Roll of Thunder
It was going to be a great day! Aturus strutted around Central Park with a feral smile on his lips, things had been going well for him and today it just got better as the day had gone along. He woke up alone, which was wonderful because it meant that the woman he had brought home had seen fit to leave on her own and not wake him for some sappy good bye and asked for promises of phone calls. He had summoned a not so minor luck spirit and forced it to bind with his will for the next eight days, every time he needed for something to happen, he would have the luck spirit to draw upon to make sure it went his way. He was slated for a mission to Scar and figured a bit of insurance couldn't hurt. Mind you he was very certain of his own skills, but when walking into Wyrm laden territory, nothing was to be taken lightly and he decided to have the scales tip in his direction. Thinking about his soon upcoming victory made him want to pat his own back. How could this day not be great?
Aturus smiled even wider as he thought about his extra-ordinary cunning and charismatic style. Most Garou had to ask the spirits for a favor, however, that did not quite sit right with Aturus, after all, he was a Shadow Lord and unlike some of the weaker tribes, he very much felt that since he was doing Gaia's calling he deserved the spirits services when he asked for them. Not to mention had already proven his worth many times over, he had managed to live the ripe old age of thirty-two without losing any major body parts that might take away from his attractive physique, he was Alpha in his pack, he was fairly wealthy and he had his choice of women where ever he went. He was one of the Chosen and lived his life like it. He recalled how he had summoned the luck spirit with ease; surely Father Thunder was smiling on him and must approve of his methods. Privately and in the quiet of his own mind Aturus felt a strong bond with his totem, his own Garou name was Thunderous Fury's Might – to which his pack called him Thunder as a nickname. Though he would never breathe a word to anyone else, Aturus very much liked having his Garou name sound so much like his totem's name. It rather made him feel like he was on par and that was a heady feeling on days like today.
Aturus had figured he would have had to promise something stupid and sappy in return for the favor he was demanding, but his glib tongue worked magic that morning. When he and his pack went to Scar, the spirit would give him the best of luck; making sure that each hit would be true and deadly. Luck would help him to target the most deadly of the Wyrm creatures and banes and take them out first. Aturus' point of pride was that he made sure that this spiritual assistance during the quest was known to be the spirit's duty just as it was Aturus' duty to fight the Wyrm where it dwelled. Thus he was confident about the upcoming battle and planned to make sure every single garou in the sept knew about his grandeur.
He continued to strut around, pleased with himself. He was supposed to be surveying the brawn for and pockets of weakness. He never agreed with the surveying issue but the Warder of the Sept thought it necessary, so he did it, it was easier than actually having to fight. He was almost paying attention to what he was doing when he saw Wyrm's Demise, his pack Beta, running toward him. The stupid smile on his face was from ear to ear, and made Aturus wonder if the Glass Walker had died on a mission or something.
"Thunder! I have news about the rescued Cliath!" Wyrm's Demise said running full tilt and then having to pause for breath when he finally made it to his Alpha's side but still gave a devious smile.
"Go on." Aturus said dryly, schooling his face into a calm mask of non concern.
"She belongs to us! Where she came from we still do not know, but she is a Shadow Lord." Wyrm's Demise said with a laugh. "The Glass Walker's protections and dictates no longer apply."
Aturus nodded, apparently luck was already starting to work, his brain jumped on the train of thought that he now was in charge and allowed himself a small hard smile. Living at the Sept of the Green had meant living on a Sept where the tribes were mixed out of necessity. Since he and his pack had moved there almost four years ago, Aturus had learned to stomach the stench of the Bone Gnawers, the sheer ignorance from the Children of Gaia and the very austere Weaver influenced Glass Walkers. That did not even come close to meaning that he liked any of them – just that he had learned how to make the best of the situation until he could take over leadership. He had maneuvered himself into an Elder position and was working to become Sept leader; it was just taking more time than he thought.
His hackles raised out of reflex, knowing that he was merely third in command. That wouldn't be so bad, except that he was outranked by a long haired hippie Child of Gaia and even worse the Sept was run by a techno freak Glass Walker. Aturus had butted heads with the Glass Walker from the first – but had not been able to justify taking leadership from him, yet. His lip curling, Aturus still found it to be contrived that the Glass Walker had managed to insinuate himself in for the seat of power after the Bitch Bone Gnawer died. As if that was not bad enough, the Glass Walker had found a lost cub. Not only was mass amounts of wisdom given to the freak, but he had even taken the little Bitch on as a mentee. Normally the term Bitch was not an insult, Garou were lupine creatures so was often used interchangeably with girl or woman. However being born and raised in a very human family, Aturus used the term as such.
The lost cub turned out to be Fianna and much to Aturus disdain she came from a well off family in the city, and not only that but she had Pure Breed in her lineage. She pranced around the Park like she owned it, was disrespectful to the Elders and in general acted like a spoiled rich bitch. Aturus had tried twice already to put her in her place, however her mentor interceded every time and she was let off with nothing more than a warning. Because of this, she dared to taunt Aturus. She flounced around, waving her protections in his face at every chance. She had even adopted the found Cliath and with the Sept leaders permission was "rehabilitating" the girl. The story was that the Fianna Bitch and the lost Cliath had been abducted by the Black Spirals because they were pregnant and the Spirals wanted their babies. A hunting party was mounted to find the Fianna and when found she insisted that the other girl be brought back because she was a victim as well, and of course because she was the Glass Walker's charge- it was done.
Despite the fact that Aturus had suffered a wound at the girl's hand he had not been able to touch her. At the Elder's meeting he insisted that she be turned over to him to at least get some answers when the minor altercation happened. He had been interrogating her (albeit somewhat harshly) when he had become distracted by the Beta Child of Gaia, there by having to take his attention off his prisoner. The girl had managed to give him a glancing blow, and no further mention was made of the altercation, it made sense to him now that he had found out she was a Shadow Lord. He finally became aware that the buzzing in his ear was Wyrm's Demise still prattling off about something.
"Find the Cliath. Bring her to our meeting room, if the Fianna gives you any trouble you have my permission to put her in her place. This is Shadow Lord business and the protections placed upon the Cliath by the Glass Walker are now null and void. She answers to me!" Aturus snapped out, stilling the conversation from his Beta.
"When should I gather her up?" Wyrm's asked, aware of the tone his Alpha was taking and refusing to become a target just then.
"Whenever you wish. I have a business meeting to attend to. I'll be back in a few hours. Have her ready by then, it is time she join her proper tribe." Aturus said, already turning away and walking towards the street.
Like many other Garou, Aturus had to live in the world of man as well as the real world. Meaning he had to have some source of income. Actually he had been the President of a string of successful businesses and knew himself to be quite savvy, since after her had sold off those businesses for a profit, they had tanked. Of course that had everything to do with the jackass that had "taken them over". While Aturus was in charge they were successful, when they were taken over they failed. His first business venture had been a medical billing third party office. Before his first change he had gone from job to job, never sure what he wanted to do but very sure that he was destined to be in charge and not some lackey for the rest of his life. He had taken the medical billing job because it seemed to be easy and paid well. He was certain to make sure he became the boss's right hand man, taking over billing and collections. After a few months Aturus was taken into the "inner circle" and learned the real business; How to double bill under different codes and pocket the duplicate refund checks, as well as how to charge "processing fees" to the patient and medical offices and take that too. Funny how fate works, but because he was dealing with not so honest people, Aturus learned he was Garou. He was set up to take the fall with a loan shark his boss owed. Supposedly he was making a payment, what really happened was that he was given fake money to deliver and when he found out he was going to be used as a warning. Unfortunately for the men who tried to jump him, he ended up being Garou. Like most first changes he really didn't remember what happened, but he did know that he was alive, the others were dead and he was super pissed at being set up.
As a point of pride his father had put a spirit watcher on him and when he came into his own, his absentee father came to find him. Aturus was told all about the Garou nation and where the Shadow Lords fit into it. They were the natural leaders, some called them arrogant, but it's not being arrogant when you are really good at what you do. After the quick father – son bonding time, Aturus went back to his life in the city. He took over the billing business, simply walked in one day and took over. He had never had a problem with being physically intimidating and now knowing he was damn near invincible, he used it to every advantage he could come up with. He took over the billing practice and ran it smoothly for almost ten years before the IRS had gotten wind of his operation. He quickly recruited a rather thick headed but beefy young man (Tony) to act as manager. He sold him the business for a rather large profit, well total profit since he had never paid for anything himself, and moved on. Next was an escort service. It started small but ballooned up quickly and did well for almost five years, until yet again the IRS stepped in. He "let" the same stupid young man take over just as the Fed's were coming in to do an investigation. Aturus laughed for months about that one, the young man had strong armed his way in, stealing computers and lists of clients and girls, just to have the Federal Agents seize his properties and assets not a few months later. Of course during this time Aturus had bought a few delis and bakeries, venturing out in the food business. However with all the codes and regulations and nonsense he decided it wasn't even close to being worth the effort and let dear Tony buy it from his corporation. Some time later he heard that Tony was under investigation for the deli burning down.
So now he was onto a pyramid style business. Some people called it a scheme and in his case it was exactly true. Most people who had a pyramid style business sold something, whether it was cleaning products, cheaper gas, phone time or something tangible that people could understand. The beauty of Aturus' business is that it was purely in the business of getting people to pay a processing fee to sign up to be a representative. Of course on paper it looked like they were timeshare leasing representatives, but the real money was made as you got other people interested in becoming a representative. All it took was $500 and you took a small test to become qualified. The real hook was that you were paid a percentage for each person you brought in. Of course being the President of the company meant Aturus got about thirty percent from every person there – including the members of his pack that he signed on to be the three vice –president representatives.
He hailed a taxi, using a bit of luck to make sure it was clean, fast and the driver had no desire to talk to him and then spent the better part of three hours cajoling, impressing, daring and intimidating new people into joining his little business. He used a bit more luck in his efforts and all in all he probably gained forty new people which meant about fourteen thousand dollars for the day. Not a bad day's work. He went to his favorite bistro, once again drawing on a bit of luck for quick and premier seating and had a large sumptuous dinner of rare (three seconds on each side to sear in flavor) filet mignon and then as he sat back and enjoyed a few cool frosty ales and contemplated how to deal with the new Cliath. He supposed he might as well learn her name since she would be his, and tried to plan her new regime of learning for the next few days. Eyes narrowing at no one in particular he thought about all of the un-training he would have to do. The Fianna no doubt put some ideas in her head and those would have to be erased. He almost laughed when he thought about just how heart broken the Fianna would be when her new playmate was taken from her and turned against her.
With a yawn and a stretch Aturus stood up, flipped a few bills on the table and strolled out. He really needed to go into his office and hammer out some paperwork, but spring had just started and after the nasty weather they had been suffering with, he just wanted to stretch his legs. He turned to exit the restaurant and took on a haughty attitude as the maitre'd bowed and scraped as he exited. He flipped tips around to everyone pleased at their genuflection of him. He felt quite in the role of the king in his silk Armani suit and hand sewn Malaysian shirt.
He hailed a taxi (again using some luck, he figured that it should get used to being called up) and instructed the driver to go faster; he offered him a larger tip if he was home as quick as possible. He didn't mind the red lights that were run and in fact felt like laughing; having a bit of luck on his side made his feelings of invincible ten fold. He reached his home in Brooklyn went into his brownstone. He had spent thousands of dollars to increase the size of his home. A huge tower sat beside the house, and boasted one wall of windows. He had used up the entire backyard, but since he didn't go in it anyhow he didn't see the problem. The expensive marble and hardwood floors gleamed for the days' cleaning as did the rest of his house and he smiled at the sheer opulence around him. He stripped naked, and strode to the shower, he was never quite sure if the neighbors could see through his windows, but decided if they could tonight they would be getting a treat. The hot water sluicing over him did much to relax and soothe him and after a good half hour, he stepped out into a steamy room and toweled dry. He chose a tailored jogging suit that detailed his finely honed physique and readied to leave the house. He opted to drive back to the Park, it was getting late and parking should be easier to find. A smile started to again crease his lips when he thought about the havoc he was about to cause and the fact that it was his right.
He was parked in front of his house, in his designated space and then some. He had a nice car and therefore refused to risk anyone scratching it or denting it, he even went so far as to paint lines for his car and made sure everyone knew not to try to park in front of his house. The first time some young hot head tried to get loud with him Aturus let just enough of his Rage to seep through his homid visage to give the guy nightmare's about what might be coming for him in the dark, that the man had packed up his family and moved not two weeks later. He had never had a problem since; in fact he left his car unlocked just in case he wanted a reason to go fight, but his neighbors weren't crazy and gave him the wide berth that he liked. He wrapped luck around him like a cloak and let loose, he drove like an ass hole the whole way to the Park. He swerved around cars on the bridge, cut people off, braked hard and fast and ran a few red lights. He felt like the king of the world when he got out of the car, he had found a great parking space close by and no one else was near and he strutted proudly into the park.