A New Wolf Life (Completed)

Ch 48 - Surprise

Copyright to VedaPettigrew

Two more days.

That's all I had to win the little bet that Dominic and I had. If I lost... it didn't bear thinking about. The shame. The horror.

I'd have to sing for him.

I'd have to bake treats for him wearing an outfit of his choice. Who knows what would he choose? Hestia was in the house now, but I could easily imagine him sending her away for the day. Visions of sheer lingerie filled my mind.

I pretended not to relish the tingling in my belly that told me it wouldn't be the worst day in the world. Because to be honest, it would be a nice change of pace from my life at the moment. I'd been walking around in a fog most of the week. It was impossible to keep my focus on anything and I was unsure what to do next with regards to everything; winning the bet, building friendships, winning the bet, work, winning the bet, life in general, winning the bet... okay, so my mind may just be a little one-tracked at the moment.

Joan had the idea to ask the original Starfish to have a poke around Stone Mountain to see if they could find the Origins but we didn't hold out much hope. To find one book in a territory that took almost a day to traverse was an impossible task. It would have been hard enough for me, but for them, without any insight into the people who did the hiding, it was twenty times harder.

Joan had been working on following the paths of the law revisions with the help of my former protectors who apparently weren't actually much help. I gave them credit for forcing themselves to stay indoors and hit the books when they were all lovers of the outdoors and had more physical aptitude than mental. I longed to go and join them but didn't feel like I could look them in the eye, no matter what they kept telling me, so I avoided them like a coward much to Silver's disappointment.

But for once she didn't push me. My hollow heart echoed inside her and she felt my sorrow and pain as if it were her own. And in reality it was, my father was her father, his wolf always guiding and correcting her from the moment she appeared, despite her innate age-old wisdom. She loved the human and the wolf. She too was angry that they were taken from us.

I met my five new protectors, which was harder than I expected, making the situation real - the loss of my former crew set in stone. I'd been pretending that it wouldn't really happen, but when they were presented to me I could no longer hide in fantasy. Dominic and Hammer had seemingly chosen well and I knew Dominic had taken my plea seriously. All the replacements were polite and respectful, just a little formal. He also made sure they were never solely responsible for me, always putting old and new men in each shift, which helped.

We'd run our first women's coffee morning, literally inviting every adult female in the pack. We set up on the lawn, it was large enough to host lots of people, but wouldn't feel weird if only a few came. We asked everybody to bring two single items, two sandwiches, or two small individual pies, or two pieces of fruit, then I made a few large cakes as a surprise. That meant there was enough food for everybody to have a nibble, no matter how many came, and it also wouldn't harm their daily rations.

Obviously not every women came, we found there were more from this side and decided that we would host the next one on the west side. There were plenty of women though, much busier than I expected. They were accompanied by abundant nerves, as if unsure what to expect. Once they realised it was a simple get-together, the stiffness dissipated and became easy going and enjoyable. Everybody was happy to be there, even Iona and her minions who had rebelled about the changes at the pack meeting.

I didn't have the energy to hold a conversation with them so I didn't force myself, instead offering them a polite nod every now and then. It wasn't a problem, they chatted to lots of other women and were far more mellow than I expected.