Second Fate

15

Neither of us spoke a word until we saw the pack's silhouettes appear in front of us. They were lurking in the trees' shadows, completely unaware of the conversation which had taken place inside of the shack. Just one wolf, taller than any other and with white-blond fur shining in the evening's last sunbeams, was walking towards us.

He stopped abruptly as he caught Neal's look.

The alpha offered us an apologetic smile and a nod, while saying something about untouchable rules and maybe in the future before he separated from us to join his beta and pack.

As he departed, the silence between us got thicker and thicker. Finally, I pinched Vine's upper arm out of impulse.

"Ouch."

"Don't make such a dejected face or I'll become sad too."

I could see the cogs turn inside his mind, while he mustered me attentively.

"I hadn't thought that Victor would give us such an absolute No", he stated. The regret was openly visible in the twists of his face.

"It's alright." Not at all, I corrected myself in thoughts, because now I'm officially an outsider. Because I can't shut up when I have to. "We'll convince them ... or outlive them."

Vine made a sound familiar to stifled laughter. "You're right. This is just a little setback."

"I'm always right", I replied without voicing that I considered Victor's judgement worse than a little setback. Even though the conversation hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes, the men's words had been inambiguous: They were only laying down the law – and they didn't think of changing it for us.

"But it means, that we have to retreat for today. Victor's word is –"

"– law, yes, I've understood that much", I ended the sentence for him, while kicking a pebble around the forest floor.

"Not exactly. Victor cannot make laws. He has to follow what the congregations' leaders negotiate with the hunters." Vine's gaze flew to the forest path, which would take us away from this clearing and back to the jeep. "That's why we should just follow his advice and get out of here."

"Continue the fight another day", I added.

He nodded. The depressed look had vanished from his face, but I could feel the same unrest radiating from him as it had inside of the shack. He wasn't any happier with the results than I was – but we both knew that defiance was not going to get us what we wanted here.

"I'm sorry I'm not one of you."

My whisper had been so quiet, it could've been one of the gusts of wind sailing through the trees, rustling the leaves. But Vine had caught it, that was clear to me immediately, when I saw the look in his eyes. They'd widened for a second before they narrowed.

"Why did you say that?", he demanded to know in a quiet voice.

I felt my mouth go a little dry as I regretted the words.

"It's just ... I feel like your life would be a lot easier if I was like you. A werewolf, a shifter."

"Does that mean you want to be one?"

*

"No", I clarified with such force that his eyebrows relaxed a little.

The notion of me trying to turn seemed to unsettle Vine, and it sounded like a dangerous idea, so I didn't feel any desire to test my luck. However, I couldn't deny that I'd wondered about it for a second inside the shack.

If it were the only way to gain Victor's approval ...

"I'm glad you're not thinking about that nonsense", he disrupted my thoughts. "It's painful and messy – and there is no guarantee that you'll survive and be the same person after."