Snippet #2103744

4pm so often encapsulated a sense of the 'calm before the store' in the pack house. It was generally the quietest time of day. Some of the kids were out (either because they'd had afternoon classes at the school, or because they worked or were just 'out and about'), some of them were in but were generally mooching in their rooms or other discreet corners...perhaps trying to avoid being found to help out with the preparation of dinner.

Tai, for her part, took full advantage of it. All the food materials for dinner were prepared and laid out in the kitchen, and tonight it was a nice easy roast. Just season it and stick it in the oven for an hour or so. But Heaven forbid she should deny the youngsters the opportunity to get their hands stuck into the task...

So until some of them materialised, she was sat on the arm of one of the chairs in the living room - just adjacent to the kitchen, gently strumming her guitar and humming to herself with a wry, contented grin. She could still remember being a teenager in this house herself, always feeling a little bit of an oddball but always happy. Cassidy - alpha female back then - had probably run a tighter ship than Tai did now that she was the alpha female, but that no longer bothered her. This was Adrian's time, and with him she was going to do things her own way. She'd grown comfortable with that over the years.

She could see through the open window that it was still bright outside...the first hints of autumn just about starting to manifest themselves in the woodland which the house overlooked. It was a time when many members of the pack started to realise how they'd wasted the summer lazing around, and sprang into action pursuing outdoor activities before the temperatures started to plummet. Right now though, it was obviously going to be a pleasantly warm evening.

Her mind was wandering all over the shop as she played softly, before she was jolted back into reality by the beeping of her phone. She quickly picked it up and looked at it. Just as expected; a message from Adrian. He and Duncan had taken the 'scenic route' back from their patrol, and were going to be slightly late back. She smirked and shook her head. How things had changed over the years. Adrian was a far less strict an alpha than his father had been, but still managed to command the respect of everyone.

Firing off a quick message back, telling a small lie that dinner was already in the oven cooking so he'd better not be too late, she propped her guitar up behind the sofa and wandered through to the kitchen. She didn't start cooking yet per se, she just started shuffling around a few pots and pans, creating some distinct "dinner preparation" type noises, just to see if it would coax a few people out to help...or whether it would cause them to retreat further into hiding from their duties!

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Adrian tossed his PDA from one hand to the other, waiting for Tai's reply. When it came, he read it, nodded, and tucked the device safely away in his pack. Patrol...what a wonderful cover for an hour or two of outdoor buffoonery with a good friend. All in the name of fulfilling his role as alpha of the Khöller pack! If it weren't for the fact that the post-effects would be obvious, he'd have taken along a few beers for Duncan and him to enjoy on the trek.

Of course, the route they took had to resemble something like a realistic perimeter of the territory, and of course Adrian knew the important of knowing what was going down on his own turf. He'd seen one or two familiar faces along the way - mainly where the patrol route brought them close to the town - and some of them had been humans (blissfully ignorant of the presence of a pack of wolves living among them) but most of them had been pack members living in the town.

Still, just as expected, nothing untoward had been encountered. It had just been a thoroughly pleasant time out with a good friend. The only pressing matter now was getting back in time to retain the moral high ground when some of the young people started skulking in late for dinner. Being late was foolishness anyway...anyone who's sat down to eat with a pack a wolves (be they in human form or otherwise) knew that tardiness eventually resulted in starvation! It had been that way when Adrian was young, and it hadn't changed since then.

"Yo Duncan!" he called out, realising he'd lost sight of his friend who must have pressed on ahead. "Maybe we should short cut down onto the road? Tai says grub's already bubbling...and I'm not sure if she's bluffing. You eating with us tonight? Always welcome."

Duncan, being a fully fledged adult pack member, did not live in the pack house...officially. But the spare room on the ground floor was frequently used by him as a crash pad, since he did not yet have a mate, and therefore was not required to be 'home' in any particular hurry!