by M. Ekman
It wasn’t just the buildings that were new and bright, but all the people Ruth met were cheerful and as vibrant as the buildings that surrounded them. Violet led Ruth into a bright pink storefront that claimed to be an “exclusive” clothing boutique. Not missing a beat Violet immediately began shoving shirts, scarves, and various other clothing items at Ruth. Once Ruth’s arms were full to overflowing she found herself pushed in the direction of the dressing room with the door firmly locked behind her.
“I’m not letting you out of there until you’ve tried absolutely everything on,” Violet said in a frustratingly upbeat singsong voice.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ruth groused as she slid out of her borrowed leggings and blouse.
“Try on the plum colored dress first,” Ruth could practically hear Violet jumping in excitement.
Ruth rooted through the pile she’d dumped haphazardly on the floor until she found the dress Violet was referring too. This thing was huge with a bell skirt covered in layers of ruffles and a little bell capped sleeves over a swooping neckline. The dress was pretty, but not even remotely close to something Ruth would need. How had Violet even gotten it in the pile on Ruth’s arms without her noticing?
“Violet, don’t you think this is a little overkill. When would I ever need a formal dress?”
“It was more for the fun of trying on something nice than anything else.” Violet’s hand appeared over the dressing room door gesturing for the puffy dress. “I’ll go put it back while you try on the green skirt and sky blue blouse.”
“How in the world do you remember everything in this mess?” Ruth asked routing around for the clothes Violet requested.
All Ruth heard in response was a quiet and malevolent chuckle. Ruth was coming to find that having Violet in charge was nothing short of scary. After being forced to show Violet each and every outfit along with its accompanying accessories, which took the better part of 45 minutes, Violet only selected a handful of items to purchase.
Skipping up to the counter she thrust everything at the poor sales lady who hurried to put it all away as Violet tapped her foot impatiently. Tossing money down Violet snatched up the bags and herded Ruth out of the store. Ruth threw an apologetic wave behind her at the hassled looking employee.
“Onward and upward. Onto our next conquest. You are in dire need of shoes, my girl,” Violet declared theatrically. This time Ruth didn’t try to suppress her groan, which only caused Violet to laugh and push Ruth to move faster.
The rest of the afternoon continued in much the same way with Violet dragging and shoving Ruth wherever she wanted her to go. Ruth’s begrudging attitude melted bit by bit the longer the two she-wolves shopped. There was something fun about trying out new “looks” and seeing what brought out her eyes or went with her hair
Not only that but Ruth enjoyed her time in the large town where she was constantly being stopped by her new packmates various greetings. It annoyed Violet to no end as she kept declaring that she had a schedule to keep, but Ruth couldn’t get enough of talking to people who genuinely cared about her.
The two she-wolves had just left a make-up boutique with a particularly aggressive sales lady when Ruth’s stomach let out a loud groan of hunger. Both girls had to hold each other to keep from falling down in their joined fit of laughter.
“Well, I think that’s the bell,” Ruth said once she’d got ahold of her giggles.
“No, wait there is just one last thing, I promise.” Violet plead.
Ruth shook her head, “Wherever you’re taking me better have food.”
“Oh, stop complaining. I will pick you up food while you’re there,” Violet threw over her shoulder. She eventually stopped in front of a shop that had a beautiful mural across its window depicting a hilarious scene of wolves with bows in their hair. The sign above the mural stated that the name of the store was, cleverly, “The Salon”.
The first thing Ruth noticed when she entered The Salon was how light it was. Instead of having a typical ceiling there was several thick glass skylights so that the sun could shine directly into the building. Everything inside was sparkling chrome with brilliant white fixtures, and mirrors everywhere.
Violet skipped up to a woman in a bright blue uniform with a neon purple apron that had the store name emblazoned across the front, “I want the works for my bestie here! Haircut and, of course, a Mani/Pedi.”
Ruth gave her friend a bewildered look, “What in the world is a manpedy?”
The stylist whose hair was dyed a cotton candy pink gave Ruth a scandalized look causing Ruth to blush at her own ignorance. Violet, however, simply towed Ruth towards one of the hard white plastic chairs that lined the salons far wall.
The stylist tutted at Violet while she motioned for one of her coworkers to wash Ruth’s hair. “I know she told us her mother had passed away, but was there no one else in her life at all to care for her?” The stylist asked Violet, though not quiet enough that Ruth’s wolf hearing didn’t pick it up. It was the first semi-negative thing that had been said about Ruth since she got there and she didn’t quite know how to feel about it.
“I honestly don’t think so.” Violet intoned sadly.
The stylist got a determined look on her face, “She’s with us now. She’s a Blood Mountain wolf, and we will help her to shine.”
Violet face lit up, “Of course.”
Well, that was not how Ruth thought that conversation was going to end. These two women could have used Ruth’s faults to poke fun at her, but instead they sought to help her. This pack took her in as one of their own and never looked back.
Ruth wasn’t a crier by nature, but it took everything she had not to let the tears pooling in the corner of her eyes fall. She had never felt so safe and so loved since she was a little pup. Ruth knew that she would do anything for this pack, more than she ever would have done for Forest Stone.
The next two hours were spent primping Ruth from head to toe. Her stunning silver hair was shortened so it came just below her shoulders and curled into soft waves. She almost felt as if her hair looked like the ripples of the moon reflecting off of the ocean. After her hair was finished, Violet surprised Ruth with some baked goods from across the street. Embarrassingly, Ruth almost swallowed the cinnamon roll whole, which caused her stylist and Violet to laugh at her good-naturedly.
Next came Ruth’s toe and fingernails which were trimmed and shaped into half moons at the top before being painted over in blood red color that was so deep it almost looked black. Once everything was dried she was released from her seat with a soft hug from the stylist. “I’m so glad I could do this for you. You look stunning!”
Ruth returned the hug but remained silent as she and Violet walked home with their armload of bags. As the pack house came into view Ruth finally broke the quietness, “Vi, am I really so terrible?”
Violet stopped in her tracks stunned, “What?”
“I mean, I appreciate all this stuff,” Ruth gestured at the bags and herself, “but do I really need it all?”
Smiling softly, Violet responded, “Of course you don’t need any of this. Everything you and I did today was to spoil you and make you feel special and important to me. You would be beautiful dressed in a paper bag with a bird’s nest for hair. All of this stuff—the primping and polishing, the clothing, is just to help you to feel the beautiful that I see. That is why I love fashion as much as I do. Sometimes the right hat or skirt can make a person happy!”
Ruth smiled from ear to ear so glad that Violet was her new ‘bestie’, as Violet put it. Violet flashed a breathtaking grin of her own and grabbed all of the bags from Ruth as they walked up to the pack house. Violet rooted around until she found a midnight blue scarf they’d purchased. Before Ruth could protest Violet quickly whipped her around and tied the scarf in a tight knot over Ruth’s eyes.
“I have yet another surprise for you. Consider it a late birthday present.”
Ruth sighed good-naturedly but allowed herself to be led in
side. She could hear other people walking around them and a few stifled giggles, but no words were exchanged. Normally Ruth would be on edge finding herself blind and surrounded by other wolves, but that was before she became Blood Mountain Pack. Ruth knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t ever be in danger with these wolves, but she really couldn’t put her finger on how she was able to be so secure in that knowledge.
Ruth heard the sound of a door opening before Violet suddenly squealed, “Open your eyes!”
Ruth pulled the scarf down so it fell around her neck to find herself in a brightly lit bedroom. The walls were painted a beautiful sea foam green color, Ruth’s favorite. There was a massive four-poster bed with a paisley design in the comforter, also Ruth’s favorite. In one corner was a short bookshelf that was filled with some books that she’d mentioned she’d liked during her Q&A session. Ruth’s eyes began to fill with tears at the kindness and love her new pack had showed her.
Violet pulled Ruth into another one of her famous bone crushing hugs, “We want you to feel at home.”
At this Ruth began to cry in earnest. When she finally regained some control Ruth whispered, “If this is what home feels like. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this before in my life.”
Violet stepped back her own eyes shining with tears, “Well then. We’ll strive to help you to feel like this every day.”
Despite how grateful Ruth was for her new packs thoughtfulness, she found herself feeling a little downhearted. Why would Tyler have her moved down here, away from him? The pack could’ve easily redecorated her previous room in the alpha wing, but instead she was relegated to a lower floor. Did she do something to upset her alpha? Ruth tried to shake the thoughts of Tyler away, but her mind kept inevitably circling back as she and Violet began to put her new clothes away.
Once they finished Violet elicited a promise that Ruth would start her “job training” immediately.
The first name on the list that Violet had handed her was Doctor Michael. Ruth snorted out loud remembering the portly man who’d handed her the syringe of wolfsbane for Nathan. She didn’t mind working Doctor Michael, she just found it funny that not only an omega, but an omega that no longer shifted, held such a position in the pack.
Shifting took a lot of energy and as long as you did it with regularity most werewolves didn’t need to exercise to stay in shape. However, if you ever stopped shifting, which was common for older wolves to do, you could really put on the pounds.
Not that you had to be fit to be a pack doctor, but she’d had yet to meet one that wasn’t a dominant alpha male in his prime. Pack doctors were 5th in the pack, so if anything happened to the alpha, alpha female, beta, and head enforcer they would be the ones to assume command until a new alpha was chosen.
Ruth was too tired from running around all morning to dissect the inner workings of the Tyler’s mind when it came to his pack structure. In fact, she hoped that this Doctor Michael could take her mind off of a certain brown haired wolf.
CHAPTER 15
After a few wrong turns, Ruth was finally able to find the infirmary wing of the pack house. In her old pack, the clinic had been its own building, but that wasn’t necessary here. The Blood Mountain pack house was huge and had plenty of room for, not only the infirmary, but also a gym, big screen entertainment room, and more. It was like living in a mansion for the rich and famous.
The infirmary, as it turns out, was located in the northwestern corner of the pack house on the ground floor. The room was painted a soft purple color instead of the bone white color that most packs used. The floral color gave a homey kind of vibe and the sick beds were large and plush looking.
Her old pack had little better than metal cots with thin plastic mattresses that were laid out in neat, orderly rows. Ruth hadn’t thought that the two packs could be any more different than she’d already seen. She really had to stop comparing the two and just accept that everything here would be different than what she’d known for the last 18 years.
Despite traipsing through the entire wing, Ruth had had yet to see or hear any sign of the doctor, or anyone else for that matter. She hadn’t talked to the doctor before coming, but it wasn’t as if there was any emergency that he’d been called off to. If there was, Ruth would have been alerted through the pack mindlink, and she hadn’t heard a peep all day.
As Ruth turned to leave she noticed a door tucked against the back wall, next to which there was a haphazard grouping of painted handprints. She recognized one red hand that had the name Summer neatly printed under it. That was the first pup she’d “fought” during her she-wolf placement test. Summer seemed like a cute kid and Ruth wondered what the handprint meant.
Tearing her eyes away from the children's artwork, Ruth glanced back at the plain wood door. After a moment she decided to go see if maybe the good doctor was, perhaps, behind it. If it turned out to be a supply closet then Ruth would call this whole thing a bust and move on to the next job on her list. Slowly she turned the knob to find a room the size of a supply closet, but instead of the expected mops and buckets it was crammed with books. There were so many tomes piled everywhere that she couldn’t see the most of the floor.
In the middle of the tiny room was a desk that looked diminutive enough to have been intended for a child to use. It was on top of this desk that Ruth saw a grey haired man laying sprawled face down and snoring deeply.
Ruth chuckled to herself as she recognized Doctor Michael in all his omega glory. Knocking on the opened door Ruth tried to awaken the slumbering doctor, but he didn’t so much as twitch. After a few frustrated minutes of attempting various wake-up techniques, all ending in the same result, Ruth stomped over to the old man and yelled, “Fire!”
Doctor Michael sat up with a start, “What! How many injured?”
Her anger dissipated in an instant as Ruth, unable to stop herself, burst out laughing. Doctor Michael picked up on Ruth’s falsehood, wiped the drool off of his chin, and chuckled along with her.
Once the laughter subsided he said, “I guess no one told you about my… sleeping habits.”
“No. Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how else to get you up. I tried—”
Doctor Michael cut her off with a wave, “Nothing short of an earthquake can rouse me these days. Most of the time they splash me with water or give me a loving pat on the face.” His last comment sent Ruth off into another fit of the giggles.
“However, I think I like your method best Miss Ruth,” Doctor Michael said as he moved to get out from behind his desk.
“Glad I could be of assistance. Speaking of assisting, Doctor, you were the first name on my job training sign up. I’m gonna be honest. I don’t really know much beyond the basic patch ups and first aid stuff they teach in enforcer training.”
Doctor Michael led Ruth back into the main room, closing the office door behind them. After a few moments he replied, “I had assumed, from your quick thinking during the wolfsbane incident, that you had a background in it. No matter though, I’m happy to just have a visitor. I haven’t really had many patients to tend to in the last ten years or so.”
He chuckled to himself, while Ruth felt as if she was missing the punch line of a joke. “Why is that?”
Doctor Michael’s eyes went wide and his jaw snapped shut with an audible click. Ruth raised an eyebrow, but it seemed that the good doctor felt he’d already shared too much.
She pressed him. “I’m assuming other packs keep their distance and a lack to fighting means less work for you. But, even with the rumors of your ‘lawlessness’ you guys have a pretty big territory and relatively few to guard it. You seem like you’d be an ideal target.”
Doctor Michael was still a little red faced from his early blunder, but didn’t hesitate this time, “because Alpha Tyler is smart. He figured that we’d never have the numbers to keep larger packs at bay, so he gave us enough financial power to be untouchable.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t honestly know how
exactly he does it, but when he became alpha and found out the pack had next to no money he began seeking out up and coming companies. There was this one corporation that was trying to make cars that wouldn’t use gasoline. As you know, most wolves’ noses are too sensitive to stay in regular vehicles for very long. He put nearly every last penny into the venture and ended up with a nearly 3 million dollar payout,” Doctor Michael’s already large chest swelled even larger with pride.
“He was a major stockholder in Orion Zulu?” Ruth asked incredulously.
Doctor Michael gave a wink, “Is, my dear. We still own a majority of it. Now enough distractions missy and on to medicine.”
Ruth couldn’t believe all that Doctor Michael just told her, and she was beginning to realize that there was much more to Tyler than she’d previously thought. She could happily spend the rest of her life discovering everything about him and still thirst for more. However, Ruth knew thoughts like that were dangerous and so she shook her head and got to work like the good doctor suggested.
The next few hours passed in a blur with Ruth having difficulty concentrating as her mind kept turning back to Tyler. She tried to focus on the tasks he gave her, but time and time again her mind would suddenly turn to Tyler and she’d forget everything else. Doctor Michael caught on to his student’s distraction after a while and finally released her with a chuckle and a pat on the back.
“I would’ve liked another set of hands down here, but it’s not like it would be very exciting. Plus, with a warrior like you, it’s best not to keep you off the field in the event of an attack.”
“How do you know what kind of warrior I’m like?” Ruth asked puzzled.
“It’s a small pack and news travels fast. Everyone knows you’ve been tested and are the strongest female,” Doctor Michael said with a huge grin.
Ruth didn’t know how to respond to his words. He, like everyone else, didn’t seem upset that she had taken the position. In fact, everyone from the pack run had seemed ecstatic about the change. You would think at least one person would be a little put out, Cassie maybe? Something was going on, but Ruth wasn’t sure what, or even how to figure it out.
