Authors: Maddy Barone
You"re our Lupa.”
“You girls will have to figure that out yourself. I won"t be around forever, you know.”
No, Glory agreed to herself. Jill already looked so frail she could die any minute. Her heart jolted. Jill was all she had here. Jill was all she had, period. She noticed the women looking at her. “What?”
“You are an alpha, Glory. You will be the next Lupa.” Emma was serene about it, almost congratulatory.
Yeah, and she could fly, too. “No, thanks.” Glory looked down at the women still sitting on the ground. “You seem pretty calm about me being here. I mean, how often do you meet people who were living in 2014 just a few days ago? Especially ones you want to put in charge?”
The women exchanged glances. Stands Tall Woman shrugged. “Never. But what can we
do about it? You"re here. You"re an alpha that Shadow"s wolf chose for his mate. We"re just glad you"re here.”
Glory stared at them. What were they, zombies? Shouldn"t they be mad at her for butting in their territory? She opened her mouth to ask, but the dogs were standing now, staring in one direction. The boys leapt up and abandoned the women to go see what had the dogs all riled up. After a minute the littlest of the boys came trotting back. “Grandmother! Women are coming!”
The women all jumped up, looking awfully excited. Glory suddenly remembered that she hadn"t combed her hair yet. She looked for a place to put her empty bowl, and her eyes found Jill still sitting in her chair.
“What women are coming?” she asked, juggling her bowl as her purse fell off her
shoulder to jerk her elbow down.
Jill"s scanty eyebrows lifted. “I don"t know. These days women don"t just wander around without an armed male escort for protection. Maybe they are survivors from the plane?”
Glory blinked at the idea that a woman had to be led around by a man as if she were a puppy on a leash. That explained Shadow"s question about she and Jane being alone yesterday. And that was probably why his “wolf” had “chosen” her for his mate. She was probably the only single woman he knew. “The plane? Already? Cool.” A thought occurred to her. “Uh-oh. Do they know yet about the war and the time change?”
Jill shrugged narrow bony shoulders. “We"ll find out. Pick up the bowls and put them by the fire for now.”
Glory did, then stood beside Jill, looking at the Clan women hurrying to the edge of camp. Emma Two Birds and Stands Tall Woman were tall and stately. They didn"t actually seem to hurry. But Tara was tiny, so just to keep up she had to trot. Sandra was in between them in height, and she lagged behind a little bit.
“So what"s up with Sandra?” Glory asked. “She doesn"t like me, does she?”
Jill shrugged thin bony shoulders. “She"s married to Shadow"s black-sheep brother. That boy courted her for a year, begging her to marry him. But once she did, he lost interest.”
“Great.” Glory snorted her disgust. “I thought wolves mated for life.”
“Wolves do. Our men who have wolves inside them are called wolf-born. Jimmy"s not wolf-born, just plain old fickle human.”
“What"s that got to do with her not liking me?”
“She"s jealous,” Jill said simply. “She grew up the acknowledged beauty of her
hometown. When she married Jimmy she lost status. Not being number one any longer must have hurt her self-image. Like any wolf pack, we have a pecking order. I"m the head woman here, being Lupa and the oldest. Emma is second, with Stands Tall and Tara third. Sandra is last. You will probably be second until I"m gone, then you"ll be the head woman.”
Glory gaped. “What am I supposed to do? Fight for dominance? Duke it out with
Emma?”
“Silly. Didn"t you hear Emma? She accepted you as the next Lupa. We haven"t had a dominance challenge in two decades, not since Muddy Wolf was challenged.”
Whatever. It wasn"t like she was planning on sticking around and becoming den mother to a bunch of werewolf groupies. Glory thought about Sandra"s bitterness. Shadow"s brother had charmed her into living in a tent on the prairie, then left her? “So, why doesn"t Sandra just dump her husband"s ass and go back home?”
Jill looked sad. “She loves him. He comes back often enough to suck her back in and get her pregnant. You know, the world has changed since 2014, but human nature hasn"t.”
Shouts signaled the approach of the strangers. They were survivors from the plane crash, the ones who hadn"t been badly injured or who had stayed behind with injured loved ones.
There were about twenty women, only about half of the survivors. Some were walking and some were up on horses that the Clan men led. Glory knew these women shouldn"t be strangers to her. They had spent some of the most horrific hours of their lives together. But she recognized only some of the faces. The expressions of numb exhaustion were more familiar. That was the exact expression she had felt on her own face last night. Jill stood watching while the men helped the women down from the horses and brought them over to her.
One of the men, almost as handsome as Shadow, spoke to Jill. “Grandmother, these are some of the women from the airplane. They are not hurt as badly as some others, so we brought them first. The others will have to wait until travois can be made to bring them.”
“Ladies,” said Jill gently. “You"ve been through a terrible ordeal. I am Jill Lampett, and this is the camp of the Wolf Clan. We will help you as much as we can. Stands Tall, add water to the stew. Tara, collect bowls so the ladies can eat. Sandra, have your boys move into your lodge so we can have places for the ladies to stay. Boys, make room for these ladies and collect as many blankets and robes as can be spared. Ladies, follow Emma to the cook fire.
She will get you something to eat.”
The bedraggled women from 2014 straggled past Glory. One managed to have fairly
clean clothes, and her red hair was artistically disheveled, and unlike the others" slow staggering, she walked with swinging hips and head held high. Their eyes met and Glory"s mouth fell open. She watched the redhead pass her and turned to Jill.
“Did you see her?” she demanded. “Was that—?”
Jill scratched her ear. “It"s been fifty years for me, Glory. Who do you think she is?”
“Heather Mikkelson!”
“The bitch who treated you like crap in junior high and high school? Hmm.” Jill nodded.
“Let"s go join the ladies, and I"ll take a look at her.”
When they got to the area where the stew pot was, the redhead was sitting in Jill"s chair while the other women were on the ground. Stands Tall and Tara were scooping the thinned-down stew into bowls and passing them around. Jill paused to stare at the redhead. She gripped Glory"s arm.
“You"re right. That"s Heather Mikkelson, for sure. She didn"t used to be a redhead, but she still thinks she"s a princess, doesn"t she? Why don"t you go and help with the stew. I"ll have a few words with Ms. Mikkelson.”
Glory didn"t want to miss it, so she hurried to take a bowl of stew from Tara and bring it towards Heather. She was in time to hear Jill tell the woman to please vacate her chair.
Heather did, apologizing in a sulky voice that turned quickly sweet when one of the handsome young Clan men walked up.
“Grandmother, there are four lodges empty for the plane women,” he said. “We might need more, though. There are still another twelve or fifteen to come when their wounds allow it.”
Heather spoke up in a husky purr. “Thank you so much for doing this for us.” She turned from Jill to lay her hand on the bulging bicep of the handsome man. “You"ve saved our lives.”
The Lakota man"s black eyes fell on her cleavage, revealed by the low neck of her tight sweater. He flushed and backed hurriedly away. Heather"s smile curved her plump lips as she watched him go.
Jill observed tartly, “Our young men aren"t accustomed to women who dress like you do.” She ran a critical eye over Heather"s tight jeans and sweater, and then her heavily made-up face. “Or act like you do. Heather, isn"t it?”
The redhead stiffened. Her eyes fell on Glory and narrowed. “Well, Glori-
an
a, you recognized me? I"m not Heather anymore. I"m Desiree Diamond now.”
Glory shoved the stew at her. She hated the way Heather pronounced her name in a
mocking sneer. “Sounds like a porn star. Here. Have something to eat.”
“It"s good money, sweetie.” Heather smirked. “More money than a blimp like you would ever make. Even if you ever bothered to comb your hair.”
Glory considered throwing the stew in her face. “Doesn"t matter here. They don"t have movies anymore. I guess you"ll have to find something else to do to make money. Hmm …
Let me see. What profession are you qualified for? Oh, I know! The oldest one.”
Heather"s face wasn"t really pretty, especially with that expression on it. “I"m not staying here. Is this the best you could do in the help department? A historical reenactment group pretending to be Indians? You"re useless. Honestly. I"m heading back to California as soon as I can.”
Glory laughed. “Good luck with that, considering it fell into the Pacific fifty years ago.
Feel free to go, though. Please.”
Heather"s surgically plumped lips flattened unattractively. “And you"re crazy, too.”
Glory got right up in her face, using her taller frame and greater bulk to push Heather back. “You got a problem with that, bitch?” Glory almost tripped over one of the big dogs who had started growling and trying to shove between them.
Jill pushed the dog back and stepped between them. “That"s enough, Running Wolf,” she told the dog. “Glory, calm down. Heather, take the stew and go sit down and eat. This isn"t junior high.”
Glory watched Heather saunter away. Her figure was damn near perfect, and her face hardly showed that she was closing in on thirty. Probably made that way by drugs and surgery. Glory felt a sick hatred for her. Heather and her brother had made her school years a living hell, always making fun of her for being so tall, and then for being fat. They"d lied about her to get her in trouble with teachers. Heather had laughed louder than anyone when Rob had humiliated her, and she"d seduced the only real boyfriend Glory had ever had in high school. Aaron had been a tall, skinny, and pimply computer geek whom Glory had met in a gaming club. Since he wasn"t good-looking like Rob had been, she"d believed him when he said he liked her. Heather had taken him away not because she liked him, but because she wanted to hurt Glory. The only person Heather cared about was Heather. Even though she hadn"t been injured in the crash, she had declined to go for help. She hadn"t changed a bit.
Bitch. Of all the people for Glory to have with her in this new world, why Heather?
The sun was setting when Shadow came back to camp with a deer over his shoulders.
His hunt had been successful. He"d spent hours running in wolf form. He loved the feel of freedom and power that came from his wolf. But the run hadn"t given him the usual feeling of joy. Instead he wondered morosely if his wolf would give Glory another reason to reject him?
There was a tangle of strange scents coming from camp. For a moment his wolf panicked, unable to find Glory"s scent amid all the strange ones. But then he had it, unidentifiable chemical scent and warm sweet woman. Calmer, although not less tense, he greeted Black Horse, one of his younger cousins, and let him take charge of his horse and the meat. He listened to his cousin"s excited explanation of the dozen women from the Times Before who were in the camp. But these strange women were not Shadow"s focus right now. He needed to find his mate.
He followed Glory"s scent to the cooking area outside his Aunt Emma"s lodge. Glory was standing a little apart from the other strange women, speaking to a painfully thin woman whose bosom was so large it threatened to tip her over. He hardly noticed how conversations died as he cut through the strangers to get to Glory. His mate was too intent on the other woman to notice him, but the strange woman certainly did. Her eyes widened, and her fat lips spread in a smile as he approached.
Glory was saying, “—you were so broken up about your boyfriend dying that you couldn"t bear to leave him to go find help for the others, and—”
“Glory.”
His dark rumble cut through her voice, and she wheeled on him, pale blue eyes wide and then narrowed. “Oh, you"re back.” Her voice was ungracious.
“I"m back,” he confirmed, eyes caressing her soft cheek and the shell of her ear revealed when she swept her hair behind it. “Darling, we"ll talk now.”
She held her hand out, palm facing him. “No, thanks. Uh-uh. Just stay away from me.”
The other woman raised half-moon eyebrows. “Darling?” She had a piercing laugh like a child"s. “That"s so funny, Glori-
an
a. Does he mean you?”
Glory transferred her narrow-eyed glare from him to the woman, then she snorted and looked back at him. “You want a woman to jump into bed with? Well, here you go.” She waved her hand at the other woman. “Heather-Desiree, meet Wolf"s Shadow. Wolf"s Shadow, meet Heather-Desiree.”
She whirled and stomped away, leaving him to stare after her with shock. The other woman took advantage of his state and plastered her bony body up against him. He stared in horror at her hand rubbing over his heart before thrusting her away. “Excuse me, I have to talk to my mate.”
Glory tried to outwalk him, but he caught her just outside the Grandmother"s lodge. “Glory, wait! I want to talk to you.”
“Why don"t you go back and chat up Bimbo Barbie? She can give you what you want.”
He wouldn"t let her shake off his hand. “Glory, no other woman can give me what I want.
Now, are you going to talk to me?”
She whirled on him with furious eyes. “Why should I?” she shouted. “You didn"t talk to me!
Did you tell me anything important yesterday? Like, hello? Werewolf? Mate? No, you just fed me half-truths and outright lies, thank-you-very-much! I don"t care what anyone says, you"re
not
my husband!”
Shadow clenched his fists and took a breath to calm himself. “No, not your husband. Your
mate
.” He could feel a snarl on his lips. The Grandmother had advised him to not give Glory orders, so he tried to sound humble. “Glory. Please. I don"t want to argue. It hurts me when you yell at me. Can"t we just talk?”