The Pack

When the school ended that day I called mom as soon as I got out of the building nad she picked up after one tone.

"What?!" I flinched away from the phone because of how loud her voice was. I heard some kitchenware scramble in the background.

"Hi mom, I was just wondering if the pack has announced someting about Erik Parrish coming back?"

"Yes they have, there is going to be a big gathering tonight and Marla just told me about it, so now dad and I have to make very much food in very little time." She sounded really stressed about the late news. Marla was the luna of the pack and she and mom was good friends, they usually planned the big gatherings together. Mom and dad also was the usual food providers, since everyone had to help in some way in a pack and they were of lower rank than many others (which was just an old tradition). Mom was also the best cook that I had ever met so it wasn't suprisning that they would chose her.

"Oh, i'm sorry about that, I can help you when I get home. If I get home", I mumbled that last part because I had just walked to the parkinglot and could see the end of our car disappear around the corner. Shit! I was hoping that i could catch a ride with Jeremy back home at least. A bit of anger bolied up in my chest at that, why was he acting like such a douchebag sometimes?!

"Sorry, I need to go, honey. I'll see you back here", mom ended the call.

The bike was still at the entrance of the school but when I grabbed it to ride home I saw that the tires were flat, something I hadn't noticed in my rush this morning.

So it was walking then.

----

When I arrived home it was surprisingly quiet and peaceful. Jeremy and mom and dad must already be at the packhouse then. I threw my bag on the bench in the hall and then made my way to the kitchen. There was a yellow post-it note on the counter, smudged in some kind of red saunce, probably moms chilisause. The note read;

Dad and I have went to the packhouse, come there when you've eaten something.

Great, now I had to walk to the packhouse too. I sighed, threw the note in the garbage can and opened the fridge in search for some kind of snack. I couldn't decide what to eat so I just stood there looking inside the fridge untill it started beeping from being opened for too long. Then I took out some milk, deciding to make some cereal. Real Master Chef.

I ate my cereal in peace in the kitchen, my head hurting a bit because of all the noices that I had heard in school. Why were teenagers so loud sometimes? I was tired and a bit cold, but I shrugged on a hoodie after finishing my cereal and headed to the packhouse, preparing myself for an evening of helping in the kitchen.

It wasn't wierd that I wolud help with the food at such gatherings. My family was in charge of the food and it was tradition for me to help, besides I liked it. Our pack wasn't a bad one where the bigger wolfes treated the Omegas bad or the omegas had certain things to help with. Our pack treated everyone the same, which was one of the reasons that it was such a good pack to be in. It was the same way with the lunas and the alphas, the lunas was given the same power to change and to make decisions as the alphas. The luna was trusted because he or she had been chosen by the Moon Godess, and the Godess was never wrong.

The street was cold under my thin sneakers and it was already becoming darker. I hurried my steps a little because I didn't want to be out here alone when it became dark. Even though I'm a werewolf myself I was pretty scared of the dark, which was just ironic.

I saw the packhouse from a long distance, it was darker now and the windows were lit up by lights. The house was big and made out of wood and the alpha family spent a lot of time here, but they had another, smaller house where they slept and ate and acctually lived. There was even a big hall where everyone would gather when the alpha was supposed to announce something.

I went in to the kitchen through a smaller door on the side of the building and was immediately met by a thousand different smells and some smoke. There were a lot of people in the kitchen, not so wierd considering that there was supposed to be food for about 150 people in a few hours.

"Oh, hi honey!" Mom's head peaked up behind a big stew of some kind.

"Hi!" I answered a bit louder than my ordinary voice so that she could hear me over the loud volume in the kitchen. I was just about to ask her what to do, but someone interrupted me with;

"Bring these to the dining tables", and then said person dumped a bunch of plates in my arms, I was overwhelmed by the sudden weight in my arms and swayed a little, but was quick to catch my balance again. Of to work then!

I went up the little stairs from the kitchen to a long hall that lead to the bigger dining hall. The packhouse was cosy and had a nice, warm feeling to it that made you always feel welcome. I really liked it and was pretty used to walk here with the smell of food in the air, it felt like home to me.

I went into the big diningroom where many people were already laying out cutlery on the tables. There were three big tables filling out the whole room. Usually the cubs got to occupy on of the three tables and then the rest were to sit on the two other tables.

After leaving the plates on a table I went back to the kitchen to help out some more and I turned out being the one to help carrying everything from the kitchen to the diningroom. After a lot of turns back and forth between the kitchen and the diningroom the guests finally arrived and everyone got ready for the announcement that we were going to recieve. Some people still didn't know that Erik was home, since the Alpha and Luna had decided to deal with it themselves before telling the whole pack, hence Erik being in school today and not yesterday.

People were talking exitedly in different groups while catching up with each other. Most of our pack lived in the town in their own houses, only a few in the group of houses that included the packhouse and the Alpha and Luna's house.

It was starting to get more crowded in the announcement hall now, the exitement growing. Some cubs were playing with each other, some in their wolf form and some in their human form. These gatherings also allowed us all to really bond as a pack and that meant that everyone could shift and be in their wolf form if they wanted to.

I silently looked for Mike in the crowd, not knowing if he would be down here or up on the little platform in the front where the Luna and Alpha usually stod. As soon as I thought about him my hear swelled to almost its dubble size and a faint blush crept onto my cheeks. Suddently some more ... explicit pictures of me and him crept inside my head and then the blush grew so that I probably looked like a tomato instead. I can't think things like that! Or, at least not in public, since that would give me a small problem to deal with.

"Hey! Little L!" George Willer, one of Jeremys basketball friends, came pushing through the thick crowd, earning more than one annoyed look. He had come up with the idea of that stupid nickname some time ago and just couldn't seem to let it go.

"Hi", I answered a bit annoyed over the bad nickname.

"You here for the announcement too? I just think it's so stupid that some of the people doesn't even know what it's about yet. Bet everyone on the school already know he's back, he probably have already slept with like.. five girls!"

George had a tendency to talk pretty fast and sometimes forgetting to listen to the answers of his own questions, but it was pretty fun to just watch him get confused by his own mouth for talking so fast.

"Oh, yeah I'm here for the gathering, and also helping out my parents in the kitchen."

"Cool. I wonder if they are going to have him shift, I mean Erik. They do that sometimes on these gatherings or when they announce a new alpha."

"Maybe, we'll see." I answered just as John Parrish, our alpha, and Marla Parrish walked up on the little platform in the front. The whole room fell silent, except for a few cubs who didn't notice the change of atmosphere in the room and kept on howling and playing. They were soon silenced by a furious dad.

"Good evening, dear pack", John started and some people in the crowd answered.

"I am aware that this gathering was called a bit late, for those of you who had other plans, but Marla and I decided to 'rip the bandaid of' by telling you our great news today already. This Saturday we came home to something that we have been waiting to happen for two years now. Our son has come home again."

There were many mumbles around in the crowd and some shocked gasps. Some people got angry and some sad, there were mixed feelings about it.

"Many of you might wonder what it going to happen to the title of the soon to be alpha, and Marla and I have decided that"

The whole room grew thick of expectation and you could probably hear a needle drop on the ground.

"Erik is going to take over the title again."

Some angry outbursts and some happy hurrays were heard in the audience, but were soon quieted down when Marla opened her mouth.

"So, so calm down. There are many reasons to why Erik should be the next alpha and many reasons why not, but since Erik has been prepared and teached to be the alpha in all of his life, we have decided that he also will be. I know that what he did when he left the pack was hard and some of you may count it as treason to the pack, but believe be me when I tell you that he has gotten a few scoldings from his parents already."

Some of the parents who had teenagers in the crowd laughed a bit at that, probably having sympathy for the alpha couple.

"And Erik is very sorry for what he did. He can actually tell you that himself."

After that Erik walked onto the stage, head held high, meeting everyones stares in the audience. He really had the presence of an alpha.

"Good evening everyone."

The room was silent again, no one knew what to say, or didn't dare to say it.

"As my parents have already explained to you, I will take over the title of being the next alpha again. I know that many of you don't think good of me or haven't forgiven me for leaving two years ago, but I will tell you that I am terribly sorry for treating everyone in the pack this bad. It was an irrational decision made by a child and I see that now, how wrong it was."

He sounded sincerely sorry for his mistakes, and some of the people in the crowd started to slowly nod, agreeing to his words. Me myself hadn't held any grudges to him from the beginning, but I felt that I started to understand him better now. Erik really was a smooth talker.

"And from now on I will not do anything so foolish and I will bear the title with pride, if you all will let me."

At this point the majority of the pack was nodding along to his words, you could clearly see that his apology was accepted. At that point a breathtaking smile lit up on his lips, and I felt my heart beating an extra beat.

Wait what, why the hell did that happen? I must have looked totally confused, looking down at my chest, glaring at where I thought my heart was. When I looked up at the platform again I suddely met Erik's stare and my heart made one more extra beat. His stare was just as intense as today in school and his beautiful smile faltered when he saw me. After a few seconds he managed to gain some kind of control of himself and looked away. Why was he acting so weird? And why the hell did it feel good to look him in the eyes?!

"So then, now that the informational part is over, why don't we make our way to the diningroom for some dinner", Marla asked the whole crowd.

As soon as that was said everyone started to clear out the room and head for the diningroom.

----

"Haha, no Michael is better!"

"What kind of bullshit is that! You know that Smith would beat Michael every day!"

It was George and one of his friends that were practically shouting to each other over me, because I was unlucky enough to sit between them at the dinnertable. I hadn't thought much about the placement until I was in the middle of getting chrushed by the two boys that were arguing over some basketball stuff. At least I got to sit across from Mike, which was awesome. He sat and talked to his brother and Jeremy. I tried to hear what they were talking about over the shouting savages on my sides.

"What did you do in Gemany?" Mike asked Erik.

"Just hanging around for a few months, met a couple of guys that were cool." Erik answered, although he sounded a bit distracted. When I looked up from my food I saw that he was looking at me, but he turned away as soon as I looked up.

"Did you meet any girls" Jeremy asked while wiggeling his eyebrows in a suggetsive gesture.

"Eh, no. Not in Germany."

"Hey, what's with you man? Why you acting all boring tonight?" Jeremy asked, annoyed with Erik's obviously short answers.

He was actually acting strange, but it didn't bother me too much. Why would I care?

Suddenly I felt an elbow harshly slammed into my side. I almost lost my breath and just sat there, bent over and tried to ease out the pain. God it hurt! It felt like someone had ripped a part on my lungs out from my side. It had to be George who had accidentally hit me when he was gesturing wildly to his friend.

I backed up from the chair and the table because I didn't want to get hit again and that was when George turned around and noticed that something happened.

"You okay, Little L? Did I hit you?"

"Mmhm...", I could barely answer through the pain and I was still bent over while standing up.

The pain eased after a few moments and I could stand up like normal again. Then there was a loud crack from Erik's way and I looked up to see something absurd. Erik was almost shaking from being so tense in his whole body and his furious stare was fixed on George. The sound that had erupted was because the table where Erik sat had broken. The fucking 5cm thick wood had cracked open! It was very obvious that it was Erik who had done it because his hands were on either side of the crack, holding onto the table with an iron grip.

What the hell?! How had he broken a thick wooden table, and more important, why?!

When the people around us saw the crack and started to stare and mumble Erik stopped looking at George and insted looked down at the crack in the table. He looked suprised too, but then he noticed the attention of everyone and got up from his chair and left. Jeremy was also surprised, but got up from his chair and followed Erik to check on him.

"What the hell was up with him?" George asked before bending down to my height.

"I have no idea," I said while I frowned at Erik's back while he was leaving. He seemed desperate to get out of the room.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you." George rambled.

"No, it's okay, look", I made a little spin around to show him that I was fine. He seemed skeptical but said sorry again and sat down at the broken table.

The dinner went on and Erik and Jeremy came back after a while. I played some with my younger cousins in my wolf form, which was nice. When it got late and people started to leave mom and dad came up to me to talk to me, which felt like it was the first time today. We left not long after that and I crashed on my bed when I got home.

It had been a long day.