Joel
"So how did it go?" Lyla asked while draped across my bed.
"Fine," I replied snarkily, "and what are you doing in here when I'm not?" I asked while setting my bag down and pulling off my hoodie.
A slow wolf whistle made me turn to Lyla and raise a frosty eyebrow.
She deliberately looked me up and down taking in my interview outfit and giving extra notice to my hair.
"I know!" I said patting it gently, a beaming smile now on my face. "It took me the best part of an hour getting it to look like this!"
Lyla snorted and I wrinkled my nose at her unladylike noise.
That just made her laugh louder.
I deliberately ignored her and turned on my radio.
She shut up instantly. "Oh no, no, no" she said, getting off the bed and turning the radio back off again. "I want details, Joel. What was it like? Did you see any of the family? When will you know if you got the job?"
I looked over at her eager face and suppressed a smile. She looked really cute with her big curious eyes, like a little puppy. Not that I would ever tell her that.
"Ok, lets see. It was horrible, just like I imagined. Like stepping back in time. You could smell the wealth coming off the walls upstairs but downstairs it was all plastic chairs and chipped paintwork."
"Wow, so did get to look around? Are the pillars in the dining room really made of gold like Molly said?"
"I didn't see the dining room, but it wouldn't surprise me," I replied. I didn't tell her that I never saw any of the main house, so in reality I had no idea what it was like. But I knew the perfect way to distract her from realising that....
"I saw Casper though..."
A loud squeal made me flinch and cover my ears quickly.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!! Tell me everything!!"
I shook my head to clear the ringing in my ears then grinned mischievously at her.
"I can't tell you I'm afraid. Employer, employee confidentiality."
I couldn't help but smirk when I saw her face fall.
"That's not a thing is it? And anyway, you're not technically an employee until you've got the job!"
"Oh, but I did get the job." I said rather triumphantly.
"Really?!" she squealed again, jumping up and down in excitement.
"Yey" I said throwing my hands in the air in a sarcastically lethargic way. "I get to wash pots for 4 hours each night. I can't wait. Whoop whoop."
"Hey, no one made you apply for the job!" Lyla said sticking her tongue out at me, before settling back onto my bed.
I watched her as she rustled about in her bag. She was wearing her usual outfit of grey sweat pants and a blue hoody. She rarely made any effort to look girly. But regardless of that, she was still the prettiest girl I knew, with her honey coloured hair and bright blue eyes. Most guys I knew liked to fawn over the Alpha's two daughters, Luna and Star, but I didn't rate their beauty at all. To me it looked fake and too polished.
My eyes were suddenly drawn to the bag of Tangtastic haribo that Lyla pulled from her bag.
"Oooo, yummy!" I said jumping onto the bed beside her.
I reached over to take one from the bag when she snatched it away suddenly.
"Na ah," she said shaking her head.
"Hey, why not?" I said sticking out my bottom lip in protest.
"Not until you give me the dirt on Casper," she said while popping a cola bottle into her mouth.
"Damn you and your evil powers," I said flopping face down on the bed. Being my best friend she knew exactly how to play me. Haribo were my kryptonite.
After a couple of seconds, I popped my head up to look at her and said, "hand over the candy girl and I'll squeal like a pig."
Lyla giggled and handed me the bag.
"So whad d yo wnt oo know?" I asked while chewing on a particularly sour cherry.
"Is he as hot in person as he is in the pictures?"
"Hotter!" I replied, popping a ring in next.
"Oh my god! Did he say anything to you?"
"Hmm let me think," I said tilting my head to one side in thought. "He said, 'get this mess cleaned up'."
Lyla scrunched up her face. "Charming!"
"I know, right!" I said while popping in three cola bottles at once.
"So what mess did you make during an interview? Wait, did they give you a test to see if you could clean dishes?"
I snorted at the idea.
"No, he made the mess, then asked me to clean it up. He tried to kill me with a fork!"
"Eh? He what?" asked Lyla, looking at me as if I was growing an extra head.
I looked at her for a second then made the decision it was better not to tell her too much.
"It doesn't matter," I said waving my arms for effect, "all that matters is that he is super hot when he is angry, like smolderingly hot!"
"Hey, I thought you hated the guy! Back off him, he's mine."
"In your dreams," I said, laughing at the idea that either of us stood a chance with him.
You see, we were the bottom of the food chain. The dross in the wolf pack. Not even worth a name. We were just classed as 'the rest of the pack'.
The only way we would ever get to meet or talk to the ranked members of the pack would be by working for them in the Manor. And even then we would only discuss work matters, nothing personal. Ranked members of the pack didn't associate with the likes of us.
It was just another reason why I hated this place.
I suddenly felt a haribo ping off my cheek and smiled sheepishly as I realised Lyla had been talking to me.
"Anyway..." she said raising an annoyed eyebrow at my lack of attention, "I heard from Michelle that there's going to be another ball coming up soon. Wouldn't it be amazing to actually get to see what one looks like!"
"Oh yes, I can't wait to serve all those stuck up idiots." I jumped up and put on my best Jeeves pose. "Would you like a brandy with that Sir? No? Well might I suggest a lovely scotch instead, it goes ever so well with the braised beef parcel with red currant jus."
Lyla rolled about laughing.
"Anyway," I added, "it's unlikely that I'll get to see anything. I wash pots remember. I don't think I'll be allowed out of the kitchen in case I contaminate the guests with my lower class disease."
Lyla just shook her head at me and gave a little smile. She was used to my rants. For some reason I had never taken to the whole hierarchy system that existed in the werewolf packs. Something about it just grated at my skin.
As a young teenager I would often talk about rebellion and changing our society, or just running away from it to live amongst the humans, but in reality I would never do any of that. Rather disappointingly I was always a good kid at heart and would never do anything to upset or harm my mum and dad. They meant the world to me and I loved them dearly.
"Five years to go," I said wistfully.
Lyla looked unperturbed. "You'll never go and you know that."
"I so will!" I said with determination in my voice.
"What if you find your mate?" Lyla asked.
I snorted at her suggestion. "Ooo, there goes a flying haribo eating rainbow pig."
The chances of any of us lesser pack members of finding our mate were relatively small. For me, being gay and all, I would say it was pretty non-existent.
I'd turned 18 six months ago, which meant that technically I could find my mate at any time. The only problem was that in order to recognise your mate and trigger the bonding process, you had to have skin on skin contact. As an estimate I would guess I had made contact with about 5 males in the past year. At that rate I would be 100 before the odds were even remotely possible.
In wolf society, it was tradition that when two of the opposite gender met for the first time, they would shake hands, thereby learning straight away whether they had found their mate. A handshake for wolves was considered much more intimate than in human society.
Consequently, when two male wolves met, there was no handshake, but they would tilt their head in a small bow as a sign of respect. The level of the bow would signify their status. So for me I would have perform a full bow at about a 45 degree angle, whereas Casper, being the Alpha's son would just sort of twitch his head in acknowledgement.
So as you can see, no touching was involved, leaving me no chance of finding my mate.
Ok, so it's not like I never touched a male. Of course I joked with my friends and slapped them round the face, and play fighted with them, but it wasn't like I could do that to strangers.
In wolf law, you had to look for your mate for 5 years. If at the end of the 5 years you were unmated, you were allowed to leave the pack to go and choose yourself a mate, and to return once you had done so.
This worked very much like human relationships. You needed to get to know them first, and work your way up to being in love. Whereas if you found your soulmate, the bond was instant.
Once my five years were up, I intended to go and live in human society. Homeosexuality in wolves was not against the law, but it was frowned upon, and so I decided that to live as a human would be the most free I could be. I knew it would be tough, having to suppress my wolf, but it would be worth it, just to be able to go out and flirt, and dance, and kiss another guy.
My friends thought I was being overly dramatic, but they had no idea what it was like to have to constantly repress a part of yourself. A large part of yourself as well. It was just another constant reminder that I just wasn't good enough here.
Lyla and Matt, my two best friends, were the only people who knew I was gay. Even my parents didn't know.
"You know it could happen," said Lyla, still going on about my non-existent mate.
"Yeah, but I kind of hope it doesn't," I replied. "I don't want to be stuck here in a relationship that I have to hide. I want to be free."
Lyla groaned. "Oh please no! Do not start reciting that ruddy poem again. I think if I hear it again I'll just shrivel up from the inside and die!"
I laughed at her reaction to what was, the best moment in my school life.
We were in our creative writing class and our assignment has been to write a piece about what we wanted to do when we became adults. We were allowed to write in any style we wanted, but had to read, perform, or display our work at the end.
I had written a poem. And let's just say I was no shrinking violet when it came to performing. My classmates were in stitches and gave me a standing ovation for my overly dramatic performance.
I stood up at the foot of the bed and let out an exaggerated cough.
Lyla groaned and melodramatically threw herself onto the bed, stuffing as many pillows over her head as she could.
I put on my best thespian voice:
"The pounding of my heart echoes the beat beneath my feet
My future burning brightly, releasing fire and heat
That melts the chains that bind me, as from your land I flee
And burns a brand upon my heart that says, at last I'm free
I'll travel far away.."
"Oooff".
A torrent of pillows rained down on me sending me sprawling back on the carpeted floor.
"Ahhhh," I wailed while thrashing my arms and legs around under the mound of pillows.
"Free yourself from that sucker!" Lyla said before collapsing in a fit of giggles.
Honestly, sometimes I wondered why I put up with her.