The Unlikely Mate

Chapter 7

 "Hey Jen" Tommy said, walking past her to a large table of guests. "Can you grab the water for refills?" he asked her.

"Sure thing!" She responded, and quickly followed. She refilled everyone's water and completed the refill requests for everyone else at the table. She could tell immediately that they were werewolves, most of them. There were a few humans, and she marveled that they were all enjoying companionship together. She hoped that she would be able to make human friends as well, and wondered if these humans knew that their friends were wolves.

"Thanks for the help" Tommy said, "Table 9 has me going non-stop. They are taking the 'bottomless fries' concept literally. And they're really messy, it's going to take forever to clean up after them. They're acting like a pack of wolves."

"Nah, they're not part of the same pack" Jennifer responded nonchalantly, able to differentiate the difference between the humans as well as different pack's scents.

"What?" Tommy said, looking at her questioningly.

This wasn't the first time Jennifer had said or done something werewolf related that she then had to try to explain away. She wasn't used to constant interaction with humans and trying to hide her werewolf side.

"Uh," Jennifer faltered, "I just mean look at them. They get along way too well to be a family, like a pack. I mean they just seem like a bunch of rowdy friends." She turned quickly away, hoping Tommy just thought she was weird, and that he didn't read too much into the things she kept saying without thinking.

After her first week in the city, Jennifer had found a long-term stay hotel apartment that she moved into, that was just a block away from the restaurant, so she was close enough to walk easily. She planned to find something better eventually, but she was glad to have a little kitchenette in her new place and it was less expensive than the hotel. It was also close enough to the edge of town that it was just a short walk to the forest and she was able to shift and go for runs frequently.

Shifting near a city was a completely different situation than shifting on pack territory. Back home, the packs had shifting houses scattered throughout the territory, often stocked with a variety of clothing, so anyone could easily dress if they shifted back into human form while out, without needing to try to carry clothes with them when they shifted. That wasn't the case on the outskirts of a human city. Jennifer had to be careful to leave clothes when she left and she went to the effort of hiding some clothes throughout the woods in the surrounding area, but she was always afraid that someone would find them, or animals would get to them.

Hey, are you working tonight? - came a text from William on a Tuesday morning.

I get off at 4pm today. – was Jennifer's reply.

Great! I'm taking you to dinner. I've got to get away from here for an evening. – William invited.

I'll pick you up at your place at 6, we're going someplace nice. – He followed up.

William had been texting Jennifer off and on since he had been overseeing the restoration of the Blood Moon Pack, and she had begun to enjoy his attention. She didn't really have any friends that she was keeping in touch with from her pack. Evelyn, Jackson's mate had been reaching out to her a couple times a week, to make sure she was ok and to ensure that Jennifer knew she always had a home with the pack, but Jennifer's communication with the pack in general was pretty limited.

William was someone who didn't know of her previous behavior, and seemed to like her, which made her feel good about her efforts at trying to improve herself. He had invited her to join him at the pack several times, but she always refused. She wanted to live her own life for a while. For years, she had thrown herself at Dante, thinking he would choose her as his Luna, and she thought that was what she wanted. But she had come to realize that was a role she was definitely not ready for, and she didn't want to step into a weird substitute of that with William at the Blood Moon Pack, when she had decided that she needed to figure out for herself what she actually did want.

Sounds great! Can't wait. – Jennifer responded.

Jennifer was excited about going to dinner. She had made a few friends at the restaurant, like Tommy but she limited her social interactions with them, as she was still getting used to hiding her wolf around humans. It took a lot of work to pretend to be human and always censor what she was saying or doing.

"You texting your boyfriend?" Katie, another server at the restaurant asked Jennifer.

"No, he's not my boyfriend. So far we just talk, but he's taking me to dinner tonight" Jennifer responded.

"Where's he taking you?" Katie asked.

"I don't know, he just said someplace nice" Jennifer said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, if he isn't your boyfriend yet, maybe he wants to be" and Katie winked at Jennifer as she walked away with a tray of plates.

Jennifer went about her work thinking about what Katie had said. Dating wasn't something she had ever really done, especially living within the werewolf community. The mate-bond was such a pervasive concept, and almost every wolf held it sacred, so there was very little serious fraternizing between younger wolves. Those that did, kept it a secret because the older wolves wouldn't approve. Even after Luther had rejected her, Jennifer had been so hell-bent on capturing Dante's eye, that she had no time for other wolves. Additionally, nobody in her pack knew that she had been rejected and no longer had a mate, so there would have been no excuse for her to have openly dated anyone.

All of these thoughts and considerations made her wonder about William. Where was his mate? Did he have one, was he rejected, had he rejected his mate, had she died? Jennifer realized that these were questions she would need to ask and find answers for, sooner rather than later. She knew she didn't want to get mixed up into any type of love triangle or anything, especially after she had tried to come between her Alpha and Luna. She wanted avoid that type of relationship chaos.

William knew nothing about her past, so he wouldhave no way of knowing that her mate had rejected her and was dead, so hisinterest in her seemed borderline questionable. The last thing she wanted to doat this point was fall for him, and then have his mate turn up to take himaway. She decided to remain guarded, until she had a better idea of whatWilliam's intentions were.