Wolf healer, p.1
Wolf Healer, page 1
Copyright © 2021 by Huckleberry Rahr
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2021919226
Printed in the United States of America: First Printing, 2021.
ISBN 978-1-7378376-0-2 (eBook)
ISBN 978-1-7378376-1-9 (paperback)
www.huckleberryrahrauthor.wordpress.com
Editor: Wes Imrisek
Copy Editor: Angela Grimes
Cover Art: Crimson Phoenix Creations
Formatting: R. L. Davennor
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Chapter 1
“Jade, are you ready for today?”
With a thunk, I dropped my bag onto the lab bench and started unpacking my materials for class. Two notebooks, one for notes, and a smaller one for notes.
Bevin, my lab partner, watched me, eyes sparkling. Standing, he was just over six feet tall with mousy brown hair. He always wore plaid button downs that looked like he stole them from his dad’s closet. You might mistake him for trying to blend in if it weren’t for his mischievous personality and stunning sapphire blue eyes.
Sliding into my lab seat until our shoulders bumped, I nearly fell to the floor. He caught me and I bit back a laugh. “What do you think?”
In a teasing tone he said, “Obviously not.” He smiled widely.
My nose wrinkled in mock annoyance, and I poked him in the shoulder with a pencil. He laughed loud enough to catch the attention of the few students around us. Class would start soon so we had to stop goofing off. I dropped my head into my folded arms to hide my smile, took a breath, and straightened back up.
Bevin eyed me and we both lost it again.
We had been brought up together, our families connected. Always thrown together since he was only a year older than me. Then there was the fact that Bevin, like me, was probably going to grow up to be a pack healer, so we’d better learn to love science classes, especially biology. Though we both knew we were destined for medicine, his path into healing hadn’t been as abrupt as mine.
“Why do you have black hair, or red hair, or even blond hair? Is your hair straight? Curly? Is there baldness in your family?” My pencil flew across my larger notebook as Ms. White began her lecture. The chapter I’d read last night had covered this, so this material wasn’t new.
On the smaller pad I scratched out, Movie, board game, or social tonight? and passed it to Bevin.
He read it and passed it back. Movie for the kiddos, my dad got that new movie they all want to see. Social for us. If we start playing a game, my sisters will want to play. I haven’t had much time to talk to José this week, it’d be nice.
Huffing a laugh, I shrugged. With Owen there, it isn’t like you two will have time to talk, but sounds…
“Jade?” Bevin’s urgent whisper pulled me back to class.
Looking up, I saw the teacher’s gaze boring into me.
My heart raced in my chest as I gazed at her. I tried to keep my expression blank. “I’m sorry, Ms. White, I missed the question.”
We had been discussing Punnett squares, small two-by-two grids that let us compare parent traits to predict offspring traits. It was interesting to learn about our own characteristics and to see how they played out in our families. My mom had auburn hair, but you couldn’t see any of that with my black locks. My color was recessive to my dad’s black hair. My eyes were what gave me my name; they were the exact shade of the green stone.
Genetics were a bit more of a spectrum than these boxes told us, but they were a fun place to start.
Both my parents had brown eyes, but I had my grandparents’ green eyes. My brother’s blond hair was a recessive trait that no one had expected, but his brown eyes were a mirror image of our dad’s. Outside of his hair, he could almost be our dad’s twin.
Ms. White continued to stare at me, a smug smile on her face. “It is always easier to be prepared for a quiz when you pay attention in class, Jade.”
She loved to catch me daydreaming.
“Sorry, Ms. White,” I mumbled, feeling the heat rush to my face. The battle of hiding my emotions was lost. Being caught not paying attention by my teacher irked me more than just about anything in school.
A half hour later, biology class was over, and it was time for lunch with Sarah and the rest of the group. Sarah had been my best friend since kindergarten. We had hit it off when we realized neither of us played with dolls or loved the color pink. We weren’t normal little girls. We camped in her backyard, played in the mud getting dirty, and rode around on our bikes all summer. Though she could be girly now, dresses, makeup, and magazines were never our focus. As we grew up, we realized we enjoyed the same books, music, TV shows, and movies.
We were alike in all ways except looks. Where I was of average height and looks, Sarah was tall and stunning. She was several inches taller than me, with dark terra-cotta skin and deep brown eyes. Modelesque yet athletic. Her dominating presence and charisma commanded any room she entered. She played sports, and though she normally slummed with us, on game days she socialized with the athletes.
Our group was eating inside today for lunch. February was the worst month of the year in Wisconsin, cold and miserable. All we had to look forward to was more snow, and maybe icy wind. Once the cold broke, in March or, say, July, and the warmth came, it would be beautiful for a day or two, and then the heat and humidity would hit. It could be quite lovely in the summer, or miserably sticky. However, staying indoors all the time was driving us crazy.
Sarah sat down at our spot. “Hey, Jade, how were classes?” She dropped her tray with a healthy array of pizza and fries.
My face heated up all over again. “I was goofing with Bev last period and got caught. How does Ms. White always know? I swear. I pay attention, take notes, and do my best, and she ignores me. One note written to Bev, and bam! she immediately calls on me. Every. Single. Time. It’s like she has radar.”
Sarah laughed at me. “You know Ms. White loves you. When does she ever ignore you? She practically volun-told you to join the senior biology class at the end of freshman year. She knows you want to go into medicine. I’m sure she just wants the best for you…and she probably likes to mess with little Miss Perfect Student.”
Groaning, I rolled my eyes. “I am, by no means, a perfect student. I just know my family expects a lot from me.”
“Could have fooled me.”
Bevin slipped onto one of the table’s benches as I shot Sarah a chagrined stare. He started to unpack his lunch, joining in on the conversation. “Not to mention, you expect a lot from you. I will admit that Ms. White is exceptional at catching you when you’re distracted. It’s awesome.” He chuckled.
Sarah amusement permeated the table. Instead of fighting them, I took some of her fries, deciding eating was better than getting mad.
The lunchroom was loud as students took their assigned seats. Okay, they weren’t assigned, but no one ever veered from the areas they occupied the day before. There may have been a bit of shifting once in a while, but it was rare.
Bevin took a quick bite of his sandwich and swallowed. Apparently, we weren’t done with my humiliation during biology. “But your mishap wasn’t that bad.” He turned to Sarah. “Jade likes to exaggerate. She was in the middle of one of our notebook convos, missed a question, politely requested it repeated, and then wowed the class with her brilliance once she knew what was going on.” His tone on the word politely was a bit mocking, as if he wouldn’t have been just as polite.
He shook his head in disgust, though his eyes were dancing, and faced me again. “Ms. White can’t lose you for long, Jade. She just catches you like a dog chasing a cat up into a tree.”
I threw a fry at him. He deserved it. “Jerk.” I laughed. Bevin always knew how to get me to laugh.
Sarah turned to Bevin. “Plans for spring break?”
Bevin blushed. “I know I have a year plus before I turn eighteen, but spring break I’m meeting up with some people from a local organization. I found them through Instagram. They’re a group of people at different stages of gender confirming surgeries.”
Sarah and I both paused. A huge
Bevin had known he was different at a young age. We all started calling him Bevin in middle school, though he’d always bought clothes from the boys’ department. His family had started the official change on paper, and he began hormone treatment with his transition to high school.
He nodded. “How about you?” His focus shifted between both of us.
Sorting my mental list, Sarah interrupted me before I could share what I’d decided was just me and Sarah, and what the three of us could do together. She made a noise, like a squeak in the back of her throat.
She turned to me. “So, my family wants to take a trip this spring break…” She paused staring back and forth between Bevin and me, then screeched, “To Florida!”
Bevin flinched at her pitch.
“Really?” I tried to sound excited, my cheeks pulling my mouth into a smile, of sorts. But my heart dropped to my belly as disappointment flowed through my body. We were supposed to spend this spring break together. It had been a particularly hard winter, we’d all been fighting cabin fever for weeks. I was anticipating doing something fun together, even if it had to be indoors.
The squeeze Bevin gave me on my knee under the table let me know my act hadn’t worked. At least I knew he’d be around to keep me company.
Eyes shut, I tried to transform my smile into something sincere. When I stared at Sarah, it was through a bit of misty vision. “That’s great. You’re going to have so much fun. Are you going to the beaches? Orlando? The Keys? What’s the plan? Is your whole family going?”
Even to me, my voice sounded flat.
Sarah stared at me deadpan, and then snorted. “You are trying so hard to be happy for me, yet you look like a drowned cat. You didn’t let me finish, silly. Yes, we’re going to Florida. Yes, we are going to the beaches. Yes, my whole family is going, all three of us. You didn’t let me finish, idiot.” She paused, staring at me dramatically. “We want you to come with us.”
Everything in the world around me stopped. My jaw dropped along with whatever I was holding. My eyes began to sting, and I had to force myself to blink.
Sarah rapped on the table to get my attention. “My mom is going down to the University of Florida for a conference that coincides with our spring break. You won’t even miss any classes. We can go on a tour of the University. We’ll spend most of our time in Gainesville, not that interesting, but Dad said he would take us to Orlando for at least one day, maybe out to Kennedy Space Center, too. We can see if there are any launches happening.”
Bevin knocked into me to snap me out of my shock. Finally, I replied, as my heart raced, and my breathing got ragged. “Really? You aren’t kidding me? Me, too? To Florida? With your family? Really?” My words stumbled out of me. “You aren’t kidding? This is real? And you really thought I would worry about missing school, dork?”
We were both laughing at this point.
“Yes, it’s real, but you need to talk to your parents to make sure they’re okay with it. If you can’t come, it will be horrible.” Her hand flew up to her forehead for emphasis.
Like a bucket of ice-cold water being dumped over my head, my mood deflated. My parents. A chill ran down my spine. My dad. “Yeah, that makes sense.” Focus on the good: Florida. “Oh, my gods, this is so awesome, I hope they say yes. How many more classes until I can go home and talk with them? This is so cool. Florida!”
It was my turn to squeal.
José, a senior who recently started hanging out with us, and the last of our group, finally arrived. “What’s so cool?”
His dad was Mexican, and his mom was from Florida, so his family spoke both English and Spanish at home. His accent always had a way of centering me.
Gazing at him, like a lifeline who held my future, I spoke fast enough my words practically blurred together. “Sarah’s family is going to Florida over spring break, and she just invited me to go.” My smile was starting to hurt my cheeks.
“Do you really think your parents will let you go?” His words hit me like a punch to the gut.
Deflated, I slumped and ate some pizza.
José’s family was part of the pack, unlike Sarah’s, who didn’t even know werewolves existed. He used to hang out with my older brother, Owen, another senior, but José got fed up with that crowd. He tended to be more academic than the lot of them. He had been on the basketball team for a few years and was good, but he never seemed liked it. Overall, he would rather hang out with us than a group of dumb jocks. At least that was my theory.
He said he’d started hanging out with us this year, when, as he put it, I became less annoying. He had been offered several engineering scholarships all over the country. Though, he planned on staying local, or at least that is what we all hoped. Having our friend close was important. The local university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was a great college.
“Mom? Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. Yes! Don’t ruin this for me.” I felt defensive and defeated at the same time. My heart started racing. Gesturing wildly, I almost took Bevin out. My face heating up in the combination of embarrassment at how important this was to me and frustration that he was probably right.
Bevin carefully grabbed my wrist as José continued to speak.
His warm eyes took me in, calming me. “Jade, I’m not trying to ruin anything, chica, but your dad is not known for being the most easygoing father I’ve ever met. I mean your mom is awesome, but your dad is as controlling as they come.” José had had a few run-ins with my dad over the years, so I guessed I should cut him a little slack.
Focused on José’s words, I took a deep breath, ordered my thoughts, and slipped my wrist from Bevin’s grip. “That’s why I’m going to ask my mom first. She can convince my dad about how educational and amazing this will be for me. To get to my dad, I’ll go through my mom.”
There, a plan of attack.
Huffing out a laugh, José shook his head and gave me a half-smile. “Fair, but delusional, chica.”
Sarah watched us like a tennis match, her eyes bouncing back and forth. “Wow, José, you seem to know Jade’s parents almost as well as she does.”
Though José had been hanging out with us for a few months now, my parents had not been a subject of discussion. Sarah didn’t really understand the neighborhood and how close we all were. Everyone in the pack lived in the neighborhood, and all the kids of pack members grew up together. We spent every full moon night together while our parents were out running, honoring Mondara, the werewolf moon god.
Sarah and I had been best friends forever, but to Sarah, werewolves were just the stuff of legends and books, so she didn’t know about that part of my life. I didn’t think she even realized how close I was to Bevin. She probably thought José hung out with us because he used to hang out with Owen and knew me through him.
“It’s hard to not know River and Hazel Stone if you live in the neighborhood. I’ve been mowing lawns and shoveling walks since I was in seventh grade. I know them.”
We all laughed at the chagrin in José’s tone.
Bevin tilted his head towards me. “I don’t know, it’s only Florida. It’s not that far away. What? A thousand miles? Her dad might like to get rid of Jade for a bit.”
I threw another fry at him.
It wasn’t that my dad was awful, it was just that he was very particular about, well, everything, and the people in the neighborhood knew this. My family hired the neighborhood kids to mow the lawn and shovel the walk. It was one of the ways for them to earn money. But if the job wasn’t completed up to River Stone standards, you would be doing it again.
Despite that, the kids in the neighborhood loved my parents. They arranged a lot of community events and outings, which was another reason José and I knew each other so well despite the two-year difference in our ages.
The bell rang. Sarah grabbed her bag and stood. “Okay, after school, you will convince your parents.”
Bevin leaned down, gave me a hug, and whispered, “Good luck with that,” then sauntered off to class.
José’s eyes softened and he shook his head as he left.
Sighing, I grabbed my bag. Images of beaches and crystalline blue waters floated through my head. Then I thought about the possibility of seeing a rocket taking off. Shaking off my daydream, I gathered my stuff and went to return my tray.
