Shifters Pen

12

There were several of us wolves heading to the second test this Friday for the first time. Almost 50. There were no vampires. Vampires never got anywhere in here. The second test was held in the courtyard. And there was an ugly face there that I hadn’t seen in years.
  The warden, Asterion, was the Minotaur from legend. He had the head of a bull, and body of a man. A very large man. His body was in proportion to his head. He did a head count, then nodded. “There are a handful of people here who know what to expect, but for the rest of you I will be explaining level two testing. It is quite simple, really. You just have to own up to what you have actually done to get put in here. Now, some of you might say ‘but warden that’s too easy. Why do we even have this test? I know why I am here. So do you.’ However, on this one you gotta dig deep. I know the crimes you commited. But you have to figure out exactly where you went wrong. Unlike the first test you are allowed to speak to others in this test. We have found that it helps. You get half an hour a week to work on just this problem, until the next time the parole officers come. If you have figured it out you pass to the next level. If not, you stay here. Are there any questions?”
  What exactly was there to ask? Figure out what a fuck up you are. Admit to it. How hard could this be?
  Harold came up to Lucy. He looked nervous, scared. “Luna, I’m scared to tell what I did. I was bad. I did bad things.”
  She met my eyes, and nodded. She was going to go hear him out. I found another man, from the Bloody Jaws pack, who looked like he was on the fringes, and didn’t know what to say, or to who.
  “Hey. This your first time in this test?” I asked him. He nodded. “Me too. You mind if I tell you what I did?”
  He was shocked, “You want to tell m-me?”
  I nodded, “My mate already knows what I did. And she is helping Harold. You know how protective she gets over him. So we got 30 minutes. I can tell you what I did, and if you are up for it you can tell me what you did, then next week we can share any perspectives.”
  The gamma nodded, “O-of course, Alpha.”
  So I told him what I did. I was getting better at telling the story, having already told Lucy. He gulped. “So, what did you do?” I asked him.
  He took a deep breath and let it out, “You are going to think it’s stupid.”
  “Try me.”
  He said, “So I lived in a small pack, in Northern California. I love music, always have. It’s always been my dream to perform in front of live audiences. I have never been picky about the audience. I just wanted people to hear me. And I couldn’t be bothered to listen to my parents. They wanted me to go find my mate and settle down, and give them tons of grandpups. First chance I got I headed to LA. I busked on the street and was so happy. I made people happy, for a while. It was tough to get by, and I always had to get out of town on the full moon. Then I met this girl. Oh, she was everything. I wanted to introduce her to my parents, and let her in on the fact that I was a werewolf. I truly thought she would accept me, even as a werewolf. We got invited to this party the night before the full moon. I thought, no problem. I have no idea what they gave me. Or what I did. I woke up in Warden Asterion’s office. I guess I hope that I just turned into a wolf that was so stoned he couldn’t move, as opposed to a wolf that tore up people at the party.”
  I considered that, “Well, did you have blood on you?”
  “I’d been hosed off. Don’t know.”
  I was about to ask him more, but the timer buzzed. Time was up. 30 minutes went by fast. I headed back to work. For once I was thinking about how someone else landed in here. It was sad that he didn’t even know how he got here. I didn’t have much experience with drugs, or how potent they could be. I hadn’t had time to really experiment. After hearing this story I was grateful for that.
  But what had he done wrong, ultimately? Where had he gone wrong? Los Angeles was a big city. Werewolves and the city didn’t go together. It was asking for trouble. However, if he wasn’t ready for a mate he shouldn’t have been trying to seek one out. His parents didn’t need to push him in that direction. I wouldn’t do that to my cubs. They could seek a mate when they were ready.
  But what about his career choice? He wanted to play music for other people. Perhaps he could have traveled to other werewolf packs, playing music for them for special occasions such as mating ceremonies, or birthdays. Or perhaps on the internet he could play music and make people happy without ever potentially causing harm. Yes, there were ways. He just couldn’t see the mountain range for the trees.
  And this girl that he wanted to reveal our world to. He knew better than that. Humans were not supposed to be made into werewolves on a whim. Of course, I had sort of done just that with Lucy. But she was already a shifter, and was in prison with 400 werewolves. It was unavoidable that she find out about werewolves. And she was my intended.
  Well, what if this girl in LA was his intended? What if his intended mate was a human that he was supposed to find in the city? In that case he should have avoided the party, and kept his mate safe. He should have kept her away from bad situations. I did that with every ounce of my being for Lucy. Protector was the first instinct I felt around her. That and arousal. God she was pretty. No, he was not her intended. I would never take Lucy to a party where there were drugs. He should not have been in LA to begin with.
  I wondered what Lucy had found out about Harold.