Humanity for Beginners

by Faith Mudge

  "I know I'm just a poor frail human," Damien added, lounging against the counter with his most intractable smile, "but if you think I'm staying inside playing Scrabble while you lot fight those pricks outside, I'll have to disappoint you.”

  "There's a plan," Gloria growled. Eben, who was standing back from the table with his arms crossed and his mouth tight, nodded abruptly.

  "She's right," he said. "Louisa, I know guys like this. You're a girl, he'll take it as... I don't even know, his moral duty to show how superior he is. He'll hurt you any way he can."

  Louisa glared. "So I will hurt him back."

  "We all agreed," Gloria began, her voice rising.

  "Actually, no, you said what you were going to do and we didn't argue right away," Louisa said, squaring her shoulders. "We may not be a pack. I don't want anything like that and neither does Lissa. But we are a team."

  Gloria drew in breath to snap, and reined herself in with an effort. She took another breath, held it for a long moment, and released it. "We're taking a risk," she said harshly. "The more of us that are out there, the bigger the danger we'll go wild."

  "Then you are fortunate, as ever, to have moi," Damien announced. As everyone turned to look at him, he opened the kitchen door and retrieved what had been propped against the wall outside. Gloria blinked.

  "Damien," she said, "where did you get a tranquilizer gun?"

  He held up a hand. "Let me worry about that."

  Gloria rolled her eyes so hard they hurt. "Damien―"

  "I live here," he said, stubbornly. "Same rules apply."

  She looked helplessly at Eben. "Well, you don't live here..."

  "My sister does." The glare Eben directed at Louisa was murderous, hinting at long arguments that he'd lost. "So it looks like I'm staying."

  It was not like any other full moon since Gloria had begun taking precautions. Nobody was trying to calm down, for one thing. Instead of retreating to her bedroom, Lissa went outside to listen for anyone approaching, while everyone else moved back and forth at their tasks with fierce focus. As the sky darkened, the women gathered outside the guesthouse. For once, they were all fully dressed, in the loosest and oldest clothes they owned. Gloria looked up at the roof, trying to see where Damien and Eben were perched.

  "They’'ll be fine," Nadine said quietly.

  Gloria looked at the hard lines around her mouth and eyes. "Are you?"

  Nadine did not answer immediately. She tipped her head back, scanning the sky for the first signs of moonrise, though they would feel it before they saw it. "I learned a long time ago to pick my battles," she said. She took Gloria's hand and held on tight. "This one is worth it."

  Her grip went slack as the first shock of the transformation went through them. She dropped to all fours, nails clawing the ground as they elongated. It was easier to change in that position, but Gloria stayed upright for as long as she could. Her stomach churned with dread at the thought of transforming out in the open, where the variables were not under her control. What was worse was how much the wolf liked it.

  And the wolf was in control tonight.

  She heard an engine die somewhere nearby. Voices rose, howling through human throats until the change took hold and took on the true ululating chorus of a pack. Nadine shifted uneasily beside Gloria. The moonlight washed across their fur, the cool night wind bringing the scent of strange wolves, and then there were three huge shadows loping down the drive.

  Gloria the woman was measured and responsible. She held onto her temper like it was the most precious thing she had, because she could imagine too clearly what would happen if she didn't. The wolf, though, did not care. She scented the alpha instantly, and lunged.

  He was bigger and stronger and knew it. He charged forward to meet her, teeth bared. Gloria twisted her body mid-leap, landing to one side while he skidded past, and she scored a bite to his flank before he could recover. He gave a furious yelp. Probably he had expected his pack boys to make short work of Gloria's girls and come to back him up, but that was not happening. One of the male wolves, slim and brindled, was visibly indecisive, pacing back and forth with flattened ears while Louisa crouched and snarled. The other was being held at bay by Nadine and Lissa. As they forced him backwards, there was a whistle of sound and a fleshy thud. The second wolf swayed, whined, and collapsed with a dart in its flank.

  The alpha did not notice. He was whirling for a second attack on Gloria, who danced around him warily. If he got her pinned, it would be over. She was older, not so fast, she couldn't keep up the game too long. Oh, but she wanted to rip him. She wanted to win.

  He plunged towards her, then veered away again with a frustrated howl. Nadine had darted behind him, nipping at his tail. He responded by lunging and snapping, but by then Lissa was boxing him in on a third side and even his wolf, overwhelmed by the need to fight fuck feed WIN could tell the numbers weren't working on his side. He howled again.

  Louisa slunk up to join the circle, teeth bright. The third wolf had fled.

  The alpha spun wildly, snapping out at whoever was nearest, shrinking back when they responded but with nowhere to go. The circle tightened. Gloria could smell the triumph from her girls, and the blood lust, but none of them were acting. They were waiting for her. For their―

  No. Not an alpha.

  Gloria pounced. She pinned her enemy down and when he wrenched loose, Nadine helped her wrestle him down again. Gloria sank her teeth into the back of his neck and shook. He snarled and fought, but she would not let go; she just bit harder until at last he gave a defeated yelp. Gloria waited a beat, then released the tight vice of her jaw. She tasted blood. It was good.

  Her enemy fled, and her pack bayed their victory at the moon.

  Eleven

  It was Damien and Eben who dealt with the mess. Trust only went so far; they stayed behind locked doors while the wolves roamed outside, protecting their territory. Come dawn, there was a tranquilized boy lying naked in the middle of the drive and four women in an equal state of undress to track down. Eben went around with blankets while Damien located the pack's transport, abandoned nearby down the road, and hauled their trespasser into the back of the car. The other boy was already there, flinching back with hands raised.

  "I told him he should get going," Damien reported later, once Gloria was in a more human state and had scrubbed her teeth three times in a row. "They had the keys, and wherever their bastard alpha went to lick his wounds, he'd have a hard time catching up on foot."

  "Did the kid listen?" Gloria asked.

  Damien shrugged. "I hope so. Left him to it."

  The kitchen went quiet after that. They were all grouped around the table, Lissa and Louisa with their arms around each other, Eben sitting with his hands locked around a cup of coffee and his gazed fixed downward. A box of cereal sat in the middle of the table, a stop-gap until Nadine felt like making breakfast. She was leaning her head against Gloria's side, a small smile playing around her mouth. While Gloria was feeling vaguely appalled at herself, it was clear Nadine had enjoyed the evening enormously.

  "Do you think he'll come back this time?" Lissa asked. "The alpha?"

  Nadine snorted. "Hardly an alpha any more. A jumped-up cub whose friends have seen he's an idiot, more like. No, he won't be coming back any time soon. Anyone from a pack would smell the defeat on him."

  "There's a primal truth for you," Damien said, with immense satisfaction.

  "I am so glad you're not a werewolf,” Gloria sighed at him. "You'd be impossible."

  She was not surprised when Eben sought her out later that day, handing back his room key. He was tense, but he looked her in the eye. "You were impressive," he said, with a jerky shrug. "I wouldn't want to cross you."

  Gloria turned the key over in her hand, troubled. "That's not who I am, Eben."

  "I... know. I think. It's a lot to, well, take in." Eben ran a hand over his face. "I haven't changed my mind, if that worries you. I'll still look after Louisa in London. Hel
l, I'll be even more careful now. She can't do that in Hyde Park."

  Gloria smiled, relieved. "You're one of the good ones."

  He smiled back. "I guess that's what counts."

  *~*~*

  The news was insulting, as always. There were bad jokes about the three little pigs after a farm got broken into over the full moon, and Gloria evaded explaining herself when she picked up more chew toys. She found blood on the driveway, dried in and dark. A human wouldn't have been able to tell it apart from the earth, but the smell sent an itch under her skin that only abated when Gloria opened her bedroom door and found Nadine safely asleep on the other side of the bed.

  Eben came back at the end of the summer. A roar of welcome spilled out when Gloria opened the door and he responded at once to Nadine's hug. There were bags everywhere―Gloria didn't know how Louisa had fitted so many things into her tiny bedroom, or what she'd done with half of them while they were there―and everyone was trying to exchange goodbyes at the same time. Lissa quietly added her smaller pile of bags to Louisa's, Gloria's glowing reference tucked somewhere away inside.

  "Email me," Louisa said, yet again, directing her words to whoever happened to be nearest. This time it was Damien. "Text. Phone. Post a letter, if you must."

  "Sealed with a kiss," he assured her, pressing one to her cheek. "If your old man gives you grief, just come back, hey? I'll build you a gallery out the back. Oi, you," he added to Eben, who was coming back for more bags, "drop those a minute. Come say hello to the cat. He might muster up a civil word for you."

  Nadine had made her most extravagant, afternoon-tea-with-a-reigning-monarch finger sandwiches and insisted everybody sit down to eat. It turned into another mutual adoration session as Louisa and Lissa ate from each other's plates without looking away from each other's eyes. There weren't enough chairs in the kitchen to go around so Gloria leaned against a cupboard and sipped her tea, smiling as she watched. Nadine came over to join her.

  "This right here," she whispered, "is what a real pack looks like."

  Gloria glanced at her. Full moon was three weeks away–this was as human as any of them would ever be, but she could tell everyone in the room apart with her eyes shut, each scent unique as fingerprints and beloved as pieces of her own heart. She would know any one of them, anywhere. They were hers.

  "Then I suppose that's what we've got," she admitted. "Still not an alpha, though."

  Nadine snorted. "Whatever you say, boss."

  Fin

  About the Author

  Faith Mudge is a writer from Queensland, Australia, with a passion for fantasy, folk tales and mythology from all over the world – in fact, almost anything with a glimmer of the fantastical. Her stories have appeared in various anthologies, including ‘Kaleidoscope’, ‘Hear Me Roar’ and ‘Daughters of Frankenstein’. She posts reviews and articles at beyondthedreamline.wordpress.com, and would rather be reading than doing almost anything else.