by Siobhan Muir
“I told you surprise is needed to catch leporids,” she remarked.
Julianna wuffed a sigh. “I had the element of surprise, just not enough.” She panted for a few moments. “Damn, those things are fast!”
“Then you must be faster. Get up and try again!”
Julianna groaned but heaved herself to her feet as Sebrina led her off to the next hunting opportunity.
Despite her fumbling, she still managed to catch a ground squirrel and was surprised to feel disappointment in letting her prey go. Her Sister wanted to eat it once she’d worked so hard to catch it, and Julianna agreed, but Sebrina firmly reminded her to release it. They broke for lunch, and she got to eat a cottontail. It tasted so good she swore it was better than some of the fancy meals she’d had in Fresno’s high-end restaurants. She even licked the rock clean of the blood and viscera left from her kill.
After lunch, Sebrina insisted Julianna start tracking by learning the sights, sounds, and scents of the other creatures. Sebrina taught her how to see the signs that something, large or small, had passed by through the undergrowth, and how recently. She also learned the warning scents of skunk before she got sprayed, and when a porcupine hid close by. Julianna trained how to track and disguise herself from the cougars and bobcats prowling the hills. She watched coyotes that thought themselves too smart for her to detect and tracked the sneaky critters straight to their dens. Despite their attempts to take her “kills” for themselves, she liked them and knew she could learn from their adaptive ways.
Julianna spent her entire day as a wolf and enjoyed every moment. It was exhilarating to share her Sister’s instincts and abilities. She’d certainly scared the crap out of several cottontails and rock squirrels. Again, she came home that night conscious enough to text her mother and swallow something before she collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.
Two solid weeks of training and getting to know her Sister form continued from dawn until dusk. Her mother looked at her strangely the few times they saw each other and asked where she’d been during the days. Julianna replied she was taking some time for herself, to work out, to deal with her grief, and to get her head on straight. They seemed like the right things to say because her mother stopped asking.
Julianna never saw Jeff, but she couldn’t be sure he hadn’t visited her home while she trained with Sebrina. If he had, he never left a note and he didn’t have her cell number. She admitted to herself she probably would’ve been too tired to see him anyway. Her body became stronger, and her stamina increased. Muscles she’d never before seen in her arms and legs suddenly appeared in the mirror when she stopped to look.
Julianna felt like she’d become a hermit, the pack and the competition for Luna all but forgotten during that time. Even her frustration with Jeff’s behavior at the end of the candidacy party dwindled, though it flared at odd moments, especially as the full Moon approached. She worried her Sister would completely take over again, but Sebrina assured her it wouldn’t happen. Julianna had come a long way in healing the rift between her human and lupine selves, and her Sister knew it.
With all the time spent training, she grew familiar with Sebrina and her moods. There was something in the older female’s eyes each time she looked at Julianna. Julianna thought it was simple pride at first, but it expanded into more than that, a kind of proprietary joy, as if Julianna’s improvements in the world of the wolf reflected well on Sebrina. Julianna wanted to know why the woman remained so patient with her obvious lack of skill, but she never had time to ask, and at the end of the day, she was too exhausted to care.
One morning, Sebrina looked Julianna over critically when she arrived, and said, “Today we’ll go for tea. Please dress for town.”
“Town?”
“Yes. We’ve done enough physical training. Now we must strengthen your knowledge of pack policies.”
“You mean politics,” Juliana remarked flatly.
Sebrina just shrugged with a half-smile and sat down on one of the chairs on the front balcony to wait.
Julianna turned around and marched back to her bedroom to change. She wasn’t certain this was such a good idea. Would she run into anyone she shouldn’t, like Jeff or the other Luna candidates? What if she wigged out? She could feel the full moon approaching like a siren’s song, and her Sister stalked very close to the surface. She swore she had PMS, Pre-Moonal Syndrome, and her temper had grown short.
Just keep your cool, Sister. We don’t need any more weirdness this close to shifting, okay?
Humph!
Julianna pulled her token over her head and held it in her hand, studying it intently. Each time she looked at it, her heart danced. The token resembled the wolf’s head pendant she’d seen hanging around Jeff’s neck, carved with a Celtic knot around the outer edge. It was the size of a fifty-cent piece, the silver tarnished along the ridges. Chips of aquamarine filled the wolf’s eyes and glittered in the sunlight from the window as she tilted her hand.
Excitement fluttered through her. The token meant she could have Jeff.
You will have Jeff. He’s your Mate.
If I pass the tests.
You will.
Julianna slipped the token around her wrist like a charm bracelet and gathered her hair into a ponytail. She glanced at herself in the mirror before she sailed out into the front room and grabbed her keys and phone. At least she looked presentable. She suspected that was one of the unspoken tests of the Luna. Even the first lady of the United States had to dress carefully when she ran to the grocery store. Shoving her feet into sandals, she paused long enough to grab her purse and lock her door. Sebrina waited outside.
“Are you hungry?” Julianna asked as she closed the door behind her. “We could have breakfast with our tea.”
“What a good idea,” Sebrina said with an ingenuous smile.
Julianna laughed, and they strolled together in companionable silence until they reached “downtown” Callowwood. They passed the post office with the pale pink granite entry steps beside the old Callowwood Hotel and Saloon where it was rumored Jesse James had once stayed. The Rebel gas station next to the Hotel pulled the town back into the twenty-first century with its shiny pumps with digital readouts.
Milner’s Grass and Feed still had the hand-painted wooden flower cutouts decorating the front, and the old, dusty pickup trucks mingling with the fancier Hondas and minivans of the Wells Fargo Banking crowd next door. A Smith’s grocery store with slot machines just inside the sliding glass doors sat across the street from the Rebel.
The Wolf’s Den took up the block between Cindy’s Café and the old Sears that still advertised free roto-tiller rentals with the purchase of a 100 pound bag of fertilizer. The Mobil service station with the red Pegasus on top of the white pole shared a parking lot with Landry’s Five and Dime—now more like Ten and a Quarter – where Julianna had once found a five-dollar bill caught in a crack in the pavement. The Ranch Drive-in Movie’s yard with the huge white outdoor screen edged the empty desert across from a Sonic Burger that seemed to have lost its way from the interstate. She remembered sharing her first kiss with a human boy behind the big white screen after Jeff had ignored her once again.
Julianna sighed at the quaintness, and her memories, but she still liked her little hometown. Reno had been bright and exciting, but she’d missed the familiarity of knowing where all the roads went and who lived on them.
Julianna and Sebrina entered Cindy’s Café, run by Cindy Howington and her four sons, Mickey, Ronald, Buckner “Bucky” III, and Quinn. Though Julianna had been away, her mother had filled her in on the town’s gossip when she’d first come home. Beth had said each son had his job, and Cindy kept them hopping.
Mickey maintained the books of the Café and kept the records straight. He’d gone to the Great Basin College in Elko for accounting and had become a CPA. He kept the books of almost all the business owners in town. Ronald was a mechanic at the Mobil service station and also kept all the mechanical things in the
café running like clockwork.
Bucky had attended a fancy chef’s school somewhere in L.A. and came home swearing he’d never make “useless shit” like that ever again. Apparently, he’d worked in some fancy restaurants and prepared dishes so small and dainty “it was like eating a doily, with the same nutritional value.” Bucky happily cooked great eggs, bacon, cheese sandwiches, BLTs, and burgers. Cindy’s youngest son, Quinn, had graduated high school after Julianna left Callowwood and seemed content to just wait tables with his mom, clearing them away again after the diners finished.
Cindy was a heavily built woman who looked as if she could bench press a Mack truck if necessary. Mousy brown hair, held tight to the back of her head in a bun, pulled at her sharp pale blue eyes, making her squint a little. She was stocky and short, but her shoulders were almost as broad as Jeff’s and she had large hands that could palm a basketball. Julianna always expected Cindy to have a voice like a bullhorn, but she spoke melodiously, the tones more suited to a singer of ballads than a greasy spoon owner.
“Sebrina, Miss Morris, good to see you,” Cindy called out to them as they stepped across her threshold. “Damn, it’s been a long time since you were home! How you been, girl? Your mama keeping you busy over in that house?”
“I’m hanging in there, thanks, Cindy,” Julianna replied as the other woman handed them menus. She caught the scent of winter nights under the full moon and realized the café owner was a Moon Singer like herself. “I’ve been trying to get myself together and it’s taking longer than I thought. It’s hard to live in that place without Dad.”
“I imagine that’s so,” Cindy agreed solemnly. “Well, let’s get some food into those bellies and everything will at least feel better. Come on, then, I’ve got a nice booth where you can see the sun and sky, and I’ll get you something to drink.”
They followed the stocky woman along the windows facing the street, the sounds of happy conversation mixed with the jangle of cutlery against plates. Cindy moved with a remarkably smooth gait as she led them to a booth with real flowers in a vase near the salt and pepper shakers and the box of sugar packets. Julianna settled into the squeaky vinyl seat and studied the menu while Cindy returned with a little teapot full of hot tea and two mugs. She winked at Sebrina and smiled, then added, “Take your time,” before moving away to help some other customers.
Julianna stared down at the menu as the scents of the café enveloped them. She could smell joy and hunger coming from some of the other customers. Alternating amusement and frustration wafted to her from the kitchen, and Cindy broadcast satisfaction each time the doorbell chimed with someone’s entrance. Delicious odors of cooked oil, fried food, and baking bread brought up memories of happier times.
Everything around her reminded her of the Sunday mornings she’d come with her parents to enjoy Cindy’s famous brunch after church. Her mother always fussed with her hair, and her father would wink at her when she rolled her eyes and swatted her mother’s hands irritably. Though the café hadn’t changed much over the years, Julianna felt the loss of her father as she sat with Sebrina in the familiar surroundings.
God, Dad, I wish you were still here.
Clearing her throat before she started to cry, Julianna chose Bucky’s egg burrito with onions, turkey, and Swiss cheese. Sebrina poured the tea, and the soothing scents of hibiscus and orange filled the air inside their booth. Julianna set the menu down and inhaled memories. Her mother had brewed the same tea to calm her down from some horrible nightmare when she was a child.
Julianna waited patiently for Sebrina to speak. She was reluctant to broach the subject of pack politics. She’d hated the politics within the university faculty, and she couldn’t imagine they were much different in a Moon Singer pack. To keep her unease at bay, she turned her head to the window and imagined a 1977 Camaro parked in front of the café, Jeff’s sexy body emerging from the driver’s side door.
“I know you’re feeling the Lady Moon’s approach, and you don’t like politics,” the Paiute woman remarked at last, and Julianna jumped in surprise, tearing herself away from her daydreams. “But you must learn what it’s like to be part of this world and how to take the lead.”
“I know, I know. We all have to live by the rules.”
“We do, and they keep us all safe and in peace,” Sebrina agreed firmly. “The packleaders must be more knowledgeable in these rules than the packmembers to protect everyone. For example, our people never refer to themselves or others in our community as anything other than…” Her voice lowered. “West of left field when among the humans.”
Julianna stared at Sebrina for a moment, trying to see if she was serious. The older woman seemed too refined to say something so odd. A little laughter escaped, and Sebrina gave her a flat look. Julianna swallowed her giggles and smothered her smile, focusing on the flowers next to the salt shaker as she tried to formulate a proper response.
“West of left field?”
“It’s a way to speak plainly without alerting the humans to our true natures. You must understand. Under no circumstances can you reveal who and what you are to the humans. It’s why you never truly knew the Lightfoots or the Winthrops. They had to keep their natures hidden from you because they thought you human.”
That’s why Jeff ignored me when I threw myself at him. He probably got tired of the stupid human flaunting herself at him. Odd that he couldn’t smell through the deception. I guess I’m really good at hiding my true nature.
“That makes sense.”
“This is now true for you as well,” Sebrina pointed out. “No matter the circumstances, you must not reveal your true nature to any humans in this town, including your own mother.”
“My mother?”
Sebrina nodded. “Your mother is human. To reveal our species to her will endanger not only your life, but the well-being of the pack, and offenders are dealt with promptly and permanently.”
Julianna’s blood ran cold, and she gripped her tea to warm her hands.
“You mean I’d end up dead.”
“Or banished, exiled from Callowwood and never seen or heard from again, at least not here. It’s not a lightly made decision. Our peace and security depends on the secrecy of every member of the pack. So even when you’re threatened or are trying to save someone from something, you must not move faster or be stronger than an average human woman. The reason I stress this today is you’ll be tested, daughter, with just these sorts of situations while a candidate for Luna. And you can be tested at any time, any place, when you’re not even thinking about the pack.”
Julianna bit the inside of her bottom lip to keep from snarling. With the full moon so close, she knew she had to be careful, but keeping this secret from her mother ate at her. She owed Beth Morris her life. Hiding her true nature seemed like the worst kind of betrayal.
“So I can’t tell my mother. That’s just evil. What kind of a daughter keeps this kind of secret?”
“The kind who is meant to be a great leader, a leader who protects more than just herself and those she loves. This is also a protection for the humans. Can you imagine the panic they would suffer if they knew they lived among the Moon Singers who are stronger and faster? Think, daughter. How would they react?”
Julianna grimaced. She couldn’t deny the truth in Sebrina’s words. Just the thought of the Department of Homeland Security getting their hands on a Moon Singer made her want to vomit. Humans were ruthless when they feared something, and she couldn’t condemn even one of her rivals to that fate.
She nodded. “You’re right. It would be awful. That idea scares me more than my inexperience among the Moon Singers.” She rubbed the back of her neck with one hand and sighed. “Jeez, I’m so new to this. I could screw it up without even trying. I know how to be human and how to play the human games of appearance, deception, and manipulation. But I know nothing of folks west of left field. I barely understand the hierarchy rules of the pack, alphas versus betas versus omegas and on down the Gre
ek alphabet. I don’t know what makes me alpha instead of beta or omega. Is it my parentage? Is it my bearing?”
Julianna shook her head and turned to look out the window with her lips pressed together in a flat line.
“I hate caste systems. I hate encouraging others to look down on ‘lower ranked’ people, and I can’t stand when people treat others as beneath them. That’s sick and wrong, particularly in this country. Despite being west of left field, I really do believe in equality and that we can be anything we want to be. Does it have to do with birth order?”
“No, daughter, we all simply have our places,” Sebrina stated implacably, but her voice softened after a moment. “You’re alpha because you are yourself, because that is your personality. You’re a leader, not a follower, and that’s borne out by the way you carry yourself. However, many alphas don’t understand how to treat beta and omega members of the pack. They are to be protected and helped, and they’ll want to assist you whether you like it or not. It’s an honor for them. But they’re not to be used harshly or treated like servants. Treat them with respect and honor, and they’ll be more loyal than anyone could ask. They know their places, daughter, and they accept them. If you defer to them, it will confuse and frighten them. Treat them with honor, but don’t try to make leaders out of those who are meant to follow.”
“I never thought of it that way.” Julianna bit her lip. “Can a lower ranked packmember ever move up in rank? Like can a beta become alpha or an omega become beta?”
“Yes. A beta may become alpha if an alpha member dies, there is no Alpha leader, or they’ve gained enough experience. A lower ranked packmember may also move up in rank if he or she is given a position of honor or power. For example, the members of the Alpha’s cadre are all betas, but they are high ranking betas even if they didn’t start out that way. Once they were nominated for the position of the Alpha’s cadre, they rose in rank.”
“Is there a hierarchy within the cadre?”
“Of course. Usually the oldest and most experienced betas will be the highest ranked within the group.”
