Scarlet's Mate

Part Fifthteen

"So, you're a werewolf?"  I asked again, leaning back against the pillow on his bed.

"For the thousandth time, yes Scarlet, I am a werewolf," Derek rolled his eyes.

Derek is a werewolf, werewolves are real, I am sitting on a bed next to a werewolf.  My mind can't seem to wrap itself around that reality.  For my entire life I had believed werewolves, amongst other things, were just myths, stories.  And now, everything is different.

I fling my hands up in annoyance, "I just don't understand."

"What don't you understand?  Maybe I can help."

"Werewolves are real, what about vampires and witches and ghosts and-"  I was going to continue when Derek interrupted me.

"Vampires yes," he paused for a second and looked over at me.  I tried my best to keep a poker face, although in my head I am totally freaking out.  He continues, "witches are a maybe.  There's been some documentation of witchcraft but if they are real, they don't want anyone to know yet.  Ghosts, well, that all depends on what you believe I guess.  And as for everything else, I have a book all about mythical creatures I can loan you.  The pack keeps records of all the things they've ever encountered or heard about from other packs."

Pack, that caught my attention.  That's one of the words I saw on the paper in Elliot's room.  Oh my god, Elliot.  I sat up completely alert and stared at Derek, "Is Elliot a werewolf too?"

Derek sighed, "yes, he's an alpha.  Usually it's rare for alphas to be that young, but a couple years ago our old alpha, his father, got really sick and could no longer perform his duties.  So he passed it on to Elliot.  He died recently."

Derek looked down, his face sad.  Like he had just told me his own father passed away vs someone elses.  I reached my hand out and rested it on his leg, rubbing it back and forth in a comforting way.  He looked up at me and smiled, "do you have any other questions?"

I laughed, "only a couple hundred I think," he laughs and I continue, "like, what's a pack?  And what exactly is an alpha?  Do you have a cool name like that?  Is there anyone else that I know who is a werewolf?"

He thought about my questions for a moment before answering, "a pack is basically like a giant family of werewolves.  In each pack there's an alpha, which is sort of like a king, he has final say over everything.  And every king has his queen, which is called a luna.  She's usually more involved with the community itself, making sure everything runs smoothly.  Then there's a beta, which is the alphas go to man."

"There's also the third in command, the guard, and the fighters.  If you aren't any of those you usually just hang around most of the time and help out where you can.  Like cooking and cleaning or watching the pu-kids," he looked down then back up at me, "I'm a guard, basically what I do is keep watch along the edge of our territory and alert the alpha if there's anything unusual or suspicious.  And for the last question, pretty much everyone at Darkwood High is a werewolf."

I stared down at my hands, "wow," I thought for a moment and looked back up at him, "so Rayne is also a werewolf?"

"Yes."

"And the wolf that I saw, the one that caused my accident, that was a werewolf?"

"Yes."

"So my grandma lives in a town full of werewolves?"

"Actually, your grandfather, Jackson, was a werewolf.  Your grandma is human.  It's uncommon for a wolf's mate to be a human but it happens.  After he died, the pack let your grandma stay, she's amazing with all she does for us at the pack hospital."