Just a Wolf

Amelia

“Amelia,” Gamma Michael calls me over across the ballroom, where I am overseeing the final arrangements before the guests start arriving. Everything looks fantastic, the band is warming up their instruments, the buffet tables are getting laid with appetizers, the candles are lit, the dance floor is gleaming and ready on the ground. Garlands of holly and red berries are draped all around the edges of the room along the ceiling. There is a big fresh cut Christmas tree in each corner, filling the air with their fragrance, covered with silver and gold ornaments to represent the sun and moon of the solstice. I hope that he approves of everything.

But apparently that’s not what he’s here to tell me. He indicates his phone. “I just got a text that the Dark Woods Pack is running late. They ran into some trouble on the road. They’ll need to get to their rooms and change before they can come to the ball. Can you go check and make sure everything is ready for them?”

I glance back behind me at the ballroom. “Yes, everything is done here,” I tell him, wishing that he would tell me that I’ve done a good job.

“Okay, go check on their rooms then,” he tells me, and I don’t let myself sigh. I just nod and spin around to go.

But he stops me. “Amelia,” he says, and I turn back around to look at him.

“Looks great in here,” he says, gesturing around. “Good job.”

I have a huge smile on my face as I head upstairs to double check the guestrooms.

We’ve set aside an entire wing for the Dark Woods Pack, who are coming in from east of here. They’ll have 32 people, we have been told, no children, and I made sure to assign rooms based on their rank and family situation and genders. The Alpha and Luna get the best suite, of course, the Beta gets a suite of his own, a couple of the leadership team get their own rooms, and the rest will be doubling up. It looks like they are bringing a variety of staff with them, and I’m not sure if it is just so they can enjoy the Ball, or if it is because they plan for them to be working while they’re here.

Not my concern. I just need to have everything ready for them. I use the key card to go into each suite and room, check again to make sure all the beds are made, the toiletries are arranged in the bathrooms, there are plenty of towels. I fluff a few pillows, straighten a few stacks of towels, wipe a tiny smudge off of a desk. The Alpha and Beta suites also have welcome baskets with snacks and champagne. Looks like everything is fine.

I start heading back to the ballroom, but hesitate for a moment. I’ve already finished everything on all of my lists. I have about an hour before I really need to be back there to make sure everything is going smoothly as the guests arrive, and I had already planned to use that time to shower and get dressed in my fancy ball gown, which won’t really take me that long.

“Do you mean?!” my wolf asks excitedly, not having forgotten my promise from earlier.

“Yes,” I think to her, “we should be able to fit in a birthday run. Just half an hour, but that’ll be enough to enjoy ourselves, don’t you think?”

She just squees.

I skip down the stairs to my basement room. When they told me I could pick any empty room down here, I was happy to discover that there was one available right next to the side stairway exit, which means that I can come and go directly to my room without having to go up through the main pack house area. Makes it convenient for shifting in private, also.

I duck into my room, quickly take off my clothes, and let my wolf out. I easily shift into my dark wolf, feeling the power surging through my limbs as I assume my wolf form. Ah, this feels so good.

We pad out the door, up the stairs, and edge out of the side entrance. Glancing around, we see that nobody is nearby, so we dart across the lawn towards the woods.

I wait inside our mind, quietly, allowing her to have her time, just riding along while she runs and runs, full of vitality and energy and strength, the wind rustling through our fur. No further words are spoken, we are enjoying the instinct, the speed, the freedom.

Nothing can beat this.

Beta Nolan

I am furious with myself for falling into the rogues’ trap. How could I be so stupid? I mean, come on. A beautiful female wolf, on the side of the deserted road in the middle of nowhere, barely wearing any clothes at the beginning of winter, holding a baby and staring into the engine of a disabled car? If this had been a movie I was watching, I wouldn’t have been able to suspend disbelief. Why didn’t I see it for the set-up it was? Probably because I was too busy checking out her gorgeous long legs, that’s why. I might be mated, but I’m not blind. They played us perfectly.

I’m sure they only attacked because they didn’t realize we weren’t alone. They might have even succeeded, with just the four of us fighting off their numbers. I’m not sure how many there were, perhaps a dozen including the decoy female. Our pack trains regularly, and we are all in excellent condition, and ready for anything, but by arithmetic alone we probably would have lost. We would have been killed or too injured to do anything as they stole our SUV, which was presumably their goal. Rogues are infamous for using thievery, tricks and violence to survive outside of a pack.

The moment that I realized what was happening, I used my mind-link to alert Alpha Ross, and they sped the rest of the way to our location. They were only a few miles behind us, so it didn’t take long.

When the rest of the pack arrived and jumped shifting out of the cars, the rogues quickly realized that they were now the ones outnumbered and fled back into the woods. We only chased them far enough to know that they wouldn’t bother us again before Alpha Ross mind-linked all of us and commanded our return to the vehicles on the road.

It took some time to get sorted out before we were ready to be back on our way. All of our clothes had been shredded as we were forced to shift unexpectedly, so Ross had just a couple shift back and dash naked to the cars to grab the bags of emergency clothing, and bring those back into the woods for the rest of us to get dressed. If we’re shifting for pack activities like our weekly runs or training sessions, usually the men and women dress separately to maintain a little bit of privacy or decorum, but that wasn’t possible today, so we were all just clustered together grabbing whatever shirts and sweatpants were in the bags.

At least it gave our medics the chance to quickly look over everyone and see if any injuries needed treatment. There were a number of bite wounds and bruises, of course, but nothing that won’t heal quickly. One of the benefits of being werewolves is that we heal far more quickly than humans, so the injuries should all be resolved by tomorrow.

We managed not to have any spectators driving by during the fight, which would have certainly gotten the human police called. Imagine that 911 call from the road: “Um, there are a lot of wolves fighting next to parked cars on the 299?” Even worse would have been: “Yes, I’m calling to report thirty naked people on the side of the 299.” It’s not always easy to remain hidden from the humans, and the rogues definitely don’t make it any easier.

I’m sure this is one more thing that Ross is going to want to discuss with Alpha Kanen when we get to Humboldt. Another reason to form an alliance.

I’m just waiting for when Ross tears me a new one over this. My naivete got us into this mess, and I deserve the scolding that I know is coming. I should never have told Dominic to pull over. We ended up with an extra vehicle out of it though - of course we didn’t leave their car, I had Dominic jump start it so we could take it with us and at least take away one of the rogues’ resources for trouble-making.

Once we are back on the road, I text the River Moon Pack’s Beta and Gamma to apologize for our tardiness, and explain that we were delayed on the road. We won’t get there until after the Ball is supposed to start, and I know Ross is super irritated about that. He wanted this all to go smoothly, and we’re already off to a bad start.