There! A lynx. It stood on a rock almost completely blending in. It was staring at me in challenge. I twitched my right ear. There were lynx here? I waited for it to make its exit and it vanished up the mountain side.My hackles lowered and I sat, realizing how numb my paws were. I lifted one to examine it. A tad sore and red but thankfully not cut. I cleaned each paw as best as I could and rested under a tree-which didn’t really help keep me dry. Before I knew it, my head was on my paws and my eyes drooped shut.A bird chirped, awaking me. I yawned, extending my front legs. While it felt like I’d slept for hours I could tell by the position of the sun that I’d only slept thirty minutes.“Dang it,” I stood, all my joints stiff. I lost precious time. I should rest in my den, not here. Still a bit tired, I decided to walk instead of run. My thoughts slowly turned to Alpha, Draugluin and Lyall. Oh, what would they think? My steps slowed but I made them move faster. Was I scared? That was
Draugluin , the next alpha, was trusting me to keep silent which was a strange mixed of terrifying and exciting. I nodded slowly and solemnly.He led me behind the first, big boulder and wedged behind were two other boulders with a steel door. With great expertise, Draugluin used something in his hand to pick the lock and opened the door with ease. I searched behind me before being ushered inside, just now realizing that he'd picked neutral colored clothes to better camouflage us from any unwanted attention.It was damp inside and I could hear water dripping somewhere within. My eyes quickly adjusted to the dark and I saw crates come into view along with an unlit lamp and large, wooden chest.Draugluin sat on a crate before lighting the lamp. The flame gave the place a soft glow but cast foreboding shadows. I hurried and sat on the crate across from Draugluin . Not even a creak from the wood.“I’ve been doing research for a long time now,” Draugluin whispered. “There’s been something d
“Thank you, Alpha,” I nodded my thanks to Alpha who now had his nose in the book again.“You are dismissed,” he waved a hand and Draugluin shut the doors.There was silence as Draugluin , Smiley Ermengarde and I just stood there looking at each other. “I’d better go,” was Draugluin ’s reply before he made a quick exit. I watched him leave with too much interest. Maybe it was because of our earlier conversation in the cave or how he slowly seemed aloof again now that we were home.Ermengarde suddenly exhaled and took in big gulps of air. “Are you alright,” I bent down, my hand hovering over her back unsure of what to do.“I feel so nervous around boys,” she began laughing as if it were the funniest thing she’d heard of. All I did was blink. Twice.“You feel nervous around guys?”“Boys our age specifically,” Ermengarde straightened up with a smile before extending her hand. “I’m Ermengarde, a Theta.” I took her hand and shook it. “You’re quite popular around here now. Some people barely
A werewolf heals faster than the normal human due to our wolf’s strong metabolism, hand in hand with human metabolism. This generates a somewhat natural, rapid healing process but the disease easily spreads and can cause so much pain to Freki, she will scream and cry for hours. Our pack doctor has experimented much with medicines in the past and with the medicinal technology of today and has come up with a very strong medication to help Freki that comes in two folds: a pill and a very smelly, gooey ointment to put over the open wounds. The pill she takes in the morning, preferably during or after breakfast, and one at night. The ointment has to be applied to any areas on her body that looked as if the curse might begin to manifest. Sometimes we just applied it to areas on her body must susceptive to the curse. When she was younger, I’d have a timer to wake me up to apply it during the night since she was younger and could only have smaller doses, but more frequently.It is too dangerou
“Well, he thinks so,” Ermengarde drooped her head and I could clearly imagine her ears hanging low and her tail tucked between her legs. “Last year he saved me from a semi that swerved off the road and I guess you could say I looked at him differently. While everything was the same as usual, I felt different around him. Lighter and happier. I suppose I’m infatuated with him but he’s three years older than me. A sophomore girl at sixteen in love with a nineteen year old graduate who live in the same house?! It's like a storybook drama. I began avoiding him here at home and only really see him on our shopping trips. I still feel like I’m in heaven when I’m around him but I’m...scared.”I blinked. That was the longest, most deep talk I’d ever heard anyone admit to me and I’d only known her for a little under two days. This girl was an extrovert and very trusting. But why trust me, a Theta who was temporarily kicked out of the pack?“Well,” I rubbed my neck unsure of how to answer. “I don’
“That’s not reassuring.” I turned my back to the hall and lifted the flap of the paper. They were really amazingly complicated symbols; Draugluin must have taken his time writing it as detailed as he could. There were even some missing symbols as if I'd scratched them off in the fight.“This isn’t Latin,” I smiled, “or Chinese or Japanese or really any language I’ve seen written down on paper. It could be encrypted with numbers and words of other languages. And this one looks like a musical note.” I pointed to something that resembled a whole rest.“Something tells me this will take longer than I thought it would.” Draugluin scratched his head.“How long did you think it would take,” I asked.“About a month,” Draugluin admitted, “but with all my responsibilities, my free time isn’t very frequent. Not only that but I can get suddenly interrupted at any time. My father would be furious if he had any inclination that I hadn’t dropped this ‘foolish’ venture. He feels it is too dangerous fo
“Can I take Lupe to get some dessert,” Freki asked me. I couldn’t hold back my smile when I saw her mouth stuffed with broccoli like a chipmunk. That’s one way to finish your dinner.“Sure, but watch out for other people and hold Lupe’s hand,” I barely finished my statement before Freki started dragging a confused Lupe away.“Aww, they love you,” Uncle Benny smiled with his hands folded in front of him, plate spotless. How he could eat large amounts of food and somehow keep his figure was beyond me. I eyed him warily but his warm smile relaxed me. This was Uncle Benny, not Alpha.“I’m sure you are wondering why I wanted to sit with you three tonight,” Uncle Benny shifted, glancing towards my siblings who had made it to the dessert table. “I have something I want to warn you about. Alpha is having his health issues again. This can cause mood swings in him and everyone is alert and waiting, I’m sure you can feel the tension.”I actually didn’t notice until he pointed it out, I had been t
Lyall was too busy laughing to avoid my backpack slamming into his face. After it slid off his face, Lyall held his nose but still could not contain his laughter. “You should have seen your face.”There was something about Lyall that was different the more I hung around him. I now realized that there used to be a stiff feeling between Lyall and I. Sure we hung out but there was now this more relaxed part of Lyall that I couldn’t ever remember seeing before. Was it our rank difference that held him back from getting closer to me in the past? If it was, he had done a dang good job of hiding it and I couldn't decide if that made him a good friend or a bad one.“How’s life as a Theta,” Lyall changed the subject.“Torture,” I admitted, staring at the ceiling. “I’m going to bed earlier from now on.”“Yeah right,” Lyall drained his last of his Capri Suns. He’d brought a whole box and they were littered around him. I wondered if Draugluin ate that much and that fast.I choked. Why was I thinki