Apollo's Wolves

Chapter Fourteen -- Delta

Amari hugged some guy like he was her long-lost lover and everyone watched. I, however, just rolled my eyes. "A dog with a bone."

I said it quietly enough that probably no one else heard, but of course she did. She let go of the guy and turned around slowly. "What did you say?"

Everyone looked at me, and I stared my twin right in the eye. "A dog with a bone: you're the dog and he's the bone. He obviously tastes good, too."

I saw the anger in her eyes, and her fists clenched. "How dare you!" Almost before I could perceive it, she had shifted and was flying at me. She knocked me to the ground as I was shifting, biting at my neck. I batted her snout away and bit down on her foreleg.

"Amari! Delta!" I vaguely heard her friends yelling. I didn't care; I was going to kill her this time. We fought for only another minute before something stung me. I glanced over my shoulder to see several Romans with silver nets getting ready to cast them at us. In my moment of distraction, Amari sank her teeth into my neck, and I howled.

The net came down over me. Amari let go of me suddenly and yelped. Through the pain the silver caused, I could see that another one was over her. I sank to the ground, whining, hoping that would encourage them to let me go, but no such luck came to my aid. They pulled me to my feet and herded me through their little Roman village to what I assumed was the jail. I was shoved into a corner, and someone brought out a silver manacle. It was clasped around one of my back legs and attached to an iron chain that was bolted to the wall. Amari was thrown down into the other corner, an identical silver manacle clamped around her leg. She whimpered and whined as the door was shut and locked, leaving us alone in the torchlight.

"We'll only be keeping them here until morning," one of the Roman praetors, Reyna, was telling our traveling companions just outside the cell. "I can't have fights breaking out."

"Understood," Annabeth responded.

"Probably would've done the same at Camp Half-Blood," Percy added. "We did, in fact. Well, that just means Chiron gave Delta a talking-to. He'd have come down on Amari, too."

"I'll show the rest of you where you'll be staying overnight," the other praetor, Frank, said. Their footsteps faded away.

Amari shifted, the manacle growing with the size of her ankle. She pulled her knees up to chest and hugged them, crying softly. I growled out something on the nasty side, something my mother always told me not to say, before shifting back myself. She looked up, tears staining her face. "Why do you have to hate me?" she cried.

"Do I have to have a reason?"

She laughed humorlessly, bitterly. "Why have a reason? Why not just hate me without cause?"

I lunged at her, but the chain kept me from even reaching her. "I don't hate you without cause!"

"Tell me why, then!" she shouted.

I jumped a little, having never heard her raise her voice before. Storms of anger clouded her face, and she glared at me. "Why should I tell you?"

"Because it's about me! I have a right to know!"

"You're Mom's favorite!" I yelled back at her.

"I never met the woman, or even saw her! How could I have been her favorite?"

It was my turn to laugh. "You really don't remember her, do you?"

"I was a baby when Dad took me! How could I remember her?"

"We stalked you, that's why! Mom disobeyed Lyacon to see you, all because you were her favorite!"