Mia Darien: Good Things

I laughed. “Me neither. I would think the wolf thing would be old news to you by now.”

“How could such a thing ever be old news, boy?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s just old news to me. I don’t even think twice about it.”

“I would think none of you would. But to us humans, you’re like alien creatures to us.”

“Aliens!?”

“Or something like it. You’re just cuter.”

I laughed but then a moment later, I got serious. “So how are the treatments going?”

“Oh, about as expected.” Elsie rubbed her bald head which was wrapped in a colorful scarf. “They’re eating me alive.”

I shook my head. “I hate that you have to go through that.”

“Me too. That’s why I’m giving them up. This is my last week.”

“Good.” This announcement should have really hit me hard, but all I felt was relief. Chemotherapy was about as bad as the cancer itself, if not worse. Elsie had always hated the treatments and if this would help make the days she had left a happier time, then I was all for it.

“Xavier.”

“Yeah, Elsie?”

“You know you’re my favorite mutt, right?”

I grinned. “Yeah, Elsie. I know.”

“You gotta promise me something, boy.”

“Anything.”

“You gotta promise that when this cancer takes me, you’ll take care of Cynthia.” Cynthia was Elsie’s parakeet. I thought she was nothing but a winged noise box, but Elsie thought she was a feathered angel. Couldn’t tell her nothing about her bird.

“Of course I’ll take care of Cynthia for you,” I said with a cheesy smile, eyeing the cage where the bird was napping.

Elsie’s eyes narrowed. “You’d better not eat my bird!”

I burst out laughing. “I promise I won’t eat Cynthia. At least, not without frying her up first.”

“You ain’t shit, boy!” Elsie laughed and I laughed some more with her.

“Now,” I said. “Do you want me to read to you or not?”

“I certainly do. I’ve picked out a new one for you too. It’s over there on my dresser.”

I rose to retrieve the book. Once I saw the cover, I shot Elsie a look. “The Three Little Pigs is not new.” I’d read it to Elsie at least fifty times. Any books with wolves, full-length novels or picture books, were her favorites.

“So I lied,” she said. “Sue me. All I know is that you’d better do the voices. Growls, barks, woofs, oinks, all of it.”

I sighed. “Would I ever read the book any other way?” Elsie smiled and settled back to listen. Halfway through, I stopped reading because my heart just wasn’t in it. My mind was still on the trial, but even more so, the verdict and my pending metamorphosis.

“Elsie. There’s something I’ve got to tell you.”

Elsie peeked at me through one eye. “Juicy gossip?” She sounded hopeful.

“Real men don’t gossip. But I have an interesting story to tell you.”

She grunted as she sat up straighter. “So you did have news. Spill it.”

“It’s about Kane,” I said. “He broke our treaty with the Gray pack.”

Elsie was quiet while she processed this. I could tell she was working out the details. Cancer had incapacitated her body, not her mind. She was as sharp as ever. “His mate is a Gray girl.”

I nodded. “The trial was yesterday. Roman was there.”

“The king?”

“Yup.” I explained what had happened during the trial.

“So who’s gonna be alpha if not Kane?”

I lifted my eyebrows in answer.

“ You? Well, hot dog! That’s great news!”

“No, it’s not. I’m not ready to be alpha. I don’t deserve it.”

“Boy, hush your mouth. You’ll make a great alpha.”

“You think so?”

“A good boy like you? I have no doubt. You’re smart and you have a good heart. From what Darien tells me when he visits, you’re not just a cousin but a best friend as well. I think he and the others would follow you to the ends of the Earth.”

I thought about that for a minute and realized she was probably right. ”Thanks, Elsie.” She nodded with a smile.

“So when will all of this be official?”

“Soon,” I said. “There’s going to be an ascension ceremony where I’ll have to go through a...metamorphosis.” I paused. “I won’t be able to come see you for a few weeks after.”

Elsie looked at me. “It’s going to be that bad, baby?”

“Yeah. It is. I won’t...I won’t look the same.”

“I picked up on that. That is what metamorphosis means, ain’t it?”

I smiled. “Yeah. But what if they don’t let me in to see you because they don’t recognize me?”

“Hmm, good point. Guess you better come back with a good cover story to explain the changes.”

“Great,” I huffed. I couldn’t imagine any excuse being convincing enough to explain how I had changed so drastically in only a couple of weeks. Even plastic surgery as an excuse wouldn’t hold up once they really thought about it. But I was going to think of something. Being alpha wasn’t going to get in the way of my being a companion at Genesis House. I refused to let it.

I read two more books to Elsie, then I headed home. I would have stopped by to visit my mother, but she’d gone out of town with her mate, Nathaniel, for the weekend. So I headed back to the Wesley campus and spent the day in the library to continue mapping out the trip around the world I planned to take in a few years.

Late that night, I was woken up by someone banging at my cabin door. Cursing, I got up and answered it, ready to beat down whoever was on the other side.

It was Remy.

“Why are you banging on my damn door like that?” I asked him. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Kane,” Remy said. “He’s woken everybody up looking for a fight. With you. ”

I dragged my hands over my face. “Damn, I haven’t even been the alpha for a day yet, and I already have fools trying to challenge me!”

“I know, but Kane has realized this is the only way he’ll ever be alpha. He thinks that if he goes through metamorphosis, he can take on Clarence.”

“Is he out of his damn mind!?” I shouted. “Clarence Gray has twenty years on him! He’ll break him in half!”

“ I know this, but Kane doesn’t seem to care. All he can think about is Aspen.”

I growled. “This mating shit is really starting to piss me off.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“Answer the damn challenge, what do you think?” As alpha, I had no choice, metamorphosis or not. If a subordinate issued a challenge, lycan politics dictated that the alpha had to step up or step down. If they bitched out, their pack had the right to vote them out as alpha. I wasn’t going to let this happen my first day on the job, not that my pack would ever vote me out. But if I didn’t fight Kane tonight, I could look forward to being challenged on the regular in the future.

“Damn!” I pushed past Remy and stormed outside into the darkness.

All of the pack members who lived on campus, guys and girls, were gathered in the clearing behind the student cabins belonging to the college’s benefactors, which we called “the dell.” Most benefactor’s kids attended other universities so the cabins remained empty for the most part. The pack usually came together here for wolf games, which ranged from wrestling as wolves to bare-knuckle boxing as humans. But tonight, the dell was going to be a battleground and I planned on establishing my authority using Kane’s face.

My cousin paced the dell, huffing and growling like he was hopped up on something. Remy went to stand with Darien and Foster and I stepped up to confront Kane. The entire pack fell silent.

“Heard you’re looking for a fight,” I said.