Polaris Skies

Chapter 6

Hana woke in fits and bursts. An hour after settling into the room, the group grew restless with her starts. The woman was jittery, which placed their wolves on edge.

A banging at the door and the wafting odour of hard liquor raised their hackles. Timidly, the black-haired woman opened the door a crack. Nat's and Deck's glowing feral eyes followed her movement. She shrunk under the gaze of a massive mountain that stood at her door in a sweat-stained undershirt and grimy blue jeans. They could smell the sickly bitter, acrid stench of fear ooze from the woman under the stare of that man. They watched in uncertainty, wondering if they needed to get involved.

"Haniel, where's the rent money?" The monster barked. A dagger-shaped birthmark paled between his eyebrows. She handed him one of her bills and replied, "I'm leaving in the morning." The man glared at the bill, frustration creasing lines around his lips before he turned and lumbered down the stairs.

"Who was that?" Deck whispered to Hana when the man's footsteps no longer creaked the walls of the apartment.

"The man who leases the building." She sank back into her corner, easing her shoulders into the crook of the worn corner. The wolf in Nat noted the notches, directing his focus and how her heart rate fell as her frail shoulders fit into the grooves. He wasn't sure if he was reassured or disturbed that he could now sense these things about the people around him, that the wolf was feeding him information.

"A hundred? For this measly room? That's bogus," Benj muttered. He had been lying on the floor, partially asleep, when the man had come. He rolled to a sitting position, his hair tussled and falling into his eyes. He groped around for his glasses. Sun Hee settled them on his nose.

"His wife left him. This isn't the best place for me to stay, but I needed someplace." Hana shaded her bottomless black eyes with her eyelashes to avoid meeting Benj's appraising glance.

"What does that have to do with his wife?" Benj pushed. Her nose wrinkled at the tone. She met his eyes, her lips flattening. Her heart accelerated, and, as Nat noticed, that acid smell was back. He found it to be a strange pheromone, fear. It was pungent, and his wolf didn't like it when Hana was afraid.

She blinked at Benj before sliding her eyes along Deck and Yeller to settle on Nat. Her facial expression changed into startled fear and a different pheromone, much more basal than fear, suddenly invaded Nat's senses. The creature pacing beneath his skin prickled, demanding to be let out. Nat shifted farther away from the woman in an attempt to collar his wolf.

"Oh." Benj got the message. He eased between Zola and Sun Hee, placing himself in a less hostile position. Deck glanced between the two before settling back to his spot. Sun Hee leaned onto his shoulder to make him less intimidating to Hana. "What was that all about?" Sun Hee whispered to Deck.

"Protection from the landlord so that he wouldn't touch her," Benj whispered in his sister's ear.

"Oh."

Nat was keenly aware that it was his wolf that watched the young woman who had curled up in the corner of the room. They had both noticed the hump to her back that she had been careful to draw attention away from in their interactions up to now.

The moon slipped from the windows of the apartment to the skylight. Grey clouds flitted to cast crawling shadows. The wolf traced a beam of moonlight fallen across her face, revealing beautifully sculpted lips and high cheekbones. The quiet of sleep settled over the rest of the group. The monster beneath his skin paced incessantly, and his hand throbbed perpetually. He had taken to trying to count anything he could lay his eyes on if only to draw the creature's gaze away from its fixation. It brushed under his skin insistently. It clawed at his innards and gnawed at his heart. He couldn't breathe; it hurt too much. The wolf howled pitifully in his head.