Truce and Lies

Chapter 2: romp and stomp

I shifted as I felt the moon rise. The farmhouse smelled wrong in this form; the vampires didn't carry a scent and so it left the place feeling empty. I hopped off the bed and padded out of the room. I wasn't sure where Stefa was, but I explored the halls until I found a room with a light on. Stefa wasn't inside, but Jenny was. She startled when she saw me. I sat down and thumped my tail. Jenny was Hannah's assistant, answering emails, phones and other duties since Hannah was responsible for the southern portion of Stefa's territory. She always wore red lipstick that matched her red hair, and the lipstick was the only scent I could pick up in the room.

"Conor, why are you a...is it full moon?"

She frowned at her phone. "Yes, it is. What are you looking for?"

I barked since the question was rather silly on account that I couldn't answer her with words.

"I don't know if Stefa is here," Jenny mused. "She supposed to meet Juan at the state line and she's probably not back yet."

I whined, wishing that Stefa would have stuck around this evening. I didn't need her, but this was the first full moon I had been at this estate. I didn't want to spook anyone.

"Maybe she left Lin or Hannah in charge?" she mused. "Sorry, I'm not sure how much you understand. Come on, Conor."

I followed her out of the room and down the stairs to the living room. Lin was working on his laptop while Hannah was on her phone. They both looked up when we entered.

"Stefa was right, you are gorgeous," Hannah laughed. "Hello, Conor!"

I shook my fur from mane to tail and then sat down with a big yawn.

"If you can wait a couple hours, the sun will be back down and we can go down to the creek," Lin suggested.

I whined again, rising up again and walking to the door. I was not going to beg to be let out of this house; I would jump through a window first.

"I'm guessing that is a no," Jenny giggled. "I can let him out through the garage and then leave it cracked. He's small enough to look like a dog, not that anyone would be on our property to mistake him."

"Please don't go too far," Lin requested. "Stefa will kill us all if you got hurt."

I snorted and trotted up to the garage door, waiting for someone with thumbs to get it for me. Jenny opened the door and then pressed the garage door, only opening it enough to let me out. Daylight glimmered through the crack and I wormed out of the garage into the warm sun. Bounding around the property was a thrill and I sprinted out past the house and down to the creek, stamping in the water before tearing back up to the house. It felt good to run, my muscles tense from disuse; I rarely shifted nowadays.

I had scared off most of the game with my sprinting about, but when a couple pigeons landed on the fence, I carefully stalked them, pouncing at the last moment to catch one before it could fly off. Feathers went everywhere. I headed down to the creek to clean the feathers off my muzzle but then ended up getting distracted by the tiny fish, trying to paw out of the creek to eat. I wasn't hungry, that wasn't what hunting was about, but I felt like I hadn't done anything for the three weeks I had been here.

This was also the first time I was truly alone. None of the vampires could be out here with me and so I could romp around like a pup and no one would judge me.

"What the..."

I glanced up, peering into the brush. I could smell the humans a ways off; they were up a hill coming down toward the creek. I had thought they snuck up on me, but of course, my wolf hearing was better than my human ears.