The Bonfire 1

I ate a lot of ice cream last night, a whole bowl of it. And while I don't regret it, considering it was delicious, I do convince myself to go for a run as soon as I wake up. This way I can burn some of the calories I ingested while trying to eat my sadness away.

Besides, it gives my wolf another chance to enjoy the forest.

Ten minutes into it, my heart is beating faster, working the oxygen into my body while I savor the sensation of the wind on my fur. Wolves absolutely love running, it gives us the feeling of freedom that our kind so desperately needs in order to keep sane.

We need these precious little moments of running wild, to balance out the highly structured dynamic that a pack embodies. Without the time to simply be a wolf, we would be in constant conflict with each other, struggling with confined instincts. It's imperative to let the animal inside us loose once in a while. When we don't, we risk losing control of the beast.

The trick to being in control is making sure both parts of our souls are happy and content.

As I challenge myself, testing how much I can elevate my pace, another wolf joins in beside me. He is a male of above-average size, with a fur of a deep grey tone that gets darker towards the tail. He has high alpha energy, which makes my wolf a little nervous since we don't know him. But it's not like I am in unprotected territory, so I let him stay on the same path as me.

After a few minutes of suspicion and no wrong moves, I relax and start enjoying the race. While I am fast for a wolf, whoever this is may be faster, which brings out the competitive side in me. I wonder how fast Aiden is...no, don't think about him. My wolf pushes herself harder, ignoring the fatigue pressing our legs.

The forest is passing through at high speed, straying leaves brushing our bodies as we move to dodge trees and falling branches. My body is a little behind his, nothing significant but enough to bother me. Shit, he's winning.

It's at least half an hour until we finally stop. I feel very winded but also thoroughly satisfied as I lay down in the soft grass, catching my breath. The male beside me gives me a lopsided wolf grin, sharing in my appreciation for the race. I get up and signal with my head that I'm going back and he bumps me with his nose in acknowledgment, following after me.

As I reach the spot where I left my clothes, I hide behind a massive tree trunk and shift to my human half. My muscles feel a little sore from the run, but the good kind of sore. I'm finishing getting dressed when I hear the steps of a person approaching.

"Hey," a cute guy with dark features waves at me. "You're pretty fast for a female,"

I smirk. This is my running buddy. "Or you're slow for a male."

He barks a laugh at my comeback. "Maybe"

We both know that's not true. But it's nice that he didn't feel the need to refute it. Shows confidence.

"So... what's your name?" He asks me. "I'm assuming you're a first-year since I haven't seen you before."

"Perhaps you simply didn't notice me."

"Ha-no, I would've noticed you." He winks.

I purposely roll my eyes at his flirty attitude. "I'm Violet."

"It's very nice to meet you, Violet." He reaches out a hand. I'm a second away from shaking it when he adds. "I'm Tyler."

I take a step back immediately and he frowns.

"Tyler? As in Legion's future alpha, Tyler?"

There is no way...

"Is that a problem?" His frown stays on his face, and he lets his hand fall.

Of course, it has to be that Tyler.

After last night and what my brother and the others told me, it should be a problem. Aiden hates this guy. If they knew I just shared a run with him, never mind flirted...Hell, Aiden would probably think I did it on purpose, just to have an excuse to hate me more.

"I'm not sure," I answer honestly. " I'm from Blue moon."

Tyler nods. "I see."

"Yeah..."

"Well," he gives me a mischievous smile. "We can be like Romeo and Juliet."

I stare at him for a second, not knowing what to say. And then I can't help but laugh out loud.

"I suppose we are doomed then." I retort mid-laugh.

He shakes his head in a dismissive way. "Maybe not"

As much as I would not mind continuing this conversation, as much as I can't help but find him interesting, I'm very loyal to my pack. And this guy is my pack's enemy. And ok, he is Aiden's enemy too. But most importantly, my pack's. If I'm Juliet in this scenario, this time I choose my family.

"Goodbye Tyler from Legion," I tell him, turning to leave.

"I'll see you again, Violet from Blue Moon." He whispers to my back.

I ignore him.

* * *

After my strange encounter this morning, I spend the rest of my day catching up on some subjects. Cami gave me her notes for the classes I missed last week, thank Goddess. She had to take her car to revision, so I was left with a very quiet dorm room and ample time to get back on track. Tonight is the bonfire, so all of my studying needed to be done by late afternoon, after that my friend would insist we get ready together. Cami has an amazing sense of style but I'm better at makeup, so we sort of complement each other perfectly.

Even though I don't love studying, when I actually start to do it time flies by me. This means that sooner than I want, it's time to get ready. Cami has already come back a while ago but sat in her bed scrolling through her phone in silence, letting me study in peace. After three weeks of living together, we have reached a point where we know each other and our habits well. Neither of us is very hard to live with, to begin with, but there were a few kinks we had to fix for there to be perfect harmony. Cami loves to watch Netflix before bed, while I love to read, so she started watching with headphones on. And on the weekends, I make sure to not wake her up too early when I leave the room. She likes to use our days off from school to sleep a little more, whereas I love to enjoy the morning sun outside.

It's not easy to share a room with someone you just met but she and I have done a pretty good job of compromising when needed. It helps that we get along great in general, only fighting in very rare situations like the one we are in right now.

"There is absolutely no way I am wearing this tonight," I tell my friend "Colton will kill me."

Actually, Colton isn't even going. He told me he had some sort of secret pack mission that involved him and some of the other guys, including Noah, Ryland, and Finn. I'm honestly surprised he is letting me go with no sort of backup. He's usually much more protective. Then again, maybe he did ask someone to watch over me and I just don't know them.

"Pleasee, it's not that bad. There is barely any cleavage," She argues. "You're acting as if I'm telling you to go topless."

"I'm pretty sure going topless would attract less attention to my chest than this devil-made push-up top," I state.

She has me wearing high-waisted jeans that hug my bottom very tightly and a shiny golden top that pushes my boobs together better than any bra. I don't usually wear clothes with cleavage, mostly because of my over-protective family and their likely reaction to them. But also, because it makes me uncomfortable to be one step away from a nip-slip.

"Don't be a drama queen. You got the goods, why not show them off?" she questions with an eyebrow raised.

I puff. "Because I don't want to trip and accidentally flash someone."

"It would be the best moment of their lives," She declares with a smirk.

I shake my head at her answer, giving up. "You're impossible."

"I'm impossibly awesome, little Vi." Cami corrects me, beaming in victory.

...She kind of is.

We're both dressed by 6 pm.

I had sneakily put on a black leather jacket over my provocative top and simple white sneakers. Cami is wearing a backless grey top with flared jeans.

"Why the jacket?" she asks me. "We're werewolves."

"That doesn't mean we don't get cold...it's just harder," I reply nonchalantly.

She stares at me disapprovingly. "Sure"

We both know it's to hide my cleavage. Thankfully, she decides to let it go.

"So...is the bonfire mostly for first-years?" I can't help but ask her while I do her make-up.

"You want to know if he'll be there?" Cami guesses.

"Yeah..." Just so I can prepare myself.

"It will be mostly first-years. But it's not uncommon for non-first-years to join."

I sigh.

"Let's hope he is as unwilling to look me in the face as I am."

"Oh honey, it won't be your face he will be staring at," Cami says, looking directly at my boobs like she can see them through the jacket.

I want to scold her but can't help but laugh with her instead. The girl's got a point.

"Let's hurry," Cami urges. "I told the guys we were going to be there by 6:30."

Fifteen minutes after getting dressed, with simple make-up looks and miraculously straight eyeliners, we're ready to go.

The bonfire will take place in the forest behind the main school building, so the walk there takes us only about ten minutes. Cayden and Marcus told us they would be waiting right at the beginning of the tree line, to guide us to the exact spot. I'm pretty sure that with our werewolf hearing we would be able to find it by ourselves, but it's still nice of them. They are turned away from us when we get there, Cayden resting against a thick tree trunk while Marcus checks something on his phone.

Both guys were really nice to us when they introduced themselves after class, on the first week of school. They are from European Packs and although they didn't specify, they must be from somewhere in the south, considering the jealous-worthy tan they are both displaying.

As we approach, they hear us and turn towards us. Marcus, putting his phone in his pocket, smiles brightly at our appearance. "Hey!"

Cayden nods at us and smiles too.

"What's up, guys?" Cami greets them back confidently. Poor Marcus is probably going to fall in love with her, by the look in his eyes.

"The bonfire just began, I heard them start the fire a little while ago," Marcus says, starting to walk towards the woods. "You both look beautiful, by the way."

We thank him for the compliment and eventually fall into a comfortable conversation, as we head in the direction of the bonfire.

When we get there, I notice the clearing is much larger than I thought it would be. A few wooden chairs are scattered around the huge fire, at a safe distance from the flying flames. The space is already filling with people, as the sun starts to set down and make the light from the blaze shine even more in contrast.

An absurd amount of food and drinks have been placed on picnic tables and bigger rocks with flatter surfaces. Werewolves can get drunk but need to drink a lot more to reach that state. We also love to eat. So, even with this insane quantity of food and drinks available, at the end of the night, everything will probably be gone anyway.

The guys immediately go get us drinks, while we look around some more. I recognize many people from our first-year classes, but not all. I guess the bonfire really is an event everyone will join.

A few hours in and Cami and I now are speaking with a girl from Midnight pack called Ivy, whom Cayden introduced us to. She has dark skin, big bright eyes, and a really fun personality. I had noticed her before since she's also from our year but never had the opportunity to get to know her. Turns out we really click.

It's only a few moments after when we're sitting in some of the chairs around the fire having a lot of fun laughing at Ivy's hilarious sarcastic comments that, suddenly, the mating pull tugs at my chest. Fuck.

I look around immediately and, sure enough, there he is. With Erin completely glued to his side, hugging his arm and resting her head on his shoulder.

My wolf trashes inside me in anger and I'm having a difficult time pulling her back from the edge. Tension fills my body while I try to take deep breaths, hoping to push back the will of the animal inside me. In this case, that will is tearing Aiden and Erin's faces apart with my claws.

Cami, noticing the change in my demeanor, puts her hand in my arm and searches our surroundings. When she spots him, my friend turns back to me and whispers "Do you want to leave?"

Do I?

On one side, I don't think I can handle watching them together more than I already have. On the other, if nothing is changing then I may as well get used to it already.

"You okay, Violet? Your eyes are shifting..." Ivy, our new friend, is looking at me with concern.

Damnit, my wolf is still fighting me for control. I close my eyes and focus on regaining my composure.

Breathe in, breathe out...

"I'm fine..." I whisper when I feel my animal finally step back. Thank Goddess I went for a run this morning and let out some tension or I'm not sure I would be able to restrain her.

When my eyes open, everyone is staring at me with a weird face. Great.

Thankfully, right at that moment something shifts in the environment, deviating the attention from me. As wolves, we are all able to sense when conflict hangs in the air, warning us to prepare our bodies for a possible fight.

Along with most of the bonfire, I turn my head in order to find the source of the sudden tension in the air, only to see Tyler, my running buddy from this morning, locked in a staring match with my would-be mate.

Awkward.

But, at least, my friends seem to have completely forgotten my previous loss of control and are instead thoroughly focused on the new drama, that has nothing to do with me.

Or it didn't.

Until the guy who I had never even met until this morning decides to break his stare match and look around the bonfire, only to do a double-take when his eyes land on me. "Yo!" He shouts "Violet from Blue Moon!"

My gaze immediately flies to Aiden, whose eyes just narrowed in what looks like utter rage, as he watches Tyler walk straight to me.

Oh, shit.