Mia Darien: Good Things

“Yeah, I care!”

I stopped walking. “Remy, you’re an asshole. I thought you were aware of it, but apparently not. You ride everybody, but then when they turn it back on you, the fangs come out and you’re ready to rip their throats out.”

He looked surprised. “Damn, I’m that bad?”

“Hell yeah. Nobody minds the jokes really, but you gotta learn to take that shit if you want to dish it out.”

Remy was quiet a moment, but then he nodded. “I feel you, cuzzo.”

“Good.” I walked off, and he followed me again.

“So now that we’ve got that out the way, are you gonna make me beta or not?” I growled at him and he fell back. “I’ll take that as a yes!” he shouted after me.

I didn’t stop to acknowledge his arrogant ass. Remy was the obvious choice for beta, but I hadn’t even come to terms with being alpha yet. I had a lot of thinking to do first, mostly about my ascension and pending metamorphosis.

To be alpha, I couldn’t stay the way I was. I was no bitch, but alphas had to be the strongest wolves in their packs or risk being dethroned by some ambitious ass subordinate and his homies. An alpha’s metamorphosis was initiated during a ceremony presided over by the king himself. That’s what Roman had meant by ‘soon.’ A letter would arrive in a few days stating the date and time of the ascension ceremony and Roman’s return. I really didn’t have that long to wait, especially since we didn’t have an alpha at all. If Uncle Bart was still alive and had only decided to step down as alpha, the ceremony could have been delayed for weeks, months even. But with no alpha, I had two weeks tops to accept my new role and prepare my mind for the metamorphosis.

Physically, a metamorphosis was brutal. I’d be out of it for days while my body transformed. Problem was, I’d feel every bit of it and would continue to suffer in silence until the process was done. For me, pain was just a part of life, but metamorphosis went beyond pain. It was physical devastation and I just wasn’t ready for it.

But ready or not, this was happening.

I was the new Wesley alpha and it was time to ascend.

The new school semester was about a week away so my days were still my own. I woke up just before sunrise the next morning and decided to go for a run. Normally, I would have dragged Remy out of bed and made him go with me, but this morning, I wanted to go alone. I’d barely slept all night because my mind was so busy running the possible scenarios of how my metamorphosis would end up. Was I freaked out? Hell yeah . It was times like this where I wished my dad was still alive to talk to. Six years had passed since he’d died and there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t wish I could take just one more run with him. If he’d been around, he would have helped me chill out and not be so anxious about the whole thing.

I stepped out into the cold, morning air and immediately shifted into my wolf form–a dark silver beast with patches of white on my paws and underbelly. Running as a human was lame and I got a much better workout as a wolf. I took off into the woods behind my cabin at full speed, and I didn’t slow down for anything, not trees or other forest animals. I was pretty sure I ran over a few squirrels, but I didn’t care. Nothing was better than this. Sprinting through the forest at a speed I could never reach as a human was exhilarating no matter how many times I did it. Twigs snapped beneath my paws as I dug in and pushed myself as hard as I could go.

Two hours later, I laid across my bed, exhausted but feeling pretty good. I showered, dressed, and then headed into town. Wesley College sat on the outskirts of Mirage surrounded by woods and not much else. The only semblance of civilization was downtown Mirage, if it could even be called that. I stopped to grab breakfast at one of the only food joints in town, Mama Patty’s Good Stuff. It was owned by one of the elders in our pack, Mama Patty, and everyone ate there every chance they got. The food was bomb and Mama Patty was hilarious. There were times where I’d sat there shooting the shit with her for hours just because. She was that amazing.

But that morning, I couldn’t stay and chat. I grabbed a couple of fried chicken biscuits to go, then headed to Genesis House, the retirement home in Mirage. I had been taught to always honor my elders and value their wisdom, so volunteering at the senior living home was a no-brainer for me. Besides, I found the elders at Genesis House entertaining. They wanted peace and quiet, but never even attempted to live up to their own expectations. They complained and argued with each other, and gave their caretakers one hell of a hard time. Elsie, my favorite, was the main shit-starter, and that morning, I found her in full rant mode as her nurse gathered up the dirty dishes from breakfast.

“They’re trying to kill me, Xavier!” she shouted the second I walked into the room.

“What happened this time, Elsie?” I asked, tossing my jacket over the back of the chair across from her.

“They want me gone early. Can’t wait for the cancer to take me!”

I smiled at Veronica, Elsie’s cute nurse. “What is this crazy woman talking about?”

Veronica held up the tray of dishes. “She thinks we’re trying to poison her.”

“They are! This slop they serve can’t possibly be considered healthy for anybody!”

“Yet I see you ate every bit of it,” I laughed.

“Well, what am I supposed to do? Starve?” She eyed the small paper bag I was carrying. “But if I had known you were going to bring me one of Patty’s chicken biscuits, I would have pretended to be asleep when Veronica came knocking.”

“I didn’t bring you a chicken biscuit,” I said with a wink. “These are both for me.” Elsie grinned.

“The food here is not that bad,” Veronica said. “I eat it.”

“And look at ya,” Elsie said. “Nothing but skin and bones! That’s because there’s not a drop of nourishment in this mess.”

“Veronica looks good to me,” I said with a grin. “Very good.”

She rolled her eyes. “Elsie, be nicer to X than you were to me. We need our companions and there are not a lot of good guys like him around Mirage.”

“Ha!” Elsie laughed. “You’d be surprised how many guys like him are around.” Elsie wasn’t a shifter. She was just...perceptive. She knew exactly what I was and that Mirage was full of people just like me.

With an unknowing smile, Veronica shook her head. “I’ll be back in an hour to take you to your treatment, Elsie.” She winked at me and then left. As soon as the door closed, I gave Elsie the chicken biscuit and looked through her old record collection while she gobbled it down.

“So,” she said once she was done. Her hazel eyes studied me. “What’s the news, mutt?”

“Nothing much,” I replied. “Kane has a mate now.” I didn’t want to dive into the details with her just yet.

“That’s a big thing for ya’ll, right?”

“A wolf’s mate is everything, yeah.”

“Then tell him I said congrats. When’s the wedding?”

“Hopefully never,” I muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” I returned Elsie’s records to their crate and sat down. “So am I reading to you today?”

“You’d better,” Elsie said, leaning closer to me. “But first, do that thing with your eyes again.”

I grinned and then closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw Elsie’s face light up. I’d shown her my wolf eyes, which were bright yellow with round black irises. In all the time I’d been visiting her, it’s the only part of my wolf side that I’d ever let her see.

“Hot dog!” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe I still get a kick outta that!”