The Kingdom of Wolves

Chapter 20

"So, let me get this straight. The king's men are probably after us, Lena's grandfather told us to go find a bunch of werewolves, we don't even have any money, and you guy want to stop for burgers?" I was just about at my breaking point, my head in my hands. Syl and Lena nodded sheepishly.

We were standing in front of a 24-hour diner where Syl and Lena wanted to stop for food. Apparently, I was the only one with any sense. We had left Lena's family's house a couple of hours ago.

"No. We are leaving now. You can have some protein bars or something from the bag. We are not stopping," I told them.

"But - " Syl complained. I glared at him until he gave a sigh of resignation. I turned away from the two of them and continued marching up the street; if they weren't behind me, too bad for them.

Lost in thought of how nice it would've been if we could've stopped for burgers (which I'm still sure it would've been stupid to do!), I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I rammed headfirst into someone hurrying down the street. I fell backwards, landing on my butt.

"OhmygoshI'msosorry!" Someone shouted from above me. I looked to see a girl leaning over me, holding out her hand. I gripped and pulled myself up.

"It's fine," I told her, dusting myself off.

She still seemed worried. "Are you sure?" Her eyes were a peculiar shade of amber and her hair covered the left side of her face in a way that did not seem like an accident.

"Yeah it's no big deal," Just then, Syl and Lena came running up from behind me.

"Are you okay?" They both asked. They couldn't have done it in more perfect unison if they tried.

"Yes I'm fine. Now we have to go. I want to be gone within the next few hours," I began to walk briskly down the street.

"Wait!" Lena called after me. I turned around and crossed my arms over my chest as she ran to me. "You do realize most of the people we're looking for are in the city, right?" She said when she caught up to me.

I felt my face flame up in embarrassment. I hadn't thought of that. I put my head in my heads and groaned as I realized she was right.

Lowering her voice considerably, she added. "And what if she's one of us?" I followed her gaze to where Syl was conversing with the girl I had run into.

Hmmm. "Keep her busy and send Syl over here. I want to see if he found anything out about her."

Lena nodded. I watched as she whispered my instructions to Syl. He nodded and headed my way.

"Her name is Selene Williams. That's pretty much the only important thing I found out about her."

I slid my gaze back over to the girl - Selene - where she was talking animatedly with Lena. In the moonlight, Lena's complexion seemed more pale, the way most people look, but Selene seemed to thrive in the dull glow, her hair silvery and shining, the visible part of her face vibrant in a way that was almost as peculiar as a human turning into a wolf every month (which isn't exactly normal. I may be one, but I'm not completely blind to reality).

I dug the list out of my pocket. I scanned it, looking more carefully once I found the Ws. Sure enough, she was there. Selene Williams.

"She's on here," I told Syl, showing him the list.

"Should we talk to her about it...?" He inquired, seeming unsure of himself. Or maybe he was being sarcastic. I wasn't really paying attention.

"We can't just go straight out and ask her about it - " I began.

"She'd probably run away or something. Or maybe slap you and then run away," Syl interjected.

"We should probably get to know her a little bit more or something. Maybe we could..." I trailed off, trying to think of something other than burgers. I could tell that Syl knew what I was thinking by the grin that had begun to slide its way onto his face.

"What if we invited her to get burgers with us?" He was full-on grinning now. I resisted the urge to slap him. Instead I glared and groaned.

"Fine," I snapped. "But we still don't have any money."

I trotted up to Lena and Selene, just catching the end of their conversation. Something about living in the city versus the country. I tapped Lena on the shoulder then whispered our sort-of-plan into her ear. She nodded and smiled.

"Do you want to grab some burgers with us, Selene? We don't really have any money, but we could find a way to make it work," Lena was being bubbly Lena. It seemed that she did that when she met someone new.

Selene smiled wide. "Sure! And I can pay. But you seem like nice people. But I thought you wanted to be out of the city by sunrise?" She turned to me, looking troubled.

"Well, I realized that we kind of can't because what we need to do is in the city," I told her. I decided giving anything more specific might freak her out.

She smiled in understanding. "Well, I saw a diner just down the street. Do you want to go there?"

"Yes," Syl replied from behind me, making me jump. I hadn't noticed him standing there before. From the look on Lena's face, she hadn't either.

"Don't do that!" She cried, hitting him lightly on the arm. He laughed.

"Shall we?" I said, gesturing back the way we had come.

Selene smiled. "Of course!"

Well this should be interesting, I thought as we made our way down the street.

We either make a new friend.

Or we make a new enemy.

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Hi guys!  I'm really sorry about my lack of posting, but I've had a lot going on.  I'm also not sure what's going to happen these next few weeks because I'm going to be involved in the musical from school.  Next weekend I should be able to post, but then the two weekends after that I'm not sure.  I don't completely remember the schedule so I could be completely wrong.  I just hope you guys aren't super mad at me.  I'm doing the best I can!

This chapter is about 970 words, so a little bit shorter, but not too short.  Tell me in the comments if you like my little word count thingys!

Thanks again for reading!

Ravenclaw567