Raena Köller's Story

Raena leaned over a rosebush carefully tilting a brilliant, deep red rose to gaze at the thorns. She wasnt far from the house- less than half of a kilometer away. She carefully picked the rose, avoiding the thorns. With her prize in hand, Rae grinned triuphly and spun away from the bush. "Ha! Didnt get me this time." She pinned back one side of her hair with the rose, so her auburn curls cascaded over one of her shoulders.

Rae took her time going back home as the sun slowly began to set. She loved her pack, but sometimes needed to take a day off to be alone. She had found a cluster of flowers in the middle of the forest surrounding the house, that she liked to go to. She always came home smelling like roses and lavender- but often pricked one of her finger while trying to pick one of the roses.
Raena paused just before opening the door to the house, tilting her head back and enjoying the warm rays of light from the dying sun. With a small satisfied sigh, she opened the door.

Bumping the kitchen door open with her hip, Rae smiled as she saw practically the whole pack was in the kitchen. "Seems everyone has gravitated to the smell of a lovely dinner. i would offer to help, but for the sake of the pack's health, i think i'll pass." She laughed, leaning against the nearest pack member, that happened to be Carter. Shooting him a flirty smile, her mismatched eyes watched him from behind long dark lashes. "So, what did i miss?"

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.

Raena waved back to Erin, as she listened to Carter. "Same old, same old. So, where have you-" He was cut off as Erin launched into a long speech. To Carter and Mark's relief, Erin stopped short so she could fetch some rosemarie for her mother. "Well since i assume you wheere going to ask where i had run off to, its a secret." She told him, giving him a smile and wink.

"Next time you try and sweat talk a girl i would suggest not doing it in front of your biggest critic when she is arms reach away from a blunt object." Mark told Carter, and Robin quickly turned around and teased him. Rae couldnt help but laugh lightly. "Oh i so wish i had been here to see that."

As Robin continued to tease Carter, he leaned against Rae a bit more and Raena quickly got the message. "Really, in the longrun does i matter if he sweet talks a girl?" She paused to shoot him a teasing smile. "Or at least try. Anyways, males have very little say about their love life. Let him live a little." Rae glanced at Robin, giving her a lighthearted smile.
She blew a strand of auburn hair, making it fall over her violet eye. People often told her tha her eyes where beautiful, but she always found them flat out strange so she would oftenly cover one with her long hair to make it seem as though both eyes where the same color.

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.

"Hey munchkin, how about you live a little yourself and come over here, join the party and peel those potatoes." Raena groaned and stuck her tounge out at her mother when she called her 'munchkin'. Bumping her hip against Carter so she was standing up on her own and shooting him a mock-dramatic look, she glanced at her mother annoyedly. "Alright, but we all no cooking never turns out well when I'm involved. Just a warning." with that, she flicked back her auburn curls and held her head high defiantly as she went to stand by Nancy.

Rae began peeling the potatoes quickly, sending potato peels flying. Suddenly, she yelped sharply and drew back her hand. Wincing, she inpected a somewhat deep cut across her index finger as it bled. "Well, great. Now we've got a bloody index finger, and a bloody potato." With a pout, she wrapped her finger with a paper toweland glanced at Tai. "Now am I exempt from cooking? I told you this wouldn't turn out well."

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.

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.