Chapter 10 : Rebel

MAXINE. I fall to my backside, the air getting knocked out of me. I look around, hoping it’s Jonathan who saved me out there because Amarantha seems to be channeling her inner demon for real now, but it’s just a different boy. Someone a little older. He has brown hair and bright gold eyes, his skin so smooth and tanned that he looks like some sort of a model. His hand is still heavily clasped on mine, his eyebrows scrunched in a baffled expression. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he explodes at me, but his voice sounds too smooth and deep and melodious that I don’t even catch the annoyance in his tone. I blink rapidly as he pulls me up to my feet. I’m about to go right back into the office but the boy holds up his arm and stops me. “Hey, don’t go back in. Let me handle this, yeah?” I nod, seemingly in a trance. He pauses to make sure I won’t follow him before he sets off into the office, shifting into his Werewolf form. This is my first time seeing a full transformation. With Amarantha, that is. But her pace was slow and menacing. You can actually see her fur sprouting and her ears migrating. But with this boy, it’s different. The transition was seamless. You can’t see his body transforming into a beast. One leap and he’s a black wolf with brown streaks. One leap and he’s a beast. But strangely enough, I don’t feel the usual fear of Werewolves when I see him. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he’s now charging at Amarantha to square up against her, just because I triggered her hard enough to try to kill me. The boy rams into Amarantha’s abdomen, knocking the air out of her. They both land against the other side of the wall with a big crash. Glass frames and vases all come crashing down to the floor, scattering deadly jagged glass pieces. “Get out of there!” I yell at the boy, thinking that we can just lock Amarantha in and let anyone and everyone know what a real monster she is. But the boy doesn’t listen to me. Also, my callout seems to have alerted Amarantha of my presence and now she’s growling and trying to get to the door. However, the boy is fast. So fast, in fact, that sometimes he disappears into a blur. He surrounds Amarantha like a tornado, smacking her in certain places that make her weak. He slows down just enough to make me see that he’s nipping at her joints, and miraculously, Amarantha falls down and starts to shrink. He’s amazing. Who is this boy? “I will kill her,” she starts to pant, her voice going from growly to normal in a couple of seconds. “I will fucking destroy her….” The boy also shifts back into his human form, standing over her and helping her up. I vaguely wonder if they have some kind of connection, because even though he’s wearing the same old gray uniform, she doesn’t seem all that intent on killing him. Which seems to be her general attitude towards the Unclaimed. “Where is she?” Amarantha screeches, jumping to her feet and wheeling around to look for me. I hide behind the door and hope to god she doesn’t sniff me out. “Where did she go?” She’s about to go out, her footsteps nothing but menacing sounds echoing in the distance. However, the boy speeds out of his way and blocks her. “Do you really want to find her? Do you really want to make this worse?” “The only thing that would make this worse is if she doesn’t learn her lesson!” she yells. “That snarky little shit. I will crush her throat with my bare hands and—” “Overseer, please.” The sound of the boy’s voice changes, becomes softer and more enchanting. It doesn’t sound like him whispering to a lover or something, but instead it sounds like him softly correcting a badly misbehaving child. The room goes silent and I thought Amarantha would annihilate him for using this condescending tone on her, but she just takes a deep breath as though she’s really trying to compose herself. “I don’t know what you’re doing here,” she says, her voice considerably calm now. “You shouldn’t have gone here.” “Well, I heard that someone is going to be doing the sewerage elective and I was going to volunteer as a guide,” he says, and there’s a hint of dryness in his tone now. Like he’s being slightly sarcastic. “But I’m sorry, Overseer. I don’t want to sound like I know better than you, but I don’t think this girl is worth losing yourself over. I know for a fact that you are applying for a higher position. A chance to get out of this camp once and for all.” “That is true.” Amarantha sighs and I sneak in a look. She’s now sitting on what’s left of her chair, delicately putting a hand on her forehead like a damsel in distress. “I want to be Ambassador by the end of this year. This will ruin my campaign.” “She will ruin your campaign,” the boy adds pointedly. She looks at him, her eyes sparkling in amazement. “You’re right. As always. Thank you for interfering and showing me this. I got shortsighted and I let my anger get the best of me.” He smiles and bows. “Of course. I will always be at your service, Overseer.” “I don’t know why you’re still here.” She shakes her head and smiles, looking like an actual living breathing human for the first time. “The packs should have snapped you right up and made you their member.” “I like being here,” he just says humbly, but a spark in his eyes tells me that this is not true. “Well, I might just take you off that sewerage mission,” she volunteers. “You are way too valuable to be used in those bad places. What do you say to being my assistant?” “I will say that you made the right choice when you made Jonathan your assistant,” he says smoothly. “I am perfectly content working there alone and saving everyone from that kind of hard work, Overseer. I am also happy to get that place as far away from you as possible.” Amarantha just smiles warmly at him and I look away before I can feel puke forming. This is a pretty gross sight to behold, not that it’s the boy’s fault. I think she may have a crush on him. I’m about to leave and sneak into my room to avoid all of this but that’s when I run into Jonathan. He doesn’t seem too happy now. In fact, he looks worried about me. “What happened in there, Maxine Kane?” he asks, putting a hand around my arm and steering me away. “Do not do or say anything bad to the Overseer. It’s not right for us to—” “Who was that boy?” I interject. “That… I don’t know,” he says, but the fact that he looks away tells me he does know. I stop in my tracks and stare him down, and that’s when he sighs and gives up. “That’s my best friend, Theodore Bailey.” “And who exactly is he?” Jonathan bites his lips nervously, but he takes a deep breath and whispers, “He’s the secret leader of the Unclaimed Camp and the head of the rebellion.”