Author's Note: Sorry this took so long: it seemed kind of deviant to write such a Halloween-esque fic during Christmastime. It's January now, though, and even though the Christmas decorations are still up at my house, I can now finish Solar Eclipse without feeling guilty. ^_^

Chapter 10


"Hey, Aelita?" Ulrich muttered, "You're cutting off the circulation to my hand."

Aelita loosened her grip slightly.

"You're doing great, by the way," Ulrich told her. Jim had chauffeured them to the site of the gathering (rambling on about two different jobs he'd held that this task reminded him of – neither of which he wanted to talk about), and they were walking the last few blocks.

Aelita rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course – I'm wearing a super-sexy dress and killer heels, and I'm attending a werewolf gathering at full moon. I'm doing fabulous."

Ulrich grinned. If Aelita could still turn on the sarcasm, she was probably fine.

"Will Herve be there?"

"Maybe; Theo and Emily are both from different packs, so unless someone else invited them, they won't be here."

Ulrich's dad met them at the entrance to the park. He nodded to Ulrich and glowered at Aelita, and then marched in without so much as a "follow me."

"He didn't seem too happy to see me," Aelita whispered.

"Of course not, he wants me to find a nice were-bitch to settle down with. If I really had brought Emily, he'd have been pressuring me to marry her."

"Ulrich!" a slurred voice shouted from off to his left. Wincing, Ulrich turned to nod a polite greeting to the old man staggering up.

"He's not the alpha, is he?" Aelita whispered doubtfully. Ulrich shook his head with a smirk.

"Ulrich, you lucky pup – you found a fine looker to wear on your arm!" The old wolf grinned cheerfully at Aelita, head bobbing drunkenly.

Ulrich grinned at him. "If you think she's a looker…" he began, thinking of Yumi.

The geezer dug in his pocket. "Here – something for the lucky lady." He pulled out something small and shiny and slipped it on Aelita's finger with a comment in the lycanthropic tongue.

"Well…thank you," Aelita said blankly as the old man wobbled back to the table he'd left. Then she looked at her finger. "What did he say?"

"Mm…I think he saw you and me together and jumped to conclusions," Ulrich said evasively; no way was he translating that comment. He leaned over and looked at her hand as well. On her finger was a silver ring, with a glossy white stone in a setting shaped like a wolf mask in full snarl.

"It's pretty…" Aelita twisted it on her finger. "But I don't want it. Would he be offended if I took it off?"

Ulrich glanced back at the mangy fellow, who was in the process of emptying a big glass, and snorted. "Him? In another hour he won't notice if you walked right up to him and punched him in the nose, the way he's drinking those Silver Bullets."

"He's drinking what?"

"Yeah…he calls it laughing in the faces of all the humans dumb enough to believe that werewolves can only be killed with silver." Ulrich took the ring and put it in his pocket. "Maybe somebody else is interested in souvenirs."

"Somebody like Yumi?" Aelita teased.

"Maybe," Ulrich growled at the dirt, his face growing warm. "She is the only other girl I'm really good friends with."

"Is that what it is?"

Ulrich glared at Aelita. "Have you been taking lessons from Odd? We're just friends, all right? I don't even know if anything more serious would work out – everything keeps getting in the way."

Aelita looked away for a moment. "Is that the alpha?"

Ulrich followed her gaze to the elaborately dressed man just approaching the platform that had been erected. "No, that's the alpha's mate."

"Oh!" Aelita's wide-eyed gaze swung around to stare at a woman with shoulder-length red hair and a deceptively simple gray dress that probably cost more than every energy bill at Kadic.

Ulrich gently caught Aelita's head in both hands and turned her face back towards the stage. "Yes, that's the alpha; don't beg for eye contact, and she won't look at you."

"I was expecting…something else, somehow."

"Expecting a guy?"

"Well…wouldn't your father resent taking orders from a woman?"

Ulrich snorted. "Resent? He'd resent taking orders from another guy. She would snap her fingers and every wolf guy here over twenty would probably sit up and beg."

Aelita cocked an eyebrow. "How does she do it?"

"Don't know…the females in this pack don't like her much; this milluko is in pretty good shape, though. Hardly anyone, male or female, really challenges her authority."

Aelita looked at Ulrich. "What's a…what you said?"

"Well…"

The werewolf onstage suddenly shouted to all the partygoers in lycanthropic, earning applause from his audience.

"What was that about?" Aelita asked.

Ulrich shrugged. He was clapping too, but without much enthusiasm. "Basically, the alpha's glad everyone could make it and there's a special entertainment in a few."

"Why didn't she say all of that herself?"

"The alpha usually only howls when she's commanding others." Suddenly an unpleasantly familiar scent reached his nose. The last time he'd smelled it…

"What's wrong, Ulrich?" Aelita asked quietly. She must have noticed him stiffen.

"Turn around slowly," Ulrich told Aelita, circling her as she turned so that he was between her and the wolves as much as possible.

"Now what?" Aelita was almost whispering.

"Start walking. Do not run." Ulrich led her forward, slow and deliberate.

"I can't run in these shoes."

Right: the stilettos. He'd forgotten. "I'll probably have to carry you, so the instant your feet are up see if you can get those shoes off. If you can, you can throw them at the Xanafied werewolves that'll be chasing us."

Aelita turned to stare at him in horror, but she never had a chance to answer: behind them a wolf unleashed a bloodthirsty snarl. Ulrich shifted as fast as he could and broadsided Aelita into falling onto his back, relieved that she thought to grab his fur as they started running.

Jeremy's going to kill me for this.

That was optimistic, and he knew it: they had to escape the wolf pack first.