by H. L. Graham
“Owww, bitch!” I muttered reaching my hand to my now bleeding lip, which was dripping down my chin and onto my shirt. “I’m gonna so send you my dry-cleaning bill.” I guess she didn’t like hearing no. She must have been hell on wheels as a toddler.
Kristi grabbed the papers from the trash and threw them at Conan number two, who magically appeared when all the excitement began. He stuffed the papers into a pocket on the inside of his jacket.
Leaning over me she said, “I’m sorry that you feel that way, Hannah. I really believed we could resolve this situation. I think I’ll really enjoy killing you come the full moon on Saturday.” She reached into her pocket, produced a pink handkerchief which she tossed at me. Something else fell from her pocket as she strode out of my office toward her Barbarians, a white feather.
I leaned over to pick it up immediately recognizing it as a duck feather. I followed her outside as she and her bodyguards headed to their car. “Where did you get this?” I asked, holding the feather in the air.
“Oh, that,” she said across the parking lot. “I’ll be having Duck for dinner tonight.” She gave me another evil smirk and climbed into the back of the car. They sped away almost knocking over an old woman and her walker.
“Duck murderer!” I shouted. I was so shocked she would harm one of those poor ducks that I was out of witty retorts. I decided there and then given the opportunity, Kristi was going down.
Chapter 23
Thanks to my bloody lip, yoga was out of the question. I locked up and headed home. I was so angry about my visit from the Bitch, I think smoke was coming out of my ears. My lip wouldn’t stop bleeding and my shirt was ruined. There was no way I was getting dried blood out of silk. I may not be the most fashion forward person, but I knew a good deal at Banana Republic when I saw one. I wanted to tear little miss bitch face into tiny little pieces. I hated to admit it, but my wolf side relished the idea of ripping her to shreds. I wondered if Freud had an explanation for this psychotic fantasy. If it didn’t involve some sort of suppressed sexuality, Freud really wasn’t going to be much help to me. Maybe talking with Rebecca and Gaven might help.
I pulled into my driveway and hopped out to grab the mail when my neighbor Kevin drove around the corner in his new Toyota Prius. I waved, forgetting about the blood for a second when Kevin almost ran me down. He doesn’t do well with blood, which I always considered strange because he’s a nurse. I landed squarely on my ass with a dazed look on my face.
Kevin jumped out of the car and ran toward me, “I’m so sorry, are you okay? Hannah, Hannah, snap to girl…”
“Kevin, you almost hit me with your car,” I said staring up at him.
Kevin frowned at me as he helped me slowly to my feet, “I saw all the blood, god what happened to your lip?”
Kevin promptly fainted. My lip still dripping, almost hit by my blood phobic nurse neighbor, but now I’m nursing him. Kevin’s never been known to react well in emergencies. His last emergency was a few months ago when his kitchen caught on fire. He ran in circles screaming. Gaven called the fire department while I helped Kevin calm down.
“Kevin man, wake up, I need to go inside and clean up.”
“Ahhhh…”
“Kevin, listen! Help me get inside so I can clean up this blood. Grab the mail for me.”
“Okay, Okay,” he slowly picked up the mail.
“Don’t get any blood on my new outfit, its Armani.” His new fear launched Kevin to his feet and running for the mailbox.
“Give me a break,” I said walking toward the door.
Rebecca looked up from the dining room table as we walked in. “What happened to you?”
“The Bitch punched me,” I said.
Kevin dropped the mail on the table, “Who?” he asked. Crap he overheard me.
“Another therapist I call The Bitch,” I recovered quickly. “She hates that I have good office space and she’s stuck up in Port Charlotte in some windowless shed.”
He gave me an odd look. “So, she punched you?”
“Yeah, it’s a really long story, but the short version is she punched me.” I lied, again. I was getting much better at lying. It still felt wrong, but I couldn’t spill the wolf beans to Kevin.
Rebecca ordered me to sit down and was getting the first aid supplies when Gaven got home.
“Hannah, what happened? Are you alright?” Gaven rushed over to me.
Kevin launched into gossip mode, “Apparently that woman therapist, the one who got stuck in the bad office punched her.”
Gaven looked confused and I tried to tell him with my eyes, “go with it.”
“I’m fine, just a small cut,” I said. “Kevin helped bring in the mail. Of course, that was after he almost hit me with his car and then proceeded to pass out at the sight of blood.” I looked over at Kevin, “Nice performance Kev!”
Kevin smiled proudly. “Well that’s your only shirt that doesn’t lack, well, taste. And now it’s ruined Hannah. I fainted from the horror of it all.”
I stuck my tongue out at him and my lip moved just enough for a bit of blood to trickle, “Owww.” I complained touching the handkerchief to the blood.
Just then the front door cracked open and Frank peeked his head around the door, “Hello anyone here?”
“Yeah, come on in,” Gaven yelled.
Rebecca kneeled in front of me and dabbed my lip with gauze. “OWW,” I yelped.
Rebecca gave me a ‘you’re a wuss’ look and kept cleaning the cut.
“Hannah, what happened to your lip?” Frank asked.
“She got punched.” Kevin filled him in on the details with the precision of a well-tuned gossip monger.
“Are you going to sue her?” Frank asked sensibly.
“No, it’s really nothing. I made a smart-ass remark and she punched me. We’re even.” I answered semi-truthfully.
Gaven raised his eyebrows again and Rebecca kept dabbing my lip with liquid fire. “Are you done?” I snapped at her.
“Hold still, you wimp,” she answered dabbing some antibiotic cream on it and pronouncing me healed.
“Hey Kevin, do you think you could keep this one to yourself?” I asked him as he snuck toward the door. “I’ll let you play stylist on my next shopping trip.” I attempted to bribe him.
The last time I let Kevin go shopping with me, I ended up spending way too much money. The clothes were not exactly Florida casual. Let’s just say the shoes I ended up with would have been great on a catwalk, but for actual walking, not so much.
Kevin’s eye grew wide, “You promise?”
I took in a slow breath and held it, “Yes, I promise.”
“The whole day, no complaining and you must try on everything I select.”
“Only as long as I have veto power on purchases.”
He looked at me then at Frank who shrugged. “Alright, but I reserve the right to discuss all of these events in detail, with Frank, all night tonight?” He smiled at Frank who groaned and I laughed, “deal.”
“Well Frank you’re all mine tonight darling,” Kevin said as he escorted a very unhappy Frank out the front door.
“Sorry Frank, I yelled after them.”
Frank turned, “Now you also owe me.” He gave me his best evil experimental chef look and disappeared. I laughed, whom didn’t I owe?
“So, what really happened?” Gaven asked after the front door closed. He was concerned being this was the first time I had ever been in a fight. It felt like I was a kid getting questioned for fighting with the school bully. Well teach, that’s what bullies do!
“Don’t get upset, I was never in any danger,” I started to explain.
“Hannah!” Gaven shouted.
“Ok, ok. The Bitch came to my office with two goons to make me an offer.” I sighed and rolled my eyes. “An offer I couldn’t refuse.” I added with a chuckle.
“Hannah, this is not funny.” Gaven was pissed. “What kind of offer?”
“She wanted me to join the Ft.
Myers pack and offered me a check for $10 million dollars. She also wanted me to be her newest minion. That way the Ft. Myers pack leader could take over Jacobs pack and then probably world domination. I really didn’t ask for all the details. When I refused, she punched me. Oh, she also killed one of those cute ducks behind my office.” I got mad thinking about that poor little duck.
“She what?” Gaven asked confused, “ok, forget the duck for a minute, why did she punch you?”
“Uh, I don’t know, cause she’s a nut bag,” I answered sarcastically.
Rebecca piped in, “You mouthed off to her, didn’t you? No offense Hannah, but you really need to learn some self-control and maybe a bit of diplomacy.”
“She was nuts so I just reflected and deflected, just like I would do with any of my patients,” I answered sarcastically.
“She is as powerful as Jacob and all you did was piss her off. She is so gonna try to kill you now,” Rebecca said worried.
“She was going to try to kill me anyway, so nothing really has changed,” I answered. “Anyway, she can’t kill me if I get her first,” I added stubbornly. “Oh, yeah by the way. By pissing her off, I was able to determine her power levels and she is pretty strong.”
Gaven started to pace the room, “Hannah, you have been a wolf for all of two seconds. She has been one for years. Based on her current killing record, she has a lot of experience using her wolf powers for evil. I’m afraid for your safety.”
“I had to know what I was up against. Anyway, she’s really pissed at Jacob, which redirects her power. I think if I can keep her off balance, I may have a shot.”
Gaven looked away while crossing his arms. He was worried about me.
I walked over to him and hugged him, “I know you’re worried, but I just know in my gut I can take her. Yeah, she’s powerful, but I am more powerful and with the new pack behind me, I can draw off their energy to add to my strength. And if I can keep her off balance that will also help.”
Rebecca whipped around quickly grabbing one of the wolf manuals and started flipping through the pages rapidly. She stopped on a page with a drawing of several wolves surrounding one wolf with white tipped ears who was standing on a large boulder. “How did you know about drawing energy from the pack? I just came across this page today and I wanted to talk to you about it.”
She pointed at the wolf in the middle. “It’s you! The picture clearly shows you in the middle of the pack, pulling their energy and giving it back in order to share strength.”
Gaven and I walked over to see the picture, “Are you sure?” I asked.
“Positive,” she answered.
“Wait, so what does this mean?” Gaven asked.
Rebecca pointed again to the wolf in the picture. “The wolf in the middle with the white tipped ears is Hannah. When we changed the other night, she had white tips on her wolf ears. I think Jacob gave me this book for a reason. He knows Kristi is planning on attacking Hannah at the ceremony. He wanted her to know that if she binds herself with the pack, she would be able to borrow their power to enhance her own. The power will then flow back into the pack, making us all stronger.”
Rebecca turned the page. “See this picture here?” She pointed a drawing depicting of the outer circle of wolves. Energy was flowing back into them. She flipped back to the first picture. “See how the moon shines on this picture?” We nodded. She flipped to the second picture. “The moon is absent from this picture. I think if you borrow energy from the pack to fight Kristi, you will share your gift by forcing the change with the pack.”
Shocked, I stared at Rebecca. “What do you mean, changed you? I made you shift into wolf form the other night, but I thought you still needed me to do it again.”
“I thought so, but no. I was able to initiate the change, but I stopped it after a few seconds. I’m sure I can do it all by myself,” she said.
“So, you think Jacob knows all this and is hoping Kristi will attack on Saturday? That would force me to pull the pack’s power and effectively change the pack. They would never be tied to the moon again.” I said rhetorically. “That ass, jerk, butt licking dog!” I was fuming.
“He knew all along that Kristi would plan her attack at the moment he was binding himself to me, forcing me to defend myself and inevitably borrowing power from my new pack so to protect us all. He’s trying to trick me into changing the pack. I knew he was too compromising about my gift and my desire to hold it back for now. That jerk! Triple CRAP!”
I was pacing around the room with cartoon steam billowing from my ears. I felt my center fill with power and I knew I needed to change into wolf form and run. I was trapped in this situation and now I had to move forward. But first I needed to let off some steam.
“I need a wolf workout,” I said heading toward the garage.
Gaven raced after me, “Hannah, it’s not even dark yet, just wait another hour, then do what you need to do. I’m worried about your safety.”
“I can defend myself against that Bitch!” I shouted.
“Not her. I don’t want you shot by some redneck.”
He was right, damn it. “Fine, but I need to be alone.” Rebecca offered to come with me, but I refused.
“I’ll be in the garage. Lock the door,” I ordered.
Rebecca followed me to the garage door, “What about Leslie? He’s coming over for dinner soon.”
Gaven stepped between Rebecca and me. “I’ll tell him you’re not feeling well and went to bed early. Just don’t run in front of our house when you take off or return.”
“Okay, thanks.” I shut the door and I heard Gaven slide the lock into place.
I walked over to my doggie bed to sit and wait for nightfall.
The hour passed quickly as I planned how I would verbally tear Jacob apart and then I started to fantasize about really tearing into him. I thought about his blood pouring into my mouth as I bit into his flesh and ripped a chunk of his shoulder off. I was suddenly looking forward to seeing that jerk again.
I caught bits and pieces of conversation from behind the door. I began to wonder why my super hearing wasn’t functioning well and realized Gaven must have installed a stronger door made of metal and covered with wood to keep me out of the house. I guess he took his safely seriously. I loved that man.
Leslie did arrive with the chocolate delight pie for which I kept begging. They better save me a piece, I thought. Just then I noticed the sun had set and I needed to run free.
I centered myself and began the change. This time I focused on my Zen breathing techniques and was surprised to find Rebecca was right. It really was no big deal. No pain this time and it was much quicker than before. Very cool, I thought.
Chapter 24
I slipped out the doggie door and into the night. The air cooled as the sun set over the gulf. I guess summer’s truly oppressive heat was a few weeks away. The night air felt comfortable against my fur. I wondered if my coat would thin to accommodate the summer heat.
I was already beginning to feel better as I trotted by the humming air conditioner unit at the corner of my house. The air smelled of freshly cut grass. I could hear the splash of water and screeches from kids playing in the neighbors’ pool.
I stayed close to the shadows as I headed to the field Rebecca showed me the other evening. I starting to feel my hunger rise. I wanted a raccoon snack and soon. Locating the spot where we had killed the other raccoon, I found several buzzards picking at the remains. I pounced on the buzzards, killing one easily.
I thought about Kristi the Duck Murderer as I ate my dinner. I pictured her picking her teeth clean with one of the poor duck’s feathers. I thought about how good it would feel when I sunk my teeth into her, paying her back for punching me and every other evil deed. The thought made me calm and centered.
After licking my chops clean, I decided I needed to run. I headed toward the harbor. I ran past small animals doing their best to avoid me. I heard a 4-wheeler in the distance and saw the headlight bounci
ng across the field. I steered myself in the other direction to avoid any human contact. Gaven’s concern was valid. Humans might shoot first and ask questions later.
Running at full speed and pushing myself felt good. I did miss the music pumping in my ears, but I wasn’t sure how I would manage to carry an iPhone on my new body. I made a mental note to talk to Gaven about this. Maybe he could rig something for me? I would be the coolest wolf in town.
Bounding over and under mangrove branches and splashing though the swampy water brought me closer to the harbor. I jumped over a pile of oyster shells and landed on the bank. I stood knee-deep in the water, allowing it to envelop me. The night was busy with invisible movement. Insects buzzed around, palm fronds rustled, and mullet breached the surface of the water, landing with a splash.
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds to shine upon the water. It would soon be full, and like a lover, promised to embrace and fulfill my body. It’s power whispered, telling me to take my fill. It would sustain me. I pointed my nose toward the moon and howled. My anger, my fears, my desires, all directed toward the white globe.
I released all that I was and embraced all that I had become. The moon was now part of me and would never abandon me, ever.
I could hear dogs barking from across the harbor. I laughed and turned toward home.
When I had reached my neighborhood, I decided to do some exploring. It was quiet, most everyone had gone to sleep.
A popular neighborhood activity was exploring new construction. Mine had grown in leaps and bounds. When people took their evening walks, they would check out the new homes being built. I’ve been busy and missed the newer additions.
Well tonight I was exploring. I walked into the first one I came across. It was in mid-construction. The walls were up, but the flooring had yet to be installed, along with the kitchen cabinets and bathroom fixtures. I wandered into the master bedroom, my favorite room.