Book 1 Of The Silver Series: Silver

Chapter 9: Town Life

"You look exhausted," Kotami points out at the breakfast table. "Then again you always look tired these days."

She was right of course. I still couldn't sleep, but by now I didn't really expect to. The exhaustion was becoming normal to me. Not to mention that it had been weeks since Alpha had warned me to stay away from Jay and I had continued to sneak out anyways. He hadn't yet caught me though.

"I figured out a new medicine that might help with the dreams. Hopefully it will work better than the last couple," Alpha announces. "Of course I will need a few things from the store to make it."

Kotami and I both look up at this news. We didn't get to go to town often. Although Kotami certainly got to go much more than me.

"Silver I want you to go," Alpha states.

I give him a surprised look. "Me?"

"Yes," Alpha says and hands me a list of herbs.

"You want me to go alone?" I ask in shock. He never let me go alone.

"You have heeded my warnings and listened to my advice," Alpha explains. "Consider this errand a vacation from me."

I smile at him. I felt a little guilty for disobeying him behind his back, but I certainly wasn't going to tell him that now.

I follow the narrow dirt pathway until I reach town. The town was small and anything but clean. Trash lined up the sidewalks and gathered in the yards of trailer houses. The shops seemed old and not well cleaned. The most popular thing there seemed to be the bar, in which several drunks staggered around out front.

Finally I reached the small shop that sold herbs and medicine. It was a good thing that I had come here a few times with Alpha, otherwise I would've had difficulty finding everything. Eventually, I managed to gather everything on the list. I payed for it with the money Alpha had given me and head out with all the herbs in a neat little bag. Turning a corner, I nearly run into a large man who liked a tad bit drunk.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing all alone in a place like this?" He asks with a disgusting smirk on his face.

I back away from him and nearly run into another man who states, "I think she has been here before with that blonde kid. Alpha' his name right?"

I try to get away, but he grabs me and a third man joins him. I try to pull away from them and kick at them, but they had a firm grip on me. If I shifted I could escape, but I was sure that would only make this situation worse.

The first man places his hands on my face and forces me to look at him. "Come now darling. We only want to have a little fun."

The men chuckle and I gag at the scent of alcohol on their breath. Before they can drag me off, a knife flies through the air and ends up in the first man's shoulder. He drops to the ground, screaming from the sudden pain. A man steps out of the shadows soon after. I recognize him by his brown hair and uncontrolled half-shift easily.

"Let the girl go before you end up on the ground with your friend," Jay demands with a stern look.

The two men holding me give him a fearful look and quickly release me. They run away as fast as they can, giving no aid to their wounded friend.

The injured man looks up at Jay with fearful eyes. "Whatever I did this time I'm sorry. We were just having a little fun is all. We didn't know she was of any importance, I swear!"

"I don't care about your "fun"," Jay answers with a frown. "You shouldn't force someone to take part in your version of "fun"."

"I'm sorry," the man sobs and repeats over and over again.

Jay looks at the man with disgust, reaches down, and pulls the knife out of his shoulder. The man cries out but remains sobbing on the ground.

"Come on," Jay says and pulls me towards the pathway.

I noticed he was taking me to Alpha's house. This didn't really surprise me. After several meetings with him, he had probably smelled Alpha on me and suspected that I lived with him.

"That was a good throw," I state as we walk. Jay says nothing back, so I ask, "How'd you learn to do that?"

"Just something I picked up," he answers quickly. "Why didn't you shift earlier? You could've easily gotten away from them."

I look down. How was I going to explain that? "I'm not used to shifting in front of humans."

"You've lived here for over a month, how is that possible?" He points out.

I glare at him. "Well you never know when one if them will decide to call the hunters! Then we would all be dead!"

"I highly doubt we would all be dead," Jay mutters as we reach the end of the pathway. Alpha's house was visible now amongst the trees.

"Goodbye," he says. Before I can thank him, he had disappeared into the woods.