Halcyon Persuasion (complete)

Chapter 5

“You know I haven’t agreed to take it yet. What if I don’t want to be their personal chauffeur or take Johnny boy to school?” said Lilly.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Scott, pulling the cover off his car.

Lilly practically drooled and had to cover her mouth. She had become a fan of old cars when Scott picked up a hobby of rebuilding them. She loved the nostalgia of cars built in the seventies and eighties. Her favorite so far had been the 1978 Firebird Trans am. It made her want to put on a bandana, rock a fake mustache, and listen to some Journey.

Scott had rebuilt the car with all the original parts. It was a beautiful sleek black color with the gold bird on the front of it. The car was even a convertible if she really wanted to look cool.

Lilly ran her hand over the exterior of the car and then poked her head inside. It smelled of brand new leather and a hint of cinnamon mixed with vanilla. Everything was sparkling clean and she knew the guts of the car probably looked the same.

“Well do we have a deal?” asked Scott. He had a knowing smile on his face and Lilly hated that.

“Okay fine but how then hell am I ever going to talk my parents into letting me have this?”

“Not my problem. I’ll just hand you over the keys and you figure out the rest,” he said, dangling them in front of her face.

“Fine, whatever.”

“Thanks I appreciate you helping them out.”

Lilly eyed him suspiciously. “I still don’t really understand why you’re helping them so much. They're just some weird shifters, who I never thought existed, that are running from god knows what.”

Scott leaned back on the hood of one of his other car and ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.

“Okay I’ll be truthful with you because I know you won’t say anything. When all three packs joined together after fighting with Casey everything seemed to be going well. Don’t get me wrong,” interjected Scott as he looked at her confused face, “All the packs are still fine but when I go to meetings it always has to do with how pathetic the neighboring packs are. How powerful we are and how easy it would be to destroy everyone. I know it’s just talk but I don’t ever want us to become power hungry like Casey was.”

“I didn’t know that went on. Why didn’t you say something before?”

“To who Lilly? All three pack leaders meet together with some of our trusted advisors. So who can I really talk to? I tell Sara but there’s only so much she understands. You actually have to be there to realize why the things everyone’s saying is a little scary.”

“Oh right okay I get it. Still though, what does helping these tigers have anything to do with that?” she asked.

Lilly hopped on the hood of her new car and stared at Scott. He winced at the thought of her doing that but then realized she weighed almost nothing and couldn’t dent a car unless she tried.

“I want to get all the packs out of the mindset that we’re better than others. By helping these people I want to show that we can coexist with others. This should be a humbling experience for everyone,” he said, running his fingers through his hair again.

Scott looked at Lilly with a grin on his face. “You know I talked to them for a few hours. They’re really nice people. You shouldn’t be so mean to Jonathan. He’s been on the run for longer than he’s had a home. I guarantee with some time he’ll be the sincere, intelligent guy that I met at my hotel.”

Lilly jumped off the car and walked over to where Scott was standing. She shoved him playfully and raised an eyebrow as if to challenge him.

“Don’t get all mushy on me now Scott. I’ll pick him up and help the family out but that doesn’t mean I have to be nice to him. You already know my track record with guys anyway. I’m sure all shifters are the same so it’s only a matter of time before he tried to grab for a boob.”