"She needs to leave, it's not safe here anymore."
"Not safe for her, Da, or for the humans here?"
"Both."
"And where do you propose she go? She's too dominant to go to a pack; none of the Alpha's will allow her to go unchallenged and none of the packs will accept a female Alpha so-"
"She'll have to go to the Columbia Basin pack. Hauptman can handle her; the Lord knows he handles Mercy."
"But how will she take it? You know Brooke won't like leaving."
"I know, Charles, but I have no choice. She needs to leave until she can control her wolf."
"And if she can't? Could you really kill her?"
"... Let's just hope this works. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
XxXxXxXxXxX
Brooklyn Alexandria Porter, "Brooke" to a select few, is not a bad person. In fact, she considers herself a fairly good person. It's not her fault some pervert decided to try and rape her best friend. She lost control of the wolf for a split second and by the time she took the reins again, that pathetic excuse for a man was dead and Emma Tailor had a cut on her arm from shoulder to elbow. Other than that, in the two years since Brooklyn and her family were attacked and she came out as the only survivor of the Change, she hadn't lost control at all. Not once.
Even so, Bran Cornick; the Marrok, Alpha werewolf of all the Alpha werewolves in North America; felt the need to send her away. He's sending her away despite the fact that she's the third most dominant werewolf on the continent, second only to Bran and his son Samuel. Now, normally that wouldn't be a problem but since Brooke's a girl, and no pack will allow a female Alpha, she can't go to a pack. Therefore, she's doomed to be a lone wolf. The problem with that is that no Alpha would allow a female lone wolf in their territory. That means that they would try to take her into the pack, which would put her on the bottom of the pack hierarchy or fight her, in which case she'd have to kill her competitor because wolves fight to the death. Brooklyn hates that part of being a werewolf. The killing and the blood and the violence.
When she tried to tell all of this to Bran, he had simply told her about an Alpha that was really open to "new things." Adam Hauptman, he had told her, is the Alpha of the Columbia Basin pack in the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland), Washington. When she questioned how "new things" had anything to do with that, Bran informed her that Hauptman has a gay werewolf as a Third, said werewolf has a human lawyer as a boyfriend, and the Alpha himself has a mate who's a coyote walker. And that this walker was actually Mercedes Hauptman née Thompson, who Brooklyn had been hearing about from Bran and Samuel for years. Needless to say, once that fact was out there, she knew that she couldn't win. And thus, Bran told her of the arrangements he'd made.
So now Brooklyn is standing on the porch of one Mr. Adam Hauptman with Bran, who has just knocked on the door. After a moment, a girl; maybe 15 or 16; with Day-Glo pink streaks in her otherwise brown hair; opens the door. She smiles when she sees Bran.
"Hey, I didn't know you were coming, is my dad expecting you?" The girl asks as she steps back to let them in. Bran smiles.
"Hello, Jesse. Yes, Adam is expecting us." He turns so he can see both girls. "Jesse this is Brooklyn Porter, Brooklyn, this is Jessica Hauptman, Adam's daughter."
"Jesse." The girl -Jesse- corrects.
"Hi." Brooklyn greets quietly.
Just as Jesse is about to say something more, the door opens wider and a man, whom Brooke assumes to be Adam, steps through. Bran needlessly introduces the girl to Adam; honestly who else would she be; then Bran takes his leave, Adam sends Jesse upstairs (much to her consternation), then leads Brooklyn to a sitting room just off the entryway. Adam looks at her a moment and then sighs.
"Bran tells me you're here because you can't control your wolf."
"I'm here," she answers, making sure to keep his eyes in a way that's confident and assertive without being challenging, "because I'm too dominant to be in a pack but Bran thinks that you'll be able to handle a female that's technically just under Samuel Cornick. In the two years I've been a wolf, I only lost control once and that was in extreme circumstances. If I had my way, I'd be a lone wolf but I'm sure you know why that would be a bad idea."
The Alpha is silent for a long moment and he leans back in his chair and declares, "As long as you stay out of trouble, you can stay as long as you need to. There are plenty of rooms upstairs; you can have the one across from Jesse's, it's already prepared. My mate, Mercy, should be here any moment with my Second and Third. You can meet the rest of the pack tomorrow-"
"I don't want to be in your pack." Brooklyn interrupts. She can practically see Adam's wolf bristle at the perceived insult but he wisely decides to let it go. When she's sure he won't snap, Brooke continues, her voice soft. "If I'm part of a pack, my wolf will want to be the Alpha and I have no desire to challenge you or anyone else for a position in a pack that I don't belong. I don't want to cause trouble or get in any fights but that's bound to happen if I'm magically connected to a bunch of wolves that are less dominant than I and it would defeat the purpose of coming here if they manage to make me angry enough to lose control."
"I-" The door opens; startling Brooklyn, so focused was she on the conversation; admitting a pretty, dark-haired, copper-skinned woman and two obviously-werewolf men. This, Brooklyn thinks to herself, must be the Mate, the Second, and the Third.
XxXxXxXxXxX
Brooke sighs as she sinks down into the mattress. She searches her mind, trying to think of a longer day than this one. She is unsuccessful. Closing her eyes, she recounts the events of the day, seeing as her mind simply won't allow her to sleep until she does.
First, over-hearing Bran and Charles Cornick, Bran's youngest son, discussing her removal from Aspen Creek and then her, of course, protesting and arguing against said removal. Then the packing and several-hours-long drive to get here, all the while Brooklyn was unable to think of anything aside from the fact that she hadn't been allowed to say goodbye to anyone, including Emma. Then they had arrived at Adam Hauptman's house and met his slightly eccentric teenage daughter, Jesse. If circumstances were different, Brooke's sure that they'd be good friends.
When Bran had left, Brook had started to panic a bit but managed to hide that from the Alpha; an impressive feat to be sure, seeing as it's nearly impossible to hide anything from a werewolf. She'd been able to get over it long enough to make her point but before Adam had had a chance to respond, Mercy Hauptman, Darryl Zao, and Warren Smith (Adam's mate, Second, and Third, respectively) came in. The next hour or so had been used for introductions and explanations. Then the four adults (although Brooke is technically 19, she still thinks of them as "adults," seeing as she was turned at 17 years old) proceeded to speak of Brooklyn as though she weren't even there. It seemed as though they had all been informed that she'd lost control but not the reason why, leading all of them to be suspicious of her.
Brooklyn pushes it from her mind and gets up, quickly changing into her nightclothes and pulling her long, black curls into a loose french braid. It takes her a long time to fall asleep, unused to hearing so many unfamiliar wolves walking around. When she finally does drift off, her dreams quickly morph into nightmares.
A/N: I don't really have any plans to continue this, it's just been in my head for a while and I am completely stuck on Silent Noise so I wanted to write something. I suppose I can continue it but only if people actually want me to.