Loved By One, Consumed By Another

Chapter One

I am sitting in the back seat, my ears plugged and my eyes glued to the screen of my phone, when suddenly, the car halts. My back jerks off the car seat, and my phone clatters to the floor. The sound it makes causes me to groan.

“What’s wrong, honey?” My mother…well, my foster mother, Melody, asks from the passenger seat, her arm across the seats, reaching for her husband. My foster father, Gary.

They hate that I call them that, but can you blame me? They refuse to tell me anything about how I got into their care or about my birth parents. And it doesn’t help that I have never felt a connection to them.

It feels like living in a home filled with strangers I have to be cordial with.

“The car,” Gary groans as he twists the key in the ignition. The car coughs, and I begin to release the breath I didn’t know I was holding, thinking we will be out of this place that looks like a desert.

But it dies again, the loud silence stretching out between us.

Great.

Just great.

Gary steps out of the car and walks around it, checking beneath the hood. “We might have to push it,” he calls from where he stands. “I can’t find anything wrong with it. Maybe it needs a little force.”

I sigh, hating the day already. It is supposed to be my first day at the Lycan Academy. I know. Funny choice of name, especially after seeing Teen Wolves. That was my conclusion when the acceptance letter came in.

The owner of the school probably fell in love with the series the way I did.

“Henna?”

“Coming!”

I climb out of the back seat, joining Melody at the back of the car. We try pushing from there, but nothing happens. It seems the tyres have been rooted to the ground.

And then, Gary has the most eerie idea. “This doesn’t feel right,” he says as he narrows his gaze. “Let’s try pushing it backwards.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” I say, coming around to the side of the car. “It won’t budge.”

Something flashes in his eyes in that split second, but it is gone so fast that it might have just been my imagination. “We have to take you to school, don’t we?” he mutters, a tired smile on his face. He hates that he has to say goodbye to me for the term.

I don’t hate it as much as he does, and it makes me feel bad.

Melody and I move to the front of the car, our palms flattened out on the black hood, and our strength forcing the car to move. A trickle of sweat dances down my back, and the sun glares down at us harshly.

The tyres roll backwards, but the car does not start. I am about to tell Gary we need to find a mechanic when suddenly, it coughs to life, rolling all on its own.

“Yay!” Melody claps excitedly. “I was scared we were going to have to sleep out here.” And then, she looks at me. “It won’t be that bad, though. It would be just like old times when we used to go camping under the stars. Do you remember, Henna?”

I know what she is trying to do. Melody doesn’t want me to be five hours away from her. My application to Lycan Academy was just one big mistake. It was a dare. Junior year was about starting, and my friends and I were playing a dumb game.

I didn’t think I was going to get in because the school is known to only accept the best. I haven’t heard of anyone who got accepted personally. It’s like this popular elite school that only a few get to go to.

When the acceptance came, there was little Melody and Gary could do to change my mind. I need to discover who I am away from them, away from the little Garret foster kid.

And this is my opportunity. Maybe when I return, I’ll be ready to love them as much as they love me.

“I remember,” I say, because anything else will hurt Melody. And I don’t want to do that to her. “Those were fun times.”

“That can still be us,” she whispers, drawing close to me. “You don’t have to go to school this far from home. Gary and I…”

“Guys…”

Our heads snap up immediately. The car is back to the same spot that it was, with the door to the driver's seat open. Gary’s head leans out.

“The car is reversing but not going forward.”

“What?” Melody narrows her eyes.

“I don’t get it,” he whispers, more to himself. I watch as she starts the car again. It doesn’t budge when he tries to drive forward, but the moment he puts it in reverse, the tyres suddenly remember how to work.

“This isn’t creepy at all,” Melody murmurs, walking to her husband. I return to the car to pick up my phone from the floor. The screen has a little crack by the side.

I turn the screen light on to check our location.

“Melody?”

“What’s it, honey?”

I walk around to join them at the driver's side. “We seem to be at the border of Gray Ridge. I think we are standing on it.”

“This makes no sense,” Gary mutters, shaking his head. “The car is refusing to go into the town? How is that even possible?”

“It’s not,” Melody chips in, laughing at the look in Gary’s eyes. “Come on, you don’t really believe in something that far-fetched, do you?”

“Then what is happening?”

“We are all exhausted.” Melody wraps her arms around her husband’s neck. “It has been a long journey. Let’s head back to the town we just passed. We can spend the night there and then find someone to check the car before coming back here. I’m sure it’s just something wrong with the car.”

Gary agrees and folds his legs back into the car, while Melody walks around to the passenger’s seat.

I pull open the door to the back seat, half my body in already. But in the setting sun, right before I sit inside fully, I see a shadow standing by the trees to the left of the border.

And its eyes are golden.