Note: Please see Prologue for warning, copyright and disclaimer information.

The Pack

One of the regulars at the bar was a werewolf. Not that I knew it right away, at first he just looked dangerous. He moved like a predator, always looking for something to prey on. I'd never been around any shapeshifters but he made me uncomfortable so I always tried to keep my distance from him, but he figured that out pretty quickly and soon took to sitting at my tables. I guess he started thinking that I was the prey.

One night when he'd drank a little more than usual he pulled me down onto his lap. I 'accidentally' elbowed him in the neck on the way down, but he didn't seem to feel it.

"Hey, girlie," he slurred drunkenly.

"Let me up," I said carefully. I didn't want to piss him off because I wasn't sure what he would do and I wanted to walk away from this guy alive.

"You think you're too good for me?" he demanded. The whisky on his breath was almost enough to make me drunk too.

"No, I don't," I told him honestly. "I don't want any trouble, just let me go."

He shoved his face into the back of my neck and inhaled. His hands tightened on my waist and he stood up, lifting me easily. "I'm just going to take this one outside," he said to the bartender. "I'll be back in a minute."

I tried to pry his hands off of me, but he was way too strong. I even tried to boost my own strength, but that didn't do any good either. As soon as we got outside the back door, he shifted into something else. That's when I realized he was a werewolf and I knew I was in big trouble.

His hands had grown and became covered with fur, and now they reached all the way around my waist. He threw me forward and I landed in a pile of garbage and rolled to my feet. For a heartbeat I was terrified, then I started looking for a way to get out of this mess. I had a knife, but I figured that trying to cut him with it would only piss him off.

"Look, man," I began, "it's nice that you're all big and furry, but I got work to do. Can we finish this some other time?"

"You're not freaking out," he growled. He didn't seem drunk at all now. "That just proves my point."

"You got a point?" I asked as I put my back to the alley wall. "Can we get to it so I can go back to work?"

"Very funny," he told me. He didn't look amused. "Who's your master?"

I had no idea what he was talking about. "I don't have a master."

"You smell like a vampire," he said softly. It was weird to hear the half-wolf talk, I could barely understand him.

"I'm not a vamp," I replied, showing him the skin of my arm as I edged toward the door to the bar. "See? I've got a tan."

"You're a ghoul," he growled. "Take me to your master. I've got a deal for him."

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about," I insisted. "I don't have a master and I don't even know what a ghoul is."

That seemed to piss him off. "I'm not in the mood for games, bitch." He took a step toward me and I moved back until the alley wall came up against my back. "I want in with the vamps and you're my ticket."

"I couldn't get you a bus ticket," I told him honestly. "I don't know any vamps." None that I hadn't killed for the Society, anyway.

He growled and it wasn't a pleasant sound. He lifted his hand to hit me and in the dim light I could see that he had sharp claws on the end of each finger. I remember thinking that those must have been the point he'd been talking about when something just as big as he was hit him from the side and I went flying.

The fight between the two werewolves was grisly, to say the least. Both were incredibly fast and unbelievably strong. By the time the fight was over they were both covered in blood and one of them was dead. I picked myself up off the ground looked down at the body. As I watched it changed back into the guy who'd carried me from the bar.

"Are you alright?"

I looked up to see that the other werewolf had shifted back to human form. He was still covered with blood, but he definitely looked like a man.

"Yeah," I whispered. "What are you?"

He bent over and ripped a fairly clean piece of clothing from the dead man. "The question is what are you," he told me. "You should have been running in terror ten minutes ago."

"From a fight?" That wasn't my style.

"From two Garou," he corrected me as he cleaned the worst of the blood from his face and hands. "You can see through the veil, most people can't."

"Yeah, well I'm not most people," I replied coolly.

"The Ronin thought you were a ghoul," he said, dropping the bloody cloth to the ground. "Are you? And don't lie, I know the truth when I smell it."

I frowned. "Why the fuck would I lie?" I demanded. "I don't even know what a damn ghoul is unless you're talking about Renfield, and I'm not insane." I'd seen all the old vampire movies a long time ago looking for ways to protect myself against Kate.

He smiled a little. "Renfield was a ghoul, but you don't have to be insane to be one," he told me. "I have to admit, you smell ghouled. You know about vampires then?"

"I know," I admitted. "I know enough to stay the fuck away from them."

"That's good," he said with a nod. "You realize that he would have killed you."

I looked down at the body. "Yeah."

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" he asked softly. He walked closer to me and I looked at him warily. "You look way too young for the streets."

I smiled grimly. "I'm old enough to drink, I guess I'm old enough for the streets."

He didn't believe me and there was a look in his eye I didn't like. "You don't even look old enough to drive. Where do you live?"

"Why do you care?" I demanded.

"Look, girl," he growled. "I just saved your life. Don't you think you owe me something?"

That's what it came down to, wasn't it? He had saved my life and according to the street code I'd lived by for the last few years, he owned me in whatever way he wanted until I could repay the debt. I looked down and sighed. "Barry lets me stay in the storage room," I whispered.

"Wait here," he ordered. He turned and went into the bar.

I waited.

When he came back out he had my things and told me that I wasn't working there anymore. He put a hand on my shoulder and led me through the alley and out onto another street. We walked in silence until we reached a Camero parked a few blocks down. He gestured for me to get in and when I did he got in too.

"What's your name?" he asked as he started the car.

"Eliza," I replied tonelessly. I didn't even think about lying to him but I sure as hell wasn't giving him a last name.

"I'm Raven-runs-the-night," he told me, "but you can call me Raven. You got a problem with leaving town?"

"I got no problem with it." I stared out the window and wondered how long it would take me to pay off my debt. "Look, I don't know what you think you can get from me, but I got nothing."

He reached over and touched my hair. I wanted to hit him, but I'd seen the way he'd kicked the other werewolf's ass. "You've got plenty," he drawled.

It was wicked obvious what he wanted from me. I turned away from his hand and stared back out the window. Raven wouldn't be the first man to expect that kind of payment, but I vowed that he'd be the last one to get it.

He put the car in gear and soon we'd left Raleigh far behind. A few hours later he pulled into the driveway of a house in Lynchburg. It was a large, older house, and there were a lot of cars parked in the yard. I grabbed my bag and followed him inside where half a dozen people were engrossed in some kind of argument. When we came in they stopped.

"Did you get him?" one of the guys asked.

"I did," Raven replied calmly.

"Who's the bitch?" a woman asked.

"That's Eliza," he drawled. "She'll be staying with us for a while."

One of the men came close to me and bent to smell the skin of my shoulder. "She's not kin and she's not Garou," he stated harshly. "She'll be running soon enough."

I stared back at him angrily. I didn't run from my obligations, and I certainly wasn't afraid of some werewolf wannabe. "Back off," I warned him. I still had my knife and I'd use it on him if he got too close.

He looked at me in surprise. "You think you can take me?"

I smiled coldly. "You wanna step outside?"

"Enough," Raven barked. He was looking at me like he hadn't expected me to show a backbone. "This is Lance-through-the-heart," he told me. "You will defer to him."

"Look," I said quietly, holding on to my rage by threads, "I owe you and I accept that but I don't owe this guy a damn thing. If he wants to throw down and see who ends up on top, I'll be more than happy to."

Raven rolled his eyes, obviously thinking that a little thing like me couldn't possibly win against a nearly six foot tall man. "Take it out back."

As soon as those words were spoken, a strange howling went through the people in the room. We were carried through the door on a wave of people, and given room to fight. I threw my bag at Raven's feet and looked at him.

"Weapons?" I asked. When he shook his head I set about disarming myself. Lance's eyes got really big when he saw me drop a knife and two wooden stakes at Raven's feet.

"Been fighting vamps?" Lance asked, obviously amused at the thought.

"Been known to," I told him seriously. I dropped my jacket on top of my bag and turned to face him. The night was a little chilly, but it was just right for a brawl.

At first Lance was stupid enough to think I couldn't possibly beat him, me being a girl and all. It only took a few minutes for him to realize that I could fight better than he thought I could. He was strong and fast, but I was faster. Ten minutes later I was sitting on his back, one of his arms twisted upward almost to the point of breaking.

He made a mewling sound that I didn't understand, but when Raven told me to let him go I did. There was a look of respect in Raven's eyes when he told me that Lance had yielded to me. I picked up my things and followed him through the silent crowd of people into the house.

He led the way upstairs to a large bedroom that was clean and almost militarily neat. I walked over to stand near the window as he shut the door. I could hear him moving around but I didn't have to look to see what he was doing. I heard the bed move beneath his weight but still didn't turn around.

"Come on, girl," he said sternly.

"I'm not ready for this," I told him.

"You owe me," he reminded me. The code of the street said that he owned me, and that meant I had to do whatever he wanted me to do, even this.

"That's not what I'm talking about," I replied irritably. "I'm not prepared, I wasn't expecting to get laid." The code didn't say anything about having babies to repay the debt.

He was quiet for a long moment. "You're talking about birth control."

Duh. "Yeah. I don't have anything."

"If you get pregnant, I'll keep it," he said matter-of-factly.

I turned to shoot him a hard look. "I will not get pregnant," I told him. "We will not screw unless there is no chance of a baby." I didn't want to have kids, ever. I didn't want to taint them with Kate's blood the way I'd been tainted and I'd never loved a man enough to take the risks.

We argued for a while about it mostly because Raven, like most of his kind, wanted children to carry on the Garou bloodline. Of course I couldn't tell him the truth about what I was, but I was able to convince him that I'd fight him every step of the way without birth control. He finally gave up in disgust and sent one of the others out for rubbers, then sat watching me broodingly while we waited for him to come back.

For the most part, Raven was a pretty good guy. The rest of the people in the house were his pack of Garou and kinfolk, what the Garou call their family members that don't have the ability to shape shift. They hadn't liked seeing me win over Lance, and they each wanted to have a go at me. Raven figured the only way that would be fair was if he taught me how to fight Garou.

When he did and the dust finally settled, I knew exactly where I stood in the pack. Surprisingly enough I'd beaten a few of the younger Garou, and lost to some of the older kinfolk. My ability to fight, to resist pain, and to keep going in a fight earned their respect.

One of the kinfolk knew a type of magic called Hedge Magic. If you ask a mage, he'll tell you it isn't real magic, I couldn't tell you what the difference is. Anyway, this kinfolk tried to use it on me once to try and calm me down when I was mad at him. It didn't work, at least not the way he intended. It pissed me off. Needless to say he never tried that again.

Raven's Aunt Rhea kept a garden behind the house. It was small, but she seemed to grow mass quantities of food out of it. When I asked her if I could help her with it, she showed me how she got so much out of such a little garden. I discovered that not only did I like plants and gardening, but that I was good at it.

I struggled with the gardening and farming books she had, but I couldn't seem to grasp the concepts they tried to teach. When I realized that I could learn more from watching Rhea, I gave up the reading part and went straight to getting my hands dirty.

Raven hated vamps and it seemed natural that he'd ask me to help the pack kill them. It wasn't like I hadn't done it before, so I agreed. I owed him, after all, and this was one way I could pay back my debt. We hunted quite a few vamps in Lynchburg, but every time we killed one it seemed like there were three more to take its place.

He didn't let me be as selective as I'd been in Raleigh, either. To the pack, a vamp was a vamp. From what I saw, they were right. Every one of our hunts turned ugly in the end. Once one of the kinfolk that hunted with us didn't get out of the way soon enough and he died. I hadn't liked the guy that much, but seeing him dead still bothered me.

I got my first scar from hunting in Lynchburg. It was my own fault, I wasn't fast enough and the vamp got me across the lower back with her claws. It burned like hell and took me a long time to heal. I knew I could heal it faster if I used my blood the way Kate had taught me, but I didn't want to make Raven suspicious by speed healing.

All in all the pack seemed to tolerate me well enough, but they never lost an opportunity to remind me that I didn't belong. I didn't bother to tell them that I didn't much like being there either. I tried to bide my time patiently until I either worked off my debt to Raven or I found some way to save his life.

The thing is, by nature I'm not a patient person and I kept losing my temper. Raven eventually figured out that his people would never really accept me, or maybe he got tired of me, I don't know. The next spring he gave me some money and put me on a bus to Richmond.