I arrived at the Seaside restaurant promptly at eight, just like I said I would. I had called Alice before coming over and let her know where I was going. She'd know where to start looking just in case anything happened to me. Since no one was around, I got a good parking space right in front of the place and went inside. The door wasn't locked and I wasn't surprised.
I thought that might have been a bit weird; but, since I was meeting someone here I had assumed that they had the key or at least knew someone who had a key. I walked over to the counter, but I didn't see anyone around. The place was deserted as far as I could see. I decided that I could wait a few minutes for them to show up and then I was out of there. I was not going to hang around all night just so someone could stand me up. That was not happening.
Interlude
Josh stood at the end of the boardwalk inside a clump of trees near the entrance. He watched closely as a car drove by.
“Chris, can you feel that?”
“Yeah, Josh. So what?” Chris said without much interest from a boat in the water nearby.
“So what? That's an alpha or I'll eat my shirt.”
“Uh huh.” Chris said as he hit the call button on his phone.
“Tell the boss she's here and that Andrew wasn't lying.” Then he hung up. Now he understood what Colin and Andrew meant. Definitely scary, that one.
End Interlude
I was there for only a minute when the back door opened and a handsome man walked in. Blond hair, blue eyes, chiselled features, and a body to die for. He was everything that a red-blooded American woman would kill for... and he made my skin crawl. I don't know what that was; but, I got the distinct feeling that he was very bad news. How much do you want to bet that his personality is gonna match my sentiment exactly? Don't answer that. It's a sucker bet.
“Hi. I'm Mark. So... you're the new wolf in town.” He drawled in a revolting sexy tone.
See? I told you it was a sucker bet.
Mark sauntered over to my table and I got a pretty strong feeling of revulsion as he tried to sit down next to me at the table.
“That seat's taken.” I said.
He stopped in the middle of his movement just like I had pushed pause on a remote control. He looked like he was trying to exert himself; but, it wasn't doing anything to me, so I just waited while he changed his direction and sat in the chair across from me. He leaned over the table to get closer to me.
“There are certain rules that should be followed when you're trying to petition a pack for permission to be in their territory. One of them is being... nice to the pack leader.” Mark smiled.
My anger rushed to the surface and I had a hard time trying to stop myself from pounding his insufferable arrogant butt into the table. His face was frozen in the smile because I think he felt what I felt at the moment.
“I am NOT petitioning you for anything. I live here. I've ALWAYS lived here.” I said through gritted teeth. He moved back from leaning over the table to sit up straight.
“Then there has been a misunderstanding. I was under the impression that you were new here.” He said as he distanced himself further from me. I think he really can feel what I'm feeling.
“You asked to meet. We've met. Good-bye.” I smiled and stood.
“Hold on. I can't have a lone wolf roaming out and about in my territory.”
“I don't care what you want.”
“You have to be a part of the pack or you have to leave.” Mark said as he stood.
“I don't even understand what's going on here, let alone want to join anything. Not only that, but I live here. I. Am. Not. Leaving.” With each word my blood pressure soared and I could feel each pulse go through every vein in my body. “No one tells me what to do. Not when I was a little girl, and not when I was a teenager, and certainly not now that I am a grown woman. Do you understand? DO YOU?” I shouted at him and balled my hands into fists.
Mark took a hesitating step back from the table, then another. The door to the restaurant opened and six men came in. Two of them were the ones that had attacked me earlier and they stayed at the back of the group. The others were cracking their knuckles and twisting their heads to make their necks crack. That always unnerved me before; but, I now understood that was just a natural reaction to seeing it, and that was why they did it. To unnerve people.
I smiled. The guys took a couple of steps forward and the leader took a couple of steps back and now they were one big happy mob. The confidence flowed off them in waves. He wasn't so brave when he was all alone. Now that he had his backup, everything was fine.
“I'm afraid I am going to have to insist.” Mark said and shrugged.
I smiled at them and let myself relax. Posturing fools. Andrew said that werewolves were strong, and that I was stronger than he expected. I wonder if I can turn that to my advantage before they can jump me. I looked down at the table and judged it to be reasonably light. It could also be used as a good shield if I needed it. My blood flowed under the surface of my skin and I counted to ten.
“Don't make me hurt you.” I said. “Andrew, tell them.”
They all turned to him.
“Leave me out of this.” Andrew said as he grabbed Colin and moved back towards the door.
“There's no need for this to come to a fight.” Mark said. “We're all reasonable people here. I don't want you to join my pack because it's something that I want. It's because you have to. It's the law.”
If there were any words that were guaranteed to stop me in my tracks, those were the ones.
“Law? What law?” I said as I calmed down.
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Everyone else seemed to calm down at the same time as I did. It was as if I was itching for a fight, then I'd get one; but if I wasn't going to fight, then they weren't going to force me. Mark explained that it was a pack's job to hunt down rogue werewolves and stop their threat on humanity and at the moment I was one of those werewolves.
I sat back down and so did everyone else. Mark sat across from me again, much more cautiously this time, and the others spread out around us. We sat and talked for a long time. While we did that, more and more people came inside the restaurant and joined us. They all filled me in on the pack, the laws that everyone had to follow, and what it was that werewolves did.
Most of them laughed when I asked what werewolves do. They said that they have lives just the same as everyone else does, only they turn furry every month during the full moon. Once they found out what I did for a living, they were really happy. The pack had lots of legal troubles that had to be dealt with and having a lawyer on retainer who knew what they were would be a huge benefit for the pack.
I agreed that it would be a big help, then I told them that I wasn't going to give them a species discount, which made them all laugh.
“Okay, so what does this 'petitioning for admission to the pack' mean?” I asked when the laughter was dying off.
Mark gestured to a smallish guy with glasses. “This is Sheldon. He's the current holder of our Book of Pack Law. He'll fill you in on everything you will need to know. He's a bit shy, but once you get used to him, he'll open right up.”
A couple of people near Sheldon pat him on the back and rubbed his hair, then one pushed him towards my table. Mark called an end to our little improvised pack meeting and Sheldon reluctantly walked over to where we were sitting. He sat down in the seat that Mark tried to sit in earlier and I didn't object. I thought I saw a strange look cross Mark's face before he turned away.
I definitely have to keep my eyes open with this group. Especially on the head wolf.
Everyone piled out of the little restaurant and waved goodbye to me, and some even said 'see you later' to Sheldon. They left us sitting there and didn't even think twice about leaving Sheldon alone with me. I could have been a serial killer for all they knew. Then again, most of them seemed to be nice so far. Plus, once they explained why I should apply for membership, I guess they didn't really see me as a threat to their pack anymore.
I turned to Sheldon and he hunched down in the chair. I smiled and asked him some easy questions about the admittance rites of the pack and what everyone does in it. I got a few reluctant answers from him at first, then once I got him to warm up a bit he just kept going and going. I had to stop him at one point because I didn't understand what he meant by 'gammas' when describing wolves.
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting that you're not used to our terminology yet. The pack is divided up into three main groups. The Alphas are the highest and are usually the most powerful of us and they run the group. The Betas are the next most powerful, and when we lose an alpha through a fight, an accident, or they just decide to leave, one of the betas steps in to take up the position. The Gammas are just the regular members, like you and me.” He explained.
“Oh... okay. Who decides who is an Alpha, a Beta, and a Gamma?” I asked.
“Who decides? No one. It doesn't work that way. You either are one or your not.”
“Then why am I a Gamma?”
“Because you're female.” Sheldon said.
My blood started pumping and my anger started to come to the surface. Sheldon let out a short yell as he fell off of his chair and backed away from the table on his butt.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“G-g-getting away from you before you hit me.” Sheldon said behind his crossed arms. It looked like he held them front of his face to ward off a blow that he thought might be coming at him at any second.
“I'm not going to hit you.” I said, puzzled.
“I can feel the energy you're giving off. You're so angry!” He squealed.
I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. I asked him to calm down as well and to get back in the chair. He picked himself up off the floor and sat in the chair again. I asked him how he could feel what I felt.
“W-we can all feel the energy buildup if we are close enough. Strong emotions like anger and fear are usually the easiest to pick up. I've been with the pack a long time and I've never felt anything like your energy before.”
“I haven't felt anything from any of you, not even from Mark. What does that mean?”
“You haven't? The whole time you were here with a room full of werewolves and you didn't feel anything from anyone?”
“I'm pretty sure I didn't feel anything... although I thought I did feel a light buzzing across my arms when everyone was laughing, but that wasn't anything to do with you guys, was it?” I said.
“Yeah, that was us. For me, it felt like the whole room was shaking. There was so much energy moving around.” Sheldon shivered again.
“I'll have to keep trying to see if I can 'feel' you guys any better than that.”
“You just might not be as sensitive as us or you're wired for a much higher energy range.”
“That's an interesting point. Which brings me back to the gamma thing. Why are females always gammas?”
“It's nothing personal. It's been a rule in the pack for generations. Women are members of the pack; but, the only way they gain status is by dating someone higher in the pack structure. You see, it's that way because if the females were allowed to fight each other, then we'd lose too many to continue the heritage of the pack. You can still become queen of the pack, although only by marrying the king and not by fighting your way up the ladder, so to speak. I mean, you don't want to get stuck marrying someone you don't like, right?”
“That makes sense in a misogynistic society.” I said.
“That's the pack mentality for you.” Sheldon joked and I laughed. “I do have a question for you, though... if that's okay?”
“Go ahead. Turnabout is fair play, after all.”
“How long have you been a werewolf?” Sheldon asked.
“I'm not sure. I can only assume that I've been one since my attack, so... about a month and a half, I think.” I said thoughtfully.
Sheldon's jaw dropped when I said attack, and then he gasped when I said the length of time.
“What is it?” I asked, worried that I'd said something wrong.
“You've been a werewolf for a month and a half ?” Sheldon exclaimed.
“Yeah. You seem shocked. Why?”
“B-b-because... you've had two full moons since then!”
“Well, I'm pretty sure that the first full moon was the night I was attacked, so I didn't go through that one. The only full moon I saw was a couple weeks ago.”
“So what happened?” Sheldon nearly shouted.
“Calm down.” I said and he relaxed. “It was just another normal night. I watched a movie with my dog and went to bed. It was during the week and I had work the next day.”
I stared at Sheldon's wide open mouth and thought that if I had Cerberus's dog bone I could have shoved it in Sheldon's mouth sideways and still have room for a tennis ball.
“You... you... didn't change? At all?” He gasped.
“Change what? My clothes?”
“No. I mean, did you become a wolf?”
“What? No, of course not. Don't be absurd. I didn't even know about werewolves until today.” I said. “In fact, this whole thing just seems so ludicrous that I only came here to humour you all.”
Sheldon dropped his head to the table with a loud thunk and I asked him what was wrong. He said that he didn't know what was going on anymore and his whole world was going topsy-turvy. I had to laugh at his phrasing and told him that I didn't know, either. He gave me his business card after he wrote his personal number on the back of it, then he told me to not answer my phone for any unfamiliar numbers, except for his. I agreed, and then he stood up.
“Just for future reference...” I said to get Sheldon's attention. “...it's about before. I wasn't even close to being angry enough to hit someone.”
Sheldon paused and shivered before he turned towards the door and left.
I made it home and pulled into my driveway just in time to see the rain start. I didn't bother putting the car in the garage because I didn't have enough time. Luckily, I got in through my back door before it really started to pour down. I went through the house and checked the front door, then hoped that the rain wouldn't flood my living room if the door wasn't closed properly.
I put a couple towels behind the door as a water break, just in case. Cerberus greeted me in his usual manner by trying to tackle me, only this time I caught him and stayed standing up. He wasn't surprised by this and just licked my face while I stood instead. I dropped him and laughed, then he took off like a shot around the kitchen counter and into the living room.
“Get back here you little rat!” I said and he just barked at me in defiance.
I shook my head and went into my bedroom to change. I took a quick shower and climbed into bed. What a long and weird day this was. I closed my eyes as Cerberus hopped up onto my bed and laid down next to me. I lightly pet his fur and for some reason, I couldn't wait to see what tomorrow was going to bring.