Between Fangs

A howl rippled through the moonlit night. It was a warning, the Zaller pack was going to hunt, and it wouldn't be so pleasant for whoever stood between us and our pray. I felt the cold mud against my paws, the hunger growing restless inside of me and my ears attentive to the sounds of the night. Being in the wolf form was my second nature, a second skin, as normal to me as changing clothes. The darkened sky fell upon us like a cape, it hid us from our pray, making the hunt easier. We were running in formation through the vast forest, at the front was my father, our pack leader, with his deep brown fur and his doubled size that marked him as the alpha; I was at his right side as his second, fast and swift, with my deep reddish fur. I was the only woman in the hunting party– because of misogynistic wolf bullshit– as alpha heiress it was my right to be among them, and nobody was brave enough to defy me with complaints. We encircled a swarm of deers, their sweet smell all over the night breeze. Another howl. This time it said, "we found you." •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• "I'll hit the shower." I said once we got back home and changed forms behind a bush. Grime and blood was all over my skin, making it tacky and gross at the touch. The wooden floor of the porch creaked under my weight. I sighed. Being home was always good. I trailed up the stairs to the bathroom down the hall. There was already a stack of clothes atop the toilet's lid, I made a mental note to thank my mom later for that. The tiles and the mirror were soon fogged with steam from the hot shower. Under the water my back ached with relaxation, the hot rain making my muscles loosen up. My slippery hands ran through my body with lavender soap, but before I could finish with washing myself there was a knock at the door. I grabbed for the shower curtain, a involuntary reflex, trying to cover some of my nakedness. However, nobody came through the door. "Yes?" I yelled to the person standing outside the bathroom. "Talia honey,"my mom's sweet voice called. "Dinner is ready, hurry now." I washed my hair faster, knowing dad got moody if I made him wait. I was in no condition to stand through a speech from him tonight. After getting out of the sweet shower, I dressed in the clothes that were waiting for me, on the toilet lid still, a comfy pair of plaid pants and a strappy shirt. Going downstairs barefoot, my steps were almost soundless. "They want to make a treaty." My father was talking with hushed voice. "I don't know if Talia will like it, but we need to do this." Being the alpha in a pack came with a lot of responsibility, and a lot of secrecy, wich I hated when directed towards me. Sometimes the secrets could take my father and I apart or it could spark a blaze of fiery fight, wich I always ended up loosing. "They have a lot of territory, and they could help us win against the Becklan pack." There were three main packs among us, they have fought for centuries for pieces of the land like mad dogs. There were the Raker's, Whose packs was the biggest and strongest, with fierce and war-hungry wolves. Then there was the Becklan pack, wich somehow got the bigger chunk of land even though they are the weakest pack of all three, and their members are half of what any of our cubs were. And then, there was us; The Zallen's, we were neither the strongest nor the biggest but we managed. I came out of my hiding behind the wall that covered the stairs, making my feet stomp to make my presence known. "What were you guys talking about?" I asked innocently. On the table there was a feast with pot roast and meat of all kinds, mom had outmatched herself. My belly started growling just by the sight of the food. "Wow mom, you went all off." "Thank you baby, sit down so we can eat." Her tone was hushed and sweet but somewhat urgent, like she was trying to avoid saying something. My curiosity spiked at her secrecy. The dinning rules were simple yet strict. No cellphones while eating, no television, and over all; no leaving before everyone finished their meal. Not even if someone wanted to stomp out of the room in fury, wich happened to me, a lot. We ate in silence, with hidden glances to each other, wich was weird for our usually chatty dinners. The elephant was very much in the room and they knew it. They knew I had heard them, but they wanted to avoid talking about it. As I always did, I stirred the pot, making them even more reluctant to talking. "So. . ." Their eyes shot up to me, intrigued. "Why wouldn't I like a treaty?" I asked my parents, cutting right to the point. My father lowered the fork that was halfway to his mouth and my mother looked at him with wondering eyes. At this point my curiosity was a living thing trying to murder me if I didn't fed it with knowledge. My mother drifted her almond eyes towards me, cold and analyzing as they could get, "Talia, how many times have we told you that eavesdropping is very bad?" Her plumb mouth tensed with a scowl. It was funny to look at her that way, I had stared back at a replica of her on the mirror countless times before. My mother and I were a copy of each other, I had the same rounded mouth with a bottom lip just a tiny bit more filled than the top, the same almond eyes with a round shape and her high cheekbones, the only thing I took on my father was my skin, hers was like the clouds and mine the color of shiny copper. Nobody knew from whom I got my flaming hair, although now it was more the color of wet brick from the dye I did last week, but naturally it looked like my hair was on fire. "Talia," my father started with a firm voice, he eyed me with his 'here comes the explanation that will more likely end up in a discussion.' look. I interrupted him before he could say anything else, "if you're about to give me a long ass excuse just to confuse me and expect me to act as I got it," I c****d my brow at him, to add some emphasis to my point. "Don't." He let an exasperated breath, "listen," he said, looking right into my eyes with his black bottomless orbs. "I already know you won't like it, but we're about to strike a treaty with the Raker pack. I know how protective you become of our own, but it is for the best." My hands balled into fists, "I don't see how that is for the best." It was known that I had no affection for the Rakers. For the Blecklans in the other hand. . . There were some exceptions among them. "They won't do nothing without taking land, you know this, we been through this a million times already." I slammed my hand to the table. The anger was getting the best of me, but I really didn't like the snakes that were the Rakers. "They'll help without asking for land. We can't beat the Blecklans if we don't make some kind of sacrifices and war is nothing without allies." My dad hated the Blecklans as I hated the Rakers. When my father was a youngling he was to become alpha of the Becklan pack by marriage to Kianara, the Becklan heiress, but she chose another, leaving him heartbroken. The bad blood against Becklans runs still and secretly I know my dad still resents the fact that Kianara chose someone else over him . "We been talking to the Raker alpha for some time now, and we got to an agreement." He was holding something back, I knew it. He was choking on unspoken words. Later I will find out what those are. "If you want to put all of us in danger, then go ahead, be my guest," my hands flew almost hitting a glass off the table. "But do not expect everyone to be okay with this, especially not me." I saw that neither my mom or dad were eating so I mumbled an angry dismissal and stormed out of the room, not technically breaking any rule. •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• I shut my bedroom door with a big yank, making my anger clear for them to hear. I paced to my vanity where a mirror stood and took the seat from under the table. My father had some nerve, I gave him that. No pack leader had ever made a pact with other alpha, much less a pact between Zallers and Rakers. It took some courage to strike a treaty, but it will be messy. Some will want peace and accept it, while others may want more territory and hunting privileges wich could lead to even more problems. My anger roared at the thought of letting a Raker hunt before us, or giving out part of our territory when we where already so tight in here. I looked in the mirror, trying to calm down, to think about all the good things that a treaty with the largest pack among the three of us could bring. I laughed because I couldn't think of one advantage. Running my eyes through my room I searched for a distraction. The walls where a clear pink but rusted with time, I haven't repainted since I was a little cub. White gauzy curtains flew all over with the nightly breeze making my skin warm and scattered on the floor there were clothes that I should put away, but wasn't really going to. Maybe I could try to figure something to entertain myself with, so I could stop worrying and raging about the Raker pack. My bed looked like it was calling to me, it said "come and cry out your anger on me baby." I couldn't turn down to such an offer. I walked to my bed and plummeted down, face first, to the soft mattress. ☾☼☽ My mind ran wild for a long time, until I decided that my father was not going to ruin my mood more than he already had. Not tonight. I shot out an arm and searched blindly for my phone in the nightstand beside me. After some time, touching everything and making some knickknacks fall to the floor, I found the black wire that was connected to the device. I knew who I could call in these kinds of situations. There was no other place in the world I felt safer or more loved than with her. My best friend. Kilya was a member of our pack, we met when we where cubs and stuck together like filth and nail since then. Not one of my memories was without her curly head or her loud and beautiful laugh, we where one of the same, both in human form and in wolf. Truly, I couldn't describe our bond with words if I wanted to, it was something so intimate and of connection that I could feel it, sense it, but there was no way I could describe it with words. I tapped the phone icon and waited until the first beep. When sad, or angry, or even happy, we would call each other in the middle of the night and celebrate about whatever was that the other person was going through. Her voice came through at the first tone. "Babe? What's up?" Her voice was a little husky. Maybe she was about to go to sleep. "Hey," I didn't know if I could discuss with her the treaty, yet. My father might get pissed if he found out I told someone before he announced properly. Well, f**k him. "My father wants to strike a pact between the Raker pack and us. I want to throttle him Killy. I swear that if you don't get me out of here Calum Zaller is going to appear on the morning news because his daughter murdered him in cold blood." My best friend laughed at my murderous threat. She knew how frustrated I got with my father and his decisions. When I become pack leader things will change, a lot. "Put on something tight and shiny honey," her tone was sweet, like she was talking about going to Sunday church. She knew exactly what I wanted and needed, and I loved her even more for that. "Let's get wild."