Mistress of Blood and Fur

Chapter 12 - Supply Run

Onyx

I hate going down to the nearest town to buy groceries. It’s not like I have to literally run. I have to drive in the comfort of my truck down the hills, but the whole experience is steeped with negativity.

When I was younger, I started calling each trip as a supply run. As a The Walking Dead fan, it reminds me of each time the characters have to leave their secure hideout. In my case, I don’t have to deal with zombies or other humans who want to dominate the area, but I have to deal with snoopy and unpleasant humans.

After Dennington and Smith visited us, I just knew that whatever peace we have is fragile. The humans will be watching our every move, looking to see if we’ll make a mistake. Despite it all, I like it when my dad assigns me the task. It means that he trusts me. He usually chooses at least two Alphas to go down to town together. He rotates the roles so that others will get a chance, and finally I am getting a chance.

Somehow, I know why he’s picking me now. It’s the first trip down after the police visit, and he wants someone who can say the right things. We have been hunting most of our food, but we also need other supplies, especially since more potential brides are coming. It’s an honor, really, but I don’t feel it today.

Why?

For some reason, my dad decided that it’s a wonder-f*****g-ful idea to pick Fox and me to buy the supplies. It means that it leaves Grace with Dash. I can’t really do a thing if she makes a choice and it happens to be him, but I just don’t want him to have extra alone time with her. I don’t think that’s fair.

“Why can’t I bring Dash, instead?” I ask.

“I know what you’re thinking, Onyx,” my father says. “But here’s the thing. We always need one who can do the talking and the driving. The other person should know what’s needed in the kitchen, and everywhere else.”

“You want me to bring a housewife?” I ask, exasperated, but I immediately regret it. Fox has done nothing to me deserve this kind of talk. “Why can’t I bring Grace, instead, then?”

“You’re fully aware you can’t bring here anywhere alone beyond Opium Hills unless she has already chosen you.”

I want to complain that she’s taking a long time but I know that traditional human courtships even take a longer period. Some people take one step forward and several backwards. It’s the way it is. When wooing a virgin, the difficulty rises. It doesn’t help that she has so many choices to confuse her. We’re actually lucky that the other wolves have decided to back off. Some of them don’t like competing with me, at all. Others just don’t like virgins, and she definitely smells like one.

Sighing, I take his list and budget and head for my truck. I’m not that enthused to go down but I know I must go fast. The faster I go through with it and get back home to the pack, the better.

Fox is already waiting at my truck, looking excited as if we’re going on a field trip. Oh, well.

“It looks like you have a list,” he says. “I got one, too.”

“Think we won’t go over the budget?”

“You for real, Onyx?”

I laugh. He’s right. We’re both grown-ass men with our own money. Of course, we can afford whatever. My family may live on the hills but money has been passed down. The same goes with Fox. We never had to want for money. It must really annoy the humans living down there in Sugardale Town. I don’t know who named the places in this area, but they must have been smoking something while reading some fairy tales.

“I hate leaving Grace with Dash, but here we go,” I say.

“If she wants you, you can leave her for days and she will still want you,” Fox says.

I climb into my truck. It’s time to go. Even though it’s early o’ clock and the sky is still streaked with orange and faint reds, it will take at least an hour to descend to town. That means, we’ll be there just in time for the shops to open. We plant most of our vegetables, though, and as mentioned, catch our meat. The Opium Hills wolves also own the whole area up the hill, including some privately-owned forest land. There is a border that we don’t cross that is considered government-owned. As much as possible, we don’t hunt there. There’s enough prey where we could freely run.

We spend the trip see-sawing between idle talk and silence. Fox admits that he likes Grace and it would be an honor if she chooses him. He will not say no. Something inside me twists at the thought, but I also know that he can make her feel safe and happy.

“Like a friend. You don’t have to marry a friend,” Blaze complains.

“If it ever comes to that,” I reply.

Her growing powers have been worrying me. Thoughts of the tradition that involves hailing a new leader wash over me. I shake them off. The last one who went through the ritual was my father, and my mother couldn’t handle it.

I shake the thoughts off. It’s time to focus on human business, and I don’t want to be caught thinking of things that can be trouble.

“That’s noble of you, then, Fox,” I say, trying not to sound sarcastic.

“Hey, I’m almost 100% sure that she’ll pick you if that makes you feel better. I just want to be able to cook the new recipe I’ve been practicing in my head. The Wifi is also shitty up the hills. So, getting down to town means I can also download a few things.”

“Mm. Now that you mentioned that.”

We don’t really need mobile phones to communicate to each other, but I miss some simple human pleasures. I feel like being cooped up there on the hills is a means to get us back to our wolf nature.

I appreciate how easy it is to talk to Fox. Soon, we’re in town and I’m not sure if I should be happy. The stores are just opening up as expected.

“Let’s go to the spices shop.”

“Spices shop?” I ask, frowning at my friend. “Really? Don’t we just go to a convenience store to buy your ingredients there plus the, um, ladies’ supplies?”

“Okay, let’s go there but hope we’ll have time to go to the spices shop. I know Grace will like it there.”

“Mmm.” He has me right where he wants me. Mentioning Grace is the right thing to do. Smart man.

We go to the convenience store where some sleepy-looking humans fill their carts with the usual necessities. An old lady with long and straggly grey-black hair looks at us with contempt in her eyes.

“You don’t belong here,” she rasps.

“Excuse me, lady? Why? Because he’s black and I’m mixed with First Nation,” I say, taunting her, and Fox rolls his eyes at me. We both know what the lady really means. She knows we don’t belong to the town. We’re hill people – wolves.

“Don’t play stupid with me, boy,” the woman says, sneering at me. “I heard you hill people have been taking some women hostage up there.”

“Ma’am, that’s not true at all,” Fox says politely. Trust him. “We just come from families who birth more boys than girls, and most of our women have left.”

“That’s what you say. What about Rosamunde Ewing?”

“What’s going on here? These boys giving you trouble, Miss Davis?”

Fuck. It’s Dennington. His right hand holds his belt, while he tips his chin at us. Smug, arrogant prick. I don’t like the smell of him. There’s no fear, just self-assurance that he can just dig his boots on us.

“You’ve been watching these boys, sheriff?”

“Of course I have, Miss Davis.”

“We’re just buying groceries,” I grit out.

“Calm. Think of blue skies and the waves -,” Blaze begins.

“f**k off,” I tell him in my head. I’m not that foolish to say those words aloud when the good f*****g sheriff is watching us as if we’re prey. My pride can’t take it. We’re wolves. We hunt these assholes down.

“So, you say,” he says, eyeing the boxes of tampons pointedly as they go with the rest of the groceries on the counter. The cashier looks tense, but at least she doesn’t look like she’s against us in particular. She’s young, about our age, and looks like she’s afraid of Dennington. Her name tag says, “Marie.”

He leaves us alone, though, but I have no illusions that he will keep his hands off. After paying, I’m ready to back home, but Fox insists we head on over to the Spice shop.

“I think we had enough to spice up our life today, Fox.”

“You’ll see when we’re there. I promise.”

I hope he’s right and that we make it back to Opium Hills in one piece – or that I don’t kill Dennington first.