by Pixie Unger
Sarah flushed and avoided eye contact. “I was just looking for a way to earn some money, that's all. I thought… Never mind. I'll see if the grocery store needs help.”
“What you need money for?”
Sarah could smell that he was angry. She cowered, involuntarily, but forced herself to answer, “I would like to buy my own groceries.” She was trembling slightly now, and helpless to stop.
“Ya don't need to buy groceries. Just put what you want on the list and we'll buy them for ya.”
Sarah nodded and fled to her room.
She waited until they all went back to work after lunch, then snuck out the back way. He hadn't actually said she couldn't ask about a part time job. The man at the grocery store said they could do with a night cleaner. She could start tomorrow night. Eleven until two in the morning. Minimum wage. But she would also get 10% off at the store.
She would take it.
Afterwards, she took Molly for a long walk before going back to her room to wait for supper. She had offered to help cook the first night, but had been firmly rebuked. She was also not allowed to help with dishes.
Honestly, as far as she could tell her purpose here was purely decorative.
Mac came up to call her for supper. They always ate the last meal of the day in the formal dining room. The house was old enough to have a formal dining room and a breakfast nook on the east side of the house. Lunch was generally in the kitchenette in the garage. Everyone was waiting by their chairs, except Marv who was waiting by hers. He always held her chair as she sat first. Then he would sit down, followed by everyone else. It was kind of ritualistic and creepy.
The table wasn’t that big, to sit the six of them around it was pretty tight and the boys were not small men. Everyone’s knees were bumping underneath it. The breakfast nook was in a big bay window on the east side of the house. It was a pretty room with wide wooden trim around the windows, beautifully intricate plaster crown molding, hardwood floors in the classic herringbone pattern and faded William Morris Acanthus wallpaper. The lace curtains were yellowed and Sarah had thought about washing them, but she wasn’t sure they wouldn’t just deteriorate if she tried to take them down. It had been a grand house at one point. Over the years, the different packs that lived in it had kept it clean and maintained, but hadn’t bothered making any improvements. The whole place was still very Edwardian looking.
She passed the steak without taking one, but took two scoops of the green beans. Sean was sitting on her left and he dumped a slab of meat on her plate before taking one. She glared at it but didn’t say anything.
Marv was three bites into his steak when he announced, “Sean’s goin’ for a supply run tomorrow. You just let him know what you need.”
Sarah peeked up at him. He was sitting at the head of the table and she was opposite of him. Gus was to his right and Craig to his left. Marv was holding his knife aggressively in his right hand and his fork in his left. Sarah was aware this was the correct way to hold your cutlery, but she was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to look ready to stab someone.
“It’s OK. I’ll take care of it. I’m going to help with the night stocking and cleaning at the grocery store.” Everyone stopped eating to stare at her. Marv looked pissed. Sarah bowed her head. “It will be good for me to have something to do and people to talk to.”
Everyone turned to look at Marv, except for Craig who demanded, “What’s wrong with talking to us?” at the same time Marv shouted, “I tole’ you, we would buy whatever you needed.”
Sarah stood up at that and leaned forward. She pointed angrily at Craig, “Yeah, I’m sure you are an excellent conversationalist if I want to talk football, motorcycles or hunting, but I don’t know anything about any of that, so it looks like I’m on my own for finding someone to talk climate change, chick flicks and politics with!” Then she turned to Marv. “I appreciate the offer, but I want to pick out my own mangos and tampons, thank you. And,” here she turned on Sean, “I don't need people putting food on my plate. If I had wanted to eat cow for nine meals in a row, I would have taken some!”
And with that she stormed off. Molly followed her up to her room a moment later.
The pack sat in stunned silence for a moment, then turned to Marv. He just sounded tired when he said, “Eat your supper. I’ll deal with it.”
Sean cleared his throat. “Uh… Marv? She isn’t trying to be insulting. It’s just that women expect to be independent these days. It’s just going to take her awhile to get used to being…” Sean floundered for a moment, then went with, “kept.”
It maybe wasn’t the best word to choose. Or maybe it was because Marv stared at him for a moment. “So, I’m supposed to just let her work some shit job in the middle of the night without a guard?”
Sean licked his lips as he thought for a moment. “Um, well, she did rebuild that beetle, maybe you could put her on oil changes or something.”
----
Marv waited until dinner was finished and the boys were washing dishes before he climbed the stairs to Sarah’s room. He knocked politely, but was surprised that she unlocked the door before opening it. It said something that she felt she needed to barricade herself in her room.
She opened the door and announced, “Look, if you yell at me it will probably make me wet my pants and no matter how entertaining you might find that, it won’t be good for the long term -”
“I’M NOT -” Marv stopped and lowered his voice. The girl was trembling. He sighed. “I’m not gonna yell at you. Sean says you don’t understand, so I’m gonna try to explain. Takin’ care of you is my job. If you need to work to buy food or… girl things, that means I ain’t doing my job. That’s pretty damn insulting.” He waited. She wasn’t looking at him. He wasn’t trying to be dominant, but the girl was small enough that he could see where he was threatening whether he wanted to be or not.
“If that’s your job, then what’s mine? Because so far all I do is sit around here waiting to be called for meals. Like veal.”
“You're supposed to do… lady stuff?” it sounded more like a question than he intended.
She frowned, ”Oh? Like cooking and cleaning and -”
“No! We won’t make you clean after us!”
“What then?”
Marv wasn’t sure what rich ladies did. His wife took care of the cooking, cleaning and children. Often with a bunch of other women, now that he thought about it. “Uh… Needlepoint?” he hazarded.
She stared at him in shock. “You want me to do NEEDLE POINT? What the hell would you do with it?”
Marv thought about that, “Damned if I know,” he admitted.
“So, basically, you have me here and have no idea what to do with me?”
Marv prepared to bluff his way through this one, then he sagged. “Basically, yeah.”
“But you won’t let me work in the garage and you won’t let me work at the grocery store?”
“Uh… Maybe you could work at the garage. Answering the phones or something…” She was glaring at him again. “Uh… drive people home after they drop off their cars? We could teach you how to do ordering, maybe.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Well, it’s better than nothing.”
Marv watched her for a moment. “I still don’t understand why you need your own money. All the money from the garage goes into one account and we all just take what we need out of it. You have a bank card on that account, why can’t you just use that?”
Now she stared at him in shock. “Wow. The IRS must love that.”
“No! Everyone gets a pay stub and we all pay our taxes. It’s just that everyone has their direct deposit set to the same account. Then property taxes and power and groceries all come out of the one place.”
She was still staring at him. “This is a commune?”
“I guess? Can I either come in and sit down, or can we continue this discussion in the ballroom? I don’t like standin’ in the hallway.” She was watching him like she was tryi
ng to understand again. “What?”
“The ballroom?”
“Yeah. That’s where we installed the home theatre.”
“Where it is all ESPN all the time. Fitting.”
“Well, what you wanna watch?”
“The news? John Oliver? Young Sheldon? Netflix?”
Marv had no idea what three out of four of those things were. “You want I should get Mac to take you to the pictures?” he offered.
Now she looked away. “If Mac wants to take me to a movie, he’ll ask. I don’t want you to just make him spend time with me. I know I’m in the way, the job was supposed to be a way to minimize that.”
Marv frowned, “You aren’t in the way. But you need to tell us when you need stuff. Ain’t none of us know how to take care of a girl no more.”
She nodded. “You go… do whatever you do, I’m going for a walk.”
“I don’t want you out alone after dark.”
“I’ll take Molly.”
“Invite one of the boys. I’ll call Jerry at the store and explain that you aren’t gonna need the job.” Her expression darkened. “Since you’ll be working at the garage starting tomorrow,” he quickly added.
“Fine.”
She went back into her room for a sweater and Molly’s leash.
“Sarah? We’re gonna need to figure this out together. All of us. It’ll work better if you talk to me.”
She nodded as she stepped past him. She locked her door on her way out, tucking the key in her pocket. That stung a bit too, but it could wait for another day.
----
It wasn’t that they were listening. It was just that they had good hearing. Plus Sarah and Marv were standing in the hallway. Sarah’s door was at the top of a grand staircase. There were excellent acoustics in that spot. So when she said she was going to invite one of the boys, there was a silent glaring match.
Craig won.
Mac wasn’t worried, he was pretty sure she was going to ask him.
She didn’t. She just opened one of the double doors of the ballroom and said, “I want to go for a walk. Marv says I have to take one of you along. If you could rock paper scissors or whatever werewolves do… I’ll wait on the porch for you to sort it out.”
That wasn’t even close to how they were expecting it to go. Nonetheless, Craig jumped up and followed her out.
“Thank you,” she said, putting on her shoes.
Craig nodded. “I was raised a hunter. I had to learn to talk about football and motorcycles. I am old enough that I have seen climate change. Talking politics just makes me want to hurt people. You will have to teach me about chick flicks. I am not afraid of buying you tampons, but I’m not sure how to choose a good mango.”
Sarah snorted. “No comment on the cow for nine meals in a row?”
Craig shrugged. “We need a lot of protein. Even the rabbits couldn’t keep up and we can’t forage too far while guarding the site.”
Sarah stopped walking and looked at him. “What site?”
Craig gave her a look. When he saw she had no idea what he was talking about he shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter, but think of us as guard dogs. The town and its people need guarding.”
“Guarding from what?”
“Elves.”
Sarah shook her head. “Fine. Don’t tell me. Nicole said 6000 calories a day minimum. I am not that hungry.”
Craig shrugged. “It’s different for Ulfurinn. We tend to eat a lot of junk food at the garage though.”
They walked in silence for a while. “Why don’t you have internet?”
Craig frowned. “I think Marv has something like that at the shop.”
“I mean in the house. Don’t were- lupers use Facebook?”
“I don’t know what that is. You should ask Sean.”
“Is Mac following us?”
Craig was impressed. “I didn’t think you would notice.” He thought for a moment. “Wanna go see a movie?”
“What movie?”
“We can choose one when we get there.”
“I didn’t see a theatre in town.”
“Nah. It’s about an hour away. Hour and a half, if you follow the speed limit.”
“Remind me to never ride with you. Ever.”
Craig snorted. “Faster reaction times. If you plan on sticking to the speed limit, you will have to be careful, because it will feel slower than you expect.”
“Maybe we can get Netflix and watch movies at home.”
Craig considered this. “Is that like VHS?”
“What? Are you messing with me?”
Craig grinned. Sarah laughed. He joined in. She had a nice laugh.
“It wasn’t that we were trying to make you feel left out. We just wanted to give you some space, didn’t want you to feel mobbed.”
Sarah had stopped walking. Molly was pulling gently at the leash trying to get her going again. Sarah reached down and scratched the dogs head. “Easy. We are waiting for Mac to catch up.”
Craig gritted his teeth, “If you wanted to go out with Mac, you should have said.”
“I don’t like being followed.”
Craig looked hard at her. Then he turned back the way they had come and hollered, “Oy! Piss off!”
Sarah gasped, then snickered. “Well, that’s one way to do it.”
Chapter 6
1275 - 1327 - The Second Frost Giant - Human War
Having fallen into disarray from their distress over having lost their Ulfurinn, War Dogs began to steal or attempt to steal the remaining Ulfurinn from other packs. There were also massive raids on humie villages. The War Dogs abandoned their posts. Frost Giant incursions increased in frequency and violence. Humie’s refer to this period as the Little Ice Age. This culminated in the Great Famine
September 22nd
Sarah was furious. Things had been going better. Working at the garage was mostly busy work, but the point was it kept her busy. The guys were trying to include her more. Marv had actually called and booked an installer for internet in the house.
She had gone shopping with Sean and had actually bought food from all five food groups! And not the five (protein, salty, starchy, sweet and greasy) she had been eating.
Then tonight, Marv had locked her in her room! Actually locked the door and took the key. He told her she had to stay in her room away from the windows. It wasn’t even like there was a full moon or anything!
It was annoying, but that wasn’t the worst part. There was a storm outside and it wasn’t like she had any plans for the night. Now the power had gone out. It was dark and creepy and she was alone without any candles and the only flashlight she had was on her phone. It was only eight o’clock and it was already dark outside. And in the rainstorm, the house was getting cold, fast. Sarah tried calling for help. No one came to let her out.
She gave up and crawled under the covers with her kindle. Molly crawled up on the bed and curled up in a corner where Sarah wouldn’t accidentally bump into her.
She didn’t remember falling asleep, but she did remember waking up to someone standing over her. He looked like Marv, but he smelled nothing like Marv. He smelled like rain and forest and moss. But he looked… not exactly like Marv but very much like him.
“Come with me.”
“What?” Sarah sat up. She felt a little wobbly, like she had been drinking.
“Come wiTH me, SaraH.” His voice was funny, with a soft echoing quality. It changed volume like he was getting closer or further away, even though he wasn’t moving. Sarah sat up. Molly was laying on the bed, not moving. “Come.” He grabbed her left arm and pulled her out of bed and out of her room. The door was unlocked and wide open.
The room swam as soon as he touched her. It was all she could do to stay upright as he walked out of the house, into the rain. Sarah wasn’t up to fighting, and her choice was to either follow or allow her arm to be dislocated.
She didn’t have any shoes. Not Marv didn’t stop to let her grab a coat.
<
br /> “I’m cold.”
“Come wiTH ME, sarAH!” the end of her name sounded like a sigh.
The world blurred even further. They headed into the woods. At some point she became aware that her feet were bleeding. “Hurts,” she whimpered.
“huSH, sarAH. Come.”
They reached a place where the trees formed a perfect circle. Not Marv strode forward. Sarah shivered, her ears popped. The air tasted like ozone. She planted her feet. Not Marv jerked to a stop.
“Come!” he demanded.
Sarah shook her head.
He hissed. His teeth were like needles. Sarah stared.
The thing tightened its grip on her arm, claws biting into her skin.
Sarah screams transformed into a howl. The thing grabbed her throat with its other hand.
Sarah grabbed its throat and whirled around, bashing it into a tree. It let go of her neck, but not her arm. It looked nothing like Marv. It was as tall as him, but skeletally thin, as if he was a famine victim. It felt like It weighed less than Molly. It was bleeding blue out of a head wound. Sarah grabbed a branch off the ground and bashed it in the face as it opened its mouth to speak again. “Let go!” she screamed.
Dark shapes were loping towards them through the woods. The creature tried to drag her into the ring of trees, but it just didn’t have the mass to move her. Four giant dogs pounced on them. The biggest grey pitbull Sarah had ever seen bit the creature's arm and crunched down with its jaws. Something scooped her up in its arms and started to run away from the circle of trees.
Sarah struggled. When it nuzzled her face, It smelled like Mac. She relaxed and looked at it. Classic wolfman, with an added scar on his cheek. Sarah stroked the scar with her thumb. They reached the house. The lights were still out, and the door was wide open. Mac didn’t go inside. He set her down on the steps and pressed her against the iron railing, shielding her with his body.
He threw back his head and howled. Voices answered him from the woods. The giant dogs streamed past them moments later and surged into the house. Sarah shivered and clung to Mac seeking warmth.
There was a noise from inside the house. Mac scooped her up again and carried her into Marv’s study. Someone was lighting a fire. Mac set her down on the skin rug. It could have been a bear skin, if bears were fifteen feet tall, and came in caramel coloured cheetah print. Sarah looked around. There was an Irish wolfhound, a leonberger and an alaskan malamute, all of them oversized, and two wolfmen.
