Moon of Claiming

Chapter Six: Accalia

        The howls of the pack filled the air as I ran, and Niall’s howl was the loudest of all, leading his pack in song. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to shut out the noise that seemed to echo endlessly through the night. I growled quietly, curled up tight in a little hollow between tree roots with my ears pressed flat against my head. Their song had always been so foreign to me, so distant. As I’d gotten older, it became an almost taunting howl; as if mocking me by saying that I was a foreigner to my pack. I shook my head despondently; I couldn’t even consider them my pack. Never had I considered them mine.     

          Eventually, the howls faded into the forest, leaving me in peace as I listened to an owl who and a breeze waft over the leaves. I sighed and just barely opened my eyes. I looked around carefully, my ears slowly lifting off of my head. I nearly jumped out of my fur when I saw flashing blue eyes watching me from a tree branch about a hundred yards away. The fur along my spine bristled in embarrassment as Abellona’s dark brown form came flying out of the tree. I glared at her as she landed twenty feet in front of me. Damn werewolf strength had catapulted her out of that great old oak like a shot.

          I growled quietly as her eyes twinkled with laughter. She shifted back to human form quickly, barely giving her bones time to move back into place before she was walking towards me. I sighed heavily and shifted back as well, shuddering with aftershocks as I sat cross-legged on a tree root. Abellona sighed in content as she sat peacefully on a root near mine. I glanced over at her; she looked calm as a Buddha.

          “So,” she began, looking at me with sly eyes. “How was your time with Niall?”

          My eyes sparked with anger. “And how would you know that I was with him?” I snapped harshly. She shrugged and grinned, not in the least bit ashamed about what she’d said.

          “You reek of him.”

          I hissed in the back of my throat, but it had no real force behind it. Any force that I’d possessed had gone straight to my blushing cheeks. Bella cackled with laughter when she saw this, practically falling off of her root. I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I waited for her laughter to die off. When she finally stopped laughing, she smiled pertly at me and licked her lips pointedly. I rolled my eyes and snorted in exasperation.

          “He’d never go for a girl like me,” I protested harshly, my voice tinged with sadness. This time, it was Bella’s turn to snort.

          “If he’d never go for a girl like you, then why are your lips swollen?” I blushed and my hand went to my lips automatically. “Why’s your face a bright red tomato? And why can I smell him all over you?”

          “We just went on patrol to Comet Falls,” I blurted out defensively, averting my gaze as my shoulders tensed up. “He didn’t even touch me.”

          “Hah!” she barked. Bella stood and got right in my face. “That’s bullshit and you know it! Anyways, besides all the evidence, you’ve never been particularly good at lying.”

          I scowled and swore crossly under my breath. Abellona and Gwyn had always known me best; Gwyn because we shared a room, and Bella because we’d known each other since kindergarten. We’d always stood up for each other, had always supported each other in troubled times. We often teased each other about us being the three stooges: Bella as Moe, Gwyn as Larry, and me as Curly. Abellona had always been Moe because she was most likely to fight and argue when things went bad; Gwyn was Larry because even though Larry wasn’t the smartest, he at least had a general sense of what he was doing; and I was Curly because I was the most likely to screw things up in the end. I sighed as memories of high school washed over me.