Bound Trilogy: Budding: A Supernatural Story (WLW)

Chapter Eight

Imogen sat down after eating only about half of her lunch and hummed as the afternoon breeze carried down the plain wherein she rested. This was exactly what the doctor ordered. No distractions. No fighting or bickering. Just complete serendipity.

She hummed once more as she pulled her sketchpad out and glanced around at the trees spotting several different bird species around her. A red bellied woodpecker worked at a tree not too far off and Imogen gleefully smiled, making her choice. She pulled her pencil out and watched the bird as she blindly sketched a draft on her pad. Once she had its framework done, she glanced down and began to fill in the details.

Before long, the bird could be seen in full detail on her sketchpad, and she nibbled on her pencil as her glasses slipped down her nose a bit further.

"Cute." She heard someone call from beside herself and whipped around. The surprisingly large Asian woman from the wreck was kneeling beside her and staring at her sketchpad. Imogen skittered back, her picnic blanket and food jostling about beneath her. She lost her glasses in the process, making the woman snort as she picked them up and held them out. "Sorry. I always forget you humans can't hear us coming most of the time. Guess that's why we won the war."

"In case you need a history lesson, we were allies..." Imogen turned her head to the side and looked the woman up and down as she took her glasses back. "Unless you are a US Acciai."

The woman looked offended and, after straightening it out, she plopped down on the other end of Imogen's blanket.

"Why would you think I am?" Her tenor tones were rather hypnotic, but she was also a complete stranger and didn't appear to understand the concept of personal space. "Do I look Italian to you?"

"Well, no." Imogen finally replied as she looked back down at her sketchpad. "But I read people from all sides defected to the alliance that called to them the most."

"Only cowards and greedy fuckers."

Imogen startled at the use of her harsh language, but more at the sudden arousal it set aflame in her gut, betraying her resolve to not give this woman a single inch. She sent Imogen an appreciative smile like she knew exactly where her mind had gone and Imogen stood as she grumbled under her breath. She began gathering her things and, surprising her enough to make her momentarily freeze, the wolf began to help her.

"Is there something you need from me? Information from the incident or something? I gave the police all the information I have, so I'm not sure what else I could tell you or the Okami." The woman froze and slowly looked up at her, still wearing her brazen smile. "Wh...What..?" Imogen picked up her things and stumbled back as she cleared her throat.

"How did you know I was an investigator?" The wolf stood and chewed her bottom lip for a moment. She glanced her up and down so cocky it immediately annoyed Imogen, but she hid it with a stiff grin as she began tapping her foot. The woman leaned in and winked. "Did you...look me up?"

Imogen felt her cheeks redden and she spun around, marching off to her car. Were all the Okami so shamelessly arrogant? She heard the woman rustling something behind her, but kept moving forward, counting down the steps to her sedan.

Yes, Imogen knew exactly who Kimiko Fujiwara was, regardless of her farce of an act before.

She fought in Alaska alongside the white fox tribe in their small rogue wolf problem when it first began several years back before it had escalated to the Lis being attacked. Then she immediately joined the Okami Investigative Agency and had been with different branches for the last two years. She was a bit of a jack of all trades in her profession and the Okami appeared to know this as well, sending her all over the world for missions whose files were all redacted. She was very high up the food chain, but never made a supervisory agent. She quickly advanced and was eventually assigned to her uncle's detail after about a year and a half, then had an incident due to a fellow coworker who went rogue.