The Stray Human: A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves, werewolf community center book 1

by Abigail Smith

  “Elis,” she said.

  “That’s E-lis. Hard E, Donna,” I said.

  “Right. Uh, that group over there specifically requested you.” Donna was clearly trying to understand why they’d asked for me.

  “I saved her life last night,” I said, giving her a shortcut to the answer as I walked over.

  “Ohhh, okay… Wait, what?!” she said. Unfortunately, it was too late, and I was halfway across the dining area.

  “Hello there. What can I get for you?” I said, putting on the working smile.

  The three guys smiled and looked over to the girl, who blushed, “Uh… t-thank you… for saving me.”

  My plastic fake smile melted into a genuine one. “You’re welcome,” I said.

  “We’re the ones who should have been keeping a better track of her. Thanks for holding him off till we got there,” the guy, sitting on the opposite corner of the booth to the girl, said, holding out his hand. “Name’s David.”

  David had a bit of a leaner build than the big man, but it was clear from his handshake that he focused on core muscles, not show muscles. Beside him was the one with the leanest build, and also the one with the most fabulous hair. He’d let it grow out, and his bangs were done up in a lovely crest that framed his face. The others had plain short hair.

  David had a T-shirt under an unbuttoned button-up shirt. The guy beside him had what looked to be cloth pauldrons and gauntlets that were the same colour as his jacket. which made him look like a dapper knight. As I examined those, a smile crossed his face.

  “Lorenz, a pleasure to meet you,” he said, grabbing my hand and kissing it as a knight would.

  “Oh, well, I guess if we’re making introductions, my name is E-lis,” I said, slowly tugging my hand away.

  The four blinked and looked at each other. “Gavin,” the tank said, in a calm soothing bass voice.

  “Silvia!” the girl said.

  I would have loved to get some information on the creep that’d want to hurt cute little Silvia, but this wasn’t the time. I doubt my boss would accept, ‘I saved this girl’s life’ as an excuse to fraternize.

  “So, what can I get for you four? If you need any suggestions the sunny side breakfast is a regular favourite.”

  “Sure, four orders of those, with extra sausage and slash or bacon,” David said.

  “Bacon costs a little extra, as does more sausage,” I informed him.

  “Did I stutter?” he said with a smug smile.

  I wrote that down and walked over to the kitchen to place the order. “Elizabeth, I hope you aren’t fraternizing with those people,” my manager said.

  “I saved the girl’s life last night. They’re gonna wanna talk, and besides, they asked for extra bacon and sausage. Isn’t the lesson that we do anything for the approval of a possible whale even if they refuse to pay?” I glared at him and went to another table to take their order.

  I spared a few glances over at the table, and questions popped into my head, like, is Silvia getting the extra sausage and bacon to feed the other boys, or is that little thing gonna have this big breakfast special with extra bacon and sausage all by herself? She’d need an extra stomach for something like that.

  A few more orders for similar dishes later, their food was ready, and I brought them over. Their eyes lit up at the basket of bacon and sausages.

  Four hands dove for the basket, and I watched slightly horrified. “So, do you know why that man was attacking her?” I asked, wondering why he sounded so… religious.

  “Oh, you know,” Lorenz started, “just a normal mugging.” He twirled his hand as if it’d slowly wheel away my question. “But enough about that. Tell us about yourself, E-lis. What does it take to make a gal like yourself charge in to fight off a crazed knife-wielding sociopath?”

  “Wouldn’t that be a psychopath?” Silvia asked.

  I sighed, looking over at my manager as he took some orders about a quarter turn from me in the restaurant’s dining area.

  “I guess you could say I was fed up with injustice that night.” Their gaze travelled from me to my manager. “I gotta get going before he thinks I’m fraternizing or something.”

  “No, stay. If he complains, I’ll just pay extra!” David said with a smirk.

  “To be honest, since last night, I’m pretty sure he just wants to aggravate me and doesn’t care about money.”

  “Elizabeth, you wouldn’t be fraternizing with the clients, would you?” my manager asked again, getting close.

  “Eh, back off, jerk!” David said, breaking his personality profile already.

  I turned to look at them, and they all had pretty serious faces.

  “I was just seeing if they needed anything else with their meal. I’ll be on my way,” I said, lowering my gaze.

  “Come on, leave her alone. We were enjoying our meal and conversation,” David said.

  There was a hint to his words, like he was angry but had to keep it in check to make the best move, so to speak.

  “She has other customers to attend to,” my manager said, crossing his arms and trying his best to look stern.

  “We’re paying more, we should get a bit more attention. Besides, you’re at a pretty good staff ratio from what I can see. Give her a moment.”

  “Relax, guys, it’s fine,” I said, walking off.

  The four grumbled, but they ate their meal, and I went to help another group who’d just sat down. While I took their orders, I couldn’t help but look over to Silvia’s table.

  “Dear God, she’s actually eating that,” I said before I turned to the table I was taking the order at.

  The customers all leaned forward suspiciously. “I, uh, it’s just a lot, nothing like that!” I said, blushing from the accidental faux pas.

  The group did not look pleased but ordered anyway. I put another order to the kitchen and walked around to refill water and other drinks.

  “Your boss is kinda a hard ass, huh?” David asked.

  “Yeah. He’s also kind of a hypocritical slimeball,” I said as I refilled their water.

  “Elizabeth!” my manager called.

  “Come on, be reasonable,” I moaned, walking away from the table.

  I did my rounds refilling waters and a few other beverages before noticing Silvia was the first one done at their group. I went to pick up her plate.

  “Anything else I can get you?”

  David looked a bit defeated. “Maybe just the bill?” he said.

  I looked at my manager and down at them. “Hey, that meal wasn’t worth its price, right?”

  They looked confused, but David, clearly a more adventurous person than most, nodded.

  I made a big deal of shrugging my shoulders. “I guess there’s nothing I can do. if I contest that, I’d be making a scene, and I can’t be doing that on probation. Guess I’ll just have to let you leave without paying.”

  I overacted a bit, putting my hand to my chest and walking off.

  My manager stomped towards us with speed rarely seen by the wait staff. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  “These customers said the meal just isn’t worth its cost and, clearly, I have learned the lesson you’ve tried so desperately to teach me last night. Don’t make a scene, and don’t yell at the customers, right?”

  “They have to pay for their food. Don’t come to a restaurant if you can’t pay for your food,” the manager said, turning towards them.

  Gavin stood up, nearly dwarfing my manager if not in height then in width.

  “It’s not that we can’t pay, it’s that we don’t want to if you’re going to treat E-lis like that.”

  It was then my manager turned towards me. “You think you can just sic your friends on me to get out of your punishment, huh?”

  “What? I don’t have any friends. These people just came in here today!” I said.

  “Don’t lie to me. You think you can get away with this blatant disobedience? The owner may have had some pity on
you, but I can see what you’re really up to! You are fired!” he said, flicking his hyperextended index finger at me.

  I sighed, took off my work uniform right then and there, and chucked it at him, before storming out.

  The other four stomped out with me before he realized they weren’t paying for those heaps of meat.

  “Okay, so that could have gone better,” David said, walking behind me and rubbing his head. “But we wanted to come here to give you a token of our thanks. So, how about a job at our place?”

  David held up a business card, which just had an address on it and nothing more, not even a phone number.

  I sighed, taking a look. It wasn’t a good idea to just accept something like that from a stranger. “I… dunno,” I said, looking down at it.

  “Whatever they were paying you, we’ll double it!” David said, pointing a thumb towards himself.

  Gavin and Lorenz walked to a red convertible parked close to the door, which David seemed to have the keys for.

  I sucked in a breath and suddenly felt my lower torso buckle. I looked down and saw Silvia hugging me.

  Her eyes were moist, just on the verge of tears. “Please? I’m so sorry I got you fired,” she said.

  And with that, I couldn’t really say no now, could I?

  Chapter 4

  After going to my class, and then to my dorm and rubbing my left shoulder for a bit, I looked up where to go for the address and printed out a map for me to follow using my roommate’s computer.

  Which, unfortunately, was when she woke up. “Hey, Elizabeth! Weren’t you supposed to work today?” Amelia asked, tilting her head.

  Of course, that’s when she got a view of my shoulder. “Oh, my gosh, what happened to your shoulder?” she said as she rushed over to examine the area like she was some kind of doctor.

  “Relax,” I said, letting a bit of a moan slip in. With how crazy my life had gotten in the past twenty-four hours, I did not need her fawning over a bruise no matter how big. “It’s nothing really.”

  “It’s in the shape of a fist!” Amelia said.

  “It’s an amorphous blob, like all bruises. Relax!” I said, getting up.

  “Elizabeth, why do you push me away when all I wanna do is help?”

  “Don’t be so dramatic. Anyway, I have to go to a job interview. I should be back at some point.” I put on a light jacket to hide the bruise.

  “What’s the job?” Amelia asked, assuming I was just getting another one like most people in the university had.

  “Probably a server at a mob boss’s restaurant, if I had to guess,” I said, waving my arm dismissively.

  “What?! And you’re willingly going there?”

  “I saved one of their own, and now they owe me or something. It’s not like I’m going to be holding a sniper rifle on a roof and taking out targets.” I pointed finger guns off to the side to illustrate my point.

  “Wait, is that how you got your bruise? Are you serious?” Amelia’s face was pale, and her mouth was agape.

  “No,” I lied as I walked out the door.

  Getting to the general area wasn’t hard at all despite how many people walked around. Unfortunately, I’ve never been good at finding an address the first time. Sure, when I’ve been to a place a couple of times, I can get there easily, but the first time is always a hassle. I’d drive past, have to find a convenient place to turn around, and people would always be driving behind me, making things difficult.

  On foot, it’s a bit better because you can just turn one-eighty degrees, but it makes it all the more confusing when you take a wrong turn. It’s harder to know what street you’re on.

  I didn’t expect to get much in the way of punctual points. I sighed as, once again, I passed a signpost riddled with staples.

  “Where is this place?” I asked, looking down at the address. I doubled back and looked to the side. Of course, it had to be on the side of a building. All the other parts were commercial storefronts.

  “Not the best place for a restaurant, huh?” I mumbled to myself as I walked down the alleyway.

  Now, when you’re walking into an alleyway, you’re expecting gross garbage smells, maybe some drug and sex smells. You’re not expecting smells that bring you nostalgia. As I walked in and breathed, I caught a whiff of something. I couldn’t remember what it was, but it brought me back.

  I kept smelling it, trying to determine what it was as I got closer to the only door that could be the place that I wanted. I sighed, giving up on the attempt to figure it out, and opened the door.

  Looking inside, I finally figured out what the smell was. “Dogs,” I said to myself, looking towards a corner of the room with a bunch of dog beds. Really big ones, too.

  I’d had a big dog when I was really little. It was more of my brother’s dog than mine, but she liked me a lot, and this place smelt just like her.

  “Mika,” I mouthed, and my eyes went moist.

  There was a classical bar counter to the right of the entrance, with a combo of dog bowls and glasses, and a collection of booze just behind them. There were a couple of low tables with wooden chairs. Behind the seating area were four huge dog beds, ones that could handle four or five large dogs each, with a comfy cushion ring around them.

  As I stepped in, I noticed a dog slept in one of them already. It was big with thick black fur, and its belly slowly expanded and contracted as it breathed.

  I smiled. I’d smell like a dog for a good long while after getting off work, but if it meant I could pet them and maybe make some dog friends, it’d be worth it.

  “Huh, with all the talk of cat cafes, I think dog bars would be more common,” I said to myself.

  “Probably a bad idea. You don’t want dogs in a place that’d get rowdy like a bar,” David said, appearing behind me without a sound.

  “Gah!” I jumped nearly a foot in the air and spun around.

  “What?” he asked, giving me a smug smile. “No fighting stance?”

  “Fighting… stance?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Okay, first benefit of your employment is going to be martial arts lessons,” he said, walking over to the bar and picking up a glass.

  I didn’t even notice the glass before he showed up behind me. Had he been drinking it while waiting for me? While I was raising an eyebrow, I just realized the contradiction he laid out.

  “Wait, if dogs in a bar is a bad idea, why are you doing it?” I asked, blinking rapidly.

  David smiled smugly again before downing the last of his drink. He tossed the glass into a sink behind the bar and walked over.

  “This isn’t your typical bar. It’s owned and operated by our little… special community centre here. We know that our dogs will not only be taken into consideration when people come in, but will often be the focal point.”

  “Community centre?” I asked, crossing my arms.

  “Yeah, we’ve got some beds, a gym, a computer, this bar, an infirmary, a pool that hasn’t been cleaned in way too long.”

  I raised my eyebrows, rather impressed. “Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Everyone can just come in here and use it?”

  “Well, kinda. I guess if they know about this place. We’re not really into advertising,” David admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

  “Why not?” I asked, tilting my head.

  “We can get into that once you’re fully initiated. I’m sure at some point tonight you’ll get the full scoop,” he said. His smug smile turned into an outright grin as he walked towards a door in the back wall.

  It was the kitchen part of the bar, and it was surprisingly clean for what I’d expected. There was also a small school desk, with two chairs much too big for it, set up just beside the freezer.

  “Please, step into my office!” he said with that same smile.

  “This community centre doesn’t have any office space?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Did I list office space in my description?” he asked, looking genuinely confused. />
  “No, but—”

  “Then, no, there’s no office space,” he said, twirling his hand and giving me a bemused smirk.

  My eyebrows twitched, and I glared at him. He picked up a stack of blank papers and hit them on the desk like he was shuffling papers. He then cleared his throat and got out a pen.

  “So, what’s your favourite colour?” he asked.

  “Isn’t this supposed to be an interview?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, but you pretty much have the job. I wouldn’t get out of here alive if I had to tell Silvia I didn’t hire you.”

  “So, are you, Lorenz, and Gavin all her brothers or…?”

  “Gavin’s her older brother. Me and Lorenz are just his friends, but when you’re this close, a pouty sixteen-year-old can make your life miserable.”

  “Anyway, this sounds pretty sketchy. I mean, it kinda sounds like I saved the daughter of a mob boss or something,” I offered.

  “Nah, and besides, it’s not like you need many qualifications to do bartending to a satisfactory level, not to mention you don’t even have to make change since membership pays for the drinks,” he returned. “So, what’s your favourite colour?” he asked again.

  I decided if he wasn’t going to take this seriously, I wouldn’t either. “Hyperviolet,” I said.

  “Favorite kind of food?”

  “Caviar and pickles.” He chuckled at that one.

  “Favorite number?”

  “Number? Seriously… uh… sixty-four,” I said, flicking my eyes back and forth as I tried to think about it.

  “Familiar with computer code, I see,” he said, writing my answer down on the paper. “Finally, out of me, Lorenz, and Gavin, who’s hottest?” he finished with a smirk.

  I blinked, and I think I might have gone red in the face. “I… That’s…” I blushed more, realizing this had more or less been an informal getting to know me session.

  He thought we were friends already and was trying to tease me. I took a moment to compose myself and thought.

  “Gav— Lorenz, definitely.”