Moon Bound

Chapter 1-Scent and Sensibility

My cell buzzed angrily on the table next to the box labeled 'donations for food kitchen.' One glance at the caller ID told me it wouldn't be a conversation I wanted to have at the moment—or at all if I'm really being honest.

"It's Asher again, isn't it?"

An exasperated groan left my lips, "Yessssss."

"You know... you can't ignore him much longer."

I turned to look at my best friend, Blanca. Her beautiful silver-blonde hair fell in messy tendrils from where it was piled on her head as she stood with an armful of my medical textbooks precariously balanced against her chest.

"I know." I taped up the box I'd just finished packing. "l just wish he wasn't such a wolf with a bone."

Blanca laughed, shooting me a meaningful look. "Oh, he's got a bone alright."

"Good goddess, stop!" I threw my hands over my face, but I couldn't stifle the laugh that bubbled up and out of me at her innuendo. I shook my head, irritation tugging my lips into a tight line. "He's convinced I'm his mate."

"Maybe you are."

"I'm not."

"Okay," she drawled, filling yet another box with books. "But would it be so bad if you were?"

"Yes. He's an arrogant man pup. I just can't accept the goddess would mate me to anyone who didn't, at the very least, know how to open a book."

"Oh, come on! He can read. He's just spent more time honing other... skills." Blanca smiled licentiously.

Lots of time, if the word around the den is true.

"He can be sweet," she continued. "He's charming and loyal. He's the Alpha's brother. He's hot." She blew a wayward tendril out of her face. "He's really hot."

"Maybe he's your mate," I offered, the sharp bite of sarcasm rolling effortlessly off my tongue.

Blanca stood up and shot me a mischievous smirk. "I mean... "—she gestured to herself—"that male can make me howl any night he wants." Her eyes narrowed, and she pinned me with a sharp look, " But seriously, you're going to have to accept that you'll probably be far smarter than your future mate, so why not get something else out of it?"

I rolled my eyes.

Blanca's hands went to her hips, "You know what you need? A good romp in the woods, then you'll understand." She waggled her eyebrows at me. "Asher could definitely give you that."

I chuckled and tossed her a new roll of tape. I wish I had a fraction of Blanca's confidence. She'd always been fully connected to her wolf. When the season had come for her first shift, she welcomed it. It'd happened effortlessly on the first full moon after her sixteenth birthday.

My first time...

Well, to be honest, I was a late bloomer. It took a full eight lunar cycles after my sixteenth birthday. When it finally did happen, I was so scared I fought it, making the cell remodeling excruciatingly painful and slow.

Afterward, I could barely walk on all fours, never mind run with the pack.

If it hadn't been for Blanca and my brother Silas, I may never have gotten past that awkward teen wolf phase. They took me out in the woods every day, far from the prying eyes at the den, and helped me practice shifting over and over until it became instinctual. Then we would go on runs, just the three of us.

Sure, maybe I never fully achieved the level of grace Blanca possesses, and even as an adult, I can still be a little awkward in my own fur. But, the memories of roaming the pack lands with Silas and Blanca were some of my most cherished childhood memories. They had always made me feel loved and like I belonged, even though there was a lot about me that was different from others of our kind.