by Laura Ryles
“And do you have any siblings?” The man smiled down at her. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who smiled a lot, and it made the whole thing a little unnerving.
“N-n-no. I’m an only child.” She whispered back.
“Well,” Orin said silkily, “I guess that makes you family.” He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the middle of the room. “Knock off the music!” Orin yelled above the noise. The small bar room grew silent immediately. They all looked towards her and Orin curiously. “Pack, I have a new member here. If you look closely, you might see a resemblance to someone you used to know.” He paused for effect. “This is Tala Woods! She is the only child of Clay Woods.” The crowd made a low, rumbling ‘boo’ noise. If the sound wasn’t enough, she could tell by the looks on their faces that they were not happy to see her. She guessed she didn’t blame them, but this was not the reaction she had hoped for from her own pack. Drew pushed his way through to the front of the crowd. Tala looked over at him. Drew had started to make his way toward her when Orin held his hand up in front of Drew to make him stop. The crowd ceased its rumbling too, at their Alpha’s hand gesture. “Please, pack! That is not the way we treat one of our own. This girl has done nothing wrong.” Tala looked around the room, some of them were still sneering in her direction but some seemed to be willing to listen to what their Alpha might have to say. Orin continued, “She is not her father. This young girl is not to be held accountable for his actions. After all, he denied her the pack upbringing, and that, too, should be laid at her father’s feet. Yet, she has still come to seek out her pack now that she knows what she truly is. It’s not her fault that she didn’t know. It’s not her fault that no one ever taught her. It is our duty as her pack to accept her now and bring her into the fold. Will we deny her the pack life, even now, when she is here of her own volition, searching for the family she has been denied?”
To Tala’s astonishment, most of the crowd roared a great, “Nooo,” at Orin’s last sentence. She drew in a deep breath; she hadn’t even realized she had stopped breathing somewhere during Orin’s little speech. Drew seemed to take in a breath of his own as well before she watched him head back over to the table where Oakley was still sitting. Once Orin seemed to be finished with his speech, the rest of the crowd made its way up, one by one and introduced themselves to her, saying how happy they were that she had finally ‘come home’. Tala found herself enjoying their attention for a while, but then she decided to head back over to the table where Oakley and Drew were sitting. She noticed that Orin had reclaimed his seat and his mysterious ‘man in the shadows’ stance. She pulled up a chair between Oakley and Drew and sat down.
“So, we understand from Oakley here that you think you should be Alpha.” Kale blurted out as soon as she’d gotten comfortable.
“What? No, I…he never… we...” Tala stumbled as she tried to make the words come out of her mouth.
Orin laughed. “Back off Kale! She’s just a pup. Besides Oak didn’t say that she thought that she should be Alpha, he said that she thought that she was supposed to be Alpha. There’s a difference.” Orin smiled another sly smile. “True enough though, Pup, you’re supposed to be next in line. I’m just a placeholder. I had no idea that Clay had any children. If I’d known, I never would have asked to be given the title, but once your father passed away, someone had to lead.”
“No, no, I understand, I don’t want to…” Tala began to speak but Orin interrupted her.
“However,” he said with a magnificently booming voice, and the whole pack turned towards them. That must be his Alpha voice, Tala thought. “I know that I am not of the Alpha bloodline. I have only ever wanted to serve my pack to the best of my ability. I will gladly step aside...” the crowd exploded with the voices of concerned citizens saying things like
“What?”, “No.”, “We don’t even know her.”, and “She just joined the pack.”.
Orin smiled his creepy smile again and finished his sentence, “as soon as you have the support of the pack.”
Tala sat back in her chair. She had only just gotten here and already she had made up her mind about this ‘Orin’ character. He was the type of guy that you never turned your back on. Here he was pretending to be her newfound familial savior when what he was really doing was playing to the crowd. Making himself seem like a hero and her seem like the daughter of a traitor who had come back to take whatever the pack had left. She could sense someone staring at her. She turned her head to see Oakley looking at her.
“I think I’d like to go if you don’t think Lark would mind running us back to get our car?” she said just loud enough for Oakley to hear. He nodded. Oakley stood up and said his goodbyes to the two officers. Tala felt Orin staring at her as she stood up to follow Oakley, but she didn’t look in his direction. Instead, she followed closely behind Oakley who then walked over to the bar and whispered something into Lark’s ear. Tala supposed it must have been that she was ready to go because Lark looked towards her, rolled her eyes, and nodded.
Chapter 4
Once they had all made it outside, Oakley turned towards Tala and Drew and asked, “Do you two have a place to stay?”
“No, but we can head back out to the interstate and find something near the exit,” Drew answered. Tala was too busy thinking about all that had just happened.
“Nonsense. You will stay with us,” Oakley answered. Lark rolled her eyes again.
“No, we really couldn’t,” Drew countered.
“I insist.”
“Oh, for goodness sake, come on, we’re not serial killers or anything. We’re her pack!” Lark said sarcastically. Drew looked at Tala to make sure it was okay. She brought her mind back to the present and nodded in agreement. Drew conceded. They all climbed back into the truck for the short ride home.
Once they were back at the Greens’ house, Oakley showed Tala and Drew to a small room with two twin beds. They brought their luggage in, and Oakley left, giving them their first bit of privacy since they had arrived.
“Well, it’s not The Marriott, but hey, it’s free,” Drew commented as he threw himself down on one of the beds.”
“Yeah.” Tala laughed half-heartedly.
“You okay?” Drew asked more seriously.
“I guess. That didn’t go how I expected at all. It feels like they hate me.”
“Oakley doesn’t. And he seems to be the smartest one in the bunch so far.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Tala smiled a little. “He does seem like a wise old owl or something, doesn’t he?”
“You mean wise old wolf.” Drew beamed.
“Right, wolf.” Tala grinned, a genuine smile, finally. She was so glad Drew was here.
“Oh, I should call Ander and let him know what’s going on. Will you hand me my bag?” Drew grabbed the small duffle that was on the floor next to him and threw it over to Tala on the other bed. Tala unzipped the bag and dug around in it for a minute or so before she pulled out her hand victoriously with a small cell phone in it. “Ha-ha, got it!”
“Drew, I hate to ask but could you...?” She said, looking towards the door.
“What? Oh yeah, sure.” Drew got up and walked out the door. As the door swung shut behind him, she saw him take a seat on the sofa in the living room next to Lark who was watching tv. Once the door was shut, she looked down at the phone in her hand and pressed recent calls. There were only two numbers in her recent call list. One was her mom’s and the other was Ander’s. She dialed the latter.
“Hello.” Anders’ voice picked up on the other end.
“Hi,” Tala replied shyly.
“Hi. Tala, it’s two a.m. is everything ok?”
“Oh. Yeah, no, I’m fine. Sorry. Did I wake you?” She hadn’t realized how late it was.
“Well, yeah, but that’s okay. I didn’t say I wasn’t happy to hear your voice.” Tala smiled on her end of the line. Oh, how she missed him. “So, how are things going? Did you find them yet?” Ander asked, bri
nging her back to the phone call and out of her feelings.
“Yes, I found them. I found all of them.”
“How was it?”
“Not great, to be honest.”
“What? Why? What happened? Do I need to come down there?”
Tala laughed. “Thanks for the offer. I would love to see your face right now, but I think I can handle it.”
“Right. Well, tell me about it. What’s going on?” Ander said. Tala went into the whole spiel about her evening with the pack, telling Ander everything. From her newfound friend Oakley, to the land her father had sold, to the seemingly slimy disposition of her father’s successor. When she finished, she sat quietly and waited for Ander’s response. When it never came, she thought she might have lost signal.
“Ander?”
“Yeah? I really think maybe I should come down there.” He said in his incredibly cute, overprotective, husky, wolf-man voice. Tala couldn’t help but smile again.
“Don’t be silly. I have to do this myself. That’s why you’re there and I’m here. This is a battle I have to win on my own. They will never like me or trust me or respect me for that matter if I don’t face them myself. After all, they deserve that much after what my father has done to them.”
“You’re right. They need to get to know you. That’s all. Once they do, trust me, they are going to want you as their Alpha.”
“Well, honestly, I was thinking that it might not be a bad thing to let Orin keep being Alpha. If he stayed Alpha here and I was just a regular member of the pack, then I wouldn’t have another pack that needed me, and I could come be with you.” Ander sat quietly on the other end of the line for a moment.
“That’s true,” He said. “And the selfish part of me, the human part of me is aching to tell you to do it, leave them all, and come here to be with me right this minute. But the wolf part of me, the part that’s your mate, the part that wants all of what is best for you, no matter what it costs to myself is saying that you need to be there right now. It’s telling me that they need you, even if they don’t know it. They need you to take your place and make things right.”
“Ugh! Fine! You’re such a party pooper,” Tala said sarcastically as she flung herself back, to lay down on her bed. Ander laughed into the speaker. Man, she missed his laugh.
“I miss you,” she said, “so freakin’ much.” She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.
“I miss you too, Little Wolf,” He answered. For a moment, Tala thought that she could feel him, feel his longing to be with her, feel his sorrow that he was not with her. “Will you call me again tomorrow?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“I love you, Tala.”
“I love you too, Ander.
“Goodnight, Little Wolf.”
“Goodnight.”
After she hung up, Tala lay on the bed for a few minutes. She felt like crying. No tears came though. Getting up from the bed, she changed into a t-shirt and shorts to sleep in and then walked to the door. Taking a deep breath, she went into the living room with everyone else. Lark and Drew seemed to be having a good time watching Family Feud. They were arguing with one another over who had the right answer. Tala sat down at the end of the couch opposite the two of them. This end was closer to Oakley anyway, and that was who she wanted to sit beside. It was strange, something about him reminded her of her dad. She couldn’t put her finger on it but there was something in his presence that brought back her memories of him. Maybe she was just tired.
“Are you all right?” Oakley asked.
“Yes, I think I’m a little tired, maybe a little overwhelmed too,” she replied as she covered her mouth to yawn.
“It has been a big day. New friends, new pack, old drama laid on your doorstep. It was all quite a lot. You took it well though. Many wolves have a hot and fiery disposition. It doesn’t take much to get them riled, but you were cool as a cucumber through it all. Even Orin’s monologue didn’t get you, which is impressive since even I wanted to bite him.” Oakley chuckled. “That’s an Alpha virtue though, the calm. It’s not surprising that you would be placid too. Your father certainly was. Very calm, and easy going. Probably why he could get along with humans so well. I guess you take after him a little, huh?”
“I guess maybe I do,” Tala said covering another yawn.
“Perhaps we should all call it a night, then, huh?” Oakley commented loud enough for the other two to hear him as well. Drew and Lark stopped arguing and Lark nodded her head at Oakley. Drew stood up and held out his hand to Lark, to help her off the sofa. She hesitated for a moment and then took it and let him pull her to a standing position.
“Goodnight, everyone,” said Lark, smiling at Drew.
“Night!” Drew said as he headed to the bedroom with a smile on his face. Tala turned to look at Oakley. She walked over to him and put her arms around him.
“Thank you for all your help today,” she said. Oakley patted her on the shoulder. Then she let go and headed to the room as well. “Goodnight,” she called over her shoulder.
“Goodnight, Tala,” Oakley said before heading to the back of the house.
When she walked into their room, Drew was already in bed laying on his back with his head on his arms. She crawled into her own bed.
“I think she likes me,” Drew said, staring at the ceiling.
“I think she does too, but don’t get your hopes up, okay? I don’t want to see you get hurt and it’s very unlikely that she will disregard the rules to act on it,” Tala replied, turning on her side so that she could face Drew. Drew turned on his side as well to face her.
“How was Ander?”
“Perfect. You know, just like he always is.” Tala looked at Drew dreamily. Drew rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, we get it, you’re in love.”
“You’re always so sarcastic! I am in love and I’m not ashamed of it at all!” Tala replied. “I am kind of tired though. Are you?”
“Are you kidding? I been wrangling wolves all day, I’m beat.” They both chuckled as Drew sat up to turn the light off. “Lark said she would take us around to meet some of the more prominent pack members tomorrow if you want.”
“Really? I guess it couldn’t hurt,” Tala replied, her words laced with dread.
“Don’t worry. Tomorrow will be better,” Drew said, sensing the distress in her voice.
“I hope so.”
“I’m sure it will be. Lark offered to take us; I didn’t even have to ask. That’s a step in the right direction. Maybe they just need to warm up to you a little.”
“Maybe,” Tala said through yet another yawn.
“Okay, time to go to sleep. Night, Tala.”
“Goodnight, Drew. Thanks for being here.”
“You know I have your back, Dawg… I mean wolf.” They both had one more good laugh before quickly falling asleep.
Chapter 5
The next morning when she woke up, Tala rolled over to look around. She was confused for a moment before remembering she was at Oakley and Lark Green’s house. She glanced over to where Drew had slept but the bed next to her was empty. Grabbing her clothes for the day, she gravitated toward the mouth watering smells coming from the kitchen. Oakley and Lark were standing at the stove, tending pans of bacon, pancakes, and eggs, while Drew watched them with a hopeful look on his face.
“Good morning,” Drew said with a mouth full of food when she came into view.
“Morning,” Oakley said from the kitchen.
“Morning, Tala,” echoed Lark.
“Good morning guys,” Tala answered them all at once. “Would it be okay if I used your shower?” she asked timidly.
“Sure, Lark can show you where it is,” Oakley called.
“Yeah, follow me.” Lark put down the bowl she had in her hand and walked towards the back of the house. “Here it is,” she told Tala as they came to the first door on the right. “Everything you need is in the cabinets above the toilet. Towels, rags, different ki
nds of soap, and shampoo. Pops doesn’t care much for the ‘smell-good’ stuff, but I have plenty of it in there if you would rather use that than plain old soap. Happy washing!” She turned around and left Tala standing alone. Tala walked in and turned on the hot water. It felt amazing to wash off all the grime of yesterday. When she got out, she brushed her hair and found a blow dryer under the sink. She dried her hair and threw it up into a messy bun then returned to the kitchen. Her stomach rumbled a little as she sat down at the table across from Drew.
“Good shower?” He questioned.
“Yes! It was amazing.”
“Great. I think I’ll have one as well.” Drew hopped up and ran off down the hall. “Make sure to save me some bacon.”
Lark and Oakley were finished with the cooking and started to bring all the food to the table. They sat it down in front of her. Her stomach growled a little louder.
“This smells delicious. You guys really didn’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m used to eating cereal at home.”
“No, we couldn’t let you have cereal on your first day as a new pack member,” Oakley said, as he winked at her over the bowl of eggs he had just placed on the table.
“Trust me, you’re going to need your strength for all of the places I’m taking you guys today,” Lark chipped in. “I thought we would go meet a few of the pack elders beside Pops. I’m sure they’d all be interested in meeting you. They were all close to your dad at one time. Then I thought we could ride to town and I could give you guys a sort of ride-through tour so you’ll be able to find your way around, and then, if we aren’t too tired by then, I thought I would take you to see what’s left of the old pack land. It might not be ours anymore but it’s the most beautiful land you’ll ever see, and I thought you might like to see it before they finish all the trees off.”
“That sounds amazing, Lark. Thank you so much. I can’t wait,” Tala replied.
“Well, dig in, you guys. You’re going to need energy for all of that,” Oakley said as he passed the bowl of eggs to Tala. The breakfast was enormous. They had eggs, bacon, pancakes, and orange juice and coffee. Tala couldn’t remember the last time she had had such a huge breakfast. Her mom was never much of a cook. That part had always been her dad’s responsibility. She ate until she just couldn’t eat anymore. About ten minutes later Drew came back from his shower, smelling and looking fresh. He sat back down in the spot across from Tala and started piling food on his plate. When they had all finished, Drew and Tala offered to do the dishes in return for such a lovely meal. While they did the dishes, Lark decided to go get ready to go. By the time she returned, the dishes were done, and they were all ready to set out for the day. Tala grabbed the bag that she had borrowed from Drew to hide a change of clothes in. After last night, she had decided that she would make sure she took it with her everywhere she went from now on, just in case. They all climbed into the Ford and sat on the bench seat in the front cab. Tala decided to let Drew sit in the middle so he would be next to Lark. Once he was seated he gave Tala a grateful smile.
