packs aren't always of the same species (a WayHaught au)

the wolf moon

January 1, 2018

7:24 AM - 12 Hours until the 'Wolf Moon'

Nicole, The Cabin

You were on edge and a complete mess all night; the tiniest of noises would make you nearly jump out of your skin, even the wolf was skittish, but you could chalk that up to the full moon. Needles to say, you didn't sleep well, or at all if you were being completely honest. Your body was a vat of high-strung, nervous energy. At one point you were positive someone threw a snowball at the side of the cabin, but you didn't find any footprints when you looked out the window and it only happened once. You pretended you didn't hear anything other than the wind whistling through the cracks in the door frame and whipping the tarps that covered the broken window. By the time the sun's rays were breaking through the thick trees, you were practically hoping for the knock at the door to come again or someone to actually throw a snowball, just to prove you weren't hearing things, that you weren't going crazy. That all the bullshit with The Order wasn't getting to your head. That they weren't winning .

You weren't sure how long you were staring into the dying fire, stabbing at the remaining embers still glowing with an old-as-dirt wrought iron poker, but you hadn't slept a wink and your dominant hand had started cramping long before midnight, caused by the death grip you had on your firearm, no doubt. Maybe you were paranoid, maybe you were scared, maybe things were getting entirely too out of hand and you weren't sure you could handle someone else getting hurt because of you. Because of your last name, because of what you were. This all felt eerily familiar and you didn't want history to repeat itself.

The fire was barely anything now, but you were too transfixed by the sparks that emitted every time you stabbed a burning coal (probably with a little more force than necessary) to actually pick yourself up off the floor and put more wood in the stove. Or maybe you were too scared to walk out the front door. Scratch that . You were definitely too scared to walk out the front door.

You were also too far inside your own head that neither you, nor the wolf, managed to notice when Shapiro exited your room.

A single word, an innocent question,

"Coffee?"

And with a deep bark , you were suddenly staring down the barrel of your gun, finger hovering less than a hair's width from the trigger, sights aimed at the center of Shapiro's forehead, less than four feet in front of you, the world tinted red and blurred at the edges. Your chest was heaving, your entire frame was shaking, your teeth were bared, you could feel the wolf barely containing herself behind your human barrier. Shapiro had her hands raised above her head, eyes wide. You could hear her heart trying to escape her ribcage.

"What the fuck , Nicole!"

It didn't take you more than a second to switch from predator to kicked puppy. Recognition flitted across your face and before you knew it, everything was back to its original color, the wolf was backing off, your canines weren't ripping through your gums, and you found yourself stumbling over a apology; as if one could simply apologize for almost shooting one of their best friends between the eyes.

But in Shapiro fashion, she practically waved it off with a deep breath and an exhaled, "don't worry about it, just...gimme that thing before you-" You actually felt the color drain from your face. You couldn't let her finish her thought, too afraid of what she thought you were going to do - what you were about to do. Without anymore preamble, you removed the clip from your sidearm, emptied the single bullet from the chamber, and nearly threw the gun and it's pieces into Shapiro's hands. She simply walked over to the counter and placed the pieces on the cheap surface, not bothering them with a second glance. "So, ignoring the wolf-shaped elephant in the room...how about that coffee?" Shapiro was already across the kitchen and pulling out the instant coffee and a pot by the time your brain caught up to her words and you were nodding your approval and following her into the small kitchen.