[Alaivera]
The bag that was hanging from one shoulder seemed to grow lighter as I neared the clearing I had seen yesterday and I took that as a good sign since this would be the first time I had done this with dogs so close by.
"You have to do it," I thought to myself. "If they want to find you then it wouldn't matter where you were on the preserve, they would. These wolves wouldn't be the first pack to find out about you, just relax." That little internal monologue managed to make me feel a thousand times better and I confidently walked into the clearing.
I immediately looked up and saw that the bright, full, moon was directly overhead and sighed at the beauty of it. I could have stood there and simply stared up at the sky but I had more important things to do.
With a shrug of my shoulder, the strap of my bag fell into my hand and I sat it down on the ground before kneeling down next to it. I took in a gulp of air and slid the zipper along it's track until it hit the other side, this revealed a hundred perfectly rounded rocks, a stone slab, and two violet candles. This may have been why Seth said it was heavy.
I willed my hands not to shake as I removed the two candles and placed them on the ground before laying the slab between them. It wasn't too late to just go back home and take my chances until next month and part of my mind wanted to do just that, while the more rational part told me that at my age, it was too big of a risk.
The rocks spilled out onto the ground as I turned the bag upside down and shook it a couple of times to make sure each one landed in the pile. I quickly grabbed a few and started to place them in their correct spots, stopping to pick up more whenever I ran out.
Five minutes later I found myself standing in a perfect circle and knelled down in front of the candles and the stone before taking a lighter out of my pocket and setting the wicks of both candles on fire.
"You can still back out, Alaivera," the cat part of my mind told me. It's main agenda was to stay hidden and I heard from it whenever I put my secret in danger, which was exactly what I was doing.
I knew I could, but there was no way in hell I would. With a deep breath and a word of warning from my second half I started what needed to be done.
"EGO adeo vos in is sanctus nox noctis honoro vos dea of cattus," as I said this the flames of the candles grew so bright, it was technically impossible for them to be so. Alerting me to the fact that I had crossed the point of no return.
"Vos sino mihi futurus a secui of utrusque universitas quad EGO vadum existo in vestri debitum," the wind started to pick up outside the circle but I felt none of it inside the rock border.
"EGO tribuo vobis substantia plurimus necessarius pro vita. Cruor," my hands shook as I opened the small pocket in my bag and pulled out a small, silver, razor. It gleamed in the light from the candles, giving the piece of metal a terrifying look that made my chest tighten painfully.
I took a deep breath, knowing that there was no way I would be able to breathe once that blade made contact with my skin, and placed the corner of the razor against my palm before pushing down with just enough force to break my skin and cause a thick drop of ruby red blood to rise to the surface. I wanted to scream and throw the sharp object down on the ground due to my inability to deal with pain, but forced myself to stay silent and drag the razor across my palm.
While my hand was still bleeding freely I placed it on the stone slab in front of me and watched as it immediately started to glow as if someone had flipped on a light switch. My hand stopped bleeding after only a few seconds I removed it in order to watch as the wound closed together and left nothing but perfect skin in its wake.
The stone continued to glow as I continued on, "EGO deprecor vos ut tribuo mihi imperium pro tunc mensis, insquequo tunc plenus luna." The entire clearing except the small circle I was kneeling in grew darker, making the moonlight shinning down on me incredibly concentrated and I felt amazingly powerful before every ounce of energy I had was suddenly sucked out of me when the clearing lit up once again.
Knowing that my wish for another month with my human side was granted I fell back and stared up at the stars in contentment. Nothing could ruin this for me. Just as I was about to fall asleep under the protection of the moon, I heard the unmistakable sound of several large animals walking through the forest.
"Damn," I hissed and sat up, grabbing my bag in the process and packing up the suspicious items. The candles, the blood covered stone, and even a few of the rocks that shouldn't have been in that area; you never knew who's a geologist in disguise.
I had just slung my bag over my shoulder when a pack of huge wolves walked out of the tree cover. The black wolf that I knew was Sam moved a few feet in front of the others and gave a short, high pitched bark that bordered on a yelp.
"Sam, I don't speak mutt." I answered and was rewarded with a deep, throaty, growl from Paul.
"What the hell has your panties in a twist?" I asked sarcastically. "You and I both know that no one in your pack is a pure breed." I had seen a lot of wolves launch themselves at an enemy out of anger, but I didn't even think it was possible to see a whole pack try to stop one member and fail.
Paul came running in my direction and there was no mistaking that need to kill that I saw in his eyes. I had about a half of a second to think of a way to get out of this alive without revealing my cat side and once the thought passed through my mind I dropped my bag and waited for the mongrel to attack.
I didn't have to wait long before he lunged at me and I had to be very careful in the way I evaded him to make it look human. Paul turned to face me again the moment his paws touched the ground I grabbed his left ear before he could attack. A little known fact about werewolves is that their most vulnerable area is their ears, both in wolf form and human form.
The canine let out a whine of pain as I twisted his ear before knocking my shoulder into his upper leg and causing him to fall onto his side. Without a moment of hesitation I restrained the wiggling animal with another sharp twist to his ear before leaning down and sinking my teeth into the soft flesh of his neck and standing up, giving him a solid kick to the ribs just as the others came over to make sure their friend was okay.
"What the hell was that?" asked Embry as he held up a pair of pants to a very human and very naked Paul.
"Why are you yelling at me?" I asked genuinely confused as to why I was at fault here. "He's the one that attacked me, I was just defending myself." As if they had just remembered, everyone turned to Paul, who was making it a point not to look me in the eye.
"I'm sorry," he whispered and by the reactions of everyone around me, I didn't think he did that very often.
"It's not your fault, Paul," said Jacob as he turned to face me and poked me in the chest with his index finger. "You shouldn't be out while that animal's running around, you shouldn't have antagonized him, this is your fault." He was glaring at me and I thought it would have been more intimidating if I was a foot shorter than him instead of a couple inches.
"First!" I yelled in his face as I knocked his hand away from me, "you're not my father. If I want to be out here then I can be. Second, no one else attacked me, Paul should learn to control himself. Lastly, if it's anyone's fault then it's the entire pack's. You all couldn't even stop him, if I hadn't known his weaknesses and had been a normal girl, he could have killed me." Jake, along with the other wolves all looked at me with a question written clearly on their foreheads.
"Don't bother asking," I hissed as I scooped up my bag, "I'm not telling you how I knew to do that." I started to walk away but stopped after a few feet.
"Paul?" I asked without turning around.
"Yes ma'am?" he answered. That, people, is why you bite the throat, it shows dominance.
"Nothing," I laughed and continued walking, feeling their eyes on me with every step I took.
"Alaivera!" Called Sam just as I was about to walk into the forest.
"What?" I asked and clenched my hand into a fist. I was too tired to stay here with dogs that didn't know the difference between night and day. All I wanted was a bed and I was dead set on finding one.
"A human wouldn't have heard that," even though I couldn't see him, I knew the Alpha had to be smirking at my back. "We'll be at Jake's tomorrow, come by if you want to explain that to us." Damn, there was no way I was sleeping today. I had to come up with a reasonable explanation for that and I knew very well that there weren't many.
