Poisoned Ivy

Chapter 2

As the sun begins to lower in the mid-afternoon, I can smell the sweet scent of hamburgers cooking on the grill. I lay down at the treeline downwind from the smoke so that Wren doesn't smell me and so that I can bask in the wonderful smells of his cooking.

I can faintly hear people inside and I can see some figures through the porch door. I count three others besides Wren in the house. The glass door slides open and a guy with a beer in his hand walks out onto the wooden deck. He is dressed in flannel and jeans, and sports a beard.

"How's it coming Wren?" He asks after taking a sip of his beer. He looks to be middle-aged.

Wren looks up from his spatula, "A couple more minutes and it'll be ready."

"Cool, we'll set up the table then." He pats Wren on the shoulder then turns to head back inside.

Wren turns and calls, "Hey, Benji." The guy turns, Wren continues, "Can we eat outside?"

Benji looks out at the sky, it's clear and it won't be dark for a while. He shrugs, "Sure, why not?"

Benji disappears inside the house, only to reappear on the deck moments later with two other men. One is young, around seventeen and skinny with platinum blond hair. The other looks to be the youngest, roughly fourteen, with curly dark hair and olive skin. Benji hands the blond one the silverware and tells the other one, "Henry go wake Roman and tell him dinner's ready." The dark haired boy nods his head to Benji and goes inside the house. So my assumption was off by one. To be fair, Roman was asleep so it's not like I could pick his voice out of the bunch like I did with the others.

After all the dinnerware is set Benji asks, "Cameron, go grab the lemonade pitcher on the counter." The blond responds and fetches the pitcher. Benji helps Wren bring the burgers up from the grill before both males go inside and return with Henry, Cameron, food, and an unknown man around the age of nineteen whom I'm going to assume is Roman. They all sit down, dish up, and dig in.

To say that they were hungry is an understatement, but to say they were hungry like wolves is accurate. Considering my guesses have been generally accurate, I'm going to go out on a whim and assume that all of them, not just Wren, are wolves too.

Though if they are shape-shifters, shouldn't they have gone out and scanned their newly acquired territory by now and made sure it wasn't occupied by say, a rival pack such as myself? But then again, I'm not actually a pack, and nor do I technically own or reside in the house anymore since the government seized it and auctioned it off to these guys. Did Wren tell them about me? If so, are they not concerned with my presence like how Wren was earlier? Are they planning on baiting me in and sending me back to foster care? Why aren't there any females in their pack?

And most important: do I smell apple pie?