Chapter 1 ~ The Diner It Is

It’s a typical night at the diner for Ella. Dinner rush.. then, practically nothing. She was finishing closing out the cash register, when Danny came out of the kitchen and told her she could leave.

She grabbed a to-go cup of soda, and, yelling good night, walked out to walk the twenty minutes home. Halfway home, she heard crashing through the underbrush..

A huge man came crashing out onto the pavement in front of her, with an “oof”. Ella rushed to him.. with a huge gash.. a deep wound on the side of his head.

He moaned out “Hide me. I can’t fight them like this.” She immediately helped him to his feet and wrapped an arm around his waist.. leading him toward her house.

Three men crashed through the bushes behind her. She spun around.. as they started advancing. She stood still.. allowing the man she had been helping, slide to the ground.

She sighed “I have been trained in street fighting my whole damned life.. I won’t go easy.” The men laughed and charged all at once. Kicking the biggest one in the solar plexus.. she stabbed another in the eye with a dagger.. and sliced the jugular of the third.

As the first guy ran off.. she helped the man off the sidewalk and brought him to her house. Once he was laid out on her couch, she grabbed what she needed to clean the wound.

After getting the wound abraded and bandaged, she washed his face free of blood. She smiled.. he really is a handsome specimen!

His eyes opened and he looked at her, for a long minute “Where am I? What happened?” Then promptly fell back to sleep. Ella laughed..

When Fred came home, he started raising hell about a strange man in his house. Ella said “Your house? I pay the bills in this shithole! It’s MY house. That man is injured.. and until he wakes up and I have someone to call.. he is staying put!”

Fred called her a whore and tried slapping her. She grabbed his wrist and asked “What did I tell you on my fifteenth birthday? Ever touch me again, and I will kill you! Now leave me to watch over my patient!”

She dozed off and on all night.. sitting in a chair beside the man. He moaned off and on, and she would rouse him enough to swallow a pain pill with some water.

As the rosy fingers of dawn lit up the inside of her dreary cabin, she moved to put coffee on. She was going to need a gallon of the stuff today!

She had just sat down with a cup, when the man sat bolt upright. He grabbed his head and roared. Ella jumped up and pulled his head into her chest.. calming him down.

Ella leaned him back against the couch, and said “The wound was pretty bad.. with your healing, it’s still going to take a couple days. Moving too quickly will induce immediate excruciating pain.”

He asked “Where am I? What happened to me?” Ella sat down beside him “You were attacked last night.. I only saw three.. but judging by your size, there had to be more than that!”

He was shaking his head.. “I don’t remember. I don’t remember any of that.” Ella whispered “Well.. what do you remember? Let’s start simply. Do you know your name?”

He said “Yeah.. I know who I am.. but I can’t remember past dinner.” Ella nodded and said “It was a substantial head wound.. amnesia isn’t to be unexpected. Rest today.. I’m sure it will return, as you heal.”

She went to get more coffee, when he stopped her with “Can you call my Beta.. and let him know where I am?” Ella asked for the number and beta’s name. When he said Maverick.. she knew who the strange man was, on her couch.

Alpha Matthew Landon. Her thoughts ran rampant “Shit! I brought an important Alpha to this fucking dump! Humiliated! I didn’t think he was an Alpha. Why didn’t I know he was an Alpha? They should all wear nametags or something.. ‘Hello! I’m Alpha Landon’ That would work.. I mean.. Fuck!”

Matthew was laughing.. he asked “Think out loud much? I honestly am not so shallow I would judge anything about you. I am grateful. I have a very strong feeling that I would have been dead.. if not for you.. so thank you!”

Ella called Maverick and let him know what her version of events of last night was. She also told him he may want to search the forest leading up to Bailor Road.

A couple hours later, Maverick knocked on Ella’s door.. She let him in, as well as a doctor and two other people.. the man looked just like Matthew.

The woman walked over and took Ella’s hand “I’m Jolene. Matthew’s mother. The gentleman is his father, Blake. You have our eternal gratitude for what you did for our son. If you ever have need of us.. for any reason.. we will not hesitate.”

That foreboding feeling washed over Ella, again. She had a feeling she may need their help, one day. She wished her own life came to her in visions like others did.

The doctor rebandaged Matthew’s wound.. and got him ready to lay down on a gurney. As they rolled him past Ella, he reached out and took her hand. “I didn’t even get your name. Will you come to the pack house tomorrow and give a detailed report of what happened?”

Ella nodded and smiled “Ella Cassidy.. and I will be there about ten. Can’t do it later.. I have to work at two.”

After everyone had gone, she went upstairs and showered.. climbing under her covers, she fell asleep for several hours.

When she went downstairs to fix a little dinner, Fred was at the table.. He growled “I told you to stay away from those stinking wolves.” Ella hadn’t had enough sleep. She was always cranky, when she was tired.

She glared at him “You are Not my dad! Fuck.. you’re barely a guardian. When I turn eighteen, I want you out of My house! I pay all the bills here. That state check you get for being my guardian.. gets spent on whores and booze. So.. do not ever tell me who I can talk to.. or be friends with!”

She slammed out of the house, then remembered she hadn’t eaten. Oh well! The diner it is!