Chapter 9: Birthdays
She starts her walk to the coffee shop. She was surprisingly happy today after spending the night with Paul of her Jaguar form. She wasn't supposed to be working today, she had requested it off back when she first started. She wanted to use today as a day to reflect on everything and it was her birthday too. She didn't really want to work, she missed her family so much today, this would be the first birthday she would be spending without her family. She would have like to spend it in the woods, watching the animals and trees just relaxing, maybe laying in her Jaguar form in the sun, if the sun was out today which it wasn't. Forks the cloudiest town in the world.
She was covering for James today. He had a doctor's appointment, and she knew how important those were to him now. Hopefully the doctor could make him comfortable in these last few months. She would be closing the shop today; the shop was only open until 5 so it wouldn't be too hard.
She thinks of the wolves in La Push. She never thought there would really be other shifters like them out here. Her grandmother told her stories about other shifter, bears, falcons, and yes wolves. But she thought that they, Jaguars, were the only ones to make it to the current age, not that she didn't believe her grandmother. Her grandmother never willfully lied to her about anything.
She wondered if she would find other shifters elsewhere on the continent. Her grandmother told her that we all started here, in the old times before people wrote anything down, all the shifters' groups lived in peace and were content together. But the bear grew tired of the others first and moved into their caves and mountains, seeking solitude. Then the shining ones arrive on their shores, a lot of them from the stories. After fighting them back with the help of Jaguar Godfather, the falcons, being the rash one, decided to fly across the great sea to attack them and were never seen again. After the loss of the falcons, the wolves and the jaguar broke away from each other; the wolves going to the plains and the jaguars to the jungles.
Maybe the last part of the story was truer than she ever thought with the wolves she just met in La Pash.
She walks into the coffee shop with that thought, and immediately sees a muscular form, she has grown accustom to only seeing in that place in the mornings. Paul sits in his usual spot by the window, legs out stretched in the chair opposite him, reading The History of the Inca Realm. Seeing a book about her ancestors in his hands does funny things to her insides. Why was he reading that?
She walks right by him, trying not to notice his eyes following her. She relieves Mike, who practically run out of the shop, joining a group of friends. Daiane notices that it includes some kids from Bella's high school that she seen around the house, Jessie something and maybe Eric with another girl. She wonders why Bella didn't go hangout with them sometimes. But she doesn't have a lot of time to wonder as Paul comes up to the counter, leaning his arms on the counter.
"So, what are you doing working now," Paul asks.
She looks at him as she cleans the equipment, Mike never did it right and left things a mess. She decides to ask a question of her own saying, "What are you doing here so late? Don't you have a job or something? Don't tell me you are a freeloader and a dumb brute." She didn't want to lie to him but she also didn't want to tell him about James. As she understands it, James is a member of the tribe and she didn't want his condition to get back to anyone there.
He smirks at her, taking her poke with grace as he says, "Yes, this face keeps me well fed." He makes the more comical model face with smoldering eyes; she can't help but laugh though.
"So, what you're a model," she asks. There was no one else to the shop at this hour, not many people in Forks wanted coffee at 12 pm.
"Well, no. Electrician," Paul answers, "I work odd hours. Sometime I'll work 80 hours in one week and then a week or two off, sometime I get on a job that is a little more consistent. But I'm in between jobs at the moment, I start a new job next week."
"What about your wolf job," she asks.
"I switched shifts with Jared, he hates night patrol," Paul says.
"Why would you switch shifts," she asks. She wouldn't switch to do night patrol for anything, she liked to sleep. "I hated doing night patrols, I'm not a night owl like some in my pack. Are you a night wolf or something?" She puts her arms on the counter, mirroring him and smirks.
"What I thought cats were nocturnal?"
"No, at least not this one," she says. She didn't miss the fact that he didn't answer her question about why he would switch shifts like that, but he was making her shift go by faster.
They talk about nothing in particular as she works, he asks about the Inca and read parts of his book to her, asking if she thought that was true. She knew a lot but had to say that she wasn't completely sure if some of it was true or not. She liked listening to him read, he had a smooth voice with just a bit of harshness to it, almost like a bit of a growl to some of his words. She liked that, it reminded her that he was a wolf.
She still felt a little bad about blowing up on him last night. She got angry over nothing, simple questions, and she couldn't fully understand it. She felt so hopeful at the barbeque with him, when she thought he was human. But now she knew he was a shifter like her and she just got angry. She couldn't even explain it to herself at the moment.
She told him a few tricks he could try to help him learn to control his shift, like shifting back and forth a few times and letting his wolf out more, maybe his wolf needed more freedom. Paul listened and seemed to take notes, though her shift.
Her shift passes quickly and before she knew it, it was 5 o'clock. She closing up the shop, Paul walking out with her, he had offered to walk her home. He said that it was late and that she shouldn't be walking home alone, the Sun was still out and it was 5:30 at the latest, after she cleaned up the shop and lock everything up. She reminded him that if anyone messed with her, they wouldn't do it again after a jaguar pounces on them, but he insisted.
"Well, I couldn't ask for an easier shift on my birthday," she says stretching her arms up over her head. They were a few people walking on the street, still shopping in some of the little shops.
Paul grabs her wrist, pulling her to a stop on her walk home. She turns to him, he stares at her with a stunned look in his eyes, "It's your birthday?"
"Ummm… Yeah, but it not a big deal," she says, and it wasn't like there was anyone here to celebrate with. Her sister would yell it her for saying that, her sister was all about birthdays. She even throws birthdays for her pets and somehow, she got their grandmother to agree to a 250th birthday party when they were younger. Her grandmother said that after so many birthdays they just stop mattering, but they mattered to Chloe.
"How old are you?" he asks, his eyes still boring into her.
"Old enough to know that you shouldn't ask a woman that," she says, playfully, poking his nose. She was only 20, but she wanted to take that serious look off his face, it didn't work.
"Cake?"
"What?"
"Where is the cake?" Paul asks, very serious.
"I—don't have—one," she answers, she was a little confused by his demeaner.
Suddenly Paul lifts her up, throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She stared at his lower back in shock for a moment as he says to the onlookers, in a commanding voice, "Sorry everyone, I have to abduct this woman and right an atrocity."
She pushes up on his back as he runs with her over his shoulder. She can't help giggling at the ridiculousness of this whole thing, the few people on the sidewalk stare openly at them. She sobers quickly when she realizes that her ass is right next to his face; she turns bright red and covers her mouth with one hand to stop her scream of embarrassment. Not to mention her eyes now had a clear view of his ass jumping as he runs down the street.
"Put me down," she yells and squirms on his shoulder trying to jump down.
"Nope," is all he says, holding her firmly.
He runs up to a blue Subaru Impreza, it had some rust on the outside, but it looked clean and well taken care of on the inside. He opens the door and plops her into the passage seat.
"You have a car here," she asks, shocked. "Why didn't you say something; it's five miles to Charlie's and back?" She didn't mind the walk, but he would have to walk all the way back for his car. Why didn't he say he had a car here, she would have been ok?
He jumps in the driver side quickly and says, "No big."
No big, no big! What was he thinking? She glares at him and says, "Where are you taking me?"
"To get a soft, sweet food made from flour, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients," he answers, starting the car and driving off.
"You mean a cake?"
"Noooo, I mean a sweet food made with flour, eggs, sugar and other things or so I'm told, that is often decorated," he says back. She sighs, crossing her arms and lets him take her to wherever he wanted to get this cake. It didn't matter to her, he could stop at a local grocery store and get a cake, she really didn't care. The ride is relatively quiet, she watches to trees passing by, thinking about nothing in particular but her mind jumps to her family or the lack of it.
"Do you wolves have any stories of how you got here?" she asks absentmindedly trying to take her mind off her family and her sister.
"My people call us Spirit Warriors," Paul answers. "The story goes that our people were a small tribe and couldn't defend against a large tribe, so they took to their boats and the sea to survive. But the men left the boat in spirit form to fight off the invading force, with great winds and calling to the animals for help. The wolves were the ones who answered and well here we are. Who knows how true that story is?"
"Only the men," she asks.
"That how the story goes," he answers offhandedly, shrugging his shoulders.
"Leah most be pissed," she says back.
"You know Leah is one of us?"
"You all have the same underlaying scent of wolves."
"Smells bad," Paul asks.
"No, just wolfish," she says.
They pull up to a little bakery surrounded by woods, it was kind of off by itself out here. The building was brightly colored in white and yellows, with a swirling script reading, Sweet Callings. She smiles at the name; her old pack would love that. She gets out with Paul, and he leads her into the bakery. Its small and charming inside, continuing the white and yellow from outside, two display case flank the counter and cash register. A familiar face pops out of the back at the sound of the bell over the front door.
"Embry," she says staring at the young boy, he was about 15 or so, he was small for a shifter, but he was young, and she could see that he would fill out nicely in a year or two, maybe less.
"Hey, Kitty," Embry says.
"Not a cat," she says back playfully. She like Embry he was so young and cute like a puppy. She thinks of the name outside and looks at Embry, what was his last name, Call, right. She smirks, "So not very creative on the name."
"What! It my parents place," Embry says, walking behind the displays. "My mom makes some wicked cake designs." He pulls out a binder and puts it on the counter, opening it to a page with a wolf designed cake, "She made this when I made the pack." It was a very cool design with three tiers and wolves all over it with tribal patterns.
Paul leans against the displays and crosses his muscular arm, he reminded her of a biker, but he was missing the leather jacket. Embry smacks at Paul's shoulder telling him get off the merchandise. Paul growls at him in response. But he looks over at her and waves to the displays saying, "Pick anyone you like, I'm buying."
She looks at him annoyed for a moment before examining the assortment of cakes in the cases. She really didn't need a cake on her birthday, so she says, "Pick what you like, it really doesn't matter." She looks at Embry, "What's the cheapest or on sale?"
Embry looks away, eyebrows high, "The man said he was buying a cake so I'm going in the back and getting the most expensive one here." Embry glares at Paul and continues, "Paybacks a bitch, $500 dollars bitch!"
"Nooo," she says. "I don't need it."
"This is no longer about you," Embry says. "If Paul's coming here for a cake, I'm only going the sale him the most expensive one, for kicking my ass last Thursday." They rush at each other quickly over the counter, like they are going start a fight, fist raised but never make contact. It was all playful, but she was so afraid that Embry was really going to make Paul spend that much money on her.
"And if I pick one?"
"Well, that's the lady's choose. I was raised a gentleman and I would never wish to upset a lady," Embry says, flirtatiously. Paul growls at him and slaps him over the counter on the shoulder, like Embry did to him before. Embry looks indigently back at him, waving his arms at her and then himself like he thought he would be getting somewhere with her.
She looks at the small cakes and see one with lots of fruit on top, it was pretty and small so hopefully not too expensive. It looked like it would feed about 4 people, so there wouldn't be any leftovers. "That one," she says pointing to it.
"The lady's choice stands," Embry says gallantly. He puts the cake in a box as Paul pays for it. Embry make a joke about doubling the price for assholes.
An older man pops his head out the door of the back room and says, "Embry I need you to lift this sack of flour," disappearing quickly after.
Paul smirks and says with narrowed eyes, "Yeah Embry go lift his sack."
"Shut the hell up, bro," Embry jabs back annoyed, disappearing into the back.
Paul leads her outside and round back, carrying the cake in one hand. They sit at a picnic table behind the bakery, it was yellow too, same as the building. He opens the box, Embry was nice enough to put two forks in the box for them, and motions for her to take the first bite. They didn't have plates, but Paul says that's ok because they were all savages here, making a derogatory Indian call. They were going to have to just dug into the cake with their fork right out of the box. She didn't mind, it would taste the same no matter how they had to eat it.
She takes a kiwi off the top and eats it, it was glazed somehow and tasted sweeter than normal. He just takes a huge piece out of the cake and stuff it in his mouth, laugher in his eyes about playing the savage, and reminding her of the first time she met him at Jacob's house. They continue devouring the cake as she asks, "You're never going to let him forget about the sack lifting thing, are you?"
"Nope."
"Don't be too hard on him," she says, "He's still young."
"So," he says back taking another bite.
"So, it's not nice to tease the young one so much," she replies.
"So, you're not a young one?"
"No, I didn't say that" she says, "I'm 20 today."
"20 is a young one," he says, "What an old one then to you?"
"Over 100 at least," she says.
"100?" Paul says, "Who are you hanging out with? Now, I know it Grandpa Jag not Godfather."
"We can live a very long time, Paul," she says. "It not hard to reach 100. My grandmother was over 250." He stares at her in disbelief, so she asks, "How old is the oldest member of your pack?"
"Sam," Paul answers. "He's 26." Now she stares at him in disbeliefs he had to be kidding, a 26-year-old alpha.
"You're joking right?"
"Aaaa, no."
"Wow, I've never heard of a 26-year-old alpha," she says. "Triago is 68 and he is considered young for an alpha." At the mention of Triago's name Paul goes stiff, his eyes hard. She didn't really like talking about her old pack or Triago but they did need to know about them and Paul was someone she felt like she could talk openly with. "Umm, I know I didn't explain very well last time and if you are ok with relaying the information?" He nods his head to her and stares at her waiting, other than his eyes, his face is unreadable, his eyes are hard like a soldier waiting for the information she will give him for his pack.
"Triago didn't start out bad. Or I should say that when he first arrived, he acted very respectful to my pack, and my grandmother memory. He showed a lot of respect for the things my pack took very seriously, like our traditions and ways." She stops thinking hard for the right words.
"So, he charmed his way in," Paul says then asks, "How did it turn bad?"
"Yes," she answers honestly, "I had thought everything was fine. A lot of my pack choose him as alpha and for a time I did too. Then a week before I had to run away, I started hearing some talk about binding. Alpha binding. This is the thing I told you about that my grandmother would never do, force pack members to stay with the pack forever." He nods in understanding, "I didn't like it and started voicing this to the others. Triago came to my house and told me to stop, using his alpha will to order me."
Paul's eye twitches but he stays where he was letting her continue, "He bind more shifters that week then before, at least 4 that I know about. I didn't like it, so I told my aunt that I was thinking of leaving and going to Deron's pack. He's the alpha of a pack to the south of us, he was kind to me as a child and I thought that I would be easily accepted there."
She wasn't sure what to say next, the next day Triago attacked her. She always wondered why it happened so quickly. Why he picked her? She was the previous alpha's granddaughter but that really shouldn't have mattered to the rest of the pack, lineage didn't matter too much to shifters. Paul stared at her waiting; she looks down at the half-eaten cake. She felts her eyes water a little thinking about those last few days she was home, about her family and her sister.
What was her sister doing? She wasn't a shifter and as a human she had more freedom than she did. Chloe was a genius and was currently at a university studying physics, she had those opportunities open to her. Daiane supported her sister, and was so proud of her when she we accepted to university when she was only 14 years old. But she couldn't go back and see her, Daiane lived with their aunt and her aunt got the same kill order the others did. Her aunt would have no choose but to kill her if she saw her. No, she couldn't do that to her, her aunt would protect Chloe, if she came back from university.
"Ummm the next day, Triago came and demanded that I mate with him. He tried using the alpha will on me to make me do it. But you see—Umm," she says not wanting to say more. She peeks at Paul, the anger in his eyes scare her a little but she could tell that it wasn't directed at her and says, "Mating can't be forced. My Jaguar fought back and lashed out at him. I felt the break with the pack then."
"Break," Paul asks.
"Yes, the break. Jaguars feel their connection to their pack here," she puts her fist to her chest over her heart, "If broken, it just feels empty."
Paul looks down, he has a strange look in his eyes, thoughtful. She looks at the cake and takes another bite trying to distract herself, Paul needed a distraction too. She looks at her fork and then him and says, "You know my sister would have loved this cake." He looks up at her confused. "She always made my birthday cakes, she loves birthdays." She puts her fork in the cake and takes a good size piece and continues, looking at the piece like she is going to eat it. "But she loved them because, in my family you could do anything with your cake. You can keep it for yourself or share it. You could even," she flings the piece of cake on her fork at his face, hitting him on the cheek frosting and bake bits sliding down his cheek. She was suddenly unsure of his reaction but couldn't help the smile that spread over her face and tries to cover her giggles. His mouth drops open stunned as he looks at her completely surprised by her attack on him, cake attack. Her sister did something similar to her, after she made a bit of a rude comment about her not being a shifter on her 14th birthday and how that university was the best place for her now. She wasn't happy and throw half her cake at her saying it was her right to do what she wanted with her cake and she wanted to hit someone with it. She had apologized later, seeing the way her words had hurt her sister.
Paul looks up, gravity in him posture and eyes, he moves fast and flings a piece at her, hitting her shoulder, she gasps.
"Hey that's my cake," she says with mock outrage.
"I bought it," he answers tossing a piece of fruit it her. She moves fast and catches it in her mouth and eats it, she didn't like seeing the fruit go to waste.
The conversation goes back to a lighter subject as they finish off the cake; books, movies, music and such. She would fling a piece at him a time or two, to see if he could catch it in his mouth like she did. It was a fun game and they would laugh when he didn't make it, hitting his chin or cheek. They were a mess by the end, cake in his hair and on his shirt and hers. He drives her back to Charlie's house; she would be needing a shower tonight after this. But she had a great birthday even if she couldn't spend it with her family, Paul made it great all the same.
She kisses his cheek in thanks as she gets out of his car to goes inside. She couldn't help liking him, he was just so kind and good to her. She thought that he would hate her after finding out that she was a shifter, and for a minute she thought he did. Maybe wolves were just more open to other shifters, than her people were. Paul and the others were amazing and she would do what she could to help them.