by Cree Walker
We left Britney in the entry touching the end of her quickly heeling broken nose experimentally. "If attitude made an Alpha, that girl would rule us all." I said climbing into a four door Honda Civic next to Kristy.
"Well if attitude were brains she might go somewhere too, but they’re not so she won't." She plugged the key into the ignition and cranked it over.
"Brains aren't everything you know."
"So says the muscle." She rolled her eyes and pulled the car onto the dirt road.
"I'd give up everything I have to be half as happy as that girl." I said honestly.
"Yeah, I've seen just how happy you can be." She said with less venom than before. "What happened to you to make you so angry?"
"Long history."
"I heard you were raised by humans."
I nodded, "They weren't all bad."
"So does that make up for the ones who were?" She asked knowingly.
"I think my insufferable defiance, which would have been nurtured in this world, might have been my greatest downfall in theirs."
"Wow, more than one multi-syllable word in a sentence." I gave her an annoyed look before retuning my attention back to the road.
"It takes more than muscle and good looks to run a pack." I smirked at her shocked expression.
"I'm not ugly." She snapped before seeing my smirk then she rolled her eyes again. "Fine; point taken."
"So, why don't you get Robert to pay for your schooling, so you can provide more than sarcasm and spite to your pack?"
She considered this a moment. "What would I do?"
I shrugged, "Lawyer comes to mind."
"Why a lawyer?"
"The constant debating might have something to do with it." I smiled smugly. "Also your confidence." I said as a way of apology for being so quick to correct her behavior.
"A lawyer huh?" She thought about it. "I'll take it into consideration."
"Maybe you should talk to your Alpha before you do too much considering."
"This coming from the biggest considerer of us all?"
"There are no witnesses here, and I assure you I can make it look like a horrible accident." I threatened calmly, as I leveled a very serious gaze with hers.
Her grip on the steering wheel tightened and she swallowed hard before saying weakly, "I doubt it, but since you seem to still be in the Alpha's good graces he might let you have one more free ride." She smiled at me, over the double innuendo of her comment. I sighed and counted slowly to ten and reminded myself that what she said might have been rude and bluntly honest, but it was honest just the same. To be quite honest myself, I wasn’t so sure I could wait ’til sunset before breaking her jaw just to shut her up.
"What are you doing?" She asked about my sudden silence.
I rolled my eyes in her direction, "Planning." I said simply and I let a slow creepy smile cross my face.
That did it because the rest of the ride was blissful silence.
We walked into the supermarket and she tore the lengthy list in half and handed me my half. "Can you read everything on that list? Some of the words are pretty big."
I let my eyebrows crawl up my forehead as if to say, really?
She looked around and held out her hands, "Plenty of witnesses."
I laughed and held up my half of the list. "I've got it, thanks."
I walked up and down the aisles, dumping stuff into the cart as I went. We met up at the checkout counter as she was just finishing emptying her cart and doing her best to ignore the cashier's pleasant conversation.
She looked at the very expensive non-stick cook set I had balanced on top of all the groceries. "Robert might not like you adding that to the list without asking."
"I'll pay for it." I said.
"You know Britney told me you promised her a new set of pots and pans, but I didn't think you really meant it." I shrugged and started adding stuff to the conveyer belt, keeping the pots for last.
"You know, I can't get you pegged." She said at last, helping me unload my cart.
"Maybe people aren't meant to be pegged."
"You mean like Alpha?" She asked smiling.
"Every society has a sub base of people who in turn develop their own form of political order. What I'm saying is that it isn't up to one person and their inflated sense of self to judge others, placing them virtually unknown based on their own idealisms of sociological classification." I smiled, "There are just too many variables involved in making an accurate postulation based on first impressions alone."
She stared at me in horror as if I had just sprouted a second head, this one with a brain.
I nodded towards the cashier, who waited patiently for Kristy to notice she was finished and waiting for payment.
She wrote out the check in silence before turning to me. "I thought you were a chambermaid before we found you."
"I was, but just because I didn't go to college doesn't mean I forgot how to read. Libraries are free and knowledge is power and every bit as effective as my fists."
"You could go to college now. You just said it was a good idea."
"Not for someone as naturally defiant as I am."
"So, did you peg me?" She asked defensively.
"No, I simply made a suggestion based on your love of knowledge, and our pack's need for professionals." I finished loading the bags into the back seat and slammed the door. "Sometimes people just are as they are and nothing you do can organize a whole person enough to shove them into a nice neat little hole."
We were pulling into another store to pick up underwear for Brian when she smirked. "Do you want to know how I pegged you?"
"Probably not." I took a swig of apple juice from my stolen juice box.
"A narcissistic slut." She announced proudly.
I nearly choked. "Thanks, that was both brutally honest and totally mean."
She nodded before getting out of the car with me. "I was wrong though."
I sighed, "I don't think you were wrong exactly, but there is more to me than that."
She nodded, "So why did you do it?" She asked referring to me and Gage.
"Thought it'd feel good." I said simply.
"That's it?"
"Well if you demand that I self-analyze, I guess I did it for several reasons. One, I felt I was the Alpha's equal and thought I'd rub his face in the same bullshit he was putting me through by flaunting his sexual prowess with every single woman in the pack. Two, I wanted Gage like Eve wanted that apple; he was my forbidden apple and I don't like being told what or who I'm allowed to do. Three, Gage is easier to manipulate than Robert. It’s easier to stay on top in the relationship and the person on top doesn't get hurt. Four, he's hot and I haven't gotten laid in a very long time."
"Was it worth the punishment?" She smirked again.
"No. Don't get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with him, I just wasn't ready for a new partner and though my body wanted something my brain knew better.” I swallowed and felt a blush rise. “It hurt like hell."
"How big is he?" Her eyes bugged with morbid curiosity and amazement.
I looked at her slowly, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Maybe you need to." She said. "You don't have to talk about it with me, but you've obviously got some deeper issues to contend with before you’re ready to take on a new partner."
"Have you been with Robert?" I asked suddenly, my own curiosity lifting its ugly head.
She smirked, "I don’t think I’m his type exactly.”
“What do you mean? You’re gorgeous.”
“There is a lot more to finding a mate than whether they are good looking or not, and according to the rules, I’m not dominant enough for this pack’s members, or Alpha.”
I shuffled through the bin of underwear looking for Brian's size. "This is impossible; am I on a treasure hunt?" I looked at the bin of tighty-whities and felt totally overwhelmed.
Kristy snatched a pair off the top. "Got ’em, you ready to go home and split firewood?"
>
"Anything is better than this." I said wedging my way through a crowd of youngish mothers, all with the exact same soccer mom haircut, hurriedly picking clean the carcass of a sales rack like suburban vultures.
One woman shoved her way through and I growled out a warning without thinking. She turned her eyes on me and sniffed indignantly. She wasn't scared of me; she was a mother of a child in desperate need of a pink ruler and pencil set to match her school bag and favorite shirt, at forty percent off. I was a cakewalk in the park on a sunny day to her. Suddenly I was very scared of suburbanites and I scurried out of their way before pieces of me went missing.
"Did you see that?" I hitched a thumb in their direction as we headed for the cash register.
"Human beings are predators, Sugar. Just because they hide their fangs and prey drive better than we do doesn't change that fact."
The cashier was looking at us with fear in her eyes while she bagged the package of underwear. I was too busy looking over my shoulder and making sure none of the super mom's had locked us in their sights to care what the middle aged woman behind the cash out counter thought about our conversation.
We arrived home in time for lunch, which we ate, on the fly to avoid another episode with Donna or any of the other girls. Then we went outside to chop wood and stack it for the coming winter months.
It felt good to take out some of my aggression on the large rounds of wood with an ax. Kristy avoided the flying debris for the most part and stacked each of the furnace-sized pieces neatly into cords.
Donna came out with two glasses of water. "You guys must be thirsty?" She handed one glass to Kristy and spit in mine before handing it over. Then she turned to the largest stack of wood and shoved the top part over. She giggled happily to herself like a demented ten year old in desperate need of some one on one time with a highly trained therapist.
My grip on the ax shifted but Kristy stepped in front of me facing Donna. "Why don't you go pick on someone who isn't holding an ax, dumb-dumb?"
Donna just smiled and skipped away like a horror movie version of Pippy Longstockings.
"I can't wait ’til you get in the ring with her." Kristy started to re-pile and I put down the ax to help her.
"I might not make it there. Some of these girls have been trained to fight."
"If what I've heard about you is true, you'll make it."
"Promise me you'll fight tonight," I said.
"Are you kidding? You've been pissing me off all day, and how often does a girl like me get to sink her fangs into a bonafide Alpha female?"
We finished re-piling the stack just before supper and I trudged inside with bleeding blisters and deep splinters covering both of my hands. I held them under the cold water and tried pulling the splinters out one by one with my teeth.
"Supper." Britney announced.
I nodded and drug my feet to the dining area, sitting down hard in a chair between Sarah and Kyle. Kyle shook his head and ground his teeth. "This is beneath you."
I smirked, "You got to pay to play."
Sarah shifted as Robert came into the room and I looked up. He was so gorgeous my breath caught and I swallowed hard at that little tidbit. He still had a blank expression when it came to me, and I wasn't sure if hatred would be better. At least then he would feel something, but you can't really hate someone you don't care anything about. Again I dropped my head and stared blindly into my empty plate.
I ate slowly, my appetite plummeting at the thought of fighting Kristy. But no matter how slowly I ate the meal ended and the table was cleared. I listened to the sound of the dishes being washed with growing anxiety and I kept looking up at Kristy.
She had been right; I probably should talk to someone about what happened to me while I was in David's “care.” I was pretty sure, that was what all the trouble was about, but I hoped if I tamped it down enough it would fade like the abuse from when I was a child. But I wasn't a child anymore and I had lost some of my resilience over the years.
Robert walked into my line of view and my blurred staring-off-into-the-abyss vision focused on him. "It’s time."
I stood up from the kitchen chair and walked out onto the porch. The Circle was made and the faces all held a different expression.
"Hurry up, I'm missing Jeopardy." Kristy said with a reassuring smile.
I kicked off my shoes, hopped off the high porch and walked into the Circle feeling nothing but grim.
She came at me swinging but I dodged her, ducking under her left arm and tackling her full on with enough force to pick her up off her feet, using my weight to slam us both into the hard ground, with my open palm pressed into her diaphragm as we fell. I knocked the wind out of her and probably broke a couple of ribs; she tapped out while gasping for breath in the dust filled air.
I turned a bored look on the Alpha. I didn't want to do this anymore, he had made his point. I wasn't his equal if it meant that I had to hurt the people who I was supposed to protect… "I'm done."
"No; tomorrow you will fight again." Robert said evenly as if he had been expecting me to say just that.
"I'll take a knee; I'm not the monster everyone's portraying me as. I'm done."
He crossed the Circle and pointed an angry finger in my face, his own red with rage. "If you don't fight tomorrow I have no use for you here and you can pack your shit and get the fuck out of my house."
I was wrong; I didn't prefer his anger to his indifference. I looked at the ground, "Yes Alpha." My voice shook slightly.
"Tomorrow you're with Alexandria." He turned and left. As blistering hot as his anger was, his absence was bitter freezing cold.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke up on my own the next morning and I was happy to see my hands had healed from the day before. Alexandria was downstairs waiting for me to finish my cold shower. She was eating a bowl of fruit loops and watching Good Morning America.
"Hi," I said lamely sitting down beside her. "You must be Alexandra?"
The dirty blonde bombshell looked me over and smiled. "And you must be the one who's going to kick my ass tonight?" She smiled dimpling her cheeks, her freckles standing out on her tanned face.
"I tried to get out of fighting you," I shrugged.
"Well, this life isn't all it’s cracked up to be." She spooned in another mouthful of cereal and turned back to the television. “But it's better than the alternative.”
"Are you bitten?" I asked shocked.
"Do I need to have tee-shirts made?"
"I thought Jersey was the only bitten wolf in the house." I shrugged.
"Well, I guess I have you to thank for the equal rights and all." She slurped her milk and sighed her satisfaction and patted her flat tummy.
"So what's on the agenda today?"
"We are going to help Kristy finish the firewood and then we are going to till the garden and mulch the flower beds before it’s time to plant. Then we are going to rake leaves and put them in the organics bin for next year’s compost, and plant some replacement trees in the forest for those we harvested for our firewood."
"We recycle?" I asked when she finished.
"Of course, we need to protect this earth for our future generations."
"Are you a hippie?" I felt my confusion twisting my features.
"No, I'm just green."
She said the word like I would know – or rather should know – what it meant and rather than disappoint her I stood up and nodded. "Okay, let’s get to it." To be honest, I didn't even know we had a garden and when I saw its size I was a little embarrassed. It was at least eighty feet squared. I hadn't ever seen a werewolf eat any vegetable besides potatoes and corn so I was surprised we had such a variety. Alex had gone off to finish helping Kristy with the wood piles so I was working alone in the garden. I didn't mind, I had lived in a few foster homes where they kept a vegetable garden and though they were hard work, it paid off well in return.
Alex came to check on me a few times but had little to say about my w
ork since I was doing it right and I was nearly finished tilling it over when she came to get me for lunch.
We went into the house and I washed my again blistered hands under the cool water and scrubbed the dust from my face.
Lunch was sandwiches and chips and I hadn't remembered a sandwich ever tasting so good. I hadn't eaten breakfast and the night before I had only picked at my supper, so with all this hard work I was ravenous and ate nearly as much as Kyle and Gage. I sat back and sighed, it wasn't the work I minded, it was the fights and knowing it was noon, meant that I only had half a day left before the next fight.
Alex, Kristy and I mulched the flowerbeds and started raking leaves. It didn't take me long to discover that Alex and Kristy were anything but friends and I was pretty sure I knew why.
"So you guys hate each other huh?" I asked picking up a small pile of leaves and dumping them in the wheel barrel. I looked up at the trees just starting to bud bright green leaves and shook my head. I never fully understood raking leaves but I kept my mouth shut.
Neither one answered me right away, but Alex finally spoke up. "We're just different that's all."
"Like, you're bitten and she's Born?" I stopped raking.
"Something like that." Alex said pointing to my rake.
I started raking leaves again, but I wasn't dropping the subject. "So what do you guys think of me?"
"You're Born," Kristy said. "There is nothing to think."
"But my parents were both bitten." I corrected.
She shrugged, "That's beside the point."
"What about you Alex?" I prodded.
"I think you are a little of both."
I nodded, "So, do either of you hate me?"
"I hate you for breaking my ribs." Kristy snapped.
"But you don't think I'm inferior?"
"If I did, would you break my arm or something?" She asked sarcastically.
"Don't cover this up with humor... as dark as it may be. What do you really think?"
Alex stopped raking, "I think it doesn't matter either way. You're strong and smart and pull your weight in the pack."
I looked at Kristy. She shrugged, "The prejudice still runs deep. It’s going to take more than a couple of years to change the way the majority feels about integrating bitten wolves into the packs."