Running Wild

brush your teeth before going to bed

"Shit you're—Mani!" she calls out to her best friend, leaving the bathroom door open for her voice to carry out into the apartment. "Can you give Camz water and something to eat? There's a dog bowl by the rack and leftover pizza in the fridge."

Normani raises an eyebrow, follows the wolf into the kitchen as it sits in the middle, looking up at Normani.

She swears she sees a smile.

"So," she starts, heating the last two slices of pizza left in the box, leaning against the counter and watching as the wolf drink up. ", you're Camz?"

The microwave dings, the sound of Lauren's shower carrying all the way to the kitchen, and the wolf's tail hitting the counter cabinets in uneven beats.

Normani's voice hardens. "I know you're still human, somehow," she says, placing the pizza by the wolf. ", and I'm sure you know that Lauren trusts you, immensely. Enough for her to turn her back to you when she's asleep." Normani breathes in, wary of the way that Lauren turns off the shower, cabinets opening and closing inside the bathroom. "And I swear, if you so much as hurt her or use her trust against her, I won't hesitate to do the same to you."

Lauren skids along the floor, hearing her best friend talking with the wolf but not understanding a word. She sees Normani looking at Camila, the wolf giving a nod as she stares back at her best friend.

"Did I miss something?" she asks, noticing the weird mood in the kitchen.

Normani, satisfied for the mean time, smiles at her best friend. "Nothing, just talking to Camz?", she finishes with a question lacing her words and Lauren tries not to face palm—the point of their brunch is to fill her best friend in on what happened in the past week that Camila's been back.

"I'm getting to that," Lauren says, lacing up her boots by the door, an idea forming in her head. "And is it alright if she tags along? There's a new place to eat that I want to take you to."

//

Dinah's waiting by the side of the road by the time Camila's scent reaches her nose.

Camila's flying down the road, running so fast that it only took Dinah a second to stand up on four legs, before Camila crashed into her, sending them both flying across the parking lot.

They're snarling and growling at each other, nipping at each other's legs playfully and biting like the wolves they are, when another scent reaches Dinah's nose. She stops in her place, Camila raising a ear in question at her beta's sudden change in mood.

Dinah sniffs, going around Camila before she settles on the top of the alpha's head, sniffing there once, tasting the scent on her tongue.

"Dinah?" she hears Camila ask, snout nudging against the side of her neck. "You okay?"

Before Dinah can answer, the scent assaults her nose far closer now, rather than the lingering scent on Camila's head.

She sees Camila head towards the car now turning from the road and into the parking lot, sitting by the driver's door patiently, looking back towards Dinah for a moment saying you're acting weird.

And then there she is.

Her scent reminds Dinah of cinnamon barks, hot cocoa, and musk.

She's gorgeous.

And she smells like mate.

//

Normani had about two seconds to get her feet on the ground before there's another werewolf there.

Light brown fur, brown eyes flashing blue for a moment, before the wolf stands on its hind legs, trapping Normani to the side of the car. She sees a tongue roll out of the wolf's mouth, tail swishing harshly back and forth behind it, looking at Normani eagerly.