She made her way to the window, coffee mug clutched to her heart. She knew it would do little to protect her, but it made her feel better for the moment. Her eyes surveyed the side yard. And then, suddenly, she felt an astral-physical punch on her chest. Her instincts forced her to look up as that inner voice spoke in her mind, ‘Danger! Get away from the window.' She stumbled back a step, looking around to see if someone else was in the room with her. She couldn’t figure out where the warning came from, but she heard it loud and clear in her mind. She had talked to herself before, but this was different. The voice sounded like her yet… wasn’t. She wanted to investigate, but her body was being flooded with hormones that put her senses on high alert and put her into action mode. She felt like she was losing control of her mind and body. It was like two people were fighting for control in her head and she wasn’t sure who was winning.
The warning was too late. She looked down the street and her enhanced eyes zeroed in on the figure dressed in black from head to toe. He, it looked like a he, stood a few houses down the block staring at her through the window.
"Who’s that?" She found herself whispering. She couldn't make out his face, despite her best efforts to use the new gifts she had. One thing was certain, he was familiar to her; someone she knew, someone she recognized. How she knew him left a nagging ache in her mind. It struck a chord deep inside her and left her feeling vulnerable and exposed, danger be damned.
Whoever it was made the voice in Rebecca’s mind scream another warning. 'Get away from the window, you fool.’
What in the world was happening? She wanted to scream, was she going crazy? She decided the best thing she could do was ignore it. Instead she focused on the danger outside her window, unwilling to believe she was losing her mind. "Hey!" She ignored the voice and yelled at the shadowy figure.
His eyes locked on hers, for just a moment she thought they were glowing red, but quickly dismissed this thought. His stare froze her to the core and left her immobile. Something about the man gave her good reason to be frightened. After what seemed like minutes, he turned on his heel and vanished down the street, releasing whatever spell he cast on her.
She shivered when he was gone. Nothing about him felt good. She slammed the window shut, taking gratification in the small attempt to block him or any other intruder out of her home. She decided to call Dianna and see if her sponsor was ready to come out of hiding. Maybe she knew something about the man. Perhaps Dianna had sent the stranger to keep an eye on her? Rebecca would feel better if he was involved with the wolves in someway. She dialed her friend’s number and the call went straight to voicemail. For the briefest moment she wondered if she had done something wrong, but nothing she could’ve done would’ve made Dianna turn her back on her, or so she hoped.
With a heavy sigh she redialed the number and waited for the familiar voicemail to finish, "This is Dianna, you know what to do." The beep came only moments afterwards and Rebecca left a message. "Hey Dianna, I’m getting worried, I didn’t see you at the meet up last night. Please call me back and let me know you’re okay." And with that she hung up the phone. A small level of pleasure ran through her as she mentally checked off one thing from her to do list. She set the coffee down and went to gargle and brush her teeth several times.
She tilted her head at her reflection in the mirror. Something was off. She was tired and seeing things. It was expected after the trauma she went through in the last twenty-four hours. But as she squinted her eyes, examining the reflection a little closer, she noticed her eyes were darker, almost purple. She reached a hand towards the reflection, focusing deeper until her vision blurred at the ends. Before her finger skimmed the surface of the large wall size mirror her reflection jumped towards her and said, ‘Boo.’
Rebecca flew backwards; her enhanced agility and balance did little to help save her as she fell flat on her rear. The impact caused a release of air from her lungs, “Oomph.” When she looked back to the mirror her reflection was still in place, staring at her, chuckling at Rebecca, who was a tangled mess of limbs and hair on the cold floor. “Holy cajoles! Surely, I’m going mad.” She closed her eyes and reopened them fast three times, each time the reflection remained.
The reflection yawned, crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter how many times you blink and wish me away, I’m here to stay.’ She took a deep breath while Rebecca’s breathing started to go shallow and her face went whiter. ‘Hello, Rebecca.’
Without thinking, Rebecca jumped up from the tiled floor and bolted into her bedroom. When she could no longer see the reflection she began to breathe easier. “Okay, that was a hallucination brought on by lack of sleep.” She told herself. It had to be, otherwise she was going mad. She started to pace the room.
‘I’m not a hallucination. I’m your wolf. And I figured it was high time to introduce myself. You are making quite a mess of things, young one.’
It was the same voice that had been ringing in her mind, but the reflection was gone. Thankfully. It was kind of creepy seeing your reflection move in ways you weren’t. Rebecca closed her eyes again, breathing deeply. She was afraid if she didn’t relax a little she would hyperventilate. As she focused on clearing her mind she remembered that Dianna told her being a wolf meant two conscious beings shared one body. Rebecca never imagined the wolf would talk to her.
‘How else do you think I’m going to be able to help you acclimate yourself to this new world?’
She was talking again. The voice was hers, only in her mind. This was the most fantastical thing Rebecca had experienced. It was almost surreal.
‘In general, etiquette dictates that you at least say ‘hi’.’
‘Um, hi?’ Rebecca answered the voice in her mind with her own.
‘Good progress.’
“No, no progress. This is insanity, literally. They lock people away in mental hospitals for talking to themselves.” Rebecca spoke out loud, panic setting back in.
‘That’s why you simply respond to me in your mind, silly girl.’ The wolf’s voice sounded like she was mocking her.
‘There’s no need to use a rude tone with me.’ Rebecca responded internally. It was actually easier to talk that way. This would take some work. It may have been fantastical, but it wasn’t the most incredible thing that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours. If she was going crazy she would at least keep up normal appearances to the outside world.
‘Good thinking. Now, you’ll get used to me. Just think of me as another sister.’
‘I don’t need another one, thank you very much.’
‘Okay, whatever makes you comfortable, but this was part of the deal. You knew it before you signed on. You can’t get rid of me, so you better get used to me.’
Rebecca shook her head violently. ‘No, this is too much right now. I need some time to think… alone.’
‘Wait; there are things you need to know…’
‘I don’t want to know.’ Rebecca started humming a song out loud, “La la la la la…”
‘Are you trying to drown my voice out? Foolish girl, I’m in your head.’ The wolf laughed, ‘that’s not going to work.’
Rebecca’s index finger tapped against her forehead repeatedly, only it wasn’t her command that had her tapping. ‘You control my body, too?!’
‘Only when you irritate me, or need help, or… well I should probably be controlling your body all the time now.’
“Get out! Get out! Get out!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. “Get out or so help me…”
Rebecca heard the pounding footsteps from her brother moments before he burst through her closed bedroom door. “Rebecca, what’s wrong!” His eyes were huge with worry.
‘Oh. My. God! I said that out loud?’ She immediately felt guilty for worrying her brother. Even more guilt set in when she noticed he was carrying a bat in his hand and he was ready to use it.
‘I guess I’ll leave you to clean up your own mess. But you need to understand something, Rebecca. I’m not going anywhere.’
“Are you okay, sis? Who was here?”
Rebecca shook her head, grateful the wolf was leaving her alone for the moment; giving her time to process the reality of what was going on. “No one. Sorry, Hunt. I was practicing a monologue for the auditions at school. I decided it would be a good line on the college applications.” Another lie! “I guess I got a little too into character.”
“Good lord, sis, you almost gave me a heart attack!” He smiled and scratched his head. “If it was up to me you would get the part; that was totally believable.”
‘Yeah, I bet it was.’ Rebecca thought as she slumped onto her bed. “Thanks, Hunter. You got practice this afternoon?” She already knew the answer. She was just looking for a little normalcy in the moment. Talking to her younger brother about football was normal. He was obsessed with being as good as their father had been.
“Yeah, not that practice does any good. I’m still second string. I just can’t compete against all the big seniors.”
“Your time will come.” Rebecca had an overwhelming urge to hug him again. She was not the touchy-feely type but she couldn’t help it. She needed to feel something other than fear and confusion. Without a word she embraced him in a hug, careful not to squeeze too tight. “Thank you for coming to my rescue. My own personal knight in shining armor.”
Hunter grinned awkwardly and curled in on himself, his body language making it clear he was uncomfortable. “Whatever, it’s what a brother is supposed to do.” He was embarrassed and Rebecca couldn’t help but giggle. He was really a great soul, and in that moment, she felt very lucky that he was her brother. “Anyways, I should go.”
He left her alone. Her mind was empty. She was spent. Exhausted. She considered taking a nap as she re-checked her phone and saw there were no messages from Dianna or Savvy. She knew the nap was not an option; she had too much to do today.
She contemplated waiting for Savannah to come back to the room. She couldn’t have gone far. The odd thing was that it was too early in the morning for Savvy to be out and about. She hated getting up early on her best days, even if it was a requirement. Today was Saturday. There was nothing requiring her to be out of bed until noon.
Rebecca let herself ponder where her sister could be, but after a few minutes of thinking, she decided it was time to get cracking on the rest of the items on her to do list. The first order of business was becoming quite noticeable as the smell of last night weighed heavily on her nose. She wondered if grandmother had noticed, but dismissed the thought. She would have said something if she had. Grandmother was not exactly known for pulling punches.
The overpowering smell made her decide to jump into the shower. The warm, soothing water seemed to melt into her skin and the heat massaged her aching muscles and bones. She knew it was a waste of water to stay in the shower for longer than ten minutes but didn’t care. It was so soothing, comforting, something she really needed at the moment. She really had no idea how much her body ached until this moment. She didn’t think about anything during that shower. She completely cleared her mind, allowing the water to cleanse, and the steam to circle around her and relax her from the inside out.
Unfortunately, staying in this peaceful state was not an option for her. She heard the door slam and felt the anger come at her in waves moments before her loving twin sister spoke. Her voice sounded calm, but animals could sense danger, anger, and fear; they could sense emotions and she suddenly realized she could, too. This was more than the twin link they shared; this was deeper, more primal. “Where the hell were you last night?” Her words slashed against Rebecca’s skin like a whip on fire.
For a moment Rebecca forgot the second round of conditioner in her golden blonde hair. She winced at the tone in her sister’s voice. Then, she allowed the lie to begin to slide off her tongue. “I was at …”
“Don’t you dare lie to me and tell me that you were at Jackson's house.” She reached in and turned off the shower as she interrupted Rebecca mid-sentence. "Grandmother told me your lie. I know how you help him out and so he was one of the first places I looked."
“Savvy I have conditioner in…”
“I don’t care, Rebecca!” She tossed a towel in the shower and waited.
Rebecca knew deep down, despite the warnings, when she made the decision to become a werewolf she would have to tell Savvy someday. In fact, she even considered campaigning to see if Savannah wanted to become one with her. She had planned to do so when an opening came available in the pack. But she wasn’t going to break the only rule she was told to uphold on her very first day as a pack member. “Let me just rinse out the conditioner.”
“Rebecca Elizabeth Winters! If you don’t get out of that shower this instant I will tell grandmother you lied!” Savvy’s voice made Rebecca freeze; her hands were inches from the faucet. She whipped them back like the water handle burned her. She sounded so much like mother in that moment Rebecca swore she could have closed her eyes and seen mom standing there. It transported Rebecca back in time to a better place, one filled with love from a mother’s heart and the safety in her father’s arms.
It was one of those rare memories that had both of their parents in the scene. Savvy had just done something they were upset about and little Rebecca was watching the interaction from just outside the door. Savvy didn’t want to tell them about the doll but with some gentle persuasion from their parents she told them she ripped the dolly’s head off because she was upset that Becks was ignoring her. It was childish, but they were only six and that was what kids that age did when they were mad. Instead of punishing her with a lecture or spanking their mother patted her lap and asked her to sit.