Rebirth

by D. C. Alexander

  The rest of the crowd was quiet, watching. Looking around at them was hard without my ass and tits hanging out, the blanket was just shit for covering up.

  “What?” I looked around and they were all staring at me; none of them would make eye contact.

  “Somebody needs to tell me what the fuck is goin’ on here. You mothafuckas acting all funny and shit, y’all goin zombie on me?”

  Rob stepped out of the crowd,

  “Hey, Ms. Rosalee, excuse me, maybe I can help?”

  “I hope so – you mind getting some britches on? And tell me what sort of shit is goin’ on here? At least put your hand over your junk…never mind, you need a towel or something.”

  Rob grinned, someone tossed him the body bag and he held it up as a cover

  “You beat our leader one on one, that means you are the new leader, we call it the alpha, ‘cept there wasn’t a formal challenge. You didn’t kill him, which is good, now you can run him off or kill him or cripple him. And you watch out for the rest of us and make the rules. And we’re sort of wondering what you are? You don’t smell like one of us.”

  “Oh. That makes a little more sense, then. Not really. Y’all all werewolves? Is that really a thing? Why’d this guy jump on me after I worked on you?”

  “We’re pretty careful about people finding out about us. You found out. We never had a healer work on anybody before like that. Big C felt like he oughta kill you but we all didn’t want him to, we been arguin’ about it, but it’s his call. And he ain’t used t’ anybody back talkin’ him, so shit got outta control, ya know? Oh, and you should either bite his neck or kill him.”

  “What the actual, livin’ fuck are you talkin’ about, why would I bite his neck? Y’all wanna bite somebody’s neck you go on and do it, I aint into that shit with somebody I don’t know and he might go all bitey on me and …well just …” I couldn’t even come up with anything to say. I surely did not intend to bite the dude’s neck.

  “Rose. Before this gets any worse let me guide you?” Harry. He slithered up to me with a yellow rain poncho and held it out so I could stand up into it. Thank god!

  “Harry, you got any tips, share ‘em.”

  “The person on the ground is offering his neck to you, accepting that you won. You should bite him on the neck, however you want to do that, to show you accept his surrender. That would be the first thing you need to do here. If you tear his head off you should eventually kill him.”

  I leaned down and put my hand on his chest for balance and pressed my teeth to his neck. Next thing I know, I was back in bear form, crushing his chest and trying to resist the overwhelming urge to bite down, my mouth was full of the most delicious thing I had ever run into and my jaws ached and cramped with need.

  I managed to pull my head away without biting down. Slobber hung in strings from my mouth and dripped, I stood up and forced the change back to person.

  He sat up and my drool ran down his chest, which creaked and popped as it reformed from being crushed.

  The crowd all came toward me, ambling, looking away, it was just weird as shit. Like a pack of zombies. What was with all the zombie shit? I got ready to go bear and fix them up.

  “They are not attacking you. They welcome and confirm.” Harry put his hand on my shoulder, maybe the only time he ever touched me without us fighting.

  The rest of them brushed against me, each one taking care not to stand higher than me and to touch skin somewhere; hand, arm, whatever was exposed, with head or back of hand, very careful not to appear threatening.

  As they took turns, some of them on the ground brushing against my legs, Harry leaned in

  “You need to decide what to do with the old alpha. You tell him what you want him to do. How far he has to go. Before you say anything, let me save you some trouble – have him come with us and lets go home and talk about what comes next.”

  There was something I wasn’t getting. Of course. Looked like they wanted me to be leader and I didn’t want.

  “Alrighty, touchy feely over for now, we gone go back to the house and talk this over. Y’all go on and do whatever you normally do without biting people and shit. We’ll talk with you later.” I glanced at Harry and he seemed to be ok with that, so I held out a hand to help ‘Big C’ up; he looked at the hand and bounced to his feet. Fuck him.

  Somebody tossed him a pair of pants and we went to my house after he put them on.

  Twenty Three

  W e sat at my kitchen table, coffee was making, Harry stood to one side. Big C put his hands on the table and waited for me to speak.

  “Harry, explain please.”

  He did; he told Big C my circumstances, then he explained pack structure, that Big C was the leader, or Alpha, who made decisions for the pack, passed judgments, helped with problems, and ensured people didn’t find out what was going on. Leadership passed by fighting if the crowd wasn’t willing to overthrow the new leader.

  Then he explained to me that turning down the job wasn’t an option. He had to calm down Big C, who got pretty mad at that.

  “I just don’t really want to lead a pack. I don’t know anything about it. Nothing. I got things to do already. I don’t mind helping, but, hell, that’s why I didn’t run for president, it just ain’t my thing!”

  “They can’t handle it without somebody to look up to. They’ll go rogue. Kill people, steal, fight, anything. They need structure and someone who cares and will control them. Someone in charge.” Big C just sat there looking down at the table while Harry explained.

  “I didn’t take them to raise. I -”

  Big C interrupted “Yeah, you did.”

  Before I could explode at that, somebody rapped at the door. Just as well, this was about to get heated.

  “Harry, could you get that?” It turned out to be Carl, who bristled at the big man setting at the table. He took a seat, visibly puffing up and sitting with his chest thrust out.

  After the introductions I brought Carl up to speed, with a few interruptions and explanations.

  He said “So, they need a controller, Rose don’t want to be the controller, and Big boy here can’t be the controller and they ain’t nobody else, right?”

  “Yep, that’s about it.” I was feeling some strain. I just didn’t deserve this shit.

  “So, you appoint Big boy as deputy controller. Poof. Done.”

  Yeah, like something that made sense would actually work.

  Harry said “Yes, that would work.:

  “Would you be willing to do that?” Big C was hopeful, but wary.

  “Hell yes. In an instant. Seems too easy to work though, based on my life.”

  “No, if we agree, it would fix a lot of problems. I never wanted to lead. But I got stuck the same way you are.”

  The details turned out to be easy. No paperwork. I owned a werewolf pack apparently. And had a manager.

  Now, if I could get some clothes…

  The End. (For a little while)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DC Alexander currently lives near the edge of a swamp in Alabama. Has two daughters and six grandchildren and is the youngest of eight children. Plays chess, reads, and now, writes. Along with mechanic, electrician, plumber, carpenter, truck driver, computer programmer, scuba diver(underwater demolition), other stuff like IT Manager and wannabe fisherman…So much I want to go fishing! And maybe even catch fish, although that can get messy. Mostly just work on boats and motors though, getting ready in perpetuity.

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading this book, and for reading this afterword.

  If by chance you enjoyed this book, or even if you didn’t, a review would give you a chance to tell me about it. And tell others at the same time. You can leave a review here.

  If this is the print book, that link is:

  https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B07P452W9H

  If you’d like to know when the next book is coming out, other books I’m working on, and general information abou
t what I’m doing, you can follow me on my author page:

  amazon.com/author/dcalexander

  I’ll put up contests and free and discounted books from time to time, find by using the link above.

  Thanks again; you are the reason I write.

  DC Alexander