Free Homecoming by Cooper West

him.
    “So what's this about?”
    He looked up from the menu, a friendly denial obviously half out of his mouth, but then he leaned back and regrouped. “Cal's a bit rash, and you're something we've never met before.Tony thinks we all just got off on the wrong foot.”
    Sula nodded, because nothing in that statement was untrue.
    “Tony has Cal doing some things around our cabin, asked me to come into town for supplies. I decided to try to take chance and get to know you better.” He swept his arm out to take in both of them and the diner.
    “Tony know?” She tapped the table top, more suspicious than ever. She thought she had warned them off good, but they kept coming back . It was unnerving.
    Daniel inclined his head. “Yes, he does. He and Lisbeth feel it would be good for the pack to introduce ourselves slowly to you.”
    “So Tony's roped Lisbeth into pack politics already, huh?” Sula signed, looking out the window.
    “It is the natural order of things, you know.” He sounded like a teacher giving a lecture.
    “Not with us. This is new.” Sula tried to stress the word, to make him understand. He nodded thoughtfully.
    “To be honest, it's new for us to.”
    The waitress came over and after they ordered, Sula pinned Daniel with a stare. “Cal says you all don't even have a territory. You're from far away from here, so I'm thinking you guys have spent a few years traveling around.”
    Daniel nodded agreeably.
    “So why the rush to settle all of a sudden?”
    “You'd have to ask Tony and Lisbeth that. I've never seen him zero in on a female the way he did on her. He's our Alpha and what he wants, we want him to have. Your hostility is surprising to us. It's not how wolves usually are in these situations.”
    “I'm not a wolf.”
    Daniel nodded a little frantically. “Yes, we got that.” He stopped and drank the coffee the waitress put down, unsuccessfully hiding his nervousness. “But we didn't know it at first. We thought, 'two female werewolves, available in an empty territory.' Not an Alpha on earth would turn that down, and Tony took to Lisbeth pretty hard before you even showed up at the club.”
    “I'm not part of the deal.”
    Daniel sighed. “Yes, we figured that out to. Although, I have to tell you, Lisbeth is making you part of the deal. And I'm not being disloyal to say that it's thrown Tony for a loop. You're…you're a bear.”
    Sula rolled her eyes. “I know that.”
    “So presumably you know what that means to us.” He spoke primly again. Sula decided that yes, at some point, he had been a teacher or something close to it.
    “I know better than you do. Lisbeth and I have talked about it; I love her to death, but for an Alpha–female she's damn naïve sometimes.”
    Daniel laughed, and for some reason it was the first time Sula really got just how handsome he was. While Cal had a wiry, tough–as–nails charisma to him, Daniel was just flat out gorgeous in an old–fashioned, 1950s movie star way. He caught her expression and stared back at her without intent, openly and honestly. Sula blinked and turned away.
    Daniel was quiet as their food was served, but did not start eating once the waitress was gone. “Sula.”
    She looked up from her meatloaf.
    “Cal and I weren't trying for you just because of Lisbeth or Tony or pack politics. You're very beautiful, very unique and special. Our invitation was, perhaps, ill–timed and badly handled but it was genuine.”
    Sula had no answer so just kept looking at him.
    He blushed a little. “Last night, er, when you showed yourself, it was amazing. So beautiful, so powerful. How could two seconds like us not be attracted to that kind of energy?”
    “Because I'm a bear and will rip you to shreds?”
    He grimaced. “Yes, that was a little terrifying.”
    Sula felt her eyebrows go up. “Just a little? I'm losing my touch.”
    “No no no, it was very terrifying, I assure you. Terrifying .”
    Sula laughed at how hard he was trying to