CHAPTER 1
"What do you mean we're moving to Georgia?!" Mandy shrieked in utter surprise as she stared at her parents, her eyes darting from one to the other.
Gabi sighed, rubbing his forehead and took another sip from his cup of coffee. He sent a pleading look to his wife who was by the stove making their breakfast. Felicia saw the look and rolled her eyes before turning to their daughter. Gabi smiled in relief.
'You owe me big time, Gabi.' Felicia mind linked with him, her eyes still on their daughter.
'Oh, I have every intention of paying you back.' He replied, running his eyes over her body.
Felicia shook her head, a wry smile forming at her lips. Mandy stared at her impatiently.
"Listen honey, ever since your abilities were awoken recently, things have become different." Felicia lowered the stove a bit and clasped her hands together.
Mandy raised a questioning eyebrow.
"You're the first werewolf that didn't get the abilities until you turned sixteen." Felicia explained further. "It has never been heard of before. All wolves always have their abilities at birth. But since your case is different, we don't know what to expect. We don't know if your strength exceeds or subsides the generation before you. Then there is the incident you had in school, getting expelled…"
"It wasn't my fault, mum!" Mandy defended, her brown eyes glazing over in guilt as she tucked a strand of her similarly colored hair behind her ear. "That pervert had it coming, making lecherous comments like that. He should have kept his eyes somewhere else."
"You just proved my point." Felicia pinched the bridge of her nose, shutting her eyes tight. "Yes, I know how the male gender thinks sometimes. They have the tendency of doing so with their third leg every once in a while…"
Felicia paused as she saw the frown on Gabi's face at her comment. She winked at him discreetly.
"But bashing his head against a locker and sending him straight to the hospital wasn't really going to solve anything now, would it?" Felicia turned to her daughter.
"Sort of." Mandy retorted. "At least next time, he would watch his mouth."
"Mandy." Felicia admonished with a stern gaze. "My point is your actions was a result of the manifestation of your newly awoken abilities. What happened with that young man was a decision of the wolf in you."
'Well, she's not lying. That pig was lucky he even survived' Mandy's wolf piped within her.
'Not helping.' Mandy scolded.
"This decision is the best for you,. There are more of our kind in the city. Keep in the mind that we don't even have a pack yet. Our kind is scattered across the country and I feel this is an opportunity to form one." Felicia said.
"I also think we can get the opportunity to know more of your powers." Gabi finally spoke. "My brother has a friend who is a doctor. He can examine you and see if there may be anything we should be worried about."
Mandy said nothing for a while. She leaned from one foot to the other trying to process the whole thing.
Ever since she was born and her parents had put her on an orientation about her abilities, she had doubted them. She never showed any sign of being a werewolf much to their worry. She believed she was just like everyone else. But of recently when her powers awoke and the signs showed, her parents were overjoyed. But then came the sudden aggression and then a change in temper. All which finally led to an assault of a student in high school who 'looked at her the wrong way and put his foot in his mouth.' The principal didn't take kindly to it and had her expelled with immediate effect. It was safe to say Gabriel and Felicia White were far from pleased with the news.
"What about my friends? What about Nat?" Mandy asked, sending a pleading look to her parents. An attempt to make them reconsider.
"You can always communicate with her through cell phones." Gabi stared at his daughter like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Mandy sighed, hanging her head low and walked slowly out of the kitchen.
"Don't be so down, honey." Felicia called after her daughter as she disappeared around the corner. "I'm sure you'll like this new place… and the school too."
'Yeah, right.' Mandy thought, rolling her eyes , her wolf agreeing with her.
She trudged up the stairs straight to her room and flopped down on the bed with a long drawn out sigh. How did everything get so downhill so fast? Why did they have to move? Sure her mother had explained the whole thing but it still didn't make any sense to her. Either that or she just didn't want to listen. Her inner wolf was really doing everything to block out any form of listening and it took a great ounce of inner strength to placate it. The naughty canine had a strong mind of it's own.
She stared at her white cell phone on the bed. Picking it up, she contemplated on dialing Nat. If her childhood best friend was sad when she was expelled from school, she was going to be crushed when she would hear the recent news. Well, it was better late than never.
Mandy dialed her number and waited. After a few rings, an answering click was heard at the other end.
"Hey, girlfriend!" Nat's high pitched voice piped. "What's up? I really missed your feisty ass in school. It's just not the same anymore. How have you been?"
"Hey, Nat." Mandy's voice was low.
"Mandy?" Nat's voice dropped an octave, clearly hinting concern. "What's the matter? You don't sound like yourself."
"Nat, there's news."
"Good or bad?"
"Bad. Extremely bad."
There was a short pause on the other end. Mandy could hear the fast breathing of her friend. The tension was getting thinner.
"Is it connected with what happened at school?" Nat finally asked.
"Yeah." Mandy replied. "I'm moving."
"Like away from here?" Mandy could feel the shock in her friend's voice.
"Yeah." She replied.
"To where."
"Georgia."
"Why?"
Mandy paused. How could she tell her friend about her newly awoken abilities? There were obviously two problems with that.
One: As much as Mandy loved her friend to bits, Nat wasn't very good at keeping her mouth shut.
Two: Even if Nat did manage to keep it a secret, paranoia could eventually set in and drive a wedge between the two.
Mandy tugged at her hair in annoyance. This whole thing was so frustrating!
"My folks think a change of scenery may better suit me." She told the half-truth.
"I can't believe this." Nat sighed, her voice wavering. "It's not fair. Can't you convince them otherwise?"
"You know how my folks are when it comes to the final decisions." Mandy rolled her eyes. "Especially my mum."
"Gosh. This is the worst thing to ever happen to me." Nat nearly wailed.
"Come on, girl. Don't be like that. We can always communicate and video chat each other."
"Doesn't mean it's going to be the same."
"I know. I'll try to keep in touch. I'm so sorry, Nat."
"It's not your fault, girlfriend."
'Technically, it is.' Mandy's wolf grinned from within.
'And you're the saint here? You do realize this is partly your fault too.' Mandy growled. 'Keep up that yapping and I'll lay off meat for a month.'
Her wolf whined and became silent.
'Yeah. That's what I thought.' Mandy smirked.
"Mandy, are you there?" Nat's voice brought her back to reality.
"Oh.. Yeah..Yeah, I'm still here." She replied.
"I was saying that Alex is really going to pop a vein when he hears this. You know he has a thing for you." Nat said. Mandy could detect the smile in her voice.
"Well, sucks for him." Mandy grunted.
"Come on, girlfriend. I don't know why you always turn a blind eye to him."
"It's not that. Alex is real sweet and all but that's just it. I can only see him as a friend. I just don't see the both of us as a thing."
"Well, if you say so. I'm going to work on my project now. When are you moving?"
"Not sure. My folks haven't specified yet. But I know it's soon."
There was a long sigh at the other end.
"I'm just going to try and process this whole thing." Nat said. "I'll come around tomorrow after school."
"I'll be expecting you." Mandy replied.
"Bye, girlfriend. Take care."
"You too."
Mandy ended the call and tossed the phone aside.
"Mandy, dinner's ready!" She heard her mother call from the bottom of the stairs.
'Yes! Finally!" She could feel her wolf giddy.
Shaking her head, she rose from the bed and made her exit with the impending new adventure on her mind. For the first time in forever, the thought of bacon and sausages didn't appeal to her.