From the Woods | | Tuesday and Shauna
Beacon Hills was something of a pleasant surprise. It had drawn her in by the rumors of supernatural happenings....more than one would usually expect from a small California town. And since it was right between her and Oregon, it was the perfect little detour. Not to mention that her pack needed to rest every so often. Changing towns from day to day or even week to week could be exhausting, and the last thing she wanted was to lose her Betas. And so it happened that the five of them had come into Beacon Hills with the stars one night, and they hadn't yet left.
It was the longest that Tuesday had stayed in one place for at least a month. The usual course of action was simple: go in, make your mark, head on out. But it was the middle step that was giving Tuesday trouble, here. With the combination of Alpha pack, normal pack, a killer on the loose, and other things, Tuesday wasn't much of anything special, here. Just another Alpha.
At least she was a female. At least that made her a bit different, or she might have lost her mind.
Tuesday tilted her head to the side and looked into the fire, watching with an inscrutable expression as Beacon Hills teenagers roasted marshmallows, laughed, and sneaked into shadows to sip from flasks or steal a kiss. It was all so normal. As if they weren't living in a town full to bursting with the dangerous and the strange. Vaguely, Tuesday wondered if Emerson was out with Felicity. There was another mixed bag of feelings: gladness that Emerson was finally finding his way, and a niggling suspicion that this relationship - whatever it turned out to be - was going to make leaving difficult for him. She could only hope he didn't get too attached.
Boredom was sneaking into her, making the fire altogether too hot in combination with her werewolf-high temperature. She could feel the restlessness tickling through her nerves, making her long for motion. It was always worse just now, as the gibbous moon waxed toward full. The anticipation of full moon, for Tuesday, had always been worse than controlling herself when it finally rolled around. Giving in to the restlessness, she moved away from the people, winding through the small crowd and into the quiet fringes of the woods. Finally on her own again, boots crunching through dry leaves, Tuesday slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket and breathed deeply the cool air of the November night. Even as a little human girl, she had liked autumn. Liked the briskness, the tickle of chill air, the smell of the leaves. Now, every sensation was heightened. Now, it wasn't just the leaves that she could smell.
There was someone else out here. And the scent was familiar. The little Omega who had tried so hard to make herself big and brave in facing the Alpha newcomer. Tuesday had to admit that she admired the girl's bravery, had poked and prodded at her to see if it was real or feigned. And what she found had interested her. Her Betas had all been made from outsiders. Outsiders she had adopted and cared for, as if to make up for the poor excuses for friends and family they'd all known. Because Tuesday knew what it felt like to face the world on your own, as human and as lycan. But this girl was an Omega, the ultimate outsider. And yet her connections led her right into the pack of the Alpha which Tuesday had set her eye on for alliance. Strange, how things worked out. And still, her situation piqued Tuesday's curiosity. As much as she didn't particularly care for useless claw-and-tooth scrapes with Omegas, her curiosity (as always) won out.
"I know you're there," Tuesday called out, turning with a smirk in the direction of the scent. "You might as well come out."