Disclaimer: Don't own it. If I did, I wouldn't of let it end with a cliffhanger that still tortures me today.
Howl
Chapter Two
She'd slept in late. She'd slept in beyond late.
Matt had given her a wake up call when he'd left the house at 9:30am and she could have sworn she'd only slept on for a hand full of minutes. Imagine her surprise when she'd rolled over to her alarm and seen that it was 1.35pm when she was expected to clock in for the lunch shift over an hour ago.
She cursed the fact that her Dad refused to buy her a car for the hundredth time and peddled faster on the bike he'd given her instead. The idea of calling someone for a ride had flicked through her head while she'd rushed through her shower, but every name she thought of was just as unappealing as the first. She was already thrusting herself into an uncomfortable scenario; she really didn't want to aggravate it any more by asking someone for a favor.
Grateful for the downhill portion of her trek that took her from her Hill's home to the first outer suburb of Wolf Lake flat, Sophia eased her pace. She'd never been this late for a shift. A model employee since she'd gotten the job two years ago, she scoured for an excuse that would be adequate. She had nothing.
Ten minutes later she pulled her bike in behind the restaurant and stormed through the backdoor into the locker room. Thankfully empty, she stripped off her jacket and tossed it into her locker before tying the apron she stowed in there around her waist. She gave a quick check in the mirror to make sure her hair wasn't too windblown, and then pushed through into the kitchen.
Lenny, who had been cooking here since before she was born, watched her mutely as she glided by him, as if it were any other day and nodded his head in way of reply when she gave him a cheery hello.
She didn't give herself any time to dwell on it before pushing out into the dining room. They were in full lunch rush swing. Two other waitresses ferried trays from the service window to customers and hurriedly jotted down further orders. Sophia gave a sigh of relief when she saw that Kit was one of them.
When Kit caught sight of her behind the counter, she seemed just as excited to see her, the slight blonde threw her arms around Sophia neck and bounced on her sensible sneakers. "Sophia! Screw you for being so damn late, but you're here and I love your hair!"
Sophia grimaced. "I know. I feel like a total biatch and thanks."
Kit flicked her hand dismissively. "Don't sweat it. Carl hasn't made his rounds yet so you should be in the clear. So how is she?"
"Ahhh," Sophia frowned, "how's who?"
Kit's brow furrowed in confusion. "Your aunt? Your Dad said she was sick or something and you went to spend some time with her?"
"Oh. Right," Sophia floundered for something to say. "She died."
Kit's face fell. "Oh Sophia, I'm sorry."
"Yeah…it…sucks."
Tammy, the no-nonsense weekend waitress, breezed past them with a tray filled with dirty dishes. "Catch up later, girls. This place is a mad house."
Grateful for the distraction, Sophia dashed to a table in her section and began clearing it for the next patron. After an hour, she was beginning to think there was something to what her father had said the night before. It was kinda nice to be busy. Thing's were beginning to slow down and she and Kit had managed to grab snatches of time to talk and catch up with everything that had happened while she'd been away. Not surprisingly, nothing much.
One thing had definitely caught her attention though. They'd been back in the kitchen, refilling condiments when Kit broached the subject of Scott Nichols.
"So Emery was totally all over him, so wanting to pick up where they left off, and he was having none of it. I swear, he's been nagging me constantly for updates on you," she licked some sauce from her fingers. "I didn't tell him, of course, that you hadn't gotten in contact with your best friend either-"
"Sorry," Sophia said with a smile.
"You're forgiven—Instead, I totally kept him on the line for you, like a best friend should."
Sophia brow arched. "Meaning?"
"Meaning I lied through my teeth and told him he was all you talked about during our hour long gabfest's, but you were too busy and upset about your aunt to call him." Kit put a hand to her heart. "He was very understanding. He has it bad for you, Soph, despite all your crazy."
Sophia playfully squirted Kit with a bottle of mustard, nailing her dead on the name-tag. "Cow."
Kit snatched a slice of tomato Lenny had just finished chopping and flung it into Sophia's hair. "Bitch."
Sophia poured salt into an empty shaker and mulled over what Kit had said.
She liked Scott Nichols. She liked him a lot. He was a nice, normal, good-looking guy and he was still interested in her after the nightmare of their first date. She should be ecstatic, but flattered was the strongest feeling she could summon up.
Kit clearly read something into her musing because she rolled her eyes and slapped her hands down onto the island separating them. "Or maybe there's someone else you were hoping had checked up on you, someone like Luke Cates?"
Sophia shook her head and carried the refreshed condiments out into the dining area, Kit hot on her heels. "Not at all. Nothing's changed since the last time we talked about this. I am over that scene."
Kit nodded. "Well good. Scott's a great guy, and in this town, those are in short supply."
Sophia smirked. "Why, you are a fan. Planning on making a move while my back was turned, Kit?"
Kit smiled dryly. "Oh please, I'm over high school boys."
"Aren't we a woman of the world. When did this shift happen?"
"After my third date with Tommy Hitchins. He spent the whole night talking to my chest and hiding his boner behind menu's and popcorn boxes. So, so done. Older guys are where it is at."
Sophia rolled her eyes. "Are we speaking from actual experience here, Kit?"
Kit danced back around the bar and turned to waggle her brows at Sophia. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Two hours later, feeling better for having been there, Sophia said goodnight to Kit and Lenny and stepped out into the back parking lot. Her first day back could not have gone better. Apart from the odd speculative stare from the occasional pack member that had come in, she'd mostly been greeted with 'welcome backs' and condolences for her imaginary, and recently deceased, relative.
The sun was just about to set and the entire town was bathed in a golden glow, the last traces of sunlight felt good on her skin as she peddled for home. She'd thought about calling into the station and getting a ride from her Dad when he knocked off in a couple hours, but she suddenly had a hankering for the fresh air and wind through her hair that the bike ride would provide. Even the arduous ride back up the hills couldn't keep her good mood down. In fact, her muscles seemed to welcome it, a definite first.
The house was dark when she got there in record time. Sophia stowed her bike back in the garage and jogged up the front steps. She was humming while she rifled through her bag to get her keys. Normalcy was nice.
After getting inside, she dumped her bag beside the door and went straight to the kitchen. Famished, she quickly prepared a couple sandwiches and a tall glass of milk before mounting the stairs to the second level and heading straight for her room.
She didn't bother with the light, instead heading straight for her desk and depositing her meager dinner beside the keyboard. She was reaching to turn on the hard drive when the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. Sophia spun on her heel and recoiled back against the desk, making the monitor and her glass of milk rock precariously.
"Sophia."
Just her name in way of greeting, but the tone he used it in almost made her blush. She didn't like it. It was too familiar. But then again, so was being in her bedroom, lying on her bed as if he owned it. His eyes glanced towards her hair and his lips turned up in repugnance. "Shit...you cut your hair."
Ignoring that comment and the knock to her pride it caused, Sophia got straight to the point. "What the hell are you doing here, Luke?"
Luke frowned, but didn't seem all that put out by her lack of warmth. He clasped his hands under his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Just thought I'd come by and welcome you home."
Sophia folded her arms across her chest. "And breaking into my home and waiting for me in my dark bedroom seemed like the appropriate way to do it?"
"When have I ever done anything remotely appropriate?" Luke smiled in a way that could only be described as wolfish. It was such a terrible pun she actually cringed.
"Besides," he continued, "your window has always been open for me, so technically, I didn't break in."
Sophia immediately went to the window in question and shut it. "An oversight. And it's never been open for you, that's just your arrogance talking."
A twinge of annoyance entered his steely gaze, she refused to back down though, and held his intense stare. His jaw worked back and forth and his eyes narrowed. He came off the bed in a flash and closed the short distance between them, he framed either side of her head with his arms and braced himself against the window pane behind her, effectively bracketing her in.
His hazel eyes softened as he ran them over every inch of her body like a lover's lazy hands. When he came back to her face, that easy smile was back and he was leaning in for the kill. Her body went ramrod straight and he must of sensed the fear in her, because he stopping mere centimeters from her lips.
Luke's eyes narrowed on her as if seeing her for the first time. His nostrils flared and he audibly sniffed. "You smell weird."
Sophia's mouth dropped in shock. She came off the window pane with force and shoved him away from her. "Excuse me?"
Luke rolled his eyes. "Okay, not weird. Just…not normal."
Beyond insulted, Sophia's face screwed up in disgust and she pointed to her bedroom door. "Yeah, that's better. Get out of here, Luke!"
He ignored her and sat down heavily into her desk chair. He reached blindly behind him and grabbed one of the sandwiches she no longer had any appetite for, and took a large bite. "Where have you been, Sophia, and what have you done to yourself?" he said around the mouthful.
Furious at his cavalier attitude, Sophia restrained herself from stomping her foot. "That's none of your damn business, Lucas Cates. After what happened that night with Scott, do you honestly think you have any kind of right to be here? That I'd want you to be here?"
"Save it, Sophia. You've wanted me to be here since we turned fourteen—hell maybe before that—you always did like playing house way too much when we were kids."
Her cheeks burned scarlet. "Well we're not kids anymore, Luke. You may still act like it, but I am well and truly over it and you."
There was a visible tick in his jaw as he dropped the sandwich back on the plate and got to his feet. "You know what, Sophia? I'm over something too. I'm over this stupid little game we've been playing for the past two years. This cat and mouse bullshit." He cupped her face in his hands, refusing to release her when she tried to shake him off. "We're meant for each other, Sophia. Mated. It was always suppose to be you and me. Cates and Donner, the two strongest bloodlines in the territory, and now that you've flipped, I'm ready to make that commitment."
He let her go and stepped away, giving her space to process what he'd just said.
Sophia felt bitter tears bight at the corner of her eyes, but she fought them off. "Bloodlines? I'm a mongrel, Luke-"
A low growl emanated from his throat. "Don't say that."
"Yeah, well it's true. It's what's always been between us, and you know it." She took a calming breath before she dropped the bomb that would dash all the pretty promises, which sounded so beautiful, but she knew could never be. "I haven't flipped, Luke."
He frowned in confusion. "What? But that night—"
Her self preservation kicked into high gear and stiffened her resolve. She folded her arms back in front of her and regarded him coolly and calmly. "I can't flip, Luke. It's not going to happen for me…ever."
His anger began to flare. "What the fuck are you talking about, Sophia? I've seen it in you…the wolf. It might not of come out of you then, but it's going to happen and when it does—"
"What, Luke? What happens then?" She needed to make him go away. She needed to cut the string that had connected them so strongly for so many years. "What, we settle down and raise a couple puppies together in the craziness that surrounds this town? I'm human. I've accepted it and that means there's more for me now then just you and Wolf-'"
He moved with inhuman speed. His lips stole hers in a bruising kiss. Their first real kiss. It should have been sweet; a culmination to years of longing, but there was nothing sweet about it. It was fury, plain and simple. All plundering tongues and gnawing teeth. Luke worried at her full bottom lip, nicking it slightly as he pulled away from her, leaving the taste of metallic blood and loss in her mouth. He trailed more bruising kisses along her jaw before reaching her ear.
"I'm not giving up on you, Sophia."
Sophia whimpered and screwed her eyes tightly shut so he couldn't see the grief and yearning she knew would be there, and when she opened them some time later, he was gone.
Vivian Cates stood in the doorway to her only child's empty bedroom.
On any given day, he could be anywhere, suffice to say it wasn't unheard of for her son to be out late at night or even not come home at all. But today was different.
There was only one place Luke could be. With her.
Vivian shook her head in disappointment, shut the bedroom door and headed for her newly acquired office. In the handful of weeks since she'd been made Alpha, she'd become quite at home in the wing back chair that some of the packs greatest past Alphas had ruled from.
She idly ran her fingers over the leather as she thought of her next move. Luke and Mathew Donner were two people she had great plans for, and neither of them included Sophia Donner, the girl who wore Marie Donner's face.
Marie Donner. The mousy haired angulated who'd stolen away her chosen mate and made him turn away from his own kind. How someone so weak and unremarkable had managed to cur the strongest of them all, V would never understand.
Still, V thought as she leant back in the chair and sighed contentedly, it wasn't a complete loss. Willard Cates had been a most excellent consolation. A powerful Wolf who now had a clear path to Alpha with Mathew Donner no longer in the running, a prize for any bitch, even with the miscreant pups he'd had in tow. He'd been a good man, and a loving mate.
But all good things must come to and end, as they say.
Vivian's thoughts turned back to Sophia. Sweet and willful Sophia.
A roadblock to her father's heart and a mongrel child, completely inappropriate for her son's mate.
Hopefully the daughter would prove be just as easy to dispatch of as the mother had been.
