Sable-Dreamer

Two weeks. Two weeks since he'd followed her home. Two weeks of telling his pack nothing about the new girl in school. Rafe was beginning to wonder if he'd imagined the strangeness that had seemed to surround Anaria. Granted it was strange that she lived so close to the inner city, but then, a lot of poorer families couldn't afford to live anywhere safer. Besides, she seemed to be normal in every other way. Not wanting to bother his alpha with a false lead, Rafe had cautiously gotten closer to Ari in an attempt to gain her trust. It seemed to have worked, and the wolf found her to be a pleasant companion during lunch and study hall, when all

Toward the end of the bus route, as the bus began to slow down at a stop, Anaria shifted in her seat as though ready to leave. It must be her stop, Rafe thought, though it was a bit strange that she lived so close to the inner city. The inner city, with its rundown buildings and struggling shops, was where you could find most of the wolves that lived in this area of the country. It's a dangerous place, where packs fight for control or for survival, along with the myriad of human gangs that call the old downtown area home. The Dark packs, or the Freki, are filled with wolves that hate humans, or see them as nothing but prey. These wolves above

He sat on the bus, bored as usual by the inane conversations of the average high school students, when a girl caught his eye. She was the new girl at school, the one with no friends. She was the newest addition to a school filled with students that had been taught together from kindergarten to twelfth grade. His sky blue eyes watched as she moved uncomfortably through the sudden silence toward one of the only seats with room left. Its occupant, another girl, quickly rose and hurriedly shared seats with one of the boys seated in the front of the bus. The expression on their faces made it clear that, though the new girl obviously had more to ca

The stench of blood and fear permeated the air. It entered his lungs with every intake and made his instincts howl in fury. How he hated those instincts now. They snarled at him to chase her. To find her, when his mind told him that it would be unwise to become involved with the human any more than necessary. Did his instincts listen? Why should they, when the sight of her terrified form sprawled helpless on the fallen leaves of autumn sparked unbidden memories of another hauntingly similar hunt in his recent past? A hunt whose victim hadn't survived. The stink of her fear was unmistakable and when the lesser youkai had darted toward the fall

Her hair tangled in the branches as she ran through the forest. Twigs scraped her cheeks with red gouges and roots tripped her feet. Her breathing was loud in her ears. It was all she could hear. The usual sounds of the forest were conspicuously absent. Nature knows when danger is about, after all, and all wise creatures take shelter when the youkai hunt. Past the harsh sound of her breath heaving in and out of her lungs, there was a slithering, a skittering, a crackling of the leaves behind her. She didn't dare turn. If she did, she just knew that she would fall. And once she fell, that would be the end of her typically cheerful human self.

The sound of the air conditioning kicking on woke me. It was one of those older models, the ones that make an awful racket every time they turn on, so that you would almost rather deal with the heat. With a low groan, I kicked off the sheet, the only cover I could stand in the hellish heat of summer, and forced myself out of bed. Stifling a yawn that made my jaw creak, I shuffled zombie-like to the bathroom. I turned on the sink, and splashed soothingly cold water on my face. My eyes still bleary with sleep and water running in rivulets down my face, I stared at my reflection in the mirror and wondered one thing, "Who am I?"