Erin Thorn's Story

Erin’s desk was awash with open textbooks, crumpled up pieces of paper, and half finished essays. None of it was homework, she’d already finished that. For the most part it had been pretty boring; though as always she enjoyed her speech and debate assignment. But seriously, couldn’t teachers think of something to give them that weren’t just memorization and repetition of facts? It was like they just expected everyone to take facts in and then spit them out like a machine! Erin had even gotten in trouble the other day for questioning a teacher!

It was absolutely preposterous, if her biology teacher could give her no viable proof that dragons didn’t exist then there was no reason why she couldn’t speculate on them in her term paper! For peat’s sake they were werewolves! But nooooo, apparently it was wrong to choose a “mythical” creature, and then lecture your teacher on the probability of its’ existence!

Of course, that wasn’t what was on her desk either. Erin’s desk was awash with college brochures, Sat prep books, were-wolf history books, and half written speeches. All of her speeches were half written because Erin simply couldn’t think of what to say. She was enjoying a bout of writers block, and it was exhilarating. She just begun to start yet another speech paper when she heard the sounds of dinner preparations coming from below her.

Erin bolted up immediately, shoving her books and papers into a pile and cleverly concealing them with a blanket. This was just what she needed, a distraction. She could take a break for dinner and grill Tai one more time about male succession laws in the pack.

Erin went down the stares taking them three at a time and galumphing into the kitchen. She was just in time to here Mark talk about food being women’s work and then apologize because it was his wolf who made him say it.

Strolling up to him she put his arm over his shoulder in an overly friendly gesture and said, “Mark, mark, mark. You should let you’re wolf know that this is is the twenty first century. The idea of women being bound to the home is an ancient thing of the past. Righttttt?”She flashed him a smile, ready to launch into a lengthy speech that the majority of the household had heard at least four times over.

It was a source of limitless mirth how a little noise in the kitchen was the like orchestra leader striking up the band in a broadway music, triggering the entrace (in various degrees of gracefulness) of the familiar cast. Nancy was the first in, and some precursory exclamations from upstairs suggested that she had been accelerated on her way by some form of antics. Tai looked up at her and smiled, rolling a couple of onions towards Nancy along the counter.

"Chop chop." she said, reaching for the baking foil and checking to see if the oven was up to temperature yet.

Next in was Mark, once again harangued and gainsayed by his own wolf. It was uncanny, Tai had never met a youngester with such a vocal wolf. She imagined that Mark's first shift must have either been a walk in the part or the most stressful thing imagineable! And then for the poor guy to have Erin's voice added into the mix on the subject...she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Ohh Erin," she said, "you remind me of a female who grew up here the same time as me, called Lux. I think the equality cause is laudible, but you have to remember that as wolves some things are written into our beings and trying to fight them can do more than just injure our pride. But..."

She smirked and glanced over at Mark, stopping short of mentioning some of the things Adrian was often heard to say back in the day, frequently to Lux's ire. Yes it was true, her mate had been considerably less...'progressive' than some of this new generation of wolves. Nevertheless, having only a daughter to succeed him had certainly challenged the paradigm somewhat...

...speaking of which, where was Raena? Tai couldn't remember having seen her all day.

"...if you're really keen to help, why doesn't one of you head out to the patio and pick some rosemary for the lamb?"

Erin was eagerly awaiting Marks response and hoping it was a wolf fueled rant against Erin’s progressiveness. Instead she got, "I agree with you whole heartidly on that. Women are playing bigger and bigger roles in society. We have women in goverment and in positions of power and they tend to run things smoother then men at times to." Erin Stuck her tongue out at Mark, knowing full well he was attempting to dodge the bullet that was her rants.

"Although he dosn't agree on that" he added, "sometimes I think he just trys to be my exact opposite some time."
Eric was about to attempt to reason with Marks wolf when Tai entered the conversation, "Ohh Erin," she said, "you remind me of a female who grew up here the same time as me, called Lux. I think the equality cause is laudible, but you have to remember that as wolves some things are written into our beings and trying to fight them can do more than just injure our pride. But..."

Tai trailed off, no doubt lost in memory about the crazy days of her youth. Erin had no doubt that they were indeed crazy days, she’d read enough history books and gotten enough lectures from teachers to know all about the rouges who’d attacked. She couldn’t quite place the name Lux though…

Erin smiled at Tai, releasing her grip on Marks shoulder to Sit up on the counter, “You should tell me more about this Lux sometime. She sounds like a downright awesome person.”

"You know, Erin, I think women play a very big role in society,” Carter said. Erin paused a moment, trying to decide whether this was an insult to her, or a comment on Marks prior statement. As she decided she watched the antics of Robin and tried hard to conceal her giggles. Erin smiled, the two of them were fun to watch. There constant banter was a never-ending source of amusement.

Erin nodded thoughtfully, as if concentrating very hard, and said in an analytical tone, “You are right carter, women do play a big role in society. The fact that mark,” Erin swung her head towards her pack mate and flashed him an evil grin, “didn’t say that they currently play a big part in society begs the question; does mark hold anti-feminist feelings which cause him to believe that while the role of women has improved, it is still not important? Or, does he simply not feel that the role of women has improved to an important, but he still supports the cause...?”

She paused a second, letting mark suffer through the idea that he was about to get a lengthy talking to. Finally she jumped off the counter and said to the group, “ But, alas, we will never know, for now at least. As I am off to get Tai some Rosemary.” With an deep over exaggerated bow, and a friendly wave to Raena as she entered the kitchen, Erin turned and sauntered out of the room.

Tai paused for a thoughtful moment when Erin solicited to know more about Lux some time. It could have been a way of politely ending that train of conversation, but it sounded genuine enough. How easily Lux's name had fallen from mind and speech over the past eighteen years...despite the remarkable fact of her being the only female in living memory to survive her first shift without her mate. And now, who knew where she was...

"Thanks hon." she said to Erin as she passed through the back door leading from the kitchen to the patio. The kitchen was fairly large but was already starting to feel crowded. Perhaps, she thought with a smirk, it had been designed only to fit the female contingent of the house pack, based on the old ideals Erin and Mark were so vehemently opposing.

Tai's heightened senses caught Raena's scent before her daughter was even in the room. She looked over and laughed under her breath. A rose in the hair this time...it was stuff like that which Tai found so endearing, but knew at the same time confounded Adrian as to how Raena could possibly be his successor as alpha one day.

"Hey munchkin," she said, deliberately using the less-than-well-recieved childhood nickname for her daughter that she found it fun to bring up from time to time, "how about you live a little yourself and come over here, join the party and peel those potatoes."

---

Adrian nodded and chuckled...though there was a slight awkwardness to his response. Spending most time in the woods and helping out the family...yeah, he could see Duncan being like that when he was young. But it was difficult to forget of himself that Adrian had spent most of his youth playing video games and winding up the females in the pack house. But for now it was best to agree with Duncan...hopefully his past wouldn't come up to embarass him too much, though if it did it would probably come from Tai, or possibly one of the others who was with him back in those days.

"Yeah, tell me about it." he said, "Although perhaps we should give the current bunch some credit. They seem to be learning that the best way to avoid work is to be out and abou..."

He caught a movement in the foliage some way up ahead to the left. As if someone approached, and then quickly darted away. He raised his head and peered forwards. What concerned him the most was that whoever it was made their retreat towards the pack house.

"You see that?" he said curtly to Duncan, "Best check it out. You go after them, I'll circle the tree line and catch them if they try to come out the other side..."

He didn't wait for a response, but broke into a sprint further down the path until the meadow opened up to the left, and followed the forest edge, knowing that if the figure in the woods was heading for the pack house they would come out somewhere around here...

Erin stood outside on the patio with her hands on her hips as she considered her options. In truth, she probably ought to have asked what rosemary looked or smelled like… So far she’d eliminated several patches of possible green things.

She knew which ones were mints, because the smell gave it away pretty quickly. She knew which ones were chives, because she used chives to make her self guacamole. Thirdly she knew which one was Basil, because she thought it smelled the best. The problem was there was there were still two patches of green, which could be rosemary…. Erin shrugged and grabbed what was nearest to her.

Clenching the leaves in her fist she flounced back into the kitchen, throwing the door open with a little more force than rosemary.

Bobbing over to Tai she spoke as she did so, “You may all rejoice as I, your savior, have returned with rosemary in hand!”

As an afterthought she added, “So you can all start whistling and pretend you weren’t just talking about how deeply you detest my debates and speeches.”

With a smile she turned to Tai and and opened her hand to reveal what she desperately hoped was Rosemary leaves, “Here you go.” Erin hoped she’d gotten the right ones; if not she would just have to play it off as the distraction of an occupied mind.

Nancy winced at the sudden bustle in the kitchen whilst chopping at the onions but pretended it was merely the onions. Despite the task of chopping a vegetable being a fairly simple one Nancy had her tongue fixed firmly in between her two front teeth as she concentrated on each individual slice. It was made harder by the fact the counters were fairly high.

She did her best to block out the boring, flirtatious drone around her from the rest of the guys but agreed with Quinn’s comment about Harry. She smiled at Raena when she came beside her to chop some potatoes. Typical of Tai to put the midgets to work!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Harry had laughed off Quinn’s comment up stairs after Nancy had fled the room but his second comment that he heard as he wondered down the stairs needed a retort.

“Hahahaaaa…if that were true Quinn wouldn’t I be after you when you’ve got your little pink cooking mittens on” he sneered hinting at the fact the blonde was terribly girly for his baking obsession.

He squirmed his way into the middle of group to grab a drink from the fridge before he turned back and winked at Robin.

Tai could see that her chances of getting much help from the gum-flapping males in the room was diminishing as they got more bolshy with each other. Some things didn't change much! But it was OK. One person chopping, one person peeling, once that was done all that had to happen was for it all to go in the pot with a few sprigs of...

She looked at the meagre offering of greenery Erin presented her with, and managed to turn her look of dismay into a look of serendipity quickly enough for anyone to notice.

"Ah good thinking Erin!" she said, "Coriander goes well with lamb too. I'll put in a bit of cumin and paprika, and we'll give it a bit of Moroccan heat. Well done."

With a smile she took the herbs and began to quickly chop up the leaves, before she was distracted by a yelp of pain and looked up to see her daughter nursing an injury. She raised an eyebrow incredulously. Really, she's cut herself on a potato peeler?

"Oh Rae...OK don't worry go get that washed. That's probably enough potatoes anyway. Maybe go keep an eye out for your father, and see if Duncan is with him. Need to now how many places we're setting at the table OK?"

---

Adrian prowled along the treeline pensively looking for any movement...and then there it was. He could see Duncan steering the figure to the right spot, and put himself right in the person's path. Whoever it was was fast, and made a cunning lunge to get away, but Adrian was well prepared enough and managed to tackle the girl to the ground, gently so as not to hurt her. It didn't take him long to recognise who it was.

"Emily??" he exclaimed, quickly releasing her and standing up. "Are you OK? Why were you running from us?"

---

Calvin slammed the ball hard against the surface of the basketball court and weaved from side to side, feigning against imaginary opponents. The community game was tomorrow night and, typically, none of the team were available for practice. Something had Calvin in a foul mood tonight. He wasn't sure what it was, but the last thing he needed was to be around the rabble at meal-preparation time...Quinn being an honourary female, Erin answering all the questions nobody ever asked...grrr.

The pack dynamic got to him sometimes. Especially when it was so close to the full moon. Just four night away, and everybody was still living like a bunch of...he couldn't even bring himself to say it. He'd gotten in trouble for starting the discussion too many times before.

With a sigh her turned and went into the house, stepping into the hall and pausing just in case he caught the sound of anything worthwhile going on.

Upon receiving Erin’s prize Tai gave her a smile which was really more of a grimace, "Ah good thinking Erin!" she said, "Coriander goes well with lamb too. I'll put in a bit of cumin and paprika, and we'll give it a bit of Moroccan heat. Well done."

Erin snarled and ground her teeth, “I [i]thought[i] it was Rosemary. I’ll go get you some [i]actual[i] rosemary.” Erin stomped out of the kitchen muttering to herself about the confusions of gardening and dinner.

Upon reaching the padio she grabbed the second green plant she had considered taking in earlier. Stopping back into the kitchen and slamming the door to the padio behind her she marched up to Tai.


Erin slammed the plant down on the counter before Tai, “I will not be defeated by a plant so, there. That is rosemary. “

She turned from Tai, confident in her rosemary picking abilities, and with the minor crisis averted returned to her previously calm mood.

Placing her elbows on the counter top and her head in her hands she asked the group cheerily, “So I was thinking, after grub would anyone be game for game night? Maybe monopoly or scrabble?”

Quinn watched everyone do there thing Raena slice her finger, then Mark jumping to her 'Rescue'. He only had a Erin picking Coriander instead of Rosemary, then well he wasn't sure what to what she did next?

Chapter to go to finishing his book as Erin asked about game night, "I'll play with we do Monopoly..." he then flipped the page as he looked up at Erin, "But. Only if I get the race car." he said smiling only time he'd play is if he got the race car or the battleship. Anything else that was a no no.

He then glanced over at Tai seeing he should see if he could maybe help, "Is there anything I can do or are we covered?" He asked his eyes moving back and forth from his book to her as he tried to finish it.