Hope(less) (4 page)

I got out of bed and got dressed knowing Sam would hear me
moving around.

That day, I met Paul and Henry.  Charlene tried talking me
into going out into the woods with them to learn more about the werewolf way of
life, but comprised by letting us lounge in the common room to talk instead. 
The common room served as a cafeteria and an entertainment room with sitting
arrangements scattered around the room.  It even had a pool table set in the
back corner.

Paul and Henry didn’t treat me like human boys.  As curious
about me as I them, they asked a myriad of questions.

“What’s school like?” Paul, the boy with dark hair and a
carefree smile asked while sitting on a padded dish chair close to me.

“You don’t go to school?”  I couldn’t believe it.

“Nah,” said Henry, a short stocky kid with bright blue eyes reclining
in the old leather chair across from us, “we get home schooled here.  It’s way
quicker to graduate since we can study at an accelerated pace because we don’t
have to break for holidays or anything.”

“That actually sounds pretty great… what school should be,
minus the no breaks part,” I cringed inwardly at the thought of school year
round.  “The majority of the teachers spend their time hating their jobs and
finding ways to be as disagreeable as possible while the students look at it as
a popularity contest and spend more time worrying about who’s dating who than
studying,” I explained.

“Date?” Paul glanced at Henry who wore an equally puzzled
expression.  “I heard Charlene talking about that once.  Sounds weird.”

“Really?  You guys don’t date?”  I didn’t ask what they did
to get to know a girl instead of dating.

As if reading my mind, Paul explained, “No, we get invited
to Introductions.”

“What’s that?”  Sam hadn’t mentioned anything like that to
me and I wondered if I should add this to his list of omissions.

“When a female comes of age, they’re brought to the Introduction
room where they can meet other werewolves they’ve never met before.  The Elders
are there to make sure the girl is safe and to give the guys a few minutes to
talk.  You know, to really get her scent.  When there’s a connection, you just
know and you claim her.  If not, the next group comes in for their chance.”

Sitting in the upholstered chair, I started to sweat. 
First, what did he mean by claim?  Second, they kept a girl in a room while guys
came in to look her over and smell her?  I reached for my water sitting on the
coffee table in the center of our little sitting arrangement and tried really
hard to calm down and not let my imagination run away.  My hand shook a little.

I knew I failed when Henry asked, “Hey, Gabby, you okay? 
Did Paul say something wrong?  Charlene said we could ask any questions we
wanted…”

They had no idea how foreign what they just said sounded to
me.

“Hey, Gabby, you don’t have to worry about Introductions if
that’s what’s scaring you,” Paul looked at me with concern.  “For you and
Charlene, the attraction works different.  She explained it to us when she said
that you were coming.  You guys have a level of appeal, or chemistry, with just
about all werewolves.” 
He is not helping
, I thought while he
continued.  “Because the level of attraction to you varies, it wouldn’t be safe
to put you in an Introduction room.”

“Yeah,” Henry agreed leaning forward on his chair with a
spark of excitement in his eyes.  “That’s when the mating duels happen.  It’s
rare with a werewolf couple, but when Charlene was first brought here, I heard
the guys went crazy because they didn’t know what was happening.  They fought
over who had the strongest tie to her.  But you don’t have to worry about that
with us.  Paul and I think you’re okay and you smell good and everything, but
we knew when we met you that you’re not right for us.  That’s why Charlene left
you alone with us,” he said.

They both gave me encouraging smiles as if their explanation
should put me at ease.  Werewolves were going to start fighting each other for
me?  No thanks.  My stomach churned.  They probably thought their explaining
things to me helpful, but the information they threw at me kept stunning me.  I
thought my pull wouldn’t work on werewolves, that there would be less of the
constant male attention.  But apparently, they just hid it better.  Sam hinted
that they possessed a keen sense of smell.  I hoped that all werewolves, like
these two, would use it to correctly determine my unsuitability.  I didn’t want
to be the right one for anyone at this point in my life.

“What did you mean by ‘claim’?”  My voice came out light and
airy with anxiety, but I needed to know.

“It’s when we bite our mate.  The bite draws blood, but
doesn’t hurt.”  Paul explained reassuringly.

“What!” I nearly shouted.  My freak-o-meter bypassed
meltdown.

“Oh, not for you, Gabby,” Paul said, quickly leaning forward
making shushing motions with his hands.  My head spun dizzily, no doubt all the
color had drained from my face.  “We can’t claim humans like that.  When your
mate finds you, it’s up to you to claim them.”

So, I would need to bite someone?  Not going to happen. 
Knowing I had control made it easier to calm down.

I heard the main door to the common room swing open and saw
Sam walk in with an older woman and another older man.  Sam nodded to me and
then moved with his group to another area of the room further away.  They sat
down and started talking.  Paul and Henry shifted their attention to the new
people, listening.  I couldn’t hear the conversation, but had no doubt they
could.  Just as I knew Sam would hear if I asked either Paul or Henry tell me
what they said.

I decided to calm down and change the subject, “What about
sports?  I noticed there are no TV’s in here.  Do you guys play or watch any
sports?”

“Nah, the television tends to hurt our ears, but we do like
to play football.  There aren’t enough of us for a team.”

The door behind us opened again and I watched two younger
werewolves, about our age, enter.  They glanced our way, but headed toward the
group with Sam.  I turned around and took another drink of water thinking about
this mate business.  According to these two, I needed to watch for a werewolf
that acted toward me as most human men would, intense and weird.

Sam startled me out of my thoughts when he spoke next to
me.  “Gabby, I’d like you to meet, Eric and Derrick.  They are the twin sons of
a couple that lives here.  They’re home from college and have to leave again tomorrow.”

I smiled and said hello.  They both nodded to me, but didn’t
speak.  Awkward.  Uncomfortable, I looked back at Sam who nodded at the two. 
They turned and left.  If they represented the normal reaction to me, I needed
to watch out for someone even more intense and weird.  Maybe I just needed a
plan to avoid them all.

Sam waited until they’d walked out of the room to explain,
“I want you to get to know the people who live here.  In summer, we’ll spend a
lot of our weekends here.”  He looked at Paul and Henry, “You two keep an eye
on her.  I’m counting on you to help explain our ways.”

Sam walked back to the group and I looked from Paul to Henry
with an arched eyebrow.  Was it just me or did that feel weird?  I wanted to
ask, but remained quiet.  I didn’t want anyone to overhear.  They both shrugged
in return.

Sam interrupted our conversation a second and third time,
each time bringing someone to introduce to me.  My mind caught on the word
‘introduce’.  Introduction.  I caught on even if Paul and Henry didn’t.

Paul and Henry’s assurance that I would never face the Introduction
room clicked everything into place.  Sam had started slowly introducing me to
the entire eligible male population of this little community.

After the third set left, I caught Sam’s eye.  “Sam, would
you mind showing me around outside for a bit?”  I stood and made my way to the
main door, not waiting to see if Sam followed.  After three months, I’d felt sure
enough of Sam that I risked coming to an unknown destination with him, alone. 
His actions and omissions devastated my confidence in him.

Already familiar with the layout of the compound, I didn’t
hesitate to walk out the front door and stride purposely toward the road
leading away from this place.  Sam didn’t take long to catch up to me.  If I
told him I wanted to go back to the Newton’s now, would he take me?  If he did,
then what?  I couldn’t stay there forever.

“Sam,” I said when we walked side by side, “I don’t want to
be on the streets, but that’s where I’ll go if you think you can pull this crap
if I move in with you.”  I didn’t look at him, I was too angry.  And scared.  “I
understand the condition of living at your place is that we come up here.  But
my condition is that you have to be completely honest about our purpose in
coming up here.  Each time,” I stressed.  “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“I’m sorry Gabby.  You can trust me.  I have your best
interests in mind.  This is another one of those things that is easier to
believe when you experience it first-hand.”  He kept pace next to me as I led
us down the old dirt driveway further away from the compound.

“No, Sam.  You need to lay it out for me straight.”

He stayed quiet for a few minutes and I wasn’t sure he had
anything to say until he actually spoke.

“Well, I heard what Paul and Henry told you.  That part’s
right.  We do Introductions for young werewolf females in a controlled way to
keep them safe until they find their mate.

“We learned from Charlene’s time here that you’d need to be
handled differently.  I told you that werewolves would find your scent
interesting.  Since we’re branching out into more urban areas, it would be only
a matter of time before you attracted attention.  So, we’d wanted to control
your Introduction.  A formal Introduction without mass challenges was out of
the question.

“This is the compromise; they come into the commons say
hello to you and then talk to the Elders.  Because the level of attraction varies,
we interview them asking them to explain their interest.  They must formally
request permission from me to come see you again if they think of you as more
than just ‘interesting’.  They are not allowed to approach you while you are on
your own.  If they were to approach me for a second meeting, I would speak with
you first before approving or denying their request.”

The light filtering through the canopy cast the road into
dusky shadow.  I turned to Sam, “What you’re saying is, eventually werewolves
would find me, but if I stay with you, you’d be my buffer?”  He nodded.  I
studied him, thinking.  “And I’d only have to say hi to these guys.  It’d be up
to me if I wanted to spend any additional time with them?”  He nodded again.

I liked Paul and Henry.  They oozed useful information and
didn’t react to me at all.  The ones I’d already met hadn’t seemed too
interested either.  When Paul and Henry had mentioned mating duels, I’d
imagined drowning in a writhing mass of fighting bodies, all in various stages
of shifting.  I still dreamt about Sam shifting.  The dreams and my fueled
imagination bothered me.  But since arriving, everyone remained in a single
form.  Nothing freaky happened.  The general population of werewolves couldn’t
be all bad.  I just didn’t like the way I had to meet them.  But I’d be better
off living with Sam knowing he’d keep the others away than to try it on my own
now that they knew I existed.

“Fine, let’s go back.”

Paul and Henry played cards when we got back, eating their
way through a stack of sandwiches set out on the coffee table.  They waved me
over and I gladly joined their game grabbing a sandwich for myself.  Several
more werewolves came in.  Sam led each one to me.  Most left after nodding a
polite hello.  A few asked for a second meeting.  Each time Sam would look at
me and, at the shake of my head, reject the request.  It relieved me to see him
keep his word, restoring some of my shaken confidence in him.

We packed up and left Sunday morning.  During the drive
back, I mostly paid attention to the scenery since I’d missed the majority of
it on the way there.  While I watched the trees flash by, I thought about the
weekend.  None of the guys I met seemed too upset over any type of rejection. 
For as much emphasis as they’d put on my smelling good to just about all werewolves,
their laid-back attitude didn’t make much sense to me.

“Why did they seem okay with their second request being
rejected?”

He answered, watching the road, “Although you smelled good
to them, they knew it wasn’t just right.  When it is right, they won’t give up,
which is why staying with me is so important.  We have laws that control
certain aspects of the social side of the pack.  One is that unmated human
females, like you, cannot be approached without the approval of the nearest Elder.”

“Then, why can’t you just tell them all ‘no’ for me in
advance so we don’t have to mess with this whole Introduction thing?”

“Because I have to give them that chance to see for
themselves that it’s not right.  Was it that bad?  Meeting people?  No one
treated you the way some human men have treated you.”

I couldn’t disagree.  “How often is this going to happen?”

“Once a month.”

I sat up straighter and said, “No way,” shaking my head for
emphasis.  It was a cool enough place, but sixteen hours of driving in a single
weekend every month would get boring.  “Once every two months.”

“Every five weeks, with flexibility to switch weeks if
needed,” he negotiated.

“Seven weeks,” I countered his offer feeling hopeful.

“Six,” he said with a sideways glance at me.

“Fine, every six weeks,” I compromised and added, “until I
graduate.  Then I’m going to college and won’t be obligated to take time out of
studying for dating, or whatever you want to call this, if I don’t want to.”