Damsel in Control (18+ Only) - The Rogue Pack

Chapter 4

Surprisingly, I'm only thirty minutes late to work. I managed to extricate myself from the awkward situation with Saul, the intriguing Gamma, before I revealed anything important. But then I had to spend an hour getting on a variety of trains going in different directions in an attempt to throw him off my scent. Not that I thought he was following me. But I wanted to make sure that he definitely could not track me back home. I've worked too hard on building a whole new life for myself, far away from other werewolves, to simply throw it all away because of a moment's inattention.

Home is West Terre Haute, a small village twenty minutes away from Terre Haute. It's a normal human village, of about two thousand habitants, and as far as I can tell, I'm the only werewolf inhabitant. It's probably too small, and for months I've been telling myself I should move, at least to Terre Haute which is almost town-sized, but every time I contemplate it, I fall back in love with the quiet rural life. It's just so different from the big community-style werewolf living, and being alone makes me feel free from that imprisoning lifestyle that I used to live. Not that I don't miss having werewolf friends that truly know me and can relate to my problems, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I'm practically dripping in sweat by the time I enter the cool air conditioning of the small office where I work. I had to run the short four-mile distance between the Terre Haute train station and West Terre Haute, having missed the connecting bus. In this heat, even with werewolf stamina, a girl quickly builds up a sweat.

"You're late." Kenneth, my boss, grumbles at me as I drip onto the light grey office carpet. He's not usually grumpy, and has always been a great boss to me, but he is a stickler for the rules, and absolutely hates tardiness.

"I'm so sorry! Personal emergency. It won't happen again." I mutter out. I've learnt that with Kenneth it's better to not go into extensive excuses. He really doesn't care as long as I'm on time.

"Hmmmph." He grunts at me, but still gives me a quick smile as I sit at my desk.

I work as a computer programmer at a startup. I joined the company four months ago, in search of a job that could challenge me a bit and help keep my brain occupied. The company's aim is to create an app to make people more aware of their individual impact on the climate, so as well as being challenging, the job also gives me an opportunity to fight for change and hopefully make a difference. Our idea, originally Kenneth's idea, is to make our users realise that although it's the big companies and governments that really need to make a change to how energy is being used, each individual can still have an impact. By tracking the energy consumption and carbon footprint of different companies, users are able to choose which companies to use. Plus, by simultaneously tracking supply and demand for a variety of products, the app allows consumers to group together to boycott some of the more polluting companies, in the hopes that reduced demand will incite them to change their polluting ways. So far the app is in its trial phases, so I'm really swamped with re-working the code as we get reviews from our thousands of app testers, but I love the work.

Today, as per usual, I find myself getting lost in the code, my thoughts whirring at a million miles an hour as I fix glitches, check reviews, and plan potential suggestions for future upgrades. Before I know it, hours have passed, and my co-worker Maria is tapping me on the shoulder. I lift my head, noticing for the first time the darkening sky outside.

"Don't forget drinks tonight Reyna," she calls as she walks away from me. Looking around, realising that as usual, I'm the last in the office. There are only four others in the office, and they've all deserted me, presumably to get ready for our drinks tonight.

We officially launched the app for trial use the previous week and had been wanting to celebrate since then. Sadly, with busy schedules and big families, we hadn't found a good time to properly celebrate since then and tonight is the first night where all five of us are free. We have booked a table in a newly refurbished bar in Terre Haute, one of those snazzy places with dimmed lights and leather chairs. It's not one I've been to before, as I usually choose werewolf bars if I'm going out drinking, simply because I would get judgement from the humans at the sheer number of drinks my werewolf tolerance allows me to consume. Plus, in the unlikely event I get properly drunk, I definitely don't want to risk revealing myself to humans.