Green - a werewolf story

2. On the Road

She tried to take advantage of his surprise and pull free, but he didn't relax his grip on her. Instead he reached out with his left hand to gingerly touch her necklace. With a hiss he snatched his hand away.

"You're wearing silver?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, why wouldn't I? It's a perfectly normal thing to wear," she said haughtily.

"But, you're a werewolf!" he said and Vanessa saw her chance. With a quickly beating heart she took it.

"What?"she asked with feigned surprise. "What do you mean I'm a 'werewolf'?"

For the first time since she'd met his eyes across the desk in the library he looked unsure.

"You're not?"

Vanessa laughed. It was a fake laugh, but she had had a lot of practise with those and could pull one off quite well.

"I think you might have watched a little too much Netflix, dude," she said with a smile.

"But... in there, when I threatened you, you came with me?" he said, his forehead crinkled in confusion.

It made him look absolutely adorable. She shook her head to clear it. No, not adorable. Stupid. Stupid and ugly.

"Of course I did! You said you'd kill me if I didn't and besides," Vanessa said, moving closer and placing a hand on his chest. She tried to avoid thinking too much about how warm it was or the feeling of his heartbeats against her hand. Instead she smiled at him flirtatiously, "You look really hot. I don't mind a bit of rollplay," she added.

His breath caught and she saw his eyes widen, but then he pushed her away from him.

"I... I'm sorry. I misstook you for someone else."

She snuggled up to him and smirked when he blushed.

"I can be whoever you want me to be, hot stuff," she said and put a hand on his belt-buckle. "Come on. Let's go howl at the moon."

His eyes were transfixed on her lips and for a moment she wondered if she had overplayed her channeled role as a 1980's movie sex-worker a little. She didn't want him to actually take her home. 

Well, maybe a little, but she squashed that thought. Minutes ago he had been threatening to kill her. There was no way he was taking her home. With that thought firmly in place she leaned her head back and howled in an extremely bad impersonation of a wolf. She laughed when he cursed and backed away from her.

"Where are you going, handsome?" she called after him as he hurried back into the library.

As soon as the doors closed behind him she heaved a sigh of relief and grasped her necklace. She would have to talk to Letitia about the magic wearing off. If it was, she needed a new one. It had been the best decision of her life to have Letitia create it. 

It hurt to be separated from another half of yourself, but she would have been dead many times over without it. Well, she could still end up dead if she stuck around here long enough.

She made sure all her things were still in place in her backpack andstarted walking towards her car. The sun was setting and she wanted to get back to her apartment to pack and leave before he thought better of it and followed her.

***

Twenty minutes later Vanessa struggled to get her suitcase into the trunk of her tiny Toyota. It had been too long since she did this whole "on the run"-thing. She had been staying in Tell City for two years. Two years without anyone finding out what she was. Two years to gather up a shitload of stuff that certainly didn't fit into her Toyota.

She'd ask Rose to give most of it away for her. At least the apartment was rented so she didn't have to bother with putting it up for sale. With a deep sigh she got into the car and started driving. The moon was out. She looked back at the apartment building that had been her home for the last two years and fought back the tears that were threatening to spill. She had made her home here. She had made friends here. Stupid pack wolves.

She headed north. In case someone followed her, that was the direction she wanted them to think she meant to go. Soon enough she was driving through Santa Claus.

Santa Claus, Indiana. The reason she had first moved to Tell City. She loved Christmas, absolutely adored it. When she was little she had found the town of Santa Claus in her map book and she had decided she was going to live there. It had turned out a bit of a disappointment.

It was too small to hide in. Worse, the best parts of the town was a gated community and she hated gated communities. It reminded her too much of the heavily guarded pack lands she grew up on. She needed to roam free. Packs always thought the sentries and the boundary lines kept unwanted folks out. She knew it was just as much about keeping people in.

Tell City was close enough to let her go up to Santa Claus every time she needed her fix of Christmas spirit and big enough to have apartment buildings. Maybe it would have been smarter of her to hide in a big city, but these days big cities gave her the creeps. She had lived in New Orleans for seven years. That was long enough.

Vanessa flicked on the radio and checked the mirror for the umpteenth time. She couldn't see anything, but she had the unmistakable feeling she was being watched. Even without her wolf senses she had good intuition and she had learned to trust it. For the most part.

"Never should have set foot in the library after I spotted him. I knew something was off. Stupid pack wolves," she muttered to herself and floored it.

She couldn't see any cars and she presumed they were following her in their wolf shapes. Hopefully they'd leave her alone after she left their territory. Wherever that line was. She sighed. Sometimes she wished she had access to every part of herself. Being without her wolf was like losing a body part. Everything to do with werewolves was locked away.

She touched her necklace. Could she maybe take it off for a second? Surely they wouldn't be able to sense her in the car? But Vanessa still remembered the last time she had thought it safe to take it off. More importantly, she remembered the five angry werewolves who nearly managed to disembowel her an hour later. No, best to leave it on. Full moon was tomorrow and then she would have to take it off anyway.

Vanessa crossed the county line and heaved a sigh of relief as the feeling of being followed eased. Thank goodness. She continued north a while longer then took off to the west, humming along with the music on the radio. It sucked that she'd had to leave, but at least she wasn't hurt, she had a job she could do from wherever and was used to starting over. She looked at the signs over the interstate. Hrrm...She'd always wanted to go to California.