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Hope(less) (Judgment of the Six) Page 3
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Beyond our sparks, I noticed other blue-green lights. Not in the immediate area, but spread throughout my area of awareness. The coloring matched Sam. Maybe Sam wasn’t abnormal after all. But Charlene and I didn’t match.
Focusing on Charlene, I asked, “Like me?” Could she see lights too?
“So far, we are the only two humans that seem to be compatible with werewolves,” she said still smiling in welcome.
My hope sank. So we were human and … wait… “Compatible?” I looked to Sam confused. I knew that I smelled different to them, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about compatibility.
“Yes, werewolves choose their mate, husband or wife, instinctually. They have no history of ever before selecting from humans for their mates, but here we are. Whatever it takes to become a mate, we apparently have it too.”
My mouth popped open in shock as I understood. I turned on Sam distantly aware of Charlene. “Are you telling me you brought me here to hook up with a werewolf?”
Charlene spoke up from behind me, “No, Gabby, I apologize for upsetting you.” I turned to look at her. “Yes, we’re different in that a werewolf might choose us, but that doesn’t mean that they have to choose us or that we have to choose them. At your age, there will be no hooking up.”
She looped her arm through mine and gave me a motherly pat. Too afraid to appear rude, I didn’t pull away.
As soon as she touched me, all of the sparks around us brightened again. I didn’t even need to focus. The lights just flared and continued to glow brightly without effort. Weird.
She started leading me down the hall from which she’d entered. After a few steps, she stumbled and freed my arm. With relief, the lights in my mind extinguished and I concentrated on her words.
“I asked Sam to bring you so you and I can talk. As I said, there is no one else like us that we’ve found. I came here when I was younger than you… long story… and met Thomas, the pack’s leader. It was a very hard adjustment with a huge learning curve on both our sides. I don’t want you to have to face any of that on your own.” She led us down a second hallway and stopped in front of another closed door. “We’ll introduce you slowly to this new world you’re now a part of. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask them.”
She opened the door to a small studio apartment saying it was a work in progress. It definitely qualified as rustic, but I didn’t mind. It had a separate bedroom, which Sam insisted I take. He took the foldout couch.
The small windowless bedroom just barely fit a twin-sized bed and nightstand with lamp. I wondered if it had once been a walk-in closet converted for extra privacy. Not that I complained. I guessed sleeping in a small room on a real bed ranked higher than Sam’s pullout bed.
An even smaller bathroom right off the main living area completed the suite.
* * * *
Sam woke me after a few hours of sleep.
Despite Charlene’s assurances that my stay didn’t include finding a boyfriend, I still felt leery that Sam hadn’t told me about the compatibility thing. I’d thought I could trust him and his omission stung a little.
I wanted to excuse it - maybe it’d slipped his mind - but it’d taken eight hours to get here. Granted, most of that time we’d talked about the progress they’d made in the last thirty years and the customs that they no longer followed, like pack hunts. Still, he could have mentioned that doozy. By the way, Gabby, werewolves will want you as their mate. I paused then shook my head at the thought. Yeah, I would have reached for the door handle and tried to jump from the moving truck. Maybe, he’d made an okay call. Only time would tell.
I got out of bed and got dressed knowing Sam would hear me moving around.
That day, I met Paul and Henry. Charlene tried talking me into going out into the woods with them to learn more about the werewolf way of life, but comprised by letting us lounge in the common room to talk instead. The common room served as a cafeteria and an entertainment room with sitting arrangements scattered around the room. It even had a pool table set in the back corner.
Paul and Henry didn’t treat me like human boys. As curious about me as I them, they asked a myriad of questions.
“What’s school like?” Paul, the boy with dark hair and a carefree smile asked while sitting on a padded dish chair close to me.
“You don’t go to school?” I couldn’t believe it.
“Nah,” said Henry, a short stocky kid with bright blue eyes reclining in the old leather chair across from us, “we get home schooled here. It’s way quicker to graduate since we can study at an accelerated pace because we don’t have to break for holidays or anything.”
“That actually sounds pretty great… what school should be, minus the no breaks part,” I cringed inwardly at the thought of school year round. “The majority of the teachers spend their time hating their jobs and finding ways to be as disagreeable as possible while the students look at it as a popularity contest and spend more time worrying about who’s dating who than studying,” I explained.
“Date?” Paul glanced at Henry who wore an equally puzzled expression. “I heard Charlene talking about that once. Sounds weird.”
“Really? You guys don’t date?” I didn’t ask what they did to get to know a girl instead of dating.
As if reading my mind, Paul explained, “No, we get invited to Introductions.”
“What’s that?” Sam hadn’t mentioned anything like that to me and I wondered if I should add this to his list of omissions.
“When a female comes of age, they’re brought to the Introduction room where they can meet other werewolves they’ve never met before. The Elders are there to make sure the girl is safe and to give the guys a few minutes to talk. You know, to really get her scent. When there’s a connection, you just know and you claim her. If not, the next group comes in for their chance.”
Sitting in the upholstered chair, I started to sweat. First, what did he mean by claim? Second, they kept a girl in a room while guys came in to look her over and smell her? I reached for my water sitting on the coffee table in the center of our little sitting arrangement and tried really hard to calm down and not let my imagination run away. My hand shook a little.
I knew I failed when Henry asked, “Hey, Gabby, you okay? Did Paul say something wrong? Charlene said we could ask any questions we wanted…”
They had no idea how foreign what they just said sounded to me.
“Hey, Gabby, you don’t have to worry about Introductions if that’s what’s scaring you,” Paul looked at me with concern. “For you and Charlene, the attraction works different. She explained it to us when she said that you were coming. You guys have a level of appeal, or chemistry, with just about all werewolves.” He is not helping, I thought while he continued. “Because the level of attraction to you varies, it wouldn’t be safe to put you in an Introduction room.”
“Yeah,” Henry agreed leaning forward on his chair with a spark of excitement in his eyes. “That’s when the mating duels happen. It’s rare with a werewolf couple, but when Charlene was first brought here, I heard the guys went crazy because they didn’t know what was happening. They fought over who had the strongest tie to her. But you don’t have to worry about that with us. Paul and I think you’re okay and you smell good and everything, but we knew when we met you that you’re not right for us. That’s why Charlene left you alone with us,” he said.
They both gave me encouraging smiles as if their explanation should put me at ease. Werewolves were going to start fighting each other for me? No thanks. My stomach churned. They probably thought their explaining things to me helpful, but the information they threw at me kept stunning me. I thought my pull wouldn’t work on werewolves, that there would be less of the constant male attention. But apparently, they just hid it better. Sam hinted that they possessed a keen sense of smell. I hoped that all werewolves, like these two, would use it to correctly determine my unsuitability. I didn’t want to be the right one for anyone at this point in my life.
“What did you mean by ‘claim’?” My voice came out light and airy with anxiety, but I needed to know.
“It’s when we bite our mate. The bite draws blood, but doesn’t hurt.” Paul explained reassuringly.
“What!” I nearly shouted. My freak-o-meter bypassed meltdown.
“Oh, not for you, Gabby,” Paul said, quickly leaning forward making shushing motions with his hands. My head spun dizzily, no doubt all the color had drained from my face. “We can’t claim humans like that. When your mate finds you, it’s up to you to claim them.”
So, I would need to bite someone? Not going to happen. Knowing I had control made it easier to calm down.
I heard the main door to the common room swing open and saw Sam walk in with an older woman and another older man. Sam nodded to me and then moved with his group to another area of the room further away. They sat down and started talking. Paul and Henry shifted their attention to the new people, listening. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but had no doubt they could. Just as I knew Sam would hear if I asked either Paul or Henry tell me what they said.
I decided to calm down and change the subject, “What about sports? I noticed there are no TV’s in here. Do you guys play or watch any sports?”
“Nah, the television tends to hurt our ears, but we do like to play football. There aren’t enough of us for a team.”
The door behind us opened again and I watched two younger werewolves, about our age, enter. They glanced our way, but headed toward the group with Sam. I turned around and took another drink of water thinking about this mate business. According to these two, I needed to watch for a werewolf that acted toward me as most human men would, intense and weird.
Sam startled me out of my thoughts when he spoke next to me. “Gabby, I’d like you to meet, Eric and Derrick. They are the twin sons of a couple that lives here. They’re home from college and have to leave again tomorrow.”
I smiled and said hello. They both nodded to me, but didn’t speak. Awkward. Uncomfortable, I looked back at Sam who nodded at the two. They turned and left. If they represented the normal reaction to me, I needed to watch out for someone even more intense and weird. Maybe I just needed a plan to avoid them all.
Sam waited until they’d walked out of the room to explain, “I want you to get to know the people who live here. In summer, we’ll spend a lot of our weekends here.” He looked at Paul and Henry, “You two keep an eye on her. I’m counting on you to help explain our ways.”
Sam walked back to the group and I looked from Paul to Henry with an arched eyebrow. Was it just me or did that feel weird? I wanted to ask, but remained quiet. I didn’t want anyone to overhear. They both shrugged in return.
Sam interrupted our conversation a second and third time, each time bringing someone to introduce to me. My mind caught on the word ‘introduce’. Introduction. I caught on even if Paul and Henry didn’t.
Paul and Henry’s assurance that I would never face the Introduction room clicked everything into place. Sam had started slowly introducing me to the entire eligible male population of this little community.
After the third set left, I caught Sam’s eye. “Sam, would you mind showing me around outside for a bit?” I stood and made my way to the main door, not waiting to see if Sam followed. After three months, I’d felt sure enough of Sam that I risked coming to an unknown destination with him, alone. His actions and omissions devastated my confidence in him.
Already familiar with the layout of the compound, I didn’t hesitate to walk out the front door and stride purposely toward the road leading away from this place. Sam didn’t take long to catch up to me. If I told him I wanted to go back to the Newton’s now, would he take me? If he did, then what? I couldn’t stay there forever.
“Sam,” I said when we walked side by side, “I don’t want to be on the streets, but that’s where I’ll go if you think you can pull this crap if I move in with you.” I didn’t look at him, I was too angry. And scared. “I understand the condition of living at your place is that we come up here. But my condition is that you have to be completely honest about our purpose in coming up here. Each time,” I stressed. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”
“I’m sorry Gabby. You can trust me. I have your best interests in mind. This is another one of those things that is easier to believe when you experience it first-hand.” He kept pace next to me as I led us down the old dirt driveway further away from the compound.
“No, Sam. You need to lay it out for me straight.”
He stayed quiet for a few minutes and I wasn’t sure he had anything to say until he actually spoke.
“Well, I heard what Paul and Henry told you. That part’s right. We do Introductions for young werewolf females in a controlled way to keep them safe until they find their mate.
“We learned from Charlene’s time here that you’d need to be handled differently. I told you that werewolves would find your scent interesting. Since we’re branching out into more urban areas, it would be only a matter of time before you attracted attention. So, we’d wanted to control your Introduction. A formal Introduction without mass challenges was out of the question.
“This is the compromise; they come into the commons say hello to you and then talk to the Elders. Because the level of attraction varies, we interview them asking them to explain their interest. They must formally request permission from me to come see you again if they think of you as more than just ‘interesting’. They are not allowed to approach you while you are on your own. If they were to approach me for a second meeting, I would speak with you first before approving or denying their request.”
The light filtering through the canopy cast the road into dusky shadow. I turned to Sam, “What you’re saying is, eventually werewolves would find me, but if I stay with you, you’d be my buffer?” He nodded. I studied him, thinking. “And I’d only have to say hi to these guys. It’d be up to me if I wanted to spend any additional time with them?” He nodded again.
I liked Paul and Henry. They oozed useful information and didn’t react to me at all. The ones I’d already met hadn’t seemed too interested either. When Paul and Henry had mentioned mating duels, I’d imagined drowning in a writhing mass of fighting bodies, all in various stages of shifting. I still dreamt about Sam shifting. The dreams and my fueled imagination bothered me. But since arriving, everyone remained in a single form. Nothing freaky happened. The general population of werewolves couldn’t be all bad. I just didn’t like the way I had to meet them. But I’d be better off living with Sam knowing he’d keep the others away than to try it on my own now that they knew I existed.
“Fine, let’s go back.”
Paul and Henry played cards when we got back, eating their way through a stack of sandwiches set out on the coffee table. They waved me over and I gladly joined their game grabbing a sandwich for myself. Several more werewolves came in. Sam led each one to me. Most left after nodding a polite hello. A few asked for a second meeting. Each time Sam would look at me and, at the shake of my head, reject the request. It relieved me to see him keep his word, restoring some of my shaken confidence in him.
We packed up and left Sunday morning. During the drive back, I mostly paid attention to the scenery since I’d missed the majority of it on the way there. While I watched the trees flash by, I thought about the weekend. None of the guys I met seemed too upset over any type of rejection. For as much emphasis as they’d put on my smelling good to just about all werewolves, their laid-back attitude didn’t make much sense to me.
“Why did they seem okay with their second request being rejected?”
He answered, watching the road, “Although you smelled good to them, they knew it wasn’t just right. When it is right, they won’t give up, which is why staying with me is so important. We have laws that control certain aspects of the social side of the pack. One is that unmated human females, like you, cannot be approached without the approval of the nearest Elder.”
“Then, why can’t you just tell them all ‘no’ for me in advance so we don’t have to mess with this whole Introduction thing?”
“Because I have to give them that chance to see for themselves that it’s not right. Was it that bad? Meeting people? No one treated you the way some human men have treated you.”
I couldn’t disagree. “How often is this going to happen?”
“Once a month.”
I sat up straighter and said, “No way,” shaking my head for emphasis. It was a cool enough place, but sixteen hours of driving in a single weekend every month would get boring. “Once every two months.”
“Every five weeks, with flexibility to switch weeks if needed,” he negotiated.
“Seven weeks,” I countered his offer feeling hopeful.
“Six,” he said with a sideways glance at me.
“Fine, every six weeks,” I compromised and added, “until I graduate. Then I’m going to college and won’t be obligated to take time out of studying for dating, or whatever you want to call this, if I don’t want to.”
“Deal,” he agreed.
He’d agreed too easily. Was that a hint of a smile on his mouth? Why did I feel like I just got the raw end of the deal? I’d have to play my cards carefully so I didn’t find myself hitched in some weird backwoods werewolf custom.
Chapter 3
Sam sat at the worn oak table set in the middle of the sunlit kitchen. He scowled at its dull surface and, when I walked into the room, transferred the glum look to me. I shook my head at his scowl. Ignoring it, I went to make him his morning coffee.
After two years of almost monthly visits to the Canadian werewolf community, this weekend would be my last and he didn’t like it. Happily, I hadn’t met a single werewolf that had any type of pull on me.