Chapter Four

Caleb

Walking back from Ruby's house gave me plenty of time to think. It was going to be hard not to get involved with her business but the kids at school had to learn to lay off her. After all, she was going to become their Luna one day.

I hated bullies. Just because she wasn't a wolf, it didn't give them the right to alienate her at school. I intended to contact the principal as soon as I got home.

I was greeted with the usual frosty reception as soon as I walked through the door.

"Caleb, back in time for dinner? Don't tell me there's trouble in paradise already?" Mom teased, in a mocking tone.

She stood at the top of the stairs, wearing a black Chanel dress with a white lace collar. The finely stitched material hugged her slender figure like it has been hand painted onto her skin.

The way she gripped the banister rail with her red talon-like nails, leaving crescent-shaped marks in the woodwork, reminded me of a vulture who was ready to strip the meat off a carcass.

I narrowed my eyes and replied with sarcasm. "You sound as if you're speaking from experience." My retort hit a raw nerve. The outraged look that tensed her face said it all.

I didn't have time for her snarky comments. Not that she could think of anything to say in response. There were more pressing matters that needed my attention. First and foremost: I had to fix things at school for Ruby. I noticed Mom's eyes narrow into two fierce slits as I nudged past her on the way to my room.

I made sure I locked my bedroom door, not wanting anyone to barge in whilst I was on the phone. The walls weren't exactly thin but werewolves could hear just fine. Often I would find a servant loitering outside my door. No doubt spying on me and reporting back to my mother. I grabbed my cell phone from the bedside table, only to notice a message icon on the home screen.

I opened the text. It was from an unknown number but the contents of the message gave away the senders identity.

Hi Caleb, your mom gave me your number. I wanted to ask if you'd like to go see a movie with me, tomorrow night? Rachael.

I deleted the message without a second thought, then scrolled down the phone contacts, finding the number for Lakewood elementary schools principal, Mr. Lyle. I pressed the call button and waited for him to answer.

"Hello?" Mr. Lyle answered the phone, sounding a little nervous and surprised as to why I was calling him. It was only natural, I suppose. To be contacted personally from my parents, or myself, usually meant there was a problem.

"I hope you're well, Mr. Grant?" He referred to me formally.

"Hi Shane, I'm fine, thank you," I replied, hearing him breathe a sigh of relief on the other end of the line.

"Actually, I was calling on behalf of a pupil."

"A pupil?" He replied, sounding confused.

"Yeah, Ruby Knight." I gave him her name.

"The human?" He answered, again in the same puzzled tone.

"Yeah, the human but that's irrelevant, right?" My voice came off a little clipped and defensive. "What I'm saying is, the other kids are giving her a hard time and that's got to stop," I emphasized, in a serious tone.

There were no two ways about it. The bullying had to stop today.

"They are? Well, that won't do at all. We don't tolerate that sort of behavior at our school." Mr. Lyle sounded as outraged as I was, at the whole scenario. "Behaviour such as that needs to be stamped out immediately," he finished.

"I'm glad you think so too, Shane," I replied, satisfied with his response.

"Um, If you don't mind me asking, why have you been asked to deal with this issue?" He asked, cautiously.

I had been expecting him to ask me that. It was a valid question and one that warranted an answer.

"I haven't been asked to deal with it. This is a personal matter that needs to be handled with discretion. She's actually my mate," I revealed.

"She's your...oh my..." Mr. Lyle spluttered with shock. "Well, that would make her the future Luna. Rest assured, Mr. Grant, I will handle the matter myself," he assured.

"Congratulations on finding your mate, Mr. Grant. Such a bright little button she is too. She'll make an excellent Luna someday."

Relief flooded through me, glad that it went as well as it did. Apart from the initial shock of hearing that Ruby was my mate, there wasn't a single hint of judgment in his voice.

"Thank you, that's so nice of you to say. I'm happy to hear that she's doing great at school. She's been through a lot and the transition from one state to another, hasn't exactly been easy on her or her mother," I explained, careful as not to disclose too much personal information.

We ended the call, having decided on an appropriate plan of action. The children needed to be educated about treating others how they themselves would like to be treated. They were only six and that had to be taken into consideration. There was a much better way to approach this issue without the need for harsh discipline.

It did make me wonder if what I had to say influenced matters, somewhat. The second I mentioned that Ruby was my mate, the seriousness of the matter increased tenfold. It's safe to say, if everyone has the same reaction to her being the future Luna of Lakewood, then my little Ruby Red won't be having any more bad days at school. I'm betting that come tomorrow, everyone's gonna be lining up to be her friend. The only problem I had was that my parents would find out sooner than I would've liked them too.

I was confident that Ruby's problem would be resolved. I was also certain that my involvement would spark a whole new chain of events.

One thing about living in a werewolf community was that gossip tended to spread like wildfire. I'll give it an hour before my mom comes to hammer down my door.

Rachel's text floated to the forefront of my mind. I planned on having words with my mother, for giving Rachel my number. I wasn't sure if she passed it to her during or after my party. It didn't matter either way. Nothing would ever happen between us.

Plenty of weres like myself had other relationships before they met their mates. Usually, high school flings. I couldn't see the point personally. It was just a waste of both their time. And if feelings did develop, well, that would only get messy when one of them found their mate.

The only problem with my situation was my mate was human. She may grow up having a few boyfriends throughout high school. How was I going to prepare myself for that blow?

I would just have to cross that bridge when I come to it, and hope that I stand a chance of winning her heart someday.

The sound of glass shattering against a wall shook me from my thoughts. The distinct thudding sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs caused my heart to hammer inside my chest. Everything happened so fast, I barely had a moment to react before my mother began pounding her fist against the other side of my bedroom door.

"Caleb Grant! Is it true? Open this door before I break it open!" She screamed, enraged.

I quickly scrolled through my phone contacts in search of the one person who would be there for me, no matter what.

It dialed through, ringing twice before there was an answer.

"Caleb? Hey, we were just talking about you." My best friend, Aaron, spoke.

"Aaron, I was wondering if I could crash over at your house for a couple of days?" I asked, desperately.

.

.

.

The next day...

Ruby

"Good morning, class," Miss Wilson welcomed the class in her usual bright and cheerful mood.

"Good morning, Miss Wilson, good morning everyone." The whole class chimed together in the same sing-song way.

Today started off strange. As soon as I hung up my coat on my named peg, I heard. "Ruby, come and sit with me! No, Ruby, come sit at our table, with us." I felt myself being tugged in two different directions.

"That's enough, children! You're all to sit in your assigned seats," Miss Wilson said, putting an end to the chaos that erupted in the classroom.

Then came a mixture of disappointed grumbles from the kids who hadn't gotten to sit with me.

What was happening?

I threw up twice this morning because I was so scared of facing everyone today. I wanted to ask my mom if I could stay at home but that would've meant that she would've had to take a day off work to look after me.

I heard her on the phone, talking to my grandma again last night about Daddy's life insurance money running out. I heard her saying 'no' to borrowing money, so her taking a day off work just because I was scared, seemed like a really silly thing to do.

Yesterday, I was the joke of the school but today, everything seemed different. Now everyone wanted to be my friend. I couldn't wait to tell Storm all about my crazy day.

A little while later...

Today has been the best day, ever! I got invited to Mia's seventh birthday party.

She was the oldest in the class. Sarah said that my shoes were pretty too. Josh and Tyler never tipped glue in my hair either. Everyone wanted me to play with them during recess. So, I played jump ropes with the girls, then played cops and robbers with the boys.

I got a special gold sticker from Mr. Lyle for having neat handwriting. He made a really big deal about it, holding my work up to show the rest of the class and everyone clapped. So, all in all, I'd say, today was a pretty great day.

I met Mom outside the school gates with a huge smile on my face.

"Wow, someone seems to be in a great mood?" Mom commented, raising her brows in surprise.

"Yep," I replied, cheerfully. "I think I'm gonna like it at Lakewood, Mom."

She relaxed in her seat, blowing out a relieved breath.

"I'm so glad, honey. Hey, I had an awesome day too. Guess who got a promotion?" She asked, then bit her lip, waiting for my answer.

"Who?" I asked, confused.

She shook her head. "Me, Ruby! I know, it's crazy, I've only been working there for five weeks. Apparently, my boss is impressed with my work."

"Really? That's great, Mom!" I replied, pleased for her.

"You know what that means?" She asked, wiggling her brows at me.

"What's that, Mom?" I replied, waiting for her to just tell me.

It could mean anything.

"It means that things are beginning to look up for the Knight household. And I was thinking that if I put away some money that we could take a vacation this year. What do you say?" Her face lit up with a big bright smile.

"That sounds great!" I squealed with excitement.

We'd never been able to afford a real vacation before. We spent some time during the holidays at Grandma's house but that was it. My grandma lived in Canada, so we could only afford to go once a year and that was at only at Christmas.

It was good seeing Mom smile. Even when we were waiting a while at the traffic lights, she didn't get mad once.

"You think we have what Uncle Rob used to call 'a lucky streak'?" I asked.

She snorted. "Uncle Rob, wouldn't know what a lucky streak was, even if it jumped up and bit him on the butt."

I scrunched my brows in confusion.

Uncle Rob was my mom's older brother. Mom said he liked to gamble. I always used to hear him and my aunt Vicky, arguing. He'd say 'my lucky streak must've run out'. Whatever that meant.

Mom ordered a pizza for dinner as a treat. We were celebrating her getting promoted at the place where she worked. All I knew was, they made things to do with sports. Camping things and other outside stuff.

Mom said a few things about the big boss, Mr. Grant. He was supposed to be a grumpy guy who yelled a lot. He only has one son, who is also called Mr. Grant. That must be super confusing in their house.

Mom's boss was supposed to be much nicer though. He deals with Mr. Grant, not Mom. I'm glad she doesn't have to work closely with the scary, Mr. Grant.

As soon as we scarfed down the pizza, I washed the grease off my hands, then ran straight to my room to change. I looked out of my bedroom window, feeling my heart sink with disappointment as the rain splattered against the glass.

The window misted up in the area that I was breathing against. I wiped it clear with the sleeve of my sweater and caught the sight of Storm walking across the lawn.

My tummy did somersaults as I bolted down the stairs, running outside to go greet my dog.

My boots squelched through the waterlogged lawn, splashing muddy water up my nice clean clothes. The barn door was left ajar and leading up to it were huge, sunken paw prints in the ground.

"Hey, Storm, guess what?" I called out to him, seeing his large head raise up from where he was laying on the hay.

I told him everything that had happened to me today. I even told him about my mom's promotion, at work and how we can now afford to go on vacation.

Time seemed to go by pretty fast. The rain was hammering on the barn roof, making a sound like a rice shaker.

Outside looked darker than usual because of all the grey clouds. Storm and I almost fell asleep in here, listening to the sound of the rain. If it wasn't for my mom coming to get me, then we would've been fast asleep by now.

"Oh my God! Ruby!" My mom shrieked with fright.

I snapped my head up from where I was lying curled next to Storm. Mom was moving towards me carefully and whispering in a panicked voice for me to go to her.

"Mom, what are you talking about?" I rubbed my tired eyes with my hands balled into fists.

Mom's voice sounded higher than usual. She was acting like a crazy woman, waving her hands around as if to shoo Storm away.

"That's a wolf! Go on, Shoo! out! Ruby that's a freaking wolf!" She pointed at Storm.

He stood up, almost as if to do what she said. I wrestled him into a bear hug and scrunched his face with my hands.

"Mom, c'mon, this is my dog, Storm." I looked at her as if she was acting stupid.

Mom cupped the sides of her face, her eyes wide with fright. "It's a wild wolf, Ruby. Not a domestic animal!" Her face paled as though she'd seen a ghost.

"Storm's not bad. Watch this," I said, standing up in front of Storm. "You'll see Mom," I muttered, determined to prove her wrong.

"Storm, sit!" I said jabbing my finger at the ground.

He obeyed and sat down in front of me, tilting his head to the side with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. He looked kind of goofy and it made me laugh.

I looked at Mom, whose mouth was hanging open with shock. "Storm, give me your paw," I held out my hand and he placed his paw onto it. "See, he's really good."

"Incredible," Mom murmured, shaking her head as if she couldn't believe it.

She crept closer and came to kneel down beside us, reaching her hand out to stroke his fur. I watched her face soften as her lips twitched up into a side smile.

"I told you, Mom. He's my dog and I'm keeping him," I told her straight.

There was no way I was letting him go and I could tell by the look on my mom's face that she knew it too.

"Wolf, Ruby. He's a wolf." Mom corrected me, her eyes darting back and forth between me and Storm.

"Fine," I shrugged. "Well then, he's my wolf," I replied, whilst cuddling Storm.

I could tell that she had started to soften, after witnessing for herself how good he was behaving. Storm was growing on her too.

"Well," Mom said with a breathy smile. "Welcome to the family, Storm."