WOLVES OF MANHATTAN

Summary: He is the rich kid from the Upper East Side with a troubled past and a dysfunctional family. She is from Greenwich Village who is pulled into the world of the rich and famous when her parents receive promotions. When their paths cross, a spark is ignited and the tables are turned when they learn they are far more connected than they thought.

CHAPTER ONE

"Luke, don't do this!"

His eyes snapped open as he clenched his bruised fist and stormed out the room, ignoring his friends' pleas to stop. He stumbled outside and watched one of the guys from their high school football team scurried to his red Ford Mustang as quickly as he was able to. With his adrenaline on high, he ran to his car and jumped inside his white BMW i8 sports car and took off chasing after him.

His mind was racing and anger flooded his veins, threatening to cloud his better judgment and making it difficult to concentrate on what he was seeing. He hadn't felt such rage in a very long time, but he was determined he would pay for this; he would make him pay.

He sped down the half empty streets, getting in and out of the freeway, passing cars left and right and inching closer to the Ford Mustang. Anxiety pooled in the pit of his stomach as he pressed his foot harder against the accelerator to make it go a bit faster.

And then suddenly his instincts kicked in at once as he noticed a dog running in the middle of his lane. He gasped in shock, immediately slamming on the brakes and making a sharp turn, avoiding the dog by a thread as he was hurtling towards the fire hydrant, which burst into a stream of water.

And then there was nothing.

No noise.

No feeling.

Only darkness as his consciousness slowly ebbed away.

He moaned as he slowly woke up and found himself squinting under the harsh lighting. His throat was dry and his eyes were thick with sleep. He recognized the smells and the sounds of an IV machine beeping in his ear. When his eyes fluttered, he realized that he wasn't in his room. Instead, he was in the last place he wanted to be.

The hospital.

"Lucas?" He heard a soft feminine voice beside him, "Can you hear me?"

He slowly turned to look at his female companion and weakly smiled, relieved to see a familiar face. "Hey, Maya." He greeted, half-wincing when he became aware of the migraine and the pain in his chest. "What happened?" His voice came out small as every breath he took hurt like hell.

"Well, you crashed into a fire hydrant and the paramedics found you unconscious."

There was a moment of brief silence as his eyes trained on the ceiling in deep thought, trying to recollect everything that happened. "So he managed to get away…again." He shook his head in disbelief. "That jerk." Maya tried not to frown under the disappointment and anger in his voice. "Are you okay though?" He asked, concern feigning in his soft emerald gaze when he looked back at her.

"Yea," she said with a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine."

"He should have not said all those nasty rumors about you." He replied, looking increasingly annoyed. "I promise you, Maya I'll make him pay."

She sighed, brushing her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "Okay, Huckleberry. This needs to stop. You can't fight our battles all the time and have these angry outbursts. It doesn't do you or any of us any good." Lucas averted from her gaze with a slight roll to his eyes. He heard it all before. He's heard it several times for the past year or two and stopped listening at some point. "You could have hurt someone and gotten yourself killed tonight."

"She's right, yah know." Came another worried voice that he recognized to be his best friend's. "You were lucky. No broken bones. Just a few minor cuts and bruises."

Lucas smiled up at him by the time he reached his bedside. "Hey, Zay."

"Hey, man." Zay managed a smile as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

Lucas shrugged and let out a light groan, feeling the pain radiate from his back and down to his legs. "I've been better, bro."

"Well you might feel even worse." Lucas turned to another male voice in the room as he appeared next to Maya.

"Why is that, Farkle?"

"Your mom is on her way."

A heavy sigh escaped from his lips as Lucas closed his eyes, wishing he could just disappear altogether. "Great."

A few days later…

Lucas toyed anxiously with a stray thread of his uniform khaki slacks while he waited outside the Dean's office. After being summoned out of his last class for the day, he had spent ten minutes waiting in the reception with only the constant clacking of computer keys and the ticking of the wall clock to keep him company.

The door opened with a creak, causing Lucas' head to snap up. He furrowed his eyebrows in bewilderment, expecting to be approach by a plump, short middle-aged man with balding grey hair and oversized glasses. But instead he looked up to see someone he never seen before; a slender man who appeared to be in his mid-to-late thirties with short, curly dark brown hair wearing a dark blue plaid shirt underneath a dark grey suit jacket and black pants.

"Ahh, Mr. Friar. Sorry to keep you waiting." He greeted him warmly. "My name is Cory Matthews and I am the new Dean."

Lucas nodded and took the hand offered, shaking it kindly with a greeting. "Hello, Sir."

"Please come inside."

Mr. Matthews led him inside the office, which was in the middle of being refurbished. The walls were empty of portraits, certificates and personal items. The only thing present in the room was a computer and laptop that sits on the mahogany desk with three swivel chairs. By the time he closed the door, Lucas noticed his mother sitting on one of them.

"Mom?"

She looked over her shoulder and gave him a small smile. "Come sit down, sweetheart." She said, gesturing to the empty seat beside her. Lucas reluctantly sat down, his eyes curiously following the Dean as he makes his way over to the desk to sit across from them.

"So what are you doing here, Mom?" He asked, annoyance creeping on the forefront of his tone. "Don't you have a debutante ball to organize or a gala to attend to or something?"

"Don't be rude, Lucas. Mr. Matthews called me over here to discuss your punishment after the stunt you pulled last weekend." She said calmly, earning himself a glare from his mother.

"You know, Mr. Friar I've been going through your files and I'm quite impressed." He said, taking Lucas completely off guard. "You're a 3.5 student athlete, who hasn't missed or was ever late to class. And yet, a good kid like yourself has a history of getting into fights." Mr. Matthews paused, shaking his head. "You're sixteen, Lucas. You have your whole life ahead of you and you're out there getting in trouble. Can't say I'm not disappointed."

Lucas regarded him carefully with an intense stare. "So what is it going to be, sir? Are you going to suspend me?" He challenged. "Expel me? Send me to juvie?"

"Is that what you want, Mr. Friar?"

Lucas shook his head sharply, and for the first time in a long time, he felt vulnerable. Not because he was in trouble, but because he saw something in Mr. Matthews' eyes he never seen before. Instead of the usual look of disappointment and shame Lucas seem to earn from staff that held administrative positions, he saw hope and unwavering faith in his. "No," he finally answered after a long minute of silence.

Mr. Matthews studied him carefully as he leaned back against the chair, absently twirling a pen between his fingers. "I don't know how your previous Dean do things around here, son but I'm taking a rather different approach. Luckily for you the city hasn't press any charges, and I happen to know the chief of police who has agreed to the terms I will present to you for your punishment."

"Alright." Lucas drew in a nervous breath. "Let's hear it."

"Your driver's licensed has been suspended for a year."

"What?!"

"Which means your driving privileges has been temporarily withdrawn until the duration of your suspension is over. If you violate the law and rules of driving again, your license will be revoked." Lucas grumbled something incoherent as Mr. Matthews continued on. "You are banned from participating in any team sports for the rest of the school year, and instead you will be an assistant coach to a local little league baseball team after school."

"Anything else?" Lucas asked. He couldn't decide whether he should be happy or not. He's not getting suspended or going to jail but he has to watch over little kids, let alone teach them how to play.

"Yes, as part of your community service, you will be working four hours a day during the weekends at Topanga's."

Lucas groaned despondently, burying his face in his hands and resting them on his knees. "It's better than jail, sweetie." He heard his mother say as he looked at her and quietly nodded.

"When do I start, sir?"

He had been dreading this moment since he stepped out of the Dean's office yesterday. And so when the day finally arrived, Lucas couldn't believe he was enjoying his time as an assistant coach. Never mind the cold in mid-April or the fact that he was coaching boys who were barely four feet tall. He loved baseball, and there was something about teaching the fundamentals of the sport to the next generation of athletes that he found comforting and rewarding.

He spent the majority of the afternoon shadowing the head coach, observing and taking a mental note of the daily routine that goes on in every practice. At one point, Lucas volunteered to demonstrate the proper way to hold a baseball bat and pitch a baseball using different grips, earning praises and approval from the kids as well as the head couch.

"So do you play a lot?" The head coach asked, joining Lucas on the first row of the bleachers as soon as he had the kids pair up for a round of throw and catch.

"Yea, I'm on the high school baseball team over at Thomas Jefferson Prep." Lucas smiled, but then frowned slightly and looked down. "Well…I was anyway. What about you, Coach?"

"Please, call me Josh. And yes, I play for NYU."

"Nice."

"Last guy I had knew nothing about baseball. Thank God my brother sent you."

"Brother?"

He nodded, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips as he began leaving his place on the bottom bleachers to return to his kids. "Yep. I believe you know him as Mr. Cory Matthews."

Lucas raised a brow with a thoughtful look on his face. "Huh. You don't say..."

The whistle blew as all the kids surrounded Josh, most of them relieved to have practice come to an end. He talked for a minute when Lucas noticed a crowd of parents waiting behind the fence to pick up their child. "Good practice, boys. I'll see you all here same time tomorrow." He said as the team started to head out. Lucas was about to grab his things from the dugout when he felt someone tug at his blue long-sleeve shirt. He turned around and lowered his gaze at the curly, brown haired boy staring up at him.

"Thanks for the tip, Coach. I had fun."

Lucas smiled. "Anytime."

"Come on, Auggie. Let's go!"

"I'm coming!" The boy exclaimed as Lucas followed the sound of a feminine voice yelling for him. And sure enough, he saw a pretty brunette looking in their direction, waiting from outside the fence. Their eyes met briefly from a distance and he smiled, the smallest smile he could muster, just enough to make sure that she knew he noticed her.

A/N: To be continued? Thanks for reading. Let me know what you guys think.