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“And I’ll always be there to hand you tools,” I said.

“Just not the power ones,” he grinned crookedly.

Caeden finished building the cabinet and I started staining. We only had thirty minutes of class left and everyone else was still trying to figure out how to piece together the pieces of wood.

“Williams!” A guy named Sid, called, “Come help us out.”

“You okay?” Caeden asked me.

“I can handle this,” I said, “all you have to do is follow the grain. It’s not rocket science.”

“
Alright
, I’m
gonna
go help them out,” he pointed over his shoulder. He looked around and quickly, before I could react, pressed a kiss to my lips.

My cheeks flamed as the roomful of boys stared at us. “I hate you,” I whispered.

“No you don’t,” he grinned. “I’m to cute
to ever be hated on,” he put a
hand to his chest.

In the time that was left in class Caeden managed to help almost all of the groups and I finished staining the cabinet.

Mr. Collins came over to check out our cabinet. “Good job you two,” he said and clapped us both on the shoulder. “I don’t have anything else for you to start on so next class will be a free period for you.”

The bell rang and we gathered up our stuff. Like always, Caeden was nearly impossible to keep up with.

“Ugh, forget this,” I said under my breath and vaulted myself at his back.

“What
?!
” Caeden explained from my sudden onslaught.

“Just go,” I said, clinging to him monkey style.

He laughed. “You got it,” he held onto my thighs. I wrapped my arms around his neck but held them loosely so I didn’t choke him.

He wove through the hallways just as quickly as he usually did despite my added weight.

“’
Scuse
me,” he said while I giggled. “
Otta
my way.”

He carried me around the bus loop and all the way to his Jeep. He let go of my legs and I dropped down from his back. “Hur
ry,” he ushered me into the car and tapped the side of it for emphasis. The way everyone hurried to leave, the parking lot became a major danger zone.

“Oh, by the way,” I said.

“Oh dear God, no conversation ever ends well when you start it with, ‘by the way,’” Caeden said and stopped at the stoplight coming out of the school.

“I have to come into school early tomorrow morning to do math with Mrs. Harding.”

“Like I said, never ends well. What did you do?”

“I smiled,” I crossed my arms over my chest.

Caeden snorted. “You smiled, so you got morning detention? That woman is twisted.”

“At least you don’t have her as a
teacher,” I grumbled. “I swear
her whole goal in lif
e must be to make me miserable.”

“I think her goal is to make
everyone
miserable,” he said as he drove to the cupcake shop. “Maybe you and Bryce more than others.”

Caeden parked the Jeep and hopped out. I climbed out after him and asked, “You’re coming? You’re not going with Bentley?”

“Well,” he said with a smirk, “if I remember last night correctly, after my girlfriend was sure I was safe she attacked me with her fists.” He put his hands on both sides of my face, cocooning me, and said, “I hate it when you’re upset. Especially when I know it’s my fault.”

“And that’s what makes you the perfect boyfriend,” I said.

“I don’t know about perfect,” he said. “I can never-”

“Remember to put the toilet seat down, I know, I know,” I said.

He laughed. “We better get in there before Lucinda comes out here to kick our
tooshies
.”

“You’re right,” I said and started to pull away but he pulled me back to him.

“One quick kiss won’t hurt a thing,” he said and pressed his lips to mine. This kiss was
anything but
quick and
I
began to worry that someone would see us. But quickly that thought, and all others, disappeared from my mind
. Caeden always seemed to be able to do that to me.

Licking
my bottom lip, he pulled away. With a smile he headed to the door and opened it. “You coming?”

“Uh- yeah,” I forced my feet to move.

He laughed at my dazed expression.

Caeden and I tossed on our Lucinda’s hats and shirts. Gram came from the front and said, “Thank goodness you’re here. I’ve got to go, I’m already five minutes late,” she looked at her
watch and blew her gray hair from her face. She untied an apron from around her waist and tossed it over her arm. “Bye Soph,” she kissed my cheek. “Caeden,” she waved and he tilted his hat down.

“She was in a hurry,” I said to Caeden as the door closed behind her.

He chuckled and flipped his baseball cap backwards. “A council meeting was called.”

“Aren’t you supposed to go to those,” I said.

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “B
ut I never do, so why start now? I think you should work the front today,” he tilted his head to study my reaction.

My limbs locked and the color drained from my face. “Um-”

“Soph,” he said, “it’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You can’t let Travis keep you from living your life and doing your job.”

I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. “Fine,” I snapped. “I’ll do it. But for the record,” I pointed a finger menacingly at him, “I hate you.”

He laughed and his blue eyes sparkled. I turned on my heel and strode through the swinging door. “No, you don’t!” he called.

A mom with her rambunctious toddler was sitting at one of the tables. The kid had blue icing and chocolate cake all over his face. Why were little kids always so dirty? Did they just enjoy being covered in goo?

“Timothy,” the mom scolded when the toddler stood on the seat and wiped his dirty hand on the wall. She sent me a sympathetic glance and grabbed a handful of napkins to try and clean it off. Sighing, I grabbed a wet cloth from the kitchen.

“Here, I’ll get it,” I told the woman.

“Oh, thank you,” she breathed and sat back down. This close up I could see just how exhausted she was and I instantly felt sorry for her.
I wiped the wall clean and then turned to the dirty kid.

“Hey bud, is that cupcake good?”

He nodded his head.

“Do you mind if I clean your hands for you? It can’t be fun trying to eat a cupcake with all that goo on your hands.”

He looked at his mom for approval. When she gave it he shoved his chubby little fingers in my face.
I proceeded to clean his fingers off and then I even wiped his rosy pink cheeks.

“Thank you,” the woman said and patted my hand. “I’m so sorry for the mess he made.”

“It’s not a problem,” I said.

The door opened and several school kids came in as well as a man dressed in a suit with his cellphone glued to his ear
who
I assumed worked at the bank across the road.

I opened the door to the kitchen and tossed the cloth in. It hit’s target, the back of Caeden’s head, and he yelled, “Hey!” before I closed the door. I turned to the waiting customers, a giggle escaping my lips.

Fixing my hat, I said, “May I help you?”

I was getting stronger. I was amazed by the amount of strength I possessed. I had never imagined that I could have this kind of power. I struck out with my fist and caught Bryce square in the jaw with enough force to bring him down to the mat. He spat blood on the blue mat before jumping up and coming at me again. I ducked down and grabbed the back of his knees. He twisted to the side and came down with a thud on his hip.

Caeden laughed from the corner, clapping, and I could hear him say, “That’s my she-wolf.”

Bryce’s stunned blue eyes met mine for a second before he jumped at me. I pushed him off and using my body weight slammed him down on the ground, holding him there. It seemed that I wasn’t completely useless in my human form.

“I’m done,” Bryce said, blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. “My bruises have bruises and those are quickly forming more bruises.”

I released him and he began to rub his arm. I felt a rush of power knowing that I ha
d taken down someone Bryce’s siz
e.

“Who’s next?” I looked around, pushing sweaty hair off my brow. “Caeden?”

He paled.

“Come on,” I coaxed. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Bentley slapped him on the shoulder. “Go on, Caeden, show your girl
who’s
boss.”

I narrowed my eyes, daring him to turn me down.

Sighing, he uncrossed his arms, and said, “I’ll make you regret this.”

“Prove it,” I challenged.

Caeden stepped onto the mat and said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

Within a second we began our dance. I knew to the others we appeared beautiful but deadly.
Two Alphas squaring off.
We circled, we feinted, every move was so perfectly matched by the other that I quickly forgot who made the first move.
We were both hesitant to hurt one another. I heard the guys yell, “Caeden take her down!” and the girls screamed, “You can beat him
,
Sophie!”

We continued our dance undeterred
by their cheers. Caeden threw
a punch and caught me in the shoulder. It hurt but not as bad as it could have. He was ho
lding back and that made me mad
. I put more force behind my kicks and caught him in the side. His breath whooshed out like a deflated balloon. While he was bent over I shoved him with my body weight and he fell to the mat with me on top of him. His blue eyes met mine and I gasped. That look… Wow, it did strange things to a girl.

“Got you,” I rasped.

He flipped over so that I was on the floor and he was hovering over me. He grabbed my hands and held them above my head. “Now I’ve got you,” he lowered his lips to mine and slowly pried them open. A girly breath escaped my throat.

“Ew! Are you guys going to have sex? At least let us leave first!” Bryce groaned.

Caeden chuckled and pulled away. Still holding me down he met my eyes and said, “For the record, that’s how I plan to end
all
our fights.”

“I think you might’ve mentioned that,” I breathed.

Oh dear God I was doomed.

Caeden pushed himself up and held out a hand for me. Instead of letting me go he pulled me against his chest.

“Thanks for ruining the moment Bryce,” Caeden grinned.

“Ugh,” Bryce held his hand out.
“I just don’t want to be witness to any
moments
between you two. Excuse me while I throw up a bit in my mouth.”

Caeden smacked his younger brother on the back of the head.

“That hurt,” Bryce rubbed his head.

“Good,” Caeden said.

“Oh it’s on,” Bryce said and attacked his brother. Caeden pushed me out of the way but Bryce’s fist still caught me. Caeden growled and tackled his brother to the ground. I rolled out of the way and joined the others a safe distance away.

Chris turned to me, her pale green eyes silently laughing, and said, “Want to get a lemonade? They’ll be at it for a while.”

“Sure,” I said. I no longer worried about Caeden gett
ing hurt during a practice spar.
W
ith Travis?
Now that was a different story.

I followed Chris up the basement steps. Her honey blond hair hung in a long ponytail. She had that thin hair that always looked perfect while mine was a thick mess. Chris opened the refrigerator and pulled out a glass
pitcher of fresh lemonade. Amy had even cut up a lemon and the slices floated around. Having basically grown up in the Williams house Chris went right to the cabinet of glasses and grabbed two. I filled them with ice and she poured the pale yellow lemonade into them.

With a glint in her eye she said, “Wait,” and dug through a drawer. “Aha!” she said and pulled out little drink umbrellas. She put a blue one in hers and an orange one in mine. “Now they’re pretty,” she smiled.

She sat on the counter and I pulled out a stool. The lemonade was tangy on my tongue but refreshing.

Chris tucked a piece of blond hair behind her ear and wiped lemonade from her lip. Blushing she said, “I don’t know why but I have a feeling that I have you to thank for Bentley’s sudden change of heart.”

I nearly spit out a mouthful of lemonade her comment was so surprising.

“What?” I gasped, trying not to choke.

“Bentley always… avoided me. No, not avoided, more… I don’t know,” she rambled. “He just always fought the attraction between us.”

“I-uh-I did talk to him one day,” I
stammered.

“I don’t know what you said but thank you Sophie. I love that boy more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. He’s my everything.”

“He’s your mate,” I said.

“Yeah,” she swirled a finger around the rim of her cup, “he is and it’s…”

“Magical?” I supplied.

“That’s the perfect word for it. Magical,” she tested the word on her tongue.
“What… what did you say to him? I mean- you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she added.

“I told him that he deserves to love and be loved despite what he thinks,” I shrugged.
“I honestly didn’t say that much.”

“I didn’t know he felt that way,” she said.

We finished our lemonade in companionable silence, both lost in our thoughts.

“I guess we better go back down there,” Chris said with a small smile. “I just hope they haven’t killed each other.”

“Caeden can control himself,” I winked, “and I don’t think Bryce can take him.”

Chris’ booming laugh filled the kitchen. She placed our glasses in the sink and threw her arm over my shoulder. “Oh, Sophie, I don’t know what we did before you came along.”

“I’m sure it was very exiting,” I said.

“Yeah, it was, but it always felt like something was missing. You’re that missing piece.”

The guys hadn’t killed each other. Caeden and Bryce were now sitting on the floor sipping from water bottles and wiping sweat from their brows. Caeden jokingly pushed his brothers shoulder and Bryce toppled over. With a laugh
,
Bryce pushed back but Caeden didn’t budge.

“Come on,” Chris motioned her head towards the mats. “I want to see if I can still take you now that you’re super wolf.”

“I don’t know,” I bit my lip. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“
Puh
-lease,” Chris rolled her eyes. “It’ll take a lot more than little ole you to hurt me,” she flexed her impressive arm muscles. “I’m not as pathetic as that weenie
,” she giggled and pointed at Bryce.

“Hey!” he quipped and threw a water bottle at her head. The bottle shot forward like a missile and Chris caught it despite still having human reflexes.

“Nice try,” she smirked.

Bryce stuck his tongue out. “Guess I’ll just have to take your boy toy on and see if you still like his pretty face when he’s covered in bruises.”

Bentley cracked his knuckles. “And we’ll see if Charlotte still likes you when you can’t walk and have to eat through a feeding tube.”

The boys went at it and the room filled with the sounds of punches, grunts, and kicks.

“Let’s do this,” Chris said, straightening her tank top strap.

“Better call 911,” I said, “because when I’m done with you, you’ll definitely need an ambulance.”

“Hardy-
har
-
har-har
,” she rolled her eyes. “All talk and no action.”

Lightning fast I struck out and she fell down to her back and the air whooshed out of her lungs. “
Freakin
’ ninja,” she muttered under her breath as she slowly began to stand. She rubbed her backside. I smiled in satisfaction.

With my new and improved shifter abilities I was able to slow down every movement she went to make. She’d draw her arm back in a punch and I would see it in slow motion so I could either duck or grab her arm.
“Incredible,” I murmured under my breath. I had never wanted this kind of strength, power, I had been fine being perfectly normal, but there was a sense of satisfaction in my abilities. I knew that if I went up against a seasoned shifter I’d probably fail but someone like Travis? Yeah, I was pretty sure I could do some serious damage to his pretty face.

After hitting the floor for the fiftieth time Chris held a hand out and said, “Done, I’m done.” She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly, and I wasn’t even winded. “You’re a natural Sophie. I don’t know what’s happened to you. That one day you fought like a human and now you fight like a super wolf.”

“My she-wolf,” Caeden came up to me and kissed my cheek.

“Didn’t I tell you never to call me that?” I smiled.

“I seem to remember that conversation but I chose not to listen to you.”

“Ah, of course,” I laughed. “Is this what I have to look forward to for the rest of my life? You not listening to me?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Caeden nodded. “I’m going to shower,” he kissed me.

I looked down at Chris and held out a hand to help her up. She took it and I easily hauled her up. “Need some ice?”

“Yes, please,” she limped over to the couch.

I went to the kitchen and brought a couple of ice packs down for Chris. She gladly took them and sighed in relief when it hit her skin. I sat down beside her and saw Bentley and Bryce in the corner. Bryce held a towel to his bloody nose and Bentley was snapping a bone in his arm into place so it would heal correctly. T
he sound was sickening and I made a face of disgust.