The Wolf Series Novella: 1

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." 

Copyright © 2012 by D.F. Jules