Ordinary Girl

Chapter Five: George

George

“Really, Gilly, that’s your plan?”

“What? Do you have a better one?” she said defensively.

No, I didn’t have a better plan.  I was still caught between the thrill of finding our mate, and that heavy disappointment, because she just wasn’t what I would consider mate-material.  Our mate would be the Luna, a living representative of the Moon Goddess, a mother to the whole pack, and an equal partner with Gillian and I.  I know I was making some snap judgements based on first-appearances, but I just didn’t think she could pull it off.

Gillian sensed the direction of my thoughts and scowled at me.  “You are NOT thinking about rejecting her, are you?”  She folded her arms over her chest.  “Don’t you dare!”

I sighed and took a sip of my luke warm coffee.

“Damn it George, can you put your flaming ego aside for one minute.  You know that the Goddess paired us with this girl for  a reason.  We might not be able to see it yet, but we can be sure that we need her, and that we will be stronger with her than we will ever be without her.  We need her, George.  I need her.  I’m not going to reject her, even if you are.”

That would make some kind of a mess, if I rejected the girl and Gillian didn’t, given that Gillian and I are two halves of the same whole.  And deep down, I knew I couldn’t reject her.  I just couldn’t help the feeling that we’d been short-changed in the mate department.  Instead of a warrior-goddess, we got a frumpy dishwasher.  But in the end, I suppose it was better than being mate-less and pining away for someone lost and unknown.

And so we waited.  I tried to eat a bite of the pie, but the sweet, rich dessert tasted like sand in my mouth.  All I could think about was the girl in the back of the kitchen.  At 11:05 she finally appeared behind the building.  Her head down, her sweat and steam soaked hair clinging to her scalp.  She wasn’t even looking for us, so I bet she thought we had left her.  As if.

Gillian jumped right into her path.  “Hi.”

The girl staggered back and held her chest, as though Gillian had scared her to death.  “You.. you’re still here?”  Her eyes darted around and landed on me.  She swallowed and backed up a step.  “What do you want?”

“We really need to talk to you,” Gillian said with an innocent look.  But Alice wasn’t buying it.  She took another step back, and I could see she was thinking about making a run for it.  “I know its late, and you don’t really know us yet, but I assure you that you are perfectly safe, and its really, really important.”

Alice shook her head, “You do realize how sketchy that sounds, right?” she half whispered, her eyes darting around looking for help.  Unfortunately for her, the parking lot was nearly deserted, and the owners of the few cars that remained were already inside the diner, oblivious to her plight.

“She’s gonna run.” I grumbled.  And sure enough, in the next instant she dropped her back pack and tried to sprint back toward the diner.

“Kidnap it is,” Gillian said, almost cheerfully.

Of course the woman was no match for us.  Even if she’d been a fit and healthy human, she couldn’t match our werewolf speed and reflexes.  Gillian cut her off, and I swooped up from behind and grabbed her.  To her credit, she put up a good fight, kicking, clawing, screaming and trying her best to bite me as I carried her back to the jeep and dumped her unceremoniously into the back seat. She was heavy, sure, but I'm strong.

“Be careful with her!” Gillian hissed, sliding behind the wheel.  I rolled my eyes and slid in next to the angry woman, just to make sure she didn’t try to do anything stupid, like jump out of a moving vehicle. 

“I’m sure there was a better way to do this Gillian.” I said, wrapping my fingers around the girls wrist and keeping her close to my side.  She had ceased to struggle and now sat like a statue next to me.  I could hear her heart beating in a frightened staccato. I could also feel the excited tingle everywhere we touched. “We could have made friends, gotten to know each-other, maybe gone out together a few times.  Worked our way up to this, you know?”

I could see my sister roll her eyes in the rear-view mirror, “Yeah, yeah, but that would have taken months, George.  Months.”

“Look, uh… George?" Our kidnapped mate ventured to speak, and her voice was a soft, high alto.  "I don’t know what you guys want.  I don’t have any money.  I just started working at the diner this week, and I don’t get paid for another two weeks.”

I looked at her blankly.  “We don’t need your money.”

“Then what do you want from me?” There was a hysterical edge to her voice.  Her eyes were huge and round.

I bent down so I could get a better whiff of her sweet scent.  As long as Gillian had started down this crazy road, I figured there was no use holding back the truth.  I put my mouth close to her ear and murmured, “we want to mate with you and make you our Luna.”