Status: New Story
A Blessing or a Curse
Chapter Three
Chapter Three
“Shame on you!” Alpha Korlav scolded us. His voice was loud and booming and his face was red with anger. “You girls put yourself in extreme danger by trying to be brave. It isn’t your place! We have fighters and men whose job it is to investigate these things! You know better than that!”
Ashelle and I were sitting in our beds next to each other in the Pack infirmary bandaged up and sitting here being yelled at my Alpha Korlav after we explained how we got ourselves into the situation. Ashelle kept her eyes in her lap and I kept mine toward the window of the room. I watched the rain drops glide down the window and listened to him silently.
“How could you two be so reckless? So stupid?!” he demanded his hands clenched in a fist.
“Darling…” Luna Korlav said in a soothing voice. She preferred being called Luna Cassidy but Alpha insisted on her being called Korlav.
“I’m sorry sir,” I brought my eyes to his cool grey ones, they were like sleek silver. “Ash has no part in this. It’s my entire fault. I convinced her to check out the scent with me. She was just backing me up like a loyal pack member and friend would do.”
He glared at me, he knew I was trying to make him look bad but I did it far too subtly so he couldn’t address it. “A foolish desiccant it was to follow you!” he glared at Ashelle.
“She-” he cut me off with a hard and intense glare which made me submit back into my bed and I sighed.
“Alfred, they’re young; cut them some slack, hmm?” the Luna chimed in. She was always so calm and reasonable, look a good Luna would be.
“No Cassidy! They could’ve gotten killed! Hunters are no friends to our kind, especially the young ones.” He argued.
“And I’m sure they know this after their frightening experience. The only way we learn from our mistakes is if we make them.” She reasoned.
“Cassidy.” He murmured in an aggravated but low tone.
“Alfred,” she began, “We were both young and reckless and looking for any kind of excitement and danger to prove ourselves, were we not? We both underestimated the consequences of our actions like they did and overestimated our power, did we not?”
He huffed in defeat. “Alright Cassidy I get it.” He sighed and rubbed his temples calming his wolf. He looked up at me and Ash.
“Look, I don’t want anyone of my pack getting hurt, it’s my job to protect you two but if you both go off looking for trouble I might not always succeed in my job. I would hate to lose more members of the pack.” He directed his eyes toward me and I looked down at my finger tips. He was talking about my parents. “You both got lucky this time but there is no telling what may happen next time you find yourselves in a situation like this. Just don’t stir anymore problems for yourselves understood?” he stood tall showing his authority as alpha.
“Understood.” Ashelle and I nodded at him.
“Now, I have a few questions to ask you ladies.” He took a seat in a folding chair brought in by one of the nurses for him to sit in. “The hunters…did they get away or did you kill them?”
I looked at Ashelle my eyebrows furrowed together; we shared the same expression “You didn’t save us?”
He looked up and matched our confused expression to his face. “What do you mean?”
“Girls, when the wolves arrived we just found your unconscious bodies on the ground, there were no hunters like you said there had been, just you two.” The Luna explained.
“There must be a mistake. I thought you and the pack members had arrived after I knocked out and saved us. I thought you killed the Hunters.” Ashelle commented.
“Yeah, before I blacked out I saw a huge black wolf and heard a growl and by the time Ash was already out and in human form. It wasn’t one of our own?” I asked the Alpha.
“Maybe a wandering pack member saved them while he was out on a run Fred.” The Luna suggested, “Maybe he stumbled across the fight before you guys did or was close by and heard their howls and came to their rescue.”
“This wolf,” the Alpha looked at me, “What did he look like?”
I shook my head and shrugged, “Everything was so blurry, all I saw was a flash of really, really dark fur and then I passed out.”
“Maybe you’re right Cassidy.” He looked at his wife, “I would’ve known if we had intruding wolves on our land.”
I harrumphed lightly and opened my mouth trying to word this in the most polite way possible, “With all due respect sir, I truly don’t mean to undermine your authority but…” I said slowly fiddling with my sheets. I heard Ash sigh next to me knowing my mouth would get me into trouble as it usually did. “You should probably be a bit more cautious. Not a lot of our pack members have black fur, or is out doing runs or anything like that alone or in the snow. After all…you didn’t know hunters were on our lands, you might not know if rouges are as well.”
He gave me a short and hard stare until he turned to his wife and whispered something in his ear. I gulped. I didn’t want to disrespect the Alpha, he already probably didn’t like me but I didn’t want a blind spot in our territory or him just letting this go. The Luna nodded and got up and left the room, I’m assuming to complete a task he has given her. “Marilyn and Ashelle what else do you recall from the attack? Appearance, how many of them were there, did they say anything?”
“Yeah, there were about seven we saw.” Ashelle began, “All of them we’re tall and sickly pale, skin like milk.”
“One of them had curly blonde hair and red eyes.” My spine shivered at the memory of the one who shot me. “Another black hair and black eyes. That’s all I can remember truthfully.”
“They…they were super strong. They didn’t smell like vampires but they didn’t exactly smell human either, though they had blood pumping through their veins, and they most definitely weren’t werewolf either.” Ashelle added. “When I was fighting them they were unbelievably strong for humans. I was totally taken my surprise.”
“Yeah they were! And before the attack when we were eavesdropping we heard a few of their plans. That they would wait until the snow melts and head back um, maybe north, I can’t really remember, but they said they’ll come back once the snow is gone and get a few wolves.”
“Do you know their purpose of being on our territory?” he asked.
“Not particularly.” Ashelle murmured.
“And you said they aren’t human?” he asked.
“We don’t know! They weren’t vampires and most definitely not werewolves, but human…I don’t think so…” I didn’t want to give him any misleading information to have the Alpha hate us even more.
Then the Luna entered the room and sat next her husband and mumbled “He’ll be at the pack house momentarily.”
The Alpha nodded. “Thank you for your information girls, I trust you’re not holding anything back from me, am I correct?”
We both nodded.
“Good,” his Luna stood beside him ready to leave. “I trust a situation like this won’t happen again, I am correct, no?”
“It won’t Alpha Korlav.” I assured him.
“Good.” He repeated. “If I have any more questions I’ll come back for answers. Until then get well.”
“Feel better girls.” The Luna smiled at us.
Before the exited the room I called out for them, “Wait!” they both turned on their heels and looked at me. “So who saved us?”
“Well girls, we’re going to find out.” The Luna replied and left the room.
“Any more questions?” the Alpha asked before heading off. I just shook my head no and watched as he exited the room.
We both sighed in relief and silence filled the room. I looked up at Ashelle who averted her eyes to the ground in a hard, cold glare. She was pissed off at me and had every right to be. “Ash I-”
“Save it Marilyn.” Her voice was low and bitter.
I flinched internally as she used my real name. She only did that when we were fighting or she was pissed off at me. “Ash please just let me-” I was cut off again.
“Beg for forgiveness? I don’t want to fucking hear it this time Marilyn! Because you didn’t wanna listen to me I got shot! You got shot! We both could be dead right now! Or worse. Damn it when are you going to get your head out your ass and look into reality? We aren’t invincible Marilyn.”
“Lolita!” I cried, “Call me Lolita!”
“Okay Lolita!” she said my name with as much venom possible.
I sighed and looked down. “Ash, I’d die for you, I didn’t mean for any harm to come to you, I’m sorry. You’ll heal fast soon it’ll be nothing but a little scratch.”
She just scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I wonder what would have happened if our ‘mysterious savior’ hadn’t come and save our asses. We’d be lying in a coffin right now, no doubt.”
We were silent for a moment. My mind wandered off thinking about the random wolf that had come and saved us. Was he from our pack? Was he rouge? Did I know him? How had he find us? Why did he bother saving us? “Ash…do you have any idea who that wolf who saved us might’ve been?”
She rolled her eyes at me, “I don’t know. Why don’t you go find out since you like to explore the dangerous.” She snapped.
I gritted my teeth and looked the other way. I get she was ticked off at me but I hated attitude, and I didn’t except it unless I deserved it. In this case I did so I just bit my tongue and ignored her tone. ‘She’ll get over it.’ I thought to myself.
Just then Dr. Relz walked in his white coat with a blood stain and his gloves filthy. “Oh goodness! I forgot this room was occupied.” He noticed us.
He removed his coat and placed it in a hamper and his gloves and threw them away. “How are you girls feeling?” he asked as he walked to the sink and washed his hands with antibacterial soap and dried them with paper towels.
“Oh peachy keen.” Ash remarked sarcastically.
“We’re doing okay doc,” I looked at the bandages wrapped around my shoulder. “I have a question though. Why did we pass out from being shot?”
“The bullets we found injected in you two were poisoned.” He explained putting on another coat and set of gloves. “You see the ‘lupus infirmitate’ is a bullet made of silver with extra special properties to render you unconscious and take away your ability to shift. It makes you dizzy and light-headed, takes away your advanced senses and makes you as helpless as a baby. The words ‘lupus infirmitate’ means wolf weakness in Latin, which is what the bullet is. A weakness. Not to mention you both lost a pint of blood.”
He took a tiny flashlight and checked my vitals. “Not to mention, when your body hit human form you were in snow. You guys had a small case of hypothermia, but your temperatures quickly burned it off once you both got here.”
He moved to check Ashelle’s vitals and quickly wrote down his results and looked up from his clipboard. “Plus getting shot hurts like hell. Your bodies must’ve gone into shock. I know mine would’ve.”
I smiled gently and sighed and leaned back. “How long until we’re fully healed?”
“A week or two for you Lolita.” He said, “You’ll have to shift 5 times a day everyday to quicken the healing process for around 20 minutes.”
“As for Ash, getting shot in the arm is less severe than in the shoulder so three days, tops.” He said, “You’ll have to shift twice a day yourself for around 40 minutes to quicken the process.”
“Roger that.” I said and Ashelle just nodded.
“When can we go home?” Ashelle asked.
“Well your mother is on her way Ash and once your aunt gets out of work Lolita she’ll pick you up, 7: 30 or around that time, okay?” he answered Ash’s question then exited the room.
After about 20 minutes of me trying to apologize and then another 10 of awkward silence Ashelle’s parents had picked her up. I sat in the bed of the hospital room alone before curiosity entered my mind. I had never been in the pack hospital before and I wanted to take a tour for a while. It was only 5 o’clock so I had time until Tante Lily got here.
I slipped out of bed and put on a pair of knee high black rain boots and straightened out my blue and white hospital gown. I slowly and cautiously left the room. The hospital hallway was pretty narrow and it was empty and the lights were dim. Something a lot like you’d see in a horror movie. I slowly walked up the long corridor to find myself at an elevator. I decided against going in because I didn’t know which floor I was in so I just walked in the opposite direction.
Soon I heard someone’s footsteps behind me and a familiar scent hit my nostrils, Green apples and wet grass. Damien. I stopped where I was and turned to see Damien who was typing something on his cellphone as he walked in my direction. “Damien!” I walked towards him.
He looked up and smile at me. “Hey, Lolita, what are you doing here? Are you okay?” he brushed a lock of my hair out of my eyes.
“Yeah, just a little accident.” I gestured to my heavily bandaged shoulder. “No big deal.”
“Oh?” he looked at me puzzeled. “What happened?”
“Well…” I began, “I was out for a run with Ashelle and there were these um…hunters and-” he cut me off there.
“Wait! You and Ashelle were the ones who got shot?” his eyes bulged out of his head. He gently pulled me towards him and rested his hands on my face and leveled his face with mine. “Lolita, are you okay? Are you frightened? Do you need anything? How bad does it hurt? Are-”
I cut off his rambling with a soft kiss on his lips. I surprised myself and him by doing this. Once our lips touched I felt them tingle gently and my heart beat quicken. “I’m okay Damien.” He pecked me on the lips.
“Alright, I’m just grateful to God with all my heart you’re alright. I swear if I ever see those sons of bitches I’ll rip them to shreds for what they did to you.” He kissed my temple, “I promise.”
I blushed. It was hard to believe that my crush of almost two years actually did care about me this much. It was a feeling straight out of a fairytale.
“Why are you here Damien?”
“My cousin Ron came down with a nasty case on pneumonia, really bad. I thought I’d pay him a visit. I’m glad I came.” He replied smiling at me.
I chewed on my bottom lip nervously and just smiled up at him. I wondered if he realized what kind of affect he had on me.
“Where were you headed too?” he asked me. “Being the fine gentlemen that I am I’d be more than happy to escort you there.”
I giggled like an idiot and shrugged. “Um, nowhere really. I was just wandering around bored. You could escort me back to my room if you’d like though.”
“It’d be my pleasure.”
“Shame on you!” Alpha Korlav scolded us. His voice was loud and booming and his face was red with anger. “You girls put yourself in extreme danger by trying to be brave. It isn’t your place! We have fighters and men whose job it is to investigate these things! You know better than that!”
Ashelle and I were sitting in our beds next to each other in the Pack infirmary bandaged up and sitting here being yelled at my Alpha Korlav after we explained how we got ourselves into the situation. Ashelle kept her eyes in her lap and I kept mine toward the window of the room. I watched the rain drops glide down the window and listened to him silently.
“How could you two be so reckless? So stupid?!” he demanded his hands clenched in a fist.
“Darling…” Luna Korlav said in a soothing voice. She preferred being called Luna Cassidy but Alpha insisted on her being called Korlav.
“I’m sorry sir,” I brought my eyes to his cool grey ones, they were like sleek silver. “Ash has no part in this. It’s my entire fault. I convinced her to check out the scent with me. She was just backing me up like a loyal pack member and friend would do.”
He glared at me, he knew I was trying to make him look bad but I did it far too subtly so he couldn’t address it. “A foolish desiccant it was to follow you!” he glared at Ashelle.
“She-” he cut me off with a hard and intense glare which made me submit back into my bed and I sighed.
“Alfred, they’re young; cut them some slack, hmm?” the Luna chimed in. She was always so calm and reasonable, look a good Luna would be.
“No Cassidy! They could’ve gotten killed! Hunters are no friends to our kind, especially the young ones.” He argued.
“And I’m sure they know this after their frightening experience. The only way we learn from our mistakes is if we make them.” She reasoned.
“Cassidy.” He murmured in an aggravated but low tone.
“Alfred,” she began, “We were both young and reckless and looking for any kind of excitement and danger to prove ourselves, were we not? We both underestimated the consequences of our actions like they did and overestimated our power, did we not?”
He huffed in defeat. “Alright Cassidy I get it.” He sighed and rubbed his temples calming his wolf. He looked up at me and Ash.
“Look, I don’t want anyone of my pack getting hurt, it’s my job to protect you two but if you both go off looking for trouble I might not always succeed in my job. I would hate to lose more members of the pack.” He directed his eyes toward me and I looked down at my finger tips. He was talking about my parents. “You both got lucky this time but there is no telling what may happen next time you find yourselves in a situation like this. Just don’t stir anymore problems for yourselves understood?” he stood tall showing his authority as alpha.
“Understood.” Ashelle and I nodded at him.
“Now, I have a few questions to ask you ladies.” He took a seat in a folding chair brought in by one of the nurses for him to sit in. “The hunters…did they get away or did you kill them?”
I looked at Ashelle my eyebrows furrowed together; we shared the same expression “You didn’t save us?”
He looked up and matched our confused expression to his face. “What do you mean?”
“Girls, when the wolves arrived we just found your unconscious bodies on the ground, there were no hunters like you said there had been, just you two.” The Luna explained.
“There must be a mistake. I thought you and the pack members had arrived after I knocked out and saved us. I thought you killed the Hunters.” Ashelle commented.
“Yeah, before I blacked out I saw a huge black wolf and heard a growl and by the time Ash was already out and in human form. It wasn’t one of our own?” I asked the Alpha.
“Maybe a wandering pack member saved them while he was out on a run Fred.” The Luna suggested, “Maybe he stumbled across the fight before you guys did or was close by and heard their howls and came to their rescue.”
“This wolf,” the Alpha looked at me, “What did he look like?”
I shook my head and shrugged, “Everything was so blurry, all I saw was a flash of really, really dark fur and then I passed out.”
“Maybe you’re right Cassidy.” He looked at his wife, “I would’ve known if we had intruding wolves on our land.”
I harrumphed lightly and opened my mouth trying to word this in the most polite way possible, “With all due respect sir, I truly don’t mean to undermine your authority but…” I said slowly fiddling with my sheets. I heard Ash sigh next to me knowing my mouth would get me into trouble as it usually did. “You should probably be a bit more cautious. Not a lot of our pack members have black fur, or is out doing runs or anything like that alone or in the snow. After all…you didn’t know hunters were on our lands, you might not know if rouges are as well.”
He gave me a short and hard stare until he turned to his wife and whispered something in his ear. I gulped. I didn’t want to disrespect the Alpha, he already probably didn’t like me but I didn’t want a blind spot in our territory or him just letting this go. The Luna nodded and got up and left the room, I’m assuming to complete a task he has given her. “Marilyn and Ashelle what else do you recall from the attack? Appearance, how many of them were there, did they say anything?”
“Yeah, there were about seven we saw.” Ashelle began, “All of them we’re tall and sickly pale, skin like milk.”
“One of them had curly blonde hair and red eyes.” My spine shivered at the memory of the one who shot me. “Another black hair and black eyes. That’s all I can remember truthfully.”
“They…they were super strong. They didn’t smell like vampires but they didn’t exactly smell human either, though they had blood pumping through their veins, and they most definitely weren’t werewolf either.” Ashelle added. “When I was fighting them they were unbelievably strong for humans. I was totally taken my surprise.”
“Yeah they were! And before the attack when we were eavesdropping we heard a few of their plans. That they would wait until the snow melts and head back um, maybe north, I can’t really remember, but they said they’ll come back once the snow is gone and get a few wolves.”
“Do you know their purpose of being on our territory?” he asked.
“Not particularly.” Ashelle murmured.
“And you said they aren’t human?” he asked.
“We don’t know! They weren’t vampires and most definitely not werewolves, but human…I don’t think so…” I didn’t want to give him any misleading information to have the Alpha hate us even more.
Then the Luna entered the room and sat next her husband and mumbled “He’ll be at the pack house momentarily.”
The Alpha nodded. “Thank you for your information girls, I trust you’re not holding anything back from me, am I correct?”
We both nodded.
“Good,” his Luna stood beside him ready to leave. “I trust a situation like this won’t happen again, I am correct, no?”
“It won’t Alpha Korlav.” I assured him.
“Good.” He repeated. “If I have any more questions I’ll come back for answers. Until then get well.”
“Feel better girls.” The Luna smiled at us.
Before the exited the room I called out for them, “Wait!” they both turned on their heels and looked at me. “So who saved us?”
“Well girls, we’re going to find out.” The Luna replied and left the room.
“Any more questions?” the Alpha asked before heading off. I just shook my head no and watched as he exited the room.
We both sighed in relief and silence filled the room. I looked up at Ashelle who averted her eyes to the ground in a hard, cold glare. She was pissed off at me and had every right to be. “Ash I-”
“Save it Marilyn.” Her voice was low and bitter.
I flinched internally as she used my real name. She only did that when we were fighting or she was pissed off at me. “Ash please just let me-” I was cut off again.
“Beg for forgiveness? I don’t want to fucking hear it this time Marilyn! Because you didn’t wanna listen to me I got shot! You got shot! We both could be dead right now! Or worse. Damn it when are you going to get your head out your ass and look into reality? We aren’t invincible Marilyn.”
“Lolita!” I cried, “Call me Lolita!”
“Okay Lolita!” she said my name with as much venom possible.
I sighed and looked down. “Ash, I’d die for you, I didn’t mean for any harm to come to you, I’m sorry. You’ll heal fast soon it’ll be nothing but a little scratch.”
She just scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I wonder what would have happened if our ‘mysterious savior’ hadn’t come and save our asses. We’d be lying in a coffin right now, no doubt.”
We were silent for a moment. My mind wandered off thinking about the random wolf that had come and saved us. Was he from our pack? Was he rouge? Did I know him? How had he find us? Why did he bother saving us? “Ash…do you have any idea who that wolf who saved us might’ve been?”
She rolled her eyes at me, “I don’t know. Why don’t you go find out since you like to explore the dangerous.” She snapped.
I gritted my teeth and looked the other way. I get she was ticked off at me but I hated attitude, and I didn’t except it unless I deserved it. In this case I did so I just bit my tongue and ignored her tone. ‘She’ll get over it.’ I thought to myself.
Just then Dr. Relz walked in his white coat with a blood stain and his gloves filthy. “Oh goodness! I forgot this room was occupied.” He noticed us.
He removed his coat and placed it in a hamper and his gloves and threw them away. “How are you girls feeling?” he asked as he walked to the sink and washed his hands with antibacterial soap and dried them with paper towels.
“Oh peachy keen.” Ash remarked sarcastically.
“We’re doing okay doc,” I looked at the bandages wrapped around my shoulder. “I have a question though. Why did we pass out from being shot?”
“The bullets we found injected in you two were poisoned.” He explained putting on another coat and set of gloves. “You see the ‘lupus infirmitate’ is a bullet made of silver with extra special properties to render you unconscious and take away your ability to shift. It makes you dizzy and light-headed, takes away your advanced senses and makes you as helpless as a baby. The words ‘lupus infirmitate’ means wolf weakness in Latin, which is what the bullet is. A weakness. Not to mention you both lost a pint of blood.”
He took a tiny flashlight and checked my vitals. “Not to mention, when your body hit human form you were in snow. You guys had a small case of hypothermia, but your temperatures quickly burned it off once you both got here.”
He moved to check Ashelle’s vitals and quickly wrote down his results and looked up from his clipboard. “Plus getting shot hurts like hell. Your bodies must’ve gone into shock. I know mine would’ve.”
I smiled gently and sighed and leaned back. “How long until we’re fully healed?”
“A week or two for you Lolita.” He said, “You’ll have to shift 5 times a day everyday to quicken the healing process for around 20 minutes.”
“As for Ash, getting shot in the arm is less severe than in the shoulder so three days, tops.” He said, “You’ll have to shift twice a day yourself for around 40 minutes to quicken the process.”
“Roger that.” I said and Ashelle just nodded.
“When can we go home?” Ashelle asked.
“Well your mother is on her way Ash and once your aunt gets out of work Lolita she’ll pick you up, 7: 30 or around that time, okay?” he answered Ash’s question then exited the room.
After about 20 minutes of me trying to apologize and then another 10 of awkward silence Ashelle’s parents had picked her up. I sat in the bed of the hospital room alone before curiosity entered my mind. I had never been in the pack hospital before and I wanted to take a tour for a while. It was only 5 o’clock so I had time until Tante Lily got here.
I slipped out of bed and put on a pair of knee high black rain boots and straightened out my blue and white hospital gown. I slowly and cautiously left the room. The hospital hallway was pretty narrow and it was empty and the lights were dim. Something a lot like you’d see in a horror movie. I slowly walked up the long corridor to find myself at an elevator. I decided against going in because I didn’t know which floor I was in so I just walked in the opposite direction.
Soon I heard someone’s footsteps behind me and a familiar scent hit my nostrils, Green apples and wet grass. Damien. I stopped where I was and turned to see Damien who was typing something on his cellphone as he walked in my direction. “Damien!” I walked towards him.
He looked up and smile at me. “Hey, Lolita, what are you doing here? Are you okay?” he brushed a lock of my hair out of my eyes.
“Yeah, just a little accident.” I gestured to my heavily bandaged shoulder. “No big deal.”
“Oh?” he looked at me puzzeled. “What happened?”
“Well…” I began, “I was out for a run with Ashelle and there were these um…hunters and-” he cut me off there.
“Wait! You and Ashelle were the ones who got shot?” his eyes bulged out of his head. He gently pulled me towards him and rested his hands on my face and leveled his face with mine. “Lolita, are you okay? Are you frightened? Do you need anything? How bad does it hurt? Are-”
I cut off his rambling with a soft kiss on his lips. I surprised myself and him by doing this. Once our lips touched I felt them tingle gently and my heart beat quicken. “I’m okay Damien.” He pecked me on the lips.
“Alright, I’m just grateful to God with all my heart you’re alright. I swear if I ever see those sons of bitches I’ll rip them to shreds for what they did to you.” He kissed my temple, “I promise.”
I blushed. It was hard to believe that my crush of almost two years actually did care about me this much. It was a feeling straight out of a fairytale.
“Why are you here Damien?”
“My cousin Ron came down with a nasty case on pneumonia, really bad. I thought I’d pay him a visit. I’m glad I came.” He replied smiling at me.
I chewed on my bottom lip nervously and just smiled up at him. I wondered if he realized what kind of affect he had on me.
“Where were you headed too?” he asked me. “Being the fine gentlemen that I am I’d be more than happy to escort you there.”
I giggled like an idiot and shrugged. “Um, nowhere really. I was just wandering around bored. You could escort me back to my room if you’d like though.”
“It’d be my pleasure.”