Brilliance

Chapter 1

I was annoyed.

"Can you stop clicking your pen?" I asked bitterly, propping one eye open to look at the people in front of me.

Irene didn't even look away from the checklist in her hand, if anything she just kept clicking away at the pink pen in her hands. Hunter kept her eyes trained on the empty stretch of road ahead of us, her dark eyes not wavering once.

The annoyance only grew as I closed my eyes again, trying to get maybe even a second more of sleep, but it was impossible with the ticking sound that filled the cold morning air. It felt like hours since I had been sitting on the cold sidewalk of our town, waiting, but in reality only ten minutes had passed.

It didn't help that I could hear the faint sound of Michele Buble's voice singing all of his great Christmas hits from somewhere in the distance, even though we were well into the middle of February. And Hunter's normal silence wasn't comforting at all because I could feel her agitation even through the few meters of distance between us.

Not to mention that god forsaken pen that Irene was incessantly clicking away at.

I opened my eyes again and narrowed them at her, and I could see the corner of her lips twitch upwards, "You're such a witch, Irene,"

Now Irene looked up at me, her wide brown eyes were filled with humour, "What? Roslyn, all I'm doing is making sure that you have everything you need. It is my job after all,"

My eyes were basically slits as I kept narrowing my eyes, "You cold, cold witch,"

She grinned down at me, her energy unsettling so early in the morning, "You're just describing Hunter now,"

Both of us looked over at the stick straight figure of Hunter, who only after a minute of us staring at her turned to look at us.

"I would prefer if you actually called me a bitch, witches are a disgrace to our species," Hunter commented, her usual even and cold voice making me grin.

"I'll keep that in mind for future reference," Irene responded, a goofy smile on her face as she went back to looking at her check list.

The bitter winter air flew around us, nipping at the exposed skin of my neck and hands, making me shiver violently. I pulled at the ends of my hair, trying to get the short hair to cover more of my skin. I regretted my decision to cut off so much of my hair in the middle of winter since I was already always unusually cold for a lycanthrope, even when it was warm.

"You sure you're okay for this trip?" Hunter asked as she observed me, the shivers still racking through my small body, "We could always postpone until you have more energy,"

I shook my head, "We're doing this, Hunter. My energy is right up there next to Irene,"

I gave her a wide smile, showing all of my teeth and dimples, a smile that I knew made everyone trust me. But she wasn't persuaded in the least bit, her dark eyes piercing right through me. Sometimes, it didn't help having a friend that knew you since you were children, you could never get anything past them.

I became more aware of how tired I actually was under Hunter's steely gaze. My eyes had the raw feeling I got whenever I didn't sleep enough, and I felt colder than normal, and I was sure I had already spaced out multiple times in the past hour I was awake.

"Roslyn! Hunter! Irene!" We heard someone shout from down the paved road.

I squinted, making out Alpha Owen's figure as he walked leisurely up the road, his hands swinging slowly at his sides. I took that as my cue to get up from the ground and stop my useless attempt at getting any sleep.