The Real Us (A world of werewolves series)

Chapter 3: Learning the rules

After half an hour of getting me used to walking, sitting and acting like a wolf, Jason led me out towards the forest.

He asked me to stay at the entrance of it, (I say asked, but it was really more of a cold glare which I took as don’t move) while he went into some bushes.

After a few minutes, a gorgeous cream and sandy coloured wolf appeared from them. I knew it was him because of that powerful energy he had, those golden eyes, and padded over towards him.

He turned and led me into the forest. I followed him for about ten minutes, both walking in peaceful silence, and then he started to trot, gently whining at me, which oddly, I knew meant he was encouraging me to do the same, so I did, and was chuffed that I hadn’t tripped after five minutes.

Just as I was getting cocky and gaining speed, I fell flat onto my face and rolled down a small slope. Embarrassed, I got up and shook my head from side to side trying to sniff out all the dirt from my nose. I looked up to see Jason looking down at me, making a strange noise in his throat which suspiciously sounded like laughter.

I ran back up to him without falling this time and slapped his snout with my paw. He only looked at me with bright smiling eyes and waited for me to lead the way.

After about five minutes, without warning, he jumped onto my back, biting the scruff of my neck, and then jumped away, leaning down on his front paws to look up at me playfully.

I ran over to him ready to pounce, but he was up and running off in the distance at the last minute. I had already jumped, so unfortunately I ended up doing a not so impressive mud slide face first.

Picking myself, up I ran after him. When I was gaining speed and catching up, he looked back at me and ran even faster, slipping and sliding like an overexcited puppy. I laughed though it sounded like a yip and jumped onto his back, making us both tumble to the floor.

We played like that for a few hours before heading back to the mansion. I waited for him to change in the bushes again, then we headed back inside, where he took me to my room.

He gently pulled the covers over my wolf body after I had jumped up to lay on the bed and as his fingers brushed lightly against my fur, it surprised me as a shiver of desire raced along my spine. Jason told me that I would change back automatically once I was asleep, said goodnight and left.

Next morning, Jane knocked on the door and entered without waiting for a reply.

"Hey lazy, get up and come have breakfast with me. You do know it’s past eleven?"

"Hey, Jane, is it?" I replied, yawning and stretching out the aches of sleeping in an awkward position all night and very slowly getting out of bed. I really didn’t want to leave the warmth of my covers.

Jane sat on my bed while I went into my little shower and got ready. I pulled on my black shorts and lilac t-shirt, a bit of makeup and my long black hair up in a ponytail, and I was ready.

We went down the long hallway and entered a massive hall full of tables and people already eating, while others were still lining up for food.

It reminded me of my old school dinner hall, except the food smelt way better here. Think Harry Potter when he was eating in the big hall during the first film, I am not kidding, it looked like that. Sort of. There were long rows of tables and benches stretched in a long line down the hall, about four rows. The table and benches were a light beach wood that matched the beach wood colour of the floor.

Sitting down next to Jane and some others, I ate my co-co pops while she, again, talked the whole way through about the pack and how sorry she felt for me last night, and whether I thought Jason was hot because every other female did.

I just smiled and nodded politely, not hearing half of what she was saying over the chatter of everyone else.

I spotted Blaze on the other side of the hall chatting to some other wolves and watched as Jason came over to sit next to him. They were chatting for a while before Blaze left and the woman called Marie came and sat next to Jason. I admit I got a bit jealous because as childish as it sounded, Jane was right about him being absolutely gorgeous, you couldn’t help but want him, and it was obvious Marie felt that way by the way she was all over him, smiling and batting her eyes at him and almost sitting on his lap she was so close.

Jason looked uncomfortable with her there. It was clear he wasn’t interested in her like the other males were, and eventually, he got up and left her sitting there alone. I couldn’t help smile at that, though I knew it was childish of me, but really, I couldn’t help it.

"So what do you know about Jason? Why was he never made Alpha?" I asked Jane.

Grinning at me, she said, "so you are interested? His twenty-four, decided to stay celibate until he meets his miss right after the hell his last partner caused him, and also he has more wolf in him than human -hence the gold eyes-, so he tends to be a lot more protective of the pack than most werewolves and stronger physically, don’t know if it’s part of the extra werewolf gene but damn can he be hostile and hot tempered. The male wolves are scared of him and tend to stay out of his way most of the time, while the females are forever flirting with him and trying to be his mate. He’s well known for being cold towards everyone except Blaze, although in wolf form his more playful and relaxed. As for your other question, he didn’t want to be Alpha because he doesn’t like the paperwork it involves, which is a hell of a lot as we need to keep track of every wolf here. Having a bad temper doesn’t help either, it isn’t good in an Alpha."

She took a sip of her orange juice and carried on, "He knew Blaze had always wanted that role. They’re extremely close and he makes sure no one challenges Blazes place and he’s also the one who keeps us under control, he’s the enforcer for the pack and crazy protective over Blaze, which I suppose makes sense with him being more wolf, the urge to protect his alpha is definitely stronger than the rest of us, not to say we don’t feel protective over our alpha too. . That’s all I know about him, really."

She looked at me in a way like she knew why I was asking, making me blush, but I didn’t stop. I wanted to know more about this intriguing male.

“What did his last partner do? And I thought it was supposed to be the Alphas job to keep us under control?" I asked.

"You would have to ask Jason that question. I just know that he wouldn’t have left her without a very good reason. He is the most loyal man you will ever meet, even if he is scary and dangerous, with his more wolfish instincts all he’s interested in is a lifetime mate and nothing else, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to give him that. As for Blaze, he is Alpha, but as the enforcer, as second in command it’s Jasons job to protect his alpha, Blaze isn’t as good a fighter as Jason is so they’ve come to an agreement I suppose, that Jason shares half the role with Blaze by doing the physical side of it while Blaze does the mental side, i.e. the paperwork, planning, or emotional issues. Trust me, if you have a mental breakdown it won’t be Jason you’ll want comforting you, unless your idea of comforting is ‘pull yourself together, suck it in and behave how a real wolf should. Now get the f.uck out’." Charming.

She showed me around the rest of the place after we had finished breakfast. When we reached upstairs, I saw a metal door with bolts on it. It looked eerie. "What’s in there?"

"Oh, well, that’s where Jason usually punishes us if we’ve done something really bad. Trust me, Josie, you don’t ever want to be on the other side. It’s also where he takes any enemy we come across for questioning, like I said before, scary."

I shivered at that thought and suddenly remembered Sam, the wolf who had bitten me.

"What happened to Sam, is he still here with you?"

"Yes he’s still here, but as I said before, he was punished for what he did to you so he’s still recovering in his room, but you will meet him soon." I felt bad about that.

We headed back down and went outside to catch some sun. There was grass everywhere, it was more like a massive green field than a garden. There were benches and tables that were already full with people. Everybody else had sat on the grass or were lying down alongside wolves. Some were even resting their heads on the wolves’ bodies as though it were the most natural thing to do.

We headed to a quieter area and sat down. While Jane sunbathed, I looked around at everyone who I would now have to consider as a second family. It was harder than I thought.

I spotted Jason sat leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees on a bench watching us all like a bodyguard. He looked over when he noticed me watching, but he didn’t smile or even seem like he recognised me with that cold stare.

At that point, Marie sat down beside him. She noticed me looking and started whispering something into his ear and began laughing very obviously at me. Jason suddenly got up and stormed off.

I wish I had known what she’d said about me, it couldn’t have been nice.

"Hey, you alright?" Jane asked, sitting up beside me and pushing her sunglasses up onto her head to see what I was staring at, but by then Marie had gone off in Jason’s direction.

"Just that Marie woman. She was whispering something into Jason’s ear about me, and then he stormed off," I replied, frowning.

"How do you know it was about you?"

"She saw me watching them both and then started whispering something to him and began laughing while looking at me, so pretty good guess, I think. Just want to know what it was she said."

"I told you, she’s a b.itch. Try not to worry about her, Josie. Knowing her, she probably said something about you having s.exual thoughts about him. She’s a vulgar girl, Jason knows what she’s like anyway. She’s forever trying to get him to notice her. You know, once she even did a strip dance for the male wolves and as soon as Jason entered the room she was all over him, rubbing herself against him and everything. She even managed to straddle his lap on a chair and give him a lap dance. I’ve never seen him leave so fast," she giggled and laid back down.

Later that evening, when the weather was cooler, we were getting ready to go and see a film ‘The wolf man’ no surprise there!

"Well I have to say that was a rubbish film." said Jane on the way out, still eating her popcorn and pretending not to notice or enjoy every guy we passed gawping at her desirably. I had to admit she was rather beautiful with her long, wavy auburn red hair, her tight emerald tank top showing off a decent amount of cleavage, tight skinny jeans that complimented her long thin legs and small heels.

We must have looked an odd pair, what with me in my navy blue t-shirt, jeans and shoe trainers with my long black hair swept up in a simple ponytail, and a touch of makeup. It was as all this was going on that I was thinking it was about time I started making a little more effort if I ever wanted to find myself a man.

"Yeah, I think the closest they’ve ever come to us is when they made that blood and chocolate film. Have you seen it?" I asked. It used to be a favourite of mine, although it didn’t have much action in it. I just loved that they were real wolves rather than some man with hair stuck to his face. I would imagine being able to turn to a wolf and how amazing it would be, and now here I was living the reality and I still couldn’t quite believe it all, I’d spent my life so lonely and wishing for a more interesting world like this and all this time it was real, right under my nose.

"Yeah I’ve seen that one. All the pack watch every movie made about us, but they never change, always the same. Some hairy monster man that looks ridiculously fake." she replied, spraying me with a mouthful of popcorn by accident and then laughing hysterically at my face and making an half-hearted apology.

We finally entered the gates after a few hours of walking. Thanks to the wolf side of us, we could walk for eight hours a day if we wanted and enjoy it.