Chapter One
Part One
Éclair awoke with a pounding headache. Through her eyelids she could see the bright, pervasive red of the sun and without thinking she opened her eyes. The blast of light caused her to groan and roll over; she squeezed her eyes shut and felt tears leaking out the corners. Her body hurt, especially her thigh, and she felt more hungry than she'd ever been in her life.
When the pain from her eyes began to cease she reopened them, careful this time being turned away from the sun, and tried to take in her surroundings. She sat up and recognized the area as the preschool playground inside the town of Autriche where she attended school. She ran a hand over her face and frowned when she felt wood chips. They clung to one half of her body from where she had been laying.
As her eyes adjusted to the scenery of a lush green forest, a jungle gym, several slides and swing sets that were illuminated by the fiery glow from the sun, Éclair found it difficult to tell whether it was late evening or early morning. She grasped hold of a handle on a nearby teeter-totter and pushed herself to her feet. Her school uniform was torn and covered in dirt and blood. She cringed and tried to brush it, and the wood chips, off with soiled hands. She only made it worse.
Éclair began to worry as she stared around the empty playground and nearby school. Sure it seemed empty but if someone should happen by they would instantly recognize the red haired teenager and wonder why she looked as though she had been romping around in a dirt pile. It worried her because she didn't have an answer. Her memory stopped at her walk home from school.
She recalled that she had to stay late that night because there was a lacrosse match. By the time they finished the sun was already setting and Éclair couldn't help but want to enjoy the warm spring night by walking home. Her house was a couple miles out of town. It was empty since her parents were on vacation. She hadn't made it out of town before she was...
Éclair pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to remember. It was dark and she was pushed over suddenly and then... then something. She touched her right thigh and ran her hand over the bare upper leg until she found it. A bite mark, probably like that of a dog, was on the back side of her thigh. It was tender to the touch but seemed to have healed a great deal already. The redhead frowned at it.
She began to walk towards the road when she remembered the cell phone that was in her back pack. She searched the area for the pack but saw no sign of it. With a sigh, Éclair took off towards the main road which would quickly lead her to the edge of town and then only a few miles to home. As she walked she studied the sounds and the way the sun was moving; it was surely morning.
The hunger pains hit her again as she stepped onto main street and she nearly doubled over. Her mind turned immediately towards meat. She craved meat and it didn't matter what kind. The sensations and desires were so overpowering that they frightened her. She was afraid that she would attack the first thing that stepped into her path, since that's what her senses were telling her to do. Éclair began to run.
Houses and buildings on either side of her were a blur. She wasn't aware how fast she was running only that it seemed faster than normal. Another hunger pain hit her and she picked up the speed. Within moments she had made it to the edge of town. It seemed weird; she didn't feel tired at all. By the way her muscles tensed and flexed and how her lungs took air in and out as though they were created to do it to perfection, Éclair judged that she could continue running all the way home and still not be tired.
So she did.
She passed by the scenery without a second thought. Her only driving thought was the intense hunger and her craving for meat, any kind of meat. She had to keep telling herself that once she was home she could eat all she wanted out of the fridge. It would do no good to mull over these thoughts on an empty stomach. No, she must eat first, think later.
In no time at all she was racing up the drive way of her country home. The horses in the field whinnied at her presence and proceeded to run around the pen. Éclair paid no attention to this and ran directly into the house. Inside she was greeted by the family's border collie, Donner (her father had given her the puppy at Christmas time, hence the name), who barked once and then ran away whimpering loudly.
Éclair paid him no attention and went right to the fridge. She felt her mouth salivating and even her teeth were hurting from the severe desire from her hunger. The teen took out a package of raw hamburger thinking to make hamburgers with it, but, before she could even stop herself, she had torn off the plastic and began shoving the red meat into her mouth. She wolfed it down in such a manner that one might think she hadn't eaten in months, years even.
Within minutes she finished off the pound of ground beef and proceeded to look for more. She found raw bacon behind the milk and ate all of it. Not until she finished the package of ground sausage did she begin to feel like her old self again. Éclair looked around at the empty containers and packaging from all the meat she had eaten—without even cooking it! She began to feel disgusted with herself and threw it all in the trash.
Éclair moved into the adjoining living room. It's immense size allowed a large window peering out over rolling hills where the horses could roam. She stared out at the green hills where the sun was making it self fully known for the day. Time! She hadn't checked the time, yet. Her eyes flashed to the clock on the wall: 6:53.
She nearly flipped her lid—school was to start in an hour. She ran to her room to get a fresh uniform. This one was destroyed. The skirt was torn, the shirt was stained in blood and she was missing her tie. She'd have to wear an old pair of sneakers, too, since the pair she had on were caked in mud and possibly destroyed from water damage. Éclair kicked off her shoes as she ran up the stairs.
At the top she stripped herself of her uniform. Her body, too, seemed to be covered in dirt and blood and was sore to the point where she felt like it was one big bruise. She ran through her room towards the giant bathroom, which she had all to herself, but stopped as she glanced towards the computer.
It was on screen saver mode and read the date and time across it.
“Saturday...” Éclair couldn't believe her own eyes. She sat down at the computer and checked the date and time in the corner on the tool bar. Her ears began to ring with such a loud, high pitched noise that she couldn't hear anything else; three days had passed.
Three days missing from her life.
The realization hit her like a sledge hammer to the gut. She wanted to throw up everything she had eaten but her body wouldn't let her. She sat in a daze on the floor in front of her bed. All around her pictures of her friends and family seemed to stare down at her, mocking her and accusing her. Just exactly what had happened to her?
Éclair stayed there for half an hour. Thoughts raced through her mind faster than a locomotive and derailed just as quick. Had anyone noticed she was missing? Weren't her parents informed then? If so, why was the house empty? But was the house empty? The redhead jumped to her feet and ran to her parent's bedroom. It was empty. She checked the drawers and closets; they weren't back from their business trip, yet.
She ran back downstairs and went to the answering machine. There were only two messages. The first one was her parents telling her they'd be back sometime next week and that they loved her. This meant they didn't know that Éclair had gone missing. The second was a school secretary wondering if Éclair wanted anyone to drop off her homework and that she wished her a speedy recovery.
“Recovery from what?” the teen wondered aloud.
She was about to sit down when she realized she was still in her bra and panties. With a deep blush the young woman ran back upstairs. After a long hot shower she would sit down and think. There had to be a logical explanation for this.
Part Two
Once Éclair had dressed into a pair of slacks and a long sleeved shirt, she found herself sitting on her bed and staring out the window at the clear bright skies. The clouds soothed her and the sun felt warm and inviting—but not enough to be outside. She had remembered how the horses had acted when she came home and she wasn't ready for a repeat. She called for Donner but he seemed to not want to be near her, either.
During her shower there was only one logical explanation that she could come up with: she had gotten sick and delirious and had walked out of her house into town. That would explain the dirt and her waking up in the playground. The only thing it didn't explain was the bite on her thigh, which, disturbingly enough, was healing so fast that it was now nothing more than a faint outline against her peach skin.
Perhaps Donner had bitten her to keep her from going outside. But why would it have healed so fast? Or maybe it wasn't as bad as she originally thought and all she had to do was wash away the dirt and blood.
Éclair sighed and hugged her knees tight to her.
Even if that all were true there were more things that were vexing her. She could hear things, things she never noticed before, like the ways the house creaked or the ticking of the clock downstairs. She could hear Donner in her father's office downstairs; he was sleeping at the moment and growling from time to time. She could hear the distinct sounds of the horses walking or running outside and she felt, that without even looking, she knew the exact locations of all eight of them. Her muscles tensed at the thought.
There was also the running to consider. She had run well over two miles without so much as breaking a sweat or feeling tired. In fact, she hadn't felt tired since she awoke several hours before. And then the eating of raw meat. On some level, in her brain, she knew it was a bad thing. Eating raw pork should cause food poisoning. But her body felt completely at ease about it and what was worse was that she could go for some more.
She stared at her bed spread, the soft blues and purples seemed more alive now than they'd ever been. Éclair sighed and took a deep breath. She stopped part way through, “No way...” She could smell her room. Not just the overall smell. She could smell where Donner had been laying and the chocolate in the drawer of her desk. She could smell her father on the computer—he had installed new programs on it before he left for the trip. She could smell the musty dirt from the clothes in the hamper.
She covered her mouth as she emitted a small cry. What had happened to her?
Éclair jumped off the bed and stood in front of her full length mirror. She studied her head first. Her vivid violet eyes, her soft peach skin, red hair which was now pulled back into a loose pony tail. She checked her teeth, her tongue, her nose, and her ears. She stretched her arms out and studied the swell of her breasts and her slightly rounded belly. The way her hips flared out gently from her waist and the size of her thighs, knees, legs, feet, everything seemed normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary, physically, that is.
The young woman sighed and fell back onto the bed. Maybe this was all a dream? The fever was keeping her delirious and at any moment she would wake up. She pinched her arm. There was pain. She groaned and rolled onto her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye the screen saver now read 12:32. She stared at the numbers and date for several moments before it hit her.
“The Internet!”
Éclair jumped to her feet and sat down in front of the monitor and keyboard. She clicked on the web browser and opened Google. She was at a loss as to what to type for several seconds. Finally she decided on just typing in her symptoms: enhanced senses, hunger for raw meats, enhanced speed, and loss of memory. She hit enter and was bombarded with over a million results.
The teen rubbed the bridge of her nose and then set to work. She clicked on the third link down, figuring that wasn't a link to some generic search engine for a stupid no-name company. It brought her to a forum where someone had been discussing the same things. She scrolled quickly over the stupid responses and paused half way down at one particular response.
“Werewolf...” Éclair had to read it twice before she leaned back. She nearly laughed out loud. The idea was so ridiculous, so ludicrous, who would even think of it? She closed down the browser and turned the monitor off. The Internet is full of some stupid people, she decided as she twirled around in her chair. There was no way she was going to find a real answer there.
The redhead stopped twirling and stared at the phone on her desk. She suddenly remember her backpack with the cell phone in it. It was only half past noon; she still had plenty of daylight to find it. And maybe she could stop by the doctor's office and set up an appointment—also find out if she was admitted with a fever. With this new plan in mind Éclair went downstairs, put some shoes on, and headed outside feeling a new determination.
She paused at the door and stared back inside. If she had been gone for three days then Donner had been left inside for three days. The poor thing has either been holding it or has found a place to go where Éclair hasn't noticed. She made her way to her father's office. Inside she saw Donner lift his head. He stared at her and then began to growl ferociously. It startled Éclair. He had never done this as long as she had known him. She held her hand over her heart and continued to stare at him.
The dog proceeded to bark loudly and violently which made the teen take a step back. As if responding to instinct Éclair regained her step towards the dog. From deep within her throat she began to growl back at him. It surprised herself. But what surprised her even more was Donner's instant change at the growling. He put his tails between his legs and whimpered softly. He laid down with a pathetic look on his face that made Éclair take pity on him.
She moved to kneel next to him, noting how it made him wary, and began to speak to him in a soothing voice, “Hey boy, don't you remember me? I wouldn't hurt you, you know that?” Donner seemed to understand her and began licking her hand with such earnest that it made the redhead smile and then laugh. She petted his head. As she stood up the smell of his secondary activities hit her nose.
She scowled at Donner as in the corner were several piles of shit and a stain that was most likely piss, “Dad is going to be so angry at you,” she warned the dog. As for his part, Donner could only put his tail back between his legs and walk out of the room. Éclair sighed, she would have to clean that up later. She let Donner outside and put out a bowl of food and water for him.
She began to walk towards town, followed by Donner, who immediately went back to the house (probably for the first time ever) when Éclair told him to go home. She could only shake her head at this. There had to be a logical explanation, there just had to be.
It was a half hour before she made it back into town. First, she went to the doctor's office. She asked the only nurse at the desk if she had been admitted with fever. The nurse shook her head as Éclair told her her name. The teen sighed and then made an appointment with the doctor. After this she headed back to the preschool playground. There were kids and some parents here now.
A few who recognized Éclair waved and smiled at her. She didn't feel much like talking to anyone and strolled through the playground like she was going on a walk. She walked near the place she had awoke at and her own smell filled her nostrils. It was like she could smell the trail all the way to the woods. She followed it, making care to not seem suspicious.
The scent stopped at the woods near the playground. Éclair looked back and saw that people would see her enter the dense forest. She felt an odd invasion of privacy at the possibility of being seen and walked the length of the forest until she was certain no one was watching her. Once under the shade of the many trees it wasn't long before she picked up her scent again. She followed the scent for about fifteen minutes until she finally came upon her back pack. It was dirty like she had been but, for the most part, still in tact.
She reached inside the pouch where her cell phone was and took it out. The redhead could only sigh in frustration as she flipped it open and found it smashed from the inside. At least she got her back pack back. She threw the pack over her shoulders and pocketed the phone. Following the sounds of cars Éclair made her way back to main street where she headed towards home. She had considered stopping off at a friend's house but she still didn't feel like talking with anyone—besides, her parents only moved out here several months ago and she still felt like a stranger.
As she walked home her mind raced with a thousand possibilities explaining her new found power. Everything she thought about kept coming back to that one word: Werewolf. But in spite of that, Éclair couldn't bring herself to believe it. There were no such things as werewolves.
She walked up the driveway feeling depressed and lethargic. None of this made any sense to the teen. She just wished her parents would come home so she could tell them. She wanted to curl up into a ball in her mom's arms and cry on her shoulder for a while. She wanted her dad to tell her it was going to be alright and that he would figure it out. She didn't want any of this.
Tears brimmed her eyes as she turned the knob on the door to her house. She stopped. Something wasn't right. Éclair looked out to the pasture; the horses were as far away from the house as possible and were more frightened than when Éclair left earlier. Donner was also missing. She sniffed the air and could not find his scent anywhere.
More importantly, someone was in the house. How she knew this, she didn't know. But she knew it. She pushed the door open a fraction of an inch and inhaled the air from inside. Someone was definitely in there. Without thinking Éclair ran to the back side of the house and up the stairs to the upper porch. She slid the door to her parent's room open and slipped soundlessly inside. With great care she slipped off her back pack and placed it onto her parent's bed.
Éclair didn't dare breathe as she moved across the room to the hallway. The door was still open from when she was in there earlier. She listened to the sounds in the house and with breakneck speed moved down the stairs. Once down stairs she flattened her body against the wall. Whomever was in the house was in the kitchen. The teen crouched low and with great stealth moved through the living room. The intruder was leaning into the fridge, presumably searching through things.
Éclair took up a fire poker from the fire place and ran towards the kitchen. The intruder stood up and turned around at the sound, barely having time to dodge Éclair's swing of the poker.
“Whoa!” a girl's voice. Éclair saw a flash of long brown hair and swung again. This time the girl stopped the poker with her hand and held onto it so Éclair couldn't swing a third time. “I'm just a friend!”
The redhead narrowed her eyes at this... girl? A girl, about her own height, with long brown hair and vibrant aqua eyes stood grinning. She wore a hooded sweatshirt and jeans and looked like any other normal teenager Éclair had ever known. Éclair shook her head.
“Who are you?!” She kept pressure on the poker which the other girl still held off in her hand.
“My name is Caprice. I came here because I picked up your scent,” Caprice waved her free hand, “I'm not here to hurt you, promise!”
“My scent,” Éclair let up on the poker and then let go of it altogether, “What do you mean, my scent?”
The girl, Caprice, seemed relieved when Éclair let go of the poker. She placed the would-be weapon onto the counter and then held her hand out to the redhead, “Seems like you're still new to the game. Nice to meet you, however, um....?”
Éclair stared at the hand for a long moment before placing her own in it. The two girls shook as she answered, “Éclair. What do you mean by new to the game?”
Caprice stared at her wide-eyed, “Why, being a werewolf, of course.”
Part Three
Éclair sat at the dining room table in shock. She still couldn't believe it. Werewolf. It was like out of some horror movie minus the horror part (except what she felt in her heart). She had Caprice explain things to her twice before the girl threw her hands up in the air and began to strip. At first Éclair blushed and asked what she was doing. She then became silent as the brown haired girl shape shifted into a large, brown wolf. What scared her the most was that she wasn't afraid.
It took Caprice several minutes to change into and then back from this werewolf. When she finished she had asked to use the shower. Éclair could only nod numbly as the other girl gathered her clothes and went to the bathroom. The redhead stayed in her spot at the table. What did any of this mean? Why her? What else did Caprice know about her? Was Caprice the one who did it?
Probably not, to the last question. Caprice was genuinely surprised that Éclair did not know what she had become. She had explained that, with time and training, Éclair could change at will and remember and have control over everything she did as a wolf.
The teen looked over at the glass sliding doors which led out to the back yard porch. Nothing was the same. Everything had changed the moment she awoke in the park. Now she was some monster who changed during the full moon and ate animals—maybe humans. She covered her mouth. Had she eaten anyone over the course of those three days? They had been, as Caprice explained, during the full moon.
That was silly, Éclair thought. She would have heard of someone being killed when she went into town. Parents wouldn't have let there kids out like that if someone had been brutally murdered by a werewolf. Unless, the redhead thought with a twist of her stomach, she ate all the remains and left nothing to find.
“Well,” she sighed, “If I did eat anyone, please let it be that asshole Lucious. He deserves it after trying to grab my boob the other day.”
“Ara! You can't blame him! Your breasts are huge!”
Éclair jumped, startled, and turned to Caprice with a deep blush. The girl's hair was still damp and it seemed she didn't even try to dry herself properly before coming back out. “A-anyway,” the redhead cleared her throat and looked away, “So I'm a werewolf. Do you know why? I mean if it takes one of our kind to bite a human to make them, then why me?”
Caprice merely shook her head as she headed towards the kitchen, “Got me. We're not exactly all on friendly terms with one another,” she stopped in front of the refrigerator, “But I can tell you that whoever did it is gone. I didn't smell any other but you. Do you mind if I get something to eat?”
Éclair shook her head, “Go ahead. I assume you eat meat, too?”
The other girl nodded as she looked through the fridge, “That's all our kind eat, ya know? Normally I hunt—the kill is so much better and fresher than this packaged shit—but I was so excited to find you first that I haven't had a chance to eat for a couple days. So I'll take what I can get.”
“Hunt?”
“Yep!” Caprice had closed the door to the fridge and opened that to the freezer. She took out several packages of beef and placed them on the counter, “You'll like it. Really easy when you're a wolf. Even big animals like deer seem like play to you.”
Éclair's stomach churned, “I can't see myself hunting...”
The brown haired teen paused her actions of putting the frozen slabs of beef on a plate, “Really? You're going to do it sooner or later, that I can promise you. I haven't met a werewolf yet who has resisted the temptation to hunt.”
Éclair watched Caprice place the meat into the microwave. She stuck her tongue out at the redhead and said she would have had to heat it up regardless of whether or not it was frozen because she preferred her meat warm. An uneasy silence settled between the two while the microwave was busy thawing the beef. It was Éclair who finally broke it after several minutes.
“We eat humans?” She looked at the table while she asked this. She was afraid of the other girl's response.
“Hardly,” Caprice snorted. She stopped herself and then frowned, “Well, some do. Most don't. Unlike vampires we werewolves still have feelings about killing humans. Must be because we're still part human and able to feed on animals or something...”
Éclair's head shot up. She stared at the brown haired girl, “Vampires? What do you mean vampires?!”
The microwave beeped and Caprice reached inside to flip the meat over. She closed the door and set it to go again. She responded as she licked the juice off her fingers, “I mean just that, vampires. Man, you know, I'd really like to meet the person who made you and give them a good ass kicking. It's not considered very polite to make someone and leave them like this with no knowledge whatsoever.”
“Real life vampires? Honest to god, blood drinking, can't go out in the sun, allergic to garlic, can only be killed by a stake through the heart vampires?”
Caprice nodded and smiled, “Maybe everything except the garlic part—but I don't know personally. Just what I hear from werewolves I meet.” She moved from the kitchen towards Éclair, “Enough about that for a moment. If you don't mind, I need to check something real quick.”
Éclair was perplexed as the brown haired teen approached her and even more so as the other girl leaned her head in. Without any warning Caprice kissed her, and not just a peck, a full fledged mouth half open kiss. The redhead wanted to push her away but the taste of the meat on the other girl's lips was too tantalizing. Finally Caprice pulled away; she wore a frown. Éclair wondered if her kissing was really that bad.
“Damn,” uttered the other girl as she walked back into the kitchen, “And here I was hoping you'd be the one. You're rather cute. We'd have made the perfect partners.”
Éclair's skin matched her hair color as she tried to fathom what had just occurred, “What... I... what?”
Caprice smirked, “You really know nothing,” she laughed as Éclair shot her a dirty look, “Sorry, but it's just so weird for me. Anyways, it's probably better to start from the beginning.” She took a seat at the kitchen counter and faced Éclair, “Long ago vampires came to the earth through demons. They were careful not to be too many in numbers and to not be noticed by humans. Supposedly their purpose was to drink the souls from humans and pass them on to Satan—I don't think that's so true anymore. Sounds like something the humans made up. Whatever the case, they came.
“They were the most powerful, invisible force for centuries until another type of demon—not the type from which vampires came—became jealous and decided to place a curse on vampires. This demon made it so that vampires couldn't go out in the sun and they would also whither and die unless they found one they were truly destined for.”
“Like true love?” Éclair was leaned forward in her seat, drinking the story in with apt attention.
“Sort of. It could be any kind of love, as long as it's true,” the microwave beeped again and Caprice took the meet out. She tested it with her finger, frowned, and mumbled something about letting it cool off. “So anyways, this really messed with vampires. They worked hard to find the one they were truly compatible with, and, of course, tried to deal with being unable to go out during the day. The humans were beginning to recognize this dark force which was terrorizing them so the vampires feared that they would be killed in their sleep during the day.
“That's when they made werewolves. It was pretty simple for a demon race such as them,” Caprice made a face at this and then continued, “They used their magic and combined wolves, which were tamed and loyal to mankind, with mankind, who would be tamed and loyal to vampires. This worked for a while. Werewolves guarded their masters for centuries—until the uprise.”
Éclair shook her head, “What do you mean uprise? Werewolves revolted against vampires?”
“Exactly,” Caprice gave a thumbs up, “Because you see, the curse from the jealous demon almost a thousand years prior had extended to the vampire's magic. Werewolves also had to find their mates or would whither and die. But...” the teen frowned, “You see, werewolves were part human, so they were partly able to resist the magic. Vampires whithered away just a few years if without their true love. Werewolves could live for several decades before they died. This is why.”
The redhead gave a perplexed stare to the other girl who sighed, “This is why they revolted. The vampires weren't sympathetic to creatures that were supposed to be subservient to them. They didn't care if werewolves died out after several decades. They would just make sure the werewolf bit a human before that time so as to have an endless supply. But our kind just wanted love, too. This is what drove them to fight back.”
Caprice winked and flexed her arm, “You see, we're physically stronger than vampires. It was easy for us to kick their asses. Of course,” she muttered, “They have magical powers, which kinda sucks, but, whatever.” She waved her hands as though batting away flies, “So werewolves won their rights to no longer be slaves to vampires. Of course, since then, neither side has been on friendly terms with the other. It's considered a grave offense by both sides to be seen hanging around the other. Punishable by death.”
Éclair's mouth was open. It was such a fantastic story... and very unbelievable. How could two races with such great powers go unnoticed by humans for so long?
The brown haired girl picked up the plate with the warmed, thawed meat on it, “Where was I going with that story anyways...” she took a bite and swallowed quickly as she recalled, “Oh yeah! The kiss!” Éclair blushed again, “Right, so anyways. The easiest way for werewolves to find their true love is by tasting. I'm told that you know right away when you kiss someone. We're a species that rely heavily on our senses, ya know?”
Caprice continued to eat the meat, seemingly pleased with herself. Éclair rested her chin on her hands and stared into the kitchen without really looking. So now not only was she a werewolf, she had to find someone who was her true love before her time ended, otherwise she would die. The redhead let out a long groan and dropped her head to the table.
“How am I going to find this person? The world is so huge? And how long do I have anyways?” She noticed the family portrait in the living room. Her parents smiled fondly as a young Éclair sat happily between them, “Maybe I would rather just die when my time is up,” she muttered.
From the other room the brown haired girl slammed the kitchen table top, “That's no way to think! You've been given a great power!” Éclair raised her head to look at the other teen whose fist was held tightly in the air above her, “We'll find our true loves, I just know it!” She dropped it back down and poked the meat on the plate, “As far as time is considered, I don't know. The legends say that some werewolves have lived up to a hundred years without needing a partner. But... well... I've heard of some who have died within the first year.”
There was some scratching on the door. Éclair stood up and opened the door. Donner made to step inside but paused at the sight and smell of Caprice. The redhead patted the border collie's head, “It's okay. She's a friend. Go to my room if you're scared.”
Caprice watched as the dog ran to the stairs, careful to keep an eye on the stranger in the kitchen until out of sight. “Amazing!” she exclaimed. “You're able to communicate with animals!”
Éclair was at a loss, “Can't all werewolves do that?”
When the other girl shook her head Éclair asked why. “Because,” she began, “We're also part human. You can't be equally animal and equally human. Most werewolves have human as their dominant half. But you,” she eyed the redhead in a curious and excited way, “Have a dominant animal half!”
The violet eyed girl plopped down onto the couch. Her brain was beginning to feel exhausted over all the new information, “What does that mean? I'm more animal than human?”
“Sort of,” began the other teen, “It means that you're more in touch with your animal instincts. I bet you're stronger, too. And faster. Werewolves who let their human half take over generally resemble humans—sometimes to a fault. Of course, the positive side of a stronger human half is that you're more able to make calculated decisions and you don't have to rely so heavily on your instincts.”
When Éclair pouted out her lip at this Caprice quickly added, “But good instincts make great hunters! I bet you'll never be hungry! And whomever you find to be your partner will be very proud to have such a strong force at their side. Ah! That reminds me!”
The brown haired teen moved over to sit by Éclair. She took the other girl's hands in hers and squeezed them, “I'm making a pack! We're going to gather all sorts of lone or coupled wolves from this side of the country and find a place to live—probably in Canada—together. How does that sound? Want to come?”
“But!” Éclair stammered, “I live here! I'm not even graduated yet! I've still got another year. I can't go anywhere right now.” When Caprice gave her a puppy dog look the redhead sighed and humored her, “What kind of pack do you mean? Werewolves actually do this sort of thing?”
“Yep!” This perked the brown haired girl right up, “It's easier for us to live together because we understand each other. Plus it makes hunting easier going. And for people who want to raise their families in an environment that understands their children, packs are the best way to go.”
“And this is something you just decided to do?”
Caprice dropped her head in shame, “Actually, I've been across most of the Northern United States asking every werewolf I came across. So far, until now, everyone has declined. And here I thought I had a pretty good idea,” she mumbled the last part to herself and dropped Éclair's hands.
The redhead bit her lip and took the other girl's hands back up, “I'll tell you what. Stick around here for a while with me until I can get used to all of this and when I graduate, I will go with you wherever you want.”
Caprice raised her head hesitantly and studied Éclair for several moments before breaking out into a huge grin, “Okay! No problem!” She dropped Éclair's hands and gave two thumbs up, “I think we're going to be best friends, you and I!”
Éclair smiled. She really wanted to share Caprice's enthusiasm but for now she felt like everything she heard raised more questions than it answered. There was also the big question of who made her and why. But for now she'd have to focus on the second biggest question: Would she tell her parents and how would they take it?