Dark Side of the Moon (18 page)

After I pulled out my sketch book, I decided I wanted to try to draw London like he did me this morning.  It was my turn to position him like I wanted, and I had him on the ground with his arm tucked under his head like a pillow, his head turned slightly to face me, his other arm on his chest, and one of his legs bent, his foot flat on the floor.

I tried to work quickly because we were pressed for time before the sun set and because I was sure that the position I had him in was a little uncomfortable.  After I had his basic outline finished, I told him he could move, and asked him to help me with flushing out the details to make him more lifelike.  I drew, and occasionally looked to my mate for guidance.  He encouraged me and gave me some hints and tips so I could improve.

I stopped drawing when my stomach rumbled.  We only had so much time before the sun set, so London and I went to the kitchen to find something to eat.  We had some leftover spaghetti from last night since his parents chose to go out instead of eat with us, so we settled for that since we didn’t have time to cook something new.

As we were cleaning up the kitchen, the front door opened.  I smelled Artemis, Channing, and a couple other people as they walked into the house.  I guess everyone was going to show up now.  I really should get to know the other pack members, at least the ones London was close to.

London told me that Raff and Charles arrived with Artemis and Channing.  They didn’t live very far away from the house, and were cousins—not to London, though.  Ricky arrived then with a girl in tow, who I remembered was Josie.  She appeared to be happy until her eyes landed on me.  I knew she and London had a thing before I moved here, but she needed to get over that he and I were mates and he wasn’t leaving me for her.

Everyone slowly arrived to the house as the sun descended toward the horizon.  Pack members arrived with their friends and families, excited for what the night would bring.  I, on the other hand, was a little anxious because I did not want to encounter either of the rogues again.  All I could hope for was the best.

After everyone arrived and gathered outside, they stripped out of their clothes.  There was almost a hundred people here, and there was no way I was going to shift in front of them.  So while everyone was outside, I stayed in the house and shifted in the living room.  Once I was on all fours, I darted to the doggy-door, and searched for my mate.  He was sitting on the porch, his ears standing straight up, eyes wide and focused, watching over his pack.  I sat beside him, and gave him a quick lick to the cheek.  He rubbed his head against my neck before barking four times at the pack.

London then took off down the stairs, and I tried to keep up with him.  The pack split up into four groups like last time, London and I darting into the trees with our group.  Everyone seemed so used to this setup, which made me think that they did this every month.  I guess I would, too, if there was a chance my home could be taken over by a rivaling pack at any given moment.

It took us a little while to arrive at the border.  I was able to detect a faint scent coming from the other side of the invisible barrier.  Should be easy enough to smell when I was in human form, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if someone was to cross without permission.  I’ll have to ask London in the morning.

I was able to keep up with London for the most part.  No other wolves passed me, which I took as a good sign.  I’ll have to run with him some more to make sure that I can really keep up with him while on border patrols.  So far, this was easy, just checking to make sure there weren’t any stray scents on our land.

We had stopped at every stream we passed to get a drink and rest for a few moments.  A couple hours had passed, and everything seemed to be going well.  Until we heard a wolf howl, that is.

London perked up from the sound, and waited until the howling wolf had stopped to respond.  I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but guessed that the wolf was someone in the pack trying to tell us something.  Had something happened to them?

Worry gripped me as I thought about Artemis or Channing being attacked.  Sure, it was about twenty against one, but I didn’t want for my friends to get hurt.  London didn’t change his course, which made me wonder if they had just spotted a rogue but didn’t engage it or they were giving chase.

A moment later, another howl sounded, and it was louder than the first.  Was one of the other groups closing in on us?  Why would they do that?  I wanted to ask London, but I just couldn’t in wolf form.

A few minutes had passed until I smelled something odd.  It was different from before, but I knew it was one of the rogues trying to mask their scent.  They had found us, and I was curious as to how London was going to handle the situation.  He said he wanted the rogue captured alive so he could find out why they were here.

When their scent became stronger, I had to fight the urge to try to attack.  These rogues were after us for a reason, and I wanted to know why and why they had attacked me back in December.  I was angry that they chose this life for me, that I had to lie to my family about my life.  London had said that he knew we were mates the first time he saw me, so me being a human or a wolf had nothing to do with it.  But I could have asked him to change me if I wanted him to and when I was ready.

My frustration building inside me, without warning to the others, I turned, and darted off in the direction of the strange scent.  Running at full speed, when I encountered the rogue, I startled him as I barreled over him.  Though the practice session with Artemis this afternoon gave me some insight, fear coursed through me.  I was alone with the rogue, even though I knew London and our group was following me, but a lot could happen between now and until they got here.

I tried to keep the rogue from recovering from my blow by clamping my mouth around its throat.  If I could make him pass out, we could take him to the house and wait until morning to get our answers.  But the wolf was bigger and stronger than me, and easily threw me off of him.  As I scampered to my feet, he charged me, his yellow eyes full of anger.  Bracing myself for impact, I was surprised to see another black wolf get between me and the rogue.  London.

He viciously growled at the rogue, the hairs all over his body standing up on end.  The rogue stopped in his tracks at the sight of my mate, and growled back, not standing down.

The rest of the pack arrived then, surrounding us.  The rogue was completely outnumbered, which would make it hard for him to escape.  London then leaped toward the rogue, in complete attack mode.  Though it was scary to watch, their growls sent shivers down my spine for two different reasons; I had no idea what the outcome of this encounter with the rogue would be, and I was thankful London was so protective over me.

I didn’t want to just stand there and watch with the rest of the pack members in our group.  As soon as I saw an opening, I attacked the rogue with London, wanting to weaken him so he’d be easier to capture.  I tried to grab one of the rogue’s legs to knock him off balance, and ended up getting in London’s way.  He growled at me for a second before turning his attention back to the trespasser.

So I tried again, hoping London would go for his neck, but I missed.  The rogue was just too quick and dodged my attack.  Now that I was off balance, I was vulnerable to him, which he took advantage of.  I felt his teeth at the back of my neck, but they didn’t clamp down.

A high pitched yelp pierced the air.  Once I was firmly on all fours, I saw that London had the rogue by one of his legs.  Maybe if he broke his leg, he wouldn’t be able to escape us.  Hopefully, my mate was thinking the same as me.

He yanked on the rogue’s leg, trying to knock him off balance.  When he fell to the ground, London released his leg so he could go for his neck again.  But the rogue kicked at my mate, careening him into me.  We both struggled to get back to our feet after he hit me, and the other wolves with us went after the rogue that tried to escape.  I figured London would go after the intruder, but he viciously growled at me instead, the scruff of the back of his neck and his hackles rising as he did so.

Not knowing exactly why he was acting this way, I figured we’d talk about it in the morning, and went to chase after the rogue.  But as soon as I took a step forward, London growled again and stood in my way.  I growled back, trying to tell him that he needed to focus on the rogue instead of me, but he snapped at me, his eyes cold and hard.

Taking a deep breath, I turned and headed in the opposite direction from the rogue.  I was just going to return to his house and wait for him to stop acting like a jerk.  We needed that rogue, and I was sure we could have captured him had London not been growling at me.  And if he tried to say that all of this was my fault, he had another thing coming.

Chapter 20

When I returned to London’s, I went straight up to his room.  I wanted to shift back to my human form, but couldn’t because of the full moon.  So I hopped up on his bed, and curled up, stuffing my nose in my tail.  Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was just after two in the morning.  I could get a couple hours of sleep and hopefully wake up human in the morning.

About an hour later, I heard nails scraping against the hardwood floor downstairs.  London was back.  And he was heading upstairs.

He barely opened the door with his nose.  He was hesitant about coming in here after our altercation in the woods.  I was still pissed at the way he acted toward me, and gave him a taste of his own medicine by growling at him.

When London poked his head into the room, I growled even more, getting a little bit louder.  He whimpered a couple times and tried to come into the room, crawling with his stomach on the ground.  I snapped at him, wanting to be alone and for him to know that I was pissed off at him.  He thankfully got the message, and slunk away, going back downstairs.

He was lucky that all I could do right now was growl, bark, or snarl at him.  Because as soon as I woke up and dressed in the morning, I was going to give him an earful about the way he treated me in front of our pack members.  I was not going to tolerate him treating me like a child in front of everyone.

I was cold when I woke.  Oh, yeah, I lay on top of the covers last night.  Checking to make sure I was alone, I stretched, and looked out into the hall.  After I made sure the coast was clear, I scampered into the bathroom to get my clothes and dress.  Then, I figured I’d go ahead and get ready so I could leave after my talk with my so called mate.

After I had both of my bags, I went downstairs.  Though I was still mad at him, I was a little nervous about what was going to happen next.  When I got to the bottom of the steps, I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves.

London was lying on his back on the couch, a blanket covering his bottom half with the exception of a leg hanging out.  His mouth was hanging open, telling me he was still deep asleep.  I could just slip out now….

Instead, I just dropped my bags on the floor, startling London awake.  He sat up, blinking his eyes rapidly as they adjusted to the light coming from outside.  “S-Selina?  What’s going on?”

“I want to know why you acted like an ass last night,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

He rubbed a hand over his face.  “What are you talking about?”

My eyes widened with surprise.  “Did you somehow develop amnesia before coming back here?” I asked, trying to keep my anger with him under control.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath.  “The rogue got away.”

The blood drained from my face.  “That’s all you’re going to say?”

“He got away because we didn’t have enough time to properly form and execute a plan of attack.  We lost our element of surprise when you went after him, Selina.”

“I’ve been a wolf for technically a full month now.  You and your pack mates have been like this for your whole entire lives, and you’re telling me that you haven’t mastered running and chasing down a target and getting the rest of your pack rallied to aide you against an intruder?”

His eyes hardened.  “Do you know how much land my territory covers?  The pack was stretched thin trying to find the guy, and they were trying to get to our position as fast as they could.  Don’t you dare try and criticize my leadership.”

I took a deep breath, still trying to remain calm.  “Yeah, and speaking of, if I am your so called partner and other alpha, how dare you treat me like a child last night.”

“Selina, I wasn’t—”

“Yes you did, London.  There was no need for you to act the way you did, growling and snarling at me as if I’d committed the most heinous of crimes.  And in front of everyone.”

“You didn’t have to go and attack him, Selina.  You could have waited for the rest of us instead of going off on your own, which I have no idea why in the hell you would do that to begin with.”

“You were born this way, London.  There was nothing you could do about that.  You knew we were mates the first time you saw me.  You could have bitten me when I was ready if I even wanted to become a werewolf.  But I had that decision made for me without my consent, and now have to lie to my friends and family about my life.  You wouldn’t know what that’s like because your parents know about the pack and all of your friends are in it, too, so there’s no reason for you to lie to anyone about anything pack related.  And to top it all off, I have no idea why that rogue attacked me, why he wanted to kill me.”

“You’re right, Selina.  I don’t understand.  I don’t understand what you’re going through for every reason you just listed.  But what I really don’t understand is why you would run off by yourself and blindly attack a wolf that is who knows how old or experienced.”

“I smelled him, and went after him knowing you would follow me.  I want the same answers as you do, London.”

“Yeah, well next time, don’t be as stupid.”

My eyes widened in shock.

“No, Selina, I didn’t mean it.  It just came out that way,” he tried to correct as I picked up my bags.

As I headed toward the door, he tried to stand up, his legs tangled in the blanket.  “Save it, London,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Selina, come back,” he called.

But I was already out the door, storming up the drive to my car.

After I threw my bags in the car, I started it, and went down the driveway.  Glancing at my rearview mirror, I saw London coming out of the house, his blanket wrapped around his waist.  But I was already gone and not coming back until he apologized for his words and actions.

I kept my composure all the way down the driveway.  Once there, I pulled out my phone, and dialed Artemis’ number.  As it rang, I looked at the clock to see that it was just after eight thirty.  Hopefully I wouldn’t wake her up.

“Hello?” she groggily answered.

“Hey where’s your house?  Or Channing’s house, whichever one where you are?”

“Why?  What’s going on, Selina?”

“I’ll explain when I get there.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you at my house.”  After she gave me the directions, I hung up, and headed over there.  Channing lived close to her, so she’d probably get there before me.  I hope her mate wasn’t with her because I didn’t want him running back to London.

A few minutes later, I pulled in the driveway Artemis had instructed me to.  After I got out of the car, I headed to the front door, and gave it a knock.  There was a garage, but my car was the only one in the driveway, so I didn’t know if she or her parents were here or not.

Artemis opened the door after a moment, and appeared to be very confused.  She stood aside so I could walk in, and showed me up to her room.  “Is anyone else here?” I asked as I looked around her room.  It was very girly, pink and stuffed animals everywhere, and a vanity with a couple make-up cases on it.

“No, my parents are at the restaurant and Diana is with Channing and Dakota.  What’s going on, Selina?” she asked, sitting at her vanity.

I opted to sit on her bed, taking a deep breath.  I told her about what happened in the woods last night, how we came across the rogue, how London acted toward me, and what all was said this morning.  “I don’t know what to do, Artemis.  He doesn’t understand what I’m going through, not knowing anything to do with our lifestyle or why that wolf attacked me, and he treated me like a child,” I said, tears slowly welling.

“I know it must be hard, Selina.  But you’re going to have to talk to London about all of this.  Communication is key in any relationship, human or wolf.  As for what he called you, under no circumstances should he have said that.  I have no idea what was going through his head at the time, or what he may be thinking now, and you’re going to have to find that out for yourself.”

“But I’m mad at him right now; I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Give it a couple hours and see how you feel then.  No relationship is perfect; Channing and I have had a few fights of our own, but we always work them out together.”

I sighed, knowing she was right.  “I’ll see how I feel later and tell you if anything happens.”

After I wiped away the few tears that had fallen, Artemis walked me out to my car.  She gave me a hug, telling me that everything would get better before I climbed into my car.  As I drove away, I couldn’t help wondering if London had spoken to Channing about what happened between us.

When I arrived home, I checked my phone to find that he hadn’t tried to contact me.  In a way, I was glad because I was still pretty pissed at him.  And after I walked through the door, my mom immediately noticed my demeanor.

“What happened, Selina?”

“London and I went out last night, and we had a fight.  I’m still pretty miffed about it,” I said, going to my room.

If she responded, I didn’t hear her.  I closed myself in my room, and unpacked my bags, putting my dirty clothes in the hamper and setting my art supplies back where they belonged.  Then, because I had run around in the woods last night, I took a shower to get the earthy smell to go away.

Afterwards, I only came out of my room to eat or go to the bathroom.  I spent the rest of my time listening to music and painting abstracts, taking my frustration out on the canvas.  The small pieces I painted reminded me of the inkblot tests, but I couldn’t decipher what exactly it was I had drawn, just blobs of paint smeared across the surface.

I painted all day, and felt the body aches by the time I had climbed into bed.  It had been hours since I last saw London, and it made me wonder why I was only feeling the aches now.  Checking my phone, I saw that he still hadn’t tried to contact me.  Well, if he was going to be that way, then I could play his game.

After I got ready for school the next day, Dan gave me a confused look as I unlocked my car.  Without a word to each other, we got in, and I drove us to school.  London had usually picked me up in the morning and would drop me off in time for dinner, but since he hadn’t tried to speak with me, I wasn’t going to wait and see if he showed up.

Dan and I parted ways after I parked the car.  After I got the books I’d need, I took a deep breath, and headed to my first class.  London was already there, and as soon as I saw him, the aches went away.  My seat was next to him, and there was nothing I could do about it.  So I sat in my seat, and didn’t give him a glance.

But he didn’t try to talk to me or apologize, which pissed me off.

To add fuel to my fire, he stormed out of the room after each class we had together.  Why was he so pissed?  I wasn’t the one that called their mate stupid.

When the lunch bell rang, I headed to my locker to put my books away, and headed by myself to the cafeteria.  Once I had my food, I headed straight for the table Dan and Derrick occupied.  I didn’t even glance at my pack.  They all probably already knew that something was up with London and I.

Dan gave me a confused look when I plopped down in the seat next to him.  Derrick also cocked an eyebrow at me.  But I didn’t say a word.

Then, Derrick had to open his mouth.  “You two break up?”

“Dude, seriously?” Dan asked.

“What?  I’m curious as to why she’s sitting over here and not with them.”

“No, not that it’s any of your business,” I told him, eating my lunch.

“So why are you over here then?”

“It’s called a fight.  If you had a girlfriend, you’d probably know because you’d most likely have several a day.”

“Okay, no need to get bitchy.”

I glared at him for a moment, only going back to my lunch when he held his hands up defensively.  I didn’t contribute anything to the conversation as I ate.  The lunchroom was surprisingly not as loud as it usually was.  Without looking, I knew it was because the pack wasn’t speaking.  Wonder why.

The rest of my classes went on similarly to the morning ones.  Thankfully, in Chemistry, we didn’t have a lab, which often times requires the lab partners to talk to each other.  Afterwards, in art, I just doodled instead of figuring out a new project.  I just wasn’t in the mood to create one specific thing right now.

After class I went to my locker to get what I’d need in the morning, and returned to my car.  Dan was waiting for me, and didn’t speak to me as I drove us home.  Even if Dan was curious about my fight with London, I couldn’t tell him because it was wolf matters.

When we arrived home, we went to our rooms.  Dan was probably going to play his games, and I was going to try to paint.  Listening to my music, all I produced was more abstracts.

I painted up until and after dinner.  My parents tried to get me to tell them what happened between me and London, and I just told them that we had a fight, and left it at that.  By the time I was getting ready for bed, I still hadn’t heard anything from him, and the body aches were setting in.  Though I was used to them, it felt like the hurt worse than what was usual.