Werewolf single dad 2, p.25
Werewolf Single Dad 2, page 25
“I imagine people who take black market steroids probably aren’t the type to care much about what I think,” I scoffed. “They’re probably lone wolves, and nothing I can say matters much to a lone wolf.”
“Alright, well, even if you can’t directly govern them, it is still your responsibility to protect your people from them,” Grace said. “I know you want to look after the territory you live in and Dayzee’s turf, but you don’t get to pick and choose I’m afraid. While you’re in possession of any territories, you have to do your best to look after the people who live in them. It’s an offense for an Alpha to not tend to his patches.”
“Okay…” I knew Grace wasn’t wrong, but I was hesitant as to what she was about to get me involved in. But then again, I was more hesitant to commit any offenses in the eyes of AWOO, because I knew the consequences. “What do you want me to do?”
“How you govern your territories is up to you, but I think you’re going to draw quite a bit of attention to yourself given your size, and if a rumor starts to spread that you’ve been taking L, then I want you to lean into it,” Grace said in a hushed tone.
“How and why would I do that?” I asked with my mouth agape.
“You’ll do it because it’s how you’re going to protect your packs from falling victim to a mob of crazed Jackal copycats.” There was a hint of bluntness to Grace’s usually-gentle voice now. “I haven’t seen you shifted, Mike, but in there you said you and Jackal were similar sizes. If that’s the case, and the wrong people-- or more so, the right people-- see how big you are, they’re going to want to know how they can get to your size, too. They’ll start approaching you and asking for a contact to your dealer, and when they do, I want you to set up a time and place and tell them you’ll bring your dealer. Then alert me, and I’ll get the undercover police unit down to bust the deal.”
“Aw, man,” I groaned. “You want me to rat?”
“I do,” Grace affirmed. “They won’t be able to pin it on you, though. I’ll get the guys at the detention center to boast about catching you, and I’ll make them say the dealer cracked.”
“Grace, I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a snitch,” I said with a frown.
“Staying complacent when you know people’s lives are in danger is just as bad as murdering them with your own hands.” There was a real fire to Grace’s voice now, and I could tell how desperate she was to enlist my help. “And you know that. L makes all werewolves who take it extremely violent. Violent to the levels that Jackal was. Violent to levels that mean no man, woman, or child is safe once those who are taking it decide they want bloodsport-- human or non-human. It makes them crazy, and if the shifters who have been taking L go on a murderous rampage, then AWOO will have a very difficult task in covering it up. There’ll be a nationwide lockdown and dogs on all our scents. Or maybe the human government will just decide we’ve blown our chance for a happy cohabitation and send us all down to the SRF.”
The SRF stood for the Shifter Reformation Facility, though it was most often referred to as The Pound, because shifters who went there seldom had much of a chance at reformation before they were ‘humanely dispatched’ by a small house of peers that included the judge, jury, and executioner who resided on the grounds there.
The last thing I wanted was to play any part in ratting out dangerous drug users, but I knew everything Grace had said was right, and I ultimately had no choice but to assist her.
“Alright,” I sighed. “I’ll do it. If anyone approaches me asking about any of those drugs, I’ll lure them in, and I’ll set up a sting. But I could really be sticking my neck out if I do this. I want you to promise me something in return.”
“I appreciate your help, Mike.” Grace bowed her head earnestly, and I could see the relief in her eyes. “What can I do for you in return?”
“You can take me off the yellow alert list,” I said. “I think I’ve proved I’m a good and cooperative citizen, and I don’t want to be sent to The Pound off the back of something stupid like a littering offense or missing an AWOO phone call just because no one’s taken me off the watchlist. Will you make me that promise?”
“Absolutely.” Grace nodded solemnly. “You have my word, Mike. As soon as we end up following a lead that’s come from you, I promise I will personally move you off the yellow alert list.”
“Great, then I’m happy to help,” I said, and I couldn’t help but smile. “And if you catch these guys thanks to me, I want you to make a new ranking up for me. Put me on the green alert list, or the gold star brigade, for shifters who provide an excellent service to their community.”
“Sounds like a good deal to me,” Grace chuckled. “I’m sure I can make it happen. Ah… Alright, Mike, I’m really going to be late now, so I’d better go. Thank you for all your cooperation today. I know we’ll be hearing from each other soon.”
“I look forward to it,” I said. “Have my sparkly gold star ready, yeah? Sheriff Mike is on the job.”
“I’ll have it specially made.” Grace smiled fondly, and she bowed her head in thanks. “Catch you later, Mike. And thanks again.”
“See you later, Grace,” I replied.
I watched Grace’s long legs walk her swiftly down the road until she turned a sharp corner and went out of sight.
Then I exhaled deeply and rubbed my hands over my face, and I was surprised to feel a jolt in my arm where that massive needle had gone in.
Ah, well. I guess if Grace didn’t have time for coffee, I’d just go alone.
I definitely needed one, I was still feeling a little bit woozy.
Or maybe it was the dread setting in about having to ship the local steroid abusers to AWOO when I saw them.
I could have just played ignorant if I came across any, but Grace was right. Werewolves who were furious by nature and had been taking black market steroids that made them even more violent was number one on the list of things I didn’t want on my streets, and even though I wasn’t particularly attached to most of my turfs and planned to sell them, I wasn’t the kind of person to act complacently in the face of danger.
No matter how tall and how many teeth that face happened to have.
I kicked a can of Sprite at my feet and dragged myself to Cafe Nero to get myself something tall, strong, and loaded with caramel syrup.
As usual, I caught the odd pair of flaring nostrils and widening eyes registering that I was an Alpha as I strolled through the bustling city streets, but I kept my head down and tried to avoid their gazes. In my learned experience, most Omegas found me very hard to resist, and the feeling was very much mutual. And it seemed if a meeting with me had even the slightest possibility of ending with me agreeing to father their children, Omegas were the most persistently outgoing creatures of all, and I absolutely didn’t have the energy to resist one’s charms right now.
Which was why it wasn’t exactly the best timing for me when I ran into Ava on the corner of the busy high street.
Oh, shit, she’s waving at me.
Aw, man.
Why’d she have to be so hot?
Chapter 13
“Miiiiiike!” The most excitable goth on the block came bounding up to me in her little leatherette tank top, and my eyes almost popped right out of my head.
“H-Hey, Ava!” I waved, and I had to swallow back the lump in my throat when I thought about the passionate intensity of our last meeting.
The very first time I met Ava, she was staring longingly at me from across the room at Full Moon Burger Co., and it turned out she had already sized me up as her next meal before pretty much inviting herself to join me at my table.
There was an instant sexual attraction between us, and though I didn’t realize it at the time, that was the first time I’d been in close proximity to an Omega in heat since I became an Alpha.
And that was the moment I really became a man.
Thankfully, though, as the mahogany-skinned beauty wrapped her arms around me for a greeting hug, I couldn’t feel the burning attraction between us, and I knew she was out of heat.
“Hiii!” Ava looked up at me with her gleaming chestnut eyes, which were lined in thick black eyeliner, and I couldn’t help but think she looked strikingly beautiful.
“Hey, Ava, fancy seeing you here,” I said coolly, and I gave the Omega a reciprocal squeeze.
“I know! I was just out and about running errands,” Ava said with a sparkling smile as she released me from her tight embrace. “I smelled you from down the street! The last time we met I was in heat, and it all got a little bit intense, didn’t it?”
“It sure did,” I chuckled in fond remembrance of that very intense moment.
“Well, you won’t have to worry about that happening again.” Ava reached into her black leather bag, pulled out a little black tin, and rattled it. “I’m back taking my heat suppressants now.”
“Ah, you don’t say?” I was suddenly reminded I really should pick up my scent suppressors while I was out.
“Yep!” Ava’s white teeth gleamed against her black lipstick, and I noticed she’d dyed the pink strands of her hair lilac now.
“Ah, that’s really sweet, Ava, I appreciate it,” I said with an earnest smile. “But you don’t have to go through the trouble of getting yourself back on heat suppressants for my sake.”
“No, no, I wanted to.” Ava put the tin back in her bag and tilted her chin confidently. “I’m very ready for a child, but I know our last meeting was all a little bit intense-- you said you’d only just moved here, and I’d never met an Alpha while I was in heat before since I’d always been on the pills. We both kinda lost control a little… it was all a lot! But I figured if I went back on the heat suppressants, we’d run into each other eventually, and we could talk calmly, get each other’s numbers, and take it from there. Though, I expected to see you at Full Moon sometime. You said you were picking up some shifts there? I’ve been in a couple of times-- not to see you! I just love the food. But you’ve obviously not been rota’d in yet.”
“Ah, yeah, it’s kinda worked out right now that I don’t need to work there,” I explained. “I’m currently trying to get a business deal to go through so I can live off that income.”
“Oh! Amazing! Well, then, just let me know where you’re taking me.” Ava winked. “I figure we can maybe go out a few times and really get to know each other, and then we can pick a time and a place that suits us both to mate. Though, of course, I’d need prior warning to come off the heat pills, and then we’d have to do it when I’m ready to receive, if you get my drift.”
“Wow, you’ve thought of everything.” I couldn’t help but smile, even if Ava was coming on a little strongly about having my child.
Though, in werewolf society, this was a commonplace arrangement between Alphas and Omegas: An Alpha needed to impregnate, and an Omega needed to be impregnated. And it didn’t need to go any deeper than that if either party didn’t want it to.
There wasn’t even really an obligation for an Alpha to be a part of his kids’ life. As long as I put a baby inside Ava, she would be happy, so we didn’t need to go on to be a bonded pair or anything. Though, I was still running on Beta mechanics for the most part, and the Alpha idea of having a kid and letting them stroll off into the sunset with a mother I’d never see again still didn’t sit right with me.
I’d admit it was still a little bit jarring and not the conversation I expected to be having right here in the middle of the busy street, but I liked Ava’s style.
“Ava, I absolutely get your drift, but I do have to pre-warn you that I’m totally not ready to impregnate an Omega yet,” I said. “And I know that sounds strange, and it’s totally not you. I just happen to think a father needs to be there for his child, and I’m just not at a stage where I could support another child right now. I don’t want to string you along.”
I didn’t want to crush Ava’s dreams of having my child flat, and I also wondered if maybe I’d get past my Beta morals and end up feeling comfortable with impregnating her without playing any further role in hers and my child’s lives. But that totally wasn’t where I was at yet, and I didn’t want to send mixed messages to the hopeful Omega.
“What a progressive mindset!” Ava chortled. “What’s the matter? Don’t you think I can raise an Alpha’s child on my own?”
“No, it’s not that at all,” I said. “It’s more--”
“I know, Mike, I’m sorry.” The black-haired vixen offered me a sincere smile. “I know you’re not from around here, it’s probably all a bit differently paced from where you came from. I felt the same when I moved here. And I remember you saying you’d just lost your wife? One of many, I assume? Do you bond with and marry all your partners?”
“N-No, just this one.” It was getting harder for me to explain my strange customs to Ava, because she didn’t know I’d recently been a Beta. “You’re right, things are different where I came from, and it’s taking me a bit of time to settle into the ways of the big city. But I appreciate the fact you went back on heat suppressants to match my comfort levels and are happy to take things at my pace. You really didn’t have to do that, and that really speaks volumes for what a loyal Omega you are to me. But remember, your body is your own to do what you want with.”
“Aw, shucks.” A satisfied grin lit up Ava’s painted face. “Thank you. But I want to take heat suppressants because I want us to get the chance to know each other, if that’s what you want to do first. Just hurry up and decide you want to fill me with your seed, though. I’m ready to have a baby, and you’re the best-looking Alpha I’ve ever seen-- think of how beautiful our babies would be! If you die and get replaced by an old fat hog of an Alpha, I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it.”
“Alright, alright,” I laughed. “But no promises!”
“That’s not a ‘no,’ so I’ll take it.” The sunny goth smiled up at me. “So what are you doing right now? I was just about to get a coffee, do you wanna join me?”
“No way, I’m on my way to grab a coffee, too.” I grinned.
“Is that fate or what?” Ava linked her arm around mine. “Mine’s a hazelnut latte. Let’s go.”
As the Omega and I walked arm in arm through the streets, I realized I was getting a different set of looks.
Where people ordinarily seemed a little bit startled upon seeing an Alpha on his own out in the wild-- maybe because my intentions seemed hard to read and people were speculating if I was out patrolling my borders or headed to a turf battle-- now, any Betas who were looking at me with Ava seemed to be looking me at us with a sense of admiration.
I even noticed a few nods of approval, as though our service to keeping the lineage of werekind alive was a commendable effort.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I liked it, and I ended up leaning into it as I puffed my chest out and scanned the roads dutifully before letting my lady cross.
But mixed in with the ancestral pride for keeping the heritage alive, I couldn’t help but feel a strange little mix of guilt, like I was doing Whitney wrong.
Obviously, an Alpha was meant to father as many children as he could and take as many partners as he could get, and Whitney and I had even had that conversation back at her place, so I knew she would think nothing of it that I was currently strolling through the city with another woman. But my lingering Beta mentality made it feel weird and wrong to be parading another woman around while my first new love affair was hard at work.
And then the guilt went one layer deeper, and I thought of what Katherine would say from the other side.
I started to imagine Whitney and Katherine being like Jacob and Robert Marley from The Muppet Christmas Carol: shackled together and wailing in torment at my wickedness and lamenting their wasted love for me.
But even I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of that one.
I’d bet if I could get both of them in a room with me and Ava right now, they’d all laugh and tell me I’m an Alpha now and should get on with it. But there was still a lot of personal unpicking of the rules I’d followed all my life before I was going to feel really comfortable doing this.
Although, Ava’s fantastically round ass in those black leather shorts definitely helped ease the burden.
Damn. You could bounce a quarter off that thing.
The goth chick and I approached the coffee shop, and we took our lattes to go in favor of sitting on a park bench, where we managed to properly get to know each other a little bit better.
Ava told me she’d just started working as a receptionist at a tattoo parlor four days a week, and she showed me a lower back tattoo she had of a bat surrounded by some swirls and stars.
I told her it was funny she had a bat tattoo, because when I first met her, I assumed she was a bat shifter because of all the dark clothing. Ava laughed and told me that was extremely presumptuous of me, and she’d be sure to tell her bat shifter friend who exclusively wore pink all about my insolence.
Though I hadn’t seen it, I’d seen loads of posts online, and Ava’s friendship with her colorful friend put me in mind of Enid and Wednesday from the Netflix show, Wednesday. Ava agreed, but she told me she hadn’t actually met her bat shifter friend in real life, they just chatted regularly on a The Great British Baking Show page on Facebook, and my entire understanding of goths and bats as I knew it was once again turned on its head.
Here I was assuming bats and goths only like watching The Vampire Diaries or Dragula, when really they were out here clinging to the edge of their seats hoping the amateur bakers’ showstoppers would survive being carried to the judge’s tables.
Then again, that Paul Hollywood guy had major Game of Thrones White Walker eyes, so I guessed Ava and her friend got their fix of the supernatural in there somehow.
Even though I decided to keep my transformation story on a need to know basis, I told the sunny Omega a little about my background. I told her I’d grown up in a small town in Wisconsin and fell deeply and helplessly in love with another woman, and we’d decided to get married and have kids. I told her we lived as a unit and even bought a house together, and I was there to support my family every step of the way. Then I explained how my wife had died in a turf war, and I’d fled Wisconsin with my children.
