Badwolf

Cerise (5)

I didn't see Ramona until morning.

"And you were...?" I asked as I pulled on some sweats and a tee shirt.

"Nowhere. None of your business," Ramona said. She kept her distance, the terribly territorial thing she was.

I sat on the edge of the bed to slip on socks and tie my sneakers, waiting for a real answer I wouldn't get. I didn't know where Darling had been either, but at least I knew she'd give a real, viable answer when I asked.

"Well, where were you?" Ramona suddenly retorted. She stared into her suitcase, the one she had yet to unpack, for something she hadn't already worn. "I stopped in last night and you weren't around."

I smiled. My excuse wouldn't exactly be an excuse, anyway. "I was studying in dad's office."

My sister stood back up, growled, then took out her frustration on her suitcase. Her kick had enough force behind it to pick the full luggage up off the ground and slam it against the wall at an alarming speed. It bounced back off again and slid to her feet, as if to remind her that she couldn't escape her troubles by physically attacking them.

After a minute, when her breathing had become less heavy and quickened by angry energy, she sighed. "You should probably stop doing that. It could be dangerous. We wouldn't want someone finding out who you really are."

I groaned. "If we were really that concerned about it, don't you think we'd at least get you your own room? Isn't it dangerous to have two girls as similar as us so close while expecting everyone to believe the blatant and obvious lie that we're completely unrelated?"

As Ramona processed my comment, I considered the idea that maybe she hadn't comprehended what I said at all. It wasn't a secret that I possessed the brains between the two of us.

Ramona shoved some things aside in her bag before selecting something rather randomly and tossing it over her shoulder. With a harrumph, she stalked to the bathroom to change. "You know I have no control over that." She rolled her eyes at me before slamming the door.

I shook my head at her even though I knew she couldn't see it. "What I know is that you have got to work on that temper."

Her response was a particularly vulgar suggestion she didn't use sparingly.

"Damn, with a mouth like that you'll never be Alpha."

The door slid open within seconds. Ramona had changed at such an immortal pace. I was fast, but never that fast. Yes, I'd definitely said the wrong thing.

"And who gave you the right to question my position?" She snapped, teeth bared.

I weighed the pros and cons of staying in the room before carefully crafting my next reply. Pros, I make a very valid point and let my sister know I can't as easily be counted out as she thinks. I could also, probably, do some serious damage. Cons, I could have some serious damage done to me.

I grabbed the things I'd need for the day and added on my way out "who says your position is anything you think it is?"

I was thankfully out the door before the strangled, barely-restrained animal noises reached me, almost contained by the slammed door I left behind.

***

The forest was alive today with the rustling of the winds and the smell of rain. They were surely signs that a storm was on its way, but clouds didn't yet fill the sky. In fact, the sun shone through the patches of bright blue enough that it was almost too warm as the heat met the pavement on my morning run. The heat and humidity made my sweaty clothes stick to me even more than usual.

I stopped for a minute, catching my breath by a tree just before a clearing. Movement ahead made me pluck the earphones from my ears to investigate. I leaned forward into the clearing, spotting the culprit in seconds.

"Blaze?" The werewolf no more than 2 years older than me was crouched next to a shrub nearby, golden eyes peaking at me through the foliage.

After registering my features, she crawled out into the open space. "How'd you find me?"

"Find you....?" I started. As I took in the contents of the clearing, I answered my own question.

"I... I know it's not much..." Blaze said, eyes scanning the space around her. A pile of discarded food wrappers, containers and bags littered one section of the small space, and a stack of leaves just wide enough for her to accommodate her wolf form if bunched in a little ball that probably functioned as a makeshift mattress. A likely stolen raggedy blanket sat atop the leaves, and anything she owned-- which wasn't much-- sat in a bundled heap next to it.

This was where Blaze had been living, more or less.

"How long have you been living here?" I asked.

Blaze shrugged. "Since a bit before Ramona came," she admitted.

I cannot explain why I felt the sudden, relentless need to help her in that moment. She was a wolf, after all, and had likely lived like this before.

A wolf girl living in the forest alone... I pieced together that she was likely homeless and lacked family, both of which hit like stones aimed at my chest.

No wonder Blaze had been following me around and keeping her distance all this time. She had nowhere else to go to, there was nothing else to do, and she had no one else to talk to.

My heart cracked and surged with an emotion I couldn't identify, a feeling I didn't know the cause of. Like I owed it to Blaze to help her, like the responsibility was not just a moral one, but a personal obligation.

"Would... would you let me help you?" I said, considering how much harm pulling a few strings to get the girl proper shelter and meals could do. I didn't have much money, but I knew I could be selfless enough to find her perhaps a tent and a sleeping bag, and at least ration portions of my food for the girl. At the very least, I had the very rich likeness of multiple members of the royal Charming family on my side.

I couldn't keep the compelling thoughts from my mind: she was werewolf, but that in itself provided enough explanation for my feelings-- despite being wolf, she was also human.

And it was the human girl who looked to me now with widened, disbelieving eyes. "Really?"