The Wolves Among Us

Chapter3

Jojo’s P.O.V.

PRESENT TIME

After all these years, the air in Fairview still smelled the same. A mix of fresh-cut grass, distant highway dust, and something faintly sweet, like warm bread from the old bakery up on Main Street. No matter how many years had passed, no matter how much I had even tried to outrun it, Fairview clung to me like a shadow. I was twenty-two years old now, an adult in every way that mattered, yet standing in the same town where I had spent my entire childhood. Nothing had changed. Or rather, I hadn't changed.

I had once believed that my college degree would be my golden ticket out. That, like so many of my classmates, I would walk across the stage, diploma in hand, and never look back. I had even let myself imagine a new life in a city somewhere—maybe Chicago, maybe Boston—where people didn't recognize my last name on sight, where the air smelled like something new. But life had a way of tethering you to the place you swore you'd never stay.

It had started with my father falling sick. It had been sudden, the way sickness always seems to be, even when you’re warned. I had been fresh out of college, my mind still set on leaving, when the phone call came. My mother’s voice had been calm in that way that wasn’t really calm at all. So, of course, I had packed up my things, and I had come back home, thinking it was only temporary, that once my father recovered, I could resume my life, with my own plans. But Fairview had a way of keeping people.

Between hospital visits and caring for my mother, time had slipped away. The days blurred, one into the next until I no longer counted them. And then, when my father had passed and the job at Fairview Elementary had opened up, my mother had encouraged me—no, insisted—that I go for the interview.

"Just see what happens," she had said, her tone light but knowing. I had gone. And I got the job.

That was the moment I had known. The moment I understood that I would never leave Fairview. Not really. The decision had been made for me long before I had realized it myself. Call it Karma at its best.

Now, every morning, I drove the same roads I had once taken as a child, only instead of being the student, I was the teacher now. Instead of daydreaming about escape, I spent my time grading homework and managing a classroom full of wide-eyed kids who reminded me of myself at that age—full of wonder, full of possibility. Sometimes, I envied them. Sometimes, I still wish I was still a kid with no worries in the world, instead of the 1st Grade teacher at Fairview Elementary school.

I still thought about what could have been. The life I had almost had if things had gone differently. The one where I lived in a tiny apartment in a bustling city, walking down unfamiliar streets, anonymous and free. But then I thought about my parents, about the way my father had looked at me with quiet gratitude over taking care of my mother before he had passed, about the way my mother still hummed as she cooked, knowing I was there for dinner. Maybe this wasn’t the life I had planned for myself, but it was mine now. And maybe—just maybe—that was enough.

So these days… I usually sat on the front porch of my small house after a day of work, a steaming cup of coffee in my hands as I gazed out at the quiet streets of Fairview. The town hadn’t changed much in all these years. It was still the same sleepy little place in the middle of nowhere, the kind of town most people couldn't wait to escape. And most had escaped as well—except for the Millers.

The Millers were different. The whole lot of them had stayed in Fairview. Not just one or two, like some families, but every single sibling apart from Raven Miller who had now vanished all those years ago. It was almost unnatural, really. Fairview wasn’t exactly brimming with opportunities, and yet, despite their almost unfairly perfect looks and natural charisma, they hadn’t left for the bright lights of Hollywood or some grand city to pursue a career. If anyone had the potential to make it big just by existing, it was them. But they had stayed. That was the first thing that still made me suspicious to this day.

The second? Well, the Millers were… odd. Not in a bad way, but in a way that still made me feel like they had a secret only I knew about. Over the years, I had pieced things together, little bits and pieces that seemed strange when looked at individually, but downright impossible when put together. The way they moved—too smooth, too quick. Their uncanny ability to know things they shouldn’t. And, of course, their looks. It was ridiculous how gorgeous they all were. Even the ones who should have had an awkward phase never seemed to go through it. They were all lean, strong, and effortlessly beautiful, like walking magazine covers.

It had taken me years, but I had finally figured it out—at least, in my own mind. The Millers were... well... werewolves. It was the only thing that made sense, really.

I had never seen any of them shift, never caught them in the act, but it was the only thing that made sense to me. Why else would they stay in Fairview? A town nestled between dense woods and a harbor, secluded and quiet, a perfect hiding place. It explained everything—their unshakable bond, their eerie perceptiveness, their unwillingness to leave. They weren’t just here because they wanted to be here. They were here because they had to be. Because somehow they had to… hide? Needed this place to be truly free?

The realization of supernatural creatures living among us should have scared me. But honestly... it didn’t. Somehow, over the years, the Millers had come to feel like a piece of home to me. Even without truly being a part of their inner circle, they still felt like some sort of anchor in my little, silent life. Maybe that was why I had never felt the urge to run or tell someone else, even when I suspected what they were. There was something comforting about their presence in Fairview, even if I was an outsider looking in. So yeah… it was my own little secret. One that I was planning on keeping for the rest of my life, simply because they never hurt anyone. If anything, the Miller's were keeping Fairview's economy afloat.

I had even watched their family grow over the last couple of years, too. One by one, the Miller siblings had found love, their family expanding as they had all welcomed new members into their little ‘pack’. I envied them in that department. Not in a bitter way, but in the kind of way that made my chest ache late at night. Love had never been in the cards for me—not the kind that lasted, or took your breath anyway. I had been in relationships, I had had my fun, but nothing had ever stuck. Nothing had ever felt like the forever kind of love the Millers had found.

So, I had simply settled. Not unhappily, but realistically. I knew all the single men in Fairview, and none of them checked all of my boxes. The idea of settling for something less than what I truly wanted made my stomach turn. So instead, I had chosen the life of freedom, of occasional flings when I was out of town, knowing that I would always come home to her quiet little house and my classroom filled with students who all loved me dearly.

The crazy cat lady of Fairview. That was my destiny, and I had made peace with it.

Still, as I sipped my coffee and watched the morning sun bathe the sleepy town in golden light, I couldn’t help but wonder. If things had been different—if maybe I had been different—could I have found a place in a close-knit nest like the Miller family? Not just as an outsider looking in, but as something more?

But that was a foolish thought. I didn’t believe in fairy tales, and the Millers? Well, they were living in one for sure. And I was just a spectator on the sidelines. From time to time, I still thought back at Raven Miller, the first boy I had ever loved, and how he had disappeared so mysteriously that night. Of course, he never came back. And over the years, my crush had faded into the background, making room for adulthood and common sense. But a tiny voice in the back of my mind always kept on wondering…

What if?

What if he would have stayed?

What if I had had the balls to say that I cared about him way back then?

But like most unanswered questions. I guess we would never know. And for now, real life was calling me, and I needed to prepare myself for the start of the new schoolyear and my new students. A bunch of five year olds who would all be high on summer break sugars.