Lupine

  LUPINE

  Copyright © 2020 by Hanleigh Bradley

  www.hanleighbradley.com

  hanleigh@hanleighbradley.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  This book is licensed for your personal use only. Please respect the author’s work and refrain from sharing it with others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  The characters, organisations and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Usually Hanleigh Bradley writes in British English but as Lupine is part of a Multi-Author Series, she is writing in US English on this occasion.

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  The One Time I Don’t Listen

  Why the hell didn’t I listen to the creepy twins?

  The one time I don’t listen to them and suddenly there’s an angel sitting on the roof of the orphanage. Yup… Should have listened.

  What’s worse is that they’re both wearing matching smirks, the words ‘I told you so’ on the tip of their tongues.

  I’d wanted two minutes to myself. Just two minutes. It shouldn’t be that hard to get a few minutes’ peace. It’s not like I’m the only person who works here. There are several members of staff, who should have been watching the children, but nope, apparently not.

  Goodness only knows where they are. Expelling a deep, irritated breath, I try to assess the situation.

  “Sorry Lupine!” Jacqueline comes running out of the orphanage. “I was on the phone with Stone Hill High School.”

  “What’s he done now?” I ask, craning my neck to see Evangeline’s legs dangling over the guttering.

  “Amon was taunting the humans again,” she tells me. “Playing bloody Mary in the toilets.”

  If it wasn’t for the fact that Amon is on the verge of getting expelled, I’d almost find it funny. When I was a child at the orphanage, I wasn’t exactly any better behaved. In fact, I may well have been worse.

  I actually was expelled from the local high school…

  Fortunately, the lady who had run the orphanage at that time had had a bit of a soft spot for me and had managed to get me a place at the Paranormal Academy, a little way out of town. She was the closest thing I had to family and so when she’d retired, I’d found myself feeling compelled to take her place at the orphanage.

  It’s not like I had anything better to do. I’d never been one for mapping out my future. Maybe it’s an orphan thing… Aspirational poverty or something.

  Now though, with Amon about to be expelled, Evangeline on the roof and Edmond running away almost daily, I’m not so sure it was my best idea.

  “How are we going to get her down?” Jacqueline asks uncertainly.

  “I could get her down,” a smug voice comes from behind us.

  Pivoting abruptly, I struggle not to growl. Amon has the nerve to stand there, leaning against the big oak tree out front, his arms folded leisurely, seemingly unaffected by the fact that his little sister is currently sitting on the roof.

  “And why would you do that?” I ask, knowing full well that he will expect to negotiate. He never does anything unless it’s in his own interests, even when it involves his sister.

  “She’s my sister,” he says with a shrug.

  I don’t know if I should believe him. In fact, I know I shouldn’t. But as a wolf shifter, there’s no way that I can levitate up to the roof and get her down myself. I could scale the building, but then we’d need even more maintenance work doing. Something the orphanage really can’t afford right now.

  “EVANGELINE!” I shout up to the nine-year-old girl currently singing at the top of her lungs for all of Silver Springs to hear. “Come down this instant!”

  Of course, she ignores me, singing even louder if that’s even possible. Fortunately, her voice is angelic, unlike her tendency towards disobedience, otherwise I’m pretty sure the neighbors would complain. In fact, I know they would. They complain about everything else… Except Evangeline’s singing.

  “Piny, I’m telling you, I can get her down.”

  I bristle at the use of that nickname. I don’t understand why the children insist on using it. It’s not even funny. Not really. I could think of far better nicknames they could use. The kids I grew up with called me Loopy… I didn’t like that one either but at least it was humorous.

  “Me too! Me too!” Artemus says, holding his little hands up towards Evangeline.

  “I can help you up,” Castalia says, lifting her hand.

  The toddler begins to levitate slightly as I rush forward to stop his ascension to the roof.

  “CASTALIA! Inside! NOW!” I shout furiously.

  The twelve-year-old girl gives me a sardonic look, holding her position.

  “Everyone inside,” I demand, passing off Artemus to Jacqueline. “Take them in. Lewis should have dinner ready shortly.”

  “No problem,” Jacqueline agrees before trying to herd the children back into the orphanage.

  “Do you need my help or not?” Amon asks unhurriedly.

  Looking around, I try to think up another option. The last thing I want is to accept Amon’s help. The simple fact that he’s offering to help, tells me he is up to something. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him that he might have even talked his little sister into going up there in the first place.

  “Fine,” I retort. Struggling to keep my cool, I mentally count to ten.

  Getting up from where he is leaning against the oak, he comes to stand directly in front of me. Here it comes… He’s about to lay out his demands.

  With a sigh, I raise my eyebrow expectantly.

  “If I bring her down…” he says, his eyes more serious than I’ve ever seen them before. They’re actually bright with excitement about something and I’m eager to know what, although with a healthy dose of trepidation.

  “Yes?” I ask, waiting for him to divulge what he wants.

  “Can I transfer schools?”

  “You want to transfer?” I don’t bother to tell him that he might not have much choice, seeing as how Stone Hill don’t seem to want him anymore.

  “Yeah, I want to go to the academy you went to.”

  “You were screwing around on purpose?” I ask, flabbergasted. “You were trying to get expelled?”

  He shrugs his shoulder, not bothering to even try and deny it.

  “Do we have a deal?”

  Looking up to the roof, I’m not exactly in a position to refuse.

  “Fine,” I retort irritably. “We’ll talk properly about it once your sister is safely on the ground.”

  “No. You have to agree.”

  “I didn’t say you couldn’t,” I tell him with a sigh. “Only that I’d like to talk about it.”

  “Everyone knows that means you’ll say no,” he argues back.

  “Amon, goodness sake. I’ve already said yes. I just want to know more about why you’re making this decision. That’s all. If you actually want to go to school, I’m hardly going to stop you. Now, will you please get your sister down?”

  Amon nods his head once before levitating up to the roof. He grabs his sister by the waist, completely ignoring her protests as he forces her to come back down to earth.

  “I don’t want to come down!” she complains as her feet hit the ground, and within seconds she’s kicking off again, trying to make her way back up to
the roof, only being held back by her brother’s grip on her ponytail.

  I should tell him off for that… He’s practically pulling his sister’s hair, but I can’t bring myself to say it, when it’s the only thing keeping the child grounded.

  “Enough Evangeline,” I say irritably. “Inside now.”

  “I don’t want to,” the pretentious child tells me, her eyes full of disdain.

  “NOW!” I say between gritted teeth. “It’s dinnertime. Go in and wash your hands.”

  Scrunching up her face, Evangeline walks inside with a grace that suggests she’s walking on air. She might be an angel, but she’s hell spawn in my opinion.

  “Thank you, Amon.”

  He falls into step beside me. “Don’t forget what you promised.”

  “I won’t,” I tell him emphatically, “but I really do want to talk to you about it.”

  “Later… I’m heading out with my friends.”

  “Have some dinner first.”

  “Nah… I’ll get something while I’m out.”

  “Be back by nine?”

  He shrugs his shoulders and I know full well he won’t be back until ten. I should be stricter… Mrs Mackney will be rolling in her grave. I was an idiot to think I could do her job…

  Are You A Vampire?

  After dinner, I go about my usual routine putting the children to bed, starting with the youngest. Even with Jacqueline’s help, it’s still a long tedious task, between baths and stories and a tantrum from Edmond.

  “I think we need to hire some extra help around here,” Jacqueline grumbles as we come to sit in the living room. “Especially seeing how Lewis can’t even see half the stuff the kids get up to.”

  I laugh at that. God knows why I thought it would be a good idea to hire a human to care for an orphanage full of supe kids.

  “I wonder what he’d make of it if he did?” I ask, leaning my head against the back of the armchair.

  “He’d probably agree with you that they’re all brats.”

  “Yeah… he’d definitely be disillusioned about just how angelic they all are.”

  “What are we going to do about Amon?” Jacqueline asks, just as I open up the book that I’ve been planning to read all day.

  Juniper said it would help me with my stress levels. Not sure how much help a smutty romance book can offer, but at this point I’m willing to try anything. It’s either that or I take a quick trip to her shop…

  “Lupine?”

  “Sorry?” I respond, lowering the book to my lap so that I can give Jacqueline my attention. “What did you say?”

  “Amon…”

  “Oh… yeah,” I sigh, looking down at my watch. It’s a little after nine. “He’s late AGAIN.”

  “Big surprise there,” Jacqueline replies, “but seriously…”

  “They want to expel him?” I ask.

  “It sounded a bit like a warning but yeah… Miss Devlin was furious.”

  “Lucky for them,” I say with a stretch, “Amon wants to transfer.”

  “Transfer?” Jacqueline sits forward.

  “Yeah, he wants to go to the academy.”

  “The one you went to?”

  “Presumably,” I tell her. “He’d certainly not be welcome at Cliff Haven.”

  “They’d take one look at his school record and say a big fat ‘hell no.’”

  “Not to mention he’s not a witch.”

  “Well, yeah, there is that.”

  “I just don’t understand why he’d want to go to Ashmount,” I tell her. “I loved my time at the academy but they’re strict. Really strict.”

  “Maybe he just wants to get away from the orphanage.”

  I can hardly blame him if that’s the case. I felt the same way when I was his age. At sixteen, I’d wanted out of this place too.

  “It might do him some good staying at the academy on weeknights,” I say softly, running my fingers along the spine of the book that I’m supposed to be reading.

  I’m not sure this is my sort of book… From the crazy purple cover with four half naked men and a woman in what I believe is flower panties to the completely insane blurb, it’s not the sort of book I’d pick up in my favorite bookstore in town.

  Then again, I’m not really a big reader. I rarely have the time to sit and actually read, what with all the crazy shenanigans that go on around here.

  “I’ll reach out to the academy tomorrow,” I say, beginning to open the book once again.

  “Did you hear about the new gym?”

  “Gym?” I ask with another sigh.

  I love Jacqueline. She’s incredibly sweet but right now, I just want peace and quiet. It’s been a hell of a long day, between Edmond running away in the park and Evangeline levitating onto the roof. I need a break. A really long break. Perhaps I should tell her I’m going to take a bath.

  Except I can’t do that when Amon is still not home.

  “The new gym in town.”

  She’s looking at me as if I’m crazy just because I’m oblivious to the fact that there’s a new gym. I’ve lived in Silver Springs all my life and I’m kind of used to all the random stuff that happens here. Nothing would surprise me. She could tell me the gym is run by talking plant pots and I’d probably believe her.

  Anything is possible in Silver Springs.

  “You should go on your next day off,” Jacqueline is saying. “It’s amazing… All state-of-the-art tech, and it’s supes exclusive so you can work out as a wolf if you want.”

  “Hmmm,” I mumble, opening the book once again, no longer fully listening. I’m not likely to go to the gym on my day off. Not because I don’t like exercise, but there’s so much work needing done around here that I don’t imagine I’ll find the time. I have an obscenely long to do list for my next day off, mostly DIY stuff that I asked Lewis to do months ago.

  “Everyone is saying it is run by the mafia,” Jacqueline says in a hushed tone as if she fears someone might hear her.

  “The mafia?” I ask disbelievingly. “In Silver Springs?”

  “Yup. The mafia.”

  “That doesn’t seem likely,” I laugh, placing the book down on the arm of my chair, giving up on trying to read it. At least for now.

  “That’s what they’re saying.”

  “Forgive me for not believing the gossip mills of Silver Springs,” I tease. “Don’t you remember when they thought you were a Vampire?”

  “Well… yes…”

  “Are you a Vampire?”

  “Well… No.”

  “Just because you shifted into a bat that one time,” I mumble, checking my watch again. “I guess I should go looking for Amon.”

  “He’ll be back soon,” Jacqueline says dismissively.

  She’s right of course, but it doesn’t stop me feeling responsible. He’s never more than an hour late for his curfew, but an hour late is still late. Something Mrs Mackney would never let slide.

  “So, you going to try ‘Fit in A Spell’?”

  “Try what?”

  “The new gym I was telling you about.”

  “Oh…” I reply. “You just said it’s run by the mafia… Why would I go to a gym run by the mafia?”

  “I told you it’s Supe exclusive.”

  “Yup… But the mafia kills people,” I say in a voice that suggests she might be slow.

  “Well… Yeah, but they’re really good looking.”

  I laugh at that. It’s not like Jacqueline to talk about people in terms of their appearance. She’s a big believer in a person’s inner beauty. In her mid-fifties, Jacqueline has been married since her late teens, having married her husband Grant young.

  It was only when Grant died a couple years back that she came to work at the orphanage. They’d never been able to have children of their own and she’d suddenly found herself completely alone. Of course, it was the creepy twins’ fault… They told me an old lady would come looking for a job and I’d be stupid not to hire her. Call me superstitious, but I wasn�
��t about to go against their crazy voodoo psychic powers.

  “Were you there to work out or to gawk at the owners?” I tease her.

  “We all need a little eye candy to motivate us when we work out,” she tells me, her ears turning pink.

  “Sure. Sure. If you say so…”

  “What’s this book, anyway?” she asks, changing the subject.

  “Just something some witch in the park gave me this morning.”

  “A witch gave you a book?” she questions, eyeing the book suspiciously. “Are you sure it’s not cursed?”

  “Surely not…” I hesitate, thinking back to this morning. “Juniper seemed nice enough.”

  “Rather you than me…”

  Pheromones to Make the Girls Howl

  “I guess I better go look for Amon,” I say with a sigh.

  “Take your coat,” Jacqueline tells me. “Ariella told me earlier that it would rain tonight.”

  “Why can’t the creepy twins predict something useful like the lotto numbers?” I grumble.

  “You need to stop calling them that,” Jacqueline giggles.

  “Yup…” She’s not wrong. I really shouldn’t be calling Ariella and Larissa the creepy twins. It’s not kind and if I heard the children doing it, I’d be livid.

  “Good luck finding him,” Jacqueline calls after me as I make my way into the entrance hall. I pause at the bottom of the stairs, checking that all is quiet throughout the house. Occasionally my superhuman hearing comes in handy.

  Just as I’m pulling on my coat and mentally running through a list of places to look for Amon, there comes a knock at the door.

  It catches me by surprise. We never get late night visitors at the orphanage… Except when the police escort Amon home after he’s done something illegal again. Oh god… What’s he done now?

  I almost don’t want to answer the door. Perhaps if I don’t, I won’t be told off by Officer Stevens again. Maybe I can get Jacqueline to answer it instead. At this rate, Amon’ll be carted off to juvey and it will all be my fault. Mrs Mackney never lost a kid to the system.

  Cautiously, I turn the handle, opening the door. My face falls into a grimace as I anticipate Officer Stevens ranting at me. Dealing with an angry Vampire was definitely not a part of my plan for today. Especially one who belongs at least three decades in the past. Then again, absolutely nothing else has gone to plan so I shouldn’t be surprised.