King of the Hill

“This is… your village?” 

Village? Does that look like a village to you? 

It most certainly did not look like a village. It looked like an entire full-fledged town, as big as my own town! Bigger, even…? It was bigger! Some buildings and structures peered from behind a rising hill at the very center of town, with a gargantuan white mansion sitting on top of it like the king of the hill. 

As I scanned the town through wide eyes, I was shocked to find that it had electricity. I squinted at what looked to be brass Victorian lamp posts illuminating the roads and streets. The houses and buildings had electricity too by the looks of the glowing windows. There were roads made of cobblestone, but there were no cars in sight. Probably because werewolves were as fast as cars, maybe even faster. Various shops and stores lined the bottoms of two-story structures. The tallest building appeared to be a four-story building. 

To think that there was a town so close to the town of Evergreen, and absolutely no one knew about it. It was even closer than the nearest town, which was three hours away! 

And what was even more shocking to me was that this place looked quite ordinary and… homely. No, not simply homely. This was a pretty, unassuming town with a comfortable feel to it, like one of those quiet towns old people retired to spend the remainder of their lives in. 

I wasn’t sure what I had expected of this place, but I never expected this. 

To think that this entire town went unnoticed by humanity. To us, it simply didn’t exist on any map. It was the stuff of fantasy. 

“What’s that mansion on the hill? The town hall?”

That’s the Supreme Alpha’s home. 

“That’s where you live?!” The town might be unassuming, but that mansion was anything but. It looked like a celebrity’s Hollywood mansion. Being Alpha of a pack of werewolves was a well-paying job apparently. 

For the time being. Then, after a moment, he added: I suppose it’s your home too now. 

I stiffened. Something I hadn’t thought of before crossed my mind.

I was going to sleep in a bed other than my own tonight.

The realization was sobering. 

For eighteen years, I slept in the same bed, under the same roof without fail. My parents weren’t the traveling sort, nor was I allowed to sleep over at my friends’ houses.

For all their overprotectiveness, my parents ended up bargaining me away like a prized goat. 

They had their reasons, and they sounded like good ones, but there was a quiet rage in me that would not quickly go away. I couldn’t help it. Neither could I be blamed for it. So for now, I would allow myself this anger towards my parents until it dissipated. 

Let’s go. 

“I’d like to walk the rest of the way. My tailbone is killing me.”

And so we walked, me on two legs, and Xander on four. 

****

Xander didn’t stay on four legs for long. As we entered the town, the dirt road turning to cobblestone, he shifted.

I immediately averted my gaze, very conscious of his state of nudity. 

“Wait here,” he instructed and entered what appeared to be a clothing store. 

I stared after him, stunned that he’d left me to wait in the street in a town of werewolves. 

As soon as I thought 

Worried, I scanned my surroundings for any hostiles, but the street appeared to be deserted. 

Wasn’t he worried I would run away? 

As soon as I thought that, I realized how stupid it was. And futile. As if I could ever outrun a werewolf who could read my mind. With the threat of death hanging over my parents’ lives, I was as good as tied up. 

A minute later, he emerged wearing black pants and nothing else. Not even shoes.

Knowing he could peer into my most private thoughts like I was an open book, I forced myself not to admire him wearing nothing but tightly-fitting pants. 

Instead, I glared. 

At my judging stare, Xander said, “I only had enough for the pants.” 

“Liar.” Werewolves didn’t have pockets. 

As the son of the Alpha, it was pretty safe to assume that he could walk into any store and pick out whatever he wanted. But I guessed when you had a body like that, you’d want to show it off at every opportunity. 

Xander grinned, unashamed to be caught in the lie. 

“Let’s go.”

I didn’t realize how far the hill was until I was walking through the town. By my estimate, it would take us a good ten minutes to get to it, and then who knew how long it would take to scale it to the top. Another ten or fifteen minutes? 

The mere thought filled me with exhaustion. I was already weary and in need of rest. 

“If you had let me carry you, we would already be there.” Xander commented, undoubtedly enjoying my private thoughts again. 

“I told you my ass hurts.”

I felt a pair of eyes zeroing in on my bottom and shivered. “Hey!” 

He looked away. 

“Where is everybody, anyway?” I asked, wondering why I hadn’t seen another soul yet. It was a ghost town, with only the sounds of our footsteps echoing on the cobblestones filling the air. 

“They’re still partying.”

I frowned. “Partying?” They had werewolf clubs too?

“At your welcoming party.” 

Oh, the bonfire! The pack was still back at the bonfire, enjoying themselves. Unlike me. “So the entire town came to welcome me? Isn’t that a bit of a security concern?” 

Xander looked at me with something akin to fascination in his eyes. When he spoke, he sounded impressed. “An excellent point. You’re right; our sentries remained to guard the town.” 

“Sentries? Like guards?”

“Precisely.” 

As if on cue, a spotted brown werewolf appeared from the shadows of an alleyway. It had familiar grey eyes.