The Golden Wolf

Eat it, Twilight

may you find laughter in the midst of broken days

I swallow hard, knowing full well that every eye in the room is trained on me.

What.

Is.

Happening.

"Oh, fuck that." Suddenly I'm laughing, unable to hold it in. I shake my head, standing up off the couch. "Fuck that nonsense right there." I back away from all of them, around the coffee table, and toward the fireplace. I hold up my hands at shoulder height. "Not messin' with that shit. Nope, nope, nope." I shake my head violently, crazy sounding chuckles escaping around my words. Tears are flowing freely from my eyes but I barely register them as I face a house full of fucking werewolves. "Fuck that, and fuck that, and fuck y'all; I am outie."

I turn and take off sprinting out the open doorway toward the trees, faster than I'd ever run before. Tears blur my vision and run back toward my ears rather than down my cheeks, and I hear them calling after me. I notice the blood that covers the grass, and as I approach the tree line, I see the arm that was once resting in the living room, now hanging from a low tree branch. My foot catches, and suddenly I'm tumbling through the grass, my momentum carrying me forward. I roll to a stop and am just getting back on my feet when the black wolf that replaced Petra appears in front of me, it's snout just inches from my couched body. My eyes widen. This is a killing animal. Just a normal wolf is something to be afraid of, but this isn't a normal wolf. This is a supernatural creature that for all I know could fly or spout magic through it's eyeballs. It's also just a girl though. A girl who had been a little snobby at first, but relatively nice this morning. This is the wolf that had torn that man off of me in the basement. She had saved me.

I very slowly stand up straight, my heart pounding in my ears. The others are now surrounding me, but I'm focused solely on the wolf in front of me. My hands shake, but I slowly reach up toward it. Extending one finger, I place it on the wolf's nose.

"Boop." I say, breathless.

Now, I don't know if a wolf is able to laugh or not, but apparently werewolves can, because this one definitely begins to laugh, along with everyone that was around me.

What a turn my life has taken. It's like plot twist after plot twist keeps coming up in life. I have had two completely different lives so far, in my short 20 years, and I feel as if I'm starting a third.

A hand claps down on my shoulder. "You just booped a werewolf snoot." Aurel laughs.

Abarron approaches me, still grinning. "So will you stay and get some answers? I have plenty to give."

I sigh. "Can I just say that this is all really fucked up. Who the hell gets kidnapped by werewolves?"

"A character in a really bad teen lit book, I would assume." He answers, grinning.

"Great. So I'm the next, less popular Twilight. Bring on the vampires." I say, still shaking.

"Vampires don't exist. That's just legends."

"Right. Werewolves exist but vampires are crazy. Gotcha." I laugh incredulously as we make our way back to the house. I cannot believe I'm buying in to this crap. Werewolves. I shiver, thinking about the word. I feel like I'm taking this well. I'm not constantly screaming, nor have I passed out yet. I'm just a little shaky, like when you stand up to do a presentation in front of the classroom. Ha! I'm comparing finding out about werewolves to a class presentation. I never have been good at public situations.