Hers (#1)

23| fools come

Flame steps closer towards the girl. She smells of her late mother's spicy shrimp gumbo which was an odd scent. Although, a mate usually smelt like whatever made the wolf happy. Memories of her parent's made her the happiest so she guessed it was a fitting scent.

"Listen to me. I need you to run up to the farthest room away from this place, alright?" Her voice was stern and commanding. "If the person who's knocking enters the room they will be able to smell you in an instant. I'm going to speak to them outside. Don't make a single sound or movement, am I clear." Her doe eyes stare back and she nods limply. "Go," Flame ushers as the girl runs up the staircase at the far right of the cabin.

Tentatively, Flame walks towards her entrance trying to shake off her vulnerable state. Opening the door, she steps out into the brisk air of the village. She closes the door behind her and comes face to face with a grim warrior wolf. Fernando.

"What is it, Fernando?"

The warrior wears a look of pure shock and disbelief on his face. "Gamma Flame, we were just under a Kraken Attack."

Shit. She was so busy with her mate she forgot about it. Fernando didn't need to know that so the nonchalant look on her face remained unchanged. "Did you deal with it?"

"Did we--? Will all due respect Gamma, where were you?" He can no longer keep the layer of respect in his voice and the anger that he feels slowly seeps into his words. He hopes the Gamma wouldn't notice.

She noticed.

Her voice grows quiet, threatening as she speaks. "Are you trying to assume that I abandoned you?" Fernando doesn't answer, sensing her anger and knowing that it would be best not to provoke her further.

"Are you insinuating that I was slacking off my duties?" The warrior grows tense as her voice grows harsher. Taking in a deep breath, she proceeds. "If I wasn't here, what would you have done?"

The question takes his off guard. "W-What?" He stammers.

"If I wasn't here, right now in this pack," she drawls. "What would you have done? Would you have let the attack happen? Would you have even tried to stop the Kraken agents?"

"So, you not being there was some sort of test?"

If you want to spin it that way, she thought. I'm not complaining. "It wasn't a test, it was a reality check. The Alpha wasn't around today. I wasn't around today. We spend a quarter of our monthly 401k on your training and you need me there to hold your hand when there is a minor attack?" Her lies grew more complex as the warrior begins to deny vehemently.

"No, no, it's all handled! No one died and only two were minorly injured. We take our training seriously, I swear." He bows as consolation. Even though that wasn't the reason she wasn't present to help, she was impressed by how the warriors handled themselves. Her words were true even if the reason was a lie--they needed to put their training into good use.

"Good. How are the people?"

"Not fantastic, Gramma. This was the third attack we'd had in a month and people are starting to get worried. One of the older wolves, you know, the one everyone calls Fēng kuáng de biān fú." She smiles involuntarily at the nickname 'crazy bat.' No one knew what his real name was.

He was an elderly wolf from Papua New Guinea who had spent majority of his life denying that he was a lycan. One day when he was 40 years old, he ripped a man's head off and was sent to a Whammy's House. At the time, they had wolves hidden at the border to capture anyone who was being sent there and put them in a Pack. He was first sent to Alpha Aine's pack in Belfast but was eventually shafted back here for being, in Alpha's Aine thick Irish accent, "A focking nutter."