Unknown Secrets

Taylor turned slowly to see who had intruded on his solitude to see Natalya standing in front of the door, looking shocked that he was sitting there while looking almost annoyed at the same time. He almost chuckled as he realized he had probably intruded on her, and not the other way around. He wasn’t usually the type to stay after school. There was always something that made sure he had to go straight home.

Sometimes it was the younger boys fighting amongst each other. Other times there were prey that needed to be caught, members reminded of their need to keep quiet, and even the occasional fight between two bitches. Taylor was always kept busy, mostly because his father so desperately wanted him to take over the pack when he retired. Taylor had to be the strongest, smartest, and most respected wolf to take over after his father, because pack leadership was not passed through families. Only the strongest male wolf could rule, and if an alpha had weak pups and those pups were allowed to rule, the pack would surely perish.

There really was no competition for the spot however. He was easily the strongest young male in the entire pack, and every female wanted to get with him. That same strength passed over into his human life as well, and while humans couldn’t pinpoint where it came from, they respected him regardless.

He settled his amber eyes on her, their color far too bright to be human but who in their right mind would point that out? He allowed himself a smile, both from the thought that he had intruded upon her, and that she was one of the girls that didn’t seem to want to fawn on him all the time. He respected Natalya, not that he knew her personally, but because she seemed to have her own mind and thoughts, and more importantly she was clever. That was something Taylor loved to find in any female, regardless of species.

“No, it’s alright. I should be heading home anyway.”

Taylor smiled again and nodded, but he still stood up. He stretched widely, bringing his arms up over his head. After he had stretched his generous amount of muscle he leaned back against the desk with a graceful ease that none of the other football players had. His ambers eyes were still trained on Natalya, and it almost seemed as if he was appraising her.

“I hope I’m not being rude for asking, but what do you do here by yourself when school has been out for so long?”

He didn’t want to insult her, or be too forward with her, but he couldn’t help his curiosity. After all, there was plenty of times that he had after school practice and saw her sneaking back into the empty school, and at night when he most certainly couldn’t be seen, in turn saw her walking home in the dark.

In fact, there had been a couple of times that he had walked her home those nights, of course without her knowledge. He was curious about what brought her here so late, and also why she seemed to be alone almost every time he saw her.

Taylor had had a rough night. Well, if you call running and wrestling for hours, and then a fight with a bear a rough night. That bear had been a difficult kill, but was no match for six full grown male wolves, especially with Taylor at the head of them all. He was a brute when he needed to be, using all his muscle and weight to his advantage. When the boys had finally made it home, it was not without their own share of injuries, especially Taylor who had to get the bear to release his brother Micheal from the bear’s claws.

By now his abnormal healing powers had healed him completely, but that didn’t stop him from aching all over. He groaned as he forced himself through his morning routine, showering, dressing, and eating a quick breakfast that his mother had made him. Without that breakfast he wouldn’t be able to function normally at all, because of the intense hunger that would have coursed through him until lunch.

Those next few days had been a bit rough simply because of football practice, school, and the fact that he was still sore from that fight. They had practically passed completely in a blur, considering the added training his father had put him under because of the late night wandering.

He was lucky that it was so easy for him to pick up and retain information because otherwise his Anatomy exam would not have a big A on it. It didn’t mean all that much to Taylor though, just another A to add to his collection. He liked to do his best, but it wasn’t a huge accomplishment to get an A. It was simply something he expected of himself now.

However, he couldn’t help but wonder what Natalya had gotten on the exam. After all, his first real conversation with her had been when she was holding her binder to study for that exact exam. Ever since then she invariably would keep coming up in his thoughts no matter how much work he did to try and think of something else. Especially since she had never called him.

Taylor wasn;t a braggart nor was he cocky. At least he always tried not to be. However, it wasn’t often that when he gave out his number he didn’t get a call back. It had been three days already! He ran his hands through his hair again as he tried to not think about it. Of all things, he knew he shouldn’t expect things to just fall in his lap, and if she didn’t want to speak with him it was probably for the best. After all, what did he expect to happen?

If she’d called then they might have gone out, maybe kissed, but that was all he could allow himself. He wasn’t even of the same species for Moon’s sake! Yet, she kept coming to mind and he was not one to ignore a reoccurring thought.

“So how did you do on the test?” He asked, after walking casually over to her desk and leaning against another empty one. His laidback demeanor was back, since there was nothing for him to be tense about. Except of course, for the blonde woman before him that wouldn’t leave him with any peace of mind.

Taylor didn’t have to try and decide whether or not he was going to ditch class. There was no decision to make. Within minutes he knew that the entire school would know of what he had done in that classroom. They would want to know why he had kissed her, and he didn’t even know the answer to that question just yet.

He took off out the back door of the building, trying to make a beeline for the forest that stretched behind the school. He wanted to run. No, he needed to run. To feel the forest floor under his paws, and the wind brushing against his face. He wanted to howl his frustration, grief, and confusion. More than that though, he wanted the simplicity of what it meant to be animal instead of the complex rules of humans. In his pack had he kissed a girl like that the female would have instantly known what he was trying to say simply from his body language. Werewolves were like that after all. She would have known if he had wanted just a quick rut or something much more.

Natalya was human though, and so there was no way she would have understood what he had been trying to tell her. So he had tried to tell in words, something she would understand. But she had given him such a shocked stare, and with the looks of those around him, he realized he may have made the gravest mistake. But wolf thought would not help him solve this very human problem.

So instead of running wild, Taylor sat down against the wall of the sports shed. It was out in the field, away from the main school building so he had his solitude, but not so far that he would tempted to change and leave these human problems behind. He needed to think and figure out what he was going to say. But first, he needed to come up with the human answer to the question she was surely going to ask him. Why.