Apparently, I have done too well in writing the adult characters in my YA novel that my readers asked me to write about how they met. One pair met when they were children; now they are wary allies. Another met as aggressive allies; now they are husband and wife. This is a (very) short story about the first pair, and I will continue to post short stories about them from childhood to their meeting again in the present before changing to the second couple. Consider it a prequel.
Connor eyed the eight year old girl who looked dainty and delicate in her white lace dress; looking as fresh and innocent as a new born baby.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Not that he minded hanging out with Mey, in fact some days, he preferred to hang out with her. With the guys, he didn't know whether it was because they were werewolves or because they were boys, there would always be a lot of grandstanding between them and usually over nothing. It's boring and exhausting.
Hanging out with Mey was never boring, although it did have its dangers.
Oh, he knew what she was up to. Unfortunately, he figured it out just a little too late. It was why, he was stuck in this ridiculous pink, mini-table, surrounded by flowers, dolls and delicate, fussy fripperies.
He scowled, well, at least there were cookies. But even the chocolate chip and pecan perfection in his hand was not enough to justify the embarrassment that he was feeling for being 1) a sap 2) a stupid sap 3) a ridiculously stupid sap. He looked at the cookie in his hand with disgust; not for the cookie but for the situation he was in. "I can't believe this."
Mey widened her dark eyes, she had been told that her eyes were her finest feature. Or so her mother had told her. "What do you mean?"
Connor straightened the stupid paper crown that he had to wear under threat of pain and humiliation, he was okay with the pain part but the humiliation? No, he had a reputation to maintain. "Why am I wearing this anyway?"
She rolled her eyes with all the affectionate disdain that all girls have for their deluded and deranged friends who happened to be boys. "I told you, you're the Lycaon and I'm having you for tea."
At the invocation of the Alpha King's title, Connor sat a little straighter, tilted his chin up a little further. "And why would your King accept your invitation? I have other things to do. I am a king after all."
Her left eyebrow twitched, a sign that she was restraining herself from doing something violent. "That crown's too heavy for your head, isn't it? It's squishing your brain."
Connor hid his grin behind his cup of tea, then changed his face into a scowl when he put it down. "If you tell anyone that I'm sitting down on your tea party I'll--"
"You'll what?" She asked with a smirk. "I'm the one holding all the cards here, remember?"
Connor growled, "I can't believe I fell for that, and I can't believe you'd do this to me."
"All is fair in love and war." Mey pranced to the other side of the table and sat down, brushing her skirt in a way that Connor would describe as prissy. And smug, he couldn't believe how one gesture could deliver so much smugness. It was clear to him that she was very pleased with herself. And so she should.
"I can't believe that you're blackmailing me when you were the one who gave me the idea in the first place."
Mey sniffed and picked up a cookie, carefully laying down a pink serviette on her lap. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You don't, huh? So you're not the person who hatched up a plan for the biggest, most elaborate prank in the history of our Pack?"
Mey tucked her tongue against her cheek and smiled. "I think you're confused. That wasn't me, that was you."
Connor glared. "Of all the sneaky, backstabbing--"
Mey batted her eyelashes at him. Her father told her it was impossible to refuse her anything when she did that. When Connor continued glaring and calling her names , she declared him hopeless and flipped her hair out of the way with her gloved hands. They were new and pretty. She paused to admire them. "Stick and stones, Connor."
Connor rolled her eyes with all the scorn that boys had for their best friends who happened to be girls. "Why am I surprised that you would do this? It's you, you'd do anything to get what you want."
She smiled at him, her lips curling up at the corners like a cat. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"It is a bad thing when you betray your best friend in the process."
"Oh, like you wouldn't."
Connor's scowl disappeared into a stern expression that belonged on the face of someone older. "No, I wouldn't."
Mey raised her eyes from the calm surface of her tea, something about the way he said it, about the way he looked sent a chill down her back, raising the soft hairs on her nape. "You won't?"
He tilted his head, his eyes looked straight at hers and she felt a jolt as she maintained the eye contact. She had heard her parents talked about him, how he was going to be a strong wolf one day. He flashed his teeth in a grin. "You're my best friend. Of course, I wouldn't.
Mey stared at him as he tossed a cookie into his mouth and munched; a little voice inside her said, "my, what big teeth you have."
I was browsing youtube for new songs and I found this band. LOVE THEM. And hey, a lot of their songs fits my books from atmosphere to lyrics.
Delta Rae-Bottom of the River
If you get sleep or if you get none
(The cock’s gonna call in the morning, baby)
Check the cupboard for your daddy’s gun
(Red sun rises like an early warning)
The Lord’s gonna come for your first born son
(His hair’s on fire and his heart is burning)
Go to the river where the water runs
(Wash him deep where the tides are turning)
And if you fall....
And if you fall....
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight
(Drunk and driven by a devil’s hunger)
Drive your son like a railroad spike
(Into the water, let it pull him under)
Don’t you lift him, let him drown alive
(The good Lord speaks like a rolling thunder)
Let that fever make the water rise
(And let the river run dry)
This song reminds me of The Wolf series, most especially the Waerloga's before the Great War, how desperate and how dark their minds have become. Plus in the video, that kind of reminds me of the witch trials which also works with the title (bottom of the river) where witches were once drowned, the woman who is dragged out of her house turns the table on her captures which is also what the Waerlogas did.
Well, this song can be interpreted in many creepy ways. My take on it, which fits the Waerlogas is that they were fed up with what their 'Masters' were doing, most especially where they divide families and take their children away--The Lord's gonna come for your first born son--that some would prefer to kill their children rather than have them suffer.
And if you were found out that you deprived the werewolves of a 'commodity' it would be taken as an act of treason, and if you try to run away, you'd be hunted down--the wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight.
...and yes, it is becoming clear to me that The Wolf series are getting darker and darker.
Delta Rae-Surrounded
I was born in the state where my mother was raised
With the children of soldiers, the children of slaves
And it’s too much to take, the mind how it breaks
The lessons the stories the shame and the glories and all
They linger ’round
Foxes and hounds
Our souls are bound
To older ground
Fell in love with a girl who’s found love before
In the hands and the hearts of the people she wore
She’s all that I see, but there’s things in between
The fractures and fissures of all of the pictures we leave
They linger ’round
Foxes and hounds
They’re with me now
Can’t lay them down
And I feel it all around, I’m surrounded
And I feel it all around, I’m surrounded
And I feel it all around, I’m surrounded by ghosts
So we keep them at home, the secrets and bones
The voices we hear so we’re never alone
They tease and they taunt, comfort and haunt
My mother and father and so many I’ll never know
They linger ’round
Foxes and hounds
My hands are bound
And I feel it all around, I’m surrounded
And I feel it all around, I’m surrounded
And I feel it all around, I’m surrounded by ghosts
This song tells the story of Lei, in book 2: Wolf at Heart, feels as she dives into the Waerloga world, reading one journal after another, learning the pain and joy of her people. And she suddenly realizes how the fate of her people are now up to her. Now she feels the heavy responsibility of changing how the wolves treat the future Waerloga.
Delta Rae-Unlike Any Other
Here I am in this empty room
Miles away from you, if you ask me
I’d get in my car and I’d drive all night
I’m coming home to you, if you’ll have me
But no one needs to know
When you hold me, it’s unlike any other
I’ve been this girl so many times
Blurring all the lines like it’s easy
I can’t believe that I got this close again
Now I’m afraid to move, you might really see me
You don’t need to know
When you hold me, it’s unlike any other
No one needs to know
This song is very much Lycaon-Mey or Kai-Lei. It's a toss up. The song is wistful, romantic and sweetly sad. It echoes the feelings of both sides.
Delta Rae-Fire
I, I got my eye on you, I heard what you been saying
These rumors you spread ’round, they burn me down like flames and
We used to be friends, but that ain’t true now
You ain’t got my back, you’ve shown me that so many times
When I need help
Can’t call for help
’Cause no one comes
So I’m calling FIRE
It won’t be pretty, I ain’t no girl cried wolf, I’ll bring this whole damn city
They’ll come from miles around just to see how you cut me down
We used to be friends, but that ain’t true now
You poisoned the well, now I can’t tell who’s on my side
When I need help
Can’t call for help
’Cause no one comes
So I’m calling FIRE
This is when Lei put her foot down and says, "No more nice" and shows her mean side.
I love it when that happens. It's also shows that she couldn't depend on anyone else in the Lycaon's pack, she has only herself for the moment. That she has to earn her place by herself without anyone helping her.