Chapter 143

Zane POV

Whitfield texted me the second it went live, and alone in my study I put my earbuds in and went on YouTube.

There was an ad I skipped after five seconds.

A cute little Chibi of Sarah against a light blue background came up on the screen with the channel name: Let’s Talk!

It cut to Sarah, who was relaxed and smiling into the camera.

“Hello, and welcome to Let’s Talk!, a new video channel made by a human to talk to other humans about werewolves, which, let’s face it, is one of our favorite topics.

“I have to confess, I thought a lot about what our first topic should be for this channel. I mean, I have hundreds of things I want to talk about, but which one first? Then I realized it doesn’t matter. It’s not some serialized drama you have to watch in order.

“So, I’m going to start with one of the first things I noticed about wolf culture once I joined Alpha Zane’s household with Grace and Chloe.”

She held up a glass of red wine as the camera zoomed out just a bit.

“Yes, a great deal of wolf culture involves drinking alcohol. Now, I don’t mean they get drunk all the time. In fact, getting drunk seems to have little to do with the whole thing, unlike, say, movies about human fraternity houses where everyone is bombed and looking for sex.”

She laughed.

“Werewolves involve alcohol as part of most of their interactions and celebrations, and not just as a social lubricant. Whereas humans tend to drink to drink, wolves like to make an art of out its consumption. A beta friend of mine told me wolves drink to keep from fighting each other, but he was joking. It’s more about enjoying a shared experience.”

The camera zoomed out a bit more, and a beta male was shown to be standing beside her, dressed in a dinner jacket and impeccably groomed.

“I’m here with the globally respected sommelier, Thurston ‘Thirsty’ Auberjonois.” She looked at him with a smile. “And you do prefer to be called ‘Thirsty,’ is that right?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said with a touch of an Eastern accent. “People started calling me that as soon as I got interested in wines, and now no one calls me anything else, except perhaps crazy about wines.”

They both laughed, and it looked natural and pleasant. The background now clearly showed they were in the kitchen, but I could see all the photos and personal touches had been put away. It actually looked more like a kitchen TV set than a kitchen, which I supposed was the point.

“I’d love to start off by discussing the differences between wolf-grade and human-grade alcohol. People seem to think it’s just a matter of the proof, or the amount of alcohol by volume. But it’s more than that, right?”

Auberjonois nodded and went into a smoothly rehearsed lecture on distilling wine for different notes, noting that wolves tended to prefer earthier overtones, whereas humans preferred floral and buttery tones.

“But probably the most important thing is the finish,” he said. “This is the taste that lingers on the palate after the wine has been consumed. Wolves don’t tend to care if the finish lasts because their senses are more attuned to new and fresh scents, a factor in our hunting ability. A finish that lasts too long can even be seen as obtrusive or cloying.

“Humans, on the other hand, love a long finish and see it as the capping element of a wine’s quality.”

He held up two opened bottles. “Now, this is a wine I enjoy with meat, Cabernet Sauvignon, and you can see from the labels it comes in a human version, which is about 14 percent alcohol, and in wolf variety, which is 23 percent alcohol.” The assumption by wolves might be that the stronger wine is obviously better.

He put the bottles down and picked up two glasses with just a little wine in them. “Now, this is the wolf variety. Contrary to some myths out there, a human can drink wolf-grade alcohol. They just find it’s strong and they can’t drink all that much.”

They both sipped. Despite her obvious caution, Sarah winced.

“Yes. You taste that bitterness in there? Wolves don’t really notice it, but humans do.”

Sarah nodded and put the glass down. They both ate a small cracker while Auberjonois explained the need to refresh the taste buds.

“Now, let’s try a bit of the human variety,” he suggested, and they both sipped. Sarah smiled and sipped a little more.

Auberjonois laughed. “Yes, exactly. The Cabernet Sauvignon has great depth and powerful tannins, and you might taste a little pepper or bay leaf in there, but it’s smooth and hearty, not biting.”

He pursed his lips and breathed in. “And yes, there’s that lingering finish.”

Sarah copied him and nodded.

Next, they talked about different wines for different types of celebrations. While it was mostly wolf-centric, Sarah added an occasional observation about human customs, such as eggnog at the new year, champagne at weddings, and hot toddies for feeling better when it was cold out.

“And we should note that some drinks don’t need alcohol at all,” Sarah said, beaming at her audience, which I saw from the view counter was growing quickly. The camera zoomed out just a bit more, and Chloe and Grace joined them.

Sarah gave them both a hug and asked them what their favorite special drinks were.

“Cocoa,” Grace said, “with marshmallows.”

“Big marshmallows or the miniature ones?” Auberjonois asked quite seriously.

“Minis,” Grace said, and he nodded approvingly.

Chloe nodded. “I like hot cider better, with a cinnamon stick.”

“Also very good,” he said. “And now I’d like to show you a mocktail I loved making for my own pups when they were your age.”

The camera panned along the counter to four glasses and a selection of ingredients. “Now, I took this lime wedge and rubbed it around the martini glasses. Can you do that for this and you for this one?” He handed over the glasses and the wedges, and the girls very carefully did as he said.

Meanwhile, he put pineapple, lime juice, yuzu, agave, and grapefruit juice into a cocktail shaker and muddled it all, talking the whole while about releasing the fragrances and flavors. Then came ice and a shake. He took the four lime-wedged-rubbed glasses and dipped them in salt before pouring out the drinks.

“That does look pretty good,” I muttered.

“Then we garnish with a mint leaf,” he said next. “And then do you know what we do?” he asked the girls.

They shook their heads, eyes wide.

“We drink!” He raised his glass, and he and Sarah sipped at the mocktails. The girls grabbed their glasses and downed them in about five swallows.

“That was great!” Chloe exclaimed.

He laughed and Sarah made a show of protecting her drink from the girls so she could sip from it again.

“And that’s it for this episode of Let’s Talk! See you next time!”

Everyone smiled at the camera, which went to a short list of credits. I laughed when I read “The Girls were played by Grace and Chloe Cavendish.”

With a grin, I clicked the “Like” icon, and in a minute or two, I was reading the comments. The girls were evidently “so adorbs!”