The Tribrid

A large black bear

 
            Mike's POV
  "You don't have to decide now of course. We can wait until you are fully healed. And don't let Jack get to you. He's not always like this." Danny says.
  "Pff." Rain says.
  "Ok, so maybe he's a lot like this. The offer still stands regardless of Jack." Danny says.
  "Come on. Let's go meet a few more pack members and then we'll go to lunch. They have been dying to meet you." We stand up and walk out of the office. Danny leads us out of the training building, Rain and I follow behind him.
  "What do you mean he put hands on Rue?" Rain asks me.
  "He grabbed her arm." I say.
  Rain looks upset. 
  "That guy bugs me to no end."
  "Why does your father keep him as his beta?"
  "Jack's father was his true beta. A few years back he got sick, and then he died. My father made Jack the beta after that. He's a good fighter, and he used to be cool to hang out with. But ever since he became the beta, he's changed. He's paranoid and power hungry, and just an all around jerk-wad. I avoided him mostly after that. I guess he thought we were still friends, but when he expressed interest in Rue, that's when I let my real opinion of him be known." Rain says.
  "Power can change people." I say, thinking about myself, and how much I've changed.
  Danny introduces me to a few more people in the pack. Actually it was more like 15-20 new people. I tried at first to remember names, but after the first 6 I just stopped trying.  Rain ditched me, so I stood there with Alpha Danny, and said hello. I tried to be polite despite how awkward I felt.
  Finally it was lunch time. Danny walked me over to the dining area. It's really crowded here. This must be everyone in the entire village.
  I spot Rain and Rue sitting at a table with a few open seats. I make a beeline for their table. I sit next to Rain with Rue sitting across from me.
  "Sorry I ditched you back there, I can't stand the introductions." Rain says to me.
  "It's cool, I can't stand them either." I admit. We laugh together before Jack walks up and sits next to Rue.
  I notice Rain glaring at him. Jack is just ignoring it.
  Alpha Danny stands up and holds his glass. The room quickly quiets down and turns to face him.
  "I just wanted to thank everyone here for being so patient with us and for not swarming our new arrival. I'm sure Mike really appreciated his quiet time to recover from his wounds, both physically and spiritually."
  Alpha Danny looks at me, I suddenly realize there's probably so many other people staring me down right now. I try to remain calm and just continue to look at Alpha Danny as he continues his announcement.
  "I just wanted to inform everyone that we have offered Mike the opportunity to stay and live with us here in our little community, if he chooses to, of course. Happy full moon everyone, and please, enjoy your meals." Everyone cheers. I look around at the crowd of people. I make eye contact with a few familiar faces. I just sort of smile back at them and wave back if they waved at me. I'm not gonna lie it's heart warming to be welcomed so warmly by so many people. This pack has accepted me even after knowing all the terrible mistakes I've made. Alpha Danny takes a seat next to Luna Maria. I look around at my table. Everyone looks happy and cheerful and then there's Jack. He looks pissed about something.
  "Now we can have game nights all the time." Rue leans forward to say to me. Jack pulls her back down into her chair. I hear Rain let out a growl. Rue just looks at me and smiles. I glance over at Luna Maria and she is watching our table, like she's studying all of us. I feel my stomach growl. I realize I don't see any omegas.
  "So where's the food?" I blurt out. I'm slightly embarrassed, but I'm also hungry.
  "Our table's coming up soon." Rain answers.
  I look around and notice the different tables are taking turns getting up and grabbing food from the buffet area.
  "Your probably used to being served first aren't you?" Jack says. He has a twisted smile on his face.
  I'm embarrassed to admit that I am. Being a son of the Alpha, my family was always given priority over the others in the pack. The omegas always served us first. Even if someone else had been waiting and we walked in and sat down after them.
  "We don't have any omegas here." Jack says sharply.
  "Uhh," I begin my reply. Jack caught me off guard with his snarky remark.
  "You don't have to answer him." Rue interrupts me.
  "We understand the pack across the mountain do things differently than we do." She continues. "Oh it's our turn."
  We get up and head towards the food station. Jack gives me a triumphant grin. Like he's happy he embarrassed me. I stick with Rain as we make our way over to the food. I grab myself a tray from the stack and a set of silverware wrapped in a cloth napkin.
  There are huge platters of food. One is filled with chicken leg quarters. I was going to grab just one to be polite, but I noticed everyone else grabbed 3, so I grab 2 of them for myself. Then there are these spiraled cucumbers pieces coated in sauce with spices and herbs.
  "Cucumber salad. A little bit spicy. Very hydrating." Rain says to me. He scoops himself a hearty ladle full, I follow his lead. There are a few more things I'm not familiar with, I basically grab what Rain suggested I try. Then I spot the round flaky bread thingys. I love the round flaky bread thingys! I grab myself 4 of them.
  Even with all the food I got Rain, Rue, and Jack grabbed even more. Wow these people can EAT. We sit down and dig in. The chicken was so good. The round flaky bread thingys were amazing as always. And the cucumber salad was a lot better than I thought it was going to be.
  After lunch was over the pack formed a line with their dirty lunch trays and silverware in hand. I just looked around and followed what everyone else was doing. First I walked up to two trash cans. One had a bunch of chicken bones in it, and the other had cucumber salad and some fruit peels.
  "We compost for our garden." Rain says tossing his orange peel into the trash can with the veggie scraps in it. Then he tosses his chicken bones into the other bin, and I do the same.
  "You can compost bones?" I ask.
  "No, we compost the veggie scraps. We burn the bones to make lime to build our huts." Rain explains. I didn't even know you could do that.
  Then we walk to 4 buckets of water, each dirtier than the last. Rain dips his tray and silverware into the dirtiest bucket and shakes them around, then he lifts them out of the water, and then dips them again into the slightly less dirty water bucket right next to it. He repeats it until he's done all 4 buckets. I, of course, do the same.
  Then there's a big communal basin of warm soapy water where we wash our trays. Finally we rinse them again and then set them out to dry.
  "All done." Rain says.
  "You guys do this for every meal?" I ask him.
  "More or less. We do take turns with set up and clean up though."
  "Didn't we just clean up?" I ask.
  He laughs. "Someone has to clean the serving platters, and put away the clean trays and silverware."
  How could I go through my own Alpha training and still be so unaware of all the details and procedures that take place when cooking, serving and cleaning up a simple lunch for a pack of hungry wolves. I feel guilty for taking the omegas back home for granted. They do a lot more work than I realized.
  We walk over to a group of some of Rain's friends. Rain introduces me to them. They're all warriors. It was nice to talk with people I have things in common with. After awhile Luna Maria comes up to us.
  "Mike, we should get you back so I can change out your bandages." She says.
  "Of course. It was nice to meet all of you." I say to everyone before heading back to my hut.
  "Everyone was so happy to meet you today." She says as we walk.
  "Everyone was very nice."
  "Everyone?" She looks at me. The only person who wasn't was Jack. Ah she's asking about Jack.
  "I don't think he likes me." I say.
  "I don't think he likes anyone." She replies laughingly. We get to the hut and walk inside.
  "Am I the only one in here?" I ask. The hut isn't big. Just one bedroom, a kitchen, sitting area, and a bathroom.
  "Yes, and if you choose to stay, this will be yours." She says.
  "Really? This whole hut?" I ask. She smiles and laughs softly.
  "Yes. We don't have a communal sleeping arrangement. We each have our own homes. Now have a seat." She gestures to one of the dining room table chairs. She walks into the kitchen and comes back with some water and bandages.
  "Go ahead and take your shirt off." She says. I gently take my shirt off and she takes my bandage off.
  "Wow. Look at that. I won't have to replace the bandages." I look down and I see pink new skin but nothing else.
  "You look almost good as new." She adds.
  "Thank you." I say.
  "There is something you should know about our pack before you agree to join us." She says. She takes a seat at the table with me.
  "Mike, we aren't a normal pack and we aren't normal wolves. Danny told me your story. Since you were so forthcoming I think it's only fair you know who we are." She pauses for a moment.
  "We are from the original line of the first werewolves. A very long time ago we saw the direction the packs were going, with the councils and ranks. Greed and power ruled them, their human forms ruled them. So we decided to pull away and to go some place where we could live our lives completely separate of their influence. The mountains already created a natural border, and with the help of a few witches, we created the magical border to finalize the separation."
  "Yeah I kind of gathered most of that, but what is so different about you guys, other than the lack of omegas." I say.
  "The thing that is most different about us, is our wolves. They are not like what you are used to."
  "How so?"
  "We are bigger, more feral. We spend more time in our wolf forms than your packs. We go many days at a time in wolf form. Now we've dialed it back since you showed up. I didn't want to scare you before we had a chance to explain." She says.
  "Do you still have control over your wolves?" I ask.
  "Yes, but they are very strong. You aren't in any danger."
  "Is everyone here part of the original line?" I ask.
  "No."
  "But everyone's wolf is.. bigger?"
  "Yes."
  "How big?"
  "Mmm, about the size of a large black bear."
  Goddess, that's pretty big..
  "Could my wolf become like that?" I ask hopeful.
  She smiles at me.
  "You passed through our magical border. That means you and your wolf are able to." Now I'm excited. How could my wolf change like that?
  "How?" I ask.
  "That is for when you are stronger. But it is possible. I tell you all this because tonight is the full moon and we will all shift and go for a run. We won't be back until morning." She says.
  "The whole pack?" I ask.
  "Yes. You just rest up. Tomorrow we will talk more." She says. She cleans up her area and turns to me before she leaves.
  "We start right before dinner so I left you some food in the kitchen." She turns and leaves.
  "Rex, what do you think about that?" I ask my wolf.
  "I wouldn't turn down a chance to come out more often." He says. Of course he wouldn't.