The Werewolves' Submissive

Chapter One: Lost Little Sheep

Chapter One: Lost Little SheepIt's not that Nina doesn't believe Myra when she tells her that the meeting is just for werewolf Doms and subs, and her being there wouldn't be a big deal at all. It's just that she's human and almost everyone else isn't and Myra doesn't understand how nerve-wrecking it is to be a human in a room full of predators.

After all, she is one of the last surviving humans in the world.

She has gotten used to it for the most part, but all her life, she just doesn't fit in because she's not as fast or as athletic. She doesn't have their heightened senses or enhanced healing, nor does she have their super human strength nor their agility. Growing up, she doesn't have many friends. It does not help that her family insists on raising her outside of the human safe havens and enrolled her in a werewolf school.

She's one of the three humans in school, the other two being in different grades. Once the other children find out how fragile she is, how just a small push would end up with bruises that takes weeks to heal, they stay away in a misguided attempt to keep her safe, unintentionally ostracizing her. The teachers notice that she's excluded from the rest of the students and some of them are old enough to remember a time when most of them are human.

She spends more time in the teacher's lounge than all the kids in her class.

At the time, she didn't care. It's not a big deal. Her parents say she's special and being friends with teachers is nice. She gets really good results because of all the homework and studying she does instead of going out with friends.

Except it means she doesn't fit in anywhere.

Myra is the best friend she's ever had. The only friend she's ever had. Myra is a werewolf in a long family of werewolves, not the bitten kind either. Her family's lineage spans back to generations. Her family have been wolves before ninety-nine percent of mankind's population followed suit. Pure-blooded wolves are treated something like royalty. To be seen with a bitten werewolf is disgraceful and Nina isn't even a werewolf.

Thankfully, Myra thinks it's all horseshit and she gets to hang out with whoever she wants. She hangs out with Nina all the time.

Nina is waiting for her outside the heat facility after five days of not seeing her friend. Myra's twenty and still unmated, which means she has to go to the government heat facilities in order to get through her heat cycles. It's either that, or s*x with friends with benefits or strangers, both of which are unappealing options to her.

Myra stumbles from the elevator with all the grace of a baby giraffe. Nina smiles fondly. For a werewolf, her friend is remarkably uncoordinated at times. Her long blond hair is matted with dried sweat and there is dried blood around her wrists where she's pulled too hard on her restraints on the bed. She has only had two cycles and already she looks like she's ready to call it quits and find a mate. Only, Myra's not the kind of person to settle with a mate just because. Her family is influential and powerful. She isn't allowed to mate with a regular person.

Her eyes are red-rimed and her legs shaky. She is still devastatingly beautiful, even exhausted, which is totally unfair.

Myra looks up and sees Nina by the door with a jacket and all but flies into her chest, nearly knocking Nina to the floor with the intensity of her leap. "Good to see you too, Myra," Nina laughs, patting her friend's back as she brushes her cheek to hers. She smells like sweat and something faintly floral. Myra scent marks her lightly. It's something she's supposed to only do with family members and pack mates. Myra has thought of Nina as part of her pack for a few months now, so Nina isn't completely surprised by this.

"Jesus, that was unpleasant," she gasps, winding her arms around Nina and holding her tight.

Nina laughs. The other werewolves who are here to collect their family eye them with their noses scrunched. One thing Nina's glad about being human is her inability to pick up smell so strongly. The only thing she can smell from her friend is the perfume she's sprayed herself with.

Small mercies.

"I ordered Chinese," Nina says. "Let's get back to the apartment and eat."

"Yes, please," Myra sighs. She sounds exhausted. "I think I can sleep for like, the next week."

"You have way too much work to catch up on to sleep that long," Nina laughs. "I've been collecting all the university work you've been missing. You won't be able to sleep for the next week."

Myra makes a wounded noise and lets Nina help her into the car.

When Nina crawls into the driver's seat, her friend is no longer smiling. She stares at the front entrance of the heat facility, her normally bright eyes dim. She looks haunted. Nina feels bad for her. "Are you okay, Myra? Did anything happen?" she asks.

Myra shakes her head. "Thanks for coming to get me," she says, grasping her arm.

Nina frowns. "Of course, I'd come get you. What're friends for?"

Myra shakes her head. "With the nose and everything, usually family comes to fetch me, but I didn't want to go all the way home to get my heat over with," she says. "I kind of stink," she says. "And it's not really safe for me to go back on my own, so really, Nina, thank you."

"You're welcome," she says.

Myra stares her in the eyes for a long second before dragging her attention back to the road. "I'm not going back there," she announces after twenty minutes of tense silence.

Nina glances at her from the corner of her eyes. She can tell that Myra's been itching to get it off her chest. "Yeah?" she murmurs.

Myra nods. "I'm not going back there. It's awful. I get that the government wants to encourage werewolves to find their mates and everything, but the facility is like a torture chamber." She rubs her wrists, where the wounds have long since healed, but Nina understands that the pain is there.

"Are you going to find someone from school?" she asks even as she grimaces. The guys in their school are... immature, to put nicely. They're studying programming together and the ratio of males to females is a hundred to one. While most of the guys leave them alone, enough try to insinuate that they're never going to be as good as the guys.

"No," she says with certainty. "I'll find someone older."

She looks away from the road once they're reached a traffic light and turns to her in shock. "You've given this some thought," she points out.

"It's all I've been thinking about in that dump," she divulges. "I kind of get why most of us get mated the moment we get our first heat cycle. The first one wasn't so bad. I thought I could handle it," she says.

Nina can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be in her shoes. Being human has it's perks, one of which is the fact that she isn't a slave to her biology like the were-creatures are. "Maybe it was better cause you're home and they know who your family is?" she approaches cautiously. Reminding Myra that her family is rich and powerful is never a good thing. She doesn't like that she gets special treatment just because she comes from a long line of wolves.

Myra's brows furrow impressively. "You're probably right," she says, huffing. "But I can't go home every time I have my heat cycle. It'll mess up with school."

"I don't think your family would mind," Nina says. "And they'll probably be happy to see you. It's been a while since you went home, right?"

"Just a few months," she crosses her arms. "I know it probably seems dumb to you, but I want to make it work without relying on my family. I'm sick of being treated differently, you know? And I found the perfect place to look for mates."

The switch of topic makes her mind spin. "You're really thinking about getting a mate?"

"I mean, I know I want one, so I should start looking before my next heat hits. I could end up not finding anyone at all," she says. "It's a legitimate concern." she looks worried.

"You're still young," Nina reasons.

"Look, Nina. I just- I hate feeling so helpless and out of control. And I'm a pure-blood, so the heat hits me worse than the bitten weres. My wolf is stronger," she says, sounding helpless. "When my heat cycle gets bad, all I want to do is find someone to f**k me." She rubs her palm over her face. "I feel like a different person. It's- it's hard to describe."

It's hard. "It sound like being roofied," she says.

"Roofied?" she asks.

"Ah... it's a human thing," Nina says. "It's Rohypnol, a sedative that's used as a date-r**e drug. People used to put it in drinks and give it to women in bars. The victims lose self-control and independence so their rapists can you know," she trails off.

"Like that," Myra says, eyes wide. "Except I'm awake and I'm begging for it," she says. "And then my heat is over and I feel disgusting."

Nina flinches. "That sounds- that sounds awful."

"It is," she sighs. "So, I'm going to find myself a mate."

"Do all werewolves get this?" Nina asks, curiousity getting the best of her. There are classes in school that teach her the basics of lycanthropy, but there are so few humans that the school never bothered offering.

"Pure-blooded ones are stronger, right?" she says and waits for Nina to nod her agreement before continuing. "Because we're more atuned with our wolves, but it also means the call of nature is stronger. So, we get all the same urges. We want pack, and lack of that, mates," she shrugs. "Females go into heat, males go into rut, though it's kind different for males. They don't go into rut until they find the right mate. Newly bitten wolves get the urges, but they aren't as strong."

She nods. "Tell me about your plan to get hitched."

She laughs and smacks her arm playfully. "I'm not going to get hitched. I'd probably just find a club where they look for temporary heat partners," she says. "Males need to go into rut at least three times a year, so they're always looking."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why three times a year?"

She snorts. "Dunno. To spread their seed around I suppose? Make sure they're breeding and everything. Animal instinct," she says dismissively.

"That... that doesn't sound very nice."

"Better than being restrained and out of my mind," she says with a wry smile. "Plus, it'll be fun. One of my cousins gave me the address to this super fancy meet and greet for unmated werewolves."

She laughs. "That sounds nice."

"It does, doesn't it? Plus most of the guys there are stupid rich and everything, so my parents wouldn't disapprove if I do end up falling in love with someone there."

"As long as you stay safe," Nina says, parking the car in their designated spot in front of their apartment.

"I'll be safer if you come with me," she says.

"I'm not a werewolf, Myra. And I'm definitely not looking for a mate," she shakes her head and steps out of the car, waiting patiently for her friend to exit before locking it.

"You could be! We can find one together!"

"I'm eighteen, Myra, and I'm human," she reminds her in exasperation. It's one of the few perks of being human. She doesn't need a mate to feel complete.