Werewolves of Singer Valley

It had been a difficult winter for the mountain town of Singer Valley. The roads were more pockmarked than a pre-teen at prom, and they had to close off one of the main bridges because too many of the supports had worn away under the blizzards' relentless assaults. But werewolves were survivors, and the Singer Valley pack even more so. The scent of fresh bacon, tabasco omelets, and the musky tang of a large pack of werewolves drifted through The Howl Cafe. Jim Stewart took it all in with a satisfied breath and sighed with stuffed contentment. Spring was just starting to arrive, bringing with it the first waves of repairs for the crumbling town. The remains of a once-towering stack of pancakes littered Jim's plate, along with a thick piece of rhubarb pie. Jim's adoptive family, the Huntingtons, had Jim pinned in the back of their booth, the "place of honor". The twins, Charlie and Morgan, boxed him in on either side, with their mom, Jodi and other brother, Jared flanking the booth’s exits. "You are going to accept this honor, or I will bite you," Singer Valley's Alpha werewolf, Jodi Huntington, declared. In her early sixties, Jodi was a striking woman, with fine lines of expression around her eyes and mouth which emphasized her elegance. She rapped two fingers against the center of Jim's chest. "Don't give me s**t about this. I know you want to be Alpha just as much as I want this for you." Jim shifted in his chair under her stare, regretting eating that sixth pancake, which had hardened into a heavy ball in his stomach. The woman had a way of always being right that was downright scary. "Jodi, you're years from retirement. Is it really necessary to make everything so official-?" Jodi laughed. "Of course it is. Sit up straight, Jimmy." Jim smiled. It was the same thing she'd said to him the first night he arrived at the Huntington house over a decade ago, a gangly fifteen-year-old with his face still wet with tears. Jodi had taken him straight home from the vigil besides his parents' graves, and she sat with him long into the night as he’d tried to articulate the vast emptiness surrounding him. At the time, he had been so sure it would never be filled. The largest of the Huntington brothers, Jared, slapped Jim hard on the back. "Come on, Jim. You've earned this. It's not like any of us misfits would ever want the job." Jared's smile, so similar to his mother's, was dimpled with pride. "You're hardly a misfit," Jim said. As owner of The Howl--the beating heart of Singer Valley and the only restaurant in town--Jared was as indispensable as the Alpha, and everybody knew it. The blond beast of a man who hosted nearly everyone's birthdays, wedding receptions, and bar mitzvahs drank in gossip like a sustaining force. "Yeah, but I'm no Alpha. I love knowing everybody's business, not having to fix it," Jared said. Jodi silenced her sons with a look and sprung up to stand on the table, positioning her feet between Jim's plate and somebody’s half-finished eggs Benedict. Jared snatched the plates out of the way muttering, "If you break it, you bought it," as his mother held up her hands for the pack’s attention. The Howl Cafe was teeming for Saturday brunch, the fifty or so gathered pack members giddy to finally feel the sun’s warmth once more. At Jodi's clap for silence, everybody surrounding the dark, wooden tables quieted and turned their attention to their Alpha. Jim forced himself to sit up straight in his chair. He'd known the announcement was coming for the last few months, ever since Jodi declared she didn’t want to deal with cranky contractors by herself any more. As the next in line to be Alpha, Jim would be just as responsible as Jodi for ensuring the town was safe. He just hoped that someday he might feel equal to the task. "Wolves of Singer Valley, I have a long-overdue announcement to make," Jodi declared to the room of upturned faces. Jim's hands trembled with nervousness, shaking enough that he quickly hid them under the table. It wasn't that Jim didn't want the job. Jim had been training with Jodi for the last five years to succeed her, ever since he finished up his graduate degree in public administration. But, now that the moment was here, the full weight of responsibility felt heavier than he had anticipated. Jodi beamed at everyone. "We've survived the winter with no casualties.” A smattering of applause surrounded them, along with a couple of celebratory hoots. “To help us rebuild, I have chosen a successor, one who will lead you all when I decide it's time to retire. My son, Jim Stewart." She pointed down to Jim, and the room broke out into thunderous cheers and whistles. It took all of Jim's willpower to hold back a wince. "Jim has been the best right-hand man I've ever had. He’s smart, caring, and dedicated to the safety and prosperity of our community. Three cheers for Jim!" Cheers erupted anew all around the cafe, shaking the rafters enough that Jim eyed the ceiling with unease. Jared, Charlie, and Morgan slapped Jim on the back, shouting encouragements over the roar. Jim found himself pushed to his feet, pulled up by Jodi to stand beside his adoptive mother on the table, his head almost scraping the ceiling. From the heat on his face and chest, he guessed a furious blush coated his skin. Being in front of so many people was his least favorite part of the job. "Speech!" Jared cried, and Jim would have happily throttled his brother right then. "Speech!" Charlie and Morgan took up the chant, clapping their hands in rhythm. The rest of the cafe joined in until the restaurant shook with stomping feet and calls. "All right! All right!" Jim waved them to silence. They're going to bring down the place. His mind raced to come up with the right words. "Thanks, guys. It is a huge honor and privilege to serve the people who have been so good to me. Singer Valley is a magical place, and I--" The front door of The Howl burst open, and an enormous woman stomped through holding a scrap of paper in one hand and a mattock axe large enough to splatter skulls in the other. "I demand to see the Alpha!" the woman bellowed. Everyone in the cafe turned as one from the fuming woman to where Jodi and Jim stood on top of the table. Jodi hopped to the floor in one, fluid movement. "What is it, Beatrice?" Jodi demanded, striding across the cafe to pull the woman back outside, out of earshot of the fifty pairs of curious ears. Jim scrambled after Jodi with slightly less grace, the sounds of his brothers' footsteps following close behind until the Huntington men stood behind Jodi facing Beatrice in the town square outside the restaurant. "It bounced." Beatrice breathed heavy with fury. She pushed the scrap of paper toward Jodi, and the Alpha read it carefully before mutely handing it over to Jim. Jodi's face had lost a lot of its healthy color. The paper was a check made to Beatrice's construction company, who had been hired a few weeks ago to fix the bridge into Singer Valley. "What are you trying to pull, huh?" Beatrice yelled. "What am I supposed to think when a check from the town's account just bounces?" Jared and Jodi rushed to assure Beatrice it was surely a mistake, while Jim whipped out his smartphone to check the town’s bank account. The blood drained from Jim's face at the blinking zeros on his screen. Holy crap. Jim’s stomach churned as he mentally ran through the massive list of repairs the town needed. He turned his phone so Jodi could see it, and her lips pressed into a thin line. Jodi reached into her purse, pulled out a checkbook, scribbled down the originally-promised amount, and handed the check to Beatrice. "Here. This is from my personal account, and it won’t bounce. Keep working. I'm sure this was just an accounting error. We'll get everything sorted on our end, but you make sure that the town's bridges are safe. Okay?" Beatrice frowned at the check, but turned on her heel and stomped away toward the bank. Jodi let out a deep breath and turned to her sons. "Theories?" she asked. "It was all in there yesterday," Jim said. "I remember looking before I wrote out the check for the new generator for the clinic." His pulse galloped up a notch as he thought about all the checks he'd written just that week. The town would crumble around them if they couldn’t pay for repairs. "You know exactly who did this," Jared growled. "This has Brad written all over it." Brad Huntington. The oldest Huntington son. Clever, charming when he wanted to be, and the most selfish, entitled a*s Jim had ever known. Jim was grateful he wasn't the first to assume his estranged adopted brother was behind this. Jodi quickly pulled out her phone, cursing when they all heard the ring go straight to Brad's voicemail a moment later. "Damn. You're probably right." Jodi's shoulders slumped, and heavy lines deepened along her forehead. Charlie and Morgan jumped forward, wrapping her in a twins-hug sandwich. She smiled and kissed each of the twins on the foreheads, gently escaping their embraces. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I know my boy has a selfish streak, but I never thought Brad could be capable of something like this." "This is classic Brad," Charlie said with a snarl. "We should never have thrown him a bone and let him be town treasurer." Morgan, always the quieter of the twins, nodded in agreement. Jim looked between the Huntington siblings, hesitant to join in. His rivalry with Brad was well-known in the family and the town. When Jim first moved in with the Huntingtons, he had just lost his family. Brad, resentful of the attention Jim received, went out of his way to be an asshole to Jim every chance he could find. Jim retaliated by replacing Brad’s packed lunch with a toothpaste sandwich, and their feud had only grown worse since then. "When was the last time anyone saw Brad?" Jodi asked her sons. "Two, three days ago?" Jared said. "He came into The Howl for pie, all pissed off about something. I’ve never seen anybody so angry with a mouthful of bourbon pecan." Jodi ran her fingers through her short hair, tugging at the ends. “I told Brad a few days ago that Jim was going to be the next Alpha. I didn’t want him hearing it from anybody else.” "We all knew Brad wanted the job, but this is insane. How the hell does he gain anything by taking the money we need for repairs?" Charlie asked. “Well...besides money, I guess.” "Brad was never much of a planner," Morgan replied. But Jim could see Brad's twisted logic. If Brad was never going to be Alpha, then he would at least prove to Jodi that Jim couldn't handle a crisis. "Why don’t we just call the cops?" Morgan asked in his low voice. Charlie jabbed him with an elbow. "The cops don’t know how to deal with a pissed-off werewolf. Besides, this is a matter that should be handled within the family." Charlie cracked his knuckles, looking grim. Jodi clicked her tongue. "None of that. Brad is your brother. We will deal with this with compassion, not brutality. Remember that." "We need the money back. If Brad has it, I'll go get it," Jim said. Jodi looked like she was about to argue with him, then nodded. "Confirm who took the money, and get it back. If you can bring Brad home too, all the better, but our top priority is making the town whole again. I'll stay here to make sure that everything is taken care of until the money is returned." "Yes, mom," Jim said. She smiled at that, and nodded to her other sons. "Follow Jim's orders and help where you can. Otherwise, it’s business as usual. No one else needs to know about this." She turned on her heel and returned into the cafe where the anxious faces of the rest of the Singer Valley werewolf pack awaited her return.