Disclaimer:
~Big thanks to Enemyoffun for making this universe to play in, and to all my beta readers for helping me hammer out some of the details in this chapter. Also, a big thanks to djkauf, who's edits are always awesome.
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoy this chapter, as Mikaela tries to figure things out. Please comment on this, I enjoy reading your comments and learning from them immensely.

Chapter 15

October 19, 2011

The dinner was a simple affair. Pretty much like my mom inviting anyone over to our house. I didn’t talk too much with them. The conversation at the meal was dominated by Patrick Harper and Vernon Stiles, and that was mostly about how their respective businesses were doing. Cecily was sitting next to her husband, while Cindy, Carly, Chris, and I were down at the other end of the table, with me sitting the closest to the Alphas of the clans. The younger three Harpers were discussing pretty much what was happening at school.

I was drawn into a couple of conversations with the adults. They asked me what I studied at the university, what I thought of the town and other questions like that. It was like they were probing me for information. I tried to keep my answers short and to the point, to not tip my hand or give them anything that they could use against me.

Carly tried to jump into the conversation when we were talking about the college. She and I managed to get talking about some of the general education professors that we both had in the past and compared notes on some of their quirks. There was one professor that we both had who took his bowling ball with him to class, and dropped it down near sleeping students to get them to wake up; he was one of my favorites.

When dinner had finally ended, Patrick asked Vernon and me to join him and his wife in the den. The three Harper young adults looked at me, and it looked like they were trying to give me moral support when they heard where we would be having our talk. When we arrived at the den, he showed us in, and asked us to take a seat. I went over to one of the chairs, while Stiles took a place on the couch next to the coffee table. Cecily also sat across from the table.

Before Patrick could enter the room though, the doorbell rang through the house.

“I was wondering if he would show up,” Vernon commented.

“Who?” I asked.

“Someone that I asked to this meeting, once I was properly informed about it,” he quipped, fixing the buttons on his suit jacket.

“Who?” I pressed. “Locke?”

He laughed and replied, “Oh, God no. Although, it is another one of us.”

The door opened and in walked another man in a well-dressed suit. This one was also big, I’m talking linebacker big. He walked over to both of the clan Alphas and said, “We really ought to stop meeting like this.”

“Can’t be helped, Burton,” Vernon replied. “Now, to business. Burton Corday, meet Mikaela Vance. Miss Vance, this is Burton Corday, the Alpha of the Were bears.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Vance,” he replied, shaking my hand. The tone of his voice sounded very confident and businesslike. Were all of the Alphas business heads?

Patrick explained, “Burton here heads the local law firm.”

“He's here at my request,” Vernon interjected.

I looked over at Stiles and wondered how he knew that I would be here tonight, and why did he have the head of the Bears over as well.

“Are we expecting the head of the fifth family as well?” I asked, feeling like my strings were being pulled again.

“McCormick?” he chuckled. “No, that Fox is low on the totem pole. Besides, he hates Locke with a fiery passion. No need to worry about him.”

I wondered what he meant by that. Then again, I had a lot to learn about the politics of this group of men and their families.

“Now that we're all here, let's get down to business,” Vernon started. “Miss Vance, while I applaud your efforts to try to learn more about the council, your actions could stir things up in the council even more than they already are.”

I looked a little bit confused. He continued, “Tobias Locke is not making the current situation any smoother as he is fighting the charges that were brought against him with everything that he has. Even though he has been removed from the Head of the Council position. From what I'm told, his teenage daughter hasn't been making things any easier as well.”

'Daughter?' I thought. 'I wonder what she's doing that's giving Stiles grief.'

“I have already spoken with Tracy,” Corday added. “She's simply trying to clear her father's name, Vernon.”

“I know, Burton,” Vernon countered. “But, the evidence can't be ignored. Even when some of that evidence was provided from Tracy herself.”

“Well, I think that it's honorable of her to try to clear her father's name after what she did under pressure from the Coven's Inquisitor,” Patrick added.

“Maybe so,” Vernon replied, frustration showing in his voice and expression, “but, she needs to back off from this, and let the adults handle it.”

Patrick leaned his head to one side, as if he didn't quite agree with it. Burton, however, nodded in agreement with Vernon.

“Then, wouldn't it be reasonable for a neutral party to come in?” I asked.

Patrick looked like he had something to say, but Vernon cut him off. “While it may seem that way, now is not the time. Your presence could make an already tenuous situation even more unstable.

“I have discussed your position with Burton in length, and I'm sure that Patrick will agree with us, that you need to lay low for the time being.”

“Lay low?” I countered, defensively. “I'm trying to learn all I can about the Council so that I know what to expect whenever you get around to bringing me up before them. And from my perspective, it looks like you could use all the help you can get to stabilize the Council.”

Feeling like I'm getting the runaround from these guys was not fun at all. I was tempted to just say forget about it and storm out of here.

“Miss Vance,” Burton said, in a calm and diplomatic tone, “you have to understand that the council could fall apart at the seams, with the current abuse of power charges brought against the Lockes.”

Stiles stepped in and continued, “If things aren't resolved in short order, there could be blood on the streets between the Lockes and whomever he feels is responsible for levying these charges against him. Your presence could be the match on a short fuse. Tobias never was comfortable with a Lorekeeper coming in and usurping his power, and he certainly won't want one now that could rule against him.”

“He's that much of a power monger?” I angrily griped.

“Tobias isn’t a power monger,” Burton defended.

‘A Bear defending a Wolf?’ I thought to myself as Burton started his defense.

He continued, “From what I’ve seen of his actions, he is very passionate about the safety and protection of all the Weres in the community, especially his family. All of us Alphas are very protective of our respective clans. He doesn’t want Hunters to come into town and take us out. You all have to agree with that.”

The other two Alphas did agree with that, Stiles albeit with some reluctance.

Vernon interrupted, “Even before this incident ever happened, he already was trying to tighten his group on the Council. There were rumors that he was trying to get the Coven to help enforce some of his policies on the other Weres in town, not just the five families. But, with them stepping in to be a neutral party in the incident and ruling against him, it would appear those rumors had no substance to them.”

I sighed heavily, with some grumbling mixed in. “Fine, but I want the matter of my office to be brought up before the Council at the next meeting; you should have this resolved by then.”

“We should and I'm sure that could be arranged,” Patrick added. “The next meeting of the full council is after Halloween. I will make sure that your position is added to the docket of things to be addressed.”

Vernon didn't look too happy about that. His expression showed that someone decided to call his bluff and he didn't have the cards. He quickly composed himself and proposed, “In the meantime, while you continue your studies at the University, I can provide you with information about the recent history of the families, and the council. While we didn't have a Lorekeeper to take down notes, we did keep records.”

“I would appreciate that,” I answered. I wondered if he knew about the archive underneath the university campus. I had already gleaned a great deal of information about the clans down there, but I was missing the recent history from when the previous Lorekeeper had vanished to now.

“Good,” Vernon answered, standing up and buttoning his suit jacket. “Then I believe there is nothing else that we need to talk about.”

Corday also stood up to leave as well. He turned to me, “I can give you all the legal procedures of the Council, so you know how things are done.”

“Thank you,” I replied, shaking his hand.

Stiles then said, “Miss Vance, if you need anything, anything at all. Please, don't hesitate to call me.”

He and Corday then left the room, leaving me to wonder what Stiles was trying to pull. I still didn't trust him.

“Well,” Patrick said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room. “I'll go find my daughter to see about her giving you a ride home.”

I nodded thanks and left the room with him, wondering how much more of this runaround I could take.

--------------------------------------

October 29, 2011

I hadn't heard anything from most of the Were family Alphas since that meeting ten days ago. The only thing that I had heard was from Vernon Stiles, and that was him saying that it was taking longer than he thought to get all of the recent history of the Were Council together. I groaned and thought that he was stonewalling me again.

I shrugged it off and decide to take the Alphas' advice and not pry into the Council's affairs, while concentrating on my own studies at the college. Of course, I was still going down into the archive to learn what I could, finding that the secret passageway in the library was much easier to use than the one out by the fountain.

I had also been meeting up with Alexandra and her friends every day, and found that being a girl with friends was definitely different than as a guy. We seemed to share a lot more information with each other, than a bunch of guys do. However, I seemed to share more excellent rapport with Alex than her other friends. Probably since the two of us were both Unseen and she had been there when I became Mikaela.

Alex, still in training as a witch under her mother, and I had spent much time together. I still thought that she had made it her personal mission to train in me in the ways of womanhood. I definitely was grateful when my first monthly visitor had shown up five days ago. After that experience, I had a lot more respect for what we women go through every month.

Business had been fairly regular at the comic book store over the past few days. I had seen Cindy come in once or twice when she picked up some additional comic books. Most of the traffic coming in during the days leading up to Halloween showed more interest in the costumes that the store offered during this time, rather than the comic books themselves.

Mr. Larson loved Halloween. He always decorated the shop for the holiday, and I thought selling costumes for Halloween was a nice way for him to increase business. The costumes sold in the shop were comic book-themed, as you would expect from what kind of store he ran.

I had a thought to dress up as Wonder Woman or Zatanna this Halloween. I had originally planned on going to one of the college Halloween parties as Green Lantern or Batman, but my switching teams put those plans into the garbage can, even though I did think about going as Batgirl.

As my shift ended, I saw Alex come in to the comic book shop dressed up in her costume, Wonder Girl. We had picked it out together earlier in the week. She wanted to be Wonder Woman, but I suggested Wonder Girl so she didn't have to deal with a wig or dying her hair. It helped that she also liked the Wonder Girl character.

We were both going to be at the Halloween party that her parents threw every year. A party by the lake was a great place to have one on Halloween, especially when the weather was cooperating. Coincidentally, the theme of this year's party was “Heroes.”

“I thought you were off right now,” Alex commented, her hands on her hips, waiting impatiently.

“I'm just getting off,” I replied.

Mr. Larson, who had decided to dress up as Green Arrow, looked in my direction, and he nodded to me that I could go. “Have fun tonight, girls,” he called out to us.

“C'mon!” Alex said, excitedly. “We got to get you dressed up and quickly.”

“Why the rush?” I replied, with her dragging me out to her car.

“Because we want to make sure that everything fits properly, and the party is starting soon, since Charlie invites his friends as well. And we have to get you some practice in wearing heels.”

I just giggled and laughed at that, and quickly joined her in the car. We sped away from the comic book store and toward her place on the lake. About an hour later, we had me dressed up in my Halloween costume as Zatanna Zatara. I had both the Wonder Woman and the Zatanna costumes and we tried them both on me, as we tried to figure out which one would suit me best. Either of the costumes would work, since I had the curves to pull either of them off. I decided on the magician, since I didn't really have the muscles to pull off Wonder Woman, even though hers were visible, but they still had a feminine quality to them. Plus, I did have a Zatanna charm on my bracelet.

We walked downstairs where her parents were putting the finishing touches on the decorations. When we made it down to the bottom of the stairs, we saw Cassie, who dressed up as Black Canary, come in and set the refreshments down on the table and exclaimed, “Wow! Don't you two really look the part!”

“Thanks, Cassie,” I replied, blushing.

“Thanks, Mom.” Alex added.

“Before you two go anywhere though,” she started, turning around, “there's one thing that you have to do.”

“What, Mom?”

Cassie turned around again, whipping out a camera. “Pictures!”

Alex groaned and I just giggled at the reaction. The two of us posed together for a bit, trying out poses that worked for our characters. We even took a few pictures with Charlie as well, who was dressed up as Professor X from “X-Men.” I thought the costume worked well for him.

As Cassie wrapped up with the pictures, the doorbell rang. She went over to answer it, and subsequently let in some of the people invited to the party. Cassie showed them through to the back patio and the beach, while Charlie went over to the stereo and turned on some music before joining them.

Alex and I walked out to the patio as well, grabbed a couple of sodas and began talking in private while we waited for some of the college students to get their butts over here. They were probably getting dressed up for the party and getting something to eat before coming over.

“So, how are things progressing with the Council?” she asked, just out of earshot of some of the high school students, who seemed to be talking about something called a Dud.

“Not well,” I replied. I told her my concerns about Stiles stonewalling me, and how the other Alphas told me to keep my head down.

“Wow,” she commented. “I didn't think that those three would be scared of you.”

“Scared of me? How so?”

“Well, I think Stiles is the most scared of you, since he's on the attack against Locke. Which comes as no surprise.”

“If he's scared of me, then why is he offering to help me?”

“It might be that he's trying to control you, so that when you do get the job, he can consider you an ally.”

I thought about what she said. It did seem to make sense, but something still seemed off about that to me.

“Maybe...,” I thought aloud.

“Maybe what?” she countered, sipping her Sprite.

“It's just that...,” I started, “if he wants to use me, then why would he be sending goons out after me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember all those strange people that have been following me over the past month, since before I became Mikaela?”

“Yeah...,” she answered.

“Then what purpose would it serve to destroy a useful tool to someone before you even have the chance to use it?”

“Hmm...,” she thought. “Good point.”

We both sipped our drinks, and then Alex commented, “Time to mingle with everyone else.”

She pointed out that I couldn't talk about my situation any longer as more people had arrived and began to mix in with the rest of the crowd. I swigged the rest of my soda and tried to not look out of place as I followed Alex around. I still hadn’t gotten over being extremely nervous around other people, although I was getting better at controlling it.

We went around the party, talking with various people, and complimenting them on their costume choice. A few people showed up dressed as some villains, which I thought gave the party a little more flavor.

We walked around the deck for a bit, until one guy, dressed up in a Captain Atom costume approached the two of us. This guy looked like he meant business. He held a soda, but the glass was too full, like he was trying to blend in with the partygoers.

“Nice costume,” Captain Atom commented. “Zatanna and Wonder Girl, right?”

“Good guess,” Alex replied, “And you’re supposed to be–wait, I’ll get it–Captain Atom!”

“Very good. I didn’t know you liked comics.”

“A few, Mikaela here has been educating me,” Alex answered, with a friendly punch to the arm.

“You must be quite the geek to know a lot about comics,” he remarked. “I’d say you don’t look like any geek that I know.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “I work at the comic book store and picked up on it.”

“Well, there is something to be said about knowing your wares.”

“Yep,” I agreed.

“So, what are your real names?” he asked.

Alex immediately went into polite host mode. “I’m Alex,” she answered, pointing to herself. She then pointed at me and continued, “and this is Mikaela.”

“Nice to meet you,” I replied.

“A pleasure to meet you both, the name’s Justin. So, Mikaela,” he carried on, focusing on me, “what do you study at the university?”

“Math and history,” I answered, sipping my drink.

“Nice,” he replied. “I’m studying business.”

“Someone wants to work for a living,” Alex observed. We both giggled at that remark.

He shrugged and replied, “Yeah, family has expectations for me.”

We all sipped from our drinks for a bit, and I definitely thought that Justin’s needed to go down some, since it looked like he barely touched it.

“Mikaela,” he said suddenly, the tone of his voice was nervous and hesitant. “I’ve seen you around campus and I was wondering if you would like to get some coffee with me?”

If I had something in my mouth I would’ve spit it out all over him. Was he seriously asking me out on a date?

“Uhh…,” I stammered.

“It’s okay if you don’t say anything,” he quickly added.

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t even know if I still liked girls or I know liked boys in that way. I was snapped from my thought process abruptly by Alex lightly hitting me on the arm.

“Mikaela…,” she whispered, “say something to this attractive young man. Now!”

“I, uhh…,” I got out. I didn’t know what to say! “Sorry!”

I ran out of there and down to the beach as fast as I could on those heels of Zatanna’s.

I heard Alex saying from behind, “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll go talk some sense into her.”

As she began following me, I just ran and ran towards the wooded shore of the lake. I never had been so embarrassed in all my life. I just froze in front of a good looking guy, albeit in a Captain Atom costume, and now I was just so confused. I stopped by the log that was near and parallel to the shoreline, sat down, and began crying.

“Mikaela?” Alex cried out “Mikaela!”

I didn’t look up or answer her. I heard her calls get louder until she finally said, “Oh! There you are!”

She walked over to me and said, “Mind if I sit down?”

I scooted my butt over and let her sit next to me, as I continued to cry. She reached around and placed her arm around me. “What’s wrong?”

“I…, I…, I froze back there.”

She tried to settle me back down, spoke softly, and said, “It’s alright. You’re probably still confused on the whole ‘Do I like girls? Do I like guys’ thing.”

“Yeah,” I agreed through my sobs.

“How did you feel about guys and girls before?” she inquired.

“Guys were just guys. People to be friends with or they were there to help watch your back. Girls, they were the same as guys, except that I did feel attraction to them. And I felt it with you, when I first met you.”

“Really?” she replied, very surprised. “I… I… didn’t know.”

“I was going to ask you out before all of this happened,” I admitted, trying to fight back the sobs.

“Wow. Thanks for telling me now. I can start to see why this is so difficult for you.”

“Thanks, Alex,” I replied, giving her a hug.

We shared in the hug for a while. If I was still Michael, I probably would be happy that I was this close to a girl, since my luck asking them out was terrible. But now, I’m not sure if I felt the same way or not.

“Hey,” Alex said, after we pulled apart from the hug, “how about we can go back and say that you will think about it, or that you will take a rain check until you figure it out. Okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed, wiping the tears off of my face.

“C’mon,” she said, helping me to my feet.

We got up from the log and started walking towards the party. Unfortunately, we didn’t get very far though.

“Hold it right there, Were!” a figure shouted from behind a nearby rock.

Both of us jumped at that. We whirled around to face the figure and found that there were three or four dark figures. They wore dark clothing and had black ski masks pulled over their faces.

“Who are you talking to?” Alex asked them, sounding confused.

“Her,” one of the figures declared, raising his hand up pointing a dagger that glinted off the moonlight straight at me.

When he pulled the knife out, I managed to catch a glimpse at his belt. He had two pistols holstered there. Looking around, I noticed that they each had guns. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Me? What do you want with me?” I asked, trying to keep up the act.

“You know what we want.”

“No, I don’t. What do you think I have?”

“The key to what we want.”

They were making no sense whatsoever. Key? What key do they think I have? And what is this key to? Alex looked at me funny, trying to figure out what we should do.

“Hand it over, we grow impatient, Varlore.”

Varlore? What in the world was that? What were they talking about?

“Get them! We’ll use the other one to get the second part from the Wiccalore!” the ringleader commanded.

The figures tried to tackle the two of us. One of them managed to get a hold of Alex on her ankle, but she managed to break his grip. She used her other foot and brought it down on his wrist.

They regrouped and came at us again, this time from opposite directions. One of them managed to grab my arm and pulled it behind me, but I still had my other. He tried calling over another of his friends, but I managed to punch him in the gut with an uppercut. It looked like I managed to knock the wind out of him. I wondered if that had something to do with me being a Were. Alex, meanwhile, had thrown off her attackers and we looked at each other, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Run!” Alex and I both yelled, heading into the woods.

After a short distance, Alex called out to me, “Stick with me, I did play in these woods when I was a kid.”

“I just hope you remember where to go,” I joked back.