A friend

When I woke up in the morning, the sun was playing on my face in "hide and seek". It was vanishing behind the clouds, then showing again, trying to wake me up. I didn't want to wake up because of a bad sleep at night: for part of the night I was sweating, then I had nightmares. Some time ago I would say I'll have a period soon, but it just ended a week ago, so it wasn't the reason. Probably, it was because of the books I've read and a talk with Aiden.

A vibration of my phone on the night table near me made me jump on the bed. I took the phone and saw that it was my mom calling, if I can call her like that. I felt there was something wrong between us, I just can't explain what, but I took the phone.

"Hey, Letty! Where are you? There's a letter from the college, they want you to come and have a test, then they can take you in for study if you'll have good scores," she said without giving me time to say anything. Yeah, I remember I applied to the college she wanted just before driving here. Though, I never told her where I'm going and what I'm going to do. I told her I'm going to live with a friend of mine for some time.

"Hey, nice to hear from you. I was just about to call you and say that I really like the place where I am, so I'm going to stay for a longer time. Also, I applied to another college here, going to a test tomorrow. Wish me luck!" I lied, expecting her to believe. And she believed, as she didn't care about me as much as she wanted me to show.

"That's pleasant to hear. Don't forget to update me about the results!" She turned off the call, making me sigh with relief. She was never interested in me, as she hasn't even asked anything about the friend with whom I'm going to stay or the city where I'd be. I wonder how my father married her, and recently I'm thinking more and more about her being the woman who gave birth to me or not. And if to compare both of us, you wouldn't need any answers to that questions.

She was a small woman with short and thin blond straight hair, deep brown eyes, and a diamond-shaped face. Her facial features were very different from mine, as I have bright rose-red thick and a bit of curly hair, an oval face, and deep blue eyes. I'm taller than she by a head or two, and I have a different body shape. We have too many features that differ, and actually nothing in common, that can prove she wasn't the one who gave birth to me.

{I wonder how did my real mom look like"}

I stood up from the bed, made some morning procedures, put on makeup, and went to the kitchen to have a coffee and breakfast. After a while, I turned back to the bedroom and opened my wardrobe to put something on me and go study other parts of the city. I wanted to take a ride in my car because I never let it stay out for so long. Also, maybe I should check if there's any service.

I took a pair of gray jeans, a light-blue blouse, a jacket, and a pair of blue sneakers, then took my purse and went out to the street. I drove out of the parking lot of the hotel, then started driving all over the city, looking for any service.

~𝐀𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧~

I woke up early in the morning as William woke me up with bad news. They noticed some movement in the forbidden territory and the sniffers team already reported that those strangers, whom they noticed earlier, are making a temporary settlement on the forbidden territory. I hurried to the Pack House to call Mark and Victor and ask for some help. They promised to send some sniffers to me as soon as possible.

"Aiden, may I come in?" I heard William's voice from behind the door. I put my phone aside.

"Yes."

"Don't want to take a break?" He asked, coming inside, "Matt and Chris ran to both borders with Mark's and Victor's Packs, as soon as the sniffers will appear, they'll lead them here. It will take probably an hour or two. Then, we can sniff all the forbidden territory, as we'll have enough werewolves for that."

I put my phone in my pocket, then stood up and went around the table, closer to him. He stepped back to give me more space.

"That's good. Let's go have some breakfast and coffee, it's almost dinner time, and I'm starving from the morning…," I said, and he bowed his head, then went downstairs.

When we went to the kitchen, Catherine and Bella were serving the table. I looked at William.

"What's the reason for a feast?" He shrugged at my question, then went to Catherine and kissed her cheek.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, in particular, it's our duty to take care of you guys," she blushed, then put a big plate of salad on the table and smiled, "Should we brew you some coffee?"

"William is making the best coffee," I sat on a chair at the head of the table and looked at them joining me. Catherine and Bella definitely planned something, as they are rarely serving us at the table here in the Pack House. They just deliver us food they made at home or citizens gave us. However, I didn't want to intervene and ask questions for now. Usually, they'll give up keeping silent for a while and ask questions on their own.

"Sure," William started making coffee, while Catherine took a plate of fried eggs with sausages and held it to me.

"We made your beloved breakfast, Aiden." Catherine smiled, while I looked at a plate, took it, and put three eggs with sausages on my plate. She put some eggs on her husband's plate, then passed them to Bella. I took some salad and started eating when William put four cups of coffee on the table and joined us. It was silent for some time until my phone rang. I took it out and looked at the screen. "Letty".

"Hello, Letty," I answered the call and saw how everyone at the table straightened up and stopped eating as if to make less noise and hear the conversation.

"Hello, Aiden. I'm sorry I'm distracting you, but I couldn't find any car service in the city, and thought about asking you for help."

"There's the service on the other side of the city," I answered and took a sip of coffee, as I finished my breakfast. She sighed with relief.

"Oh, nice, any coordinates? I can find it on the map the man on the block post gave me two days ago."

"It's on the Black Forest street, building number three," I said, looking at William. He looked back at me with a question written on his face, "should I go there?". I shook my head negatively.

"Yeah, I got it. Thanks, Aiden. I'll write you when I'll be there, so you won't worry I'm lost somewhere."

"Nice, thanks," I turned off the call, then looked at William, taking a sip of coffee, "She's not a child, will find her way there. We have much more important duties here."

"Why does she need car service?" Asked Bella, eating her sweet sandwich.

"She hasn't told," I said, then took a sip of the coffee, "She got here by car. It's a long way from Dallas to here, she probably wanted to check if everything is okay with her car."

"Understandable," Bella said and kept silent as well as Catherine. I said thanks and went up to the office.

🌠 🎀 ~𝐿𝑒𝓉𝓉𝓎~ 🎀 🌠

I left my car at the service, then wrote a message for Aiden to not worry. The guys at the service said I need to walk around for a few hours, so they can check my car from up to down. As I was almost at the end of the city, I decided to have a walk around and look at the forest surrounding the city in a circle. There was only one way in and one way out from here, and that's the same road I was driving two days ago. That's very interesting, as this city is cut from all over the world and who knows what's going on there, deep in the forest. I'm more than sure that if werewolves do really exist, they are living there. Forest is a natural habitat for wolves, but what relation this city has to it?

I sat at a bench in a park and took the book of legends about werewolves out of my purse, and started reading it. I was immediately lost in space, running somewhere among those werewolves and feeling the wind playing with my fur. Not only that, but I had a strange feeling while reading about the transformation from human to werewolf, and it became even worse when I started reading about how werewolves reproduce and how the new werewolves appear. It was a feeling like I'd already known before… Like I experienced it before on my own.

"Mind if I sit here?" I jumped on the bench and looked at a person who scared me. The sun was shining from the back of the stranger, making it hard for me to identify the gender. I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them, seeing a familiar face.