Twins of the Cursed Moon (wolf shifter werewolf romance)

6. Friends, Foes, and Fragile

Rose
After my bath, I plopped down on the full-sized bed, in the small bedroom, of the three-room cabin that I was given. I slept in bed after my bath and didn't wake up until five pm the next day. I looked at the little wall clock on the other side of the scratched sofa and the empty book shelving in the living room. I zoned out to the ticking as if I were watching a TV show, though there was no TV. Last night I had taken two baths, because there was no shower curtain, and the filth on me wouldn't easily come off. The broken toilet seat pinched my butt and the bathroom supplies that I brought in my backpack wouldn't last long. I hadn't wanted to weigh myself down too much.
After getting dressed for the day, in jean shorts, a dark green tee, brown sandals, and hair in a ponytail; I changed out my bandages, and put on my mini brown leather backpack that I use as a purse. I had so many things that I needed to do, but I found myself staring at the clock, tick, tick, ticking. I took a deep breath and walked outside, taking inventory of the different things I would have to buy shortly as I went.
It was just a tiny log cabin, with a little overhang porch on the front and two hooks for a swing. It had fifteen feet of yard around it, which was partitioned by a low shrub from the other houses around it. The houses on both sides of it looked nearly identical, save that their house numbers were different, the one to the left had a flower garden in the front yard, two small white chairs, and a bird feeder.
There was a curvy girl with a mass of long curly, dishwater-blonde hair and dark blue eyes, who was sitting on a chair, on the porch of the house to the right. It had two brown chairs with striped cushions on its front porch and a fat chipmunk eating a peanut sitting on her chair's arm. She was petting the top of the chipmunk's head while it rolled the peanut about its fluffy cheeks.
She turned her face toward me and stood up while smiling with deep dimples. Her little chipmunk jumped on her shoulder. "Hey, you're new here, hun? I'm Cali," she said while pushing through the gap between the hedge partition and cutting across our front lawns. She was wearing a short yellow sundress and flip-flops. She pulled a couple of leaves from her mass of hair with one hand and held out her other hand to shake mine.
"I'm Rose, it's nice to meet you."
"This is my baby, Peanut. I tried to let him go free after he was all healed up, but he decided to stay. Isn't he just the cutest?"
"He is," I said while looking at the chubby chipmunk eating a peanut.
"How many houses are here?" I said while looking at the identically built cabins in rows, connected by wide stone paths. At the end of the paths, there was a large wooden building that had a three-level parking garage beside it.
"There are two hundred cabins, but not all of them are occupied. The one you moved into was empty for two years, I imagine it could use a good scrubbing. I wouldn't mind coming over to help out if you need it," said Cali.
"If that's a genuine offer, I wouldn't mind taking you up on that," I said.
"Don't let her come over, you'll be pulling out peanut shells from your couch cushions and everywhere else for weeks afterward," said a girl with her brown hair tied up with a pencil, sitting on a chair on her front porch, on the other side of my new house. She had a book in her hand, which she carried with her while she walked over, using the stone path that connected all of the houses.
"That was one time, I haven't brought over a bag of peanuts since," Cali said.
"Hi, my name is Ophelia Barlowe, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Ophy comes off as cold until you get to know her, but she's a real sweetheart," said Cali while wrapping an arm around Ophelia's waist. Cali was a head shorter than her and two heads shorter than me.
"My name is Ophelia. Oh-fee-lee-ah, not Ophy," she said, but she didn't shake off Cali's side hug.
"Don't let her fool you, she's a softie," she said while resting the side of her head on Ophelia's shoulder.
Ophelia blushed slightly and changed the subject. "Also, I should warn you that if you like to bird watch, you have to watch what type of birdfeeder you get, or that menace will eat all your birdfeed, and scare away your birds."
"What kind of wolf birdwatches? It's not a sport," said Cali.
"What kind of wolf has a pet rodent?" said Ophelia.
Cali squinted her eyes up at Ophelia, "Touché."
"Besides, there's more than just me. There are now fifteen members in my birdwatching club, we meet every Tuesday at five. Oh, would you like to come to a meeting, Rose?"
"When she says that the meeting is at five, she means five am, just so you know. The bird people wake up early," said Cali.
"Don't call us bird people, the only bird shifter in our group is Maya," said Ophelia.
"If a bird shifter watches birds, does that make her a stalker or a peeping tom?" said Cali.
Ophelia laughed and swatted at Cali, "Stop that, you know it doesn't."
"Does she switch into her bird form to peep on the birds for an unfair advantage and do you guys have her switch into her bird form to help lure in other birds?" said Cali.
"She has flown up in a tree occasionally, but she can't draw very well in that form...and we have...occasionally," said Ophelia.
"I knew it! That's cheating. I bet you guys do it all the time. We should invite her over, I want to see if she clears out your birdfeeder and eats the worms in your garden," said Cali.
"She only eats birdseed and other things while she's in her bird form. Most of the time she eats fruit and nuts," said Ophelia.
"Other things?" said Cali.
"You don't want to know," said Ophelia.
"What kind of bird shifter is she?" I said.
"A wren," said Ophelia.
"Oh...well at least she can fly," I said.
"That's true, I wouldn't mind having a pair of wings," said Ophelia.
"What other things? What aren't you telling me?" said Cali.
"Wrens are mostly insectivores," I said.
"No! I was joking about the worms! She'd eat the worms in your garden?" said Cali.
"and spiders," I said.
"Oh," Cali said while holding her hand over her mouth.
"You need to get out more. There are all types of shifters in the world," said Ophelia to Cali.
"No, no, no. I'm never mating to a bird shifter," Cali said.
"You aren't mating to anyone," said Ophelia.
"That's not nice," said Cali.
"It's true," said Ophelia.
"Well, you aren't mating to anybody either," said Cali.
"I don't want to mate to anybody. I never go to the bonfires or dance," said Ophelia.
"Ophelia's angry because the last guy she was seeing ended up snatched away by Tina. She lives across the street with the dark red flower box. Anyway, whenever she sees a female with a guy, she tries to snatch them away. She only likes guys who are taken. There was an annoying guy who kept on following Megan around, so she purposely walked past Tina's house with him, and Tina stole him away. He wouldn't stop hounding Tina for months afterward, it was awesome! Tina was so mad," said Cali.
"That is true, she's a good trash guy dumpster...and I'm not angry anymore, if Tina wants to take out my trash, she's perfectly welcome to it. I'm not going to pine after I guy who can be stolen," said Ophelia.
"I wouldn't have minded if I found out that my ex was a cheater earlier. We started dating freshmen year and I caught Shawn making out with Natalie two months before graduation. He told me that it was a congratulatory kiss since he was graduating, and wanted me to stay with him. They looked like they were trying to eat each other's faces off...my bestie never liked him, I should have listened to her," I said quietly.
"What about now? Are you seeing anybody?" said Ophelia.
"Not really, just some random guy said that I'm his mate," I said.
"What! Really?! Who is it, maybe we know him," said Cali.
"He said that his name was Evander something," I said.
"Evander? I only know of one Evander. Tall, dreamy, personification of sexy, thick wavy black hair that begs to be pulled, abs you could break bricks on, blue eyes you could stare into for hours, perfectly tailored suits, completely loaded, sexy voice, and High Alpha of the Southern Zenith clan."
"Yep, that's the one," I said.
"What the grape? Why are you here?" said Cali.
"I'm sorry to say this, but I have to agree this time. Why are you living in single housing if your fated mate is High Alpha Evander Mohan?" said Ophelia.
"I don't trust good-looking guys and I want nothing to do with an Alpha," I said.
"So he's too sexy for you? That is a really weird complaint," said Cali.
"I'm newly out of a serious break-up and I don't need a rebound guy, no matter how sexy," I said.
"Fated mates aren't rebounds," said Ophelia.
"They rarely cheat," said Cali.
"Rarely, means that sometimes they do, and I'm not ready to get hurt again. I don't even know this guy," I said.
"I'm trying to correct that," said Evander.
They looked over to see that Evander had silently walked up.
Cali and Ophelia lowered their eyes and licked their lips, "High Alpha Evander," they both said quietly.
"What are you doing here?" I said, put a hand on my hip, and stared him down.
He chuckled low in his throat, sending a thrill down my back that made my toes want to curl. "I said that I would see you later."
"And I told you that I'm not interested," I said while roughly poking him in the chest.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Cali and Ophelia start to shake slightly. I frowned and looked over at them.
"Ladies," Evander said.
"We're leaving," said Cali.
"We were just heading out to the dining hall, so we'll see you later," said Ophelia.
"Well, why don't I go with you?" I said.
"That's fine, just meet us there when you're done," said Ophelia while chasing after Cali, who was practically running away.
I watched them go and then glared up at Evander. "Why did you scare my friends?"
"I am an Alpha, intimidating people is natural," said Evander.
"Well, I don't like it!" I said, getting into his face.
"Are you...challenging me?" he said with a confused frown on his face.
"Challenge you? You're not in charge of me," I said.
He took a step closer until our bodies touched, and then he wrapped his muscular arm around my back. I smelled a heady deep masculine scent and felt his large hand curling into the hair on my scalp. He gently guided my head to the side, exposing my neck. Another thrill shot through me when he sniffed my scent in and his sharp canines gently scraped along my skin. He moved along the edge of my ear, lightly trailing his tongue. Then he bit the top of my ear and I kneed him in the balls.
"Ow! Why the hell did you bite me?!" I said while rubbing my ear. I pulled my hand back when I felt a slightly sticky residue and looked at the little bit of blood on my fingers.
"I'm bleeding!" I said while accusingly shoving my fingers in front of his pain-contorted face.
"I didn't expect your skin to be that delicate," he said through gritted teeth.
"Well, it looks like I'm not the only delicate one here," I said while walking past him. "Bye," I said while wiggling my fingers at him and walking off towards the dining hall.