Not Alone Anymore

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Riley's eyes moved on their own accord, staring at the girl talking to his leader like it was a totally normal thing to do. Seconds ago, the girl was talking to his friend, Lu, and when Lu saw the leader she made the wise choice to keep moving. But to his dismay, the girl didn't follow. She simply kept talking to his very dangerous leader like she was his best friend, using animated gestures and- did his leader just smile?

Chills ran down his scalp as his leader's mouth pinched up at the sides. What was he missing?

Riley turned away from the clearly-a-dream situation and saw Lu still walking back towards her house. He made a beeline for her, trying to act normal but still charging for the unsuspecting female. He tackled her, but grabbed her arms to make sure she didn't fall, and didn't waste any time trying to apologize to the sputtering girl.

"What was that? Who was the girl? Did you see him? He was smiling, Lu! Please tell me you know what that was about, because I've known him for like seven years and I haven't once seen him smile like that and-"

Lu shoved him away during his dramatic tirade and cackled at him, loving his distress.

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Shut up! Tell me what that was! It looked so unnatural!" He shivered and finally shut up himself.

Lu's eyes rolled, but he could tell she was also intrigued by the couple still talking near the edge of the packgrounds. "That was Mabel, you idiot. You were supposed to pick up the communications from her last night but you never showed up," Lu challenged, crossing her arms and giving him a 'you're in trouble' look. The chills came back to Riley as he realized his mistake, and he felt like vomiting. He couldn't believe he forgot about the pick up. It was time to say goodbye to ever having responsibilities again.

He let a shallow breathe out and decided to focus on that later. "Whatever, that's not what's important right now. Are Mabel and him friends? How did that even happen? Does she know what he-" Lu cut him off again with a shove to keep him walking with her.

"I don't know if she knows, but I don't think it's a problem. It's been years, and she really respects him for how he runs this pack. Her line of work is hard, but she likes our leader for his leadership abilities, and there's no reason anyone should bring that up with her. The guy could use a friend, especially when you aren't able to be that for him," Lu replied, as a defense for both her friend and her leader, and an accusation for Riley as a lame second in command.

Riley's eyebrows shot up. "I'm not there for him? You think that psychopath needs someone to hold his hand for what he did? No way, a friend is the last thing that should be around him."

They were getting closer to the pack housing and Lu's disappointment in her dumb second in command friend was getting to be too much after listening to him complain about something knew nothing about. "Fine, don't bother trying to befriend the guy. I don't even see why I befriended you, but he saved our lives, and the least you could do is not trash talk him for it. I've got to go work, so I advise you to pay attention to your work as well. Picking up the mail isn't that hard," she admonished as she made her way around to her little shack. Riley felt like his mother had just scolded him, and he didn't like the feeling. He felt guilty and a little gross for saying those things, but he didn't totally disagree with what he said. Their leader was a psychopath.

Lu pulled Mabel in for a strong hug, and whispered in her ear, "That's good to hear, because my "big bad alpha" is ready to get to work with you."

Mabel pulled back, confused by Lu's wording, and turned to see what was behind her. Standing about twenty feet away was, in fact, the "big bad alpha", and he seemed to have heard every bit of what she just said.

She decided to roll with it, because why not?

"Hey there, Big and Bad Alpha, you ready to get to work?"

Lu walked in the opposite direction from her crazy friend, laughing as she went.

Collin raised his eyebrows at that, and Mabel felt bad for getting caught talking about him. She ruefully grinned. "Sorry about that, I was only telling her about how much it means to me that you've agreed to help me out with this whole thing. There was no trash-talking involved, I promise." She hoped her smile would get her out of the awkward situation. Lucky for her, he gave a little smile back. Got him, she thought.

He continued to give that little smile as he relied, "I would sure hope not; I basically pardoned you from about a thousand crimes and I'm going to help you do about a thousand more."

She nodded at his compliance in a silent thank-you. "That's the spirit, man. I almost feel bad- I've been here a day and I'm already a bad influence on you."

He gave a quick look behind her and she turned to see what he was looking at. His second in command was running towards Lu and jumped onto her. They watched in curiosity as she shoved him away, and it looked like he was getting laughed at.

"Oh look, there's your dumb beta."

"Second in command."

Mabel turned back to him with a question on her face.

He let out a little breath. "I have a very specific labeling system in my pack for what our titles are. I am not their alpha, as most would call me. I am their leader. Riley is not my beta, he is my second in command. Alpha, Beta- those are ridiculous words that have been used for too many threats and abuses of power. A leader is much better for the pack than an alpha could ever be."

Mabel eyed him with curiosity. She agreed with him on all of it, of course. She was barely able to keep the contempt out of her voice every time she said "alpha". It was usually followed by a complaint every time she used it. She just didn't ever consider werewolves felt the same, let alone an actual alpha.

She nodded again, unsure of how to show her agreement. "Well, that kind of thinking makes you a great leader. I hope you know that."

His head snapped over to her, startled from absentmindedly watching his second in command and Lu shove each other around like children. He didn't offer a 'thanks' or anything, but she would take the reddening of his cheeks as better than that.

He swiveled his head away and looked back towards the direction of his small office. "Do you want to head back and draw out a plan for our next course of action? We have to plan out how we are going to start this. I'm not sure what direction you want to go in."

While he was looking at his office, she was looking at the woods bordering their pack. "How about we ditch the stuffy office and walk-and-talk this thing out?"

"Um, Walk and talk?" Was all he could say.

She quirked her head in the direction of the wilderness. "Yeah, I can't imagine much thinking can be done sitting in that same room everyday. You want to walk around and brainstorm outside? I always did much better with my homework when I was walking around."

He looked at her like she was crazy, and she knew he was thinking that very thing ever since she arrived, so she decided to make the decision for him. "Come on," she said as she started walking ahead of him onto a trail leading who-knows-where. "We just spent all night in your office, and I'm already bored even thinking of going back. Lets see what nature has to offer us." She didn't know what was going on with her ever since she got there. It was like something inside of her was trying to test his limits, instead of trying to respect them. She hated people who pushed people around like she was doing to him, but she couldn't stop herself from bringing this quiet male out of his comfort zone. She hoped he did the same to her; she was tired of being comfortable.

With a bit of a lost look, he followed her.