Just a Wolf

Theo

So, if I had to place a bet between Evan and Dom, I’d have to pick Dom. They clearly both have a crush on Amelia, and who can blame them? Coming from a different pack, seeing a cute new girl for the first time, I’m pretty sure I understand what happened. But I’m afraid Evan doesn’t seem to stand a chance. I’ve never seen her look at him with anything other than basic politeness. Not so with Dom.

Amelia hops right in the car with him, and I follow them out to the garage to put our cars away. I heard Luna Darlene tell her to go with him and tell him about his assignment. I wonder what it is? If he’s working I’m afraid he won’t get the chance to go surfing with us tomorrow.

Dom pulls his car into the front guest slot, and I go further into the parking area to drop off mine. When I walk back, hilariously, they are still sitting in the car, staring deeply into each other’s eyes, like they have forgotten what planet they are living on.

Ha! This is cute, I’m glad Amelia is getting to have a little flirtation with the dude. She’s so young and as far as I know she’s never dated before. But, as a member of her pack, I feel a little brotherly towards her, and he’d better not pull anything that ends up hurting her. He seems like a decent enough guy, but he is in fact a guy, and we are idiots. I’ll be keeping my eye on him.

I walk over to their car and bang on the window, and they both jump guiltily. I give them a huge grin and point at the smartwatch on my wrist. I see them give each other another wide-eyed look before they open their doors and hop out of the car.

“Meeting’s in fifteen minutes,” I remind them.

“Oh, yeah,” Dom says, and the three of us start walking back to the packhouse.

“So what’s your assignment tomorrow?” I ask him.

“Um,” he says, and looks at Amelia, and she looks down at the ground with a smile. Ha! She hadn’t even told him yet!

She looks back up and says, “I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow to get ready for the Alpha and Luna mating ceremony. Luna Darlene thought that you could drive me to Arcata, Dominic, so that I can take care of everything there?”

He smiles like he has won the jackpot. “Sure!”

“Well, what about surfing?” I ask, deciding to give him a bit of a hard time.

He stares back and forth between us. “Er….”

She smiles at him. “Why don’t you just drop me off in Arcata on your way down to Eureka?”

“Don’t you need me to, like, carry stuff or whatever?”

“No, I’m just having meetings to place orders for supplies for the event. Nothing you could really help with.” But she looks at him longingly, like she wishes there was some excuse to make him stay with her rather than go surfing. Man, I think she likes him as much as he likes her.

Poor Evan! He never was in the running here, it seems.

“Well,” I suggest, “you’ll have to take a separate car from us, there wouldn’t be room for both of you in mine. So why don’t you drop Amelia in Arcata, come on down to the beach for at least a couple of hours to help Evan learn, then you can head back to pick her up?”

I’m talking to him but looking at her, and her expression is flooded with something - joy, or pleasure, or hope. I look between them, back over at Dom, and see the same sort of thing on his face. Huh. This seems like way more than just the flirtation of a couple of days. Have they seriously fallen for each other?

She smiles at him, her cute little dimple flashing, and says, “That sounds perfect.”

He nods. We have arrived at one of the back packhouse entrances, and head inside. Dom and I know what the meeting is about, I think, and I wonder what everyone else is going to say when they hear.

Evan

The cafeteria is crowded, every seat is taken, and people are packed in, standing around, waiting for the meeting. Everyone who works at the packhouse in River Moon seems to be in here, along with thirty other Dark Woods members besides me. The last one comes in, and I see that Dom is with Amelia and Theo - right, they had to take the cars back to wherever the garage is. The three of them come over and stand near me in the back.

“Okay,” the River Moon Beta says from the front of the room. “We want to let you know what’s being planned for the next few days, before you all take off for the holiday. We won’t be having any official events for the next two days, so you can all go and enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with your families or however you like. We’ll just have a skeleton crew here at the packhouse, so this will be the last full meal that will be served until the 26th. Anyone who wants to is welcome to stay here still, but the staff won’t be working so you’ll be on your own for cleaning and meals. The kitchen is fully stocked so you can help yourself, but don’t leave a mess for the kitchen staff.”

Well that’s pretty nice of him. I’m glad that River Moon is another pack that clearly values all of its members. I know that there are some packs who treat their lower level staff members basically like slaves, calling them omegas and heaping abuse on them. Dark Woods isn’t like that, and River Moon obviously isn’t either. Another reason that our alliance is going to work out. We share the same values.

Malcolm continues, “I spoke to Alpha Kanen today. He and our new Luna are planning to return to the packhouse the day after Christmas, and you’ll have the opportunity to meet her. Please try not to be too overwhelming at first - I’m sure you can understand that this is a big change for her. The formal introduction will be on New Year’s Eve, when a mating ceremony is planned for the Alpha and Luna. There will be a lot of guests attending, and there will be a lot of work to do to prepare for the ceremony. You’ll all be receiving your assignments after Christmas.”

He pauses for a couple of minutes, to allow the pack to react, some applause, some chatter, a lot of smiles. Beta Nolan meets my eyes from across the room, and I nod at him. Malcolm’s management style is very admirable, and reminds me a lot of Nolan.

After a pause, Malcolm says, “Now Dark Woods Alpha Ross has some information about what we have learned regarding the rogue situation.”

All eyes turn to our big Alpha, standing next to Malcolm. He says, “Most of you probably know that our pack was attacked by rogues on our way here to River Moon. Our packs have decided to join together in an effort to clear out the rogue group. We don’t want to have a looming threat while we work on cementing the friendship between our two packs.”

Everyone in the audience looks around at each other, and there is some whispering. Everyone in Dark Woods knew about this, of course, but I don’t think River Moon was as aware.

Ross continues, “A group of us from both packs did some reconnaissance today, and we made an interesting finding. The actual discovery was made by our mechanic, Dominic. I’d like for him to describe what he found.” He gestures back towards where we are standing, and I sense Dominic stiffen next to me.

Poor guy. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting to be put on the spot like this - I could tell how nervous it made him just to talk at the lodge in front of the leaders today, and this time it’s worse, all the members of two packs turning around to stare at him, waiting expectantly. I think Alpha must know how uncomfortable he is with this. Ross must be planning to get Dominic more used to this kind of attention. Maybe he has plans for him.

Amelia is standing over on Dom’s other side, and her eyes turn to him with so much sympathy. She obviously can tell that he is panicking. I see motion down at the side between them, and she has clasped his hand. It seems to give him the courage that he needs to speak.

Well, I think I’ve lost here. She’s hot and smart and cute and very appealing, and even I can tell that she has made her choice. Maybe next time, Evan, I tell myself.