I'm thinking about putting Go Away Romeo on hold, thoughts?
I felt myself start to wake, my mind slowly becoming aware of the throbbing bruises that graced my body.
I heard a whimper from the other side of my bed and my eyes snapped open and landed on Lilly, curled into a tight ball. She was shaking slightly and sweat coated her forehead.
“Carmen,” I whispered, shaking her shoulder. “Wake up.”
She woke with a start, a small squeak escaping her lips.
“It was just a dream, sweetheart.” I said gently.
“Just a dream.” She mumbled, pulling the blankets off of her.
“Go get ready for school, honey.”
She nodded wordlessly, padding out of my room.
I sighed and sat up, wincing as new aches made themselves known. I limped to the door and locked it before moving to the bathroom. I looked quickly in the mirror, assessing the already fading bruise and the mostly healed cut. One of the benefits of being a werewolf, we heal damn quick.
I hastily brushed some powder over the yellowish handprint that would be gone by the time I got to school and moved out of the bathroom after applying a swipe of mascara.
As quietly as I could, I slipped on a pair of black skinny jeans and a purple off the shoulder shirt that didn’t press on the still tender bruise from my stepfathers last kick. That one would take a couple more days to heal completely; thank the Goddess I didn’t have any internal bleeding, that takes forever to heal.
Looking in the mirror I sighed. Today was another first day of school. We move frequently so my mother’s old pack can’t find us. Everything we do stems from the fear of her old pack. She married my stepfather, a human, so his scent would cover ours. We moved every six months so they wouldn’t have the time to track us. My mother never told Carmen or I why we were running from her old pack and we stopped asking, eventually.
A knock sounded quietly on my door.
“Annie?” Carmen called from the other side of the door, silent to human ears.
“Meet me by the woods, we’ll run to school.” I called back just as quietly.
“Okay.”
I took a final glance at myself, ensuring that no bruises were visible, and tiptoed softly out of my room and out the back door.
Carmen was waiting for me at the edge of the woods. Every house we move into is generally the same: remote and near the woods.
“You ready?” I asked, swinging my backpack off of my shoulder as we walked into the woods a bit.
She nodded silently and began to remove her clothes and stuff them into her backpack. I copied her actions, folding my shirt and jeans hastily before dropping them into my beat up bag along with my shoes.
“I’ll lead, if we run into other wolves you are to take off. I’ll meet you at the school.” I said, power leaking into my voice, taking away her freedom to disagree.
According to my mother my father was an alpha of some sort and the alpha gene was passed onto me as his oldest child. I hated using the power it provided and only did so when it was absolutely necessary.
Carmen bowed her head slightly, looking annoyed. She hated that I always told her this whenever we shifted.
I closed my eyes and pictured my wolf; she had pure white fur and sapphire blue eyes. I felt my bones begin to pop and break, remolding into their second shape, the shift always hurts but it is a good pain, a pain that sets you free.
