Under Pressure

Lya

The silence was strained in Oliver’s Land Cruiser. I sat with my arms folded across my chest, refusing to look at him.

'There’s no harm in enjoying the view,' Tala insisted.

I rolled my eyes. Oliver was, unfortunately, exactly my type. The dark and broody mountain man looked like he was chiseled from stone. I wondered if Michelangelo was jealous. I settled for studying the tattoos down his right arm.

Oliver kept glancing over at me. He looked like he was trying to come up with something to say while I was trying to put off vibes that discouraged interaction.

'He’s not the one you’re angry with,' Tala reminded me. She may be right, but I wanted to be angry with him, too.

“Have you been feeling better?” Oliver finally asked as we pulled into the parking lot.

I nodded, still not wanting to talk.

“That’s good,” he nodded. I hopped out of the SUV, and Oliver fell in stride beside me. “You haven’t really come out of your room - have you been bored?”

“I found a book to read.”

“Oh? Which one?” he asked.

“Some werewolf book,” was all I said.

He chuckled a bit, opening the door for me. “They’re all werewolf books.”

“I noticed.”

We walked in silence the rest of the way down to Dr. Whitledge’s office. I was a bit surprised we were going to an office instead of an exam room. Once there, Oliver plopped down in one of the chairs outside, and I walked through the open office door.

Dr. Whitledge looked up. “Ah, hello, Lya.” He got up and closed the door behind me. “You look like you’re feeling much better.”

I smiled up at him. “I am, thanks.”

He nodded. “I expected your shift a couple nights ago to take a bit more of a toll, but it seems to have worked out in your favor. Your wolf was able to heal quite a bit. I’m sure sleeping for a full day helped, too.”

“Oh…” I hadn’t realized I had lost an entire day.

“Exams last night showed you still have a bit of healing to do,” he continued, “but overall, you are mostly there. Just try and take it easy for the next couple weeks.”

“Do I need to come back for any more appointments?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Obviously, if you start to feel worse than you do now, or there is no continued progress, yes. But otherwise, we are confident in your recovery.”

“Okay…”

“And other than that, you are free to go.” He smiled warmly at me. “Although, I will warn you, with the way Oliver was worried, he will still try and coddle you. Doctor’s orders are that you should be reasonably active. Don’t go and train or anything yet, but getting up and moving around, going out and doing things, is just fine.”

I nodded. I wasn’t sure what he meant by training - I wasn’t training for anything right now - but I was sure that was just a werewolf thing.

I walked out of his office, and looked down at Oliver, still waiting beside the door. I nodded my head toward the exit and started walking.

“So good news?” he asked when he caught up to me.

I shrugged. “Just not supposed to train, but I can go back to normal life now.”

Oliver nodded. I could have sworn he looked a little disappointed for a second.

“What?” I asked. “Were you hoping I’d be broken for a while longer?”

He smiled and shook his head. We climbed in his car and headed away from the hospital, back to the house a way I hadn’t seen yet. I looked around. We were headed down a cute little main street with tons of shops and restaurants.

“I thought this town was only a few thousand?” I asked.

“It is, but most people also work in the town and don’t really stray off pack lands for anything, so the town has quite a few amenities given its size,” he said while pulling into a parking space. “You up for an early dinner?”

I shrugged, hopping out and onto the curb. Oliver led the way down the street a bit and turned down an alley. He opened the door to a restaurant called “The Wolfe’s Nest.”

“This place has really good food, and Delia is a sweetheart,” he told me.

I nodded slowly as Oliver ushered me in and past the hostess’ stand. The girl standing behind it bowed her head. “Alpha,” she whispered.
Oliver smiled at her and directed me to a table in the back. A heavier set lady with gray curls came rushing over.

“Oliver Dallaire!” She swatted him across the back of the head. “You didn’t tell me you were coming in!”

I had to stifle a giggle. Oliver was usually greeted with an amount of respect that made me a bit uncomfortable to be around him, so it was nice to see a bit more normalcy.

The woman turned to me. “And with company! You should have made a reservation!” she chastised him.

He smiled up at her. “It’s early enough, and my table was free, so I think we are okay.”

The woman - who I assumed was Delia - glared at him. “It’s a Friday, Ollie. We get busy.”

“Well, I’ll do better next time,” he chuckled. “Although Lya hasn’t been here before, so could we snag some menus?”

“I see,” she nodded. “You can seat yourself, but you can’t get your own menus.” She bustled off in the direction of the hostess stand we had walked by.

“So I take it you’re a regular?” I asked.

“Since the day this place opened,” he confirmed. “I try to be a ‘regular’ everywhere in town, but Delia and I go way back and this is honestly the best restaurant this town has.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How do you know her?”

Oliver looked a little sheepish. “She uh… she would be my high school girlfriend’s aunt, actually.” He leaned in a bit. “Is it bad I stayed with her for as long as I did because of Delia’s cooking?”

I giggled a bit, feeling my walls start to chip away. “One of my ex’s moms still sends me Christmas presents. At least you got to keep Delia in the split.”

“Oh, of course,” he smirked. “I mean, she did run off with some guy without even breaking up with me, so it’s what I was owed.”

“So not every girl wants to be the alpha’s sweetheart?”

He brushed off the comment. “It was meant to be between those two. They have a couple kids and are living happily ever after in Norridge.”

“Is that one of the other towns in the pack?” I asked.

Oliver nodded. “I’m going up there soon. You can come if you’d like, see a bit more of the pack?”

“That depends,” I mused. “Do they have a restaurant as good as you claim this place is?”

Oliver smiled. I had to admit, his smile was endearing, and his dimples were cute. “I guess you’ll need to be the judge. I am biased, you know.”

Delia came back over, dropping some menus off. “I told you, business picks up quickly on Fridays,” she insisted. I looked around. Sure enough, the restaurant was filling up. People were peaking glances over in our direction. If this was what it was always like for Oliver when he went out, I understood why he stuck to the back corner table. “And drinks?” Delia asked.

“Does the brewery have a new one on tap yet?” Oliver asked.

Delia nodded. “Vance is playing around with sours. He wasn’t happy with Trevor’s claim that his sours were weak. And you, sweetie?”

I wrinkled my nose. “If there’s a risk the sours are weak, I’ll go with an IPA.” Oliver gave me a sideways glance. “What?” I demanded.

“Aren’t you not supposed to drink alcohol so soon after surgery?” he reminded me.

“Doc said I could resume my normal life. That includes drinking.”

Delia snickered as she walked away.

I looked around, not able to shake the feeling of eyes on us constantly. “Why is everyone staring?” I whispered.

Oliver looked around, seeing everyone indeed looking at us. He shrugged. “Probably just because the Alpha is out and about.”

“Don’t they get used to you being present in society if you try and be a regular everywhere?” I asked.

He shot me a devilish grin. “Well, maybe they aren’t staring at me, then. Maybe they think you’re the alpha’s sweetheart.”

I rolled my eyes.

'I didn’t like Ted anyway,' Tala piped up. 'We can be the alpha’s sweetheart instead.'

'Well I did,' I reminded the wolf. 'So give me a minute to get over it.'

Tala huffed. I just feel like liking a guy who was going to kill you is a little dumb, but suit yourself. She slunk to the back of my head, leaving me alone, but still very much present.

“So how’s your wolf?” Oliver asked.

My eyes snapped up to him. “You noticed that?”

He blushed a bit, like a kid caught with his hands in the cookie jar. “It’s pretty obvious.”

“Oh.”

“So her name is Tala?” he continued.

I nodded. “Seems to be.”

“That translates to some variation of alpha she-wolf or wolf princess in a few different native american tongues,” he said with a smile. “Seems fitting.”

Delia saved me from having to come up with a response by dropping off our beers and asking for our orders.

“Uhm,” I glanced down at the menu, having not even gotten a chance to look at it. “I’ll go with the uh - rancher’s pie.” It was the first thing I saw.

“Lovely, I’ll get those out,” Delia smiled.

I glanced over at Oliver. “Aren’t you going to order?”

Oliver chuckled. “I lost that privilege a while ago. I get what I get.”

“Alpha!” a voice called from across the restaurant. I looked up to see an absolute giant of a human walking toward us. “I haven’t seen you around the training grounds the past few days. What’s going on?” He pulled a chair over and sat down.

Oliver threw me an apologetic look. “Been busy running a pack, Cody. That’s why I have someone like you to keep an eye on things over there.”

“Yeah, man, but last time I talked to you on Monday you were telling me to get everyone geared up. FIgured you’d be doing the same.” He leaned back and took a sip of his beer. “Who are you?” That question was directed toward me.

“I-uhm…I,” I stuttered.

“This is Lya,” Oliver cut in. “She’ll be with the pack for a while.”

The guy cocked an eyebrow. “Well Lya,” he said. “I’m Cody, the pack gamma. I oversee training, and if you’ll be here, that includes you. Non-warrior pack members need to clock a minimum of five hours a week.”

I could feel Oliver bristling at the comment. It was like I could sense his wolf’s hackles going up. “No can do,” Oliver told him. “She can’t train for a while yet.”

“Why not?” he demanded.

“I’m still healing from a surgery,” I offered.

A look of realization came over his face. “Oh, you’re the girl from east river.”

I nodded, looking down at the beer glass and drawing designs in the moisture. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with people I didn’t know, knowing about me. I wondered how much of the story he had heard. To be honest, I wondered how much of the story I knew.

Cody stood up, studying me for a moment. “You guys have a good night, I’ll catch up with y’all later.”

“So how much does everyone know about me?” I asked Oliver.

“I only told the people that needed to know the bare minimum possible,” Oliver said. “So I just told Cody that a werewolf who had grown up knowing nothing about what she is had a couple run-ins with hunters and I needed him to choose some people to send out to where you’re from and north of Pierre to figure out if they’re random and isolated or if something more is being planned.”

“Oh.”

“And to be honest,” Oliver continued, “I don’t think anyone knows the full story yet, so I’d be remiss to tell anyone much more.”

“What do you mean you don’t have the full story?” I asked.

Oliver shrugged. “For one, we need to figure out why you were raised not knowing anything of your heritage. And I really doubt it was just a chance encounter that a werewolf who was so far removed from the community developed a relationship with a hunter.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure it was my dad,” I said. Oliver motioned for me to continue. “He left almost a year before I shifted for the first time. He came back, saw me shift, and then left again. I always knew I’d hear from him a couple days before he actually called or sent a letter because I’d see wolf tracks around the house.”

Oliver furrowed his eyebrows. “But your mom wasn’t a wolf?”

“Absolutely not,” I scoffed. “She freaked out when she saw it, and I’ve only shifted a handful of times since then. That was ten years ago.”

Oliver breathed in. “I see.” He clenched his jaw. “And the… guy that you were with…”

It felt like a vice grip clenched around my heart. “What about him?” I mumbled.

“Did you tell him anything?” he asked.

“No,” I snapped. “Being a werewolf had ruined so many other things in my life, I wasn’t going to let it ruin things with Ted, too.” I kept my eyes down as I sniffled, fighting back tears. This was dumb; he tried to kill me first. Why was I so upset over him being gone?

“I’m sorry, Lya…” he said slowly.

I took a deep breath and looked up, plastering on a smile. “I just don’t want to talk about him, okay?”

Oliver agreed. I was thankful our food arrived, and I dug in.