him. Once I felt him start to relax I used my hands to push upward from the base of his spine and then gently sliding them back down along his sides. He let out a breath and I took that as a sign to go further. I pressed my thumbs gently down in the center of the lowest part of Gray’s back and moved them in circular motions out towards his sides and then up towards the center of his back.

  Gray grunted as I worked out one of the knots in his back. “This would probably work better if you were lying down,” I suggested. Grayson jerked away and disappointment flooded through me when I realized I had just ruined the moment.

  “Thanks, Lori,” Grayson grumbled in his low voice. “But I think I’m good.” He pulled his shirt back on and I gave a sad sigh. If it had been any other girl standing here, would he have wanted her to stop? Or was it just me that he didn’t want to touch him?

  Kannon opened the door that led into the kitchen from the garage and stuck his head out. “Dinner’s on the table in about ten minutes!”

  “Thanks, Kannon,” I called cheerfully in response.

  Grayson avoided my eyes as he walked towards the front of the shop. “I’ll get the other guys and meet you inside.”

  “Sounds good,” I murmured to his back as he walked away from me. “See you in a few.”

  Chapter 4

  Lori

  I yawned as I sat in French class the next day. Last night I had helped Wyatt enter numbers into our accounting software to keep on top of our profit/loss ratio. We were still working out the growing pains of a new business and trying to figure out how much of everything we needed to keep on hand. Supplies were much cheaper if we could predict how much of everything we needed ahead of time and purchase in bulk.

  But there was no way we were going to turn away customers by being unprepared. This week we had special ordered some stuff with overnight shipping in order to take care of our customers quickly. We only had one chance at a first impression with new customers and didn’t want to disappoint. But having excellent service was turning out to be more costly than we thought it would be. Overnight shipping rates were insanely high. But we were learning as we went along. None of us had ever run a mechanic shop before and there were no second chances if we failed.

  I was lucky that Mrs. Gonzalez was going over a lesson that I already knew pretty well. I felt my eyes start to drift closed when she clapped loudly. “Maintenant, continuons à nous entraîner.”

  The entire class groaned and started turning their desks to work in pairs. It didn’t take me long to realize that they were all used to this part of the lesson. Mrs. Gonazalez wanted us to practice what she had just taught us in pairs. I kept my head down, realizing that no one was going to want to work with me. Could I get away with hiding in a corner somewhere?

  “Hey, you got a partner yet?” I looked up in surprise to see Noah smiling down at me.

  “Um, no, have a seat.” I pointed to the empty desk beside mine.

  “Cool.” He moved the desk closer so that we could work together without shouting over the noise of the classroom. “I was hoping to get to work with the best student in here.” He shot me a smile that made me blush.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” I told him in embarrassment.

  Noah grinned and I could see a couple of girls shooting me envious looks from around the room. “My dad is taking my family to Europe over winter break, and I plan on telling everyone that I’m Canadian.”

  I laughed out loud. “Not all Canadians speak French.”

  “The only part of Canada I’ve ever been to is Quebec. I gotta make this believable. I already ordered a ton of Canadian flag stickers and patches to put all over my luggage and backpack,” he told me with a teasing twinkle in his eye.

  I giggled at the mental image of Noah covered in Canadian flags. “Have you already informed the rest of your family that you’re Canadian? People are going to be suspicious if your parents and siblings are American.”

  He shrugged. “I’m an only child. And my parents prefer to forget they have a kid when they’re on vacation so I’ll be on my own most of the time.”

  “That kind of sucks,” I said sadly. I would have loved to go to Europe with my mom. We would have had so much fun exploring that part of the world and immersing ourselves in a new culture. And the food!

  There was so much that I would never get to do with my mom and I felt the ache of emptiness inside of me. It was terrible that she had lost her life when we were so close to freedom. It was so unfair that she had struggled under oppression her whole life and never got to experience what it meant to be truly free to choose her own path. Sadness flooded through me and I blinked at the tears that had started to form in my eyes.

  “It’s not that bad,” Noah said with concern shining in his eyes. “I’m used to it and I’m sure a Canadian like myself won’t struggle too much to make friends.”

  I smiled at his attempt at humor. “Let’s practice then. I want to hear your best attempt at a French Canadian accent.”

  “You got it.” Noah grinned at me and opened his notebook.

  Noah had me giggling at his over-the-top and ridiculous attempts to sound Canadian instead of American so I didn’t notice Mrs. Gonzalez approaching until she was right in front of us. “Lori, I just got a note that you’re needed in the school coun
selor’s office,” she told me in a soft voice.

  I looked up at her in surprise. “Am I in trouble?” I hadn’t broken any rules since I started school here. Well, except maybe holding Kannon’s hand in the hallway where teachers could see. But did hand-holding really violate the no PDA rule?

  “No,” Mrs. Gonzalez answered with a smile. “If you were in trouble, you would be headed to the principal’s office. The counselor probably just wants to make sure you’re fitting in here since you’re a new student. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Okay.” I closed my notebook and gathered up my stuff since I wasn’t sure if I would be coming back to class.

  “I could show her where the office is, Mrs. Gonzalez,” Noah offered with a sweet smile.

  “I don’t think so,” Mrs. Gonzalez answered suspiciously. “You’re going to stay here and be my partner for the rest of class. I’ve known you for almost four years now so I know better than to trust you with the new girl.”

  I raised an eyebrow at Noah. Was I not the only one here with a slutty reputation? Noah did his best to look angelic and innocent as I stood and Mrs. Gonzalez took my place. “The office you want is on the first floor, Lori,” she said kindly. “It’s right next to the main office where the secretary sits.”

  I nodded, remembering that the secretary was the one who had given me my schedule before school had started. A couple of students watched me curiously as I walked out of class early, but I did my best to ignore them. It wasn’t difficult to find the office I was looking for and once again I was very grateful for just how small this school was.

  I knocked on the door to the office cautiously. "Come in!" a feminine voice called from within. I opened the door to reveal a frizzy-haired woman sitting behind a messy desk piled high with books and papers. "You must be Lori!" she called out cheerfully. "Come in, have a seat. I'm Mrs. Walker."