by Rose, Aubrey
There wasn’t a floor, not really. We’d just put this tent up over the asphalt lot, and afterwards we’d realized we needed a floor. Someone had scavenged a bunch of scrap carpet from one of the manufacturers nearby, and so the ground was half-covered with different patterned rugs.
In the middle were the majority of the tables and to the right was the kitchen, hidden behind a clothesline curtain. It was almost dinnertime, and so there were a lot of people already working. The stovetops were all occupied by huge pots of something that smelled deliciously good.
I was proud of how we’d set up the kitchen – there was a rainwater tank that led to the sinks, and a gray water catchment underneath. The generator outside provided electricity for the pump system. I took Natalie over and showed her how we’d set it up piece by piece.
“Hutch, nice of you to finally show up for kitchen duty.”
I spun to see Gina standing behind us, her hands on her hips. She nodded at me and then her eyes caught Natalie and widened a bit.
“Oh! This is, uh—“
“Gina, Natalie,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. I wasn’t sure how Natalie would react to Gina, after what I’d said on our last date. “Nat, Gina.”
“I’d shake your hand if I could,” Gina said, raising her gloved hands. “We got work to do making this stew.”
“Can I help?” Natalie said, stepping forward before I could say anything.
“Sure thing,” Gina said. She gave me a half-grin. “Hutch, you gonna go help wash dishes?”
“How do you have dishes to wash before dinner is ready?” I asked, frowning.
Gina linked arms with Natalie.
“This idiot thinks that food magically appears on his table every night. He doesn’t know what the words prep work mean.”
Natalie smiled over at me, and I found myself a minute later arm-deep in hot soapy water, washing the knives and cutting boards from all of the kitchen preparation. The only other person washing dishes was a nervous teenage girl whose name I’d forgotten. She kept looking over at me, and I thought maybe she had a crush on me until she took one of my cutting boards from the drying rack and showed me how to actually clean off all of the beef gunk on it.
Gina and Natalie were laughing their heads off over on the other side of the kitchen, and I kept craning my neck to see if I could hear what they were talking about. Were they talking about me? I saw Gina glance over once and I ducked my head back down, focusing on not dropping the slippery plates in my hands.
When I looked over again, the two of them were gone. I dried my hands and quickly pushed my way out from behind the curtain. Gina and Natalie were sitting around a table with a few of the other pack members, drinking and laughing it up. I pulled up a chair to the table between them.
“You went and left me to do all the work by myself,” I groused.
“Right,” Gina said. “You gotta get more efficient at kitchen work, Hutch. Then you can finish on time with the rest of us. Like your girl here.”
Natalie giggled, and I looked over to see her eyes already glassing over with alcohol.
“How many dishes did you break back there?” Gina asked.
“Ah, shut up,” I said. I’d only broken one plate, and it had been really, really slippery. Wasn’t my fault anyway – I never did this kind of work.
“Don’t get too mad at him,” I heard Natalie say. “He was just trying to punch the grease off.”
“Hey!”
“I like this one, Hutch,” Gina said, taking another sip of her drink. “Can we keep her instead of you?”
I growled, but Natalie looked pleased as anything, her cheeks bright from the work and the beer.
“Go get the stew out,” someone else said.
“Alright, alright,” Gina said, raising her hands in mock surrender. “Just saying, it would be nice to have another pair of hands in the kitchen so I’m not doing everything myself.”
“I’ll get it,” Natalie said, standing up and going off behind the curtain.
“See?” Gina said. She stood up and leaned into the middle of the table. “Such a good helper. Who here thinks Nat would make a good mate for our dear leader here?”
The table erupted in cheers. One person yelled “Let me taste the stew first!” Gina looked over at me, and something inside of my stomach twisted strangely. It was one thing to have a girl, and quite another to have a mate.
Before I could say anything, though, Natalie was back with the pot of stew and Gina helped her serve it out into bowls for us and the kids who had run over at the first sight of food. I gotta say, I had been unsure about Nat coming over, but as I ate and she talked with the other pack mates, I relaxed a bit. She seemed to fit in pretty well, for a dog at least.
And the stew was delicious.
Chapter Eleven
Natalie
With an extravagant flourish, the guitarist finished his song to hoots and howls and a smattering of applause. It was surreal to watch. Like a scene from a trendy t-shirt advertisement. Young and old, three generations of one pack, gathered round a crackling fire. Singing songs, telling tales and soaking in the pale glow of the moon. I had never seen anything like this pack.
A pack led by one man - the man who was idly stroking my hair as I leaned against his broad chest. He raised his glass and everyone raised theirs, and along with these people who had welcomed me into their home under the stars, I took a swig of whatever acrid homemade booze it was that they’d forced on me.
Damn, it was disgusting. But after a while, the taste faded away and you were left with a comforting warmth that heated you from the inside out. And while I had no idea what damage it might have been doing to my liver, for now it just felt nice to be a part of something like this.
The beer was apparently a warm up. I wasn’t exactly a heavy drinker, and now that we’d moved onto the strong stuff I was feeling pretty light headed. But it was light headed in a pleasant, fuzzy way. Deceptively pleasant. I was sure I’d pay for it the next morning.
Next morning? I hadn’t really thought about it until now, but Hutch had been drinking pretty constantly since he devoured three bowls of my stew (OK it was a team effort, but I like to think I more than did my part). He might be the biggest badass in the world, but there was no way I’d get in a car if he was behind the wheel, and certainly not that speeding deathtrap of a motorbike. For better or worse, it looked like I was staying the night.
Right now, I was firmly in the “for better” camp. I liked it here. I liked the people, but most of all I liked the side of Hutch I’d seen on my whistle stop tour of Pack City. I was beginning to suspect he wasn’t nearly the big bad wolf he liked to pretend to be.
Not as bad, but certainly big. His looming presence was comforting in a way I had never felt before. When he was near, it felt like I was being watched over. Being protected.
While I was growing up, that was my dad’s job. He raised me. He protected me. He tucked me in at night. After mom had gone, he dedicated his life to me. He did the best job he possibly could. But it never felt like this. I never felt this safe.
It wasn’t just the drink. It wasn’t that, like it or not, I was obviously attracted to him. It hung over me like a cloud. Biological, chemical, supernatural? Did it matter? As I snuggled back against this man that I barely knew and let his warmth wash over me, I felt certain I was safe. Safe from everything, including myself.
Apparently it was Gina’s turn on center stage. She leaped to her feet and lurched around the fire, her legs wide, her hands gyrating like an extra in a high school production of Avatar: The Musical. The girl was drunk. So drunk that I decided to take another swig of the vile liquor in some kind of gesture of sisterhood.
“Who would like to hear the tale of how our fierce and proud pack leader got his name?”
I wasn’t sure whether or not it was a rhetorical question, but pouted with disappointment when Gina’s offering was shouted down with a chorus boo’s and one, poorly aimed, empty beer can.
>
“Well tough shit. The buxom wench who helped make your dinner wants to hear my story and as the traditions of our pack dictate, the vow of guestiness must be upholded.”
I glanced up at Hutch, stifled a sigh at how gorgeous his eyes looked under the fire light and asked, “Is that a real thing?”
I didn’t really care either way. I just felt the need to talk to him now and then to check he was real and not some hot, man-sized boulder.
He shrugged. “She’s just making it up as she goes along at this point. Don’t believe a word she says.”
“Long ago,” Gina began, “somewhere in the wilds of New Mexico, the most powerful, the most handsome, the most mysterious werewolf the world had ever seen, fled his pack. The most beautiful bitch to ever grace this great, green earth, riding shotgun in his fire red El Camino. His mate, ripe with his unborn child, had been promised to another. The son of his pack leader.
“And yeah, those two lovebirds needed to get the shit out of Dodge in a hurry.
“They wandered the wilds of this great nation before they fell in with a pack led by a descendent of one of the great Irish shifter tribes. A pack on hard times, but a pack with a great heart.”
There were murmurs of agreement and an undeniable scent of pride around the fire as she spoke of her kin.
“So, with much howling and hollering, the young couple gave birth to their first child, a son, under the light of the same moon we see tonight. And he was loud, and he was hungry and he always got what he wanted, because everyone worshipped the ground he walked on. And he liked nothing more than turning into an iddy biddy wolf cub and heading out into a wild where you didn’t have to sit in a chair and you didn’t have to go potty and everything smelled so fresh and free. But he never strayed too far from the people who took care of him, because, if I wasn’t clear before, even back then people would line up to kiss his pampered little ass.”
She shot me a dirty look and I had no idea what she meant by it. I half-shrugged and took another sip… or possibly a gulp.
“Then one day that damn pup goes missing. Nowhere to be found. Momma and Poppa Wolf are frantic. Searching everywhere, but can’t find their little one anywhere. Until at last they come to the farm of the big bad ogre who hates wolves. He calls us thieves and whores and accuses us of eating his goats.”
“Poppa Wolf goes into a rage and throws the farmer against a wall. He screams at him, ‘Where is my pup! What have you done with him!”, when the farmer spots something over Poppa’s shoulder. ‘Never mind your damn dog, where the hell are my fucking rabbits?’”
“They go to investigate. The pen is silent, not a rabbit in sight. But from the rabbit hutch comes a soft whimpering. They lift the top of the hutch, and inside lies a naked little boy, sleeping and whimpering and covered in the blood of a dozen slaughtered rabbits.”
Gina took a bow, almost stumbling, before adding, just in case I somehow missed it, “Hutch… like in the rabbit hutch. Where they found him… In the story.”
“Thank you,” I mouthed to her as she stumbled back to a spot in the circle.
I glanced down and noticed my mug was empty. I wanted to ask for more, but I was lightheaded and so very sleepy. I really needed to—
“Hutch, that was a sweet… and somewhat gross story. What happened to your parents? Where are they?”
“They died.”
He looked sad. Which was kind of to be expected. But I think it was the first time I’d seen him with his defenses down. I felt like this was a rare thing - not something I would get to see very often. Then he refocused his gaze on the pack and the familiar confident expression came back to his face. I tried to stand up and wobbled on my feet. I probably shouldn’t have been drinking so much while sitting down. Hutch grabbed my arm as I mumbled dizzily in his ear.
“Hutch, I need to lie down. I feel… very... time for lie down sleep.”
“Sure.”
He picked me up like I was some kind of toy. Cradled in his arms as he carried me to wherever it was he carried helpless women when he wanted to have his wild way with them. I willed myself to stay awake. I didn’t want to miss what came next.
***
My head was throbbing with pain when I woke up. I was... where was I? Shit.
I sat up quickly and immediately regretted it. White flashes of pain seared through my forehead, and I pressed my hands to my temples. After a few seconds, I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings.
I was in a tent, on a tiny cot that had eggshell padding on top of it to make it more comfortable. The air in here was hot and stuffy. There was a blanket on the floor next to me, and a set of barbells sitting next to that.
Oh, shit. This wasn’t Hutch’s trailer. What had happened last night? I swallowed but my mouth was ridiculously dry, and my tongue was gummy and thick. I needed to brush my teeth like anything. Whose tent was this? Fear rose up in my throat. If another guy had taken me to bed...
The tent flap opened, and I jerked back in fright. But the head that poked through belonged to Gina.
“Hey girl,” she said, coming into the tent. “How you feeling?”
“Fine,” I said, coughing into my hand. “I just... fine.”
“Here.” Gina handed me a bottle of water and a few aspirin. I took them gratefully and washed them down, wincing as I swallowed.
“What happened?” I said, looking around. “Why am I here?”
“Hutch thought you might not like waking up next to him without remembering the night before,” Gina said, grinning at me. “So I volunteered.”
“Such a gentleman,” I said, rubbing my head with one hand and taking another sip of water. Gina came and sat on the blanket next to the cot.
“He really is.”
“What? A gentleman?” I almost snorted the water up my nostrils at that.
“Not, you know, a bow tie and caviar gentleman. But he’s a nice guy under the fighting stuff.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve known him a while now. He’s always been a good leader, despite his flaws. People love him. And he’s a good friend.”
“And a good lover?”
I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice when I said it. The way Gina looked up at me, though, made me feel ashamed for being bitter.
“That’s what a pack leader does,” she said, shrugging. “There’s nothing real between us. Nothing like what you seem to have, anyway.”
“What we have? We don’t have anything,” I said quickly.
“I don’t believe that for a second. He’s never in a million years looked at me the way he looks at you.”
“Oh, come on.”
“And last night? He was cuddling up on you like a cub.”
I shook my head, not knowing what to say to her.
“It was sweet,” Gina continued. “It’s good to see that side of him.”
“I don’t know if he really cares about me all that much,” I said cautiously. “He’s never said anything about it. I get the feeling he just wants to take me to bed.”
Gina laughed once, a bark of laughter that stopped as soon as she saw my face.
“Wait, you mean you haven’t slept together yet?”
I shook my head again, my cheeks burning. I took another gulp of water. My headache was a slow pulse of pain now, but it was getting better.
“Holy shit. You must be something else, huh?”
“Stop looking at me like I’m an alien,” I said, chuckling nervously.
“It’s just... if you know Hutch, you know he never waits for anything. He always gets what he wants. And if he’s waiting for you...” Gina trailed off and bit her lower lip. “You must be something special, that’s all.”
“That’s all,” I repeated, and took another swig. The water bottle was empty. Gina reached out and took the empty plastic bottle, tossing it into the corner of the tent.
“Well, if you ask me,” she said, standing up and stretching, “it would be good for Hutch to have someone like you. Br
ing a little stability to his world, you know?”
“You said... you said he had flaws?”
I looked up at Gina. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to know, or needed to know. But I was getting closer and closer to Hutch, without knowing anything about him. I figured that it would be good to get some outside perspective before losing my heart to someone. Especially if that someone was a shifter like me.
“Every leader does,” she said. “He’s a good fighter, sure, and he keeps the pack in line. But of course there’s the money thing.”
“What money thing?”
“We owe a lot of people a lot,” Gina said, her hands on her hips. “The fights pay for some of that. But Hutch has these crazy loans, and, well...” She waved her hand in the air. “He’s just not all that smart about financial stuff, is all. If you ask me. I asked him once, and he didn’t want to talk about it, said it wasn’t my place. So it’s not my place.”
“Huh,” I said.
“Look, don’t mention it to him, okay? I don’t want him thinking I blabbed all of his shit all over the place.”
“Of course,” I said. My headache had dwindled to a low throb, but I still needed to brush my teeth. I stood up and winced with the pain of the blood rushing to my head. “You guys have a bathroom around here?”
“Sure,” Gina said. “It’s in the warehouse. Lemme show you. But hey, Nat?”
“Yeah?”
“I meant what I said. I think you would be good for him. I don’t know if he’d be good for you, but I’m sure you’d be good for him.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Uh, I think.”
Gina grinned and held the tent flap open for me.
“You’re welcome.”
Chapter Twelve
Natalie
On the average morning, back in the real world, I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of people. From the stairs in my apartment, to the lobby and out on the street, a ten minute ride on a crowded subway that reeked of sweat and piss, to the lift that took me to my cubicle on the eighth floor. On the average morning I could probably count the number of them who smiled at me or acknowledged my existence in any way on the fingers of one hand… and one of them would be Todd the doorman, who smiled only when he was staring at my breasts.