40. Eavesdropping

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I wasn’t going to sit around all night and wait for Lilith to get back. I wanted to know what was happening! This affected my fate just as much as it affected hers. I didn’t know exactly what they were going to be talking about, but if she was going to be meeting with the Elders and the Pack leader, it was going to be important.

Driving was out of the question. My emotions were running too high and I didn’t want to risk changing accidentally while I drove. It would be messy and I couldn’t afford to wreck my car, with all the other things that were going wrong in my life.

The bicycle would take too long, plus it was dangerous in the dark. It had tiny reflectors, but they didn’t make me feel any better.

I opened up my window and balled up some clothes, wrapping them around my room key. I threw them down behind the bushes that lined the outer walls of the dormitory. I would need those later when I came back.

I looked around to see if anyone was nearby, but I couldn’t see anyone at all. I took off my clothes and laid them on the bed. They were already a little messed up from my altercation with Lilith, but they weren’t beyond repair yet, and I wanted to keep them that way.

I coaxed Tala from her nap. Once Lilith had gone, she’d lost interest and went back to sleep. What now? She yawned.

“We’re going to Randall’s. We’re going to see what happens firsthand.”

I don’t trust her, I never have.

“I don’t trust her either. I feel so bad for getting us into this mess in the first place.”

Well, we’re stuck with our problem now, so we have to deal with it. Tala was so wise sometimes, so human. Was she really just instinct, a wolf inside me, or was she more? She just didn’t act like one sometimes. It made me feel very lonely to think that Tala was one of my only friends in the world and she was inside me. Probably as much a figment of my imagination as she was real. Stop sulking and let’s get going, then, She growled impatiently.

“Fine,” I grumbled. I was stalling, really. Maybe I was a little scared. What if they truly liked Lilith better than me? Would her plan to take over the Pack work? Would she really kill Quinn?

I’d calmed down a little bit since Lilith had left, so I was mostly human again. I gave Tala a bit of control so we could change quickly and smoothly. Running would be a little slower than driving, but we’d make it there to at least catch a large portion of their dinner meeting.

I shivered as the white fur crept over my body. I’d never get used to that feeling, or the next one, my bones moving and shifting, modeling themselves into those of the wolf. My face lengthened and my teeth grew, powerful weapons of destruction to match my newly formed claws. Lastly, my spine elongated, forming a tail that sprouted from my lower back.

When finished, I shook like a wet dog, testing my new body and making sure everything was properly in place. I stuck my nose out the window and sniffed the cool evening air. I could smell the humans in the rooms around us, but there were none outside, none to watch what would happen next.

I backed up a few steps, and then took a running leap out the open window. Under normal circumstances, I would have been scared to jump from a window three stories up, but Tala still had a little control. She was sure of herself, so I was too. It was exciting, flying through the air, the wind running over my fur, flapping back my ears. I landed on all fours, bending my limbs slightly to absorb the impact. It didn’t hurt; it was just a little jarring.

From there, I began to run. I stuck to the shadows, trying to keep from being noticed until I could get off campus and into a wooded area. I felt very conspicuous as I roamed the campus, but if anyone saw me at all, they’d probably mistake me for a dog, a massive one at least.

Once I got off campus and into the trees, I could breathe easier. Even with my highly visible fur, I wouldn’t be seen amongst the trees and underbrush. Hurdling fences and ignoring property lines, I made a beeline for Randall’s house, going as fast as my four legs would take me. It still took me about thirty minutes to get there and if I judged correctly, they would be sitting down to dinner by then.

Once I hit the Pack lands, I began to slow down, to move more stealthily. The chances were low, but there might be other wolves roaming around. I knew of Quinn’s bodyguards, and I expected that some of the Elders had bodyguards of their own, or at least someone to look after their well-being.

No matter what, I didn’t want to be seen.

I got within earshot. I could hear the conversation that was taking place within the house, but I really wanted to see the scene. I slowly and silently crept over by the floor-to-ceiling bay windows that lined the exterior wall of their formal dining room. Little by little, I crawled on my belly underneath the bushes, careful not to shake them and make noise. I flattened my ears against my head, took a deep breath, and peeked through the window, trying not to smudge the glass with my ridiculously long nose.

Inside, I could see Quinn and Sylvea sitting next to each other at the table with their backs to me. Across from them sat Randall – my heart beat faster when I saw him – and Lilith sitting next to him, all dressed up and innocent-looking.

The Elders flanked the four, with three people sitting on either side of them. I recognized a few of them from my interrogation, though some were new.

“—Always welcome in our Pack,” Quinn was saying. I hadn’t heard the conversation before that.

“Back home, the local pack was very mean and territorial. They wouldn’t let me join because they recognized me as an Alpha. Even though I wasn’t all that strong, they thought that I’d try to take over their pack or something,” A horrified look crossed Lilith’s face as she told her story.

“Poor girl,” One of the elders said as she reached across the table and patted Lilith’s hand. I recognized her as Susan, the lady that had treated me so harshly last time. “To be accused of something so harsh when you’re truly innocent.”

I snorted, and then quickly ducked down when I realized someone might have heard it. I realized that it was pretty stupid for me to come to Randall’s house. If I got caught, then I would be in even more trouble. It would give Quinn even more reason to replace me. My heart raced in my chest as I held my breath and held absolutely still, straining my ears to hear anything.

Inside, no one seemed to notice and I quit worrying about getting caught so I could focus on what was going on inside. After a few minutes of mostly silence in which I assumed they were consoling Lilith, Quinn spoke. “I don’t like to brag, but I’ve been told I make great steaks,” He said. “Are you sure you don’t want to have just a little bit?”

“Oh, no thank you, sir,” She said politely. “I ate a really late lunch due to my school schedule. I don’t have any breaks all day until three and by that time I’m so ravenous I normally eat enough to keep myself full for the rest of the evening. It’s probably not too healthy, but it’ll have to be a habit until the end of the semester. I would love to take some home for later, though, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, of course,” He said, a happy lilt to his voice. “Sylvea can put you together a little doggy bag to take back to your dorm.”

“Now, down to some Pack business,” I heard Susan say. “We have a little problem now.”

“Yes,” An unfamiliar voice remarked. “We cannot have two Alpha females in the Pack for too long. It can only lead to fighting and power struggles.”

I heard a few murmurs of agreement.

“But Selene was already a member of the Pack before Lucille came. You can’t just make her leave without reason. She’s worked too hard to stay here,” I heard Randall say in my defense. It made me happy to know that he still cared about me enough to say kind words in my defense, especially since I hadn’t been invited to this decision.

“I don’t think she has worked hard enough,” Susan said. “She couldn’t hold herself last night while everyone else could. And if she changed on purpose when Lucille was having her induction, then it is just as bad. She’s a troublemaker and she can’t follow tradition. She probably hasn’t worked on her control at all.”

“I’m not here to take anyone’s spot,” I heard Lilith say quietly. “I just came because of school. I just want a place to belong.”

“Let’s just leave them be for now. We don’t have to make any hasty decisions,” Randall said.

“You only say that because she’s your lover,” Another voice said.

“I say it because it’s only fair.”

“Fairness among animals…” Someone commented offhandedly.

“We’re humans too,” Randall said. “Besides, it’s up to the Pack leader to make the final decision, you guys are just here to advise him.” I heard a general shift in the room as Randall spoke. I presumed that they were all moving to look at Quinn.

There was a long pause before I heard Quinn sigh. “I will allow both of them to stay in the Pack for the time being. We will closely monitor Selene’s actions and decide once the semester is over in December, or if something else presses our decision. Both Selene and Lucille will be under probationary watch in order to make things fair.”

I wondered how closely we were going to be “watched.” Lilith couldn’t keep up her werewolf appearance all the time, especially when she had to drink from me. It might be a good thing that she was going to be watched. Maybe that would help the truth come out.

“Hey, who’s there?” A voice behind me asked.

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A/N: I've gone back and added dates and moon phases to the previous chapters. All future chapters that start on new days will include the date, moon phase, and time to next full moon. I really had to nail down a timeline for Bitten so I could figure out where I was in the school year as well as begin to add seasonal information and holidays to the story. I had to do a little bit of editing to the story because I had some weeks with more than seven days in them, another reason I needed the timeline.

Nothing in the story changed, just very minor details about days of the week and things like that. I haven't gone back and added a lot of seasonal information, but it's just October in the story and things don't really start cooling off in Texas until then anyway. We don't really have deliniated seasons here in Texas. :P I also plan to make her schedule more noticable and I need to add more roommate confrontations (besides the ones with Lilith) and I need to add more conversations between Selene and her mother. There's a lot missing in Bitten as I'm fleshing out the main storyline, but I have lots of ideas for things to add after I finish the first draft. (Yeah, what I'm posting is the first draft.)

Anyway, midway through this chapter is the ending of what I had previosly written when I started posting Bitten, so now I'm out of prewrite. I have about two chapters written right now, but I gotta start getting ahead again so I'm not struggling during exam and wedding time. (6 weeks till I'm married!)