Change of Heart by Rina Pattinson (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

“What do you mean you don’t have a clue?”

“He’s stronger than me, and faster!”

“That’s impossible Jennifer and you know that!” I could definitely tell that he was more than pissed. Reid never uses my entire name.

“I saw it with my own eyes Reid. We are dealing with way more than your average werewolf here.”

“You are an alpha. You are the alpha. No other werewolf could be more powerful than you.”

“Then what are you trying to say?” I asked a bit mad now myself.

He looked at me before he spoke, and then sighed, “You’re letting him get to your head.”

I scoffed. “Oh please−

“You are Jennifer. He’s not stronger than you or faster. He wants you to believe that he is. He’s messing with you and you’re letting him do it.” His voice got louder. “What did he say to you by the pool?”

I was shocked that Reid was prying so much. “Nothing.” I said simply checking the time on my phone which I slipped out of my bag.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

Both his hands encaged me between them, my body pressing hard against the wall by which we stood. I could feel his hot breath brush my lips as he tried to relieve himself of some of the anger he had piled up inside.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Jen.” He said finally, his tone calm.

I gave him a nod but did I? He moved his hands from my side and took a step away.

“Go change, you can’t walk into math class wearing a bikini.” He tried to make it sound as though he wasn’t mad anymore but I knew Reid for a very long time; that didn’t work on me.

“Good luck in there.” I said nodding to the pool before I left for the girls’ locker room. When I got into the room everyone was already gone, which for me was a good thing. With fifteen free minutes I decided to relax a bit before I headed to class however when the final number of my combination was entered and my locker door opened, what I found made me able to do anything but relax. I caught the paper just before it fell to the floor. The note read:

You want to talk to me. Ask me something perhaps. And no I did not read your mind; in fact there really isn’t a need to do so since your eyes say so much. Meet me at the Western Waterfront tonight at 9. Come alone. Great match today by the way. I know you were really confident on winning. Oh well…

Love… well you know who this is.

I left the locker room as soon as I had a pair of jeans and a T-shirt on; crumpling the note and tossing it into the nearest trashcan available. Pacing up and down the hallway in front of my locker the only thing running through my mind was should I? Or shouldn’t I? If I did, I could die tonight. If I didn’t, I could lose the opportunity to kill him. I can’t kill him, not alone, and I definitely was not gonna get anyone else involved.

“Hey Jen, I found out some stuff about−

“Ssshhhhhuuuttt up, Adrian!” I silenced another member of my pack. Adrian was the one in charge of everything technical. He did everything from tracing calls to hacking into high tech security systems; finding background information was not his thing, however he did a great job at it. And where’s a better place to obtain news and gossip about anyone than the cheerleading team? That place ceases to exist. Adrian was the high school’s sweetheart. Even the teachers couldn’t look at him without going “awwww he’s so cute,” and it was his cute looks and adorable ways that gave him the advantage. Not to mention his curly brown locks that was according to every female alive ‘to die for’. But even though Adrian was all that and more, we all believed that he had a few loose screws, or maybe even some missing ones. A recent incident where he blew up the school’s chemistry lab was a perfect example of his insanity. Apparently he thought that chemicals were just colored substances, which if mixed in the wrong way could only look prettier, not blow up or anything. No, the word flammable meant nothing to him. Don’t get me started on the word explosive, or poisonous.

“Did you just shush me?”

I held onto his shoulders and turned him to face the direction where Ian Winters stood getting something out of his locker. “Where you gonna say something concerning that guy?” I asked.

“Yea, shoot. I guess I should be more careful.” He smiled, and then it faded. “Is something wrong?”

“I−, no nothing’s wrong.”

“Jennifer?”

“Adrian?”

“I know you may not trust me like you trust Reid, but I am really good at making people feel better. Really it’s one of my charms.”

I laughed. “It’s ok. I’m fine.”

“By the way, I heard someone lost to Ian in the match today. What a loser huh?” He laughed.

“That was me.”

“Did I mention that I also suck at talking to girls?”

“You didn’t have to.” I said; the bell ending my sentence.

“See you later, Jen.” He smiled, hugged me and left.

“Bye.” I said more to myself, my eyes on Ian Winters. He was still looking into his locker, and then as if he felt my eyes on him, he turned and smiled, a cold smile.

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Convincing Reid and the others of my pack that I was just going for a late night walk to clear my head wasn’t easy, but not impossible. I arrived at the Western Waterfront at 8:58pm exactly. I had barely stepped out of the car when I saw him. Sitting on the ledge of the wall surrounding a water fountain, both his hands pressing the wall on the both sides of him. He wore black jeans, a grey long sleeved V-neck, his hard biceps looking as though they were ready to burst through and black boots. A shining silver crucifix hung from his neck, bringing out the muscled buried in his chest and his hair looked perfect as usual.

“You came.” He smiled.

“Surprised?”

“You’re on time. I know most typical American girls like to be um, what is it? Fashionably late?”

“I am everything but typical.”

“Oh, I know. Let’s go inside. Shall I escort you?” He offered me his hand.

“Both my eyes function as needed. I can find my way.” I said walking pass him into the restaurant.

“Ohhh, feisty. I like that.” He murmured, but I ignored his comment and walked to the entrance.

“Table for two?” The waitress asked me.

“We have reservations, I’m Mr. Winters.” Ian walked in front of me, speaking to the waitress.

“Oh right, the couple special.”

“What?” I asked already pissed.

“Yes.” Ian smiled, looking back at me.

“Right this way.” The waitress smiled walking to our table.

“Ladies first.” He said gesturing for me to walk ahead of him. Rolling my eyes as much as they could roll, I followed the waitress.

She placed us at our tables then gave us the menu before leaving. Without saying a word Ian picked his up and began to read. After five minutes of reading he peeked over the menu at me, realizing that mine was still on the table.

“Aren’t you hungry?” He asked.

“This is not a date.”

“A genuine young man invites a beautiful girl to dinner. She accepts his invitation and here they are together sitting at the dinner table with a lovely candle light between them. Sounds like a date to me.”

I blew the candle light out. “It’s not. Why did you invite me here, Ian Winters?”

“Please, call me Ian.” He put the menu down.

“That sounds too friendly, and I am absolutely not a friend to you. Now, why am I here?”

“I figured you wanted to discuss something with me.”

I laughed a fake laugh. “Oh right, my vulnerable eyes.”

“They’re pretty, but vulnerable.”

“What do you want from me?” I was impatient.

“I have a feeling you already know.” He leaned closer to me.

“You want to rob me of my life? Why?”

He smiled.

“Tell me why!” I almost shouted, grabbing his hands; squeezing them hard.

“Careful, Jennifer. I heard the wound of an alpha could be quite nasty.” He smiled even wider then burst out into a soft laugh.

I let go of him. “It’s true. You know and that’s what you want. My pack and I were right.”

“Yea, I guess you were.” He said leaning back into his chair. “I invited you here to make a little deal.”

“Screw you.”

“You don’t have to do that. But if you volunteer−

I threw the glass of ice water in his face before he could finish. He laughed. “Typical girl move.” He said drying his face with a paper towel. The waitress was back.

“Are you guys ready to order?”

“Yes I’ll have two cheese burgers, extra cheese, two portions of French fries and a large coke. Diet coke. Jennifer?”

“I’m fine. I’m leaving anyway!” I said flinging back my chair and walking for the exit.

“I’ll take the food to go.” Ian said to the waitress then followed behind me. “Jennifer wait!”

“What?”

“You didn’t hear the deal.”

“What’s the deal?” I shouted.

“Listen, if you just give your power to me, everything will go down easily.”

“If I don’t?”

“Well then I’ll just have to take your life in the process of getting it. And trust me when I say this Jennifer, I don’t like to get my hands dirty. Especially with the blood of a pretty girl like you, so choose carefully.”

“I will never give my power to you.”

“Your choice, sweetheart. It’ll be hard to take your life. I might even feel a bit of guilt for a while.”

“Go to hell.” I said with disgust.

“I’ve been there already. It’s not as bad as most people make it sound.”

“Why don’t you just kill me now? What are you waiting for?”

“I won’t be so unfair to you, Jennifer. I have a heart.” He smiled. I gave him the ‘oh really?’ look. “Well something has to pump my blood right? Anyway, I will arrange a date for us. Another one. This time your entire pack will be invited. We will fight. Fight for your power. I will not simply kill you by myself for it. Where’s the fun in that?”

“I will not put my pack in danger.”

“Ok here’s where I get cold-hearted. Agree to my deal or I will arrange to have every single member of your pack killed one by one, starting with that little cute one. What’s his name? Adrian. Then your beloved Reid. How does that sound?”

“You bastard.”

“Yea I know. No matter what decision you make they might all die either way. I think it’s better for them to go down fighting. Don’t you?”

“You are the son of the devil.” My eyes were damp.

“And who do you think you are? We are not different Jennifer. Every full moon we are both tempted to turn into a horrifying beast killing every living thing in our path. We are not normal. We hunt and we kill. You think you have control over it now because you’re an alpha, yea you do. But what about before you became an alpha? How many lives did you take sweet Jennifer? How many innocent lives? How many families are still in grief because you took the lives of their daughter, son, cousin, mother, father, sister, brother−

“Stop it!” There were tears in my eyes now.

“We are blasphemies Jennifer. We upset the balance of nature. We don’t belong here. Both of us so don’t make me sound like the bad one. We’re in this together. Go tell your precious pack the deal we both made, prepare yourselves, because I am.” He whispered the last three words in my ear. I didn’t even reply. I didn’t look at him. I wiped my tear stained cheeks and walked away never looking back, but I knew he was still standing there, thinking of a thousand ways to kill me.

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Roger, the mail guy was at the house,