Outsettlers

Chapter 1

Ésolee was about to have a sip of tea when the door to the cafe opened as if it was possessed. A tall, lithe man full of attitude walked inside and marched to the counter. Quickly taming her auburn waves with a hairband, she pushed her chair farther back into a shadow of the cafe's corner with as little noise as she could muster, drawing her small, round coffee table after her. She slid down the chair, slouched, and stuck her face into her laptop's screen.
She recognized him from surveilling his clan in London a few years ago. She was careful not to be discovered. But with Cats, one never knows; they could've staked out her.

What was the Cats' alpha doing in New York? Alphas rarely left their packs, nests, clans, troops, herds. If they did, it'd be to attend The Alphas conference once a year in Swiss Alps, or a few private meetings––kept under wraps.

"Double espresso," she heard the man boom to the barista. He behaved like a lion––loud and arrogant. But he was a panther, she knew.

Her mid-back started to feel sore from slouching and tightening her frame to hid behind her laptop screen. Just get your coffee and leave, she thought.

"Give me that, whatever that is, too...on a plate, not bag," he ordered.

What? What was he getting? It didn't matter what, Ésolee scolded herself, but how––on the plate to eat inside the cafe. She should leave, quickly, before he brings his plate with whatever––.

"It is a cookie, I think." The alpha-panther thundered over her head.

Startled, Ésolee jumped up off her chair, colliding with the table. The table tilted with its content sliding toward its edge, and the almost full cup of tea rattled against the ceramic saucer, threatening to slam into her laptop. She grabbed at the table's edge with one hand and with the other covered the top of the cup. She froze for a moment, steadying everything and herself. She exhaled audibly, glad her laptop didn't get destroyed, then slammed her butt back on the chair. Only the chair wasn't there. As she was falling, she thought, shit, he's a telepath.

"That is correct," he said extending his hand. She didn't take it, and sprung quickly to her feet, looking around the cafe if anyone noticed her embarrassing fall. "No one noticed," he assured her. "Here, the cookie is for you. You'll need it."

You're annoying.

The panther grinned, then set the plate with a cookie on the table and went over the counter to pick up his double-espresso.

Ésolee packed her laptop and a few belongings into her backpack, and was about to leave, but the man was swift to block her exit. He set his coffee on the table, grabbed a chair from a neighboring table, and showed her to sit down. She didn't sit.

"So, I and my clan were under your surveillance a few years ago?"

"That's why you flew all the way to New York? To chide me?"

"No. I'm in this hole, because I lost a bet to a troop's alpha." He snorted. "Baboons. I should've known better." He stared at her for a moment with his black irises. She hummed a melody in her mind, blocking him from reading her thoughts, which raced each other to a phantom finish––the fact that he brought her a pastry meant he knew she was Alsï. 

Ésolee was cornered, and she wished so much she could fly over alpha's head and disappear from face of the earth, again. But panther's arms were far reaching and his long legs were a trap. She made a mental note to never pick a dead-end corner table.

"My name is Rōndu. But you already knew that, did you not?"

"What was this bet that forced you leave your comfy clan and now suffer in such 'hole' as New York City?"

"Funny you asked," he said, "To fulfill my obligation." He stared at her again.

"Which is?"

"I must find two humans with Alsï gene."

"And?"

"And activate it, of course." Rōndu smiled, his perfect teeth with long canines looked brilliant-white against his brown skin.

She looked around. A few people that were there, including those who worked at the cafe, were emersed in their work, oblivious to her and panther's conversation. He charmed them. He's that powerful. Is that how my parents disappeared––compelled to walk away from their lives and their only daughter?

"You're the second Alsï I've encountered." In one lightning motion he grabbed her forearms and forced her to sit down. He turned her arms palms up, pinning her elbows hard to the table. Ésolee winced and tried to reclaim her body. Useless. She was in her human form and weak, and he was so much stronger.

Any other time she'd go with the flow: what's a big deal? Let him activate her Alsï gene if he wished it that much. She'd just deactivate it again when she's home. Except she knew her body wouldn't take it well if switched again without a proper rest.

He placed his thumbs on to activation points.

"Stop." She pleaded, trying to get her arms back. She looked around in hopes for anyone to interfere. But people seemed to be only interested in their own world. If only she could use one of her powers, she'd make the panther propel through the window and to his beloved London.

"There is a reason I deactivated myself." There was a whiff of surprise in alpha's expression, and it felt like he wanted to pry her mind. But she kept the melody in her mind, denying him to learn more. She'd love to share her knowledge, but she couldn't trust anyone––the alpha could be one of them.

Ésolee added a second, polyphonic melody to lock her mind and body, in case she blacked out. "What do you want?" She said quietly, feeling exhausted from the running, hiding, searching.

"To go home," he said as a matter of fact and pressed the points.