Retsu opened his eyes and was blinded by the sun coming in through the window. He squinted, lifting his hand to shield his eyes.
His head hurt even though it had healed earlier as if he had a hangover, or how he imagined it would be. He had never been drunk before anyways.
"Oh my head." He groaned. Where am I? It felt like his head was filled with cotton. When he sat up, the thin mattress groaned beneath him, the springs digging into his back. The place around him was a mess. It smelled like cigarettes and cats. In fact, a warm lump was resting on his foot. He reached down and caressed the animal's chin, which caused it to purr gratefully. Then it jumped down off of the bed and left through the crack in the door. Retsu had a bandage around his head and one on his forearm. Who had bothered to bandage him? He was no longer in his human form, so he guessed that at least 4 hours had passed.
His essence absorption had probably timed out quickly since his injuries last night had been pretty bad, and Rori hadn't given him very much of her flesh to eat anyways. It didn't seem like the afternoon yet, the sun wasn't high enough. His heart clenched in his chest, where was Rori now?! It smelled like she was in the room earlier, could it be that she was watching over him while he rested?
He quickly opened her stats, which were resting at a comfortable 600/600. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, somehow he was afraid that after he passed out, Charlie would have rebelled or something and harmed her. What would be stopping him? Becoming a part of a video game? The whole house smelled like Charlie, and Bob, the lackeys. He must have ended up spending the night at their house. He got up and followed the cat out of the room to get a better grasp of his surroundings. The rest of the trailer was quaint and tidy, despite the first impression that he got from the room he woke up in.
There was an over abundance of burgundy and pink, which he didn't expect. He could smell that the waitress had been here just as often as the scents of Bob, Charlie, the lackeys, and the cats, but he expected the place to be a bachelor pad. He heard voices outside and moved the curtain aside to reveal that Charlie, Rori, and the waitress were busy chopping wood and raking the leaves in the yard.
It was nearing autumn and the large tree that hung over the house, probably a mulberry, had dropped all of its leaves suddenly. He was surprised to see that Rori was laughing. Was she only her reserved, obstinant self around him? He opened the door to go outside.
Immediately, Charlie and the waitress stopped what they were doing and lowered their heads. He expected Rori to just stand there and barely acknowledge him, maybe to glance his way, but to his surprise, she ran over to him and hugged him tightly,
"Oh you're awake!" She exclaimed, and then she pulled back away from him beaming. She looked him over and confirmed that he looked a lot better than the night before. He didn't know how to respond to her emotional change of personality.
Hungry. His wolf said, interrupting like he always did. Charlie had built a fire and the scent of the meat he was cooking filled Retsu's nose. He ignored him and cleared his throat, "I'm fine, I rested enough." She smiled, and brushed her hair behind her ear before returning to her usual demeanor, "well, your new pack members are awaiting your instructions." She had a glint of pride in her eyes as she turned to look at Charlie and the woman next to him.
"Deb is his wife." She said, introducing the waitress properly for the first time. "She told Charlie about what you and I did to her, and he is insisting that we turn her so she isn't in danger like that again."
Retsu looked at the old woman and wondered if she would even be useful to the pack. A part of him thought he should punish her for telling Charlie about him intimidating her at the diner— he'd warned her not to. But another part hesitated. Rori clearly expected Deb to join, and he didn't want to disappoint his Beta. Deb noticed his hesitation and she spoke up, trying to persuade him,
"I want to go wherever Charlie goes. Besides, I can cook! I'm making lunch right now, it should be ready in about 5 minutes." Charlie knelt before Retsu, putting his hand over his chest as if to pledge his allegiance.
"Please let my wife join. She will never be a burden and I cannot leave her by herself."
Retsu's wolf was busy telling him that food was better raw, that they didn't need a cook. It wasn't really pulling her weight if she cooked, it was damaging the meal, but he still wasn't going to let his carnal side take over like that. 'We can be civilized and eat cooked meat.' He chided himself. Besides, it was obvious that his body was very interested in eating that food.
Should he let her join? He felt like he needed to stop being hasty in decisions for once in his life. How many people had joined his pack already and he hadn't even planned it out what he would have them do, where they would live, anything.
"I'm not going to tell Charlie to leave you, but I don't know if it's a good idea for me to bite you." He said, buying himself more time.
"Give me time to think about it. Also, is this what you really want? To be a bloodthirsty zombie?"
Deb was surprised by his hesitation. He hadn't seemed like a hesitant kid when she caught him trying to sneak out of the diner last night without paying. In one night, he had killed three of Charlie's closest friends, they weren't very good friends, mostly just a bunch of drinking buddies, but she liked Charlie to have the company of his friends.
They were like family where he had none. Can she join the pack as a human then? But what if she wasn't strong enough? A human could get hurt around flesh eating creatures. The only people who were here who were humans had died last night.
Even Bob had died and he was tougher than he looked. If he was ever sober, he could have once rivaled Charlie in a fight. But probably last night, the only sober ones were Retsu and Rori. Her mind remembered the scary interaction she had had with Retsu and Rori. She still had a cut on her cheek. It made a shudder pass through her just thinking about how scared she was.
Now her husband was one of them. She didn't know these creatures existed, and now she felt she was in too deep to back out now.
"I want to be strong enough to take care of myself." She asserted. "I'm sure you don't need to call whatever you are a zombie, I'm sure there's a difference, for one thing, you have a mind don't you? Then if I'm not mindless, I'm sure I can handle a small change in diet."
"I think you mean a big change in diet." Rori corrected her. Deb looked at Rori, but then returned her gaze to Retsu, waiting for his answer. Retsu nodded, "I get what you're saying, but let me give it a little bit of time."
Without furthering the conversation, he headed back inside, removing himself from further pressure. Deb watched the young leader go inside and wondered if he was being a good leader or just avoiding her. Her body slumped a little bit in disappointment that the conversation had ended unresolved.
Wasn't he being too comfortable in her house? Just going in and making himself at home? She looked at Charlie as if to ask if she needed to let it go or if she should persist.
"I'll go talk to him." He offered, don't worry yourself." Charlie kissed her on the forehead and went inside after Retsu.