Dreaming of Fate

Chapter 6

What I saw through the eyes of my wolf was brutal, teeth and fur, I heard snarling, and I could smell the grass, as it was being trampled by two wolves. No, werewolves, fighting each other. The body language of her opponent wasn't entirely hostile, it left openings for submission, but when my wolf didn't submit, it dodged and weaved until it could get a grip on her throat, or her paw, or anything to cause her to pause, to give her another opportunity.

I was getting frustrated. "What are you doing?" I shouted the question into my mind and I noticed her foot work faltered, allowing the other wolf to pin her to the ground by the throat.

There was a frustrated snarl and I felt her thrashing, trying to get free. "Stop!" and she did. "This is no way to act towards the pack who is trying to take us in". There was a small feeling of shame and her body went limp, but there was an undercurrent of annoyance and arrogance. This was not a true submission to the other wolf, and it could tell, the wolf shook my wolf's head before chuffing and stepping back, as if scolding a child and waiting for it to act out again.

"If you can't behave, then you need to let me back out" I said icily. She had rolled onto her belly and all I could see through her eyes was the bottoms of her paw pads, but I could hear as the other wolf walked over, and I could feel as it laid down next to us and placed its head on our shoulders and I sighed. "I think it might be time anyway, you can come back out soon I promise, but we need to figure out how to communicate with each other"

I felt a wave of resignation, and suddenly I was back in my own skin, covered by the massive head of a chestnut-brown wolf. I looked around at the few people who were still watching and noticed someone was missing "Linda?" The wolf's ears perked up, but she didn't move except to thump her tail on the ground, which seemed to be a signal to someone because suddenly there was a man there, looking up and away from us and placed a pile of clothes on the ground before walking away again.

That was when I realized I wasn't dressed anymore, and Linda's face was lying on my chest. My blood burned with embarrassment and I reached for the clothes. Linda chuffed again, and shifted her body so she was blocking the view from the crowd while I dressed quickly. She then shifted back, and began dressing as if she were in her own bedroom, not caring in the slightest about the others around us.

"You have a very impressive wolf Riley," She said, as she pulled up her jeans and sat down to put on her boots. "I'm going to need to talk to Ethan and give him an update, but how about I take you home first for a second lunch and a nap? Shifting will take it out of you" I nodded in agreement, the adrenaline from the whole situation was wearing off, and my body felt like it had been put through a cheese grater. I knew I'd have to eat a lot for the rest of the day to try and catch up.

The two of us made our way back to Linda's home, and she almost made a second meal before I insisted she just show me where the ingredients were, and I'd take care of it since she had things to do. She laughed but showed me where to find the food and left to meet with the Alpha. I ate my body weight in chicken and made a few sandwiches, before curling up on the couch and passing out.

I woke to Linda standing over me and gently shaking my shoulder. "Come on Riley, we've got to get going," I groaned and rubbed my eyes, "how long was I out? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sleep for so long"

"It's alright, you needed it," She said with a smile. "You've been asleep for four hours, we're running a little late. Ethan was a little more anxious than expected to get your orientation over with, he wanted to see if he could squeeze some more time with you." I stood up and followed her.

"Didn't he say it would take a week?" I asked, bewildered at the sudden acceleration of the plan. Linda snorted a little in amusement.

"Ethan's a good Alpha, he doesn't mess around and likes to get things done efficiently," She said. "He's going to try and cram as much as possible into the next few days before you head back out to the human world to settle your affairs. We'll probably end up meeting every day for the next couple of days." I nodded. I was glad to hear he was a good Alpha and wanted to get everything settled quickly.

"What is he like?" I asked. Linda's eyes lit up with happiness.

"He's strong, but not aggressive, he cares about the pack and is always looking out for us. He knows when to be gentle and when to be stern. He's fair and will listen to anyone who needs his attention." she said, admiration rolling off of her in waves. I smiled, relieved.

"That sounds like a great Alpha," I said. She grinned.

"He is," She agreed.

We pulled up to the big mansion I had first woken up in and found Ethan waiting by the entrance. He had a big book tucked under his arm and handed it to Linda before he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and steered me into the house.

"So you've heard the basics, now it's time to learn more of the details," he said. "Most of our history has been oral tradition but in recent years we've started writing it down for easier access. You'll need to memorize a lot of this in the next few weeks if you want to pass the final test." He handed me a stack of papers.

"What is this?" I asked, he chuckled.

"It's a lot to read, but you'll be able to get through it," he said with a grin. I rolled my eyes at him, he laughed and led me through a hallway that led to a grand entrance to a library. It was bigger than the public one at my college and had shelves lining every wall. I looked up and saw that there were four levels of books.

"It's so big!" I exclaimed. He laughed and pulled me over to the left side. The room was dimly lit with lamps scattered around, giving it a cozy feel. There were a few people around, each studying and reading from a book. They looked up as we passed. Ethan led me to the very back where there was a desk covered with scattered papers and books stacked lying open to hold their places. A young woman sat at the desk, glasses perched on the end of her nose as she wrote down notes. She looked up, startled.

"Ethan," She said, standing up and tugging down her skirt.

"Sophia, this is Riley. She's going to be joining the pack," he said. The girl smiled at me before looking back at him "as long as she can learn everything she needs to know, that is," he amended.

"Great, she's just in time," She said, pulling out a chair from under the desk. "Have a seat, I have something important to show you."

"I'm going to leave you two here, I need to go check on Linda," Ethan said, disappearing around a shelf and leaving us alone. I sat down and looked at the woman in front of me as she took off her reading glasses. Something smelled different about her, something important.

"Are you? Not a werewolf?" I asked awkwardly as she was clearing a spot on the desk by placing all manner of books and papers on the floor under the desk.

She looked up at me. "Of course not, you must be a fresh turn. Have you never smelled a human before?" she paused as I struggled for words. "Of course not, I'm Sophia Patel, lovely to meet you" she said, leaning over and offering me her hand. I shook it gently.

"Riley Carter, nice to meet you too," I said, my eyes roamed over the room behind her at all the beautiful books in the stacks and wondered how many there were in this room. "This is amazing," I said, gesturing to the room.

"It certainly is. I'm the pack librarian. Ethan and Linda are actually the ones that started this. It's a huge collection, over 5 thousand books and articles," She said, her voice was filled with awe as she looked at the shelves with me.

"What do you do here?"

"I manage the collection, update it every couple months, read to the pack on occasion," she said, gesturing to a microphone stand in front of her desk. "And sometimes I have to explain things to people that don't have much common knowledge. Like how our pack is run, our laws, what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do, etc."

"So like me?" I asked with a laugh.

"Yes, like you," she said, smiling. "I was given a book of all our laws, if you'd like to read it, I can give it to you." She said, reaching behind her and pulling out a thin leather-bound book and setting it in front of me. I opened it and looked at the contents. It was an entire list of rules, laws and expectations.

"Why don't you just tell me?"

"Well, it's a good idea to read it because this will be your only time to ask me questions," Sophia said.

"So why did they give you the job?"

"Ethan offered me the chance to become a werewolf after I met him and knew right away he wasn't human, he wanted to change me, but I turned him down. So he offered me this instead. I say offered, but it was more of a reluctant 'stay with me anyway, or I'll have to kill you'" Sophia shrugged. "So I'm an honorary member, I guess you could say, not a full-fledged pack member, but a friend. I get treated like a pack member, but I don't have the responsibilities that come with it. And honestly, I like being here more than I do with humans," She smiled.

"Oh yeah? Why is that?"

"Because humans are so busy, they don't care about anything anymore unless it makes them money. They don't have time to read or spend time with their families. They don't even talk to each other anymore, they just sit at tables with their noses buried in their phones," Sophia said, looking a little baffled.

"I suppose you have a point, I'm supposed to be studying in college right now, so I am missing a bit of reading, but I'm more of a biology major, so law and social dynamics are a little above my head unfortunately, but I'll get it, I hope." I laughed.

"Biology is my favorite subject," Sophia said. "I've always loved how things grow and how things work together and depend on one another. It's amazing. But I'm a bit of a nerd too." She admitted.

"I'd say that's a good thing. I think you're the first person I've met in a while who understands my desire to do some book learning."

"Ha! Same here!" Sophia laughed. "So let's get to work on the laws."

I spent the next several hours poring over the laws, many of which were very similar to the human laws I already knew, and the werewolves didn't mess around with vague language to create loopholes, their laws were absolute and firm, with no wiggle room. "What if something happens in an accident?" I asked

"Unfortunately, the laws don't bend very easily like they do in the human world. Depending on what law was broken, it might be easier to gain leniency, but some form of punishment must be laid out," Sophia replied. "Like if someone accidentally kills a pack member they won't get a death sentence, but they will still be punished, because we have to set the example that killing a pack member is unacceptable."

"That makes sense, and I agree. What about if a pack member does something bad but not bad enough to kill, say they steal something from someone else?"

"Oh yeah, that's a big one, especially in a pack setting," Sophia said. "If it happens once, they might just get a slap on the wrist, but if it keeps happening they will get worse and worse punishments until finally they might be thrown out of the pack."

I nodded, then suddenly had the urge to stand up. As I did so, a book fell from the desk. "Oh s**t, I'm sorry-"

"Don't worry about it, none of the books on my desk are very fragile" she bent down to pick it up and paused, looking at the cover in confusion. "That's strange."