The rest of the week went without incident. There were no sightings of either the descendant or of Orfeo’s following. It was finally game day, and the whole high school was abuzz with excitement. Zach knew he had to pick up Emily this evening for the game, which Madison and Alex had long established on the first week of school. It would give him a more private opportunity to talk to her and maybe break through the barrier of not allowing her to act as his mate.
The football banners hanging from the cafeteria walls and the windows all had team players and numbers written on them, courtesy of the cheerleading squad. Jacob had the front and center window all to himself, thanks to Brindle, Rachel, and Heather. And of course, his name and the number ten were centered on the front wall poster banner so everyone could see them first.
"So, are we all ready for tonight?” Madison questioned everyone as she looked around at the group. This was the first football game of the season and the first dance of the year. It wasn’t like their semi-formal, which was held later on for homecoming, but a regular dance for opening game day. They all nodded in response to her question and went back to eating their lunches. “I heard the DJ they hired canceled for tonight.” Madison continued to talk about the night.
“So, what are they going to do? Is the dance canceled?” Danny looked a little relieved.
“Nope.” Madison laughed as Danny’s bubble of excitement about the dance being possibly canceled popped. “The people in charge of that stuff got some local band to come to play.”
“Wow. Cool. Like a real band and not some old guy playing CDs.” Alex was the only one interested in the change of venues. “Do you know what kind of music they play, or do they play a mix of everything?” she asked Madison, who seemed to be on top of all the happenings.
“Um, I think the people in the office said something about them playing eighties music.” The boys groaned while Alex and Emily appeared entertained by the idea. “It’s not bad, guys.” Madison turned to Zach and Danny. “I heard they played Poison and bands like that.” They still rolled their eyes and went back to their more exciting task at hand, eating their lunch. “You know, you guys can show a little interest once in a while.” She was getting a little irritated with the boy’s attitude.
“Oh, I’m sorry for not having a big interest in going to another West Lakes dance. So tell me, Madison, who will be your man for the night? You know, since I’ll be taking Alex, and Zach and Em are going together.” Danny threw some sarcasm in to get her all riled up.
Madison felt her face becoming heated. She hadn’t gone on a date in a long time, since like sophomore year or something. It wasn't that she didn’t get attention from any guys, but it always felt like the wrong one. Maybe there wasn’t a wrong one. Perhaps she was being too picky and waiting on a guy who would probably never come. There was no knight in shining armor for her, just a big black wolf that she couldn’t get out of her thoughts.
"Danny quit being such an ass.” Alex came to Madison’s defense. She shot him a look that made him seem to want to whimper away. “I bet Madison could ask the next guy that walks through the door to the dance, and he would jump at the chance.”
Madison got a smug grin on her face. One, she had backup from Alex, and two, she was going to do it. “I’ll ask the next guy who comes in.” Her mouth spoke before her brain had time to rationalize what she was going to do.
The guy could say yes, right?
Or he could laugh her off and embarrass her in front of the whole cafeteria population.
“Okay, we’ll wait and see who’s going to be Madison’s escort tonight. Maybe you’ll get lucky too.” Danny winked at her about his last comment.
Madison rolled her eyes and shook her head at his provocative suggestion. They all waited good-naturedly, eyes fixed on the door, waiting for the next guy to walk through.
After several minutes of patiently waiting for the door to open, to no avail, they went back to eating and chit-chatting about the game and the dance. The creak of the side door opening made everyone’s eyes flash in that direction.
“You have to be freaking kidding me.” Madison ranted like a drunken sailor as Jacob walked into the cafeteria. The rest of the group tried to control their chuckling, but that wasn’t easily done.
Jacob heard the group’s laughter and sauntered over to their spot. “What?” He glared at them, obvious from the fact that they must’ve been talking about him.
“Go ahead, Madison.” Danny teasingly patted her back. She shot him a look that would have struck him dead if bullets were involved.
“Go ahead, what?” Jacob was irritated because they’d said something about him and because he felt his wolf getting all riled up because another was teasing his mate.
“Forget it. The bet’s over. Danny, keep your shit up, and you can find your own way tonight.” Madison was faking anger as she tried to hide from having to confront Jacob about the dilemma she was in.
‘Why was he the person who had to walk through the door?
Why couldn’t it have been someone none of them knew?’
Jacob was happy none of the other shifters had picked up on his wolf’s scent on Madison. Although it had been a couple of days since their encounter, the wolf’s saliva and scent would remain on her to ward off others. He knew he had to get out of there before Danny or Zach sensed anything out of the norm.
“Later.” Jacob turned to leave the lunchroom. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember what he’d come there for in the first place.
“C’mon, Madison was going to ask you to be her escort to the dance tonight.” Danny started back on the Madison dare.
That piece of information made Jacob stop in his tracks.
One, his wolf was curious to know if she was having the same feelings as he was.
And two, the human side wanted this to end and for her to not like him.
Jacob slowly looked back and glanced at Madison. She was sitting with a dumbfounded expression on her face, which was rare for her. She usually had a comeback or smart-ass remark within five seconds of anyone saying something to her. He scanned her body from head to toe and then met her in an eye-to-eye staring match.
Jacob’s lips contorted into a sneer. “I think I already did my charity work for football this season. Sorry, you’re out of luck.” He let the lunchroom door slam with a bang.
Madison turned toward Zach. “That’s why I hate your brother.”
Zach got up from his chair and came around the table to give her a small hug. As he leaned down toward her, he caught a faint whiff of a shifter smell, one he knew all too well. “I’ll be right back,” he told the rest of the group as he walked out the door after Jacob.
Zach saw his younger brother further up the hall, walking at a fast pace. "Hey!" Zach yelled out, not caring if it drew attention to either of them not being in class.
Jacob stopped and turned around. He wasn’t ready for this inquisition, but he knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. Why did his stupid wolf have to go and mark her? Why couldn’t he leave things like they were when everything was going well? “What? I don’t have time for a friendly talk with you right now.”
“Cool, I want to get back to my lunch anyway. So, I’ll get straight to the point. Why does Madison smell like your wolf?” Zach crossed his arms and stood in front of the door leading to the stairs, which was Jacob’s only means of escape.
“How am I supposed to know?” Irritation vibrated in Jacob’s tone.
“You have no clue as to why or how your smell, which only another wolf can sense, ended up on her.” Zach knew he wasn’t going to win this battle with Jacob. The only one that could make him talk would be their alpha. Then again, this was Jacob, and not even their dad could get him to talk.
“Whatever. You can think what you want. Now, can you move so I can get back to class?”
“So, let’s see. Your wolf snuck out of you, found Madison all alone, and marked her.” Zach needed to get to the bottom of this.
Why all of a sudden were they finding their mates, and why these girls? Except for Alex, Emily and Madison weren’t showing the classic behavior of being someone’s mate. Even without the marking, they still should have this pull on each other, making it hard to be away from each other. Danny and Alex always wanted to be around each other or have some type of physical contact with one another, even if it was only a brush on the hand or a small gesture like a pat on the back.
“Whatever. Move.” Jacob pushed Zach out of the way and fled up the stairs like he was afraid of the questions. Or was he trying to escape and hide from the answers?
‘That went well,’ Zach thought as he went back to the lunchroom to answer all the questions about where he’d gone.
Jacob made it up to the second level of the school before turning around and making sure Zach wasn’t following. He didn’t have the answers his brother was looking for. He had no idea why his wolf insisted Madison was the one. It wasn’t like he could go up and say,
‘Hey Madison, I’m a shifter, and my wolf decided to claim you as his own.’
There was no one to talk to about this. Will and Anthony hadn’t been through the whole initiation ceremony, not that he would speak with them about it anyway. They were pack and part of the team, but it wasn’t like they sat around and had confession talks with each other like girls did. He slammed the wall with his fist and went to find Brindle. At least she would be able to take his mind off all this stuff and maybe help him get Madison out of his thoughts.