The Alpha of The Blue Moon Pack

Rhythmic Sunflower

At the close of work, Sparkle and Brawn left the factory and headed back to the pack house. Au had left work for the pack house earlier because the Alpha had sent her to meet some of his visitors from other packs. Au decided to go with the gammas and told Sparkle to stay and monitor the activities in the factory. So Sparkle and Brawn had to go to the pack house after the close of work as the pack house was not far from the factory. On their way home, Sparkle avoided eye contact with Brawn. Out of curiosity to know the reason Sparkle left in a hurry, Brawn started a conversation by asking,

"Hey Sparkle . . . you left in a hurry yesterday. Was there anything wrong . . . or you were busy with something?" He monitored her face as he spoke. He had suspected that it was the stench from his armpit that sent her away but wanted some kind of confirmation. He was not expecting her to tell him to his face so that was why he was checking for some facial expressions.

"Nothing. I was feeling a bit dizzy so I needed a quick rest," she answered looking straight at the road.

"Are you sure it was that and nothing else?" Brawn asked narrowing his eyes and focusing very hard on her face. He had not yet gotten his confirmation.

"It was just that and nothing else. What other reasons should I have?" she said.

"Well I thought –"

"It is not what you thought. I . . . needed some rest. That's all," she said abruptly.

There was this moment of silence. She glanced at Brawn from the corner of her eyes. The look on his face showed that he had accepted her reason. She felt relieved that he did not push it further. She liked him but did not want to come out with her feelings first.

Brawn on the hand, was grateful that his early thoughts were not true. He was a bit astonished though that Sparkle said she felt dizzy. He had thought once one's wolf emerged, the person would get powerful and unable to get tired at all. That had been his mindset prior to that time. He guessed he was wrong after all.

He looked at Sparkle and noticed that she was walking in front of him, randomly plucking leaves from random plants as she walked by. She peeled the leaves gently until it was in pieces and plucked another. He hastened his pace to meet up with her. When he got closer to her, he noticed that she had seen him coming from behind and was a bit nervous. He slowed his pace down and thought of a way of softening the tension in the air. He did not bother himself with the reason for her jitters. He looked around and saw a beautiful sunflower growing by the side of the pathway. He plucked it and went back to catch up with her.

When he got close to her, he called her attention. "Sparkle, take this." and she turned in his direction. "I found it growing over there and I thought it would look better sitting on your hair. . . . It also has the same colour with your dress so . . ." He said as he handed the flower over to her.

She looked at the flower, then at Brawn and back at the flower again. Her face lightened up and her eyes dilated. She broke into a grin displaying most of her frontal teeth as she accepted the flower. She was clearly not expecting it. She said in a low voice, "It's beautiful." Her eyes were still fixed on the flower and she had stopped walking. It looked like she was trying to swallow the flower with her eyes.

Brawn saw how much she appreciated it and asked, "Do you like it?"

She nodded repeatedly in quick successions as she looked up at him and said, "Sunflower is my favourite flower . . . Thank you, I like it."

She looked back at the flower and admired it once more. She decided to ask as she tried to fix it on her hair, "What was the flower for?"

"Nothing much. Just to appreciate you. At least it's very little compared to what you did for me yesterday," he explained and she smiled as he spoke. She fixed the flower on her hair but it was not firmly fixed.

"The flower is falling off your hair. Let me help you fix it properly . . . that is if you don't mind, of course," he offered and stretched his hands towards her hair. She stopped and tilted her head a bit towards him and he fixed it properly by the side of her hair.

She let out a smile as she said, "Thank you."

She seemed to be very pleased with the flower as she smiled and stared at her shoes. Brawn did not want her to feel uncomfortable so he started a conversation while the atmosphere was still comfortable.

"I didn't know that there were a lot of procedures in making perfumes, body oil and hair oil," he said as he resumed the walk home. Sparkle joined him.

"Ha Ha Ha" She laughed and said, "Well, Now you know. . .I almost forgot to ask you. How was your first day at work?" She was feeling more comfortable as she spoke. All the red traces on her cheeks had disappeared.

"I am not going to lie right now. It was f*****g stressful! As hard as hell! Thanks to the work songs we sang during all the work process. It made working rhythmic so I was able to bear it till closing time. But to be honest, it was really stressful," Brawn complained bitterly.

"Ha Ha Ha" Sparkle laughed again, "You will get used to it . . . besides it is just for a month."

"Well, I don't really have a choice. Do I? . . . Your section looks easier though."

"It is not as easy as it seems. You have to mash the flowers to get out the liquid in them. Imagine doing that all day," Sparkle protested.

Brawn said half–amused, "That was what I grew up with – mashing. I still prefer it to this pounding, boiling and squeezing s**t I do at my section." He turned fully to her and asked, "Have you worked in the pounding and pressing section before?"

"No but I have been only asked to supervise them a few times," she said feeling her words validated her judgment over his section.

Brawn only smiled and said as he saw that she was taking the debate personally, "I heard you are Au's personal assistant."

"Yes, since I was ten," she said.

"Au started making body oil and perfumes at age ten?!" Brawn's voice grew louder and his eyes widened as he asked in amazement. At age ten, his primary work was fighting his hospital brothers for food and trivial things.

"No . . . She was still a little girl at age ten. I became her assistant a few months after her immediate elder sister got mated," Sparkle chuckled as she spoke. She found the manner Brawn asked her the question to be very amusing. "She just had me around her helping in domestic chores. My parents had died by then so the Alpha assigned me to her personally," she explained further.

"Oh, I see. . .I am sorry about your parents," Brawn said trying to console her.

"No, it's fine. It is so long ago now, so I am over it now," she notified with a smile.

"She must really like you from what I can see. She is so sweet to you . . . I can't say the same for me though," Brawn pointed out.

"Ha ha Ha" Sparkle laughed and said, "She wasn't like that to me at first. She was actually rude to me. She was sad about her sister leaving her so she took it out on me back then . . ." There was a pause and she added, "She was actually nine years of age then. So I leave you to imagine how terrible she was to me."

Brawn made a grimace and said, "I actually imagine." He shook his head aggressively and added, "So how did you get her to change towards you? and how did you cope till she changed? Or did she just change automatically?" He was really interested in the skill Sparkle employed toward her. He was willing to borrow it so he could apply it too.