Part of the Pack (Book 1 in the 'part of' series)

chapter 16 slightly shadowing

Chapter 16 Slightly Shadowing

Eben came in with a smile on his face "I heard every part of that." He had a twinkle in his eye. He seemed to be amused at his sons' behaviour, that was before he swiftly whacked Randall in the back of his head. Randall didn't seem to be hurt by it at all, just annoyed. "You will be doing none of the sort. Not until you do your chores." It made me realize that really, nothing was ever private here. That was probably why they seemed to have such a tight bond.

I didn't know what it was like for the wolves, they could have empathy or telepathy for all I know. I hadn't asked Ralph much about them, in fear that I would scare myself off. This was one of the most phenomenal things that I had ever witnessed. Werewolves existed. No, werewolves exist. It was still a shocking realization. I had seen the wolves and I had seen a transformation. I still felt like I would wake up and this would have all been a dream. I felt like this was a joke, everything within me was telling me that this wasn't real.

"What about Ralph? He hasn't done his chores either." Randall raised his hands and pouted. Ralph tensed slightly and his eyes flickered from his brother to his father. I felt like I was intruding on the conversation slightly, so I sat back quietly. Watching the relationship was interesting. It was extremely obvious that they all loved and respected each other. They were able to have fun, yet Eben was showing that he was still a slightly stern father.

"Ralph is busy." Eben said. Ralph seemed to relax a lot at those words, his shoulders relaxed and he gave a slight sigh of relief. "He'll be happy to do his chores once Aiden leaves, I'm sure." He was giving his oldest son a knowing look. Ralph sighed but nodded obediently. Randall groaned and stood up, knowing he wasn't going to get out of chores.

"Fine." Randall huffed and headed over to the sink, filling it up with warm soapy water. "Enjoy your date Ralph. Your chores will be thinking you stood them up." His tone was a little less humorous as he glared at the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, it was as though they had deeply offended him. He went at the dirt on the plates as though it was his worst enemy. I could've sworn that I heard him curse a few times. I guess that he didn't like doing the dishes.

"What are your chores?" I asked Ralph quietly, Eben had moved over to the cupboard and was pulling out some glasses. They were all different shapes and sizes and none of them matched. Ralph looked at me with a frustrated yet surprised look. The fact that I was interested, seemingly surprised him.

"Well there's regular chores like sweeping and well generally cleaning. Then there's the chores like patrol and stuff."He seemed to be eager to tell me about the later. "I have rather boring chores to do today." He raised his hand to his mouth but Eben stopped him by putting a class in it. I looked in surprise to see a glass in front of me too.

"Thank you."I said with a smile as I took a drink, it was fruity and sweet. "Oh wow this is delicious." I could feel my energy building up as I took another sip. The taste danced on my taste buds and a slightly sour flavour remained in my mouth. I could taste orange and lemon but I was unsure about the rest.

"Thank you." A Woman's voice said from the door, I could see that the wolves were no longer wolves anymore and they were now four adults, two male and two female. The one who spoke had long brown hair and light eyes, I think they were blue but I could've been wrong from where I was sitting. "I like to experiment." She gave a grin as she drank from her own glass.

"Pardon our manners." Eben cleared his throat and looked at the members of the pack, The lady who talked blushed, her cheeks turning a light pink as she gave a sheepish smile. "This is Rhodes, Beaumont, Moss and Tempest." He pointed at each of the people as he said their names, I nodded along silently. "We...don't meet new people often." He coughed and before I could tell him it was alright, he had left the room.

"Ignore him." The one who I now know is called Beaumont said. "He's just socially awkward, it's not everyday we communicate with someone outside of the pack. That's usually the alpha's job." Tempest smacked his arm lightly, a playfully scolding look on her face.

"It's not like you're a social butterfly." I could hear a kind of edge to her voice. I wasn't usually one to judge on appearances but I had a feeling that she was one of the edgier members of the pack. She wore all black, with a little bit of blue, it was different to the rest of the pack who wore mostly lighter colours. I had been told that Tempest was the mother of Channon and Channing and if I hadn't been told, it would've been easy to guess. They held the same gleam of mischief in their eyes as she had. "He's just a little too worked up on human social standards."

I could hear the bitterness in her tone. It must have been quite the surprise when I burst out laughing, her eyes widened and I got looks of curiosity. Tempest looked at me like I had stood in something disgusting. I guessed she thought I was laughing at what she said, I was, but not in the way she was thinking. "Human social standards can go take a long walk off a short peer." I had honestly had enough with 'human social standards'. "In my opinion, which a lot of people don't care for, if you show respect, that's all that matters." I paused for a moment in thought, turning to Ralph. "You can tell why I wasn't the popular kid at school, can't you?"

Ralph was silently chuckling, yet he seemed a little surprised. I couldn't describe the look in his eyes at all. I heard Randall laughing, he had pointed at me and said "I like him, can we keep him?" which caused the rest of us to laugh. I guess that getting rid of the tension was as easy as laying down the idea that the wolves shoudlnt' be too worried about conforming to human standards.

Moss had stayed silent the entire time, he laughed a bit and chuckled slightly.He had his arm around Tempest. I had the feeling that he didn't talk much. I know that it was only our first meeting but I was getting a good feel of their personalities. The air became casual and lively again. The kitchen was a nice place to be with a wonderful view of the outside. It practically felt like we were sitting in the garden.

After a while of sitting around, chattering slightly, I had turned to Ralph. "So, you have these ...boring chores to do?" He narrowed his eyes at me and nodded slowly. He was still leaning back and had his arms crossed. "I can't think of a better time then now to do it."