A Rebellious Moon

Chapter Sixteen

Dinner with Catherine that night felt like a police interrogation to Amanda, but as soon as the girls hit the parties, Chase was forgotten. The following week of school caused the girls to hit the books with a vengeance: writing essays, revising thesis statements, and studying for exams. Still, Amanda felt her concerns weighing in the back of her mind. She refused to call Chase or respond to his few friendly text messages. Farah had begun making pointed looks at her every time her phone buzzed.

On the other side, she had not heard from Aaron since she had sent him that text after her conversation with Cassie. For a while, Amanda had written off the radio silence as Aaron being in wolf form, unable to use human technology efficiently, but she was beginning to worry.

That Friday found Amanda and Farah splayed out at their kitchen table, an empty pizza box, crumpled napkins, and two empty wine glasses between them.

"I needed that," said Farah and she rubbed her belly with satisfaction.

Amanda made a happy moan in response. "Thank god Cat's not here. We would have had to get pineapple on our pizza instead of delicious, greasy pepperoni."

Farah hummed her concurrence. "I'm glad she went to that dinner her professor was having. I don't think I could've handled going out tonight. This week of exams and essays really beat me down. I think I'm going to have another glass of wine and go to bed before midnight for the first time in a long time."

"Here, here," said Amanda and she rose from her chair laboriously before making her way over to their small wine rack in the corner. School stress reared its ugly head as Amanda realized that the once full wine rack was now down to just two bottles. She grabbed one randomly and took it to the counter where the corkscrew lay out.

As she was wiggling the cork from its bottle, she heard a strange scratching at the door. Her attention was momentarily taken by the loud 'pop' of the cork coming free. She listened again for the scratching, but not immediately hearing it, she resumed her task of pouring the wine.

"Hold up." Farah raised a hand to stop Amanda. "Did you hear that?"

"The scratching noise? It stopped, so I figured it was just someone's junk that trailed against the door," said Amanda.

Then, very clearly, both girls heard the scratching at the door again as if whatever was causing the noise heard them and wanted them to know it was there. Farah and Amanda exchanged wide eyed looks before nodding to each other in understanding.

Amanda led the way down the hall to the door with Farah twisting her hands to ready a spell behind her. As they came towards the door the scratching grew more frantic; either the being knew they were approaching from the inside, or something else was approaching from the outside it wanted to escape. Amanda grabbed an umbrella from the coat closet and held it backwards to use as a club. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door with a quick jerk, throwing it wide open.

A large gray wolf barreled into the room, making it all the way past Farah. Farah called out a word Amanda couldn't quite make out and the wolf yelped before passing out on the ground. Amanda turned and looked at the wolf, before glancing up at Farah.

"Wow, what did you do?" asked Amanda. Adrenaline coursed through her causing her limbs to shake slightly. She held a firm grip on her umbrella.

"Close the door. I just threw a knockout spell at it, but I don't know how long it will last," said Farah. "Do you know him? Or...her?" Farah began to inspect their trespasser while Amanda closed the door and locked it.

Amanda took a deep breath to calm herself and then walked back down the hall to stand next to Farah. She leaned over to get a better look at the wolf and took a small sniff of its scent.