Mandie and I sat in the trees, waiting for the sun to set and the moon to rise. I yawned with boredom and giggled inwardly when Mandie did the same.

"Yawns: More contagious than werewolf bites."

The yawn must have made her sleepy, because she laid her head down on my back and started drifting off to sleep. I let her nap until the stars began to appear, then I nudged her awake. She growled, disgruntled at having her sleep disturbed, but stopped when she saw the rim of the moon beginning to rise.

She stood and anxiously paced. That was an effect of the full moon; It makes us hyperactive and more vicious than usual. I was sure she wouldn't attack me, though. I was her alpha, her caretaker, and could kick her ass if she tried anything.

The door to the cabin opened and out stepped an exhausted, unkempt looking man, maybe just a few years older than me. He stared up at the moon with a helpless expression. He knew what he was. In just a minute or so, I would see what his werewolf form looked like. I prayed he would be an easy kill and we could just go off to hunt elk for the rest of the night.

The man let out strangled cries as his form shuddered. Mandie bolted forward, but I grabbed onto her back leg before she got too far away. We needed to wait until he was finished. It wouldn't be a fair fight, otherwise. His cries turned to feral growls as his body finished its transformation. His werewolf form was slightly smaller than mine and his fur was tan. The clothes he wore mostly laid in rags at his feet and he angrily tore off the remaining pieces that clung to him.

As he let out a penetrating howl, I let Mandie go. She burst through the brush, revealing us, and charged straight at him. I was right behind her. He must have thought that we were coming to form a pack because he didn't fight back until Mandie's jaws were around his throat. I darted behind him and grabbed his wrists, squeezing hard. I broke them before he could claw at Mandie's vulnerable belly. He kicked, yelped, and snarled, but we won in the end. The whole ordeal couldn't have lasted more than 5 minutes. My prayers had been answered!

We lifted our heads and howled in victory as soon as his heart stopped. I made sure the head was separated from his body before Mandie and I ran off in a crazed frenzy to hunt the scarcely remaining elk under the light of the full moon.

When the moon disappeared and the sun rose, we were a mess. Unfortunately, I had to get even messier. I dug a deep hole off in the woods to bury evidence of the werewolf we killed. Dirt clung to sticky deer blood, forming a stinking mud. Mandie was content to sit and watch as I dug, not really understanding what I was doing with her dumb wolf brain. I urged her to turn back and go inside the cabin to rest when I went back for the werewolf body. Blood from the werewolf dribbled on me and made me even more disgusting.

After taking care of that mess, I trudged back to the cabin. I really wanted to take a bath… I transformed on the porch and waltzed inside. Mandie was lounging on a beat-up couch in a towel, her hair wet. Then, she said the best sentence I've heard her say in a while.

"There's hot water."

"Fuck yes!" I pumped my fist and danced into the bathroom.

I turned on the bathtub faucet and turned it as hot as it could go. I sat there with my hand testing the water for a full minute and frowned. Mandie started laughing from the living room. Snatching a towel and wrapping it around myself, I stomped out to confront her.

"How dare you lie to me!"

"I didn't lie," she giggled, "I just used it all!"

"Bitch." I huffed.

Now I had to decide whether to wait or endure the cold.

"I've bathed in colder water, whatever." I pouted and walked back to the bathroom.

"Sorry, Tazzy! Love you!" Mandie called as I left the room.

"Love ya too, girl." I sighed, exasperated.

After my freezing shower, I hurriedly dried myself off and walked to the bedroom. I took the thickest blanket and wrapped it around myself, then walked back out to find Mandie sleeping on the couch. I scooped her up, jolting her out of her sleep.

"Wow, you're so butch." She laughed as I carried her to the bedroom.

I tossed her onto the bed, then dropped my blanket and flexed comically. We both giggled stupidly at my antics. After we calmed down, serious Taz came out. I scoured through drawers and the closet in the tiny bedroom, looking for suitable clothing. There were only men's clothes, to Mandie's dismay. I had no problem with them, though. I slipped on a pair of jeans and a red, oversized plaid shirt, then tossed a smaller blue shirt and jeans to Mandie. I promised to make her a jean skirt later if she cooperated. She grumpily complied.

"You look like a lumberjack." Mandie snorted.

"A badass lumberjack?"

"A butch lumberjack."

"Sweet." I smirked, "And you look like a cute country girl… whose wearing her boyfriend's jeans."

"Ugh, they're so baggy! Can't you hurry up and make my skirt already?"

"I will if you help me look around." I haggled.

"What's the point? It's not like we can stay here long."

I realized that I hadn't told her about the how the red-eyes ceased their chase. I grinned really big when I remembered.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Mandie was suddenly suspicious.

"They stopped chasing us!" I sang and danced around.

"What?! Are you sure?"

"Yep! I spied on them just before they stopped, when you ran off to hunt. Their leaders told them to cut it out, so we can stay as long as we like!"

"OMG! Tazzyyyyy!" Mandie squealed and jumped on my back, "We can stay and sleep and shower and eat in an actual house! Yay!"

"Yep! So, help me out and look through things with me, pleeeaaase?" I stuck out my bottom lip and looked up at her with big eyes.

"Fine, pouty-face." She squished my bottom lip with her fingers and then jumped down from my back.

We searched through the house and found loads of canned goods, enough to last us a year, in the pantry. I nearly flipped when I saw there was refried beans. I frickin' love refried beans, man. My dad used to make homemade refried beans and none could compare to that, but I liked the memories they brought up.

When we finished poking through the food, we started sifting through the living room. There, we found that the man who lived here had a ton of video tapes of western movies in a pile next to his seriously outdated TV. In his bedroom, under the bed, was a loaded shotgun. I left it there, just in case. In case of what, I'm not sure. To scare off trespassers? I really don't know. We turn into freaking werewolves and I don't know who wouldn't be scared off if they saw us like that. I guess the gun would be a good weapon if we wanted to keep human appearances.

Picking through the tiny house took only an hour, so we decided to nap together in the small bed for the rest of the day. We were tired after a long night of furious hunting.

Mandie and I woke up around midnight. We dug through the cans in the kitchen to make ourselves a suitable breakfast. Mandie's consisted of creamed corn, and mine refried beans, of course. I popped in a western as we ate and that was all we did for half the day; Eating and watching westerns. It would have been perfect if there was some variety to the genre of movies, as they all seemed to blur together after a while. I had to stop and take a break from the monotony. During that break, I finally made Mandie her skirt. All it took was an old pair of baggy jeans and scissors. The outcome was well worth the effort, since Mandie was cheerful afterwards.

She was putting the next video into the VCR when I noticed a strange smell.

"Is something burning?" I asked.

Mandie froze and sniffed, then cried, "My corn!"

I burst out laughing. She must have wanted to warm it up on the stove, but forgot about it.

"We're going to run out of creamed corn if you keep eating at this rate." I said loudly so she could hear me in the kitchen.

"Bite me!" She shouted back, frantically scraping off what little she could salvage from the pot.

The smell grew stronger and I coughed on the corn smoke. I started opening windows to air out the scent when another stink drifted in. Red-eyes.


They were nearly there, Demetri had informed Marcus. He could barely contain himself. He wanted to run ahead of the others and finally see her for himself. The scent of werewolves grew very strong. He could smell two, maybe even a third. Marcus wondered which scent was hers.

They closed in on a small house, and the scent of werewolf blood was suddenly apparent. He hoped she was alright. The guards spread out through the tree line to surround the house. Marcus caught a glimpse of her long brown hair through an open window and excitement spread through him. Her hair had been the only radically different thing about her. It used to be coal black, like her brother's. He heard hushed voices through the walls of the house. They both sounded female and he couldn't find out which one was hers. It was so frustrating to be this close, yet still not truly see her. There were loud footsteps and the door swung open very suddenly.

She finally came out, brandishing a weapon and screaming, "FUCK OFF, ASSHOLES!"

That was… not what he expected to be the first thing he heard from her. Her voice was indeed the same as he remembered, but the ferocity in it was foreign. His Didyme had been sweet tempered and mild, not vicious and wild like this girl.

Felix stepped forward to restrain her, but Marcus waved him back. He wanted to try to talk to her first.

He licked his lips apprehensively, before calling out her name.

"Didyme?"

As soon as her name was out, the guards who didn't know the purpose of the mission had it dawn on them immediately. Jane looked at her master, horrified. This couldn't be the reason for the strange mission change…! Yet it made sense. They were looking at a copy of their master's dead wife.


There were two red-eyes in front of me that I hadn't seen before. One was hulking and huge, and the other had wavy dark brown hair down to his shoulders.

The long-haired one asked me something that sounded sounded like "Did he?" or "Did we?" or something.

"Did what?" I snapped, confused. I pointed the gun at him threateningly. If he was trying to confuse me, it wouldn't work.

I told Mandie to jump out the bedroom window when she heard the gun go off. That way, if it didn't affect the red-eyes, she could have a chance to escape through the noise.

"Do you recognize me?" He stepped forward, away from his big bodyguard.

I took aim at his face and pulled the trigger. The man staggered back, but was otherwise unharmed. I shot again at the big boy, giving Mandie the opportunity to run without being heard. I aimed at the first man, the one questioning me, and shot again. Nothing came out.

"Shit!" I shouted and tossed the stupid shotgun to the ground.

Loud yelping came from the back of the house, where I told Mandie jump out from. Knowing that there was no way she'd escape without me, I transformed.


This is not a very big chapter. Why? I'm about to leave for a week-long camping trip. Like, literally about to leave. I thought I'd post this before I have no internet and no laptop, so here you go! This is all I have so far. It is not proofread or polished, but here ya go. Hope you enjoy!

Please leave a review so it can motivate me when I get back!