Page 1 of In Your Eyes
Chapter 1
THEFIRSTthing I hated about him was his smile. Nobody smiles that much genuinely. It’s fake. I don’t trust fake people; they tend to hide things. And Korban Keller was as fake as they came.
He was older than me. Not by much, just a few years. With our packs being relatively close in proximity, I had seen him a handful of times when we were boys.
My clearest memory of him back then was of his eyes—they were a rich navy, the color of the deepest part of the ocean. He had a weird habit of tracking me with those eyes, and I wondered if it was because he planned to attack me or if he was waiting to catch me making a mistake so he could call me out on it in front of everybody. Whatever the reason, it distracted me, so when we were in the same room, I struggled to focus on anything other than Korban watching me.
His father was Alpha of the Miancarem pack, which lived on the edge of the same forest as my pack, Yafenack. But where their pack lands started on the northern end of the forest and abutted a human town, ours began in the center and continued with dense woods protected by a wide spring on one end and a rocky mountain on the other. The humans built a highway on the other side of the creek, but it didn’t have an exit near our town, so we remained secluded and safe.
Even at age eight, I understood the Yafenack pack would be my responsibility one day. I needed to learn how to be a good Alpha, so I rarely left my father’s side. Korban was in line to be Alpha of his pack too, but he seemed to have no sense of duty.
My first time going to an interpack council meeting with my father, Korban walked right up to me and said, “Hi.”
It was weird.
After thinking about the best way to respond to the son of the Miancarem Alpha and eliminating a couple of options, I finally went with, “Hello.”
“I’m Korban Keller.” He smiled so broadly his nose crinkled a little. “What’s your name?”
I glanced up at my father to see if he could help me figure out how to deal with the unexpected interrogation, but he was busy talking with the other adults.
“I’m Samuel Goodwin,” I said eventually.
“How old are you, Sam?”
I hated being called Sam. I also hated being asked questions when I didn’t know why they were being asked. And I didn’t like people poking their noses in my business. But on the other hand, I worried it’d be considered rude if I didn’t answer. I’d have to work with this boy one day because I’d be Alpha of my pack, he’d be Alpha of his pack, and my father said getting along with people was important. I wasn’t sure why or if I agreed, but he was a smart man and I tried to listen to him.
“I’m eight.”
“Cool. I’m eleven.”
He kept grinning and looking at me. I wondered if I was supposed to say something or if we were done talking and he’d go away so I could stop feeling nervous and focus on my dad’s conversation.
“You want to go play, Sam?”
“It’s Samuel!” I snapped.
His eyes widened in surprise, but that was his only reaction to my obvious annoyance. “Do you want to go play, Samuel?”
I looked him over and tried to figure out what he was doing.
“They have a football in the back.”
I stared at him.
“And the yard is really big.”
Big as in big enough that nobody would hear me if I got hurt? Was he threatening me?
“But if you don’t like football, they have checkers too.”
Why wouldn’t I be able to play football? I was one of the strongest boys in my grade and, yes, Korban was bigger than me, but that was only because he was older.
“If you like checkers.” He smiled again, but it wasn’t as big that time. There was something softer about it. “It’s okay if you don’t.”
Oh, so now I wasn’t strong enough for football and I wasn’t smart enough for checkers. The nerve of that guy!
“We can shift instead. I bet we can find good stuff to sniff when we’re in our wolf forms.”
