Chapter 2

            Tia groaned as she saw a car outside the Omega house. Making sure she was in human form she walked the few doors down to greet the new human neighbors. It was only a week ago that Buster had announced he would sell to someone else.

            Being about an hour before dawn she couldn’t expect any of the pack members to be awake…or even humans. Why would they be awake this early and how did they know that a house was for sale so early?

            The Beta female had no clue but walked over to the monstrous car where an adult female human was dragging two chairs into the smallest house in the neighborhood. “Hello, I’m Tia,” Tia began, “Would you like some help?”

            The female stopped dragging the chairs and said, “No, thank you,” in a polite and exhausted tone before sitting on one of the chairs.

            “I’m Mora, nice to meat you,” she managed after a few moments.

            A little boy about eight years old came out of the house to grab some stuff and stopped when he saw Tia. “This is my eight year-old son Tom,” Mora explained, “My eighteen year-old son, Alex, is probably in the house putting the beds together.”

            As if on queue a nearly adult male human walked out of the house and stopped next to his brother after seeing Tia. “Why are you looking at me weird?” Tia asked them.

            Alex pointed to her head, “You have silver and brown hair, not to mention red eyes!” Tia smiled as he pointed out the traits that all werewolves carried when in their human form, wolf hair color and eyes.

            “Most of us have weird hair and eyes here, to us you’re the freaky ones,” Tia said as she smiled at the fact that humans did seem really weird. They slept twice as long, loved warmth over cold, and kept animals as pets to do whatever they pleased like slaves. Now Tia started to notice her fists tightening and her teeth grinding at the thought.

            “Um, Tia?” Mora said as Tia’s knuckles began turning white, “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Tia forced her face to display a smile, “Everything’s fine.”

            “What are you doing awake so early?” Alex asked as Tom hid behind his jeans.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Tia lied, she usually was awake this early. It was already four a.m.! It was the Beta’s jobs to wake up early, but Faolan was allowed to sleep in.

            “Let me help you with your things,” Tia said as she jumped into the truck and began pulling a small dining table out with one hand.

            She trudged it into the house and was still overwhelmed by the scent of blood. She dropped the table and fled outside into the cool morning breeze. “What is it?” Mora asked in alarm.

            “Don’t you smell that?” Tia asked her back. Alex walked into the house and took a deep whiff. “I certainly don’t.”

            Tia got up and shook herself, Of course they don’t smell it, they’re humans! She smiled and walked back into the house, trying her hardest to push the smell of murder to the back of her mind. Even in human form, werewolves had much superior hearing, scent, sight, taste, touch, strength, and agility.

            She lugged the table into the kitchen where Mora explained she wanted it.

            “This is so much bigger than our old house!” Tom said as he looked around. The Omega house was less than half the size of a regular house, which was two thirds the size of the Beta house. The Alpha house was practically as big as the hotel, twice the size of the Beta house easily.

            “Need some help?” Tia turned around and saw Lucky in the doorway, clearly smelling blood as well.

“Grab something out of the van, if you would please,” Mora said to him. With a flash the yellowish-blond werewolf disappeared into the van and came out lugging a couch twice his size with ease.

            “Just bring that in here,” Tom said as he pointed to a room where a big black box and two recliners sat. “What’s that thing?” Lucky repeated Tia’s thoughts when he pointed to the box.

            Mora, Alex, and Tom all burst out laughing, only stopping when they realized the two werewolves were actually confused. “That’s a television,” Mora explained. Tia remembered Sandanio the elder talking about them before.

            Tia slowly nodded and followed Lucky back to the large car. Only one small dining chair was left so Tia let Lucky take it in.

            “So that’s Lucky,” Tia introduced him to the humans as he set the chair next to two others at the table. Mora’s eyebrows raised slightly in shock as she shook his hand. Tom ran up to Lucky, “Can you show me around the town!?”

            The blond werewolf smiled and led him away. “Will you show me around?” Alex asked in a more polite tone. Tia’s heart dropped, she was hoping to get as far away from them as possible but now that couldn’t happen. Sighing she replied, “Sure,” and led him out the door in the opposite direction of Lucky.

            The first rays of dawn were creeping through the sky as they passed by Cougar at Regular house 2. “Hey Tia!” she called as she slid up to them. Her gaze hardened on Alex as she noticed he was human.

            “What are you doing with him!?” Cougar asked Tia in alarm. Tia whispered in her ear, “He’s moving into the Omega house.”

            Alex flinched when Cougar’s icy blue gaze fell on him again with even more hatred. “I’m Cougar,” she growled trough gritted teeth. Tia noticed that she was ever so slowly turning into a werewolf with anger that a human was replacing her brother.

            “Relax!” Tia jumped in between them and slowly patted Cougar on the back, “Just go tell Buster that our new neighbors are here. The light brown she-wolf was back to normal and stared once more at Alex before racing to the Alpha house.

            When they passed by the Beta house Tia could see Faolan peeking at them through the blinds. Obviously no one else cared for human neighbors any more than Tia did, but they had absolutely no choice.

            “Why don’t people like us?” Alex asked Tia. She thought for a good lie but couldn’t come up with one, “I don’t know.”

            “Listen,” Alex told her, “If you don’t want to be by me, I’m sure I can find my own way.” And he took off running.

            Sighing with relief, Tia ran behind a building and transformed into her silver wolf with a black, brown, and gray back. It’s about time she was free to do this again. She ran into the street until she found Cougar Coming back from the Alpha house. They both remained in their current forms as Tia said good-bye to her and began walking to James’s and Pippi’s pelt store. They’ll occasionally buy animal pelts from human hunters in Otsana and sell them to other humans or werewolves.

            Tia froze when she saw Lucky, Tom, and Alex all standing in the corner, looking at a wolf pelt that a hunter brought in a few years ago. “This would be a great blanket, wouldn’t it?” Alex asked Tom.

            The two humans were marveling at the price of $100. It seemed pretty high, but a wolf pelt was worth a lot to humans. James and Pippi just wanted to get rid of it.

            Lucky was acting extremely nervous; Tom must have pointed out the shop and begged they go in. James was at the counter with Pippi, not noticing Tia halfway through the doors. That is, until Tom turned around and squealed with fright. Now was the time to flee into the forest.

            Tia pelted through the street and into the woods before Alex or Tom could recognize her. Then again it isn’t very easy to recognize a werewolf when you see one, at least for a human. She turned back into a human and smiled as she ran to the hotel to visit Moon. The family of five and their three dogs were just leaving in their car when Tia passed through the doors.

            “Hi Tia!” Akamauro exclaimed as he flung himself into her arms. Little pup was only seven years old. “So what brings you here Tia?” Moon asked as she jumped over the counter and landed next to her son. Seven flew over it right behind her and crashed into a vase.

            “Go swim in the pool!” Moon yelled at her pups. The two excited werewolves turned into wolves and crashed through the doors before sliding into the pool. Tia could hardly contain her laughter at their energy.

            “Is it true?” Moon asked when the doors shut firmly behind the pups.

“What?” Tia asked her in reply.

            “That humans moved into the Omega house!?” The hotel owner shrieked.

            Tia nodded and looked down at the floor. It was most likely to happen, but you couldn’t blame them for being upset at the news. Before they just had to be careful about humans visiting the hotel, now this?

            After a minute or two of thought Tia turned around and bumped into Alex. “Sorry,” she said as she scooted around him and ran out of the doors once again. They just keep popping up wherever she happens to be standing! But she could still make it into the Beta house without so much as the scent of a human.

            Tia slumped next to the door and put her head on her knees. After a while she heaved herself up and managed to look out the window to see Tom carrying a folded white wolf pelt, not the one he was looking at, it was a pup’s. Funny how much the coat looked similar to Bart’s though.

            She let a growl pass her lips at the thought of those three humans with their silly firesticks, ready to blast anything at a moments notice if it has fur and moves.     Tia slipped into the kitchen and shuffled through the cupboard for something to eat. After seeing nothing but bananas, apples, and pears she decided to grab the five pounds of deer meat from the fridge and cook it up. What was the point of Niku being a butcher? Any werewolf could simply hunt down their own prey if needed.

            Once the meat was cooked Tia divided three pounds of it equally on six pieces of bread she had bought from Cougar about six days ago. Next she put a layer of Swiss cheese and another piece of bread and let the cheese melt for a few minutes. During that time she made the rest of the meat into burgers for Faolan when he came back from wherever he was.

            In a werewolf’s human state, raw meat was just as dangerous to them as it was a human’s body, and cooked it was so disgusting to them that it had to be eaten on or with something. Their appetites were just as large, allowing them to consume a lot and survive a long time without food.

            Soon she settled down into a chair and ate each burger one by one until there was nothing but Faolan’s burgers left. Tia stretched her arms behind her back and heard a knock at the door. As she looked out the window she saw Mora, Alex, and little Tom with the wolf pelt draped over his head. She opened the door and put on a big smile.

            As Mora put on a smile as well, she said, “We wanted to go out and explore the forest and since we don’t have any weapons to protect ourselves with, we thought you could be our guide and get us through safely.”

            Tia nodded and locked the door behind her as she left. She hated that they were around her house, rubbing their scent over everything, but she was tempted to see what humans did in the wild without weapons. And besides, Makui and Buster would be very upset if she let them go out there and die because of a bear or something.

            The werewolf kept her human ears twitching from side to side in search of any sounds that could mean danger. Tia led them through the forest along a trail that she usually used to get to the hunting grounds. She smiled to them as they came up to the edge of a meadow with a herd of whitetail deer nesting among the long, golden strands of grass. The humans gaped in amazement at being within fifty feet of wild deer.

            Tia laughed to herself when she realized how easy it was to make a human content in wilderness. They wouldn’t stop staring at them! She grabbed hold of a tree limb and hauled herself up to sit in the fork of two branches so she could see any dangers. She laughed once more when she saw Faolan and Piper stalking a big buck on the edge of the heard in their wolf forms. Obviously those burgers weren’t enough. The russet male and the golden-brown she-wolf were at the opposite end of the meadow.

            “Come up here!” Tia called down to the humans in a low voice, knowing how much some humans loved the sight of wolves. She had even seen a little human girl at the hotel with a complete obsession of wolves, with a costume and everything.

             Alex clambered up to a branch just below and helped Mora and Tom up with him. They gazed at the two wolves, obviously excited to see a hunt.

            What’s so exciting? It’s just our food and how we get it, Tia thought to herself as she watched the werewolves.

            Tom squealed, “Mommy, are those wolves hunting!” and Mora nodded with gleaming eyes.

            Faolan plunged into the mob of animals as Piper waited for the buck to come thundering out at her. When it did she lunged forward and sank her teeth into its neck until it crashed to the ground. Tia suddenly noticed that Tom was out of the tree and slowly walking up to them with the wolf pelt somewhat disguising him.

            Piper lifted her blood-red muzzle from the carcass and smiled when she saw the eight year-old trying to pretend to be one of them. Then Tia saw that Alex and Mora had done the same but both grabbed big sticks and were heading out to ‘save’ Tom from them. But that also meant Faolan and Piper could get hurt so Tia turned into a wolf and leaped off the branch towards them.

            She snatched the stick out of Alex’s hands and pinned him down while Piper grabbed Mora’s and Faolan pinned her down. Alex recognized Tia from when she was a wolf in the pelt shop and tried to heave her off in failed attempts to get free. Tom was pounding his meaty fists on Tia and screaming at her to let go of his brother.

            She obeyed for the sake of the pack and let Alex, Tom, and Mora launch up the tree once more where they soon found out Tia was no longer there. The other two werewolves seemed to be enjoying scaring the three humans. Tia found it pretty fun too, but didn’t leap onto the branch, that would be a bit too much. If the human family had known anything about actual wolves, they’d know that they can’t climb trees.

            Tia watched as Alex grabbed Tom and jumped into another nearby tree and helped his mother across next. Now was the time that Tia would scare them. She jumped up the tree only seconds before Mora made it to the next, then fell back down, unable to reach a branch. Then she took a flying leap to a branch by Alex.

            Obviously they knew they were beaten, Tia, Faolan, and Piper had had their fun with them. Tia slipped behind a tree and transformed again before waving up at them with a terrified expression on her face. The other two werewolves knew that their time was done as well so they went back to their carcass.

            Tia helped the three humans out of a tall birch tree and ran through the forest, acting as terrified as they seemed to feel. As soon as they made it back to town, the humans raced to the Omega house and disappeared. That was fun.

            Tia remained at the edge of the forest and looked up at the horizon to see the golden sun slowly sinking below the hills and trees. If Tia knew enough about humans, she knew that those three were probably gonna be going to bed before the sun even disappeared. She was glad that she didn’t need as much sleep.

            Tia was starting to feel hungry again and decided to head back into the forest to hunt. Perhaps Faolan and Piper still had some deer left to share. But by now they must have eaten their fill and brought the meat to Otsana to sell to Niku. But it isn’t that difficult for her to hunt in the night. Her amber eyes gave her slight night vision and that was all she needed.

            She turned into a wolf and turned back around to slip through the forest toward other hunting grounds even further north because Faolan and Piper scared the deer away from the hunting grounds earlier. But she decided that it had only been about a half-hour so it would be too easy to catch their scent and follow the herd.

            When Tia made it to the meadow she searched for any signs of danger before lifting her nose into the air and following a strong whitetail deer scent trail west. At every tree she’d check for a scrape. At every other time she’d check the forest floor for possible tracks or droppings they might have left.

            Soon, Tia saw them ahead. They were feasting on the leaves on the trees that were starting to die for the year, forcing most of the deer to peel off the bark of the trees. Tia looked throughout the group for the perfect prey until she spotted a big buck that was slightly limping on one of its forelegs.

            Tia burst from the bushes and gave chase to the slower buck that limped more and more with every step until the werewolf brought him down to the ground with a thud and killed it off. As she settled down to eat she noticed a snare trap a few feet away. No doubt a hunter had set it up earlier to get some fresh meat. But as Tia stepped up to it she noticed it was a bit more complicated and seemed very strong if set off. He must have come into the forest to try and capture wolves or even bigger animals.

            She sniffed the trap and confirmed that an a human from a cabin not far off had set it up and only about ten minutes ago. Tia immediately swiveled her ears in every direction for the sound of a human trampling through the woods and found none. She let her amber gaze slide around the forest floor and even up in the trees until she was certain there was nothing nearby before starting to devour the carcass of the whitetail deer.

            When she had eaten her fill there were only two hind legs that still had meat. She took a long stretch and began dragging the legs back to Otsana, forgetting about the snare until she got her right hind paw caught in the ring of rope. The hunter wasn’t stupid when he set up an easy to see snare.

            Having no other choice, Tia swung up and snatched the rope in her jaws. She suddenly realized it was a very well-made rope that would take an entire day to gnaw through. She started to turn into a human until she heard a human walking towards her. She instantly let go of the rope and remained in wolf form in case the human could see her now.

            A human male emerged from behind a tree with a sharpened stick and a steak knife. Really? Tia thought, you can’t expect to kill a wolf with a knife, even if they are caught in a snare! She swung forward quickly and snatched the knife from his right hand in her mouth. Then she swung up and sawed through the rope very quickly and dropped to the ground. Perhaps you could kill a wolf with a knife that sharp.

            At this point he had recovered the knife and was slowly backing away from Tia, occasionally glancing backwards to make sure he wouldn’t trip. When he was a good distance away, he turned around and bolted in the opposite direction of Otsana.

            Tia smiled and continued dragging the two deer legs in the direction of her town, having the wisdom to turn human so as to avoid another incident like that. She walked over to the butcher where she saw Niku at the counter twiddling her thumbs, obviously bored out of her mind. Slapping the two deer legs on the counter, Tia said, “How much?” She was asking how much money Niku would be willing to give her for the legs. The butcher just tossed a ten dollar bill on the counter and looked away.

            “Okay,” Tia began, “What’s wrong?” Niku looked up at her and said, “Humans.”

            Now Tia was really confused about why she was upset, “The humans can’t hunt as easily so they’ll probably buy meat from you!” Niku still didn’t look excited about it for some reason. “But it’s not all about the money, it’s the secrecy, and everyone else is sad and it like, lowers the mood everywhere!” the butcher exclaimed.

            Tia smiled and said, “I know what will make you feel better….”