"Sari, can ya' get me two ales?" Talek shouted at me from the other side of the bar.
I'd recently been promoted. On the busier nights, when Talek was short-staffed, he'd taught me how to properly pour an ale. I didn't receive more coins, but I was happy not to be surrounded by dirty dishes all the time.
"There you go," I said as I passed him the two ales. My serving duties were still limited to behind the counter, as Talek preferred to deliver the ales to the clients himself. I had a hunch it had something to do about the extra coins he'd receive, that he did not want to share.
I didn't mind it very much, though. I was thankful he'd offered me a job to begin with. Besides, I was living and breathing in the Manor and I didn't have to pay even a single coin for my stay there. Meanwhile, Talek had a family to provide for.
"Girl, give me another one!" A man shouted. He slammed an empty glass down at the bar, making a statement he needed his drink refilled. He was a regular customer, Bertel, who spent most of his nights here. His wife would come find him here occasionally, and she'd always angrily drag him back home. It was always a spectacle to watch.
At the edge of the bar, a woman was flaunting herself over a man who barely looked interested. He shushed her away, resulting in an offended sigh from her, before she marched over to another man. She was hunting for coin, too, I realized.
Talek realized it too, and he quickly threw her out of the bar. Whores weren't welcome here, not if they came to bother his customers.
Moments like these made me even more thankful for the chance Talek had given me.
The door swung open and shut the entire evening, making room for new customers to enter. Tonight was especially busy, for some reason unbeknownst to me.
But as the door swung open once more, my nostrils flared open. The smell of the air around me shifted, ever so slightly. If I wouldn't have been practicing my smelling abilities over the past few weeks, I wouldn't even have noticed that three wolves just entered this bar. They went to a small booth in the back of the pub, chasing away a young couple that was seated there.
For some reason, they needed their privacy. Why else would they come to this bar, where no wolves ever came, and sit so closed off from the rest of the bar? They were too on edge to have even smelled me out.
Then again, with all the spilled ale, I probably smelled more like the drink than like a wolf.
I pricked my ears, trying to locate their words in the rubble of chatter in this bar, as the men shuffled in their seats.
Talek went over to their table with an annoyed glance, since they had just chased away two already paying customers, but he backed down as soon as he realized what they were, when one of them snarled at him to back off.
He came back to the bar with big eyes and a small voice. "Sari, could you go serve the men in the back?" he asked me.
That told me that Talek clearly knew about me. But I wondered if he knew all about me. Somehow, he was scared of those three men, but not of me. And I came from the enemy. "Of course," I answered dryly, not wanting to give anything away.
I spilled another glass of ale over me before I had to walk over to them, in a desperate attempt to hide my scent. If I were to get close to them, they'd recognize me. And they would know who I am. "Sun burn me," I grumbled, trying to sell my act to Talek. "Do you have a shirt in the back I could borrow?"
He looked me over and shook his head. "It's too busy for an outfit change. Just go serve them like that."
I nodded as I plastered a smile on my face and made my way over to the booth. Their conversation took a halt when I arrived at their table. "Gentlemen," I addressed them. "What can I get you?"
The three men looked up at me. I hoped they didn't notice my heart beating like crazy, or my scent. I didn't find it in my heart to have to explain to Talek why sending me over to this table might have been an even worse idea than serving them himself.
I didn't want to be recognized. Not here.
"Three ales," one of them spoke in a raspy voice.
"Will that be all?" I asked them, as politely as I could. I was hoping another man would answer my question.
Unfortunately, the same man answered. "Yes," he grumbled.
"Coming right up," I sang. As I turned around to leave back for the bar, the man on the right sniffed in the air.
Sun burn me.
He squinted his eyes at me and took in my soaked t-shirt. He shook his head. "Make sure you don't spill those," he said.
"Of course," I said, and I hurried back to the bar. They hadn't smelled me out, I didn't know how they weren't able to do so. But more importantly, I knew what they sounded like. And that would only make it that much easier for me to recognize their voices in this ocean of chatter.
They didn't resume their conversation until I'd dropped off their three ales. I slid back behind the bar and tried to fix my hearing on the two voices I'd now heard.
It took me a short while to locate their conversation. Especially because they were talking in a lower than average volume, which only made me all the more curious about whatever it was they had to say.
I had to juggle to keep eavesdropping and serving customers at the same time, if I didn't want Talek to put me on the stand. That'd surely put some unwanted attention on me.
I managed, but that meant I was only able to hear snippets of their conversation. I couldn't make much sense of it.
"Do we know who it is?" One of them spoke.
The second man shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Would we be sitting here if we did?" He sneered.
"We know who it is, though," the third one replied.
"Is that so?" The second grumbled again. He took a big sip of his ale, drinking away whatever was troubling him. It didn't seem to work as he spoke again, his tone not any lighter. "We only know the Shadowed Death is slimming down our forces. Or do you know something we don't?"
Bertel snapped me out of my focus. "Hello, girl," he rambled. "I'm out of ale!" His words sounded slurred already.
You've had enough anyways, I thought. However, as Talek had mentioned, the customers' drinking habits were of no issue to us, as long as they paid their orders. "Let me take care of that," I said to Bertel, with perhaps the fakest smile I'd ever put on.
I slid him his drink and took his coin, all the while trying to focus my hearing back to the conversation the wolves were having in the back.
"Think Aven is involved?" The first one asked.
The second one sighed. "It would be immensely bad if he was. He's the Alpha."
"But how could he not be?"
The second man got visibly frustrated. "How could he be? Sunburned idiots." He finished the rest of his ale and slammed it back down on the table. "I'm out of here."
He didn't give the other two men the chance to respond before he stormed back out of the bar, not even glancing over me. They truly hadn't noticed who I was. Or perhaps they did, but decided I wasn't worth whatever troubles they'd get from making a fuss about my presence here.
The two other men pottered after him, their ales left unfinished on the table.
The rest of the evening went by in a blur. I was trying to make sense of what I'd heard, but the more I thought about it, the more confused I got.
After Bertel's sixth ale, I started giving him a brown colored soda instead of his intoxicating drinks. He was so plastered already, he didn't even notice. Talek did, but he let me continue since he made more money of Bertel this way.
As soon as the bar quieted down enough, I got sent back on dish-washing duty. And there was a lot of it.
By the time the bar closed, I still wasn't finished. Talek stepped in the kitchen, noticed the pile of dirty glasses that was left, and decided to help me out.
He started cleaning the floor, however. The dishes, tables and chairs were still left to me.
"Have you ever seen those men here before?" I asked him, killing the silence that hung in this kitchen.
Talek immediately knew who I was talking about. "Once or twice. But tonight they seemed on edge."
I had gotten that energy from them, too. "Do they ever have.. Friends coming here?"
"Other wolves, ya mean?" He stopped mopping the floor for a second as he looked at me.
"Yes," I admitted, a bit thrown aback from his directness.
"I don't know. I didn't even know about them until tonight. I can't smell them out like ya."
I halted my dish-washing duties for a moment as I faced him. "Then how do you know about me?"
He shrugged his shoulders as he restarted mopping the floor. "I didn't at first. But then every time ya came, ya looked different. It didn't take me very long to realize that no human would progress that fast, building their muscles at the speed ya seemed to be doing."
"Oh. I suppose I hadn't thought of that." It was true, though. In the time I'd been here, Feytan's training had improved me on multiple fronts. I felt better, but I looked better, too. The sharpness of my face had softened, and when I was in the bathroom, I could no longer count all the ribs that were poking at my skin.
But I hadn't only been growing muscles. My body had taken the chance of regularly having food to start storing fat, as well. My breasts had become fuller, and my body lightly started curving in places where it barely existed a while ago.
Even my light brown hair looked fuller, and somehow more vibrant. I had changed a lot in the short time I was here. And I was naive to think no one would notice.
I hastily finished the rest of the dishes, the tiredness of the night finally catching up with me.
Our Moon still stood high in the skies when I reached the Manor, although she had started lowering a bit already. Nonetheless, I had arrived back in the heart of the night, and most of the life in the Manor was already fast asleep.
I longed to join them, my legs had grown tired of standing and walking around for hours on end, serving people with their drinks and cleaning up after them.
But as I entered the main hall and stared at the stairs, I somehow had a feeling that what I heard tonight couldn't wait until later to be shared.
So I went up the stairs, keeping the memories of the night as fresh as I could so I could report it all back. I went upwards to the second floor, into the right hall where I'd been some days ago. I thought about going straight to Aven, but he already didn't like me. I couldn't say I was very fond of him either, and I had a hunch waking him up in the middle of the night for my ramblings wouldn't help our mutual dislike of one another.
And since he was still my Alpha, and I still needed his support to live here, I knew I'd better do anything in my powers not to aggravate him even more.
No answer came when I knocked on Jerr's door, but I knew he was here. Without thinking, I knocked again.
I heard some grumbling on the other side of the door, a raspy curse of a voice that had just woken up. I heard Jerr shuffle to the door, and my chest filled with anticipation, waiting for him to open the door. I cursed myself for feeling nervous about seeing him, but the last time we'd talked, we hadn't parted on very good terms. Would he be angry with me? Should I still be angry with him?
Was I still angry with him?
Should I have come? I started doubting myself, convincing my own brain that this could have waited until tomorrow.
The door swung open, and I stared at Jerr's half asleep body. He only had on his trousers, bearing his toned chest. His skin looked like it was carved by our Moon and kissed by the Sun, blessed by two magical entities. Even in his hazed state, I couldn't help but notice that an attractive man was standing before me.
Such a shame he was such a sunburned pain in my ass.
"Sari, what are you doing here?" He asked, confused, clearly aware of the odd hour I'd come to visit him.
"I need to talk to you," I stated, refusing to let my eyes travel down and give him the satisfaction of seeing my enjoyment. I barely dared to admit it to myself.
"Clearly," he sighed, rubbing his temple. His eyes glanced over me, looking for any sign of injury, I guessed. When he found none, he said, "Surely this can wait until tomorrow."
"I don't think it can," I hastily replied. I wouldn't give myself the chance to give in to his request, I wanted to tell him what I'd heard.
I could simply write it down, but as a Beta, Jerr might be able to ask me well directed questions I wouldn't think of, important details I wouldn't know the value of and therefore just dismiss them.
"Sari," he began protesting. By the way I smelled, I realized he must have thought I was drunk. "I'm sure it-"
"It's about the Shadowed Death," I interrupted him.
His sleepy eyes shot open. He let my words sink in, and after his short, silent thoughts, he opened the door and motioned for me to enter his chambers.
I went back to the familiar velvet chair I'd sat in a few days ago. Jerr took the one opposite me, not bothering to put on any more clothes.
The slight grin on his face told me he'd probably seen the slight reddening in my cheeks. But his playful expression quickly faded away, knowing now was the time for serious talk.