Canaan Club - 18. Chapter 18

It was quiet for a moment before Rafe marched up in front of Daeran, standing tall a couple of feet away from the imposing, angry wolf as he glowered back.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Did those leeches put you up to this?” Zoel pointed an accusatory finger at the blond superhuman’s face. “They’ve already got you puny squirts on your knees sucking their little dicks!?”

Behind Rafe, Daeran sputtered, his trembling arms clutching the satchel tighter. “What…? I-I-”

Joe raised his arms in a surrendering motion, hoping to placate the raging ninth-year. “We’re just passing through, man. Some girl just popped up here and-”

“Don’t lie to me!” Zoel spat. “Those filthy bloodsuckers put you up to this, didn’t they? Stealing all our shit!”

“It’s true. We haven’t even checked inside it, yet,” Andre spoke up softly, but the gamma wasn’t having it.

“Yet? So, you were going to anyway!”

The others protested, but Rafe rolled his eyes.

Narrowed eyes threw daggers at each of the first-years. “For all I know, it’s probably a dupe. I’m not stupid.”

Well, you’re not smart enough at proving otherwise, Rafe wanted to spit but opted for something that wouldn’t immediately put the wolf on the attack. “No, you’re just saying that ‘cause you want to kick our asses either way, aren’t you?”

“Let this be your first lesson! Don’t fuck with the Argo pack!”

And before any of the first-years could process what could happen, Zoel quickly sucked in a large breath of air, his burly chest expanding widely, before releasing. However, what came out was not a long, odd exhale but a harsh, widespread explosion of hot wind, lifting the four preteens off their feet from solid ground. Though, they weren’t the only ones.

Screams and cries rang out as witnesses bowled over due to the powerful winds. The four first-years were airborne, on a trajectory for a ring of cobblestone that encompassed the gardens. Seeing this, Rafe regained his wits and maneuvered midair toward Andre, wrapping the omé in his arms from behind to break his fall. Meanwhile, Joe had recovered his senses as well to do the same with Daeran.

The landing was like a couple of smoke bombs going off, and a crowd of students inched forward in either trepidation or excitement as dust clouded the area.

Rafe gritted his teeth as he squirmed, pain racing through his back. “Fuck!”

“Rafe!” Andre shook out of his daze and turned to gaze down at his friend in worry. “You… You didn’t have to do that! Are you okay?”

The blond swallowed, mentally willing the discomfort away as the omé helped him up. “Yeah. Don’t worry about me. It was just a flea bite.”

Next to them, Joe groaned as he rubbed his back, Daeran rushing to roll off him and apologizing profusely, the satchel still miraculously clutched to his chest.

“Holy shit, bro!” the noirette checked over his roommate as he exclaimed. “That was, like, super breath or something! Can wolves really do that?”

“He’s a gamma. They’re more of the aggressive, trained soldier types,” Andre stated, then his brown eyes moved to the bag in Daeran’s grasp. “Maybe he’ll stop if we give him back the satchel.”

Joe’s roommate blanched as if the omé suggested he go deal with the livid wolf alone. “I-I tried! He-He won’t…”

Rafe shook his head as he stood up, wiping cobblestone dust off his clothes as his attention clocked in on the approaching gamma. “Nah. He’s gonna beat the shit out of us even if we gave what he wanted.”

“But-”

The young wolf was cut off by his blond friend grabbing his arm and helping him up. “I’m not just gonna sit around and get trounced like some yellow-bellied pussy!”

Zoel scoffed as he surveyed the current sight before him. “All still alive, are you!?

“You can’t beat us down with a couple of gusts of air!”

“No worries. If I can’t blow you away, I’ll just plant you six feet into the fucking ground!”

“Not gonna happen, bastard!” Rafe spat before charging.

A smug smirk split his face as the blond superhuman sprinted toward him with raised fists. Rafe got within inches of him before ducking to perform a leg sweep. Zoel dodged it with a leap, then kicked out at the first-year’s head. Rafe spun away just in time, backflipping into a crouch just to lung once more. He threw a right punch at the gamma’s head, but Zoel only had to tilt his head a few degrees to the left to make it miss.

A large hand slapped down on Rafe’s back, and the blond coughed as he was thrust toward the ground. Fortunately, he was quick to plant his feet under on the floor, cracking the cobblestone slightly, then sprang up to eye-level again before unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks. Zoel was lazy in dodging, seeming as if he was square dancing in place. He got in close to lob another slap to his younger opponent, who dropped back down to avoid it but didn’t see the leg aimed at his torso. Rafe rushed to shuffle back and only felt the flat surface of Zoel’s boot across his chin, which was enough to force him to slide back.

The older wolf laughed. “What was that supposed to be? Your shitty ballet routine?”

Rafe gritted his teeth angrily, but before he could retort, a blur sped past him. Joe launched himself at Zoel, doing a quad jump and using the momentum to deliver a knee at the ninth-year’s neck. The gamma was caught off guard by the intervention, but it was only brief, and he narrowly blocked it with a forearm. Joe darted back until he was beside Rafe.

“Joe-”

Joe grinned and shook his head. “No backing out now, bro. He made us fly with just a breath of air. Let’s both get the kill, yeah?”

Zoel crossed his arms and laughed. “Yeah, that’s right. Gather as many small fries as you can. I’ll crush you all in an instant.”

“We’ll see about that!” Rafe snarled.

Some ways away, Andre and Daeran watched on as the superhuman duo and the gamma shot off. The omé had always been wowed by his longtime friend’s fighting prowess. He knew Rafe wasn’t one for working with others, which Andre would always tease him for by calling it “lone-wolfing,” but seeing the two effortlessly lace and interweave attacks together despite the older wolf’s expert defense was something extraordinary to watch. It was as if they coordinated their strikes beforehand.

However, Zoel was still a high-ranking wolf. Every time one of the two came close, he would immediately brush them off as if their hits were nothing more than needle shots. Rafe would dive in with a punch, it would miss, and Zoel would swat him away. Joe would try to stomp on him only to have his foot block and get a sidekick to the back.

They tried coming at him at the same time, fists cocked back as they did, but the gamma simply caught both of their attacks before using them as cymbals, slamming their bodies together. Zoel fell backward, catching himself in a handstand and swinging out his feet, lodging his boots into their sides and sending them skidding away, dirt and dust striking up in their wake.

“Guys!” Andre made to move after them but was only allowed one step before Zoel was in front of him and Daeran, who quite literally squealed in fear like a mouse.

“And where do you think you’re going?”

The omé stopped short to gaze up at the towering gamma pleadingly. “Please! We don’t wanna fight you!”

“Then your monkey friends shouldn’t have come at me. I was going to let you hand the bag over nice and easy, but since your buddy thinks he can talk back to his superiors and get away with it, I don’t think I could leave here without a little lesson in manners.”

Andre’s natural instincts took over, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the pain he knew would come from an offended high-ranking werewolf. Although, it wasn’t the omega he had his attention on. A cry of terror rang out, and Andre reopened his eyes to see Zoel reaching for Daeran, who was tripping on himself trying to back up.

“Now, it’s your turn!” he lunged at the first-year.

The omé could only watch as the ninth-year reached for their new friend, his big hand going for the hair on his head.

But then, Daeran wasn’t there anymore.

Zoel, along with the students in the audience who chose to stay and watch, blinked in confusion. Andre was perplexed as well, staring at the spot where Daeran and satchel once were.

“D-Daeran?’” the omé looked around. “Where’d you go?”

Over with the superhumans, Rafe and Joe were just as mystified, scanning the crowd for any sign of the latter’s roommate.

“Hey,” Rafe spoke. “Your roomie’s gone. Did he…?”

“What? What the fuck!?” Zoel yelled, his face mottled red. “Where did that pansy bastard go!? Don’t tell me he’s just like…”

It was like a lightbulb moment for him. His face blanked before an ugly scowl overcame it, directing his wrath at the lowly omé before him.

“Now, it makes sense! You guys really are in cahoots with each other! How many of you are there!?”

Andre couldn’t be any more bewildered, taking a shaky step back. “W-What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me! No matter where you zip away to, I’ll find you! Tell me where he went!”

“I thought you said you’d find him anyway!”

Joe was suddenly behind him, leveling a kick at Zoel’s face. The wolf was swift to block it, grunting as the noirette superhuman recoiled off his burly arms.

“Still want some more!?” the gamma bit back before burying a fist into Joe’s stomach, causing the first-year to gasp out and fly a yard back.

Rafe charged from the other side, trying to catch the older wolf by surprise with a sucker punch to the back. Zoel’s nose twitched before sidestepping the attack and continuously snaked around another round of the blond’s assault.

“You’re all too slow!” He taunted, arrogance exuding from every move he makes to avoid Rafe’s punches.

Said Hermes superhuman was nearing his wits’ end. Even as the gamma kneed him in the stomach before socking him across the cheek, which flung him half a mile back, the frustration and ire were building evaded fist by avoided foot. His left arm was simmering due to sliding on hard dirt and cobblestone every time, but his increasing anger was numbing some of the pain.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the ninth-year had yet to break even a single sweat what with that cocky stance and conceited smirk on his face as he looked over the blond first-year.

“If your friend won’t hand over what I want and make your suffering end sooner, then he’ll just have to find your ruined carcasses the next day.”

Rafe was about to respond heatedly, but panic joined his shortening temper when he saw Andre calmly saunter up to the bigger werewolf, hands up in surrender.

“Seriously, we don’t know where he went, but I promise, we’ll find him and get you back your bag,” the omé explained.

“Andre, don’t-”

Rafe was cut off by Zoel’s loud, mocking laughter.

“You think it’s just about that bag, you little mongrel? Like you all haven’t just duped me enough?”

“I-I think you’ve got it all wrong, man.”

The gamma angled his body toward the small omega, accentuating just how much more immense the wolf was than his lower-ranked counterpart. Andre’s height barely hit his knees.

“Hey! Get away from him!” Rafe ignored the pinpricks in his left arm as he stood up unevenly. “You’re facing me, asshole! Leave him be! Now!”

“It seems I don’t get enough respect despite being on the best team in the academy,” Zoel took a daunting step forth, making the omé whimper. “You know what? Waste you all first. Get answers later. I know there aren’t too many of you, so they’ll be wondering why they suddenly experiencing a shortage.”

Andre made to stutter out something else, but everything went quiet when Zoel’s big palm collided with the side of the omé’s face. Being as small as he was, it was no surprise when Andre’s body was tossed across the out of the cobblestone area and near the monolith where they confronted the Argo gamma.

He suddenly stopped as his body smacked against something, and several crowd witnesses raised an eyebrow as a groggy Andre lay sixty degrees on… nothing. Even so, that wasn’t what filled his rampant thoughts.

It was the fact that he had let his best friend get hurt again, and by another snobbish, pretentious prick of a wolf. The parallels between now and what happened back in Graybite made Rafe’s vision begin to blur.

“You… You bastard…”

Zoel turned to him, the expression on his face reminding him of the inbred trio. The leader. Rafe had forgotten his name.

He let go of his arm, clenching his fists so tightly he thought he could feel blood seeping down his knuckles. “Y-You… fucking bastard!”

The ninth-year’s bushy brows rose, but then it shifted to realization, and lastly a nasty grin. “Aw, what? Did I hurt your little mutt friend? Oh, don’t tell me. You and he are…” he made a circle with one hand while repeatedly inserting his finger through it.

There were several titters in the audience their fight had gained. They laughed at Zoel’s crude gesture.

They didn’t notice Rafe’s body trembling in fury.

They didn’t notice his silver eyes glowing an icy blue.

“Figures why he’s so limp-wristed. I should have known the both of you were nothing but a couple of fa-”

They did notice when Rafe suddenly screamed, letting out the physical manifestation of his wrath in the form of a torrent of cyan lasers. The stone underneath cracked from the sheer pressure of the power emanating from the superhuman’s eyes, the beam breaking the sound barrier as it homed in on Zoel, who gaped in shock before lifting his arms.

The energy had expanded prior to reaching him and was now big enough to swallow him whole. Zoel had a millisecond to brace himself before he felt the scorching power boiling hands, making him bellow in agony and determination. The initial impact had him skidding across the ground, unable to firmly plant his feet in place even as he tried to push back with all his might.

Despite this, though, the gamma wolf still had the audacity to sneer derisively. “Ooh! D-Did I m-make you… angry!?”

He started to slow as he got used to the weight of the emission even though he could hardly feel his hands.

“This… is… nothing!”

It only served to make Rafe angrier. The blond shouted to the heavens again, and his enormous lasers began to slowly change from an ice-cold blue to violent bottle green. The superhuman could hear the aching pain the wolf was now in. He would grin if he wasn’t so incensed.

“Shit! Fucking shit!”

“Rafe…” a weak voice reached his ears.

The blond was distracted for a moment, his emission now lessening a bit in size and shifting between blue and green as he tried to pinpoint Andre and his condition. That brief diversion was all Zoel needed. With one, final guttural roar, he leaped high into the air before rocketing toward the first-year. Rafe only caught on at the last second, but it proved to be too late as Zoel descended up on him with an elbow to the back of the head and a boot to the chest, instantly dissipating his laser and sending the blond careening over to where Andre was.

The omé was dazed anymore, but his face did light up in horror at the sight of his beaten friend before him. Rafe shook, trying to keep his groans in and his head above the dark sea of unconsciousness. It was embarrassing enough that he was put on the ground. He did, however, take solace in the fact that the wolf’s hands looked like overcooked steak.

Apparently, he must have sported a smarmy smile on his face because a vein pulsed on Zoel’s forehead as he glowered at the blond superhuman.

“You! You’ll pay for that!” he barked before bounding on all fours toward Rafe and Andre, looking more like a bull than a wolf in his enraged approach.

“No!” Rafe heard Andre cry out before he felt the omé move to stand in front of him.

This made the blond shoot up and try to shove his friend out of the way, but just as the gamma was nearly upon them, the wind abruptly picked up and a random wave of dust was swept across, and Zoel marvelously got a face full of it.

“Ah, fuck! Fuck!” he stumbled over himself, nearly bowling into the crowd as he scratched his eyes ferociously. “W-Where the hell…!?”

While he rolled, cursing and clawing, a certain indigo-haired girl suddenly marched in front of them. Without a word, Lindsay crouched and placed a hand on their shoulder, her smile soft and reassuring.

“I-It’s you-”

Lindsay shushed him, indicating toward Zoel, who was still picking at his eyes in a panic. A minute later, another girl popped up, carrying half-conscious Joe on her back. She was short like Lindsay, though they were set apart by her multi-colored hair, a rainbow cascading down to the small of her back. She also didn’t speak as she reached down and grabbed at something between Rafe and Andre. There was a frightened yelp, making the other first-years jump, but before they could process their bewilderment, Lindsay chose this time to communicate in a mutter.

“Get us out of here.”

Her friend obeyed, waving a finger above her head and producing a fountain of sparkles that twirled around them, flowing and spinning faster until they were encased in a beacon of light.

When it finally dispelled, the temperature swiftly dropped. Stacks of boxes and racks of different cartons of food surrounded them.

A walk-in freezer.

“O-Oh shit!” Daeran, now present, promptly scooted his rear back across the cold floor. “Oh, shit!”

“It’s okay. You’re safe for now,” the rainbow-haired girl nodded at each of them as she stood.

“Ah, man,” Joe lifted his wobbly head from the ground where he lay, starting to shiver. “Are we dead? Why does Heaven feel like the arctic?”

“Oops. Hold on a sec,” Lindsay’s friend wagged her pinkie finger, generating more sparkles that now circled the room.

And soon, the chilly atmosphere they found themselves in began to warm gradually, reaching a balmy level.

Joe grinned and laid his head back down. “Toasty.”

As the stress of battle began to die down, the unnamed girl went to each first-year, starting with Joe by placing a gentle hand on his chest. A faint orb of white encompassed it, and after several seconds, the noirette superhuman was wide awake and sprightly, moving around his limbs and doing backflips as if he wasn’t injured in the first place.

She went to Rafe next, but the boy redirected her to heal Andre first.

“The name’s Rexel Hirst, a second-year like my good friend here,” she nodded over to Lindsay as she magically nursed the wound on the omé’s cheek. “Although, Blue just wouldn’t shut up about you guys. Which one of you captured her heart? She wouldn’t tell me.”

Lindsay rolled her eyes at this. “I only just met them yesterday, Skittles.”

“Love at first sight. You can’t hide that from me.”

“Uh, I don’t mean to be rude,” Rafe interrupted, speaking as Rexel went back to him, “but we kind of need an explanation of what the fuck just happened. One minute we were fighting that jackass, then we end up in… in…”

“In a freezer,” Lindsay explained, gesturing to the numerous containers. “Near the food, so don’t worry. You guys have lunch right now, right?”

“Yeah, but for how long?” Joe asked. “We wasted so much time getting battered around the campus like baseballs.”

“No worries, my young friends. Free time lasts up to an hour and a half. When you become upperclassmen, you’re promoted to two. Sweet, right?”

There was a collective sigh of relief at that. They needed all the time to get a good meal in and lick their wounds. Rafe, especially. Honestly, he wasn’t expecting the gamma to be that strong. It almost made him wonder what would have happened if the leader of the inbred trio – Axel – hadn’t been caught off guard by his lasers. He got careless thinking it would be a wash like the others. He could almost hear the disapproval in Beau’s voice in his head.

Rexel finally finished up on healing the first-years, whipping sweat from her multi-colored brow and smiling proudly. Their clothes were still disheveled and torn in a few places, but there were no more physical injuries to be treated.

“Thanks for saving our hides back there,” Andre shook Rexel and Lindsay’s hands. “Our butts were almost handed to us.”

Rafe stood and shifted closer to the omé, the tenseness in his body returning when the latter moved an inch away. Seeing the stern glare fixed on him, Andre smiled sheepishly and patted his friend on the back.

“I know, I know.”

It seemed that the blond was not going to be leaving the young wolf’s side until that Zoel situation was sorted out. He was so sick of watching his defenseless friend get hurt.

“Hey, you okay over there, Daer?” Joe called to him. “Where’d you go in all that?”

Daeran, still over by a set of boxes, released a heavy sigh and let go of the satchel, letting it slide off him and onto the floor. “I-I didn’t leave! I swear I-I didn’t!”

Rafe raised an eyebrow at the timid first-year. “What? But you-”

“He’s right,” Rexel responded. “He was there the entire time. It’s just that anybody who didn’t have a strong connection to magic couldn’t see him.”

“So, he was invisible?” Joe gave his roommate a once-over and smirked. “Crafty.”

Though, Daeran wasn’t so approving of himself. “Christ. All I wanted was to give his bag back, but… but it’s like my body wouldn’t let him. I was so freaking scared.”

“And we can only express our utmost gratitude that you didn’t,” Lindsay said, and Rexel hummed her agreement.

“Simply put, it’s a long story. And you guys need to eat and recover some more. Just know that the Argo pack, or more specifically the Abellon Club, is into some shady, shady shit, and we don’t want you guys caught all up in it.”

“Pretty sure we already are. He just got humiliated by a gust of wind in his eyes,” Rafe’s voice strained as if it was practically painful to speak that out loud. “A guy with that kind of ego isn’t gonna let that go.”

“Which is why you’ll leave him to us. It won’t matter to you much, but things with them are started to heat up. He’ll be too busy with that to bother you guys. They wanna stay at the top of the food chain, so that’s where their concentration will go.”

At that very moment, there was an audible rumbling sound and Joe's cheeks pinked as he looked down at his stomach. “Speaking of food chain…”

“Right,” Lindsay laughed. “We won’t keep you guys hostage here anymore. After that, you all must be starving.”

“I was hoping for an oversized wolf on a spit-roast for lunch, but I guess that wasn’t on the menu today,” huffed Rafe, placing a hand on Andre’s back as they followed their blue-haired friend to the exit.

While they moved, Rexel quickly snatched the satchel off the floor and winked at Daeran. “We’ll take this off your hands.”

The boy, despite not having been touched during the whole debacle, seemed exhausted, blowing out a breath as he languidly trailed after the others. “And I never want to see it again.”

When they walked out of the freezer, they only got several odd looks from the employees before they returned to their tasks. When they stepped out of the staff section, Rafe and Andre instantly recognized Dalhia Diner.

Well, that explained it.