Published: July 3rd 2023, 2:00:07 pm
My shoulders burn as I hurry into the human apartment building, and I shoot the wolf who opens the door for me a grateful smile before rushing up the stairs. Neither the wolves nor HPAW celebrates holidays, but I still think this will be a fun surprise. Easter seems like a fun holiday, and I hope the small gift baskets I made will cheer everybody up.
They’re full of candy, and I tried to find a small personalized gift for each marked human. They still don’t interact much with me, but I’ve learned bits and pieces about everybody these past three weeks.
Plus, I got a lot of help from the few wolves who have gotten to meet their mates. The humans are much more open around them than they are to me. I’m not surprised.
“Do you need help?” Tommy, the bulky wolf Caleb frequently orders to follow me, asks.
I shake my head, only slightly embarrassed by my panting. These baskets are heavier than I thought they’d be.
“No, thanks,” I huff.
Tommy purses his lips, clearly displeased by my answer, before hurrying ahead and opening the common room door for me. I feel bad that Tommy’s forced to follow me all day, and I don’t want to make matters worse by making him help me complete my errands.
I’m more than capable of carrying these baskets upstairs myself.
The room’s attention quickly shifts toward me as I burst inside—panting and sweating—and I shoot everybody what I hope looks more like a smile than a grimace as I shuffle to the nearest table. My shoulders burn as I lift the bags the baskets are in and set them on top.
“Don’t touch these,” I shout, jerking my thumb toward the baskets. “I’ll be right back.”
I’m sure the humans will look through these bags the moment I step out of the room, but I hope they’ll lose interest and leave them alone once they see the baskets. It’s wishful thinking, and I debate asking Tommy to stay behind and keep everybody away before deciding against it.
Caleb’s put Tommy under strict orders to remain by my side, and he’s been extra testy since another shipment of HPAW explosives was found yesterday. He’s terrified HPAW will find a way to get their hands on me again, and he’d probably lock me up inside the safe house if he weren’t so afraid of making me angry.
I rush to my car and grab the rest of the baskets before shutting my trunk and hurrying back inside. Tommy opens the doors for me again, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see the bags untouched when I step back into the common room.
“What are those?” Jack asks, peering at me over the back of the couch.
He’s almost always in here, especially after his interview.
My lips curl as I realize his arm is thrown around the shoulder of a certain brown-haired female wolf. She’s practically sitting on his lap as they watch the TV together, and she’s absolutely beaming as she turns toward me.
I’m happy to see it.
Next to them is Bells. She’s sitting on the other side of the couch, and she pointedly avoids looking in my direction as she glares at the TV screen. I’ve heard from others that she’s quite pleasant to be around, but I haven’t personally seen that. It seems she’s got beef with me as well as Adam.
I bet she blames me for HPAW’s execution attempt.
“Happy Easter, everybody!” I shout, bringing my hands together with a loud clap.
There are about twenty people in the room, but only six are turned in my direction. The others are working hard to pretend I don’t exist. I sigh.
“I have presents!” I try.
That seems to do the trick, and within only a few seconds, I’ve got twenty humans slowly sauntering in my direction. They’re doing their best to act like they don’t care, but I can see the gleam in their eyes as they look between me and my bags.
I never received a present before meeting Caleb, and I’m sure plenty of these humans have never gotten one either. HPAW didn’t exactly believe in gifts.
Tommy steps closer as I begin pulling the small baskets out of my bags, his hand just barely grazing my lower back. He gets anxious whenever I’m too close to the marked humans, and I pretend not to notice how the few other wolves in the room take it upon themselves to place their bodies between me and the humans.
“Easter is a religious holiday, but I read that it’s typical for humans to receive baskets of painted eggs, candy, and small presents,” I explain, carefully setting all the baskets on the table. I did so much research on this stupid holiday, and I even filled the baskets with this odd green paper stuffing and added cute little nametags.
Each one is labeled with surprising help from Adam. It seems one of his teaching units is cursive, and after doing it for years, he’s developed a pretty nice script.
“Do we get one?” a deep voice asks.
I glance at the blonde human’s warrior with a grimace. I didn’t make any for the wolves.
“You can have my candy,” his mate snorts.
The blonde curls her fingers around his forearm, and I can’t help but read into the way he beams and leans into her. They’re comfortable around one another, very comfortable. I’m betting they’re having sex now that she got that birth control from Greg.
I step away from the table and clasp my hands behind my back once I’ve finished setting out the baskets. It doesn’t take long for everybody to begin hunting for theirs, and I excitedly bounce on my toes as they find them and begin rifling through the contents.
“Nice,” a woman I haven’t had the chance to speak to mumbles.
She’s been one of the harder humans to communicate with, and I can barely contain my happiness as she pushes her bright red hair out of her eyes and lifts a chocolate bunny in front of her face. I’m ashamed to admit I ate about three while making the baskets.
Caleb ate five.
I linger around while everybody gradually meanders back to their original seats. They seem happy, even the ones who try and pretend otherwise.
Tommy removes his hand from my lower back as the humans wander away, and I can only imagine how relieved he’s feeling right now. Everybody is so nervous the humans are going to try and hurt me, but there haven’t been any issues so far.
They’ve begun to settle, even the ones who were part of the breeding program. Those women typically choose to stay in their apartments with their children, but occasionally I’ll catch sight of a baby being passed around and admired.
Usually with a very anxious-looking mother standing in the corner.
“Thanks, Evelyn,” Jack says, nodding in my direction.
Without meaning to, I perk up. That’s the first time any of the humans have called me by my name. I’m usually the ’alphas mate’ or some other variation of that.
Prompted by Jack’s thanks, a few others mumble quiet compliments. It’s obvious they feel awkward giving me praise, and it’s more than I expected to receive.
“You’re welcome,” I say, mainly to Jack but also to the room as a whole.
A few unclaimed baskets are still sitting on the table, and I stare at them before deciding to leave them here. It’s only a matter of time before the few who aren’t here right now hear about the baskets and come to retrieve theirs.
“We need to get going,” Tommy whispers, his voice low.
I glance at the clock above the door with a groan. Today is escaping me, and I grab my things before waving goodbye to the room and heading to my car.
I managed to convince Caleb to take an hour lunch break this afternoon so we could look at houses, and I’d hate to be late and cut into the little free time we have.
Tommy opens my passenger door and strips behind it while I pull up the directions to the first house Caleb and I are meeting at.
“I’ll follow,” Tommy says.
I pointedly avoid looking in his direction as he shoves his clothes into my passenger seat and shuts the door. He hates having to run with his clothes in his mouth, and he’s gotten into the habit of handing them off to me whenever he’s going to shift and meet me at a new location.
I don’t mind, especially now that he strips behind the car door. I was getting tired of catching sight of his pasty butt cheeks, and rules needed to be established when I accidentally got an eyeful of his asshole the other day.
It’s one thing to see it when they’re in their animal forms, but it’s haunting to see it when they’re in their human ones.
I wait until Tommy’s sorted himself and covered in fur before starting my car and heading to the first house. It’s on the outskirts of the pack, and according to the real estate agent Caleb managed to secure for us, it’s a beautiful colonial with modern finishings and a new roof. The roof part is all that makes sense to me, but I liked the few pictures of the property she sent over.
The house is set on an excellent plot of land, wooded with a mid-sized yard just like the house Caleb and I originally lived in.
I’m doubtful I’ll find anything I love as much as that place, but I remain hopeful.
Caleb’s already waiting for me on the front porch, and I haphazardly park my car before hurrying to join him.
“Sorry I’m late,” I say, pulling Caleb in for a quick kiss.
He smiles, hardly looking upset. “Don’t worry about it.”
Tommy arrives a few minutes later and makes himself busy while Caleb grabs the house keys out of the lockbox. Our agent can’t join us today, but the homeowners don’t seem particularly concerned about Caleb taking unsupervised tours of their place.
They permitted him to go through it themselves, which I’m secretly relieved about. It’ll be nice to go through the home without the pressure of a real estate agent leering over us.
“How’s your day going?” I ask Caleb.
He takes my hand after unlocking the door.
“The human government reached out to us today,” he says.
Those words freeze me in my tracks. “What?” I spin to face Caleb head-on. “Are you serious?”
That’s amazing. Public opinion on HPAW has been progressively getting worse, and only yesterday it was announced that the human government would be launching an investigation into the breeding program rumors.
I didn’t expect anything to come of it, especially not so quickly.
Caleb shrugs, not looking nearly as pleased as I’d expected.
“It wasn’t a very productive call,” he says. “They said they want to help facilitate an agreement between us and HPAW. I made it clear I’m not willing to discuss anything until HPAW has been permanently dismantled.”
They want to help facilitate a deal between the wolves and HPAW? That’s a load of bullshit.
I’m sure the human government is coming to realize they aren’t a match for the wolves, and this is some desperate attempt to settle the fighting before everybody else realizes it. Besides, I doubt HPAW would ever honor a deal made with the wolves.
Maybe they’ll play nice for a couple of months—a year or two at most—but eventually, they’d return to their original ways. I know that with absolute certainty.
“What’d they say to that?” I ask.
Caleb sighs. “They gave some generic response about needing to discuss internally before continuing forward with any additional conversations.”
I don’t know what there is for them to discuss. The wolves have the upper hand, and it’s only a matter of time before the general population realizes that. If the human government wants to continue pretending they have more power and strength than they do, they’ll need to sort their shit out and come to Caleb with an offer sooner rather than later.
Caleb gives my hand a tight squeeze and pulls me into the foyer.
The place is empty, and our feet echo as we walk through the house. I like the hardwood floors and bright, open rooms, but the layout makes me pause. The place is a maze, and I don’t like the idea of having to walk through three entire rooms just to get from the living room to the kitchen.
“It’s a bit big,” Caleb says as we approach the staircase to the second floor.
I nod, wholeheartedly agreeing. It’d be nice to have some space, especially if we intend to raise a family here, but there’s no need for this much house unless we’re having ten kids—which will not be happening. It’d be a bitch to clean, too.
“We’ve got three more houses to look at today,” I point out. “And we’ve got lots of options.”
Caleb seems relieved, and we quickly finish our tour before returning downstairs.
“I had an interesting conversation with Greg today,” he eventually says.
His lips twitch, a clear sign he’s trying to hold back a smile. I roll my eyes at the sight of it. I figured it was only a matter of time before my phone call to Greg got back to Caleb, but I didn’t expect it to be this quick. I just talked to the old man this morning.
“I finally talked to him about getting birth control,” I admit.
Caleb only smirks, the cocky bastard, before pulling me outside. Tommy lays in his wolf form just outside the car, and he makes brief eye contact with Caleb before turning and trotting into the woods.
“I’ll drive us to the next place,” Caleb says.
I dig my hand into my pocket and clench my fist around my keys before sprinting to the driver’s side door.
“Ev!” Caleb laughs as I rip it open and jump inside.
He continues to laugh as he makes his way to the passenger’s door, and he tosses Tommy’s clothing in the back before climbing in. He hates my driving and constantly comments about how I’m trying to kill him, but I don’t think I’m that bad.
Besides, practice makes perfect.
Caleb takes it upon himself to type in the address of our next house, and I cross my fingers with the hope it’s a better fit as I put the car in reverse and back out of the driveway.
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The votes are in, and the next story I'll be working on once Land of Wolves is finished will be a fantasy (faerie & shifter) MMF! I'm working on the outline now and will share a more detailed description soon!