The Perils Of Shopping At ASDA

I pulled up outside ASDA and cut the engine with a sigh, turning in my seat to look at Nate and Gwenna. Nate looked bloody horrified, bracing himself against the door and the dashboard with a hollow, frightened look in his gaze. His heart was pounding and he was breathing heavily, which I felt was all a bit melodramatic. Gwenna was clutching to that weird hand thing on the roof, but she also had a huge grin on her face. We always had the windows down, because everything got too stuffy and annoyed our wolves if not, and her hair was windswept to hell and back. She was also breathing heavily, but she had clearly enjoyed the ride a lot more than my brother. Adrenaline junky.

I hadn't even thought that my driving had been that bad; sure, I considered speed limits more guidelines than steadfast rules, and hill starts almost always ended in me stalling, and who didn't enjoy taking corners as fast as they can? But we hadn't crashed, we hadn't even bumped anyone despite the multiple near misses, so I don't know what they were being so dramatic about.

"Natalia, you are not driving back."

"Nat, please drive us back!" Nate and Gwenna chorused at the same time, and I couldn't keep the grin from my face.

"Don't worry, I will most definitely be driving us back-" She cheered while he groaned, but I ploughed on anyway. "For now, though, get your lazy arses out of the car and grab the bags from the boot. We have a long shopping list to get through." I sighed, handing said list to Gwenna. She could read a whole lot better than me; seemed to come naturally to her. I opened the door, got out, and froze, sniffing at the air. The stench of humans hung heavy in the air, with the metallic scents of the town lingering beneath, but I swear I could just about smell a whiff of a pack wolf, maybe multiple. The other two had gotten out of the car behind me and grabbed the bags, apparently not noticing it.

"Guys, scent check." I ordered, watching as they both tilted their heads back and sniffed the air, eyes turning metallic as they borrowed their wolf's noses. After a moment, Gwenna looked at me and shrugged.

"Smells normal to me, Nat, but you've always had a sharper nose than us." Nate replied evenly, both of them watching me closely as I decided how to proceed. If we were sensible, it would be back in the car and driving away to wait out for a few hours before returning, to make sure that we wouldn't run into a pack wolf. However, we are not, never have been, and have no plans on ever becoming, sensible. I had things to do today, and spending hours twiddling my thumbs would drive me mad.

"Eh, its probably just a lingering smell from earlier. We'll go in and do the shopping like we usually do, and just use the mind link to stay in touch. Cool?" I checked with them, getting nods in return. We gathered round for a second and decided who would get what, settling on me getting the dry goods, Gwenna on cans, and Nate on fresh food. On the way in, we each grabbed a trolley, tearing up the shopping list as we divided and made our way to the sections of the store we needed. The entire time, my wolf was lurking just below my consciousness, keeping a constant connection going with her littermates, her guard firmly up. I kept casting for scents as subtly as I could, but the faint smell of packling was now gone or completely drowned out by the humans and plastics and foods that surrounded me.

I really didn't like shopping, or anywhere that was crowded really, our camps aside. In the camps, I trusted everyone at my back, and I had grown up used to the cacophony of sights and smells and sounds so they only brought comfort to me. Here, though, I was surrounded by strangers, with no friends at my back, and every sense was overwhelmed with something new and strange and potentially hostile. The entire time I was in a shop, my wolf had her hackles up. hyper vigilant and constantly nagging at me to leave.

I had just finished grabbing the last bag of rice when the scent returned, washing over me with triple the strength, almost cloying. Shit. There was a pack wolf here, most definitely, and the three of us just reeked of rogue. I pushed the trolley along, letting the others know that we weren't alone, but they already knew. Quick as I could, I checked everything off the list and made my way to the checkouts, seeing Nate and Gwenna ahead of me, already piling their things onto the conveyer belt.

Impatient to leave, I went to the shortest queue, tapping my foot on the floor as I waited for it to move along. I looked around me as the elderly woman at the front counted out pennies as slowly as she could, checking if I could see the pack wolf. My eyes landed on a gaggle of five women in the direction of the smell, timid and unsure of themselves with wolves that had been beaten into submission over their whole lives.

They had seen me, and Nate, and Gwenna, and they had probably already tried to link their nearby warriors, but I didn't know if they had succeeded-

They did, I couldn't block the link in time. We need to go. Nate told me shortly through the link, voice strained and worried. I had to admit, even I was in a hurry to get out of here. We couldn't shift here, not in the middle of a human town, and even using the link over a long period of time could start to raise red flags. If we got into a fist fight, the police would be called, and then we would be in trouble because we didn't even exist legally to begin with. What I should have done is get Nate to reach out to da, let him know that we needed back up, but I didn't want to show weakness.

It's alright, we'll get the shopping and get everything in the car as quickly as possible, and then high tail it out of here. It'll be fine. I reassured both of them, being careful not to convey any of my doubt to them. Gwenna had already finished paying and was hurrying from the store, while Nate was counting out money. Meanwhile, I was only just starting to pile on my things onto the conveyer, and the woman in front looked like one of those people who was gonna demand to call the manager. Through the link, Gwenna queried if I wanted them to stay, but I told them not to. Instead, I wanted them to go out and get the car ready, preferably with Nate behind the wheel and Gwenna ready to help me with mine.

I glanced over my shoulder and noted that the pack wolves I had seen were no longer in sight, though their scents were still so thick around me they couldn't have left. I didn't like that at all. Pack females weren't taught how to fight, so on their own they couldn't threaten me, but those who they had called could, and the women could act as eyes for them so I couldn't slip off. The woman in front of me was really slowing this all down, something about a coupon that was for morrisons, the silly cow, and while I would usually find this amusing, today I had more pressing matters. I nudged Nate through the link and directed his attention to her, letting him reach out to her mind and began to influence her ever so gently. Humans have such weak minds that all he needed to do was whisper a thought to her for her to decide to do it, so she stopped making a fuss, paid her money, took her shopping and got out of my way.

But it was a little too late. The store doors opened and five tall, bulky men walked in, hostile and just reeking of pack wolves. Not from Nightstalkers, maybe the Moonblood pack though? Not that it mattered, all the local packs knew my face and they would all have heard about my recent escapade and inflated reward. I kept my head down and hurried to grab my shopping and pile it back into the trolley, forgoing bags because they would slow me down. I counted out money and handed it over, daring to glance up for a moment.

All five of the warriors were staring right at me. As soon as I made eye contact with the leader, they started to move, fanning out to slowly surround me. Panicking slightly, I yanked on my link with Gwenna and whispered a quick plan to her, because I needed to ditch this trolley now. The other two wouldn't come in to help; there was no point for all three of us to get into trouble. So I pushed the trolley as quick as I could, managing to outpace the nearest warrior who had gotten stuck in a crowd. Once outside, I abandoned the trolley by the wall where Gwenna would retrieve it after I've led the warriors away. I decided it would be safer to stay inside, among the thick crowds of humans where the pack wolves would have to be careful about what they did, because if the humans saw five grown men beating and chasing a teenage girl, they'd take my side in a heartbeat.

Ok, Natalia, you need to think about this. You know what they're going to try and do; the females will have been cleared out, and now they're going to try and surround me. Once they've done that, they'll usher me out of the store and to somewhere more secluded, at which point they'll incapacitate me and bundle me into a car to take me to their alpha. So, first on the agenda was to stop that from happening, somehow. There were two exits to this store; the main one, which would be well guarded, and a half hidden back exit that led out onto a main road. Something akin to a plan began to form in my mind, that I quickly fed back to the other two.

I ducked into the clothing section, marking where two of them were and scenting the air for the other three. I was going to lead them on a merry dance around the store, make a fake run for the main exit, and then double back on myself to the back exit where Nate and Gwenna would be waiting with the car. One of them appeared at each end of the aisle I was on, and as they started towards me I delved into a clothing rack and wriggled through the other side, just avoiding their grasping hands. The chase was on and my wolf was awake as I dodged through the store, pushing through shelves to get between aisles when I needed to. I did one great big lap, until they were all behind me, and then made a fake dash for the main door, drawing them out to my sides and front as they tried to cut me off. This whole time, none of us had been running, too wary of drawing attention to ourselves, but now I broke into a sprint.

Running as fast as I could, pushing through the crowds and ignoring the sounds of the warriors pursuing me, I raced to the back exit, jogging up the stairs and barely dodging a security guard who was trying to grab me, no doubt mistaking me for a shoplifter. Which, to be fair to him, I was on most days. Finally, heart pounding, I burst out into the bright daylight, skidding to a halt for a few precious seconds as my eyes adjusted and I looked around desperately for a car.

They weren't there.

Just as I started scrabbling for a new plan, the warriors burst out the exit a few paces behind me, and the car screeched to a halt in front of me, Nate behind the wheel and Gwenna throwing the door open. I didn't hesitate to charge forward and throw myself across her lap and the backseat, sighing with relief when she slammed the door and Nate stepped on the accelerator.