An Alpha without a Pack

Chapter 4

Several days have passed since the night I smelled blood in the store and I have not smelled it since. There were also no more strange noises in the kitchen at night. Jake came by almost twice a day, every day. He would try new pieces of candy every time but would go back to the strawberry rope, always saying that nothing was better than them. As Jake continued to visit the store, I began to let my guard down around him more and more. On some nights I even let him walk me to the inn I lived in.

One day while Mr. Smith was in the kitchen making candy, Sarah on the counter taking care of a customer, and me getting ready to make the weekly deliveries, three strange people walked into the store. The other customer in the store took one look over her shoulder at them and quickly left, growling. If the smell was not a dead giveaway, then the way they looked was a sure sign that they were from the Ruby pack. Fear enveloped me in an instant and I was frozen to the spot with the clipboard held tightly to my chest. The pencil I was using to mark the paper slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor with a smack, resulting in the wolves turning their attention to me.

The first person was a man who looked to be in his mid- forties but carried himself like he was a young fighter. His hair was dark with grey peppered along the edges. His skin was pale but the scars that were visible were stark white. The second person was a small female who looked like she could break me in half. Her hair was braided into dreads and each braid was a different shade of purple. Just like the older man, her skin was pale with white scars. The third person was a bald, black man who looked like the muscle of the group. He also looked the youngest. Every one of them had eyes the color of different shade of rubies.

After eying me, probably trying to figure out if I would be yummy to eat, the three of them walked right up to the counter with a predator's grace and I could have sworn Sarah shrank.

"Are you the owner of this tooth rotting place?" the older man asked in a rough voice.

Sarah, white with fear, shook her head slowly. "No, sir," she replied barely over a whisper. "Mr. Smith owns it. He's in the back."

There was a long pause while the three Vampires stared at Sarah. It took her a second before she realized that they wanted her to go and get Mr. Smith and she disappeared through the door to the storage room. I stood there still frozen with fear. The clipboard dug into my hands from holding it so tightly.

The three of them looked like murderers and I would bet my last dollar that they were. I never understood why the trade cities would allow wolves like them in. Some of the Ruby wolves are too unpredictable and could easily lose control.

The female of the pack twisted her head in my direction so fast I am surprised that it did not snap. She slowly stalked towards me, her red eyes burning with curiosity as she stared into mine. There was one scare on her right cheek that was jagged and looked new. The girl stood a couple of inches taller than me and as I looked up at her, I saw that she had a piercing in her left eyebrow.

"How long have you've been working here?" she asked in such a demanding voice that it made me jump.

It took me a second to speak past the lump in my throat. The smell of blood was so strong that I almost threw up when I said," For almost four years." It took every ounce of self-control not to gag or step back. The last thing I needed was for them to know was that I was beyond terrified. Although, I am pretty sure that they knew it.

The woman's eyes narrowed at me. "You don't smell like you belong to a pack. How long have you've been loner?"

"For seven years," I lied. I was about to tell her the same story I tell everyone, but Mr. Smith walked in.