Claiming My Wolf

9 - Siren

~~Ava's PoV~~

I do my best to usher Sadie into school the next morning without running into Micah again. I don't know exactly what his problem is, but if anyone's going to blow the secret before my mom talks to Sadie, it's going to be him, so it's better if we just stay away from him entirely.

I walk Sadie to her homeroom and then go across the hall into mine. My crush Jordan is in my homeroom too, and he smiles and says hi to me as I come in, which makes my stomach flutter, but then he turns back to his conversation with Adam like I'm not even there. With a sigh, I drop into my desk.

Just a few more days, I remind myself. Then it'll be my birthday and I can find out who my mate is, assuming he's in our pack at all. Maybe he's not. Maybe he's even human, like Sadie's dad. It's impossible to guess what the moon goddess has planned, but I offer up a silent prayer anyway, asking her to at least think about making Jordan my mate if she hasn't already decided who it will be.

The morning goes quickly and soon we're all back in the cafeteria for lunch. Sadie has a scowl on her face when she comes in, and I rush up to her. “What's wrong?”

“What are the rules on violence at this school?” she asks in reply, not answering my question. “How much trouble am I going to get in if I sucker punch someone?”

“Someone named Micah?” I guess. I know he's in her homeroom, but I hoped he'd behave during class at least.

“No one in particular. Just hypothetically,” she says, smiling a little to tell me that it's not hypothetical at all.

“Trust me, there are way more fun ways to get in trouble than wasting your energy on Micah,” I assure her. “Let's go grab some lunch.”

We get our food and head to our table to sit down, but as we get close, my steps slow in shock.

Logan is sitting at our table.

He's looking at his phone, like usual, but he's actually sitting with us, not on his own like he has every other day this year. I shoot Aaron a look that says 'what the hell?' and he just shrugs back at me, as confused as I am. 

Does it have something to do with Sadie? It's the only thing I can think of that's different about today from every other day this year.

I'm just about to suggest to Sadie that she take the seat next to Logan when suddenly Micah swoops in out of nowhere and drops into that seat.

“Hey, Logan,” he says, ignoring the rest of us as Sadie and I sit down on the other side of the table instead.

Logan looks up from his phone and his eyes sweep the table, resting on Sadie for just a second longer than everyone else, before he turns back to Micah. “Hey.”

It's just one word, but the rest of us are stunned into silence. Logan's actually interacting with us? This is so weird.

“My dad said the Alpha's going to Northaven today,” Micah says, eagerly jumping on the opening Logan's given him. “What's going on over there?”

Everyone else is quiet, waiting for Logan's reply, but Sadie leans over and whispers to me. “What's an Alpha?”

Although it was a whisper, Logan clearly hears it because he glances over at Sadie for a second before turning back to Micah with a frown. “You really can't follow one simple instruction?”

Micah gives him a confused look. “What instruction?”

Logan sighs in frustration. “Never mind.”

He stands up from the table like he's going to leave, but then a loud siren rings out and everyone in the cafeteria suddenly goes completely still.

Sadie looks over at me in confusion. “What is that? Fire alarm?”

“Not exactly,” I mumble, looking to Aaron for help. What am I supposed to tell her?

The alarm means another pack's wolves have entered our territory. The adult wolves all get alerted through mind-link, but for the school they use the siren. We all know what to do, we're supposed to go back to our homerooms and the teachers will lock down the school and shift to protect us.

Micah's words when we ran into him last night come back to me. What're you going to do if there's an attack? I glance at him now, wondering if he did this somehow just to mess with Sadie, but I quickly dismiss the thought. Not even he would be that petty. You don't mess around with things like this.

“Everybody move!” Logan's voice suddenly rings out across the cafeteria and everyone who had been frozen in place springs into action at the authority in his voice. His eyes are full of concern as he looks over at me and Sadie. “Ava, take Sadie to the principal's office. I'll make sure everyone else gets where they need to be.”

It's the first time I've seen even a glimpse of the old Logan in so long, I'm stunned into silence. When I don't answer, he narrows his eyes at me.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Sorry, sir,” I reply, deferring to him as I'm trained to do in moments like this.

I take Sadie's arm and pull her through the busy halls, everyone returning to their homerooms, doors being slammed and locked behind them.

There's no one in the principal's office when we get there, as Logan must have realized. The principal and other admin staff will be out patrolling the perimeter, protecting the students, in their wolf forms.

We go into the empty office and I close and lock the door behind us.

“What's going on, Ava?” Sadie asks, sounding nervous. I can't imagine what she's thinking.

I scramble for the nearest equivalent thing I can think of from the human world. “There might be an active shooter,” I say. “We're locking down.”

Understanding immediately crosses over Sadie's face, along with a twinge of fear. “Oh. I guess I didn't expect that here, Westbridge seems so safe.”

“It usually is,” I try to reassure her. “Hopefully it's just a false alarm.”

Sadie looks around the room. “Why did we come in here? Where did everyone else go?”

That's a harder question to answer, but I do the best I can. “You haven't done the lockdown drills yet, so Logan probably thought it was safer for us to come here.”

Sadie nods, but then another look of confusion clouds her face. “Why did you call him 'sir'?”

I wish I didn't have to keep lying, but it's too late to turn back now. “He's kind of in charge when this sort of thing happens. Let's just get down behind the desk here and keep quiet, okay?”

She nods again and we both go and sit behind the principal's desk, waiting for the all clear signal.

For a while, all we hear is the ticking of the clock, marking the seconds as they go by, but then another sound reaches my ears, and my blood immediately runs cold.

“Ava?” Sadie whispers nervously to me. “Do you hear that?”

I nod, unable to meet her eye, as I bring my finger to my lips, giving her the signal to stay quiet.

Then we hear it again, louder and right outside the door.

The unmistakeable growl of a wolf.