Luna, Make a Wish

"Up!"  I could hear the voice inside my head berating me as the early morning sun peaked through my window blinds.   "Up. Now."   The voice had added a growl, which garnered a lazy, muffled groan from me into my pillow.  "If I pretend that I can't hear you, will you go away?"  In response to this, I could feel my joints begin to ache and my muscles begin to tremble. I shut my eyes tighter trying to ignore the threat of shifting as my wolf attempted to take over my body. Shifting here would be a very bad thing. It would mean that I would actually be forcefully removed from my bed and likely dra—  "I swear I will shift and jump into the lake!" My inner voice... or rather, the voice of my wolf, threatened with an echo inside my head.  Another unhappy groan from my lips and I pushed myself up on arms, holding there for a moment. I drew a breath in and released it as an annoyed sigh. I was up, and my wolf gleefully retracted. She ceased the threat of shift and seemed content to let me wake up slow, so long as I was waking. Finally, I sat upright letting the blankets pool around my waist. "Why are we up so early?" "You have an appointment at the head house today. If you are late, I will never... ever... let you sleep in again." My wolf, Serla, huffed at me.  When a werewolf turned 10, they got to meet their other half. Many people thought about it as the other half of their soul, or an extension of themselves. To me, it felt more like a possession. Serla was always in my head, as was everyone's wolf. She had complete access to my thoughts, and I had access to hers. We could block each other out, for more intimate moments, but rarely did otherwise. In any werewolf's mind they could hear and even see their wolf, but no one else's. Almost like being able to see a ghost. Your own personal ghost that could possess you at will and turn you into a hulking, albeit gorgeous wolf.  With a haphazard push, the blankets fell away from me... and on to the floor. Serla growled in that low, scolding motherly tone that she had. With an eye roll I picked the heap of blankets up and shoved them onto the bed. Serla offered a snort of unamused approval. She and I both knew I wasn't going to make the bed and that was a fight she'd given up many years ago.  One of the good things about having a small apartment rather than one of those large fancy family houses was that my coffee pot was only 12 steps from my bed. Yes. I counted.  "I don't see why I have to attend. It's pointless. We get pranced around in front of the Alpha and then sent home." I was grumbling the words out loud as I shoved fresh coffee grounds into the basket and flipped the switch on the coffee pot.  "Pack Census, Emma. We go through this every year." Serla sighed. She'd always acted as something between a best friend and a mother. Though when you're an orphan, having anyone to look after you is a blessing. "Water." She added as I began to walk out of the kitchen.  I paused with a furrowed brow. "Wa-? Oh!" I realized that my still tired brain thought that the coffee maker could make magic happen without water. I added the clear liquid to the back of the brewing stand and got a hiss and gurgle of acceptance from it before I plopped back down on my bed. While I waited, I reached for the book on my nightstand. 'The Lusty Wolf Maid's Alpha.' and flipped to the last page that I'd left off on.  "I'll never understand how you can read that garbage." Serla huffed, her projection curling up on the floor next to my bed. "The humans think we are fairy tales and write these horrible romance novels about us. I've yet to see one get it right."  I snickered a bit as I continued to read about the Wolf Maid running through the woods, tripping and hurting herself as she dashed away from the gruff Alpha who had just proclaimed her as his mate. "I enjoy them. It wouldn't be so terrible, would it?" Serla snorted. "It's always the Alpha, isn't it? Never a Delta. Hardly ever an Omega even."  "A girl can dream." I caught the eye roll she gave me and chuckled to myself as the coffee pot beeped to pleasantly alert me that my sacred bean water was ready for consumption. "Ah, life blood. Praised be-"  "The goddess would certainly consider that blasphemy." Without response I poured myself a cup of steaming coffee and topped it with an ample amount of caramel sundae flavored creamer. A few sips later and I was carrying out my morning tasks as usual.  My shower was rather uneventful save for the fact that I realized I was out of shampoo. A little bit of pondering and I was holding the top of the shampoo bottle up to one of the water streams. I wasn't getting much in there, but it was just enough that I could give it a thorough shake and be able to wash my hair. On not so important days I skipped shaving and barely conditioned my hair. It just seemed altogether unnecessary. I didn't have anyone to impress. This time I did properly condition my hair and shave my legs and armpits... up to the top of my knees anyway. I dragged my brush through my dark brown hair and scrunched it from the bottom with my hand in an attempt to make it look like I was putting effort into my appearance. A few swipes of mascara on my lashes to accentuate my eyes. I remember one time that Serla told me the color reminded me of melted chocolate. Something about that still made me smile when I thought about it.  With the steam of the shower built up on the bathroom mirror, I used my finger to write the word 'shampoo'. I'm not exactly sure why I did it this way. As soon as I wrote it, I realized that my little note would disappear whenever the steam did and only come back when I took a shower. Which is when I would notice that my shampoo bottle was empty again. All in all, it was a pretty useless attempt at making myself remember. At least there was an attempt there, I thought to myself. Serla would likely remind me later. The rest of my morning was as uneventful as my shower. I carried myself through the motions of a cheap bowl of cereal for breakfast, more coffee and dressing myself in a pair of dark blue jeans and an olive-green top with slightly puffed and ruffled sleeves. Eventually I slipped on my shoes and just as I put my fingers on the door handle, Serla stopped me.  "Candle."  "Ugh... no. Not this year."   "Can. Dle." She enunciated the syllables.  "Serla, really. We're just going to pretend tha-"  "Candle." She said with more command in her tone.  I sighed and relented, walking back to the kitchen and fishing through the junk drawer for the long lighter that we used to light the candle for my birthday each year. Personally, I hated celebrating it. Each year it seemed as if it were the most cursed day ever and something bad always happened. Yet, Serla always made sure that I made a wish and bought myself a mini cake from the local bakery. As much as I hated my birthday, I loved her for still trying to make it special.  The candle I had was one of those overfly fragrant jar candles you buy more for looking at than for lighting. This year’s fragrance was black raspberry vanilla. A click of the lighter ignited a small flame at the tip, and I lowered it down to the wick. "I wish I found my mate, just like in the romance books the humans wrote." I spoke the wish out loud while lighting the candle then quickly blew out the flame. The lights in the house flickered ominously as the candle blew out and I shoved it back on the counter and the lighter in the drawer.  "Perhaps that's a sign from the Goddess," Serla chuckled. "Maybe it means this rickety apartment will finally burn." "Emma! Don't you dare. You'd lose all your novels." Serla grinned, showing her fangs in the goofiest smile a wolf could manage.  I looked over to my small bookshelf stacked with 20 something romance books, and a handful of sci-fi novels. With a sigh I opened the door to step outside. A crack of thunder boomed across the sky and rain started pouring down. "I'm telling you; the Goddess cursed this day."  "Oh stop, it's monsoon, of course it will rain." "Right..." I snagged my umbrella and pushed a bucket under the spot where the roof leaked, wondering if the neighbor had leaks too. My apartment was a small little duplex. I never saw much of the old man who lived next door, but I liked it better that way. I wasn't exactly the most social wolf in the pack.  With one last look to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, I shut and locked my apartment door, opened my umbrella and stepped into the rain. Here we go again.