Chapter 7

Tasha had four hours to assist Ruby with finding an entire wardrobe. With there being only one store for clothing, Ruby did not think it would be that hard to accomplish this. Ruby was wrong–so very wrong.

The building was a warehouse filled with clothes for every size, every age, and just about every style Ruby could think of. When she asked how it was possible for this many clothes to get into the territory, Tasha answered with a very simple response.

“We’ve made deals with packs that don’t mind us out here to ship some to us. Same with everything else in the town. We don’t make a fuss with them, as in kind of a truce between us and the packs, and they supply us with everything we could need so we can live here.”

“I’m sorry, but that is news to me. I have lived in West Coast for a year and never even heard of this kind of truce.”

Tasha looked at her quizzically, “were you a She-Alpha of the pack?”

Wow, that comment hurt more than I thought it would. I should have been.

None of that. It is not worth it.

“No, but there were a lot of loose lips in that pack.” Ruby chuckled quietly. “In more ways than one.”

Tasha let out a laugh, “calling the she-wolves in your pack sluts?”

Ruby feigned offense by dropping her jaw and had her hand over heart, “goodness, no! They were all innocent she-wolves that would never lay with another that was not their mate.” Then she gave an eyeroll. Tasha laughed out loud, and Ruby continued. “Listen, I wasn’t one who thought waiting for your mate was the only way to live, and I never will be. But damn. Some of those females would put prostitutes to shame. The men loved it. Some thought being a high-ranking wolf meant they should have any females they wanted, and some females made that belief valid. Those same dumbasses would leak info to make themselves look like they deserved to be worshiped. It was pitiful.”

Tasha looked through a rack as she listened and pulled out a white see-through button up as she answered, “I heard the Alpha is a guy like that. Pretty much has slept through his entire pack.”

Ruby scoffed, “unfortunately, that is true. Even more unfortunate, I am a notch on his belt now.”

Tasha looked over at Ruby with a look Ruby hated. One that showed she felt pity for Ruby and had no idea what to say.

“I’ll be fine. I just need to let out some hatred from time to time.”

Tasha nodded and went back to looking through her rack. Ruby looked through her own and stopped when she found a long, red robe that was made out of t-shirt material. When she pulled it off the rack, she noticed there was a hood that could wrap around her neck.

“Now that seems to be right up your alley,” Tasha said approvingly.

Tasha was not wrong. This was definitely up her alley. Ruby continued to search inside of that particular rack and found several other outfits. When she had so many clothes that her arms could barely carry them, they made their way up to the front. Tasha and Ruby had the same shoe size, so Tasha told her to borrow hers until they were able to come back to shop for a few pairs for Ruby.

The bill came out to be much more than Ruby wanted to spend, but Tasha explained that Ryker would not care. There have been several others who had found refuge inside of their town in the last year or two, and Ryker had assisted all of them the same way. It turned out that Ryker had trouble turning off being an Alpha in that sense.

Ruby asked Tasha if Ryker was the Alpha of the town, and she said no. “The club makes a lot of revenue in comparison to everything else. So, he has donated money to other businesses here to keep them afloat. He is also the person who gives start up money to anyone who stumbles in here and needs to start over. When he came here three years ago, he was the reason this town became a community. It’s a shame. He hates packs more than any other wolf here. Yet, he seems to be the best Alpha I’ve ever seen.”

Ruby looked at Tasha with raised eyebrows and her jaw slacked, “that’s not what I have heard about him. I learned the West Coast pack history when I transferred. It practically made him out to be selfish and ruthless.”

Tasha shook her head. “Sounds like the new Alpha decided to hide actual history under the rug so he looked to be better. No one in the pack talked about how he really was to you?”

“Ha, well I was not really liked there and wasn’t talked to much outside of my friend, Mack. But… no one really talked about Ryker.”

Tasha gave Ruby a look, and Ruby was not fully sure if she truly read what it meant. Almost seemed to be a look of “are you really that naïve?” Some Alphas who take over a pack from a hereditary line tend to rewrite history in the pack’s book. Ruby knew about this. Her father taught her that little bit of information when she was younger. She just didn’t think the rest of the pack would go along with it. No one would say a bad word about Tyson… but they did not talk much about Ryker either.

Alpha Command.

Tyson commanded the whole pack not to talk about Ryker to that level of extent? Is that possible?

He is an Alpha of an entire sanction. Packs feed their Alpha power. It can be done.

They dropped all subjects when they walked into Tasha’s apartment. Tasha threw the uniform at Ruby and told her to change so they could get to Howlers to run her through a crash course for bartending. The uniform is a black tank top with a silhouette of a wolf in front of a full moon and Howlers underneath it and a pair of black jean shorts. Ruby was thankful that the shorts’ fabric came just above the knee. It meant that Ryker did not want males to think his workers were there to grab at. There was a pants and short sleeve option, but that was for a non-busy night. Apparently the club could get so packed it would spike the temperature inside to almost unbearable. Ruby quickly changed into her new clothes and met Tasha by the door. Tasha held up a pair of shoes that had memory foam on the bottom.

“You’ll need something like this for work. You’re on your feet the entire time, and it is hell on your feet. I’m glad I bought two pairs not too long ago. Otherwise one of us would be hurting tomorrow.”

Ruby thanked her and slipped on the shoes. Then they made their way to Howlers.

Time to crush this shit.

* * *

Tasha’s crashcourse flew by. She talked quickly, and there were times that Ruby had to have her repeat what she said because of it. It was not because she did not understand the task, but because her words felt like a blur as they flew out of her mouth. The job itself seemed very simple in theory. Ask for a name to punch into the system, take the order, plug the order into the system, make the drink, take the drink to the customer, exchange the money, and make change. However, Ruby knew once the place was packed that it would be extremely difficult to keep up with.

The system also made bartending extremely easy. There were tabs to list the drink on the bill. Once the tab is hit, it puts the recipe for the drink on the screen. Ruby did not need to memorize an entire list of drinks before the shift started. She just needed to know how to work the system. It took a few tries, but she got the hang of it enough for Tasha to move on.

Tasha then explained her system for organizing the liquor. Each one had their own section or row. She had it written down for the other bartenders to follow. Apparently, Tasha was a little bit of a hardass when it came to her system of organization. If anything was out of place, she tended to lose it on the person that messed with it. It got to the point that she nearly knocked out another bartender. After that, Ryker stepped in. After he assessed the situation, Ryker liked her system and made the others follow it. The other she-wolf who worked here tended to get pissy with Tasha when they worked together because of it, so they were not allowed to work together. Neil was always paired with Tasha, and they kept up with the customer flow very well together. Now that shoe had to be filled by Ruby.

Yippee for me.

Ruby wrote down some key items and left it by her register. It was now an hour before the club opened, and it was time for the bouncers to come in. One of them seemed a little taller than her, jet-black hair, thick, broad shoulders, and arms. He reminded Ruby of a gorilla. The man seemed to beeline toward the bar with a determined look in his gray-green eyes. Tasha seemed giddy as he approached the bar and leaned herself over. The man grabbed her neck with one of his large hands and pulled her into a kiss. Ruby looked away to not ogle during their moment.

“Deak, this is Ruby. She is the new bartender and our new roommate for the time being. Ruby, this is my mate, Deacon.”

Ruby turned toward them again and held out her hand for Deacon to shake. His square face pulled up into a smile at her. It was the kind of smile that gave away that this man was a nice guy, but his body looked as if he was the wrong person to tick off.

“Nice to meet you, Deacon. I hope I haven’t imposed too much since I came here.”

“Not at all. I heard you took down the two wolves that put you in that situation. Good for you. Not many she-wolves can take down two wolves at once.”

Ruby smiled at the compliment, “thank you. That made my day.”

He laughed, “I hate to say it, but this shift might ruin your day. We get some rowdy ass people on Saturdays.”

Ruby’s face fell, “no one told me that. Though I guess I should have expected it.”

“Deak, don’t scare her! We want her to stay, not run for the hills.” Tasha smacked his shoulder.

“No use in lying. That will make things worse. I need to prepare you girls for these kinds of things. A few packs have been seen nearby. Most likely, some of those wolves will end up here. We don’t know them like we do the usuals, so be ready. And Ruby,” Ruby stopped steaming a glass before wiping it down to look at him, “if anyone gives you a problem, yell for me. I have sensitive hearing, even more so than most wolves. I’ll hear you, and I’ll bounce the dude right out of here.”

Ruby nodded with a smile on her face at the kind gesture, “thank you, Deacon. That means a lot.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and Sims plans to assist with bouncing tonight because of this. So all the bouncers are here tonight to prepare for this.”

Ruby had no idea why, but she was both excited and annoyed at hearing that Ryker planned to be a bouncer during her first shift. Part of her thought it was to oversee how she did as a bartender. Another part of her wondered if it was because of their little moment earlier, and she thought, maybe, he wanted to look out for her. Without knowing which one it was, it just made her anxious.

“What’s with the scowl on your face, Rube?” Deacon asked her with his head cocked sideways. His shaggy hair made him look more like their animal counterpart than human.

Her heart skipped a beat at the nickname. Only Mack really called her that. Will I ever get to see Mack again?

Ruby quickly tried to make her face behave. “Just that it must mean tonight was the wrong night for me to start this job.”

“We got your back. It won’t be that bad,” Tasha told her as she finished cleaning off a glass. Deacon nodded in agreement.

Something told Ruby that these two meant it.

Who knew I would meet two amazing people within the few hours that I woke up in this town… hope that is an omen to how starting my life here will go.