Prep for Unguardable

Day 3 - Hello, my name is Shoshana Cox

Hi, my name is Shoshana Cox. I’m an enforcer for the All-World Consulate in Tacoma, Washington. I was born in New Paltz, New York to Leah and Joseph Cox on August 8th, 1968.


My early days were turbulent and troubling. My mother had a lot of anger management issues. Honestly, I don’t think she wanted me in the first place and she tried to correct the mistake of having me on several occasions.


When I was ten, one of my teachers called Child Protective Services because she suspected I was being abused. The resulting investigation and trial tore my family apart. In the end, the court told my father that they were going to take me away from them if he didn’t start protecting me from my mother. He packed my things and had me out of the house before she was released from jail.


My father and I moved to Enumclaw, Washington to live with his parents. He was miserable being away from my mother. In the four months he stayed with me, he lost around twenty pounds. She would call every day and as the days went by, he became more and more distant. One day I woke up and he was just gone -- no note, no good bye. I found out he’d left when I went downstairs for breakfast and I saw my grandmother sitting at the kitchen table with red puffy eyes. She was the one who told me he’d returned to my mother.


The summer after my High School graduation, a friend and I were driving down to Portland, Oregon in her father’s Camaro to see a concert. We were just past Olympia, Washington when we were hit by a car who’d changed lanes without looking. I ended up being rushed to the hospital and given a blood transfusion.


Although my injuries had been life-threatening and I had needed several bags of blood, it took less than a week for most of my injuries to fade into slight silver scars. The doctors and my grandparents were amazed. I was less thrilled. There was a part of me that hoped one of my parents would call to make sure that I was alright. They never did.


Fortunately, one of the nurses was a werewolf and recognized my rapid recovery was due to being infected with the lycanthropy virus. It was 1986 and a different world back then, Humans were still under the assumption that you had to be bitten in order to be infected and shapeshifters weren’t telling them anything different. It would be five more years before the All-World Consulate was established and information started being shared between the Common-Worlders and Other-Worlders.


Lucas Blackwell, the alpha of the Tacoma pack, came to the hospital and talked with me and my grandparents. He explained who he was, what was going on, and what we could expect. When I left the hospital, I went to live at the Tacoma pack’s compound out in the boonies of Orting, Washington.


Looking back, I can’t believe how much crap I gave Lucas and the pack. I was mouthy, insolent, and pissed at everything. After all, I’d just learned that not even death could get my parents attention for the daughter they’d abused and abandoned. I was barely eighteen and going through the human roller-coaster of emotions that all teenagers deal with, and to top it all off, I now had a new werewolf’s rage. I still embarrass myself every time I look back and remember my behavior, there has been more than one late night phone call to Lucas and his wife apologizing for being a horrible brat.


In 1991, the All-World Consulate was established and a branch created in Tacoma. Lucas was trying to decide who should go represent the local lycanthropes. I quickly volunteered.


Lucas turned me down at first. He told me that I was too volatile and impetuous. That my lack of control and respect were unacceptable. It was a big wake up call. I did a complete 180 with my attitude and behavior. I started training regularly, following the rules, making sure that I attended all the functions with the proper amount of pomp to go with the circumstance. A year later, he told me that if I still wanted the job, it was mine. I’ve worked for the All-World Consulate ever since.


Some people may take it as a slight to my pack that I work for the Consulate or that I ran away because I am low-ranking or weak. Some people would be wrong. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Lucas or his family. His wife, Bethany, deserves sainthood for her patience with the pack. Her love and caring for their daughters, Alison and Ivory, is the epitome of what a mother’s love should be. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for them. I’m stronger than ninety percent of the pack. If I’d stayed there would have been dominance fights and issues of mating and – pack politics are complicated.


I’m not interested in being in charge, so dominance issues don’t interest me. I want to do a job and get praised for doing it well, not climb a ladder. Also, I have no interest in having children. Despite my grandparents, and Bethany and Lucas all showing me that not all parents are atrocious, I still don’t want to be one. Besides, girls can’t make babies with other girls and I am not interested in the opposite sex at all.


Since working at the consulate, I’ve learned quite a bit about different species of Others. My best friend, Michaela King is a Voodooienne and my partner Shay Harris and my boss Councilor Gregory Hoyt are Witches. I’ve met Vampires, Sprites and Elementals, but I’d never seen a Dragon until I was given the assignment to protect the Dragon Princess Teagan Rose.


Teagan doesn’t know that she’s a Dragon and I’m not allowed to tell her. I encountered her when I almost blew my cover following a suspect into her apartment. She confronted me and almost called the police. Since meeting her, I can’t get her out of my mind and she is quickly working her way into my heart.





To see Shoshana's character sheet head over to https://charahub.com/character/950313/Shoshana-Miriam-Cox/public/