There are very few uncertainties in my life. I know for sure, that Jackson James picking me up with 5 mins til school starts, is something I can always count on.

I start the countdown in my head as I open my bedroom door, taking one last second to give myself the once over before I head out into the hallway leading to the stairs.

I take them two at a time and then slide down the banister for the last three or four with a leaping dismount at the bottom foyer.

A small round of applause greets me from the adjoining formal lounge and I turn around to see the slim, tall frame of my mom walking out, shaking her head but her small smile obvious as she greets me.

"Always the athlete my darling"

She kisses me on the cheek and then slaps me softly over the head. I duck as her hand attempts to ruffle my freshly washed head of dark hair.

"Watch the do mom, I have people to impress at school you know, keep up my reputation and all that"

I wink and she laughs and shakes her head, her golden hair, pulled up right into her usual pony, not moving an inch while she slips past me and out the front door.

"Have a great day in court mother dearest" I shout after her as she waits for Arthur, one of our staff, to bring her car around.

She waves and blows me a kiss as she gets in to her sleek new white Mercedes and is gone out the gate before I even shut the front door.

Such is my my life each morning. Like clockwork. Arthur returns to the front door just as JJ screams into the drive in his brothers ride. His last accident was his fourth and he is banned from having another car.... for now.

I nod as I jog past Arthur and he lifts his brows and closes the door after me. Makes a change from his usual scowl. Maybe some things do change.

"Right on time as usual J?" I say as I slide into the front seat. His usual heavy metal assaulting my ears as I reach for the volume control and turn it down, trying to save whatever scope of hearing he has left as well as keep my hearing intact.

"You know me brother, I'm all about being on time for school."

He winks and slams the car into drive. We swerve out the front gate just as it's about to close, Arthur's way of getting rid of us each day

Routine. Schedule. Nothing alters. The house. The people. It's all been this way for as long as I can recall. The same teens I go to Waymouth academy with now are the same kids I went to Bournemouth with, the same children I saw at parties and gatherings for any family events my entire life.

I suspect even if we didn't want to be, we would be friends anyway. We didn't really choose to be, we just are. Because our parents are. And that's how it is. We all know not but we don't question it.

Simplicity. Comfort. That's how it is here in Haven. It's no secret that the people who live in the surrounding areas are well off. We all have huge estates, cars, excessive money at our disposal. Our parents all have high paid, highly respected jobs or are in local politics. We all attend the most expensive and most exclusive schools.

We are expected to achieve, either in academics or athletics or both. But either way, we will all attend Ivy League colleges and go into take highly paid and respected jobs. To continue the legacy that our parents and theirs before them set for us.

We are lucky. We have it all.

Don t we?

We do. I do. Especially. It's not a secret that I was adopted. It's just not mentioned often. Hushed tones guard the actual story to my humble beginnings. But what is spoken about is how lucky I am to have ended up with the Lewis family.

Alex and Mara Lewis are your typical Haven couple. She is a successful partner at a law firm in the city and he is the head accountant for our long existing family business that basically all of Haven use.

They always wanted children of their own but due to illness as a young girl, Mara couldn't conceive. Watching all her newly wed friends around her have children almost killer her, so when Alex came home with a tiny newborn me, well, her dream came true. They had the son they always wanted and I was saved from a life of foster care and poverty.

No questions asked. Or explained. Ever.

Whatever happened, here I am, driving down our local high street with the guy who has been my allocated best friend since we were one. Our mothers are best friends from college, it's not like we had a choice on the matter. Suits me though. JJ is the guy everyone wants around. He is the overachieving jock, the loveable goof and the guy you call if you are in a jam, any kind of jam. He will be there. Just, not on time. Ever.

The screech of the brakes and my head slamming forwards breaks me out of my life story re run.

"What the hell J." I ask, rubbing my neck.

"You were way out of it this whole drive, I had to do something to snap you out of it." He grimaces.

He smiles at me like he just didn't cause me to have a neck injury and reaches over to grab his blazer and bag and leaves me in the car alone with my sore neck and my thoughts.

"Come on Ares, it's a big day, new blood, fresh meat? Remember?"

He smiles at me with such enthusiasm I snap out of my stupor and grab my bag, shutting the door. He doesn't bother to lock the car, he knows the gates will be patrolled all day.

No one would dare touch any car in this lot.

We head into the halls of the school. It's a huge estate. This private school has literally every sport, activity or subject you can think of. They can afford the best grounds, facilities and staff. The parents who send their children here would accept nothing less.

And they pay through the nose for it.

Today there is a certain buzz in the air as we step into the extensive school cafeteria and spot our usual group of guys and girls sitting in our regular section of the hall.

Today is the day the exchange kids arrive. For the first time since I started here, we are hosting an exchange with some kids from an equally as exclusive school about eight hours north of Haven. For three months, because their school has sustained damage from a recent storm, our school generously offered to allow them to attend and stay as borders in our dorms.

I'm sure there is cash in it somewhere.

They have previously been our biggest rivals in the soccer listings, though our schools have never previously intermixed or competed. The thought of having some of those players here, attending school, training with us as a team, is slightly odd if not intimidating to say the least. Not that I would say that out loud.

Though mostly, people are thrilled to have new kids around. We have all been around each other so long, the thought of getting to know someone new is something of a mystery to us.

Change is rare and we are all on edge.

JJ is all about which girls are coming. He met a few when he went on a soccer camp with some of them a couple years back. His excitement level is through the roof.

Can't say I feel that way about it all, but I'm certainly intrigued. Change is as good as holiday so they say right?

As we make our way into the school cafe area, we see our group sitting in our regular place. Like I said, nothing changes.

As usual, the crew are situated in the corner booth. The cafe is nicely decorated, like every part of our school. It has smooth cream leather booths and couches. All the tables are black and shiny and contain the latest paper or magazines. The coffee machine is large enough to service twenty caffeine starved teenagers at once and the desserts and biscotti are always freshly baked.

Nothing but the best.

As we sling our bags onto the floor and slide in, a take away coffee slides towards me, courtesy of Shanae. She smiles sweetly and returns to her conversation. We have been on and off for a while. Years, I guess. Like everything in my life, it's expected that we are together.

I nod in return and take a drink. Thank god for coffee.

Her father is one of my fathers largest clients. Her family are hoteliers, controlling the largest chain of boutique hotels and resorts this side of the equator. My father handles all their accounts. We often travel with her family, sampling the newest hotel they have acquired or built.

She would like it if I sampled her on a more regular basis. And I have enjoyed the few tastes I have had. Just not enough to keep my interest.

She is the same. As every other girl. Every other part of my life. Vanilla.

As if noticing my inner funk, JJ elbows me in the side and I flinch.

"What was that for dick?" I say, a little of my coffee spilling onto my slacks.

"For ignoring me. I'm trying to show you something." He says, pointing to the cafe entrance as a load of kids step in, pausing in the doorway. 

He didn't need to tell me. I can already smell them.

They are here. The exchange class.

They are wolves.

Now that is something new.

As much as my family have helped me surpress my curse, I still have a few left over extra senses and heightened smell is one of them.
As familiars, my family has a long history of working with werewolf packs, assisting them with business and maintaining a balance between the human and werewolf worlds. It's a tightly kept secret, one that has made my entire family very wealthy over the years.

That is how my father was able to recognise the change in me when I turned fourteen and how he was able to access help for me, to mostly suppress the werewolf gene.

I have never had to shift. I can't feel the wolf side of myself. Nothing like that. As long as I take the pills each day, I never will.

But, I do have heightened smell, speed and strength, something that has helped me become the top soccer player in our school and state. No one has ever questioned any of it.

And no one but my parents and doctor know my secret. Not even the wolves father works for. It's safer that way he says.

As i return my gaze to the door, my gaze shifts around the large group of teenagers standing in the doorway. I could smell these kids the second they stepped out of their bus.

And from the look on all of their faces, one of confusion and something else that I can't decipher; they can smell me too.

They know.

They know about who I really am. What I really am.

Shit.