Private Finished Chance meetings of a near reflection

It had been a perfectly pleasant day for Malina to go visit the city. It was past time that she did, too. There were a few errands that she had been putting off, and the warmth made the ride into town a lot more bearable.

Malina took her time walking from the parking lot to the store, enjoying the scents of the city. She smelled the perfumes people were wearing, the grass, the trees, and all the subtle scents of the people walking around her. She smelled flowers - and what a delightful little flower display! They reminded her that she needed a few gardening supplies.

An unwelcome scent intruded upon her reverie. Another werewolf. But not just another werewolf - one that shared her blood, and an alpha besides.

She sniffed at the air, and soon noticed another woman doing the same. She didn't recognize her, but she recognized the hair and the jawline, and that nose. This was almost certainly one of her cousins. She stared for a moment, mind flooding with questions. Who was this? Why was she here? Did it have anything to do with her?

Whatever the case, Malina wanted nothing to do with it. Not today. She pointed her gaze straight ahead and walked past, pretending not to notice this mysterious werewolf. Hopefully the woman wouldn't notice her or say anything.

As Malina finished her errands that day, she was ambivalent about the choice she'd made. She hadn't really been thinking when she fled from that stranger. She burned with curiosity - just who was that woman? Was it someone she knew, but simply didn't recognize? Someone from a sister pack? In the latter case, common sense told her that steering clear would be the right move - if she was back in Europe.

This wasn't Europe.

What might she have learned? What could have been? Would it have been worth the trouble? Malina still dreaded seeing the woman again, of course. She would have been a fool not to. But it had been so long since she'd last heard news of home...

These thoughts ran through her mind all through the night, and her next day at work. As she cleared that fire line, as she made her patrol, her thoughts were stuck - what had happened to create a female alpha? Were other packs more accepting of such things, or were they simply changing with the times? Malina's father had said such a thing was impossible.

She needed a drink. Since the weather was still not too bad, she drove into town after work that day. There was a bar she liked - one whose beer and atmosphere reminded her a little of home. The owner knew almost as many languages as Malina, and they bantered in German and French and Serbian when he wasn't busy. It kept them both sharp.

Malina was sitting at the bar when the smell came back to her. She slouched in her seat and visibly deflated. Of all the places on this godsdamned island...

This wasn't going to go away by itself, and she was already getting sick of avoiding it. So she took a few greedy gulps of her beer and turned around, scanning the room.

It didn't take too long to identify the woman. Same hair, same jawline, same big muscles. Malina stared openly, no longer caring who noticed. It was only now, sitting across from her, that Malina really noticed those ears and that nose. Aside from that, the two women looked like they could be sisters.

She took another breath, mentally bracing herself for whatever might come of this. Soon, she was sliding into the seat across from the woman alpha.

"Malina Olcan. We might as well introduce ourselves at this point."

Was it her yesterday? Malina nodded. It had to be.

Tasha said it was nice to meet her, and Malina flashed her a wry smile. "I'll take your word for it, Tasha." She took a long sip of her drink and laughed a little. "So, I've been around for... a pretty long time. But I've always heard that it was impossible for a woman to become an alpha. It smells like some big things have been happening since I left."

This would give Tasha a chance to show off, and Malina was certain that Tasha would take that opportunity. It took a certain type of person to become an Alpha, after all.

Oh, fantastic. Malina had already hurt the alpha's fragile little ego by not knowing who she was. She already knew this would be taken as an insult. She already knew it would come back to bite her - and she was already prepared to shut that down when it happened. Tasha didn't have power over Malina the way her father did. This realization brought a small smile to her lips.

Tasha's story gave Malina pause, however. Eyebrows raised.

"A century and a half is a pretty long time by human standards, at least, but next to people like you I might as well be a baby. Farkas was my... great-great-grandfather, I think. Plus another 'great' or two, maybe." She shrugged. "I've heard a few stories about those days, but most of the history they filled my head with before I left started centuries after all that."

She could definitely see why Tasha was starting to drink faster.