A Symphony of Howls

by Val St. Crowe

  Yawning, I wandered out to find Judah at the stove, turning bacon with tongs. He was wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and I could see his muscled arms, and they were, you know, nice arms. He was my mate, and he was attractive, and he was making bacon. There were worse things that could be happening to me.

  He looked up. “Oh, you’re awake.”

  “I am.” I stretched.

  He grinned at me. “You sleep all right?”

  “Great, actually.” I gestured. “That bed is the most comfortable bed I think I’ve ever slept on.”

  “That’s good,” he said. “I’m glad you’re comfortable.”

  “It’s odd, actually,” I said. “This is a strange place, and I’ve never been here before, but it’s so welcoming and perfect. I think it would be creepy if it wasn’t so great.”

  He grinned. “Do you like bacon?”

  “Is the sky blue?” I said. “Are there people who don’t like bacon?”

  He considered. “Vegetarians? People who are afraid of fat? I’m sure there are people out there.”

  “Well, I am not one of them.” I settled down at the table, which was already set with two plates and with silverware.

  He turned to face me, back against the stove, still holding the tongs. “I need to apologize for last night.”

  “Were you with Tempest?” I said.

  “She’s… having a hard time dealing with it,” he said. “She got this idea in her head that what she needed to do was challenge you to a fight for the alpha position, and that would make her an alpha. I had to talk her down.”

  I remembered him talking about alpha challenges before, but I thought they were primarily the purview of male alphas. However, I supposed that killing the female alpha worked just as well to break an alpha bond as her mating with someone else. And even though I was an alpha wolf, and I could feel my dominance, I had no experience with fighting. Would I be naturally good at it, or would I need to train? Would there be a lot of fights in my future?

  “She needs to understand that her jealousy of you threatens the pack,” said Judah. “I can’t have her trying to hurt you. It destabilizes us all. Anyway, I had to spend last night making her see that.”

  “So, she does understand that now, or it’s something she still needs to understand?”

  He sighed. He went back to the stove. “I’m sorry, all right? I know I should have been here with you. I don’t know how we’re going to grow closer if we don’t get to spend any time together.”

  “We should try dinner again tonight,” I said. “I’ll cook.”

  He turned back from the stove. “Um, are you sure? You’re still getting settled in. I wouldn’t want you to feel as if there’s any pressure.”

  “No, it’s only fair, after all. You’re cooking breakfast. I’ll cook dinner. You just make sure that you’re here, okay?”

  He bobbed his head. “I can do that.”

  “Good,” I said. “Is that bacon ready yet?”

  * * *

  Breakfast was great. Bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. We drank coffee and sipped orange juice. I asked him where to buy food in this town, and he gave me directions to the grocery store. He explained to me that the economy of the werewolf village functioned not on money, but on credit. Everyone earned credits for the things they did to help out the community.

  So, by being alphas we earned credits. People also earned credits by keeping community spaces clean or by doing public services like plumbing or construction work or house cleaning or watching other people’s kids. So, I could use these credits to purchase things in town. The record of how much Judah and I had was public knowledge. Everyone knew how many credits everyone else had. That was a good thing, Judah said, because it sparked competition amongst people and it meant that the community was well cared for.

  After breakfast, I took a shower and got dressed. I wanted to get some skirts and blouses like all the women in town seemed to have. The flowing, bohemian ones. They looked so comfortable. But I only had what I’d taken from Vivia’s, so I was stuck in jeans and a t-shirt.

  When I left the house, I saw that Tempest was lurking outside the house.

  Man. Was she going to challenge me to a fight now?

  “Where are you going?” she called out to me in a harsh tone.

  “Grocery shopping,” I said.

  She looked me over. “Can’t you just leave? You don’t love Judah. I can see that you don’t. When you look at him, there’s nothing there.”

  “I can’t leave the pack,” I said.

  Her face twisted, and then she turned and flounced off, disappearing into the trees.

  I sighed. That hadn’t gone well. But at least she hadn’t tried to kill me, so I was thankful for small favors.

  I set off in the direction of the grocery store. As I did, I admired the picturesque cabins on either side of the streets. Some had small porches on the front with wooden rocking chairs. Others had blue gingham curtains in the window. All of them made my heart swell with goodness. I was so happy here.

  By the time I got to the grocery store, I was practically whistling.

  The store wasn’t like a big grocery store out in the human, fenced-in world. Instead, it was a small market, like an old country general store. It had produce and milk and bread and all the things you might expect from a grocery store, but it was pint-sized.

  I loved it, too.

  Except it was closed.

  There was a hastily written sign taped to the door which read, Closed until further notice.

  Huh. That was odd. I wondered why a grocery store would have to close so quickly. Maybe it would reopen soon?

  I’d try some other stores that I wanted to visit and come back and see if it was open then. Besides, I hadn’t quite decided what I was going to make for Judah and me to have for dinner that night. I texted Sinead to ask her if she thought we should have stuffed shells or steak and roasted brussel sprouts.

  She didn’t reply right away.

  That was when I noticed another sign in the window of the grocery store. It was an announcement flyer for a community barn dance. All are welcome! it proclaimed.

  Well, that looked fun. I’d never been to a barn dance. I wondered if Judah and I would be expected to attend, as the alphas. Maybe we were supposed to go to all community activities. If not, though, should I ask Judah about it? I probably shouldn’t go on my own.

  On the other hand, why not? Just because I had a mate didn’t mean that I couldn’t do things independently. If I wanted to go to a dance by myself, I should go, end of story.

  Decided, I wandered down the road a ways to a small little shop that sold wine and beer. Hmm. Maybe it would be closed too. It was morning, and shops like this often didn’t open until afternoon. On the other hand, that was likely because of blue laws and I didn’t know if such things existed in the werewolf community.

  I turned to go into the door and was gratified to see a sign reading, Open. I pushed the door open and it jingled a little bit.

  A woman at front looked up and saw me. “Oh!” she said. “I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to close up.”

  “Close up?” I echoed, thrown.

  “I’ve got an emergency with my daughter,” she said. “I have to go pick her up from school. You understand, right?” She had come across the shop and was shooing me out the door.

  I backed up. “I hope your daughter’s okay.”

  “She’s just got the flu, I imagine,” said the woman and pushed me out of the door and back onto the street. The door shut tightly in my face.

  I furrowed my brow. Was it weird for two places to be closed during normal business hours, just when I wanted to go into them?

  But across the street was another shop. This one sold candles, essential oils, soaps, and craft supplies. I could use some candles for the dinner tonight, I supposed. It wouldn’t hurt to try to be a little bit romantic. I didn’t feel very romantic toward Judah, but maybe Sinead was right. Maybe wit
h a bit of a nudge, I would feel as though I belonged with him. Since I couldn’t leave the pack, I’d rather make the best of it.

  I was a little wary as I pushed open the door into that shop, but nothing happened. The woman behind the register looked up at me and gave me a vague smile before going back to what she was doing. She seemed to be counting out little mesh bags into piles.

  I headed for the candles.

  My phone beeped. Digging it out, I saw that Sinead had texted me back.

  Definitely go for the steak, she said. You’re wolves, after all.

  I smiled. Well, she was probably right. That seemed like the way to go. But if the grocery store didn’t open back up, I wasn’t going to be able to make anything for dinner.

  I would get the candles anyway. I selected two pillar candles with a lavender scent, which I thought would be calming, and then I turned back to the woman sorting bags.

  Except she was talking to Tempest now. They had their heads together and they were speaking in hushed tones at the front of the store.

  Was Tempest following me? Okay, I felt sorry for her and all, but this was getting ridiculous. She wanted to challenge me to a fight and now she was stalking me? This couldn’t go on.

  Tempest looked up and saw me looking at her. She gave me a nasty smile and then she scurried out of the shop.

  What was that all about?

  You know what? Forget it. She was gone, and I was going to call that good enough. Shaking my head, I took my candles up to the register.

  The woman didn’t look at me. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Camber,” I said. “I’m the new female alpha.”

  “I’ve never seen you before in my life,” she said.

  “Well, that’s because I just got here,” I said. “But you will be seeing me. I’m the alpha, so I imagine you’ll be seeing a lot of me.”

  “Listen, we run on credits here,” she said, starting on a new stack of little bags. “I have to know who you are in order to access your credits.”

  “Well, I don’t know if I have credits yet,” I said, “but you can just use Judah’s. Judah is my mate. He said it was all right.”

  She looked up at me. “You say that you’re Judah’s mate, but you can’t prove it.”

  I sputtered. “Look, can’t you feel that I’m—” But I broke off, because I realized that I couldn’t feel this woman, not the way that I could feel most of the members of the pack.

  “I’m human, sweetie,” said the woman, giving me a tight smile. “You want to use Judah’s credits, you come in here with Judah, and he can authorize it, okay?”

  My shoulders slumped. “You’re not going to sell me the candles?”

  “Nope,” she said.

  “Does it have something to do with Tempest being in here a minute ago? Did she tell you to give me a hard time?”

  She reached out her hand. “I’ll reshelve those for you, ma’am.” She said ma’am like it was a poisonous word.

  * * *

  I waited around for the grocery store to reopen, but it never did. Neither did the wine shop. I was pretty sure now that they weren’t closed for no reason. Tempest had organized this. She knew that I was going to the grocery store, because I told her, and she saw me in the candle shop. She was trying to make my life difficult.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. I could sneak away and see if the shops reopened if I disappeared, but if I was right, did I want to be denied service to my face like the candle shop owner had done? Was that really how I wanted to spend my morning?

  Maybe I was connected to the pack, but they didn’t know me. They knew Tempest, and they were clearly siding with her against me. I didn’t think it was likely I was going to get any groceries today.

  I went back to the cabin and went through the refrigerator and the pantries to see if I could salvage something for dinner. There wasn’t much. There was some ground beef and some potatoes and some frozen green beans. I could manage a meatloaf, I figured. It wouldn’t be a romantic dinner by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be food.

  Anyway, maybe it was too soon for romance. I was still angry with Judah.

  Also, I’d never made meatloaf before, so I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon looking up various recipes.

  Judah was out of the house, but I didn’t know what he was doing. I was fairly sure that he wasn’t with Tempest, because she was lurking around the shops, trying to bar my entry.

  I thought about calling Sinead and telling her what had happened, but it seemed too pathetic to complain even more about everything that was going on, so I didn’t.

  Then I thought about calling my parents, just to let them know that I was safe and I had a new home.

  I even dialed the number, but then I deleted the numbers and put my phone away.

  I couldn’t talk to my parents. They couldn’t handle my life now. They’d barely noticed me when I was a normal human. They wouldn’t know what to do with me now that I was a werewolf alpha.

  The rest of the day, I spent lounging around the house. There was a TV here, but no broadcast channels. Instead, Judah had done an illegal crackjob on that allowed him to watch shows. Apparently, it wasn’t safe to subscribe legally out in the woods, because the vampires could use the information to find the pack. I watched several episodes of a show about people who were fixing up their houses to sell.

  Eventually, it was time to start on the meatloaf, so I dutifully preheated the oven and followed one of the recipes I’d found online. I hoped it turned out, but it didn’t seem that difficult. The only thing that could go wrong was if it didn’t get cooked through or it was burnt. Otherwise, it seemed pretty foolproof.

  I boiled water for potatoes and I cooked the green beans on the stove.

  Judah came home just as the meatloaf was coming out of the oven.

  We sat down to eat.

  I watched him take the first bite of meatloaf, suddenly worried that it wasn’t foolproof after all. Any number of things could have gone wrong. I could have added too much garlic or it could be too salty or not salty enough. I bit my lip.

  “This is great,” he said. “I haven’t had meatloaf in a long time.”

  I smiled. “Oh, I’m glad you like it.” I let myself take a bite. It tasted like meatloaf. It was good. It wasn’t anything amazing, but it was foolproof. “I wasn’t going to make meatloaf. I wanted to make something else, but the grocery store was closed.”

  “Really?” he said.

  “Yeah, and so was the wine shop. I thought I would get us a bottle of wine, but I couldn’t do that. And at the craft store across the way, she said that she didn’t believe that I was the female alpha and that I couldn’t use your credits.”

  “Fur and teeth,” said Judah. “I didn’t think you’d have that kind of trouble. That’s too bad. I’ll talk to someone about it. I promise. I’ll get it all squared away. I can’t figure why so many stores were closed.”

  I hesitated. Giving him my theory seemed like tattling, and I didn’t want to do it. But I wasn’t going to be able to smooth things over with Tempest on my own. Blood and fangs, maybe I was never going to be able to smooth things over with her. But whatever the case, I was going to need help dealing with her, and Judah seemed best equipped to do that. “I think that Tempest told the stores to close to keep me out,” I said.

  “What?”

  I explained why I thought this was true.

  Judah’s expression darkened. “This will stop, Camber. Don’t worry. I will fix this.”

  “I don’t mean to cause trouble for her,” I said. “It’s only that I don’t know how to approach her myself.”

  “She’s the one causing trouble,” said Judah. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  We ate in silence for a while, and then he spoke up again.

  “Listen, when I first became an alpha, I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I couldn’t control my abilities yet. It takes some practice. I tho
ught that maybe you and I could go running in the woods tonight and work on shifting.”

  “Don’t we shift at the full moon?”

  “We do,” he said. “But we can shift other times as well. We’re alphas. And we can also resist shifting at the moon if we want to. With a lot of effort and energy, we can keep members of our pack from shifting too.”

  My eyes widened. “Oh, wow, I didn’t know we could do that.”

  “It’s been tough for me thus far,” he said. “I’m hoping that since there are two of us now, we’ll be able to do it better. So, what do you say? You up for some practice?”

  “Absolutely,” I said.

  * * *

  Well, the dinner wasn’t romantic, but I didn’t mind at all, because I was starting to feel closer to Judah. It wasn’t necessarily a feeling of passion or romantic love, but it was a feeling of family. I liked him, and he was easy to be around.

  After we ate, he helped me clean up, and then we went into the woods to work on shifting. I thought it would be embarrassing, shedding our clothes, especially since we hadn’t really gotten naked together when we’d mated. But it was dark, and we couldn’t really see each other, and I was concentrating so hard on getting it right that I soon forgot about the fact that every time we shifted back to human form, we were both naked.

  At first, shifting at will seemed impossible. I stood there, shivering in the cold winter night, squeezing my eyes shut, listening to Judah’s suggestions to let go and give in, and there was nothing to give in to. I was sure that I was going to be a failure and that I wasn’t going to be any pack’s alpha. I was probably going to have to leave after all, and that would make Tempest happy.

  It was the thought of Tempest, and the way she had gotten the others in town to shun me that day that changed things. I was angry. Not at the others in town, who were trying to be loyal to Tempest, but at Tempest herself for making them choose between us.

  She really didn’t have a right to be angry at me. I hadn’t done anything to her. I hadn’t known about her when I mated to Judah. I was just as much of a victim of the situation as she was, and she knew this, because she knew that I didn’t love Judah. She’d said as much.