Mate for Life 1/?
Title: Mate for Life
Rating: PG13 for now
Prompt: sinadino graciously let me take one of her mircofics to turn into a full blown story. I think it's obvious which one.
A/N: I seem to have written myself into a corner with "Tangled Ribbons" and I promise to find a door sometime soon, my pride won't let me abandon it. However, this called to me and I thought a quick hiatus was in order. I'll try not to make it the epic "Tangled Ribbons" is turning out be, but it has the potential to be. Also, I don't like using movie dialogue verbatim, we've all seen the movie, we know what they say. Please enjoy!
The alpha female was mad at the alpha male and it was creating all kinds of tension in the pack. Andy was trying to ignore it, but she was firmly in the alpha female’s camp of NOT wanting to relocate to the city.
The overwhelming smells and sounds that seemed to be coming from every which way, echoing off the tall metal towers that blocked the view of the sky only reinforced her immediate dislike. of course she understood David’s point of view; his fancy new lawyer job would more than pay for their den in northern Vermont. The bad economy affects werewolves too. But that didn’t stop Andy from missing the huge open sky over the countryside beyond Chicago - even if encroaching stripmalls were starting to ruin that too. She, like their female leader Alex, was a Midwestern born and bitten and did not want to move to a big city full of snobs and smog.
As she tried to talk herself into a more positive frame of mind, her pack surged ahead, bickering about how many blocks they were from Times Square. While she loved them all, she welcomed the space. She needed time to think about what she wanted, not just what’s good for the pack. She thought it might be nice to get back into journalism.
Suddenly she halted midstep, paralyzed by the most delicious smell in the world. Sticking her nose in the air, she tried to get another hint but only got the stench of questionable street vendor food and sweaty bodies. Moving back a couple paces, she caught it again.
Stumbling, dazed, she followed the scent. She was lightheaded with excitement and hormones. The desire to find the owner of this exquisite smell and possess them filled her and she started to run, pushing aside the people who got in her way.
CRASH!
Andy bounced backwards off the glass, hand automatically coming up to clutch her now throbbing nose. She had been so consumed by the chase she didn’t even notice that her “prey” had walked into the building in front of her. Andy glared at the floor to ceiling glass obstruction as New Yorkers moved around her, barely sparing a glance at the crazy person who walked into windows.
Moving backwards, Andy looked around. Elis Clark Publications. Suddenly moving to the city didn’t seem so bad. Andrea Sachs had a purpose now, she could feel it on a deep instinctual level; find, seduce, and possess her mate. Her nature called for nothing less.
X-X-X-X-X
It only took Andy an hour to catch back up with her pack. They weren’t hard to track, their scent was familiar and comforting.
“What put that grin on your face Andy?” They were happy to see her, but unconcerned about her disappearing act.
“I’ve got a job!” Andy couldn’t contain her excitement, than her expression turned sheepish. “It’s only a janitorial thing, but until a better position opens up it’ll work.”
Alex frowned and leaned in, sniffing at Andy. “You’ve gone into heat!” she accused.
Andy blushed, but didn’t deny it.
The other pack members gathered around, practically wiggling in excitement. “You’ve met your future mate?” Doug, one of the younger wolves, asked.
“You go girl! Is he hot?” Lily asked, trying to give her friend a highfive.
Nate stood on the outskirts of the tight circle sulking. It was well known he had a crush on Andy, but it was always the female who started the mating process. Andy had never gone into heat for him.
“Well, give us all the details,” David requested in her deep voice.
“There’s nothing to tell,” Andy admitted, suddenly ashamed she didn’t even get a good look at the guy.
“Aw come on,” Lily pleaded, “We’re your pack, we’re going to find out eventually.”
“I’m serious guys, I didn’t even see them. I just caught whiff of the most delicious scent…” Andy trailed off, her eyes dreamy.
Alex exchanged an amused glace with David, remembering fondly their own days of courtship. They were the only mated pair out of the young pack.
“So I got a job at the building I followed the scent to. Working there I’ll be sure to find them.”
X-X-X-X-X
Andy quickly discovered that maybe a janitorial job was not the way to go. The skyscraper was huge and as the newest employee, she got the shittiest jobs. For two weeks she didn’t catch even a hint of the scent that haunted her every thought.
Finally one evening when she was dragging herself in for another long night shift, wishing to be back at the flat, cuddling with her packmates. A thing she had missed ever since she started the job, because as a werewolf, she gave and took comfort from the closeness of the pack. She had just walked through the front doors when the scent hit her full force. It lingered heavily in the air and Andy knew her mate had been there only moments before. Rather than chasing it out the door where it was sure to be lost in the meltingpot that was New York City, she followed it deeper into the building, inhaling heavily while riding up the elevator. The doors opened to reveal a gleaming white office on a floor Andy hadn’t yet been on.
This. This was where her mate worked. “Runway” the bold letters behind the front desk read.
“What are you doing here?” A harsh British voice broke through her haze.
Andy blinked at the sticky thin redhead waving her arms at her.
“You can’t be here. Runway employs its own cleaning service. Leave. Now.”
“Oh sorry, wrong floor,” Andy adopted an Eastern European accent.
The Brit rolled her eyes and flounced back into the office.
Andy almost followed her, the lure of the scent was so strong. But rather than torment herself further, she forced herself back into the elevator, rode it to the basement, and quit her job.
‘Tomorrow morning,’ she thought to herself as she crawled over Nate’s legs to get back to her spot between Doug and TJ, the boys shifting slowly to let her in, ‘I’ll apply for a job, any job at Runway.’ She sighed happily to be back amongst the pack and a bit sadden to know it wasn’t going to last long. She was going to need her own place if she was going to get a real job. ‘Maybe Nate would be my roommate. Then it won’t be so lonely.’
X-X-X-X-X
Sure enough the next morning, armed with a shiny new resume - courtesy of TJ, their resident computer wiz and hacker - she presented herself at HR, putting on her best puppy dog eyes and new in town airs.
“You are in luck,” Andy could barely see the spinsterly woman from behind a dinosaur of a computer, “An assistant job just opened up at Runway.”
Andy didn’t let the Machiavellian grin show on her face as she took the required paperwork. That bribe to Runway’s cleaning crew paid off nicely.
She couldn’t contain her twitching as the redhead from the night before led her closer to the intoxicating smell. The Brit obviously didn’t recognize her without the headscarf and accent, Andy noted with relief. That would’ve been some awkward explaining. Although, with a secret as big as the one she lived, Andy had gotten pretty good at lying.
Andy tried to keep her disappointment off her face when she realized her future mate was nowhere in the Runway offices. She droned out Emily’s panic attack about someone called Miranda as she plotted what to do next.
Suddenly the scent was there, surrounding Andy, seeping into her pores. Her knees buckled and she collapsed onto a chair. She would’ve put her head between her knees to prevent hyperventilating but for the fact that she was captivated by the whirlwind of silver hair, flashing blue eyes, and miles of creamy skin wrapped up in luscious fur. It was all she could do not to tackle the woman then and there.
Her senses still on fire, she barely noted the skinny assistant tugging her up and herding through the door into the inner office.
All her suave, beautifully planned seductions fled her and she stammered for a while before remembering her purpose and placing her fake resume on the glass desk top.
The woman’s -Miranda’s, the name stirred something inside of her - once over burned over Andy like fire and she near trembled with it. She was so focused on imaging what it would be like to start the mating process right that instant, she could barely form an answer to the scathing remarks. But as she turned to leave, their harshness finally registered. Her mate did not speak like that to her! She replied to the older woman with fire, receiving a cool look in return as she turned her attention elsewhere.
A bit dejected, put out, and more than a bit angry, Andy marched out of there with a renewed resolve. She thought she might just have to skip straight to plan K - simply kidnap the woman during the next full moon. She was already planning strategy when the sticky British girl called her back.
It looked like plan A was still a go.