The Wild Within

Chapter 2 Luke

Luke

Doug, Nick, and I loaded up in the truck and headed to the manufacturing warehouse where we worked; but in different sections.  It was convenient until one of us pulled an overnight shift and only had one vehicle between the five of us. Julius has his car since he has some professional tedious desk job.

“Hey Josh,” I called out to my boss when I arrived on the floor. “What we got today?”

“Boxes as usual,” he said. “We’ve got a few new hires coming into orientation this week, so I’ll be having you on training duty on your overnights.”

“Me?” I said in surprise. “I’ve only been here for a few months.”

“Well, you’re my most reliable and efficient employee that will be on the overnight,” he said. “My other guy is Roland.”

“Oh s**t,” I said. “Yeah, I get that. Okay, no problem. When do the newbies start working the floor?”

“Next week,” he said, flipping through the papers. “But we’ll see how many last through the orientation.”

“True,” I chuckled.

 When I came to my orientation, nearly half of the people there decided that warehouse work wasn’t what they wanted to do in life and left. I’ve realized this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. It’s a bit of heavy lifting and being on your feet for long hours; it’s not much more than that. Being a werewolf, I may have a bit of a biased opinion on the matter. I worked in the full pack department, meaning we fill orders of wholesale items that come in huge boxes. Break pack opens the cases, puts a select number of items in a tote, and ships off wherever.

“Here are your tickets,” Josh said, handing me a pile. “See you at lunch.”

“See ya,” I said and headed into the tall stacks of boxes.

I enjoyed this kind of work because it was a lot of solitary time for me. Living with five other dudes can sometimes take a toll on one’s sanity, and I find it peaceful, almost therapeutic, to just put my headphones in and sling some boxes onto a conveyer belt. The work wasn’t bad, the pay was decent, and I worked with some pretty cool guys.

At the end of the shift, I headed outside to smoke a cigarette and wait for my brothers to meet me so we could leave. I smiled and waved at some of the second shifters as they came into the building. I noticed the girl with neon pink hair just as she noticed me, and it was too late for me to hide. Her name was Skyler, and she was obsessed with me. We had worked one day together when our conveyer belt was down, so we got sent to other departments to help them out.

I begged Josh to send me to break pack because I didn’t want to go to the shipping department where my brothers were. I should’ve just taken the harassment, rib punches, and ball taps from them because Skyler worked in break pack. She followed me around the whole time, chattering away, despite her boss yelling at her that she wasn’t in the right section and screwing up her orders.

“Ohhh, hey Luke,” she said, batting her eyes at me. She was always wearing far too much makeup, and some of her lipstick was on her teeth.

“Hey, Skyler,” I replied, making her giggle, which usually I think girl giggles are adorable, but she sounded more like a hyena on helium. “Did I say something funny?”

“It's more the way you said it,” she laughed again. “Are you working second tonight?”

“No, ma'am,’ I said. “I just got off, just waiting for my brothers.”

“Too bad,” she sighed. “We had so much fun last time; it sucks that I got put onto second shift. When are you going to make the switch to break pack? Or even to second shift.”

“I like Full Pack better,” I said. “And first shift.”

“Well, maybe I’ll see if I can switch back to first?” she giggled. “I gotta get inside, but I’ll catch ya later, handsome.”

I nodded in response and finished my cigarette. Doug and Nick finally emerged from the building, carrying their lunch boxes. I flicked the butt of my cigarette into the container and headed out with them towards the truck.

“Man, I don’t get why you smoke those things,” Doug said. “That’s so gross. And bad for your lungs.”

“It’s a habit,” I said with a shrug. “And my lungs are better now than what they were a year ago, so it's fine.”

“Well, habits are meant to be broken, my dude,” he replied. “Wolves don’t smoke. Period.”

“Wolves don’t smoke,” Nick repeated in a stern British accent that sounded remarkably like Julius.

“Hey, Julius doesn’t care,” I said with a shrug. “And Ryan smokes too, so I’m not the only one.”

“Dude, I don’t think that helps your case,” Nick said. “Ryan’s young and dumb; you’re smarter than that.”

“I’ll quit when I’m ready,” I said.

“Bet if Skyler asked, you’d drop them in a second,” Doug said with a grin.

“f**k that; I’d start chain-smoking every day of my life,” I replied. “That girl is crazy.”

“She’s more than a little smitten,” Nick chuckled. “Glad she saw you first, though, bro. That girl is some type of crazy.”

“Well, don’t be surprised if she follows you home one day,” Doug said. “I think little Miss Riding hood wants to play with the big bad wolf.”

“Dude, please shut up,” I groaned and rolled my eyes.

We drove home, which was deep into the woods. None of the humans in town know that we’re out here. They’d get lost if they tried anyhow. It was a big cabin, two-story with six bedrooms, a bathroom, a vast living room, kitchen, and dining room. Julius’s grandfather built it as he was the first to be appointed to protect the town then passed the duty to Julius’s father, then to Julius.

“Who’s cooking tonight?” Doug asked.

“You and Luke, I think,” Nick answered. “Ryan and Nathan are going for their hunt tonight.”

“Hey, BBQ?” Doug asked.

“Hell yeah,” I agreed.

When we got home, Ryan and Nathan headed out for their run. It would take us a couple of hours to get everything ready for dinner anyway, so we had everything prepared when they returned, and Julius had walked through the door. We all smelled her before seeing her, though, and we turned to stare at the door.

Standing beside Julius was a woman around his age with blonde hair, tanned skin, and a broad white smile. We all were shocked to see Julius bring anyone here, let alone a woman. But by the scent that drifted to me, I knew she was one of us.

“Hello, boys,” Julius said with a smile. “I’d like you to meet someone. This is Jasmine Rose.”

“Hello,” we all managed to say.

“It sure smells delicious,” she said in a sweet southern accent. “What’s for dinner?”

“BBQ,” Doug said with a wolf-like grin. He was starting to drool, and I wondered if it was BBQ or she-wolf.

“Easy, Douglas,” Julius said, raising an eyebrow. “She’s mine.”

He growled the last word, and I saw Doug's eyes widen, his head drop in shame. I looked over at Nick and Nathan, who were also diverting their gazes and bowing their heads. Ryan was staring hard at Jasmine, and Julius growled at him while pulling her to him. Ryan’s eyes widened, and then he looked away as the others did.

“Now, Julius,” Jasmine scolded him and gently slapped his chest. “No need to intimidate them. I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I seem to have failed to teach all of them about matters like this properly,” Julius sighed. “I just never expected to find you after all these years.”

“You mean to tell me these poor boys know nothing of mates?” She gasped and stared at Julius. I had never seen Julius look chagrined before, least of all in front of a She-wolf.

“I’ve been training them for protecting the town,” he said. “The older three know. I didn’t get around to it with the last two.”

“Mates are extremely important to being a wolf, Julius! Did they not know about me before now?” She asked.

“Uh,” he stammered. “Well…”

“Julius Franklin Cohen!” She shouted, and he flinched back. We all stared in shock that our leader, our creator, was cowering from this petite-sized woman in a yellow sundress with matching heeled sandals. “I’m so sorry, boys. I can’t believe he’s failed to mention mates or even meeting his.”

“I’m sorry,” Julius said, trying to gain his composure.

“What if one of them had already met their mate, and they didn’t even know it?” She said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Excuse me?” I said, raising my hand and making sure to keep my eyes on Julius. “What wouldn’t we know?”

“Have either one of you found a scent that was so powerful, so delicious that you couldn’t help but desire it?” She asked.

“Umm, no?” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think so.”

“You’d understand what I was talking about if you had,” she said. “Good, I suppose no damage was done. But I am going to be teaching you boys some things since I’ll be moving in.”

“What?” Julius gasped. “I thought we talked about this?”

“Oh, stop, it’s just for a couple of weeks; my place is getting repainted, remember,” she said.

“I thought we were going to a hotel,” he tried to say under his breath. “That’s why we were coming over tonight.  To introduce you and then go there.”

“There’s been a change in plans then,” she said sternly and raised her eyebrow. “I can only wonder what else you haven’t taught them?”

“Can we discuss this in private?” He growled.

“I’m sorry, boys,” she turned to us and said. “If you excuse us, Julius and I need a moment. We will be right back.”

We all nodded but kept our eyes averted as Julius led Jasmine up the stairs to his bedroom. I turned to look at the others, as did Ryan, waiting for some explanation of what the hell happened.