Golden Rule

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – Fernanda and Brandon

Fernanda

I turned and saw alpha Brandon several steps behind me. He looked… like a kid. That’s the only word for it. He had a lopsided smile on his face that gave him that boyish look. He was dressed down compared to last night, in khakis and a collar short sleeve shirt. He looked at me and then glanced at Ms. Jackie.

“Good afternoon Mr. Duran, so nice to see you out and about in town.” Said Ms. Jackie very cheerfully.

“Good afternoon Ms. Jackie, Miss Levy.” he said in a very charming way while nodding at both of us in turn. I simply smiled tightly at him. I felt apprehensive about him, but my wolf was yelping in my head like a pup. I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me. She seemed excited to be near the alpha. Alpha. I need to be focused. I need to get a better read on this alpha, so I pushed my wolf back away from the front of my mind so I could do just that.

“Mr. Duran, I was just showing Miriam around our little village square. She seems quite intrigued by our-“ her phone rang and she stopped mid-sentence. She began her conversation while the alpha turned his attention to me.

“Miss Levy, I hope you’re liking our little village.”

“Yes, I am enjoying everything about it. Its so peaceful here and the people are so friendly and inviting”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been, but Canon Mountain was also a nice, quiet place with great people.” He said sounding confused.

“Yes… but there’s just something to being here. Everything is so intriguing being away from home.” I said hoping to convince him.

“I hope Golden Cross begins to feel like home to you soon. Two years is a long time.”

“I’m sure it will-“

Ms. Jackie said “I am so sorry, but it’s a personal matter I have to attend to. Miriam, I can drop you back at your cabin if you like?”

“If you don’t mind Miss Levy, I can continue the tour for Ms. Jackie and take you home once we’re done.”

“That is so thoughtful of you Mr. Duran! That’s wonderful!” said Ms. Jackie

“That’s not necessary, I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than to babysit me Mr. Duran.” I said shooting Ms. Jackie a questioning look. I felt like she was trying to pawn me off to the alpha. But then again, this would be perfect opportunity if I wanted to know more about the young alpha and form my own opinion about him.

“It would be my pleasure Miss Levy.” He said and I nodded my head and looked at Ms. Jackie.

“Great! Miriam, I’ll call you this evening about reporting to the schoolhouse tomorrow. Have fun, I’ve really got to run!” she says as she begins to walk back toward the bistro where her vehicle is parked.

“I’ll talk to you tonight then and good luck with your emergency.” I call out after her and she waves goodbye.

I turn my attention to the alpha. I’ve got to get something out of him.

*******************************************

Brandon

When Ms. Jackie is gone, Miriam looks at me with narrowed eyes and a determined frown.

“I hope you like ice cream” I say hoping to break the ice.

“What?” she asked seeming surprised with big doe eyes. I think she might start to cry.

“Uh, I could just go for some ice cream right now. I just got out of a shitty meeting with the mayor. We can continue with the tour Ms. Jackie was giving you over some ice cream. What do you say?”

“That sounds great actually.” She smiles a sad smile and looks anywhere but at me. There is something up with this girl. And I notice she is really wearing an antique looking engagement ring. I start walking and she follows my lead.

“The Davis’ have the best ice cream in town if I’m being honest. They have the real deal old fashioned creamery.”

“You’re really hyping it up, I hope I’m not disappointed.” She says smiling.

“You won’t be” I say with all the confidence in the world over an ice cream shop. “I know everyone at the school is really looking forward with what you’re bringing to the table. Your Alpha and Luna spoke praises about you. We’re glad you’re finally here to help with our kids after your yearlong sabbatical” I say jokingly and trying to start a conversation about something she’s familiar with.

“I’m really happy to be here and help anyway that I can. It’s quite the experience for me and I’m happy to be back in my element.” she says which shocks me because Canon Mountain postponed her coming here for work at their school. At least that’s the excuse they gave us. I file that for later. “So, you said you had a shitty meeting with the mayor? Is everything ok?” she says, and I’m surprised by her forwardness.

“Yea, yea it was a pointless meeting honestly, nothing serious.” We continue walking and she’s looking all around taking in all the shops and she smiles and greets everyone we pass. We get to the ice cream shop in no time, and I introduce her to Mr. Davis and his son and daughter working with him today. She orders coffee ice cream with sliced almonds, and I get my usual cheesecake ice cream with strawberries in it. We sit at one of the small tables in the shop and I can tell by her reaction after her first bite she likes it.

“Wow this is really good, its even better than-“ she stops in the middle of her sentence and looks up at me with a horrified expression. I don’t know how to read her or what to say.

“Yea… I bet you don’t have ice cream this good at Canon Mountain, right?”

“Actually, no we don’t” she responded. Whatever moment she just had, I assumed she didn’t mean to say out loud. It didn’t matter, there was something about this girl that was comforting to my wolf. He was yelping like a pup in my head. Acting like he wanted out to play with her wolf. What the hell, we weren’t kids so what was his deal? I had to push him back so I wouldn’t get a headache from his constant badgering.

I began to answer her question she asked Ms. Jackie when I walked up to them. Many of the older folks in the village knew of werewolves and that we protected the village and provided for them. Be it jobs, financial assistance, you name it. The pack had a hand in most things to do with the village. We all knew our places and what our responsibilities were, that’s why we worked will together. Even after the s**t that happened with my brother Nathan’s human mate. That I didn’t mention to her. Other packs didn’t know what had happened and we preferred to keep it that way. We didn’t need that attention on the pack or our family. We had already lost too much. I let her know the majority of the human kids didn’t believe the talk of werewolves; they thought it was just their parents or grandparents’ way of scaring them into behaving. It worked out better for us, we knew most if not all the families were or human. And we knew who belonged and who didn’t.

She continued to ask questions that seemed normal enough. Then she asked about the pack.

“I’ve heard all good things about you and your pack, almost too good to be true.” She said.

“Well, just like any other pack we have our everyday issues and adding the humans into the mix can be messy sometimes.” I said thinking of Nathan’s chosen mate.

“So, you and your pack are all ‘by the book’ type of pack? No secrets?” she asked and it seemed she was fishing for something. I didn’t think Canon Mountain would know about Nathan’s mate, but it also wasn’t a secret here. Everyone knew what happened and that Nathan was now mateless. He didn’t hide his rendezvous meetings with Lorena either. It didn’t matter if other packs knew, it was bound to happen.

“Pretty much yea, no secrets here.” I said smiling at her. She just nodded and began to stand.

“I can make my way back to the cottage myself Mr. Duran, you really don’t need to bother-“

“It’s really no bother Miss Levy, I don’t mind showing you and I especially don’t mind getting to know the person responsible for my nephew’s education for the next two plus years.”

“You have a nephew?” she seemed truly shocked. I thought this was widely known. What had she been asking about earlier then?

“My brother’s son. Did you not know that?”

“I, I… of course I knew, it must have slipped my mind... I wouldn’t want to take up too much of your time. We can continue with the tour then.” She deflected, big time. Now I knew for sure, something was up with this girl, but I didn’t place deception. I didn’t feel distrust about her. She felt familiar and my wolf liked her. I needed to figure this out.

“I was making my way to meet a friend, someone important to both human and others alike in the village. If you don’t mind, we can head that way.” I say to her.

“That would be just fine Mr. Duran.”

We continue to discuss the village and I point out different places to her as we make our way to the small church that sits in the older part of the village. That now consists of only the church, a large park with the infamous golden cross, a couple of old buildings used by the church and the large barn-like building used as the village party hall. I begin to tell her about the cross.

“If you’re wondering, it is solid gold under all the stucco. It was a very generous gift from one the village’s oldest families years and years ago. It was always a target for rogues and others so my great grandfather ordered it be disguised and spread the rumor that the golden one was taken down and put under lock. That’s not its true shape or form.” I saw as she looked at the plain box-like cross. To be honest, even I had no idea what it really looked like underneath. I don’t think my father knew either. Many of the human villagers bought into the rumor as well. The cross had been left alone since I could remember, we had never had any issues with rogues trying to rob it.

“Your pack also houses other super naturals I’ve noticed. We ate at chef Rachel’s restaurant, and I confirmed then that she is in fact a witch.” Miriam looked at me expectedly. She was always doing that, always asking questions waiting for my answer to dissect it.

“Our pack and the village have always been receptive of everyone, so long as they cause no harm and prove to be of good moral character. We are not in the habit of discriminating here Miss Levy.” I saw a small smile on her lips. That made me feel good and I still could not explain what I felt for her.

“Your Beta is black, that’s rare even for large and modern packs. I am very pleased to spend time in your pack Mr. Duran.

I smiled at her, “Anthony is where he deserves to be, even my brother and I fought for our positions. We aren’t old school “it’s our birthright to be alpha’ s**t. And Anthony beat 14 other warriors for the position and the supposed heir to the position didn’t even bother to fight for it. So, I think we are all where we need to be.”

“Who was supposed to be Beta?” she asked. But before I could answer we heard a loud voice in front of us.

“Brandon! Is this the teacher from Canon Mountain?” Father Fred’s loud, booming voiced called out. But the closer he came to us and us to him, his demeanor began to change. His face started to become ashen, and his eyes were wide as saucers.

“Father Fred, yes this is the new teacher. What’s wrong?” I was beginning to get concerned about the wolf-priest and I could tell Miriam was becoming a little uncomfortable. Then suddenly, she grabbed her head with both her hands.

“I’m sorry, my wolf is pounding in my head.” she managed to get out. This made Father Fred snap out of whatever trance he was in.

“No, I’m sorry child, please come have a seat.” We directed her to the nearest bench and let her sit while she got her wolf under control. This confirmed there was something more to Miriam Levy than met the eye. I glanced over at the priest, and he looked on the verge of tears. Seriously, What the f*** was going on?

“I feel better, I don’t know what got into her.” Miriam said after a minute.

“I’m glad, child, I’m so glad you’re ok. You’re here in front of me, I can’t believe this. I mean… Canon Mountain has quite a reputation for their educators, and you’ve been talked about for so long here.” Father Fred said nervously.

“Father, Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be alpha kid?” was his response and I rolled my eyes at him using the nickname he gave my brother and me when we were made alphas at 15.

“Alpha Kid?” asked Miriam amused.

“I like to tease them; I can’t help it” he smiled gently at her. He looked… almost nostalgic.

Miriam stood, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Father Fred, I’m told you are held in high regard by all around here.” She extended her hand to shake his and smiled up at him. He made a grab for her hand pulled her into a hug. It surprised me because Father Fred was always a reserved person. He was the grandfather figure (although because of his wolf genes he didn’t look past maybe early forties, he was pushing around 80) who kept everyone on the straight and narrow, while also giving everyone an ear to speak to in confidence. Miriam at first was tense and rigid, but after only a couple seconds she actually hugged him back. It wasn’t an awkward hug either. I felt my wolf in complete contentment which made me guess their wolves were the same.

Father Fred’s phone rang which caused them to break apart. He took a look at the screen and began to excuse himself when he stopped and looked longingly at Miriam. “You come back to see me whenever you want child. We’ll be seeing each other soon.” He turned to me, “alpha kid, thank you for bringing her, I think I know why you were coming earlier. Tell your brother not to forget about me and come see me soon. Understood?”

“Yes, Father Fred, I’ll let him know.” He nodded at me and gave Miriam one last look and began to call back the person who had called him. I looked at Miriam, “you ok?”

She was still looking at Father Fred’s retreating back when she answered, “I’m perfectly good. I think I should make my way to the cottage now.” She looked at me pleadingly and she looked tired.

“Absolutely, lets go.” We walked back to my SUV in a comfortable silence. I opened the passenger door for her and she claimed in and we continued the silence to her cottage.

“I should thank you for the furnishings and all you paid for the cottage. It really feels like a home.” She said as I drove up the driveway.

“I can’t take credit for it, that was actually my brother Nathan. He was more than happy to do that you. You’ll be meeting his pup in the pre-k class this week.”

“His pup, ok. I can’t wait.” She giggled. Why would she think calling a pup, pup was funny? What were they called in Canon Mountain? “Thank you again for showing me around Alpha Brandon I enjoyed getting to know more of Golden Cross.”

“It was my pleasure Miss Levy, good night” I said as she was getting out of the SUV.

“Good night Alpha Kid” she smiled at him as she closed the door. My jaw was hanging as I saw her walk to her front door, unlock it, she waved as she closed the door and that’s when I snapped out of it. It hit me then, the entire time I spent with her, I didn’t feel physically attracted to her. She was a gorgeous woman, not question about it, but she didn’t turn me on. The thought of being physically attracted to her actually left a sour taste in my mouth. But I was drawn to her, there was no question about that either. Maybe Anthony was right, and I could take her as my chosen Luna. She was a kind and caring person that was obvious the pack and humans alike gravitated toward her easily. She was Luna material. And maybe, with time, we could build up that relationship that we cultivated today. I was tired of being alone and my wolf approved of her. But there was more, much more to Miriam Levy that I needed to unravel and her wearing an engagement ring was one of them. What had happened with her ex-mate. At dinner she made the comment that she had a chosen one, past tense. I needed to figure it all out before I made any final decisions and I wanted her to accept me.