Chapter 1: The new-ish boy in town
In Astrid's humble opinion, Coven meetings had to be the biggest waste of time ever. Coven meetings, magic, witches. she knew it was supposed to be
cool
, it was supposed to be a
sisterhood,
and all
wonderful
and
blah, blah, blah
. But Astrid found it was mostly just incredibly
boring
.
A prime example? Astrid spent the last 2 hours listening to her sister, Ana, argue with Lola - the Coven's enforcer. Ever since Ana come into her power as Coven Mother a few months ago, the two had been going head to head arguing about how things were to be run in the coven
constantly
. It was enough to drive a witch mad. And Astrid felt that there are definitely better things she could be doing at that very moment instead of listening to the fiftieth argument about
Putris Root
versus
Lizard Lotus
for treating magic inflicted wounds.
Like who cared?
They both did the same thing. So one of them was possibly slightly toxic to humans. There were a lot of things that could be slightly toxic to humans and it didn't seem to bother them much.
The fights were always about the magic shop. And quite frankly Astrid didn't think she should be forced to attend the meetings because unlike most of the coven, including her sisters, she didn't actually work in the Coven shop.
Most days of the week Astrid was busy being amazing and doing a top job working providing her magical expertise with the team at Marche Enterprises, the business which provided security to
The Underground.
She knew she wasn't much good at potions and prayers, but she was pretty damn good with enchantments and hexes. As it turned out that made her pretty valuable to a security company.
And working at The Underground was something else, it was an absolute dream. The Underground was a series of rooms and tunnels underneath Sydney which housed the city's preternatural denizens and kept them safe. And
boy-o
did they need to keep themselves safe. While supernaturals had co-existed with humans for centuries it wasn't really until around seventy years ago that they all started living in integrated society so openly.
Despite this, things were still tense between the two communities and that meant that it was vital to keep supernaturals safe from zealots and others who don't like the idea of a supernatural/human integrated society (And un-suprisingly there were a lot of those).
So, while it made things tense and unpredictable, Astrid actually loved her job. Much more than she love attending annoying Coven meetings at any rate.
Times like these made her wish she was back in Italy living with the vampires there. She had spent the last three months there helping some of the supernaturals from Sydney settle down and only just returned home that very morning (Which was another reason she really hated today's coven meeting, because it was boring
and
she had jet-lag). Suffice to say when the meeting was over she was going to enjoy settling back into her room at The Underground.
For a moment a glint of gold caught her eye, and Astrid looked over to see her younger sister, Lena. Like her, Lena was a junior priestess in the coven. Although she was far more gifted in the arts of healing and potions than Astrid was. Lena was also sweet and kind - the sweetest and kindest witch in the Coven, actually. Although she was also kind of vague and distracted a lot of the time too. It'd been worse lately. While Astrid was away in Italy, something terrible had happened to lena. She hasn't been the same since. Every time astrid see her sweet face, it remind herself that there was a reason she came to the stupid coven meetings.
Just when the argument seemed like it was about to end, it started up again. Round Fifty-one of Ana vs. Lola was about to begin and Astrid was counting down the seconds until she was able to back to The Underground.
————
When the meeting finally finished, Astrid ran out of there as fast as she could manage - Ana had tried to convince her to stay the night, but she managed to get out of it by promising her she'd be over on Friday for Coven dinner. Ana wasn't super happy about the compromise, but she was too busy to even bother arguing. As it turned out being Coven Mother was exhausting, time consuming and didn't leave much room for an actual life. Which was sad, because Ana was barely twenty-nine and Astrid couldn't remember the last time Ana actually did something slightly selfish, even before she ascended to the leader of the Coven.
As soon as she could Astrid raced across town, when she stepped into the tunnels she could physically feel my body relax. Although the relaxation was short lived because soon after she stepped through and got my bags into her room, Lachlan a very excitable and hyperactive werewolf - bombarded her.
Lachlan was best described as Astrid's best friend. Or would be if she weren't twenty-one and kind of passed the whole 'best friend' age. She'd known him since she started working in The Underground - like Astrid, he also worked in the security team. Lachlan was a sweet if slightly overbearing person. He also had a massive crush on the Coven's enforcer, Lola. It was hilarious watching him flirt with Lola when she came down to visit because she was a no-nonsense, tough bitch and Lachlan was just about the nicest guy Astrid had ever met.
The other good thing about Lachlan was that he was also a beacon for gossip, and the best person for up to date information on the runnings of The Underground. Which was why, at precisely 9.30pm as Astrid was walking through the tunnels, She was also getting up to date on all the gossip that had happened since She had been in Italy.
"A few new wolves have come through," Lachlan gave her a wide smile as they walk through the hallway towards the kitchen.
"Sounds like it's been fun," It didn't actually, but she was kind of spaced out on account of the fact she had the longest day in the history of the universe.
"You have no idea. There have been so many fights - you know, everyone trying to figure out who is who. A new alpha came through, one of Vanessa's sex candidates."
Astrid tried her best to keep a neutral face, but she knew she was frowning. Vanessa was the Alpha Queen of the Sydney Werewolf Clan and ever since she turned thirty, she had been obsessed with having pups and continuing to build the Clan.
But of course, being Queen and an alpha meant that she needed to find a werewolf to match her rank and power. Unfortunately for the local wolves there weren't too many alphas she'd considered. Evidently she had started shipping them in from other towns. Which was kind of weird if you asked Astrid, but werewolves had this whole freaky hierarchy system and rituals. She tried not to think about it too much, because it had major ick-factor.
"She still trying to get pregnant is she?"
"Well she is the Clan Queen, it's vital for the continuation of the wolf bloodline," Lachlan shrugged, "All I know is that she isn't too thrilled with the new alpha."
"Isn't too thrilled? What, she's having too much sex with a hunky alpha?" Astrid couldn't stop herself from snorting, "I'd like to have her problem,"
"Nah, don't think they're getting on too well. He's too alpha, and I don't think he's particularly thrilled with Vanessa either." He leaned closer and his voice lowered to a whisper, "Word is he can't bring himself to have sex with her. But anyway, it's been interesting because he's also head of the security team now."
Well that just about stopped Astrid in her tracks.
This new werewolf is head of security?
"Excuse you?" the frustration was evident in her voice, but I don't care, "Head of security? Why? I wanted to apply for that position, are you serious?"
She can't believe it, she had left for three months, and in that time the head of security position had been filled. Astrid had wanted that job, everyone on security knew that. She had wanted a new challenge, an achievement, and well if she was being quite honest, the raise. She can't believe that in such a short amount of time they'd gone and filled the position.
"Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but the new alpha's got it - and he's made quite a few changes," Lachlan's looked is apologetic. They finally find themselves in the kitchen.
Astrid hurried to the cupboards eager to make some tea. After the day she'd had? she
needed
it. It'd been three months since she'd had good tea. Lachlan sat himself at one of the tables, watching her as she fussed around with the kettle.
"Mind making me one?" Lachlan asked, nodding towards the kettle.
Astrid gave him a nod, reaching to grab another mug and tried to focus as Lachlan continued to chatter, telling her about this and that. It was hard to focus because now all she could think about was the fact that she wasn't sure what her next career move was going to be.
She was beyond annoyed, so much so that she barely noticed Lachlan had stopped talking, and in fact, the kitchen had been enveloped in a still silence. Astrid turned around to bring the two teas to the table and noticed that Lachlan looked majorly pale and tense. Bizarre - he was chirpy and talkative only seconds ago and now he was stony and frozen like he'd been cursed with a
Lutrovic spell
.
"Lachlan," a bubble of laughter escaped from her throat, "Cat got your tongue so suddenl-"
