Witchwolf

iv

It's almost amazing what two women can accomplish in just a few hours on a Saturday morning with some resolve (and maybe a little magic, I'll admit.) I wiped my brow and pushed back messy dark brown bangs off my forehead slick with a light sheen of sweat. Alex had come over at the crack of dawn, her almond eyes already bright without a hint of sleepiness in them, whilst I, on the other hand, must've looked like a complete fright compared to the lean and lovely Asian American.

Let's just say I don't do well without coffee in the mornings and, being the millennial I was, was barely scraping by without electricity. Thank Izar my little bungalow had the decency to have indoor plumbing.

Although we didn't make a large dent in the boxes as I had hoped, we did manage to clean up the kitchen and properly stock up the cellar and make the bedroom quite cozy with a rug, my dark blue duvet cover, and one of my mom's old quilts.

Alex and I had made light chit chat throughout the morning and although I had no luck in deciphering any juicy tidbits about the mysterious pack secrets, I did find out a lot about Alex and her mate, Geoff, along with some of the other women in town.

Alex and Geoff were indeed the pack healers and one of the newer transplants that had moved into town from different cities around the Colorado Valley. The pair were actually from Denver and had met Max, the Alpha while he was in college there in the Night college of the university.

Although my original disgust for the pack, I turned out to have quite a liking for Alex and her witty comebacks. Not to mention she was actually taller than me - a feat within itself. 

"Wow, noon already? It hasn't even felt like an hour quite yet," Alex said as she took off her light hoodie. It seemed even the Colorado summers were cold - which would explain Andy's choice of khaki mom-shorts as a uniform.

"True. Very true," I said, walking around my small kitchen counter to grab two glasses of juice from the cellar for her and I. 

Managing not to hit my head on the almost suspiciously low beam above the bottom stair I grabbed the bottle of juice when I heard the front door open accompanied by voices and creaks from the floorboards. What in the-?

Stepping out of the basement, I watched as some men and women I partially recognized from the diner walk in carrying chairs, tables, battery-powered lamps, and some even carried what looked like preserves in old-fashioned mason jars.

"Wha-?"

"Surprise!" Alex said, as she pulled some of the women over, "I saw how gross this place looked and I know some of the older members didn't exactly give you the warmest welcome, so I thought we could help start you off." She smiled almost abashedly as if I would reprimand her for doing something this nice.

"I don't know what to say, this is all just so nice of you - thank you, I guess is a good place to start," I chuckled, my eyes still wide in almost shock.

"Good. Now we have some introductions that need to be in order. This here is Amy," she put her hand on a wild-haired brunette's shoulder, "and Gretta," she nodded to the shorter blonde, "and lastly Kim," she put her arm around a beautiful dark skinned woman.

Amy stepped forward, so I went in for a handshake, but the woman with the frizzy hair proceeded to give me perhaps the warmest hug I had ever felt from a stranger. She had strong Jewish features, but spoke with a drawl that matched the other natives of this mountain town, unlike Alex.

"I was just born when your Daddy left, and it's none of our business to judge you for what he's done. Welcome back, I say to it!" She had a booming voice that filled up the room, and broad shoulders which didn't allow me to peek into my living room to see what in the hell those men were doing to the place.