The Steel Rose

2

"Let me go", I command
"I refuse to let you go, you listen to me, and you listen good; I want you out of my house for good. Don't you ever come back here," my mother growls back at me; her strawberry blonde hair, which is swept up into a bun, is starting to get loose and fall out, and her doe brown eyes, like mine, are switching back and forth showing an internal fight with her wolf for control. I offer my neck in defeat, knowing that if my mother loses the battle for power with her wolf, I won't get the chance to leave the house. I'll be killed instead
"Yes, mother, can I please pack a bag to leave?" I question, making her nod and storm off but not before yelling back at me
"Be gone in thirty minutes."

I startle awake from my dream, but it wasn't a dream. It was a flashback of the night I was outcast from my home, family and pack.
"You okay?" Hannah questions me, poking her head into my room. I nod in return before getting up out of bed and heading to the bathroom.

I stare at myself for a long time in the mirror, unsure if what I am seeing is actually how I look. My eyes are bloodshot, my hair is in a nest on top of my head full of tangles, and my skin is starting to break out in acne
"Great", I growl to myself before washing my face and brushing my hair to try and make myself look a tad more presentable.  I Edit the bathroom that Hannah and I share and head straight for the kitchen, flicking the kettle onto the stove top so that I can make my morning coffee.

I stare out over the house and smile in contentment. The wooden walls are clean from dust, showing that Hannah didn't actually sleep last night and instead cleaned the house, which doesn't surprise me. She rarely sleeps.

All the candles that we use to light our house have been blown out and have been replaced with the curtains being opened, letting the natural sunlight in. Our two-seater couch cushions have been fluffed and cleaned after I spit coffee on it last week by mistake when Hannah told me a terrible joke she had heard a human from the nearby village tell his friend. Our fireplace is lit, showing that it must be too cold outside for even Hannah to handle.

Once the kettle boils, bringing me out of my thoughts, I quickly take it off the element and pour the boiling hot water into the coffee mug I had taken from home before I left.

I lazily walk over to my seat at the kitchen table and sit my coffee down on a coaster so as to avoid leaving a ring of coffee on the wooden table. When we found the cabin five years ago, it was run down and falling apart. It took us three years to get everything we needed to repair the house and make it feel like home; I had gotten a job in the human village to earn money to make an honest living while Hannah stayed hidden in the forest, working out everything we needed for the house and making sure I had food to come home too.
"Lost in thought?" Hannah questions, making me chuckle lowly
"Something like that; just thinking about how lost I would have been if I hadn't stumbled upon you that day" I smile, making Hannah shake her head with a giant grin on her face.
"I should thank you more than you should think yourself lucky. The hunters would have killed me if it wasn't for you. When I first saw you running along the small camp, I thought you would see me and run in the other direction. You know what people think of my kind" Hannah stops smiling, and a grim look takes over her features.
"Yes, I do know what people would do to you for being a troll, but I was never like the others, and you know it", I smile, taking a sip of my coffee now that it has cooled down a bit.
"And I thank you for that" she smiles again before walking away from our tiny kitchen and towards the fire, putting more wood on to burn. People are unnecessary nasty to things they don't see as ordinary, and the population of trolls is so tiny that they can't afford to lose any more of their own kind.

I quickly tip back my coffee and allow the warmth to coat my throat as I finish off the cup and put it in the sink, starting the dishes so that Hannah doesn't have to worry about that and so she can just go to bed. Hannah sleeps while I'm awake most of the time until around dinner time when we will go exploring and come back home; you can never be too careful, so we like someone to be awake at all times in the house to make sure everything is in order, and no one is coming for us.
"You going to bed?" I question Hannah as she starts heading towards her room, making her nod her head showing me that I am correct
"Sleep well", I call out just before her door closes.

I look around our house in wonder, wondering what to do with myself today. I usually just curl up on the couch and read, but today something feels different; the sound of reading doesn't give me the joy it typically brings, and a sense of longing takes over my body. I do miss pack life, but as my mother would say, I was too untrustworthy and too unloyal to be a part of any pack.

I sigh in defeat before moving over to the couch and sitting down; where did I go so wrong? I question myself before shaking away the bad thoughts and deciding the best thing I can do is go on a run; I know I have to watch over the house, but one run won't hurt, and Hannah is a light sleeper, so if anything were to happen she would wake up and deal with it.

I grab a pair of high tops off our bamboo shoe rack that sits beside the front door and take off, quietly closing the door behind me.
There is just something about running in human form that is so refreshing; I focus on the noises around me. The birds chirping get closer as I run past the trees they call home, footsteps in the distance allow me to know I am quickly approaching the human village. I smell something that makes me stop in my steps; a smell resembling a wet dog that can only mean one thing; werewolf.
"Rouge", a voice behind me growls. I quickly spin on the balls of my feet to face the towering Six foot two man.

His jet-black hair is spiked up, and his eyes are yellow, indicating that his wolf is at the surface. I quickly sniff the air to make sure I'm not on pack land and sigh in relief that I'm not.
"I might be a rouge, but at least I'm where I belong", I state, standing my ground.
"This might not be my pack territory, but your kind is not welcome in these parts", he growls lowly, trying not to alert the nearby villages that something is going on; I can tell he is not an alpha, but he does hold power, so I assume he is a pack beta.
"This here land has been my home for five years, and you have never once come across me", I growl back, making him step back in shock.
"Five, five years", he stumbles over his words, making me nod my head.
"Yes, five years", I growl. I know what he is thinking. How am I still alive? Most rouges die within a year of being sent away from their pack, and the only explanation I have for it is Hannah.
"How is that possible?" he questions himself, making me shrug my shoulders.
"If you don't mind, I'll be on my way", I state, turning back towards the village.
"No, you may not. My Alpha will want to meet you", he states without a growl, his wolf now at bay, showing that this man has baby blue eyes like the sky on a clear sunny day.
"I don't have to meet your alpha because I'm not on your land", I state, confused as to why he would think I would go with him when I have done nothing wrong.
"Fine, but we will find you one day, and we will make you meet the aloha", is all I hear before he disappears into the wind.

Deciding that I have had enough excitement for one day, I head back towards the cabin, ready to rest up and think everything over.