Author's Note
I've been thinking to myself for a few days if I should make this violent or soft or particularly plotty, and then I remembered you can't relate to characters who are perfect.
The house is, at best, odd. Tucked into the middle of an uneven and close-to-abandoned forest, Elijah thought its existence was simply amazing. All around, it's two stories high. Different portions of the house are painted in mismatched shades, yellows and blues and reds faded enough to be pink all threaten to blend together.
The white fence which borders the home is practically useless, considering that there are gaping holes every other three feet. Around ten cars, all well-used and clearly loved, park beneath the shade of a paired magnolia and oak tree, and a group of children run around the abandoned vehicles as they play tag, every other minute one of them shifts accidentally out of excitement.
"This is the pack house," Raul smiles at the boy as the two of them step over the threshold of the uselessly closed gate. At their entrance, the children who ran themselves dizzy around the cars paused, faces cracking with even wider grins, before they noticed the unknown Omega standing in their Alpha's shadow.
"Some of the younger wolves like to call it Crumbledown," he moves his huge hands towards the general face of the house for emphasis, gesturing to -everything that seemed nearly rot with age. "I just like calling it home."
"Crumbledown," Elijah whispers to himself, and he likes the name very much. Although the house looks like one particularly strong gust of wind away from completely collapsing, it's also lined with thick wood that was meant to last, and repairs that were made in the heat of summer by hands that obviously loved it.
A home for wolves.
*
They enter through the front door of Crumbledown; the screen behind Elijah claps back into his naked legs, causing enough of a startle to spook a scream out of him. He falls forward until he's caught by Raul's hand, but his entrance has attracted unwanted attention.
The first is a boy who looks a year older than Elijah, his interest obvious although he tried to seem aloof by forcing his eyes off of the teenager. The next comes in the from of a twenty-something woman who doesn't bother to hang back. The brunette runs up to him with hands full of a blanket.
"Raul!" She scolds the man beside her-- and for a moment, Elijah has to take a moment to realize she's still there to continue to scold the Alpha. "You go on and get some clothes-- what were you thinkin'? There's been poachers lately, what are they gonna think when they see a naked man roamin' around?" Her voice is all southern.
"They'll realize they shouldn't've ignored the private property signs," Raul shoots back before he helps the woman wrap the blanket around Elijah's sharp shoulders.
"Please," she rolls her eyes before she focuses completely on Elijah with green eyes wide with concern. "I'm Milli, pack doctor and, well, town doctor. You're lucky it's my day off or you would be stuck with little ol' Campbell over yonder," Milli moves her head into the direction behind her, where the boy Elijah supposes is Campbell furrows his eyebrows at the woman.
"Whaddya go by?" Milli asks, the softest smile spread across her face, waiting patiently for his answer.
"Elijah," he whispers, and as he does so, she brings him towards a room that eventually thins into a hallway. Mismatched frames litter the wall, some in black and white, others in color, a few rotting with age or fading from ancient Polaroids. It's all evidence of the Liaison pack.
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Canidae
Werewolf"Don't worry, kid. We're a family here." * Placed in the mountains of Texas, a pack of twenty-four thrives and depends on one another as their domesticated lifestyle intertwines with their own inherent behaviors. Join the Liaison pack and each of t...
