RAFES - Her President Wolf
A Brother’s Nightwolf Preview Novella
Theodora Taylor
Contents
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1. Wilma
2. Myrna
3. Rafes
4. Rafes
5. Myrna
6. Rafes
7. Colby
Also by Theodora Taylor
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One
Wilma
The late 80s, Detroit
There was nothing…read her lips....nothing in the world Wilma Greenwolf regretted more than her decision to eat a huge lunch before coming here to try out for All-American Wrestling.
Yeah, it had made sense at the time. It was a full moon night, and she’d had no idea how long the tryouts line for All-American wrestling would be. Possibly a little long, but also maybe really short. Professional wrestling used to be huge in Detroit back in the 50s and the 60s, but times had changed for real. Now, the city had gone from mostly white folks driving Cadillacs to mostly black folks driving whatever they could afford. And most of Detroit’s other pro wrestling promotions, like Big Time and All-Star Championship Wrestling, had shut down.
So when Wilma decided on that big ass lunch, for all she had known, she’d be the only female in all of Detroit who’d be trying out for one of Detroit’s few remaining wrestling promotions today. Truth be told, she could still barely believe she’d decided to try out after seeing that neon yellow flyer stapled to a power pole the last time she was in Detroit proper getting her perm touched up.
But she was determined to do this. Ever since she’d turn twenty a few months ago, she’d been getting hit with the same thought—that life as she knew it was about to be over now that she’d reached heat age. And if she wanted to take any chances, make any of her own choices, she had to do it now, because once her father found a legitimate prince to take his otherwise useless daughter off his hands, there wouldn’t be a later when it came to deciding what was next for her own life.
However, the tryouts were taking place at a community rec center in Lincoln Heights, some random part of south Detroit that Wilma had never been to before. And no matter how fired up she was to live her life while the living was good, she couldn’t just ignore the fact that the one chance to make her secret dream come true was scheduled on the same day as that month’s full moon. After a whole lot of squinting at a map she’d bought at Triple A, and a few weird phone calls to Michigan’s Park and Recs Services, she’d managed to identify a recently closed summer camp in Dearborn just a few miles away from the rec center. She’d be able to shift there if she didn’t have time to drive all the way back to her pack’s kingdom house in Hidden Hills before moonrise.
But shifting was no joke. She often woke up starving the morning after, even when she ate a huge dinner. She didn’t want to be stuck in Dearborn on a totally empty stomach. So on the drive south, she’d decided to make an hour detour into downtown Detroit to scarf down five chili dogs—from Lafayette Coney Island of course. American Coney could suck a dick. Wilma was a Lafayette gangsta FO LIFE!
Big mistake, though. Possibly the biggest one she’d ever made.
She’d been feeling like she might barf ever since pulling up to the Lincoln Heights Community Center and seeing that the line for tryouts already wrapped all the way around the sprawling beige brick building. Shit, shit, shit, she’d cursed. Because apparently, she wasn’t the only 70s kid whose eyes had lit up when All-American announced they were looking to take on girl wrestlers.
It had taken nearly four hours to reach the front of the line, which might not have felt so bad if she was like any of the other girls in line: nimble gymnasts, tall blond and light-skinned models, or hulking dark ethnic girls waiting for their chance to try out.
Her being here felt all kinds of stupid now.
Standing five foot nine in wrestling boots with ebony skin, she wasn’t tall or skinny or light-skinned enough to model anything in a Spiegel catalog. But she also wasn’t short enough to compete in any gymnastics competitions, or huge enough to convincingly play a villain, like Matilda the Hun from the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, that new show that just started airing on Channel 50.
If she was being real with herself, she only had two true strengths when it came to pro wrestling. The first thing was her over-the-top passion for the sport. She and her older brothers, Wilford and Wilton, had continued watching the Big Time Wrestling matches on Channel 7, no matter how far they pushed airings into the wee hours of the morning, all the way up until the promotion shut down. And even after Wilton and Wilford had started spending their weekend nights with the other males in their pack, instead of watching wrestling with their little sister, Wilma had continued memorizing wrestler stats and fervently following every feud.
When her father had gotten them all their own TVs and VCRS two years ago, she’d used hers to tape the local All-American and the national WWF fights. She’d even started writing down all the moves from her favorite matches. Up until Wilt recently announced his engagement to Janelle, the daughter of another black wolf motorcycle gang, at least once a month she and her brothers would perform complete replications of the matches for her father’s gang during his weekend-long parties.
Of course, since Wilma was being saved for marriage to a proper prince from a legitimate state pack, she’d never been allowed to participate in those fights. She’d been more of a secretary/coach, breaking all the moves down and teaching them to her brothers for the big show.
But still, Wilma doubted any other girl in this line loved and lived wrestling nearly as hard as she did. That was her first biggest strength.
And her second biggest strength was…well, strength. No other girl in this line loved wrestling as much as she did and no other girl in this line was nearly as strong as she was. However, her greater strength was also her weakness. She was the strongest girl here because she happened to be the only unheated female werewolf in the entire Metro Detroit stupid enough to try out for a pro wrestling promotion on a full moon night.
She could feel her wolf, lurking right below her skin’s surface, which made her even more nervous than the line full of human girls who looked nothing like her. And now she stood just three girls away from the door of the auditorium where the auditions were taking place. With both her wolf and her nerves working her, she wouldn’t be surprised if that big lunch came rushing right on out of her stomach any minute now.
A heavily accented, “NEXT!” thundered out of the auditorium for the umpteenth time that day. The energy and hopes of Wilma and the rest of the girls waiting were flagging, but apparently not for the hollering voice of whoever was calling for each next tryout.
As a statuesque light-skinned black girl who looked like she could be Vanessa William's cousin sashayed into the auditorium, Wilma checked her Casio G-Shock. Technically it wasn’t hers. But she doubted Wilt would miss it since their father upgraded him to a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date after he made his big engagement announcement to the girl his father had specifically picked out for him.
4:30.
Way too close for comfort this late into fall. The community center’s brick and plaster hallway didn’t let in much light, but Wilma could practically feel the sun setting. Her wolf vibrated inside of her in anticipation of being let out with the rise of the full moon. She
should go. Now. Get to that abandoned campsite in Dearborn. But she was only two girls away from her one shot at doing something truly exciting with her life before her father married her off.
Her stomach churned at the thought of her incoming imprisonment by marriage for reasons that had nothing to do with the chili dog. But she pushed her father out of her mind. Leroy Greenwolf always got his way in the end or ended whoever was getting in his way. There was nothing she could do about that. Just focus on today, she told herself, as her wolf tingled along her spine.
“I heard this was all just a big publicity stunt because the new owner’s trying to drum up local interest in wrestling again,” a nimble blonde gymnast standing in line in front of Wilma, said authoritatively to her equally nimble brunette friend. “I mean look how many freaks are crawling out the woodworks.”
On the word “freaks,” the blond threw a pointed look over her shoulder at Wilma. As nervous as she was, the insult felt like a sucker punch, straight to the gut. Hot outrage flared through her, and Wilma's wolf cranked its neck at the blonde. She was a Greenwolf after all. The Princess of the baddest damn pack in all of North America. And the pack’s alpha hadn’t raised his three children to abide disrespect. Wilma could just hear Leroy Greenwolf’s voice inside her head, commanding her to put a silver bullet in this little bitch for daring to insult her.
She curled her fists at her sides….
…but no, getting in a fight right before her tryout wouldn’t make a good impression. Plus, she’d ordered a suspender leotard and wrestling boots special from the Sears catalog for this tryout. Not to mention the hours she’d spent in the hair shop, getting her hair cut into an asymmetrical style, just like the one Pepa wore in the video for “Push It.”
She uncurled her fists and forced herself to stay right where she was and not punch the petite blonde in her over made up face.
“NEXT!”
The heavily accented command blasted through the air, distracting the catty blonde out of her stare off with the black girl she didn’t realize was a wolf who could quite easily rip her to pieces.
With the flip of a switch, the blonde plastered on a shiny smile and placed a hand on her hip as she, like the girl before her, sashayed into the auditorium.
Wilma was close enough now to peek around the auditorium’s open door jamb without losing her place in line. But that turned out to be her second biggest mistake of the day. Her stomach went even more apeshit when she saw who all those huge “NEXT”s belonged to.
Holy shit, it was Bohdan the Terrible!
A flock of birds seemed to take flight in her belly, and her heart raced. She’d read a news item in the paper about a wrestler buying the All-American wrestling promotion from the former owner’s wife shortly after his death. But it had been one sentence in an article mostly focused on the death of both Detroit-area wrestling, even as national promotions like the WWF gave rise. The reporter hadn’t named names, so she’d assumed the purchaser was an older wrestler… and you know, actually American.
But there behind a table set up inside the rink, sat one of the youngest villains in the All-American line up. Technically, he was wrestling royalty. His father, Vlad the Terrible had debuted in the early seventies, and then his hulking teenage son had joined him as a tag team villain duo in the early eighties.
She could still remember how hard she and her brothers had yelled and hissed at the TV as the father/son Russian team had dispassionately taken out two of their favorite heroes. But the son had quickly surpassed his father. Somehow always finding a way to sneak his infamous steel chain into the fight, he’d soon gathered a reputation as a hardcore wrestler who’d do anything to quell fan favorites and win belts. So far, his deviousness had won him two North American Heavyweight Championship belts, and Wilma wouldn’t be surprised if he added the World Championship at the end of the season. But he couldn’t be more than twenty-five. And the heavily muscled man dressed in sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt didn’t look like Vince McMahon or any of the other suited guys who owned wrestling promotions.
And apparently, Wilma wasn’t the only one who was surprised. The nimble blonde faltered a little before climbing into the ring and announcing with a strained smile in her voice, “Hi, my name is Barbie. I’m so very, very excited to be here.”
Even though they were in the middle of the auditorium, thanks to her heightened wolf senses, Wilma could hear every word she said, down to the breathy tone her voice had taken on while addressing Bohdan.
“Barbie? Like the doll? You are serious about this name?”
The question came not from Bohdan, but from a similarly accented woman standing outside of the ropes on the side of the ring furthest away from the door.
Like, the nimble blonde, the woman with the accent also had bright yellow hair, but that was the one and only thing the two females had in common. The accented blonde had to be at least six feet tall in nothing but her bare feet. She wore a simple black leotard in stark contrast to the petite blonde’s pale pink one. And she had one of those stony faces that never softened, even when she smiled—which Wilma really couldn’t imagine this woman ever did.
Strangely, Wilma liked the woman at first sight—and not just because she was making fun of Barbie’s name. The much taller wrestler reminded her of the older she-wolves from her kingdom pack. Females with hard faces and even harder attitudes. The kind of bad-ass bitches who could ride easily on the back of a bike, holding on to their male’s leather jackets with just their hands, no death grip hugs required. Or even better, ride their own damn bike and beat all the other guys to their destination.
However, the petite blonde didn’t look as impressed with the huge woman as Wilma. Nor did she look nearly as confident as she had when she first strutted in. “Well, it’s short for Barbara…” she answered, looking uneasily from Bohdan to the woman wrestler.
“Any wrestling experience, Barbara?” the huge woman asked.
Maybe a sister or a wife, Wilma thought. She looked to be in her thirties, but she had the same thick accent as Bohdan.
“No, but I made it into the top three of the Miss Detroit pageant with my gymnastics routine.”
Bohdan and the large woman exchanged a look so cynical and disparaging that Wilma was able to tell exactly what they thought of Barbie’s top three Miss Detroit finish without them saying a word.
“You have gymnastics,” Bohdan said, finally addressing Barbie. “This means after you show me one punch and one submission hold on my sister, Ursula, you can end with a moonsault.”
The petite blonde goggled at his mountainous sister, then stared back at him baffled. “A moon what?” she asked.
Bohdan stared at her. Blinked. Then yelled, “NEXT!”
Technically, there was one more girl in front of Wilma. The brunette, who’d snickered at her friend’s catty joke. But when Miss Detroit Top Three ran past them crying into her hands, her friend ran after her, calling out, “Barbie? Barbie? Are you okay?”
“NEXT!” Bohdan roared again, his voice taking on the distinctive tone of an impatient man who’d been kept waiting too long.
Putting all her focus on not throwing up, Wilma walked into the auditorium and climbed into the ring. Yes, Bohdan was super intimidating, and this Ursula chick was a bad-ass. But hey, she was the Princess of Detroit, Wilma reminded herself. The daughter of a man who had declared himself the biggest, baddest muthafucka on the planet so often, it felt like a smite against her last name to feel even slightly intimidated by a couple of humans—but oh God, Bohdan was even more intimidating close up.
He had to be six five easily. Maybe even six seven. And his face...forget Vlad. Apparently, Dolph Lundgren and, like, a granite statue of Ivan the Terrible had produced this stony-faced man. With a body like that and such sharp features, she might have thought him handsome. But sunk deep into his face were two dark, emotionless pits. Wilma guessed you could call those pits eyes, but they made her think of the sharks in the PBS nature specials her
father liked to watch. It was like staring into a void. And Wilma had to look away or risk fear vomiting.
Another mistake. The lights in the auditorium had been dimmed to just a few lights, so she hadn’t noticed it before. But, as it turned out, she had an audience. A sea of mostly white but a couple of brown faces. All huge. The All-American wrestlers. Oh God…
The All-American wrestlers were here! And they’d be watching her tryout!
Don’t throw up! Don’t cry like a little bitch! Don’t wolf out! she whispered fiercely to herself.
She couldn’t quite meet Bohdan’s eyes, but she somehow managed to make her face and voice strong before announcing, “Name’s Wilma Gangster. And that name ain’t a made up.”
The sister, Ursula snorted, and there were a few deep chuckles from the shadowy stands, but Bohdan’s expression remained fixed in place. Like that “emotionless yet clearly aggrieved” look was all his face knew how to do.
Meanwhile, the wolf tingled up her spine. The moon was getting closer. No time left for small talk. If she was going to do this thing, take this chance, it had to be now. So…
Without a word of warning, she ran over to Ursula and heart-punched her with a sharp, vicious swing, not pulling back until the last possible moment.
She’d never seen this woman on television, but she proved herself a true blue professional when she staggered and going along with Wilma’s unexpected move fell backward off the side of the ring…before jumping right back up and saying. “All right, you want fight, black girl. I will give you fight.”
And just like that, their audience of wrestlers in the stands started cheering and whistling as Ursula dramatically climbed into the ring.
RAFES - Her President Wolf: A Brother’s Nightwolf Preview Novella Page 1