Chapter Text
Life here in New Starstone is fine. The older generation doesn’t think that it is at all like old StarStone. The newer generation is finding their way through though. New social norms are being created and everyone is finding it pretty easy to navigate. The top of the order is the witches, they found and created the layout so they are at the top. Then it is the vampires they are just there because of their looks. Many find them very appealing. After that is the werewolves (my family and about ten others). We are here for the strength, we built all of the houses and gathered all of the materials. From there is goes to fairies, goblins, dragons, and so on. At the head of the witches clan is the Gardner family. More specifically Mercedes. The head of the vampire clan is a man named Ward. He’s fine in public but we all know he hates his youngest. He doesn’t do anything towards her, just ignores her. She is always seen in old tattered clothing. She doesn’t seem to be a vampire so it is almost like Ward shuns her. His ex-wife, Michelle cheated on Ward and left the baby. He was kind enough to at least kind of care for the child but again, he doesn’t love her. Then at the top of the werewolf clan is my father, Nicholas. He was chosen because out of all the wolves that came over he was the only alpha with an alpha heir (me). The other families are very young though and I am sure with time they will try for the position. It is just a council vote amongst the alphas of the clan no fighting which I am sure seems odd. Then the rest have their own designated leaders and once a month they all meet up and have a town meeting. As I said, life here is fine.
Something that does not happen often within the town is different monsters interacting together. In Old StarStone it was very common but for some reason here, no one really talks to anyone outside of their group. I am only friends with the other wolves of my age, Robin, Dolls, and Andrew. All are betas, but they are starting families with some of the omegas. Robin and Jeremy mated last weekend. Dolls has been courting Eliza. Andrew has found an omega back in Old StarStone. Me though, there seems to be no one that I am clicking with. I have gone on dates but they all fall short. So I have been keeping my options open. Maybe eventually I will head back to Old StarStone and look for someone but for now, I’m just gonna stay here.
“Mr.Earp needs a shed built? … Alright, I’ll pick up the supplies and head over.” I start my truck up and head to the local hardware store and pick up the wood and roofing tiles needed for the shed. I walk into the store and spot Waverly walking around. I do a quick jog over and speak to her,
“Hey, what are you doing here?” She turns fully to me and I see the apron indicating that she works here. “Ohhh, Mr.Earp make you start working?” Waverly nods and sighs.
“He told me last week that there isn’t enough room for me at home anymore. So I moved out and got a place above the Shorty’s bar.” I nod and furrow my brow.
“Not to pry, but was it because you turned 21? It feels odd that he would kick you out without really an explanation.” I see the store owner walking towards us with his brow furrowed. “Yea so I need a lot of wood to build that shed. I also need a new saw, do you think you could help me out?” Waverly looks at me confused and is about to say something when her boss interrupts us.
“Hey Nic, how come you didn’t come straight over to me?” It is Jeremy’s father. I shake my head and gesture towards Waverly.
“She was right there so I figured it would just be easier to ask Waves here for help.” He looks to her and back to me.
“She, doesn’t really know the layout yet so she can’t really help?” I nod and turn to look to Waverly and then to Mr.Chetri.
“It was actually about, uh, roofing tiles. I needed a better woman’s eye than mine to pick out the color of the roofing tiles.” He nods slowly and then looks to both of us.
“Well, help Haught here and then get back to it. I am not paying you to stand around.” Waverly nods and he walks away. Waverly gestures towards the roofing tiles and we walk towards it.
“He seems a little cranky?” I say and Waverly laughs and shakes her head no.
“He doesn’t trust me. He hired me as a favor for Gus. He thinks I am dumb because I am not a monster.” I make and oh face. She continues. “Anyways he kicked me out because Wynonna is the heir and she is taking the place over herself soon. She told him it would be fine for me to live there but he thought it would interfere with her finding a mate so I moved. He is actually leaving soon too. He is having a shed built to put all of his belongings then heading back to Old StarStone.” I nod slowly then faster.
“Right, that explains the shed that I am building.” Waverly makes an oh face and then we both look at the roofing tiles.
“The roof has a greenish tint to it so maybe go with these.” She points to one and smiles at me. My heart skips for a second. What? I nod slowly and she nods slowly back at me.
“Uhh, thanks.” Waverly shakes her head and nods faster.
“Yea, of course. No problem. I’ll catch you around.” She waves to me and then walks away. I watch her walk away and then turn to the tiles. I find a cart in the isle and start to stack boxes of the tiling on it and then head over to the wood section and do the same. I go to the register and pay for all the supplies and then head over to the Earp residence on the vampire side of town. This side of town is the farming section. The vampires are all farmers due to them needing the animals for food way more than we do. So they all have huge farms with lots of animals. My family is actually the only one that lives even close to here because we have a vegetable farm. When the town was first built, my grandfather offered to take on the veggies seeing that we needed someone to do it. So we grow corn, carrots, pumpkins, green beans, and all sorts of other things. Anything we can grow to avoid going out into the human world is best. The only ones who can go out there is me and my family seeing that we are the most human-like out of the group. I get to the Earp ranch and find Ward sitting on his porch with a cup in his hand. I shiver at knowing what it is. He gets up and I get out of my truck after parking. He shows me where the shed is to be built and how big. He actually used chalk in the grass to show me everything.
“Before you start can you actually move some boxes from the second floor? Waverly moved out and she hasn’t had the time to move all of her things down. She is picking them up soon but I just don’t want to do it.” He sounds exhausted just from talking about her.
“Yea of course. Waverly is a sweet girl.” He just looks at me and then walks away. I follow him into the house and it is very clean. I head up the stairs and he leads me to her bedroom. He opens the door and a strong scent of citrus and mint hits me. Holy shit. I shake my head out of it. I look around the room and there are boxes all around the room. There are about twenty boxes. The room is barren other than the boxes, the walls are a light blue.
“Anyways, just leave them on the porch and she will grab them.” Ward hands me a fifty then leaves the room. I grab a box and nearly drop it from the weight. I was not expecting the box to be that heavy. I pick up all the boxes and then organize them by weight. I bring out the heavy ones first (which was like ten). Then I bring out the other ten in two trips. I nod to Ward and then unload my truck and start on the foundation of the shed. Nothing too fancy just some level concrete to get started with.
As I finish up, Waverly’s red jeep shows up. I grab my flannel that is next to me and throw a tarp over all of my materials and then head towards her. Waverly parks next to my truck and gets out. I nod to her and she smiles back.
“You look gross.” she giggles and I fake being offended throwing my hand on my chest.
“This is what hard looks like, Waves. You would know if you did any.” I laugh and now she looks shocked, still with a smile on her face.
“Quick, that was quick.” I smile and then refer to the boxes.
“I can help you with those, they are pretty heavy.” Waverly nods and rolls up her sleeves.
“Yea, I have books in most of the boxes.” my jaw drops.
“You have like two hundred pounds worth of books.” Waverly’s eyes drop for a second. She seems embarrassed. “Which is cool, if you like to read. That isn’t my cup of tea but if it’s yours then, uhh, cool.” I smile quick and Waverly just rolls her eyes.
“You wolves are really good at putting your foot in your mouth.” I shrug and we both head to the porch. I grab a stack of boxes and bring them over to her jeep. She has one of the light ones. I grab a few more and I look at her and then the jeep.
“There isn’t enough room for all of these boxes.” Waverly sighs and throws her head back.
“I guess I am making two trips.” I shake my head no and then load the box onto my truck.
“I’ll just bring them over for you.” Waverly brings her head back down and smiles. I grab the rest of the boxes and load them up into my truck. We both head towards her apartment. I get out of the truck, Waverly is already getting boxes out from her jeep. I grab the heavy ones and follow her into the bar. Shorty waves to us and I nod towards him. Shorty is a really nice man, he’s a little short and purple but he’s cool. (Shorty is a goblin). We get upstairs and
“Wow, this place is small and, smells like fried food.” Waverly nods but shrugs.
“It’s cheap and the bar is close so another job for me.” She smiles tightly then walks past me. I sigh and look around the VERY tiny apartment. I walk over to her desk and grab a piece of paper from her printer and a pencil off of her desk. I sit down and write up a blueprint for the room. If she got a loft bed and put the desk underneath it and then if we got another loft bed, no mattress on it then we could have a two-story bookshelf and she would still have room to have a tiny table up against the wall. I put the pencil in my mouth and think. Then there would be no space for a tv,
“What are you doing?” Waverly is leaning up against the doorframe with her arms across her chest and a tiny smile on her face.
“Well, I was thinking if we got you two loft beds then there would be more space in here for you and your tiny library of books.” Waverly walks over and looks at the piece of paper.
“If you put the two beds from foot to head of the bed there should be enough room to have them on the same wall and then I can put a couch here.” She points to the loft bed that is the mini library. I nod and stand up I take out my tape measure and measure the entire apartment.
“After this let's head to the hardware store, I need more wood.” Waverly nods and I run down the stairs. I get the rest of the boxes out of my truck and head up the stairs. Before I can get the last box Waverly stops me.
“Why are you being so nice?” I shrug and face her fully.
“I’ve known you my whole life. We went to school together.” She looks at me and like ‘seriously’.
“Well, you need some help and I would like to think we are at least kind of friends so I am helping.” Waverly squints at me.
“Do you pity me?” I shake my head no fast.
“No, absolutely not. I just want to help. So let's grab those last boxes and head out.” She nods slowly. I nod once and then run down the stairs. I actually don’t know why I am helping her. We had a few classes together back in high school. We were lab partners but other than that we never really did talk. She was always to herself. I get the last box upstairs and I smell Champ. I walk into her room and Champ is kissing her. My wolf starts to pace in my chest. I feel a low growl come out. I shake my head and cough loud. Champ pulls away and nods to me.
“Hey.” He goes to kiss her again but Waverly pulls back.
“I, uh, didn’t know you two were uh, dating?” Waverly nods slowly and looks at me sheepishly.
“It’s new.” I nod and then place the box down. Champ is with Stephanie. They have been together for like ever.
“What about,” Champ shakes his head no. He is a part of my clan. A beta but strong. I continue.
“Dude, you are mated to Stephanie.” He rolls his eyes and Waverly looks at him mortified.
“Technically, she bit me but I never bit her. She knows I can’t be held down.” Waverly takes a step back.
“You are basically married?” He nods but then looks down.
“I get it, alright. Nicky here is trying to smash and I cock blocked. It’s all good.” He turns to me and slaps my shoulder. “She is very hot.” He walks out of the room and I turn to Waverly. She looks at me and nods.
“Is that why you are helping? To hope you get laid? Is it your rut or something?” She is getting angry her face is starting to get red. I shake my head no fast. Her face is getting redder and redder. I tilt my head to the side. She sits down and starts to berate me about how she isn’t an object and how wolves are horny pieces of shit. She starts to fan herself. A smell bursts out of her, the citrus and mint. It fills the room and my mouth starts to water. Waverly stops talking and she looks confused. I look around the room and find a towel. I run ice-cold water over it and then walk over to Waverly. I place it on her forehead and she is looking up at me. I shake my head no and then pick her up and lay her in her bed. I shut the door and start to pace the room.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” I stop and stare at her, her breathing is picking up and the smell is getting stronger and stronger. I go to say something but I grab my phone instead. I call my mother.
“How, do you know if someone is in heat?” Waverly yells what at me and I shrug and listen to my mother.
“Honey, we both know you know how it starts. The heating up and the sweating and then that makes the smell much more strong and then they start to get hor,” I cut my mom off. “Yes, but, but” I turn to Waverly and she looks confused. “It’s Waverly, she’s not a wolf so what does this mean?” My mother gasps. “Only, Nic, you know only wolves get heats and ruts. Not even vampires so she must be one. Oh, I am so glad that she is finally a monster. You know the council,” I hang up the phone and turn to Waverly. She is laying on the bed with her neck exposed and breathing heavily.
“What the hell is going on?” I sit in the chair at the desk and sigh.
“Welcome to the pack?”