The Witch's Wolf

Isla I stand at the window of my office staring down the fifteen floors to the humans on the street. They file out of taxis and into buildings along the busy stretch, trying to avoid the early Seattle rain. I turn my attention to the cloudy sky. The gray covering is sprinkling the city with a light shower, but the black haze along the horizon suggests a coming storm. I breathe deeply, trying to catch a hint of the rainy smell through the thick glass. Even with my heightened senses I can only smell the lavender scent from the candle burning at my desk.  Something soft lightly brushes against my thigh. I look down to see Xena has awoken from her nap and decided to join me at the window, curious to see what's drawing my attention. She stretches her black paws out in front of her and lets out a yawn that displays her massive, panther teeth. Her jade eyes scan the street for something interesting and look up at me curiously when they find nothing. "I was just people watching again," I explain down to her. She lets out a huff of disappointment and trots back to the giant, velvet pillow in the corner of the room. It's deep crimson color makes it barely noticeable against the dark mahogany furniture. My office resembles a study more than a traditional work space. A old wood desk sits at the center of the room backed by two towering bookcases filled with leather bound volumes and loose scrolls. The wooden floor is covered with various patterned rugs that make my footsteps fall silently as I walked back to my desk.  A computer hums gently atop the desk surrounded by lit candles, a cooling mug of coffee, and an old rotary phone. The phone was a gift from my partner, Ama, who always joked about my old fashioned nature. She was mortified at my enthusiasm for it and made me swear that I would't use it as my actual landline. For that reason a more modern office phone sits on the opposite side of the monitor.  My door suddenly flies open and a tiny whirlwind of blonde rushes towards me. Xena sighs loudly and rolls over in her bed as if to express discontent. "Oh hush, silly kitty," Ama teases waiving away her complaints. Xena grumbles softly at the wall to voice her disapproval at the nickname. "Morning, Am. What's on the agenda for today?" I pull the leather chair under me and take my coffee in my hands as she struggles with the stack of paper in her arms.  She gives up on organizing and lets them fall in a pile at the edge of my desk. She plops into one of the chairs facing me and opens a notepad onto her lap. "Well we have the meeting with the Anderson account later, they're annoyed that their previous case took one month and one week to resolve instead of the promised one month," She pauses to roll her eyes before continuing, "We have a call with that East Coast law firm after lunch to discuss retaining them for the New York clients. The human mayor has asked that you look over the city's expansion proposal to make sure it doesn't cross over any of our blessed land, but we can probably pass that off to one of the junior execs." Ama looks up and her blue eyes lock on the coffee sitting in front of my lips, "That looks cold. Do you want me to have one of the interns heat it up for you?" I press my palms tighter around the mug as they began to glow with a soft, red hue. In a few seconds a thin cloud of steam spills over the brim.  "I'm good. Continue," I say with a smug smile. "Show off," She mutters to herself. She snaps her notebook closed and leans forward to grab two blue folders from the stack on my desk. She looks quickly at the front cover before handing me the thicker of the two.  "That's for our first meeting this morning. It's with the head of the Amarok Cerberus Foundation. They oversee most of the hospitals in the Pacific Northwest and more down the coast along with other various programs. They didn't give much information in their request, just that our firm is the only one who could help with their particular issue." "I've heard of ACF but don't know much about them. What's their name?" I ask as I began to scribble notes in the margins. "Well let's see," Ama flips quickly through the brief, "We're meeting with Al-" She stops mid sentence. Her eyes narrow and she brings the brief closer to her face until it's touching her nose. I raise an eyebrow at her, "Um... does Al have a last name?" She shakes her head nervously before looking at me. "The meeting," she says carefully, "is with Alpha Ezekial Amarok." I choke on my coffee and look at her in disbelief. "Our meeting is with wolves?"