Apologies for the major delay with this fanfiction; as a creative type - and I'm sure a number of you can relate to this - I'm prone to bouts of depression where writing seems near impossible. I'm hoping that I am now quite over it and can return to fanfiction. Thank you to those who have been patient and decided to stick with this story.
I hated early mornings. Actually, I think I loathed them. The sky was that dull, lifeless, grey, and the dampness in the air caused stray hairs to stick to the side of my cheeks. I was waiting for this 'Sue' person to appear, having denied Paul the chance to wait with me. Trying to avoid seeming like a schoolchild to him had been high on the priority list this morning. That, and making sure that my jeans were clean and that I was presentable enough for this Sue Clearwater. Within a few minutes of my irritation reaching its limit, a smaller car pulled up next to the sidewalk where I had been leaning against the front of the store. The woman who exited the tan vehicle was not what I had been expecting.
She was taller than me - though that wasn't a difficult feat - and looked like a yummy mummy in her bootcut jeans and waterproof jacket. Her hair was long, braided, and pulled over one shoulder with streaks of grey fizzing in the morning light. But it was her face that was the most striking thing about her; it was just so filled with kindness; wide eyes, a full mouth that pulled into a smile as soon as she saw me, and a relaxed brow. I couldn't help but do a little wave in return to her greeting, definitely feeling like a child now.
"You must be Annie," she greeted, reaching out a hand towards me.
"It's actually Violet," I corrected, but instantly felt my cheeks flood with colour. For the first time in what felt like forever, I was blushing.
Well, holy shit. I just gave my real name.
Sue frowned at the name change, but continued with her offered handshake and wrapped her hand around mine.
"Don't tell Paul,"
I guess the shitshow continues today. Mentally, I was already planning an escape route from this lady and her kind eyes.
"Well, I guess we'll have to have a little discussion at lunch," She concluded, the smile returning to her face as she dropped my hand and fished her keys from her pocket.
I followed her, wordlessly, as she opened the door and explained to me how she opened the shop, flipping the switches and checking the fridge temperatures before making her way to the cash register. She gave me the grand tour after we had left our belongings in the small room in the back; there was a single bathroom that was for employee and customer use, a dry store in the back for products, a delivery bay that was simply a door that was propped open with a heavy box that led to a larger parking lot than the few spaces that were at the front of the store. I continued to attempt to listen to Sue as she ran through the operation of the store, opening at exactly eight on the dot.
By the time opening did roll around, I had seen the entire store and shadowed Sue as she went through the morning checks and managerial maintenances. People here must love early mornings because we'd hardly been opened five minutes before someone strolled in. He was tall, huge in fact, and I immediately deduced that he must be another of Paul's friends - and fellow wolf buddies. He seemed to know exactly what he wanted and headed to the back fridge where he picked up a gallon of milk. He stopped in the small baby section before coming to the front register, a can of formula tucked under his other arm.
"Oh, good morning," was the greeting I received, as I reached for the gallon of milk. "Where's Sue?"
"She's in the back," came my response, as I scanned both items, the register making a little 'ting' noise that I knew would eventually wear out my nerves.
"And you are...?" I guess the manners of this reservation began and ended with Sue Clearwater.
"Rebecca," I was suddenly glad for the uniform here; a simple green t-shirt with the name of the store on the back. And grateful for the lack of name tags. "I'm Paul's friend."
Comprehension seemed to dawn on the man's face, and his face suddenly changed. Jaw set in what seemed irritation, he completed the rest of the transaction in silence, leaving with a simple nod of his head. I wonder what I had done to be so offensive to this man; maybe I was entirely too thin for his appetite? Or maybe he was jealous was tappin' this hot ass and he wasn't getting any. Though based solely on his purchase, I was willing to gamble he had at least gotten it once, however long ago that may have been.
I was left in relative silence for the rest of the morning, to ponder this new addition to the wolf gang, my thoughts were broken only by the occasional purchase of daily goods. I wasn't surprised when Jacob walked in at around late morning, right before my lunch break. He headed straight for me, waving only briefly to Sue who was stock counting the fridge, and I assumed we were about to have serious talk time, based on the scowl that was causing his brow to dip low over his eyes.
"Hey, Jakey, what's gotcha all blue?" I sang, smiling brightly as his irritation seemed to deepen.
"Luna," I guess this was the only greeting he would give me. "What did Sam want earlier?"
"Who's Sam?" Maybe that was Mr Big and Cranky Daddy.
"He said he met you earlier," he concluded as if that cleared everything right up. "Well, he said he met a girl called Rebecca."
"I enjoyed that alias right before I arrived here actually," I supplied, leaning forward on the counter and propping my chin into my hands. "It's served me well,"
"Can we stick to just one name, please?" Jacob cut in, obviously uninterested in my past. Which was a fantastic thing in my eyes. "I'm here to talk with yourself and Sue. If you plan on staying with Paul, there are a few things we need to discuss."
"Righteo," I moved from behind the counter, looking for Sue over the shelves. "Hey, Boss; the big man is here for a meeting!"
Sue's answering laugh sounded before she reappeared, smiling eyes focused on Jacob. Said man simply huffed and moved toward the back room. Sue flipped the little sign on the door to let people know we had to meet our human needs for a while before we were back to business, and then followed Jacob's nonverbal request for a more private meeting area. It was a tight fit with all three of us in the smaller back room, but we managed, Sue sitting on a step stool while I chose to lean against the door, arms crossed and waiting to hear what Jacob had to say.
"We're a small knit community here," he began, his voice too loud for the small space. It echoed authority and I could feel my spine straighten in response. I just wanted to rebel against him, just to see what would happen. "For some unknown reason, Paul has decided to house you while you stay here. I'm not sure what he sees in you, but I'm warning you, the first sign of trouble and you're gone."
I think he meant to be threatening, but all I could focus on was the elephant, er, wolf in the room.
"Yes sir," I responded, mock saluting him. When was I ever going to learn how much trouble my mouth gets me in?
"I'm serious," he confirmed, eyes narrowing dangerously into slits. "This will not end well for you if you get in our way, or do anything to harm any of us,"
"Consider me sufficiently terrified and warned," I assured him, raising my chin slightly. I wasn't about to be stared down by a man who used his size as intimidation, wolf-shifting habits, be damned. "And you came all the way down here to tell little old me that I need to be careful?"
"Same forgot the sugar," Jacob muttered after a moments pause, his eyes looking anywhere but me this time.
"Well, we have seventeen bags on the shelves and another thirty-four bags in the dry store. How many do you need?" I spoke in what I assumed was the kind of tone an air hostess would use with a bratty child that she was trying not to smack. Sue giggled in response, watching the exchange as Jacob barged from the room, and I followed behind him, rattling off any information I could remember about sugar.
"And it's really bad for your teeth too," I continued even after he had picked a number of bags from the shelf and had brought them to me to scan through. "They'll rot them straight 'outta your head."
I ignored Jacob's raised eyebrow as my accent slipped into the slight southern drawl which I usually tried to trim from my words, and I accepted the outstretched green bills. Apart from being uninterested in his day to day activities, I didn't bother asking Jacob what he actually needed the sugar for and simply waved him from the shop when he was done. Sue called her goodbye from the back, sounding as if she already had eaten a mouthful of her own lunch. Considering that how I looked is probably the main reason why Paul is keeping me around, I decided to skip lunch, and instead decided to try and memorise as much of the dry store as I could. It would save me a lot of pain later in the job when I was trying to put away deliveries or restock the shelves.
The day passed slowly, though strangely peaceful. We had a number of customers, all of whom knew Sue by name and stopped to chat with her, and they came in a steady stream which meant that the shop was never left empty for long. It seems Sue's was the most popular store in town, if not the only grocery store. I decided I didn't care enough to inquire and kept to myself the rest of the day. The 'talk' that Sue had mentioned that morning wasn't brought up again; it seems as if Jacob's visit and the threat had been enough for her.
By the end of the day, however, I was fit to murder someone. My 'nice-ness' had been used up for the day so when the evening shift arrived to take over, I barely registered their name before I called my goodbye to Sue and left the store, tugging my jacket on over my new uniform. I stopped in surprise when I recognised Paul's truck out front, his tanned arm hanging out of the window. It was exactly warm out; it was overcast, but the constant drizzle seemed to be non-existent for now.
"Hey good lookin'," he called, leaning out his window and staring at me intently. "Finished work?"
"Yup," I answered, walking to the other side of the truck and getting into the passenger side. The cab was cold, so I reached over to crank up the heat. "I just about survived the day, with no murders. I'm proud of myself."
"Good job," Paul snorted in an attempt to hide his laughter. "Not murdering people is part of being a healthy member of society."
"Uh huh, tell that to the old lady who took twenty minutes out of her day to talk to me about apples. Apples!"
"I'm sure that was riveting," Paul answered dryly, pulling out of the parking space and heading towards his home. "I had a couple today bombard me with questions about how safe my cribs were for newborns."
"Are they safe?" I countered, feeling my pissy mood starting to lift slightly. Damn but this boy has me a little bit. I blame the food and the great sex. "Is it triple-A rated, super safe, idiot proof, might drop the baby on their head but at least the crib is sturdy, safe?"
"Yes ma'am," Paul laughed, glancing at me for a second. His eyes lingered on my lips for a moment, before he returned his focus to the road. Ooh, I know what kind of an evening I was in for anyway. "But hey, at least we're both working adults now. No more lazing about for you."
"Except on weekends," I countered, stretching out my back. It was a little sore from standing all day. "That's when all the snotty teenagers are free and bug Sue about getting hours. I'm the weekday mule that covers the boring shifts."
"Mule, huh? Care to carry in some firewood later."
"Don't bet your life on it," I muttered, leaning over to pinch his thigh. He flinched, but I think that was more for my sake than his.
"Speaking of weekends, we're having a get together on Friday evening if you want to join us?" Paul offered, one hand leaving the steering wheel so he could place it on my thigh. "It would be nice for you to meet some of the people I spend a lot of my time with."
"You spend a lot of your time with me," I countered, not entirely excited about the prospect of getting any more involved in Paul's life than I already had. Then again, maybe they had finally decided to eat me and this was a get-together dinner, with me on the menu? The thought was slightly sobering, especially with Paul's hand heating up the skin beneath my jeans.
"Is that a no?" he tried to clarify, and we were pulling into his driveway a lot faster than I had hoped. He stopped the truck and, instead of exiting, turned to look at me, his second hand finding its home on my other thigh. "Annie, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I'd like you to meet these people. I'm enjoying the time we're spending together and it would be nice if the guys got to know you."
So they could get to know who they would be consuming.
"It's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything," I continued with my reluctance. I didn't think my demise would be so soon. The way I looked at it, I had three options;
Get out of town as fast as possible.
Continue working and living with Paul, but refuse to meet his friends, putting off the inevitable.
Accept that my time had come, meet his friends on Friday, and hope they enjoyed their delicious meal.
"I won't let anyone hurt you," he acknowledged, squeezing my legs in what he assumed was a comforting gesture.
"Ugh," I slammed my head against the back of the seat, turning to stare at Paul. I was still finding it difficult that someone so hot could be so evil. But, I guess things like that happened. And, if I was honest with myself - which I tried to be as often as possible, as uncomfortable as that is - I was tired of running. This life was too good to give up so quickly. And maybe they weren't even planning on eating me on Friday?
"Fine."
"Great, thank you," he leaned forward and placed a searing kiss against my temple. "I'm really excited to introduce you to everyone, properly."
"Yeah yeah," I waved him away, pushing the door open and stepping out into the slight warm chilled air.
I don't think I could ever get used to living in the Peninsula; I needed heat and sun, I need a change in the weather. I need the cities and the throngs of people that you could get lost in. I need to be able to blend in, not sit in nature surrounded by ridiculous trees and men who magically poofed into wolves. That was a whole other level of crazy that I was not prepared to be a part of. Drug addicts and mob bosses? Sure, no problem. Magic and myth? Not a chance, sonny boy. I was out of here as soon as I could, so I would leave it to fate; if I on Friday, so be it. If not, I was out of here by the end of the month - which gave me two weeks. Either way, I wouldn't be around for much longer.
Paul joined me on the walk up the porch, fishing in his pocket for the keys to the house. I wasn't entirely sure why he locked his house; it's not like there was anyone around here who would rob it. Maybe he was overly protective; he seemed like the type. He'd make a nightmare boyfriend if he was ever normal enough to have a girlfriend. How do magic people even get significant others?
'Would you like to date me? Oh, by the way, I like to burst into a giant wolf in my free time, and my hobbies include snacking on lone wanderers.'
I'm sure speed dating must be a riot for these guys. Wordlessly, Paul and I began getting ready for dinner. Well, mainly he did; I wanted out of my uniform as soon as possible and left it in a pile on the bedroom floor after changing into one of Paul's button-down shirts. It had the stereotypical lumberjack checked pattern, but it was a soft cotton that was welcoming and comforting.
Wrapping my arms around Paul from behind, I buried my face into his back, inhaling his scent.
"I like having you here," he hummed, stirring something in a pot that smelt delicious. "It takes some of the silence out of the house."
"You're only saying that 'cause you like my ass," I countered, not liking how clingy Paul seemed to be today. But, I needed to be cautious. Are werewolves/things overly sentimental? Oh my lord, was I his beta now?! "And the sweet, sweet lovin' I give you."
His laughter echoed through his chest, and I could feel it vibrate against my cheek. He didn't seem to have a response for my witty comeback, and so we fell into silence. I was comfortable with the contact, this wasn't going to last much longer anyway, and he seemed content in finishing dinner. But the determination had already settled in my stomach.
I was leaving. And soon.
A special thank you to bookbabe711, QuntisForever, nushie1, MaiaAlcippe, and Ysolde-T for the reviews. I appreciate the comments and feedback. A little bit of a slow chapter this time around; but I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things.