The Elemental: Earth Howls

Chapter 2

We all walked inside to see a pan of freshly grilled steaks, a bowl of mashed potatoes, another bowl full of mixed veggies, with a bottle of white wine. I could hear my stomach growling and was I ready to stuff this food into my belly. As we all took our seats at the table, each steak had a toothpick with a flag attached that stated each of our names.

"I labeled each steak so that everyone has their steak exactly how they like it," Steven smiled feeling accomplished.

I grabbed my steak to put it on my plate. "Everything looks so delicious," I said to both Laurie and Steven. "Thank you so much for having us over," I smiled at both of them. I really did mean it, the steak smells to die for and veggies, they are always fresh along with the potatoes as Steven and Laurie grow them all in their garden.

After everyone started eating their dinner, I decided to strike up a conversation with 'little miss princess over here.' "So Bailie, why don't you talk about yourself," I smiled.

"You mean, you really don't know who I am?" Bailie seemed more shocked than offended.

"Should I?" I asked her.

Before Bailie could strike up something that may have been an insult, Laurie stepped in. "Bailie, please do excuse Lilith. She's only been a part of the supernatural world for a bit under a year," she smiled at Bailie which calmed her down.

"No worries," Bailie smiled. "So, I am a werewolf and my clan is known for the fiercest warriors. Here is a little history, the clans used to battle each other until one day the leader of werewolves declared a truce as numbers were getting lower and was not helping no one. Of course, that was a couple centuries or so ago and we still have that truce to this day. Before you ask, think of the king of werewolves to the President of the United States, same leadership concept. Our leader always gets the final say in things. Of course, each clan has a leader though. Now back to me, I am the first female to ever become a warrior. It is not traditional for women to become fighters as they left that to the men. Of course I don't care much about traditional and no one is better than us women," she winked at me.

"That's pretty cool. How do you know the McKennels?" I asked her. I actually felt interested in learning about her and some history of the werewolves.

"My mother and her have been close friends ever since Laurie came in and helped us with a bit of problems," Bailie responded.

"Problems?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Human hunters looking for wolves not knowing that what they were hunting were werewolves. They somehow managed to find some of the clans but luckily wasn't during the full moon process," she answered. "It was a bit awkward to explain to them why there were people living in the forest."

"Speaking of, when you guys are not dealing with the full moon, do you guys still have the abilities of a werewolf?" I wondered.

"Of course, anything but change back into one unless you learn how to. It takes a lot to master it. Though we don't have the full strength of a werewolf but we are stronger than an average human of course. Some after many years of practice can turn at will and don't have to change during the full moon but even then, it takes a lot of energy," Bailie said, finishing up her explanation.

After we finished dinner, I helped Laurie out with the dishes.

"If your mother were here, she would have been so proud of you," Laurie looked at me with a heart-warming smile. "You have been through so much in such little time, you became a huge hit since you have arrived."

"Huge hit? How so?" I wondered.

"Think about it. You stopped the rogue vampires, saved Lord Thornes, the humans, and stopped a war that almost came to be. All in such a short time. You have a big reputation now within the SIA and the supernatural community," Laurie answered.