Tennyson 'Ten' West (frekialpha) wrote in frekis, @ 2013-03-21 15:54:00 |
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Reagan wasn't sure if she felt sick due to nerves or the fact that she'd just stuffed her face with so much bacon it was sure to amount to an entire pig. Both Cole and Lucy had assured her that Tennyson was nice, that he wasn't going to eat her, or be mean; and she trusted them. She didn't actually believe that he'd do any of those things, but it didn't stop her from feeling a bit scared. Coming here, Reagan had so many hopes, but it seems they were dashed far more quickly than they'd formed. Now it felt almost as if returning was some kind of mistake. She just wanted everything to be okay again. She entered the den and moved close to Ten, taking a few feet away. "Umm, I don't really have anything to tell you." She insisted. "Also, I'm Reagan and I came here with Storm and Keith. Storm bit me. I lived in Shadow Falls for a little while, Cole and Storm found me there. Cole and Lucy were the best, even if they don't think so. And Storm is too, he's just been really crabby lately. That's all." She sighed, crossing her legs and dropping her hands into her lap. For the first time she entered the room, Reagan made eye contact with the Alpha. She hoped by putting that little bit of information out there, he wouldn't ask anything that really mattered, but she knew better. Tennyson had made sure to be in the den a bit early for his meeting with Reagan, so that he would be sure to be there when she arrived. He was seated on the couch, arms stretched along the back, comfortable. He could sense her coming before he saw her, the sound of her footsteps, the scent of her carrying in front of her. And then she was there, passing through the doorway. “Hello, Reagan,” he greeted her, the corners of his mouth tipping up in a small smile. “You don’t need to have much to tell me.” He wasn’t planning to interrogate her, he just wanted to meet her properly, start getting to know her, get a feel for her. As he would for any new member of his pack. Some of what she told him he had already heard from Cole or Keith. “I am sorry that you were bitten again your will. You need to understand that we don’t allow that here.” He couldn’t punish Storm for that because he hadn’t been around when it happened, but it wasn’t something they allowed in Freki, turning humans against their will. “Cole and Lucy are very capable. All members of this pack are, I think you’ll find, with time. We’re a family.” "Everyone felt like a family before," She nodded. "I don't know what else to say. Can you just tell me about you?" Reagan would feel better if she knew something about the man sitting in front of her other than his name. Plus Tennyson sounded like a name from Ancient English, or maybe he was named after the poet. She didn't want to address the fact that Storm had bitten her without her consent, because chances were it would unless a bevy of feelings about being here at all. Reagan still had not accepted her new life and found it difficult to imagine that anyone willingly accepted the transformation. "I can ask you questions. I'm great at questions." She chewed her lower lip, thinking for a moment before spouting off her list. Of course she'd been pondering these since they first arrived, but she didn't want to see too impulsive. "How old are you? Where are you from? Does your shoulder still hurt? How long have you been a wolf?" She stopped, not wanting to risk the chance of his forgetting to answer one of her questions. "Or you can ask me one and I'll ask you one if you think that's more fair." “I can tell you about me,” Tennyson agreed, because he didn’t keep himself cordoned off from his pack. There were a few secrets he kept from everyone in his pack, but they were personal details about his life, his family, and it was a choice he had made long ago. Perhaps some of those things he would share with some of his pack mates… someday. The questions came in a flurry, but Ten didn’t seem bothered. He just arched one dark blond eyebrow and decided to start with the first one. None of the questions were too personal, and so he had no problem asking him. “I’m nearly thirty-two,” he began, and realized as he said it that his birthday was less than two weeks away. “I’m from New York. State, not the city. My shoulder doesn’t hurt any longer, and I’ve been a werewolf since I was fourteen.” He paused, and then nodded slightly, as that had covered all over her questions. “Well if we do it that way, I think you now owe me four answers,” he pointed out with another flickering little smile. "You're thirty-two?" She coughed, expecting him, from looks alone, to be much younger. Perhaps it made sense though, you had to be older to be in charge, right? She was almost too focused on the first answer to hear the rest, but she followed along as best she could. "I was fourteen when I was bitten too." She didn't like to think about it though. "Okay, if you want, you can ask me four questions. I will do my best not to lie and I will try to answer them all. Can I have one pass just in case I don't want to answer though?" She was worried about what the questions might be and what he might think of her if she answered them all with complete honesty. Lately, the truth had been far more damaging than a lie. “Close to it,” Tennyson confirmed with a nod of his head. It likely sounded old to the ears of a teenager – or older at least. But she was right in thinking that with age came the experience necessary to lead. Although Ten had been leading Freki since he was twenty-four, since he had found the state it was in and challenged the former Alpha and won. “You can have a pass,” he allowed, although he didn’t think she would need it. He didn’t intend to pry with terrible personal questions. In time he would come to know many things about her, as he did with all of his wolves, but the goal here wasn’t to overwhelm. “Well, for starters, how old are you?” She was a teenager, but he didn’t know her exact age, and thought it was rather important. “And where are you from?” He had borrowed two of her questions, on purpose. Tennyson did not barrel through his questions like she did. He thought them over, and picked ones that would be easy, for the time being. “What else do you bake, aside from brownies?” "You're not thirty-two yet?" She grinned, knowing what 'close to it' meant. "When is your birthday? We should have a party!" Reagan was already excited at the idea. It meant baking and everyone coming together for a happy occasion. "I am seventeen, I think I'm the youngest person here. I hate it." She hated it for many other reasons than that, but nothing she really wanted to share right now. "And I'm from Colorado." The pause before the last question had made her nervous, wondering what kind of serious question he might have. "Oh!" She sighed, "I bake everything. My favorites are sweet things like cookies and cupcakes and cake and lemon squares and pies. But I can also bake pizza and lasagna and meatloaf. I can cook other ways than baking too." Cooking had always come easy to her, but it was more than that. Food was a way to meet new people or bring people together, to cheer them up, to celebrate or to mourn. Food was something everyone had in common. "You still have one more question." “The thirty-first,” Tennyson replied. Which, this year, happened to be Easter Sunday, so he imagined they would have some sort of pack supper or something. Cook up a few turkeys, or hams, or whatever it was one was supposed to eat on Easter. Really, the pack just enjoyed the chance to eat a lot of food. “I never say no to cake, though,” he added, because who didn’t like cake? “Storm isn’t so much older than you,” he noted. He wasn’t entirely sure how old Storm was either, except that he was also a teenager. “You’ll find that being the youngest isn’t such a barrier towards forming connections and friendships, though.” The pack was good like that, all of them coming together. He nodded when she said she was from Colorado, keeping that in mind. A nice state. “That’s a lot of favourites,” he said with a chuckle. “Not that I blame you. It’s hard to choose.” When it came to sweets, and to food in general. “You’re right, I do.” A pause, and he tipped his head in thought before he asked, “What else do you like to do, aside from bake?” "We have to have a party! I will make a cake, just let me know which kind is your favorite!" Maybe she could talk to Cole about some sort of surprise for Ten, he'd probably be able to come up with an idea. She wanted to ignore the statement about Storm altogether. While it was true he wasn't much older, he seemed to like to pretend he was. "It's easy for you to say being the youngest isn't crappy. You're the boss." Reagan joked, "Or the Alpha, that's like a boss right?" She still wasn't clear on terminology or what it was supposed to mean for her. "I like almost all food, I can't pick just one." She grinned at him. "Aside from baking, I mostly like to read. I read pretty much everything, all of the time. So, if you have any suggestions then I'll gladly take them. I love learning. Before I left, Cole was helping me try to go to college." She sighed, maybe once she got up enough courage; she'd talk to Cole about it again. "First I have to finish high school or take my GED I guess." It was her turn again, right? "Do you have another job, like how Cole is an architect and Lucy is a dancer?" “Chocolate,” Ten replied easily. “And yes, Alpha is like the boss.” Except it was much more than that. He was the leader, his word was law, but he was also the father figure, or older brother figure. Whatever his wolves needed him to be, he was. “But I was young once as well.” Maybe not the youngest member of a pack. One of the younger members, yes, briefly. His time in that pack had not been long. “I like to read as well,” he said. It surprised some people to hear it. Ten was an outdoorsy type, a works-with-his-hands type, but books were something he was quite fond of. He always had one next to his bed, tried to read a bit each day if he could. “And I think that is a very good idea. High school is important. Learning is important.” He would be nothing but encouraging when it came to that sort of thing, as he knew Cole would be as well. “I do have another job. I do construction work and carpentry. They’re jobs that are easy to find work with pretty much anywhere.” Which was useful, especially when he had been a lone wolf always moving from one place to another. “And I like building things.” There was something very satisfying about seeing something – from a piece of furniture to a house or building – come together with your own two hands. "Chocolate it is!" Reagan practically squeaked with excitement. She was already planning what the cake would look like. Of course it would need to be pretty big so that everyone could get a piece. Maybe she'd have to make more than one just in case someone got left out. Or maybe one big cake and a lot of cupcakes. So many possibilities! "So everyone always has to listen to you and do exactly what you say?" She was almost hopeful in her questioning. She was starting to trust him a bit more already, and maybe if he was the boss and everyone had to listen to him, he would be able to talk Storm into staying. "We should make a library. We can put all of our books in the den or something. I will do that anyway, just in case anyone else wants to read them." She wondered why type of books Ten read and hoped they could have more conversations about that. "Do you think we're going to be staying here? If we do maybe I can find a school or figure out how to complete my GED and go to college." As soon as he mentioned building, Reagan's mind went into overdrive. "You and Cole would work well together!" She wondered if they'd ever considered it. "But I think it's your turn to ask me a question now." If she didn't keep it even, Reagan was likely to read off her incredibly long list of questions she had for him. “To put it simply, yes,” Tennyson replied with a nod. “The pack trusts me to make decisions that are for the best of the group. And not to force them into things they don’t want to do.” When Tennyson laid down the law it was generally for the good of the pack, for its safety and security. Yes, he sometimes had to discipline pack members, but it wasn’t something he enjoyed – just something he did when necessary to keep things running, to keep everyone content and happy. “We can have a library,” he told her. “I’m sure we can get some large shelves.” The floor to ceiling kind that took up a wall or two. He made a mental note to mention that to Cole, who was currently drawing up house plans. “I think we will stay here. In the area, at least. We need to scout out the area first, to make sure there are no dangers, but as long as it’s clear, I think this is a good place for us. It’s unclaimed territory, and a lot of wide open space. A lot of woods.” Very good things for a werewolf pack. “Once we decide, we can definitely get you what you need for your GED. What was the last grade you did?” he asked. He chuckled then, grinning. “We do work together sometimes. Duncan as well – he’s also a carpenter. We’ve got a project in the works right now, actually. Beginning stages.” Very very beginning, but they were efficient workers. Another question. There were many Ten could ask, but he wanted to steer clear of anything that might be a touchy subject for now. So he went back to a subject that had clearly made her happy. “What’s your favourite book?” |