• They were nothing to the untrained eye, just darker patches of shadow. They looked like young goths, normal in this scene. I dropped my eyes away from them, to the ground. I approached like that, trusting and hoping that anyone in my way would move before I hit them. I knelt before their feet, baring the left side of my neck. Show submission yet recognition. Respect and Integruty. Things beat into me so totally, that I might be prepared. The chances of meeting these three is so rare that one out of four cubs even sees them for what they are; Alphas. As I straighten, I realize they're staring at me, looking curious. The two on the outside step foward, each grabbing one of my arms and leading me out of the dancefloor while the last one leads us away.

    They lead me to the bar, and sat us all down at a table, the bartender didn't take drink orders, just brought over a pitcher of beer, and shots of absynthe. I stared at the glass in front of me, and then looked up. The one that had lead us to the bar reached up, pulling off a porcelain mask. His eyes shocked me, shifting from silver to black and back again. His blood was almost pure shifter.

    He looked around, his eyes taking in everything before returning to me, sending butterflies through my stomach. "How did you recognize us, cub?" His voice was almost touchable, like something I wanted to rub my cheek against, velvet maybe...

    I lowered my eyes, only now realizing I've been staring. "I was trained, since I was merely a pup... As soon as I could write and read, my mother and pack trained me, to recognize you on sight, to see past all that you portray to the outside world."

    His brow furrowed, confusion flitting across his features. "But why would she train you for such a thing?"

    I shrugged, my hair falling across my shoulders and face in a copper mass of curls. "I don't know sir, she never told me her reasoning behind training me for this."

    He laughed and the butterflies in my stomach returned, bats maybe, butterfly wings were too soft for this. "Call me Luke, darling, what's your name?"

    "Elizabeth."

    The lead Alpha, Luke, smiled at me. "Elizabeth, charming name, very Victorian. This is Nic." He indicated the Alpha next to him, who's soft gold eyes pegged his wolf color as a mohogany red. "And this, is Jason." He gestured at the man next to me, who glanced up from his beer long enough to show dove grey eyes.

    "Pleasure to meet you." It was so syncronized for one sentence, it amazed me. I looked at the shot sitting in front of me, absynthe, liquid poison if drank in large enough amounts. I grabbed a match, lighting it and holding it to the sugar cube precariously perched on a spoon above the alcohol, shaking out the match, I dropped the cube into the drink and took the shot, looking up, I found them all staring at me in amusement. "Did I do something wrong?"

    Luke shook his head and grinned. "Elizabeth, ma petite, we're not from here, the US that is, and don't usually spend alot of time here, therein we rarely come across an American that can take an absynthe shot properly."

    I laughed, honestly, looking back, I may have been insane, but it wasn't avoidable, my brain was overloaded, I was sitting with the Alpha's of my kind, having a drink. Luke had laughed with me, smiling the entire time, while Jason and Nic looked on curiously.

    I stepped out of the bar, now stuffy with the scents of spilt alcohol and cigarette smoke, into the fresh air of a bustling city. Luke stood at my side, Nic and Jason behind us like bodyguards.

    Luke looked down at me, grinning without a care in the world, porcelain mask dangling from it's strings around his neck. "So, Elizabeth, where to now?"