The Female Alpha

Chapter IV. Introductions

As we walk outside, we are greeted by greenery. The village is in the middle of the forest, the greenery extending to the heart of the village. The cottage which I had awoken in turned out to be only half of it, the other half a copy of it in which Lillian lived.

Quickly we find our way to the main road, a rugged path which leads from the farm on our end to the city hall in the middle and the training grounds on the far end. The city hall, as Lillian explained, was where everyone met up to share their meals together.

The farm it turned out, was quite close to where our shared cottage was. Surrounded by hedges and trees the crops grew safely within and outside the greenhouse. A larger wooden house served the purpose of a warehouse and a tool shed. Villagers were working the fields. I watch them, knowing what I know now I wonder how many of them are a beast and how many are normal.

We go down the road again. I spot no cars within the village, the roads too rugged to house them anyway. There was a truck near the farm, leaving me to believe that they might be somewhere on the edge of the village perhaps.

The air is turning grey, the smell in the air and the birds flying low indicate that there is rain coming soon. Lillian suggests skipping the training grounds for today as we head to the city hall when the first drops of rain escape the clouds and kiss down on the ground.

We escape the downpour as we step inside the building, the outside was grand yet not enormous. I am getting the feeling there are no vastly large buildings within this village, the city hall being the biggest building I have seen so far which is about the size of a regular restaurant. Unlike a restaurant, it is cosy and mainly made of natural wood. The inside reveals several long tables with benches and chairs on either side of them with a fireplace on the south and east walls of the room. At the back of the room stands an oval table which seems to be visible from all points of the room.

The end of the room holds two large doors from which behind the clattering of pans and cutlery escapes, revealing that it must hold the kitchen.

Lillian had brought us something to drink and some sandwiches to eat while we took our seats at the corner of one of the tables.

"Everyone that lives here is a part of our pack. The pack is led by our alpha and his right-hand man, his beta. It's like that with most packs and villages." Lillian explained as I nibbled on my sandwich, positively starved but still wary.

She had been explaining random subjects with little response or motivation from me, I let it all come to me as I listened and watched out for anything that looked familiar while in my head I was still unsure what to make of it all.

"Our Alpha is Viktor, he was chosen by the pack. We are tied very closely with another pack too, we are like a branch of their tree." I wasn't sure what that meant yet I nodded anyway as I decided I would take the risk on the ham and cheese sandwich that she had prepared for me. Lillian continued to chat about the food that the farm made and how she loved to walk around the village but my head was already elsewhere entirely.

The rain did not let on as we waited inside for the weather to clear, the rest of our time was mostly spent in silence. It was a welcome rest for my ears and brain.

But as time passed I felt myself growing restless. While it felt good to be outside for a while, I still held a million questions. It was nearing dinnertime. Since I had barely eaten since presumably the last day, I was starved still. But I was not about to wait here where others could show up any minute now. It was one thing to get to know a village, another to get to know its people.

My mind could not yet wrap around the fact that these people that I had been seeing all day, they were the monsters we were warned to stay away from yet they looked exactly like me. Though now, I wasn't even too sure who I was.