The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2 Read online

  I sat in one of the cheap plastic folding chairs that were in front of her desk and folded my hands in my lap. "Mrs. Walker, I don't mean to be rude, but why am I being sent to counseling?"

  Mrs. Walker leaned forward on her desk. "Don't think of it like that," she said eagerly. "I just wanted to have a casual chat with you, make sure everything at home is alright." I nodded. I guess with all the gossip that went on at this school, I should have expected some kind of intervention from the teachers. After all, humans considered it odd for a young female to live with a group of males that were not relatives.

  "Everything at home is fine," I told her confidently.

  She picked up a pen, and rustled through the mess on her desk before triumphantly pulling out a dog-eared notebook. "But you have some unusual living arrangements?"

  "Yes." I decided that short and sweet responses to direct questions would be the best strategy here.

  "And you live with...?" Mrs. Walker looked at me expectantly.

  "Friends," I said shortly.

  Mrs. Walker tapped the pen on the notebook. "How is that working out for

  you?"

  "Good." I met her stare with a sweet smile.

  She leaned back in her chair. "Lori, I have to be honest. I have some concerns about a young girl moving in with a group of men. It's my responsibility to make sure you have a safe place to live."

  "I do," I told her confidently. "I understand that you want to check up on my living situation because it's unusual for a high school student. But I'm eighteen and happy where I am."

  Mrs. Walker narrowed her eyes at me, her bubbly attitude fading. "I think we should have weekly chats."

  "I can't afford to miss classes," I objected. "I don't want to fall behind in my studies."

  "Lunch-time is fine," she said with a smile. "Pack your lunch on every other Tuesday and plan to be here. Now, we still have another thirty minutes to go. Why don't you tell me how you came to Hollow Crest?"

  I sighed. The lamia had provided plenty of paperwork to satisfy the school enough to let me enroll here. But the guys and I had been planning on avoiding any in-depth conversations about my past. I'm not sure if my fake past could hold up to much scrutiny. But if I avoided Mrs. Walker's questions it would just make her more curious and lead to her looking even more into my past.

  I steeled myself for what I had to do. I let out a small sniffle to set the tone. "It's because my mother died," I said in a soft voice. I tried to put my best 'vulnerable orphan' face.

  Mrs. Walker leaned forward in interest. "I'm sorry to hear that."

  I nodded sadly. "I was completely alone."

  "And that's when you met those men?" I didn't like the tone of accusation that Mrs. Walker had in her voice. Maybe this hadn't been the best idea? How could I get her off this tangent of thinking the guys were taking advantage of me?

  I shook my head. "No." I leaned forward as if I were taking her in my confidence. "Mrs. Walker, to be honest, I haven't really been able to open up to anyone since my mom died." I let one big tear fall out of my eye and brushed it away as if I were embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Walker. Do you have a tissue?"

  "Of course, dear." She looked through her desk drawers and eventually found a small packet of tissues. "Here you go."

  I took the tissues gratefully and made a show of taking one out and blowing

  my nose. "This is really difficult for me to even think about." I really wasn't lying here. I had made it through the past few weeks by living in denial and trying not to think about the events that had landed me in this town. A wave of grief flooded through me and I no longer had to fake my misty tears - they were real.

  This wasn’t good. The plan had been to distract her, not to set myself up for a mental breakdown in the middle of the school day.

  I dabbed my eyes with the tissue, buying myself a couple more moments to think of how I could best handle this situation. I decided to just be blunt. “Mrs. Walker, I know I seem young, but I know a bad guy when I meet one. Kannon and the others are definitely not bad guys.” I cleared my throat and tried not to think about Mr. Reaven. This wasn’t the time or place for accusations like that, it would just make my life more difficult.

  Mrs. Walker looked at me doubtfully so I continued. “I’m in a vulnerable place right now and I fully recognize that. I’m a young girl without parents, trying to get through high school so I can get scholarships to go to college. I know that you have my best interests at heart and want to help me reach my goals.” She brightened up at that statement so I decided to focus on that.

  “I would really appreciate your help and guidance in navigating through my last year of high school in a new town and I hope we can talk about my college prospects in our meetings.”

  Mrs. Walker nodded. “Of course. I have quite a few brochures and your grades are good enough to get your application into a good portion of colleges. Have you taken your SATs yet?”

  I shook my head. “I was hoping to take them this fall.”

  “We can definitely schedule that for you,” Mrs. Walker said with a smile that slowly dimmed with worry. “But how are you planning on paying for SATs and college applications?” I could see the wheels turning in her mind and I was grateful she stopped there. This had just brought us back into a full circle of why I was living with the guys and I didn’t want her thinking the worst.

  “If you read through my transcripts, you can see that I completed a summer program at Hollow Crest University. One of the professors there has given me a job as a lab assistant. It pays enough to cover my living expenses and should look good on a college application, right?”

  Mrs. Walker nodded with relief. “I’m glad to hear you have a way to pay for…your living situation. But-”

  I tried not to grit my teeth. She was really not willing to let this go. I didn’t blame her, she was a good teacher if she really cared this much about one of her students. “Mrs. Walker, I promise you that if I ever feel uncomfortable or unsafe with where I am living or who I am living with that I will come to you. I know now that I can trust you.” I gave her a small smile. “Kannon and I are dating. And I’m sure that you already know that Grayson is Kannon’s guardian.”

  Mrs. Walker gave me a nod so I kept talking. “I promise you that Grayson takes that responsibility very seriously.” I hated what I was about to say next because I definitely did not think of Gray like a parent. “Grayson agreed to let me live with them, but he has just as many rules as any other parent here. He genuinely cares about Kannon and me - and he wants to see both of us succeed at our goals.”

  I held Mrs. Walker’s gaze and I could feel her wavering. “Well, maybe I should meet with him. He seems young to care for a couple of teenagers.”

  “I’m sure he would be happy to meet with you,” I said with a smile while my stomach sank. I was trying to get the guys to see me as an equal. The last thing I wanted was to have Gray in here pretending to be like a surrogate father to me. I didn’t want him to see me as a pup in need of guidance, I wanted him to see me as a woman and as a full-grown wolf capable of making her own decisions. “But does it have to be during the school day? You know that he just opened Four Guys Auto.”

  Mrs. Walker brightened. “Of course, I planned on going there next month for my oil change.” She tapped her pen on her notebook that she still hadn’t written anything in. “Why don’t we meet at the pep rally? He can stop by my office before all the fun starts.”

  I stared at her blankly. What pep rally?

  Mrs. Walker tittered. “It’s easy to see you aren’t from here.” She sighed. “Every year the whole town shuts down for the first football home game of the season. Everyone will be here at the school for the celebration. Most people make a day out of it, so he should plan on closing his shop that day anyway.”

  “Okay, I guess I’ll let him know,” I said hesitantly.

  “You and Kannon will be expected to participate as part of the cross-country team,” Mrs. Walker said brightly.
“All of our young athletes are celebrated, not just the football team.”

  “Awesome,” I said faintly. I was liking the sound of this less and less.

  “I’ll call over to the shop during lunchtime and have a word with young Mr. Grayson,” Mrs. Walker announced.

  The bell rang and I stood in a hurry. “Thanks, Mrs. Walker. I don’t want to be late for my next class.”

  She waved me away and I slunk out into the hallway as students poured out of the classrooms and headed for their lockers. I was not looking forward to this at all. It didn’t occur to me to ask when this pep rally was happening until I was already at my locker.

  Oh, well. I’m sure if it was as big of a deal as she made it out to be then it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.

  Chapter 5

  Lori

  I stretched my arms over my head but closed my eyes against the bright sun. After a long school day trapped inside, I was happy to be outdoors. I was even happier to be able to run out some of my frustration from the day. Kannon was standing close to me, but my other new teammates had separated into two groups: male and female. From what I understood, we were going to have the same coach and the same practices so it shouldn't matter.

  A heavyset man with a red face walked out to the field to join us. He blew his whistle and unnecessarily waved to get our attention, his shirt riding up to reveal a very large potbelly. I looked at our coach skeptically, he didn't look like he would be able to run long distances.

  "Gather round!" he shouted. "For those of you who don't know me-" he shot a glance at me and Kannon. "I'm Coach Rigsby. For those of you that do, know that we will be taking training very seriously from here on out." He ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Since the school insists on keeping this club running," he mumbled to himself.

  I sighed. Great. It figures that the one club I decide to join had a coach that didn't want to be here. Coach Rigsby rambled on about the rules, not missing practices, keeping our race uniforms clean, blah, blah, blah. I tuned out after a couple minutes and looked around at our teammates.

  Carolyn hadn’t been exaggerating when she said they needed people to keep the team going. Other than me, her, and Brianna there were only two other girls. I didn’t recognize either of them, so they were probably freshman or sophomores. There were six guys in addition to Kannon and I recognized two of them from my classes. Thirteen people definitely seemed small for a sports team.

  I had thought cross country would be more action and less talking. Our coach was really disappointing me right now. Finally, after about twenty minutes he looked like his monologue was close to the end. "Any questions?" he asked the team.

  Everyone just stared at him, probably just as bored as I was. "Then let's get moving!" he shouted. "Will and Sam, lead the way through the path. Newbies, try to keep up."

  Two of the guys started off to the woods in a light jog as the rest of us followed behind them. I was pleased to find that I could easily keep up with the group, but not so pleased with how close we all were. I dropped to the back of the pack on purpose. Kannon looked at me in question and started to slow. I shook my head at him. "I just need some breathing room, I'll catch up," I told him with the pack bond.

  He gave me a nod and picked up his speed again. From the brief touch of his mind, I could tell that he was enjoying the run and wanted to compete with the rest of the team. I bent down to tie my shoe and give the others time to get ahead of me. I'd rather run by myself.

  I got back up to my feet slowly and waited another minute before I started running again. That should be enough to let them get far enough ahead of me that I could get some solitude, but not too far that they would think I sucked at this and shouldn’t be on the team.

  I looked around the path as I ran. It was a well-worn dirt path that several people could run side by side for the most part. There were some sections where it narrowed to where two people might have to get uncomfortably close, but those were few and far between. Sun glinted through the bright green foliage and I took a deep breath of forest air. The path that we were running was in the back of the school and went around a small body of water that was completely fenced in, probably to keep students from drowning themselves.

  I could hear the faint sounds of the other students not far ahead of me on the path we were running, but for the most part, it was quiet. I was enjoying the scents of nature and the feeling of running free until the faint scent that floated to me on the breeze made me stop still in my tracks.

  I knew that scent.

  I had grown up in fear of that scent. I breathed in deeper because it just wasn't possible. There was no way my pack master could have survived a shot to the chest, right?

  My mind flew back to that night. My mother's body was the only one that I had really cared about. I had just assumed the rest of them were dead like her.

  My heart pounded and I tried to push away the panic that was rising inside of me. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my shorts and took a step closer to the forest, a step closer to the scent of my dead pack master. Should I investigate further? Should I try to track him down?

  A part of me wanted vengeance. He was the reason that my mother was dead. If he had just let us go then my mother and I would be living happily somewhere together. But my instincts were screaming at me to run. Even if I did track the elusive scent through the woods and found him, what was I going to do? He could use his power to bend me to his will. I didn't trust that the lamia had truly bargained for my freedom, not if my pack master was still alive.

  The scent that had been carried to me on the breeze disappeared again as the direction of the wind changed. I was still frozen in place, unsure of what action I should take. I heard the purr of an engine coming down the path towards me and I bolted. I hated myself at that moment, hated that I was weak, hated that I was running. But my fear was just too strong. Relief filled me when a golf cart carrying Coach Rigsby came into sight. I guess I was right that he wasn't a long distance runner. "Fell behind, Lori?" he called to me.

  "I had to tie my shoe," I told him defensively. He gave me a doubtful look until he looked down at my shoes, then it changed to pity. “Running shoes are a must in this sport, you risk getting injured without appropriate footwear.” I shifted uncomfortably in my converse shoes. "Try to catch up with the others, if I don't see you in five minutes I'll be back for you." He zoomed ahead of me and I picked up the pace. There was no way that I wanted the reputation as the slow one on the team. Once my fear had subsided I started to question myself. I hadn't been sleeping well because of nightmares, could I have imagined the scent? Had this been some kind of a waking nightmare brought on by stress?

  The lamia had said that my former pack had been absorbed into Stone Creek

  Pack and had agreed to let me go. I didn't think that Baracus would have allowed that if he were alive. And wolves healed fast, but healing from a gunshot wound to the chest? Without any immediate medical attention? The more I thought about it, the more I thought it had been my tired brain having a waking nightmare. It had been so brief and so faint that I had barely caught it. I would come back later and look for the scent again.

  I caught up to the other girls on the team before Coach had to come back looking for me again, but Kannon and the guys were too far ahead of us for me to see them. After my panic attack, I was more than happy to just keep pace with the girls for now. But after listening to some snide remarks from Brianna about how I fell behind, I started to consider taking this more seriously. How satisfying would it be to beat her at her own sport?

  The team was mostly quiet while we finished our run and then stretched, which was fine with me. Coach kept shouting things that I guess he thought would be motivational. But calling us lazy fat kids probably wouldn’t make us run any faster. Humans were weird sometimes. After Coach felt like he had threatened us enough with extra exercise if we were late to the next practice, he dismissed us to our respective locker rooms to change.

  Kannon had wai
ted for me outside the girls’ locker room and I greeted him with a nervous smile. I was still anxious after what I had found in the woods, but I wanted to wait until we were alone before I told him about it.

  Unfortunately for me, Kannon was a little too perceptive of my mood and gave me a worried look. "Are you okay?" he murmured.

  I pasted a bright smile on my face and hoped it didn't look too fake. "Yeah, but we need to talk when we get home."

  If anything, Kannon just looked more worried. A couple of girls pushed out of the locker room behind us, so I took Kannon's hand and tugged him in the direction of the door. He followed with a grin and the tension between us eased. I tried to keep the conversation light as we walked back home, but the shadow in Kannon's eyes told me that he hadn't forgotten.

  Wyatt was the first to greet us as we walked into the front office. "Glad you guys are here." He wrinkled his nose. "You couldn't shower after practice?"

  Kannon nudged me. "Go ahead upstairs. The guys are used to my stink and I'm going to need a shower after working in the garage anyway." I chuckled and ran up the stairs before he could change his mind. Now that we were back in air conditioning I felt really gross. Knowing the guys were all occupied downstairs made me tempted to take a leisurely shower, but I felt too guilty about leaving them all the work down in the shop.

  Even after living here for weeks, I still wasn't comfortable with the bathroom situation. Because this was an old firehouse, there were bathroom stalls that contained the toilets, but the showers were completely open. There was a circular formation of five showerheads in the center of a large room, similar to an old school locker room. I didn't like being naked and exposed in the large room, especially since anyone could walk in. The guys had been very careful to be respectful of my privacy, so I didn't really have anything to worry about. At least, that's what I kept telling myself.

  I stripped down and left my sweaty clothes in a pile on the floor - I'd come back for those later. I turned on the water but jumped back to avoid the cold spray. The pipes were old and it took forever for the water to get hot. I stuck my pinky out to test the water but kept my other arm wrapped around my body. Goosebumps pebbled on my flesh and I stepped into the stream of warm water with relief.