The Midnight Wolf

(Author’s note: This story is set in the world of Pumpkin Spice, another story I wrote a while ago. You don’t need to read that one for this one to make sense, but some of the same characters appear in this story. Feel free to read Pumpkin Spice if you really want to!)

“OOPH!” I stumbled and almost fell, catching myself before I toppled over the small girl in front of me. She had made that fateful sound of a collision and had fallen backwards, landing on her butt. I reached out my big hand to help her up.

“Oh my gosh, are you ok? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.” She made an annoyed face at me but took my hand, her small palm slipping into mine easily. I pulled her up, an easy feat, considering she probably weighed less than my desk chair.

“Yeah, you and everyone else.” She muttered, dusting herself off and collecting her bag from where it had fallen. I frowned.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking into her emerald-green eyes. She huffed and tucked a lock of golden hair behind her ear.

“No one ever sees me, that’s one of the perks of being small I guess.” She looked up at me and studied me, first taking in my hat, then my amber eyes and then finally my towering height. She narrowed her eyes.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” She asked me, saying the code for all non-humans to recognise each other. I scratched by my hat self-consciously, trying not to look into her piercing eyes.

“Yeah, you could say that. What about you?” I responded, realising I had never seen her before. She nodded.

“Yes, I'm not from around here, literally and figuratively.” She paused, looking around and making sure we were alone. “So what are you, some kind of half-giant?” She asked, still considering my hat and where it fits.

“Uh, not exactly. I’m a werewolf and that’s why I need the hat; my ears don’t go away when I transform back into a human form. I just happen to be really tall.” She tipped her head to the side, looking me up and down again.

“I’m a fourth elf, but unfortunately the shortness has stuck. How many more non-humans are in this school? I haven’t really noticed any others except maybe that one teacher. I think she’s a mermaid?” She said, fiddling with her bag strap. I smiled, smelling her nervousness and thinking it was cute.

“I can introduce you to all the other non-humans over lunch if you want? I will warn you, it’s mostly my younger, half-siblings, and they can be QUITE crazy.” She smiled back at me and tucked more hair behind her ear.

“Yeah, sure, that would be nice. I’ll see you at lunch then?” I nodded and we parted ways, me heading to Science class and her heading to wherever her next class was. The bell rang a second after she disappeared around the corner, and I could hear her hurried footsteps running down the hall. I smiled to myself and hurried to Science, barely sitting down in time for the second bell.

I couldn’t focus on Science at all, I was too busy thinking of her sparkling green eyes and wavy blond hair. I didn’t even know her name and I was already obsessed. By the time lunch slowly rolled around, I had daydreamed through History, stared out of the window through most of English and hadn’t listened to most of my math class. 

I rushed into the cafeteria and told all the non-humans to meet me at the big table in the corner. My half-siblings all jumped up and immediately started running around and yelling, running into people and making a huge mess.

“GUYS!” I yelled, my voice carrying over the noise they were making. They all stopped and looked at me. “Shut up, sit quietly, and make sure you apologise.” They all nodded and started helping clean up the mess they had made.

“Hey, Ethan!” My younger half-sister called as she walked over with her best friend, Alexa the vampire. I sighed.

“Hey, Thia. I would appreciate it if you guys could come and sit with us, there’s a new student here today and she’s not from around here. Could you get your boyfriend over here as well?” I asked Thia, ushering some of my really younger siblings over to the secluded table. She nodded and left Alexa with me. She smiled at me and started to help round up my younger half-brothers who were trying to surprise a group of human girls. 

Once everyone was sitting at or near the table, I finally spotted her. I got up and walked over to her, my big strides getting me there quickly. I was grinning widely by the time I got to her and she smiled timidly back.

“Hey.” She said, tucking more hair behind her ears.

“Hi. I don’t think I caught your name earlier…” I said, putting my hands in my pockets.

“Oh, it’s Esmrelda, but you can call me Ezzy.” I started leading her over to the table where everyone else was, walking slowly to accommodate her short legs.

“I’m Ethan,” I said, pulling out her seat for her once we got to the table. “And this is my oldest half-sister, Thia, her best friend Alexa and Thia’s boyfriend Zach,” I said, pointing to each of them in turn and they gave Ezzy a wave and a smile back. “These are the rest of my half-siblings, Rosie, Tristan, Tristan’s twin Tracy, Donald, Mike, Lula, Adam, Lucy, and Greg.” I continued, pointing at each person as I went along, “And the newest member of our little group, George, who was recently bit by Alexa. As you noticed earlier, yes, Ms. Blenny is a mermaid and there is usually another mermaid here, but her family is away on vacation in Antarctica, since they’re Arctic merpeople.” I turned from Ezzy and addressed the table. “This is Esmrelda, a part-elf-but-mostly-human.” She gave a small wave.

“You guys can all call me Ezzy though, I don’t mind.” I sat down and we all started eating, everyone curious about Ezzy. Throughout lunch, we found out that she had been homeschooled up until now and knew almost nothing about other non-humans, except for vampires because a family of them had been her neighbours for a while. She didn’t have any siblings and had only just gotten a pet lizard recently, mostly because they were moving here and away from the forest she had grown near. Then she started asking us questions.

“So, Alexa, how old are you, because you look like you're about 15. Ethan said you had bitten George recently?” Alexa smiled ruefully.

“Yeah, I turned 15 at the end of October and it was a close call for me. Everyone had been pressuring me about biting someone for ages and I eventually decided on George here. It’s a good thing I did because my boyfriend broke up with me at the end of December, so that might’ve been awkward if I had chosen him.” Ezzy nodded and turned to me.

“So what’s your deal then? All of your siblings have brown hair but you have that cool white hair. And your ears don’t go away.” Thia stepped in, cutting me off.

“His dad was an Alpha, but he and my mum didn’t get along very well. As soon as he realised Mum was pregnant with his cub, he ran away, and we haven’t heard from him since. That’s why Ethan looks weird.” I frowned at Thia, but she just smiled at me cheekily.

“Yes, thank you, Thia,” I said sarcastically and then turned back to Ezzy. “That’s why my ears don’t go away. I’m an Alpha too. Which means I can control these mutts over here!” I said, ruffling Greg’s and Mike’s hair, making them giggle. I smiled at them fondly, turning back to Ezzy when she laughed.

“You guys are awesome. I would love to have siblings.” She said wistfully. Rosie grinned slyly.

“That can be arranged!” She said, tackling Tristan and pinning his arms behind his back. Tracy and Lucy joined in and soon it was an all-out brawl between boys and girls. Ezzy and Alexa were laughing their heads off but Thia and I were trying desperately to wrangle the kids back into order.

“Oi!” I shouted and everyone stopped. Except for the non-werewolves, they just kept on laughing. “Right, guys, you need to chill. There is a reason they keep you separated in class. Now, girls, sit on that side and pick up the chairs, boys, sit on that side and keep quiet.” Everyone obeyed, Ezzy and Alexa still snickering in the background. Thia frowned at me as she sat on the relegated girls’ side, sitting right next to Alexa. I gave her an apologetic smile in return, knowing she didn’t like me exercising my power as an Alpha over her. Ezzy was watching the exchange intently, looking from me to Thia and back again. I caught her eye and she held my gaze for a beat before looking down at her food and tucking more hair behind her ear.

Suddenly the bell rang. Our corner table descended into chaos once more as the kids jumped up and ran with their mostly empty trays to the lunch counter. Greg, the little Omega of our family just sat there, with his hands on his tray, looking up at me. I smiled at him gently and he jumped up and bounced over join to his siblings. Thia rolled her eyes and she and Alexa got up together and walked away, talking with Zach and George. Ezzy and I were left alone in a slightly awkward silence.

“Sooo…. What’s your next class?” I asked her, picking up her tray and taking it, along with mine, over to the tray rack. Ezzy pulled out her schedule and ran her graceful finger over it until she came to the 5th period.

“Oh, I’ve got Social Studies next. What about you?” She said, looking up at me. I smiled.

“I’ve got that next as well. I can walk with you if you want?” I said, fiddling with one of the straps of my book bag. She smiled back and nodded. We left the cafeteria together and we talked all the way to Social Studies.

That was just the start of it. From that day we hung out a lot more, and she would come over to my house and watch movies with us, play games with us, and take the kids out to the park with me. It was perfect. Until it wasn’t.

“Ethan.” Ezzy said one day while she was at our house, “I have to tell you something. Can we talk alone?” Her eyes looked pleadingly at mine, both of us knowing how little privacy anyone gets in this house. I looked around

“Uh, sure, we can go to my room if you want,” I said, making sure none of the kids were listening. They would jump at any chance to come into my room. She nodded and we walked into my bedroom, closing the door behind us. I sat down on my bed, patting the spot next to me. She came over and sat, fiddling with the end of her ponytail.

“Um, so, last night I had a vision.” She started, not looking at me. I frowned and tipped my head to the side.

“Uh, don’t most people call that a dream?” I asked, scratching behind my ear. She sighed and gave me a “Really?” kind of look.

“No, my family, on the elf side, was cursed a long time ago to be able to see the future in visions, but the part that made it a curse is that we can only see the bad things that are going to happen. And I had a vision last night and I think it involved you.” She looked up at me when she finished, her gorgeous green eyes wide. I put my arm around her and pulled her close, noticing she was trembling a bit.

“Tiny,” I said, using my pet name for her, “It’s going to be ok. Just tell me what you saw and we can figure this out.” I said gently, rubbing her back. She took a deep breath and looked down at her shorts

“Well, the vision started out in some trees. I don’t think it was a forest, I think it might’ve been the park we usually go to with the kids. Anyway, it started off in some trees and then it panned out and there was a clearing. In the clearing was a man and a huge, white wolf, who looked like you. The man was backing away from the wolf, his hands raised defensively. The man said something that sounded like a plea for mercy and then the wolf pounced. I didn’t see what happened next, I startled myself out of the vision.” She finished, still not looking at me. I frowned and thought for a moment.

“Can you describe the wolf for me?” I asked, trying to catch her eye. She nodded.

“Uh, like I said, it was white and it was really big and from what I’ve seen of your transformations, it looked like you. It was snarling at the man and slowly walking forward, growling menacingly at the man.” She paused and looked at me, her green eyes wide and searching, “But I don’t think you’d ever do something like that, not in your right mind anyway.” I looked back at her, my brow furrowed.

“I wouldn’t do something like that even if I had lost control on a full moon. You know that, right?” I asked, still maintaining eye contact. She nodded and I turned away, thinking.

“Well, it might be my father. He was big and white from what I can tell. And from what I’ve heard from Mum he might do something like that. What about the man, did you recognise him?” I said thoughtfully, pressing my finger to my lips. She frowned and closed her eyes, her brow wrinkled.

“Uh, no. He was really generic actually. He had dark hair, a clean-shaven face and he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and he had jeans on. Wait, there was one odd thing about him, right before the wolf pounced, right after he said something, he turned and looked directly at me like he could see me. That’s never happened before, mostly because when I’m having a vision, it’s just like, my consciousness that’s there, not my body or anything. So he couldn’t have seen me, but he looked right at me. I think that might’ve been what startled me out of the vision.” I nodded and patted her on the back.

“Look, Ezzy, we’ll figure this out, ok? I’ll take extra care to stay in control and NOT transform at all while we’re working this out. I promise I’ll help you find out when and how this is going to happen.” I said, looking at her, a slight smile on my face. She smiled back at me and I could feel her relax a bit.

“Yeah, ok.” She said, nodding. Suddenly there was a bang on my door and someone called out “Found them!” very loudly. I rolled my eyes and sighed. This was all the time alone we were going to get. We got up off the bed and I grinned at Ezzy to try and lighten the mood. She smiled back, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Oh well, my siblings won’t let her stay sad for long.