Sacrificed Soul

Chapter Eighteen

"She's been surviving off the canned food left at Pete's," David says, his voice rough with sleep. He must have worked late into the night after the run, but it's not like he's a morning person anyway.

"Yuck," Lori says, making a wretching noise right after.

"They were almost out of date," I reason. I don't like to cook anyway, and It's not like I'll be purchasing anything much different. Probably TV dinners and other frozen shit like that.

"It's disgusting," David throws back, rolling his eyes.

"Don't listen to them," Mammy grunts, while Maureen chipped in, "It's good to not be wasteful."

Aunt Marsha's eyes are ping-ponging between all of us as the debate escalates, finally saying, "You could always come over for dinner more often. We miss you, y'know."

Ugh. World, just fucking swallow me whole already, "Dr. Kessler has been keeping me busy, and I've been trying to get the funk out of the house on my days off." Not a complete lie.

Lori calls me out, "Sure, and I'm the queen of england. We all know you've been avoiding us. Spit it out already."

My lips are zipped on that issue, "I don't know what you're talking about."

The kids enter the kitchen in a jumple of pattering feet on tile, exuberantly taking over the conversation as they approach me, their new favorite aunt, and Lenora, who had never really been at my level since she ended up in teacher mode around them half the time. My attention sapped by the early morning energy of puppies, the conversation of my avoidance was left in the dust.__________________________________________

I let out a sigh of relief as I stalk into the parking field about an hour later. The hardest part of leaving the clan house this morning had been extricating myself from the grubby fingers of my sister's children. Evidently, Lori hadn't been lying about my use as a jungle gym, and by a combination of their mother's complaining and their Aunt Lenora's stern tones, I was able to escape into the woods with most of my fur intact.

Shifting to two legs, I hurried into the clothes I'd worn the night before a but sad that I'd had to leave Maureen's shirt behind. I really did like it.

It took a few tries to get the wannabe jurassic tour jeep to start, the engine cranking over and nearly flooding before it finally ripped to life. Pressing my brow to the steering wheel, I braced myself for my first time shopping alone. My mother had been good enough to hand me a hand written grocery list of necessities, but I doubted I would stick to it. I liked cooking just about as much as I like the desert. Which is to say, not at all.

It didn't help that the towns convenience store slash grocery was owned by the cobblers. After that Tyler dude's half-truth confession, a part of me had been very interested in coming face to face with the wolf I'd been hell bent on killing that night amidst the berserker rage, the other hoping that we never come across each other again.

The Cobbler's store was on the way back to my house, though, and my only other option would be to head all the way over to Lake Isabella for the Vons. In the end, I turned into Kernville proper and parked in the sparse lot of the wooden building owned by pack. My bed covered with my scent, nestled in the safety of the only place I'd ever been able to truly call mine, won out in the end.

The only people I saw languishing around me looked to be human tourists, their scent proving it once I'd stepped out of the jeep which earned a few good natured points and laughs from them. Ignoring it, I walk along the side of the building until I enter it through the creaking, double glass doors armed only with my credit card and the need to be secure within my home as quickly as possible.