Outsiders
1

I was nearly dancing on my toes as I stood waiting my turn behind the couch. We had a shot at winning this time. Scott had survived the underground and was climbing up into the alley maze. That was my forte. I was next up when he died, and I knew every twist and hiding place in the alleys. Team Thrasher was killer, but this time my team, Mayhem Madness, might just beat them. Kitchen clean-up for a week was on the line and the week in question was summer solstice week. It would be totes major.

Carson elbowed me in the ribs with a big grin. He knew I was unstoppable in the alleys. Our side of the big screen exploded red as Scott’s character took a head shot from an enemy to eliminate his last life. I got ready to jump over the couch to take the headset to put me in the virtual world.

‘Cassie. Main hall.’

I froze as the voice rang in my head. I shook my head to reconnect with the game in front of me.

“Sorry.” I said, sprinting for the stairs out of the basement, “I’ve been Called.”

I heard groans behind me, actually from both teams. They knew I couldn’t ignore a Call. Well, you could but I didn’t know what the consequences would be, and I wasn’t about to replace out. I had recognized Lieutenant Connor’s voice, and he was the Alpha’s number two. I was number nothing in this pack. I hadn’t been born into it or married into it. I had been picked up as a stray on pack land and brought to the house to answer for myself. Since I didn’t know jack about being a female Werewolf, I was allowed to stay and learn the ways of the force, so to speak. I was almost fourteen at the time. I’d just never left.

Now Connor had requested me in the main hall. I couldn’t scamper fast enough. I mean, at least he had Called. I wasn’t sure whether he could Compel like the Alpha supposedly could, but I had no desire to get evicted or whatever else my brain conjured up as punishment for misbehaving.

I had to wait my turn with a bunch of guys getting instructions from Connor. Seemed like he was sending out extra patrols and sentries. A patrol is how I got found back in the day. The pack is protective of their solitude. The vast acreage in northern Colorado is patrolled constantly to turn aside hikers and the lost. It is fenced and actual cattle graze on some of the land to maintain the pretense that it is a ranch. Motorists are courteously herded back to the main roads. Something was happening to create this extra security.

“Cassie.” Connor said giving me a nod, “We have a bit of a situation you may be able to help with.”

“Whatever you need.” I said.

I meant it. I had been on the far end of summer wondering how I was going to make it alone through winter in the woods when I’d been found and herded by a pack of wolves to the sprawling Were mansion. That had scared me to death. My survival up to that point had been stealing from campers and a summer hours convenience store. I had been imagining me dead or in jail when I’d been found. Eternally grateful was about my state of mind.

“Some of the boys took out a kid to teach him to hunt. They were feasting on a deer when a woman came up. Kid shifted right in front of her, covered in blood. She fainted and they brought her back here.”

He shook his head. It was one of the nightmare scenarios. What do you do when you’ve been outed to the world? It would only be worse if she had caught it on a cell phone. Even dumb me knew that we were a Secret, capital S, from the rest of the world.

“She woke up and is in hysterics. Every time she looks at anyone, she starts screaming about blood and fangs and …” he blew out a breath, “Of course, this is the day nearly every female went shopping.”

I nodded my head. Now it made sense. I’d been invited along, of course, for the day long excursion into Denver. It was a massive mani-pedi, hair style, clothes shopping event for the solstice parties. I politely passed. First, all those pretty colors they painted their nails with disappeared with the first shift into wolf. So, what was the point? I kept my thick, brown wavy hair nearly shaved over my ears and floppy on the top of my head. I saw some movie star with a style like that and liked it. Didn’t have to take any time styling and gooping product in it. Clothes? Nah. I’d take my trusty jeans and t-shirt collection. I could peal out of them in a blink and go wolf without worrying about my precious couture.

And summer solstice was supposed to be a celebration of food and excess. A time of not worrying about anything but having fun. I’d been taught that it dated back to when Were hunted and this full moon marked the beginning of the season of plenty when wolves would gorge and fatten up in preparation for the coming winter. Now it was just a week-long party that culminated in the glorious full moon howl.

I know the girls were getting prettied up because all the guys came back home for the event, back from college or jobs or wherever. It was a major homecoming. The girls were all looking for that elusive forever mate that the books in the library talked about. I was leaning toward those being fairy tales right up there with Hansel and Gretl. I wasn’t tossing love out as a possibility, but that soul mate stuff seemed a bit far-fetched. Maybe old-fashioned. Just some way to insure little wolves got made and protected.

I mean, sex was fine. It didn’t ring church bells and send choirs singing for me but maybe that was because of the partners I’d picked. Not many. I wasn’t into quantity. As a matter of fact, I had a drool-worthy at the top of my fantasy list. He was the best friend of the Alpha’s son and therefore, he might as well live on Mars instead of up on the fourth floor as far as I was concerned. Our social circles would not bounce against each other let alone our bods, and my fingers would never tangle in his soft flowing brown locks. I don’t know why long hair on guys turned me on but just looking at Bradyn was worth a sigh.

“Cassie?” Connor said.

I reined in my imagination with a cheek reddening start.

“With everyone coming home, we don’t have an empty closet for this girl. So, I had to put her in your room. And I figured since you’re an outsider and female, maybe you can calm her down before I send in a medic with a sedative. Willing to give it a shot?”

“Uh, yeah.” I said softly.

I was recovering from the gut stab his word ‘outsider’ had given me. It’s how I always felt but I hadn’t expected it out loud from someone else. I wasn’t one of the guys because I was female. I wasn’t one of the girls because I got bored when they went on and on about guys or makeup or clothes. No one excluded me. I got invited to play video games with guys or go on hunts unless it was a guys-only kind of thing. The girls would usually ask if I wanted to go in on their lunch excursions or endless shopping trips. I was included for movies. But I always felt like there was a sheet of glass between me and everyone else. Like I was watching most of the time, instead of part of the group. And there were times, I was forgotten, like I was invisible. Like not inviting me to Sun Li’s baby shower or Tran’s wedding. And now, without asking, Connor had put a hysterical human in my room. Would he have done that to anyone else who was actually a real member of the pack?

I turned and walked back down the hall to the kitchen. I got out a bottle of water and snagged a few chocolate chip cookies. Everyone liked Mama Vera’s cookies. That should be enough to calm anyone down.

I shook off my gloom. I had been given a job. It was kind of a first. Normally, I was just hanging around. Time to meet and greet the girl.