Page 36 of Malcolm

“She’s an honest-to-God shrew,” her friend Lilly said without much heat. “She makes us help her in the daycare and the café in Clarksville; it’s honestly exhausting being her friend.”

“Right,” Agnes agreed, checking her bright blue nails. “And does she give us free coffee and sweets? No.” She shrugged. “At this rate, I’m going to have to rethink this friendship of ours.”

“Yeah, right. Who else is going to help you crochet a blanket for your brothers?” Morgan said with a scoff. “Do you know how often I’ve had to endure Angus asking me out because I’m finally, in his words, acting like a ‘proper’ woman?”

“Ugh, Angus,” Lilly said, her lips pressing together.

Before Eliza realized it, she was walking with the three women and laughing with them. She felt normal as she walked along them across the town. She noticed the post office. “You know, when I first saw this place, I thought it was like a small city. You guys really have everything, well everything but—” She looked down at the dirt road. “Asphalt.”

“Why would we need asphalt roads?” Agness asked as they waited for a few trucks to pass. “We have sidewalks, but werewolves don’t necessarily drive everywhere. I’m always more comfortable on my own four feet.”

“I guess that makes sense,” she said as she followed them into a coffee shop. “Is everyone here related?”

“Not everyone,” Lilly answered after she said her order. “Alpha Robert takes in anyone who needs a place to stay, it was primarily blood relatives, but our numbers dwindled, and fortunately, many of us aren’t interested in getting down and dirty with our cousins. Thank you.” She grabbed the trey with their drinks, and together, the four of them took a seat, “So he said, taking in a few ‘lost souls’ would increase our numbers. It’s just a tradition for everyone to go by McLaren once they join our pack.”

“Yep, and now there are almost too many of us,” Morgan said, frowning. “The daycare barely had kids when I started, but more and more people are true mating, so I guess it isn’t really bad.”

“What’s true mating?” she asked as she grabbed her own drink.

All three of them looked at her blankly, “What? Did I ask something weird?”

Lilly was the first one to speak. “But aren’t you—ouch.” She yelped, flinching, before she glared at Morgan, who just took a sip of her drink of her fruity slushy. Agnes acted like she hadn’t seen anything and ate another chip.

Morgan feigned nonchalance as she answered Eliza. “True mating is when two werewolves allow fate to do her thing. A few years back, some Alphas would force a match, which means they would mark their mate, and that bite would force the Omega female to submit to them.” Her eyes darkened, “it’s an archaic practice that’s been outlawed by my uncle.”

“O-okay, that makes sense,” Eliza said.

In an obvious attempt to alleviate the dark cloud that seemed to hover over them, Agnes spoke up, “So, what is it you do when you’re not being dragged around by Malcolm?”

Eliza answered before thinking about it. “Bar server and card dealer; I worked in Veil City.”

“Seriously,” she jumped at Lilly’s loud exclamation, her eyes bright. The woman reached out and grabbed her hands. “I’ve always wanted to go to Veil City; I heard it’s amazing in the northern Veil.”

Surprised, Eliza tried to pull her hands from the eager woman’s, but Lilly had a strong grip. “I mean, it’s like any other city; it’s loud and has too much traffic.”

“God,” Lilly exclaimed finally releasing her and retaking her seat. “I keep trying to convince my dad to let me go, just a vacation but he won’t let me. It’s killing me.”

Hearing this confused Eliza, “But aren’t you old enough to go? Do you need your dad’s permission when you're over twenty?”

Lilly groaned, “You don’t understand. Werewolf fathers have this tendency to hunt you down and/or send your annoying male cousins to watch you. Now imagine going to a cute boutique with four male cousins who are all over six feet and handsome, each willing and ready to beat anyone who sneezes your way.” Lilly lowered her head in mock sorrow, “Imagine it.”

Agnes sighed, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Exactly, it’s not that we can’t go but that it would be a painbeing escorted, and with these teens going missing—” she just shook her head. “Forget it. We’re lucky enough that our dads haven’t sent our brothers after us when we go to Clarksville to work.”

“You both work in the human world?” Eliza asked genuinely, curious. It had been such a long time since she’d had a normal conversation that she couldn’t help but crave it. Sitting in a coffee shop, talking to other women about everyday things, was the type of normal that she’d been torn from; a part of her was almost desperate for it.

“Yep, another thing uncle changed,” Morgan said with a smile. “Before, it wasn’t really approved for us to work off the land, but now, everyone works in Clarksville as something or other. As you heard before from these hags, I work at my café, Lilly is a TA at APSU but also works at the local newspaper, and Agnes just got picked up to work at the security office on Fort Campbell. Still, enough about us,” she said suddenly, she smiled at Eliza in a way that made her nervous.

“So—tell me about you and my brother.”

Eliza frowned. “There isn’t much to tell. He helped me out, and I decided to tag along to help him with his investigation.”

Morgan’s expression turned suspicious. “Is that really it?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Morgan stared her down before she sighed. “Now I see why he’s taking his time.”

“What?” Eliza asked, feeling even more confused.

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