Werewolves in the Big Apple

12

There were three knocks on the office door.

"Come in." Julie opened the door to Diane's office, watching as the blonde woman's face fell upon seeing her. "Oh, you again. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to know when Ryder was going to be put on separate shifts."

"Here, let me look." Diane's chair rolled around to her filing cabinet, the papers shuffling as she sifted through. "Ah, here it is." She held the stapled piece of paper up, flipping through the schedule. "John changed his schedule from day tomorrow to third shift."

"So he's working doubles?"

"Guess so. Is that everything you needed?" Julie nodded. "Great," Diane said, not at all sounding happy. "Get out." Her hand waved to the door and she took the hint, leaving her office for the second time that day.

Already clocked out from her shift, she headed home. Her keys jingled in the front door to her apartment, 302. It stuck mid-way, refusing to turn. Julie growled under her breath, fighting with the damn thing to turn. With a click, it opened.

The hallway was dark. Old clothes littered the entry way, trailing down into the deep dark abyss. Julie turned on the lights and the entire place opened up, revealing her studio apartment. There were dirty dishes in the sink, on the coffee table, and her desk. Her bed was unmade, her TV was still running, and she had just remembered that she was out of toilet paper.

It itched underneath her skin, coiling into a loose knot inside of her. One tug and everything in her life would unravel.

"Stop being dramatic." She whispered to herself, tugging her shoes off, throwing them in the corner. "Just clean up the damn place already." She stood in the middle of the mess trying to figure out where to start.

It all hit her at once, each corner begging to be cleaned. The frustration only grew. She ripped off her clothes, growling out in frustration. Exhaustion pulled at her entire body but the very last place she wanted to be was home.

Not paying attention to her anger, her claws grew and ripped the shirt in her hands. Stuck within it, she tripped over something on the floor, tumbling to the ground. "Motherfucker!"

Her ass hurt. Random objects pressed into her body. She reached under and threw them all away from her, rolling around as she was still trying to get the shirt un-stuck.

Riiiiiiip. It shredded completely, falling away from her body. She breathed deeply in her room, staring at the fallen pieces of cloth.

Then the doorbell rung. "Oh what is it now?" Julie said, exasperated. She marched to the front door, swinging it open. In front of her stood a slightly overweight, red-haired woman with a cast over her left arm. "Marie?" Julie asked in surprise.

Marie smiled at her, confused. "Julie. What happened? Where's your shirt? Is now a bad time?"

Julie glanced down at herself. "Oh no, hold on." She closed the door in her face, sprinting around to throw all of her dirty dishes in the very overflowing sink and to shove the dirty clothes in the closet. She managed to find a semi-decent shirt before she opened the front door open again, smiling stiffly. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I just wanted to swing by and congratulate you!"

Julie faltered, her mind blanking. "On what?"

"On finding your mate, silly!"

Julie's stomach clenched, her tight smile falling off. "How do you know about that?"

Marie's smile flattened. "What do you mean? It was announced in the group chat."

"What?"

Julie shut the door in Marie's face again, scrambling around for her phone. She stepped outside her front door with her phone in hand, her hands trembling as she opened the groupchat. Scrolling up past all the congratulations! Messages, there was one announcement made from Diane.

Congratulations Julie and Ryder for becoming mates!

Julie's teeth grit reading the message. How the fuck did Diane know? Did Ryder tell her? If so, she was going to kill Ryder.

"Were we not supposed to know?" Marie asked, her face twisted up in worry.

Julie waved her off. "No, it's fine. Don't worry about. Thank you for congratulations, but I'm kind of in a rush at the moment. I gotta go."

"Okay well...see you later then." Julie watched as Marie walked down the apartment stairs, climbing into her car, then driving off. The only words that went through her head the entire time were, I'm going to fucking kill Ryder.

And Diane, her brain added. But Ryder first. She stormed back into the apartment, immediately hitting the call button on Ryder's number.

It didn't even ring once before it went straight to voicemail. Julie scoffed, glaring at her phone. "Of course he's too much of a coward to pick up." She tried again to see if it was a fluke, but no, it went straight to voicemail the second time.

So she switched to calling Diane instead.

"Hello?" She answered through the line.

"Hey Diane, it's Julie, I was just calling about that text message in the groupchat-"

"--which one?" Diane interjected.

"Oh, you know the one about me and Ryder being mates."

Immediately, Diane's tone became more preppy. "Oh, yeah! That one! I was surprised myself to hear it, and was wondering why you didn't tell me. I found out after you already left for the day so I thought I'd send a congratulations in the groupchat so everybody can congratulate you."

Of course you fucking did. She thought, her face scrunched up into a scowl. "That's...great." She really couldn't bring herself to sound too excited. "If you don't mind me asking, who did you hear it from?"

"Oh yeah, Ryder told me."

"Ryder told you?"

"Yup! Why did you want to know?"

"No reason. Thanks for the congratulations, talk to you later."

"Okay, bye! Don't get too wild." Julie hated the way Diane said that, insinuating that her and Ryder were ever doing anything. She ended the call, the smoke practically pouring out of her nostrils.

She was going to kill him. And if he didn't pick up soon, she was going to hunt him down herself.

How dare he.

_________

Author's Note:

I literally remember nothing that happens in the story even though I've read it a bajillion times, lol. That's okay, though. That's what editing is for. For right now I'm just throwing everything I've got into finishing this book. Working on chapter 13 at the current moment. Definitely expect to see a lot of drama ramp up.