Chapter 55: Artemus

We had a goodbye party before leaving the school. We were going home. I was not really looking forward to it. My dad was dead. My brother was the new Alpha. He never lets me be me. He always tried to make me into a warrior or something. We have always had servants in the pack house, but he never let me use them. He told me they are there for the pack and not our personal servants. I told him I am pack therefore, they serve me. He said it didn’t work like that. It was always frustrating when he was around because I had to do everything myself. What if I broke a nail or something?

My name is Artemus Henderson. I was sixteen, a junior in high school. People adore me wherever I go. My father was alpha which made me a princess. My brother became Alpha. But I am still a princess.

My brother and sister may not believe we are royalty, but we are. That’s the way it works. The ruling family is considered royalty and the Hendersons have always been an Alpha family which makes us the ruling family. They think I’m a brat, but really I’m just playing the role I was born into. Why they don’t do the same is beyond me.

The flight home was boring and uncomfortable. I would have preferred to drive the whole way. But Shawn wanted us home as soon as possible. So we flew.

When we arrived home, Shawn had thrown us a surprise party. Of course Layla would go looking for her friends before helping me with my luggage. She can be so selfish sometimes. I left my bags by Kyle’s car and went in to meet Strix and EJ. As I entered the house, Layla ran by me and up the stairs. I found Shawn. The girl standing next to him must be Strix and that boy must be EJ. I heard he was growing fast but didn’t think he would be close to my age yet.

Layla and her friends came back downstairs covered in glitter. They went outside and grabbed Layla’s luggage but left mine. After a while Trevor and the guys came back down and asked if I needed help with mine. Of course I said yes. They took my suitcases upstairs. I told them they needed to unpack everything and put it all away and they did as I told them. When they were finished, we went downstairs and joined Layla and the girls in the library. They were playing cards and joking around. I didn’t used to hangout with them, but this time I stayed.

Even though everyone adored me, I didn’t have a lot of friends. My best friend was Shania Kibbler. She wasn’t here today. I understood why. She had lost both her parents in that fight with Khenzu. She was still grieving and probably didn’t feel like attending a party, even if it was for her best friend. When I was away at school, we talked almost everyday until this last year. Seven years is a long time to be separated from your best friend. But because her grades were slipping, her parents didn’t allow her to use the phone that much. She had to focus on her school work. I was thinking about going to see her when Trevor tapped my shoulder.

“Are you still playing,” he asked.

“Yeah, sorry. What are we playing again?” I asked.

“Spades,” Kat said.

“Right,” I said, placing a card down.

When everything started calming down, we joined the rest of the party. That’s one thing Layla and I had in common. We didn’t like large gatherings, they kind of freaked us out.

After the party, I went to my room to decompress a little. When it was time for dinner I went back downstairs. I sat next to EJ and got to know a little bit about him. He was the first of his kind, a hybrid. I wanted to know more about him and Strix. I asked a lot of questions. Shawn stopped me and said now was not the time. I guess there were quite a lot of people in the packhouse for dinner. I looked around and found Shania was eating here. I got up and changed seats to sit next to her. We hugged for a long time and just cried. When we were done crying and hugging, we got caught up on the last year while we ate our meal.

After dinner, I went with Shania to her house. It was dark and cold inside. I asked Shania if she wanted me to turn the air off and she said no, that she wanted it to be cold. We sat on the couch huddled under a blanket and binge watched The Vampire Diaries. I think we both understood Elena a little better, with us both losing our parents. I always thought Elena was kind of dumb running into danger whenever possible. But I get it now.

If Kat knew I had a crush on Trevor, she’d go all Caroline on me for sure. If anyone knew I had a crush on Trevor, they’d stage an intervention. Trevor is kind of like Damon. The bad boy with a heart of gold. Doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Or doing the wrong thing because he let his emotions run away with him. Trevor does not have the Damon temper though, so that’s good. Also, I think Layla likes him, too. I can’t wait to see his wolf. I bet it is magnificent.

We fell asleep watching TV. Shania and I woke up to loud knocking on the door. I got up and answered it. It was Shawn. It’s too early for his lectures but he is lecturing me already. I should have let him know where I was. I should have said I was going to stay the night. It was his responsibility to keep me safe now. I shouldn’t be making it harder for him to do his job. Blah, blah, blah. When he was done, I closed the door. I told Shania I would see her later and then asked if she would like to come stay at the packhouse for a while. She said yes, of course. She went to pack some things and then came back with me to the packhouse.