Pack Mentality

by Idella Breen

  Goddamit, where was Silvia when he needed her?

  “Where is she?” Art bellowed as he rampaged throughout his manor.

  “Looking for me, Art?”

  He spun around, a glare directed to the inuyoukai who had the audacity to be eating an apple.

  “Where have you been?”

  “Working.”

  “What work? I didn’t give you any.”

  “I was checking out the Lander Clan, as per your orders.”

  He paused for a moment and realized that he may have sent her to do so but he wasn’t sure. “Whatever. I have a different job for you.”

  Her eyes took on a keen interest. “More important then scouting out the Lander’s?”

  “Much more important.”

  She tossed the apple core away as he now had her full attention. “And what is this all-important work.”

  “I need you to find two children. Girls. Young, if I remember correctly. Here, I wrote it down.” He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and the desperate slightly manic way that he was acting made Silvia hesitate to take it.

  “Take it, Silvia! And find the children. It is of the utmost importance. Everything relies on these girls.”

  “Sure,” She took the small slip of paper and glanced down at the jumbled words. She was able to make it out despite the sloppiness of it. And it read,

  “The girls will carry the mark of Death,

  One, a tear, the other of bone,

  And are bound to Chaos.

  The two will cancel each other out,

  And yet they will fulfill the other,

  And together they will hold the key to leap worlds.”

  “Art, what does this even mean?” She asked as she looked up but he was already walking away from her to do god knows what. The man was surely losing it. She had always seen him as a steady and stable man but now she was beginning to wonder if all the stress was getting to him. If that was the case then the time to make her move was coming closer then she originally thought. She would need to be patient and watch and wait. When he let his guard down, that’s when Silvia would strike. Then she and her brother would be free from anyone and everyone. She just needed to pretend to be looking for these two supposed children. Silvia glanced down at the paper again. What the hell did it all mean? Shrugging, she tucked it away, she had a meeting to get too and it wouldn’t do to keep this particular person waiting, she thought as she carried on down the hallway, unaware of the dark eyes watching her every move.

  Gwen sighed, for what seemed to Elena, like the hundredth time. “Aunty Gwen?”

  The omega glanced in the rearview mirror to see Elena’s worried face. “Yes?”

  “Are you alright?”

  The omega was once again shocked by how observant the little werewolf could be when she wasn’t occupied with playing. She shook her head. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

  Elena nodded and turned to look back out the window. Gwen caught her attention once more. “Elena?”

  “Yep?”

  “I want to go over a few things before we get to the park.”

  “What?”

  “I want you to promise me that you won’t phase into your wolf.”

  Elena frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because you are still young and your wolf can be dangerous to others if they don’t know how to behave around you.”

  “Oh, okay. I won’t then.”

  Gwen nodded. “And one more thing.”

  Elena waited as Gwen seemed to think something over before speaking. “I want you to practice tracking while we are there.”

  Elena frowned. “How?”

  “I want you to find me. I’ll be moving around the park while you play and I want you to search for me every fifteen minutes. If you don’t come for me, then I’ll come for you and we will start over again. I want you to aim to find me three times before we leave.”

  “A game?”

  Gwen smiled showing off impressive canines. “Can you do it?”

  “Yes!”

  “Good. The game begins as soon as you enter the playground.”

  “Okay.”

  It took them a good fifteen minutes just to reach the park, and another ten for Elena to find the playground, but during that time Gwen hid her presence within the surrounding forest. She reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone, she set the timer for fifteen minutes. From her vantage point, Gwen was able to see the little werewolf easily, and she watched in approval as Elena slowly meandered around the playground, her nose twitching as she cataloged each scent. The little girl was learning so quickly. Sometimes, her rate of growth was a bit scary. Not only was it strange for a child her age to manifest their werewolf, but Elena and her beast seemed to mesh well together. Sure there were times when Elena would get too excited, and her bountiful amounts of energy could get her into trouble every once in a while, but overall Elena and her beast just worked.

  It was very strange. Even when most teenagers in the Lander Clan manifested their wolves they were violent and aggressive. Some part of their humanity resisted the sudden intrusion of the beast and like a virus, their bodies tried to destroy it. But the wolf was always there to stay no matter how much they wanted it gone. She should know. Hers was born submissive despite her naturally rebellious temperament. She sighed as she settled into the groove of the tree she was hiding in and looked up into the clear blue sky. Memories of long ago flitted through her mind as she watched a fluffy cloud slowly move across the sun. Her wolf was born when she was a teenager and like Elena, she just seemed to mesh well with the beast but for very different reasons. Her wolf always seemed more like the voice of reason inside her head. When she wanted to punch someone in the face, her wolf’s instinct was to cower in a corner, and for some reason, this always ended up with Gwen going through with the punch. It was strange because her human personality always felt the need to protect the weaker wolf inside of her and as a result, they got along really well. The wolf gave her above average abilities and she gave it a safe place to reside. Gwen had never spoken with another omega to learn if this was normal behavior or not but she was under the impression that it wasn’t.

  “Cole! Come back here!” A little boy ran under the tree Gwen was resting in and further into the forest, giggling. Gwen was thoroughly impressed by his speed and was confident that he was not entirely human.

  “Cole!” A woman followed a few feet behind. Her scent wafted up to Gwen as she watched the dark-haired woman follow after the boy. Gwen laughed quietly causing her to breathe in the tantalizing scent of the other woman. She smelled like a mixture of many things. There was apples, cinnamon, candy sweetness, sunflowers, among other things. Gwen breathed in deeper as the woman came to stand underneath her tree and was satisfied with the wild, musky scent, she pulled into her lungs. It was like something untamable. Gwen frowned as she sorted through the woman’s confusing yet somehow familiar scent.

  “Chase me, Sissy!” The boy yelled drawing Gwen’s attention back to him as he paused to hide behind a tree only a few feet away. Gwen chuckled as she thought of Elena and her mischief.

  “Hello there!” A silky voice called up to Gwen.

  Gwen looked away from the boy and down to the woman below her and smiled even as she tried to ignore the strange scent that seemed to tickle something deep within her chest.

  “What are you doing up there in that tree?”

  Smirking, Gwen decided to have a little bit of fun. Maneuvering quickly, she jumped down from her hiding spot, landing directly in front of the woman. Gwen had expected her to jump in surprise, or at the very least move backward, but when she didn’t, Gwen stumbled and lost her footing. The woman reached out and caught her, pulling Gwen into her chest, and humming slightly in what seemed to be content.

  “Caught ya,” her scent wrapped around Gwen making it hard to think straight. It was intoxicating and confusing.

  “Umm, sorry?” Gwen couldn’t keep the confusion f
rom her voice as the woman seemed to hold her slightly tighter. Gwen shuddered. For some reason, this felt right. Gwen got the inherent feeling like everything was right in the world at this moment, and the numbness was receding again, but the ache was growing in its wake.

  “I finally caught ya.”

  Gwen looked up into emerald eyes and dark cocoa skin, that was too warm to the touch to be human, and the shock of familiarity startled her. “Do I know you?”

  “Hmm, Know? Not so. But touched? In more ways than one,” the woman’s smile was lazy, and somewhat lackadaisical, and for some reason, it put Gwen at ease.

  “Touched?” Gwen squeaked.

  She nodded, her nose brushing against Gwen’s cheek sending pleasant tingles across her skin.

  “Jezebel.”

  Gwen frowned. “What?”

  The woman pulled back to pierce her with her deep green gaze. “Call me Jezebel or Jazz, either is fine.”

  “Jezebel,” Gwen whispered as if in a daze and the inherently feline contentment that took over her captor was startling.

  “Good girl,” she hummed, and finally released Gwen, but not without trailing her hand along her arm leaving tingles in her wake, “What shall I call you?”

  “Um, my name?”

  Jezebel waited patiently making Gwen blush for some reason.

  “Gwen. Gwen Lander.”

  Jezebel’s face lit up with a keen interest that confused Gwen. “Lander, did you say?”

  “Sissy! Why aren’t you chasing me?” The boy peeked out from behind the tree, somewhat frustrated at the lack of attention he was getting.

  Jezebel rolled her eyes and gazed around their surrounding until her eyes rested on a small dark-haired boy and a disapproving frown marred her face. “Cole, if you don’t come back here on the count of three, then you’ll be spending lunchtime in time-out!”

  This threat made the boy's grin slip from his face in disbelief.

  “One!”

  He moved faster than Gwen thought possible for a human, as he barreled his way back to them, and came to a stop in front of the woman. She simply held out her hand and he accepted it with a somber look. “And what did I say to call me while in daycare?”

  “Sorry, Ms. Jazz.”

  “As long as you understand, I accept your apology. Now, come on, the other children are waiting to eat lunch as well, and Denis might need some help.”

  The boy seemed to grimace at the mention of the man and Gwen held back a smile. “I don’t like him.”

  “Why not?”

  The two of them seemed to have forgotten Gwen was there for the moment and she was only too happy to watch.

  “Denis is mean.”

  “You just have to get to know him.”

  Cole nodded slowly at this explanation making Jezebel smirk. “And what better way to get to know someone than to play a prank on them?”

  Cole’s face lit up in excitement. “Really?”

  “I’ll even help you out. You are my favorite after all.”

  “You’re the best Ms. Jazz!”

  Jezebel smirked. “I know, just don’t tell too many people.”

  “Yeah!”

  “Run on back to the group Cole, I’ll meet up with you in a second.”

  “Okay!”

  Cole took off with a renewed vigor and Jezebel turned back to Gwen.

  “You got digits?”

  Gwen frowned. “Digits?”

  Jezebel ran a hand through her dark locks and Gwen suddenly noticed the green highlighted bunch of strands in the front. It brought out the fullness of the emerald in her eyes.

  “A phone number.”

  “Huh?” Gwen asked absently.

  “Gwen?”

  Gwen shook her head. “Yeah?”

  Jezebel gave her a lazy knowing smirk. “Can I have your number or are you going to make me beg for it?”

  Gwen’s face flamed. “Oh! Uh, yeah, of course, I’ll give you my phone number. You don’t have to, you know, beg or anything like that.”

  “I wouldn’t mind begging for something that I really want.”

  Gwen’s heart pounded in her chest. It was happening again! What was wrong with her heart? First Silvia, and now this woman! Gwen felt dizzy, like she wasn’t in full control of her body, and she realized, in horror, that she would do anything in this moment that this woman asked of her. This realization was quickly followed with the thought of how not only would she do anything, but that she would enjoy it immensely regardless of what it was, simply because it would please this woman to do so. They stood in an awkward silence, Gwen trying to clear her head and get back some control before she did something stupid, and Jezebel seemed to be thinking about something as well. Jezebel broke the silence with a smirk. “Can I have it?”

  Gwen blushed and without further thought, she gave a complete stranger her phone number. Jezebel sent her a text of a smiley face so she could save her number as well. Gwen looked up from her cellphone only to realize Jezebel had snuck closer to her without her noticing. A warm hand gently grabbed her chin and tilted it up so she could lock their gazes. Gwen’s heart hammered and ached in her chest as the green of the woman’s eyes burned into her own. Gwen wanted, something, she realized. She wasn’t entirely sure what. She couldn’t think straight at the moment, but she was sure of one thing, and that was that she wanted to do something. This woman, this beautiful woman was looking at Gwen with such passion that all Gwen could think was that whatever that something that she wanted to do but wasn’t sure what exactly it was, whatever it was, it was important to the both of them. So important in fact, that her wolf agreed completely with whatever it was even though Gwen was sure that her wolf had no idea what that something was either.

  It was important, Gwen decided. That something was so incredibly important that the very fact Gwen didn’t know what it was caused a physical ache in her chest, like she’d been stabbed with something sharp. It was painful, to say the least and unbearable if she was being honest. As the woman stared into her eyes, Gwen realized that she kind of felt like she was dying. Not in the romantic sort of way some people talk about, but in the gut-wrenching painful way where her heart felt like it was being gouged out of her chest with a dull spoon, but at the same time she was being suffocated, like her lungs were filling with her own blood and suffocating her. Gwen wanted to do something, anything, to stop the ache, to breathe again, but she was frozen, completely frozen in this woman’s green gaze, and stuck, and for some reason, she was also inexplicably happy about all of this. Her head was buzzing so loud now that it made her dizzy again, and all she could think about was doing something, anything that Jezebel asked of her. What was wrong with her?

  Jezebel gained her attention when her eyes sharpened and warmed at the same time, as if she knew exactly what Gwen was feeling, and suddenly she smiled, and Gwen gasped quietly, and she could breathe again, and the pain lessened to a manageable ache, but the dizziness was still there along with some confusion, but her attention was completely on Jezebel’s mouth as she spoke and her words were like the answer Gwen had been searching for her whole life.

  “Call me Jazz, Gwen. And I’ll be in touch.”

  Gwen sighed in content, “Okay.”

  Jezebel smirked again and dragged her hand lightly down Gwen’s neck before pulling back and sashaying away. Gwen’s heart thundered in her chest as she watched the woman leave and she had to mentally restrain herself from going after her. What was wrong with her? Gwen’s hand tingled from when she had grabbed Jezebel back to prevent her fall and she rubbed it absently as the scent of musk fizzled out now that the source was no longer there. She sighed, gripped her cell phone tightly, until it suddenly began beeping alerting her to where she needed to go next. Gwen shook her head, she had her own responsibilities to attend to and Elena’s fifteen minutes were up.

  Gwen tracked Elena’s scent to a small hiding place under the slide and was shocked by the coppery smell that accompanied it. Just as she came up to th
e space she heard another girl’s voice.

  “My name is Raegan McCloud.”

  Gwen crouched down and gasped at the scene in front of her. “What happened, Elena?” She stood at the entrance to the small hiding area, her face pale from shock before she looked to the dark-haired girl.

  Suddenly, tears started falling down her cheeks. “I hurt him, Aunty. I didn’t mean to.”

  Gwen nodded slowly and moved forward pulling off her shirt to wrap it around Elena. “It’s okay baby. Come here.”

  Gwen reached out but Raegan didn’t move to release her niece making her frown in puzzlement. “It’s okay. You can let her go now.” Honestly, Gwen was surprised that the other child had been able to stop Elena. She knew from first-hand experience that the dark haired werewolf was very strong as well as fast and even gave Remus a run for his money when they fought.

  Instead of answering Gwen, the girl looked to Elena for confirmation which she gave and Raegan let go sitting back on her haunches.

  “Come here, Elena.”

  The little girl nodded and Gwen scooped her up and helped her put the shirt on. “I need you to go to the car and wait for me inside, okay?”

  Elena’s brow furrowed and she looked to Raegan. “I don’t want to leave her.”

  Gwen frowned and turned to the other girl. “Is your mom here?”

  Raegan shook her head, “I came alone.”

  “Alone?”

  Raegan nodded, “I always come alone.”

  Gwen nodded warily, “Can you go to my car with her? She won’t go without you.”

  “I will,” Raegan stood and walked over to them, holding out her hand for Elena to take. Gwen watched in shock as the white-haired girl led Elena to her car only to realize a second later that she had also been a werewolf from the lingering scent she left behind. Gwen shook her head and looked down at the injured tengu. He wasn’t in critical condition and had most likely fainted due to the shock of pain inflicted on him. She sighed. Tengu mothers were always a pain to deal with on a good day. She didn’t even want to imagine what they would be like when she walked over to them to show off their injured son. She reached down and carefully picked up the boy. His advanced healing ability would have him back to normal in a few days but until then it was going to hurt for him to move. What had he done for Elena to attack him like this?