Finally Her Turn

Chapter 2: Marissa

Literally the first thing that happens when I step off the plane in Maine is that Princess Alyssa summons me to her side. She needs female escorts to ride with her in the backseat of her car because her perfect mate is too possessive to handle her sitting with men.

On the one hand, I derive secret pleasure from learning that her perfect mate is flawed. At least in my mind he is. Almost no other werewolf would bat an eye at that level of possessiveness, and a lot of she-wolves would even go so far as to consider it a sexy turn-on, but not me. I find it ridiculous, and I don’t appreciate being dragged over here to rub knees with the Alpha’s daughter the whole ride to their school just because her mate is obnoxiously possessive.

I can’t help puking in my mouth a little about how over-the-top she is with her mates either. I have to sit through all their sickeningly sweet little interactions, with them acting as though being two feet apart in the same car is just too much distance to tolerate. The blonde one keeps reaching back to hold her hand and tell her all sorts of meaningless nothings, and I can’t stand it.

There are a couple moments where I’m almost missing my dad. I’d rather the perpetual fist fights over the perpetual lovey-dovey stuff. If this is how this assignment is going to be, I might go insane, and I might lose my job. It takes everything in me to fight back the urges to sigh and roll my eyes, but I’m sure I inadvertently let a few of them slip out anyway.

It’s a relief when we finally make it to the parking lot behind the building where they stay on campus and Tasha and I are replaced by Devon and the other guy the Alpha assigned as their primary guards. Caleb is the name I think I heard. I should probably make an effort to learn it since it looks like he’s going to be second-in-command on this assignment.

We get into a vehicle with Alex and a couple other guys and speed off to a hotel only about a mile from campus. And that’s about when I remember why it felt worth it to spend a quarter of my savings on a new wardrobe. Tasha and I are sharing a suite, but I still get my own bedroom and bathroom. It’s quiet, clean, and there’s a balcony that overlooks the pond and fountain out front. We have access to free cable and internet, and there’s even a kitchenette for us to use.

I don’t know how the others feel about it, but it feels heavenly to me. Even better, when the shift schedules get passed around, I discover that I’m never scheduled as a personal guard for Aly or either of her mates, and each day I’m only on the schedule for a four- or six-hour shift. Working part-time for full wages, plus I get to stay at this hotel in the meantime? Yes, please. Finally, finally, things appear to be going my way.

“I was hoping we’d be able to see the ocean from here,” Tasha complains, exiting her bedroom to join me in our shared living room.

“I think we’re too far inland,” I explain without interest, still searching on my phone for the closest place we can go to get some groceries.

I don’t know about Tasha, but I’d rather put my expense allowance in the bank than spend it on frivolous things like room service and going out to eat. Since we have a fridge, microwave, and range available to us, I intend to take full advantage.

“Well, that’s disappointing,” she pouts, plopping herself down right next to me on the couch.

My instinct is to turn and glare at her, but I fight it back. She’s one of the few females from my pack who doesn’t already hate me, so I intend to do my best not to spoil it. I’m not great at being friendly, but I should at least try to avoid being outright hostile.

“I’m going to ask Alex for the keys to one of the vehicles so I can go get some groceries. Did you want to come with?” I ask her.

Part of me hopes she says no because I bet she’s one of those people who likes to talk and browse instead of just picking out what she needs and getting out of the store as quickly as possible. I’m the latter type, and I hate shopping with the chatty type.

“Groceries? Why?” she wonders in disbelief. “We should have more than enough allowance to cover meals. We can just order a pizza or something.”

“One of the things you’ll soon learn about me is I hate spending money,” I confess, fearing how she’ll take it. She’ll probably stare at me like I’m an alien, not that I’m not used to it.

“It’s not our money though,” she argues. “The Alpha’s paying.”

“Sure, but the agreement he sent for us to read on the flight over also said that any amount of our allowance that we don’t end up spending is ours to keep at the end of the assignment. He’ll have the leftover transferred from our expense account to our personal account. So, it is our money we’re spending.”

“Oh. I suppose I should read that,” she laughs, shrugging as if it’s no big deal that we’re technically on-duty right now and she hasn’t even looked over all the protocols yet.

“Look, Tasha. You should know that I want to be friends. I don’t really have any of those, and it's partly because I’m not good at talking to people. So, I don’t mean to offend you when I say this, but I personally don’t feel confident that I can depend on my shift partner when she doesn’t even bother to read the information the Alpha sent for us to review. Our assignment here isn’t like a guard shift back home, and there are new and modified protocols you need to be aware of. It’s important. We’re going to be surrounded by humans, and you’ll need to be prepared for that.”

I kind of don’t want to look and see how she’s taking that, but she’s being quiet, so I’m forced to look up at her and gauge her reaction. She doesn’t seem mad, but she doesn’t seem happy either.

“I guess I didn’t think of it like that,” she admits apologetically. “I figured I’d have plenty of time to look it over once we got here because I assumed we wouldn’t even be on the schedule until tomorrow, and we’re not. I checked.”

“Except Aly can call for us unexpectedly,” I remind her. “I mean, she already did, and she could call us back at any moment. That’s why we’re not on the schedule as much as everyone else, because we might end up having to do unscheduled, short-notice shifts here and there.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” she acknowledges, seeming troubled as she thinks it over, but never at any point becoming angry or upset with me the way I anticipated.

“I’m really sorry, Marissa,” she apologizes after a moment.

That’s not at all the response I expected, and I'm suddenly feeling kind of hopeful about her. She seems promising, both as a roommate and as a shift partner. She’s young and inexperienced, but if she always listens thoughtfully and considers advice carefully like that, she’ll learn quickly. Plus, we’ve spent most of the day together, and she hasn’t gotten sick of me yet.

“There's nothing to be sorry about if you fix it,” I tell her, trying to sound reassuring.

“I will. In fact, I’ll go read it right now,” she declares, already getting up from her seat beside me and heading in the direction of her room. Then she pauses mid-stride, turning back to look at me.

“I’ll skip on the grocery shopping for now, but if you wouldn’t mind getting something for me too, I kind of have a chocolate milk addiction.”

Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. And though chocolate milk is exactly the sort of thing I’d never spend money on for myself, it seems like a small sacrifice to make for the chance to finally make a friend.