Two days in, I had a camp set up comfortably at the foot of their stairs. I made a mound of pine needles my bed and Flapjacks was my complementary pillow. I laid clothes over my body as a blanket and only ate a strip of jerky for breakfast. Jacks got three.
Every time someone passed by I whined and moaned and made a royal racket. When the door was closed I resorted to screaming everything from "My dog is dying", "I'm starving", "And open the damn door!"
I heard the door unlock but the person on the other side hesitated, their footsteps retreating back into the house. I held my breath, expecting them to come back. When there were no such sounds I picked up my duffel bag and whispered for Flapjacks to follow. Crawling on my hands and knees I crept up the stairs and traced the door until I touched the handle. I quietly opened the door and continued crawling into the foyer. The smell of Pine mixed into the smell of cooking which made my mouth water.
There was clattering coming from the right and voices were laughing and fighting and I heard a random bout of crying and through the boisterous babble all I could think of was food.
I kept on my hands and knees and followed my nose. When I could tastes the smell on my tongue I couldn't resist getting closer and I heard a hush flow through the room. I decided to ignore it and continued crawling until I brushed someone's leg and stood up.
"So, what's for dinner?" I asked. When silence responded "Okay, I'll help myself so it better not be soup," I joked. I made my hand spider crawl across the table top and when I touched plates I dived in, making a completes mess and stuffing the handful into my mouth stopping short of shoving down my own throat out of hunger.
"Miss, who are you?" and older voice asked.
"Me? I'm that hobo who took residence at the bottom of your stairs, you didn't hear?" I asked bitterly.
"No, I didn't."
"Well now you did. Actually I've been begging for food for days and living off of one piece of Jerky a day, and let's forget about me and talk about my near dead dog who is surviving on three pieces a day and can barely move! And better yet, let's talk about the asshole who caught me three days ago and sent a blind girl to live in a strange place with no food!" I ranted. After panting a bit I returned to ravaging the food on the table listening to the aged voice sigh from what was probably the head of the table.
"And nobody felt the need to inform me?" he asked, anger lacing his tone. Ooh, Alpha voice, time to start showing respect. Immediately I pulled my hand back and wiped it on the edge of the table cloth bowing my head toward his voice.
"Would somebody get our guest a chair?" he asked. It was rhetorical and his tone definitely implied that it should have been done already. Someone's chair scraped the floor violently as they rushed to comply and I kept my head low.
"Here sit," a girl's voice whispered in my ears. I nodded and sat while continuing to bow my head.
"I would really love to know why I hadn’t been informed that we had a fellow wolf on our doorstep," Alpha ground out. A whisper overtook the silence as people realized that they had left their kin to starve.
"It wasn't something you needed to know," Nails ground out.
"Caleb, we'll speak about this later, along with your mother," he warned. Nails, aka Caleb, let out a low groan and I scooched my chair closer to the table discreetly moving my hand across the table and into the food once more.
"Did you even wash your hands?" Caleb asked, annoyance pervading every syllable.
"Did you?" I spat back, annoyed at his criticism when he was the one who left me to die.
"Just shut up and eat," he ordered.
"That's what I thought," I mumbled. A tinkle of laughter came from my left and I twitched my head toward her. "You didn't hear that," I said in a mock threatening voice.
She giggled once more before whispering back, "Hear what?"
I had my new friend help me load up a plate and when I had eaten every last crumb just short of licking the plate I stood up. I retraced my steps to the best of my memory to the foyer where I left my bag. I heard a thunk near my feet and stopped to poke it with my toes.
"Is this my bag?" I asked.
"You want it or not?" Nails demanded, his patience having obviously worn thin somewhere along the long.
Silently I ignored his bait and picked up my bag. "Flapjacks!" I called out. I heard some skittering as my fur ball's nails scratched across the hard wood floors. He circled my legs and beat them with his tail, stopping only to try and get a whiff of private areas making me push his nose away.
"I almost forgot about the dog," Nails now emotionless voice said.
"I almost forgot about you," I replied matter-of-factly. If this dude had a personal vendetta with me then he might as well get it over with. I was more than willing to have a go at him, verbally that is. Future Alpha or not, he wouldn't stand a chance over my bark.
Nails scoffed and began pacing. "Why are you here?"
"Because you piss me off," I told him honestly.
"You couldn't have possibly come all the way out here to the middle of nowhere for a complete stranger."
"True, and when you kicked me out I was happy to oblige but something about you just makes me want to stay," I said as though it were some sort of seductive quality.
"I have that effect on people," was his smug reply.
"Better start polishing up your attitude then because if your pack stays for the same reason I am then you'll have a mutiny on your hands come your title."
"What?"
"What, did I lose you on there? Your mind to slow to keep up?" I questioned and the continued without waiting for a reply, "I thought I was pretty clear about it. You piss me off so I want to piss you off. That's why I wanted to stay."
Without waiting for whatever reply would come out of his mouth I stalked off with my bag and Flapjacks. I paced blindly through the pack house aiming not to crash into walls or furniture and following the path of Flapjacks nails on the floor. When I heard voices I stopped and knocked on the nearest wall to get their attention.
"Can someone bring me to the Alpha?" I asked.
"Do you have an appointment?" a voice asked. It was female and disdain tainted whatever beauty was in it. Obviously I wasn't worth this chick's time which just served to raise my hackles. She wants to try being top bitch I would be more than willing to give her a run for her money. Her lack of respect let alone courtesy made me want to unleash some more of my recent obnoxious streak.
"I know how a pack works honey, so no, I don't have one, and no, I don't need one," I spoke confidently. A short snuff of humorless laughter rang out and the threatening click of high heels neared.
"I'll take you!" another voice quickly volunteered before wrenching on the arm that I had unknowingly placed on my hip. I stumbled a bit behind her but managed to keep pace.
"You keep this up," the girl said, "and someone is going to smack some self preservation instincts into you whether you like it or not," she warned. I knew it wasn't a threat but more of an observation, one that I would have given to someone else had our positions been switched.
I let out a sigh, "Yeah I know. Being near that asshole just makes me itch for a fight and your little friend was more than willing to give to me."
"Just be careful," she said. I recognized her as the girl from the table. "My name's Gypsy by the way."
"And I thought I was the only one with eclectic parents," I joked. "I'm Eden. Excuse the late introduction and the horrid behavior."
She let out a tinkle of laughter. "No problem Ede. My brother doesn't normally act like that though. I think it's the first time he's really been such a jerk so I'll apologize on his behalf," she said as we began climbing a set of stairs. She kept her grip on my arm firm as we ascended.
"Oh don't apologize, I'll fix his attitude problem," I assured.
"Maybe he could fix yours too," she teased speculatively .
"I'm not usually this heinous," I defended.
"Whatever," she said and warned me that we reached the last step before leading me around a few bends and knocking on a door. "We made it to my dad's office. Have fun," she joked.
The muffled words "come in" came so I opened the door and bowed my head as it closed.
"Alpha," I greeted.
"Hello, did you enjoy dinner?" he asked politely.
"Yes, it was delicious. Thank you for your hospitality. My name is Eden. I'm terribly sorry for my obnoxious behavior earlier and it will not happen again," I assured.
"Well it was certainly a spectacle," he chuckled. I heard the leather on his seat creak as he leaned back into it. I rushed to apologize once more but he cut me off, "Don't worry, it was entertaining to have someone put my son in his place. Normally he doesn't need it but you must have riled him some way that no one else can." Unless my ears were mistaken I was hearing praise in his tone.
"So what is it you would like to discuss?" he asked, settling down to business.
"Staying here until I'm eighteen. It's only three months."
"Why this pack?"
"I smelled you from four days away."
"That is quite the nose you have there."
"Yeah, I thought you were only one or two days away until I was hiking for four," I laughed.
"You were probably walking in circles." he chuckled.
I sighed. "Of course I was. Anyway that's my only reasoning. That and, no offense, you son makes me want to smack into line and I would take great pleasure in doing just that." My candid declaration was met by a silence that had me back tracking rapidly. "That was too much, I know, it just―"
"Came out?" he interrupted. I lowered my head and nodded. "It's fine. He's been pretty lazy and he doesn't have a mate so you two might up getting along spectacularly for all we know. And if you don't at least it will be entertaining.
"I suppose we could set you up with someone to room with. I know this is private, but considering you aren't truly a part of the pack it is something I need to know," he began cryptically. I braced myself for some form of questioning regarding my background but was knocked away by, "Have you had your first heat yet?"
Startled I choked out a "no" as fast as I could and began hacking violently having inhaled some spit.
"Are you okay?" he asked but I could hear his chair crinkling with his silent laughter.
"That just… wasn't… what I was expecting," I said, trying to sound like I hadn't just been coughing up a lung but it just came out as breathless gasps.
"And you're almost eighteen so it will probably be happening soon. If it does happen to come while you're staying here then tell the Luna and lock yourself in your room," he ordered, suddenly very serious. "We have a lot of unmated males that will jump at your heat," he warned. "Alright, that's all. I think I'll have you room with Gypsy."
I stood up and bowed, taking this as my dismissal. I headed straight out of the door and leaned against the wall, my chest heaving with the effort of containing my racing heart.
I knew I was late for a heat considering she-wolves could get them as soon as twelve years of age and most got it by fourteen. Of course there were still those girls who didn't get it until the latest at twenty years old but it definitely wasn't common. I sighed as my heart rate finally leveled out and began thinking of how I would track Gypsy down.
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A/N: Another upload and I still have 25 word pages left! I thought I post this though.
Like I said in the last chapter: after this post, uploads will be inconsistent until August 6th!!! Please don't be mad but I'm not paying for an hour of wifi if I'm only using three minutes for posting!!!
I'm cheap that way :)
Anyway thanks for reading and hope to see and hear you at the next upload!!
Cookies for all who vote and comment!! And hugs for everyone!!!
<3 Bayne