Private Finished Chance meetings of a near reflection

Malina nodded. It really raised her eyebrows to hear just how much Tasha was going all in on this whole gym business. She supposed Tasha would have plenty of time to build her wealth up again if it failed, but that would doubtless be a painful process.

She nodded a little when Tasha described her employees as her new pack. "I see. And are these friends you're meeting here your people from the gym?"

Once Tasha had confirmed this, Malina would continue: "Would you mind if I stayed and met them?"

The best way Malina could think of to measure Tasha's character would be to see how her 'pack' behaved around its alpha. At the very least it would give her the chance to spot some red flags.

It couldn't have been too hard for Tasha's entourage to connect the dots. Even if these two didn't have a strong sense of smell, Malina looked like she might have been Tasha's little sister, aside from the wolf features. They even had similar hairstyles, by sheer coincidence.

Malina took Melissa's hand and shook. "Yeah! It's nice to meet you both, too."

Neither of them seemed to be werewolves, which was a good sign. It meant they were probably going along with Tasha because they wanted to and not because of whatever culty or pheromonal bullshit her father used to keep people around. It was also a good sign that they were coming out to hang out with her at the bar, now that she thought of it.

But Malina had no doubt that if she stuck around for a little while longer, she would see those little red flags roll their way up. Until then, Malina would keep up her good behavior.

"Tasha and I are distant relatives, actually. Same last name. We were just talking about family trees and what a crazy coincidence it is that we'd run into each other out here."

It was close enough to the truth - and it sounded like the kind of conversation two humans could have had. Old habit. Before she left the pack, she might have called these two 'outsiders.'

For a split second, alarm bells went off in Malina's head. How would Cedric here know that she was a forest ranger? Oh, right - she'd met a lot of people while she was out wearing her uniform over the years. It helped that she hadn't visibly aged all this time. It made sense someone would recognize her.

"Yeah. Forest ranger. I usually patrol out along the edge of the forbidden forest, actually. I've been at it for 15 years, and it hasn't gotten old yet. Plenty of fun stories to tell about it, too."

If they asked for one, she'd probably tell the story of that nature godling who kept destroying their fire lines until Malina managed to track her down. That was her favorite story to tell, after all. The trap they'd set for the girl was Malina's idea, too.

Melissa sure was a curious one. Malina found it endearing, more than anything. She was like a pup, or an enthusiastic recently-turned member of her pack, almost.

"Well, it's not just going for a run. I will be turning into a -" she said something in an ancient Gernamic dialect, then clarified: "A wolf-person, and my wolfen instincts will be coming to the forefront. These days I usually eat a big dinner so I don't feel like hunting, then I give myself a lot of space to just..." she shrugged, "Let it run free. But as far as whether I'll be spending that time with Tasha - I would want to get better acquainted with her first. It is... more vulnerable than many people imagine it to be."

Tasha would surely understand that hangup. The two had literally just met.

Malina stayed for about half an hour longer. They spoke, and sometimes they laughed.

She steered the conversation a few times towards Tasha's relationship with her two employees. What was it like working for her, that sort of thing. She didn't notice any hesitation or red flags. Tasha didn't seem to intimidate them, either.

Eventually, they said their goodbyes.