Return of The Alpha

Payton weaved around the tables, filling cups with hot coffee. She smiled and nodded to the townsfolk of Sheridan, Colorado who had come into the diner for their evening meal. The season had just ended for tourists like the hikers mainly who loved to take in the sweeping vistas of the Rocky Mountains. They’d gone from a packed house every night to a few visitors passing through. Payton liked talking with outsiders, liked imagining a life away from the Sheridan Pack. Nothing really held her there, not even her parents.

A cacophony of conversation scattered around her. Most she drowned out, some she replied to with a smile or a non-committal response. She’d learned long ago no one really valued or wanted her opinion on things. She might have been born into a shifter family, but she wasn’t one of them. Even though she was pack, she had a rare disorder of having a recessive gene that didn’t allow her to shift. To the people of Sheridan, she was an anomaly. To her parents, a disappointment.