"You okay?" Vic questioned as walked towards a building that I recognized as a mall.
"Mmm, yeah? Why are you asking me this?" I glanced at him suspiciously.
"I-um- no reason at all really." He paused to look at me then forward again.
"What are we doing here?" I walked through the main door of the mall, Vic held it open for me.
"I was thinking about just wondering around here. Talk a bit, maybe look around inside the stores, if you want to? I know of this really great restaurant near here if you don't want to do that, though."
"I think the first option is our go-to in this situation," I say with a small smile.
We walked deeper into the mall, my intentions were to look around for a place to take the suppressant. But I couldn't figure out a way that would make it seem like I wasn't trying to ditch him.
We spent nearly forty minutes mindlessly walking around before we finally decided to go inside of a small place that sold "the best pizza around." I had already taken the pill by making an excuse to use the restroom. I was lucky that the restrooms were empty when I took it.
"The pizza's alright here." He walked towards a booth that was away from most of the costumers; I followed closely behind him.
"I'm aware. I have had the pizza here before, it's not as good as my mother's, to be honest." I say without much thought.
"Ahh, umm-"
"I'm alright with pepperoni with extra cheese. I'll get us the drinks? They're free here, y'know?" I say and I went to stand up.
"Alright, get me a Coca-Cola and I'll get the pizza."
I nodded subtly before walking over to the unoccupied drink machine. I grabbed one of the medium sized cups before filling it one-thirds of the way with ice and the rest with Coca-Cola. I then placed a lid over it and placed a straw through the middle and into the drink. I did the same with a second cup, but with Sprite, not Coca-Cola.
On my way to our table, I saw a group of suspicious looking guys. They were seated in a booth for four people, which was how many was sitting there. On of the guys on the inside, who were against the brick wall, had a man bun. He was the one on the left. The man had medium sized eyebrows, a nose that angled slightly from his face, a slightly thicker upper lip compared to his lower lip. He had a thin mustache along with a beard that was thin along the sides and then faded into a small goatee at the chin. His attire consisted of a light denim colored button up and a blue-jean vest with no sleeves, his pants were not visible due to the table and the guy sitting next to him.
Next to him was a man whose hair was covered with a beanie, his facial features were sharp and pointed. His eyebrows were the same shape as the guy next to him, but they were thinner. He wore a denim jacket that had a grey hood and a grey inside. The shirt underneath was plain grey.
The other two faced away from me, the only things I saw where the back of their heads. One had a beanie covering his hair, the other a buzzcut. They both wore flannels, the beanie guy had a blue one to match the beanie. And the buzzcut guy had on a dark green flannel.
Those two facing me seemed to be eyeing me, their gazes had averted from mine when I was close to the table. They smelled like a human, but there was also a hint of another creature. The stench made me wrinkle my nose. I was nearly past them when I felt something against my butt. I made a startled sound, glaring back at what I thought to be humans. They looked startled, which was confusing.
This has happened to me before, but not once did the people give me this look when I confronted them about it. I ended up dropping it there, as I was on a date and I didn't want to cause any kind of conflict while with Vic.
Vic came back a few moments after I was seated again. He placed a plastic plate with two slices of pizza in front of me, and one in front of him. He grabbed his Cola and place it next to his plate before he started to talk.
"I saw one of those guys slap your- well- you know. I couldn't figure out why they were so startled until you turned around and began walking back to the table. Your eyes had shifted to your wolf eyes, you might have been growing too, but I wasn't for sure." His voice was low and he gave a glance at the men when he mentioned them.
"Oh. I hadn't realized."
"I could see that. You looked confused." He took a bite of his pizza.
I took a drink of my Sprite before taking a bite of my pizza.
"How's your family? You never really told me much about them." I said after I swallowed my bite of pizza.
"They're alright." He muttered, taking a bite of his pizza and a sip of his drink to chase it down.
"What about your family?"
"A little pushy and demanding, but they're fine." I admitted.
"Guess that's good in some situations." He smiled a little before taking yet another sip of his drink.
"Have any siblings?"
"Didn't I tell you about Mike?" He asked, setting down his drink.
"Describe him to me again."
"He's equally quiet and rambunxious, obsessed with that human fantasy series...what is it...Harry Potter? Yeah, Harry Potter." He made hand motions with his free hand when mentioning Harry Potter.
"Tall, lanky? Lots of tattoos?" I thought back to the image Vic showed me of his brother the night we met.
"Yup."
"Ahh, you've told me about him. I think you showed me a picture of him when we met."
"mhm."
We spent the rest of our time eating and drinking in silence. After we finished we both stood up and threw our trash away.
"I'm going to use the restroom before we leave." I announced to him.
"Alright, I'll be at our booth waiting for you."
The bathroom was medium sized. Four stalls were placed against the right side of the wall, on the left side were the urinals. Directly in front of the door, on the far side of the room, was a sink that stretched across the wall. I walked towards the sink since I had no interest in using the restroom. All I wanted to do was wash the grease off of my hands and take the other pill to continue to suppress the heat. If it wasn't for the pull I took earlier, I would have probably started to show more of the symptoms.
Halfway through washing my hands I heard the door open. I glanced up into the mirror to see it was one of the guys from the table earlier.
The buzzcut guy.
I did my best to ignore him and keep to myself. I rinsed the soap off quickly and didn't really bother with drying them. I went to leave the room, but a hand grabbed me to keep me from leaving.
I shot a look at the man, smacking his hand off of me automatically.
"Leave me alone." I said firmly.
"You better hope we don't see you again." He snapped, moving away from me. "Your kind isn't welcome here."
"What are you?" I growled.
"Definitely not a human." His voice sounded disgusted at the term 'human.' "Get out of here mutt."
I let out a low growl at him. "Fu.ck off." I marched towards the man.
"You wanna fight pretty boy? 'Cuz I will fucking fight you!"
I was suddenly thrown against one of the walls, the force shattered a urinal and caused water to start bursting from one of the pipes. There was probably an indent in the wall now as well. A firm hand was wrapped around my throat.
"Come on, turn into that filthy beast," He growled, tightening his grasp around my neck.
I clawed at his arm, my fingernails slowly became longer and my limbs slowly began to shift into a wolf.
"There he is, good 'ol wol-" The force was suddenly gone and the guy was cut off by whoever pulled him away. My limbs began to shift back to their normal form while I coughed for air on the ground.
"Hey, you alright?" I glance over at Vic then back at the buzzcut guy. His friends or whatever they were to him were holding him back and barking orders at him.
"Yeah." I look back at Vic cautiously.
"C'mon. Let's get you out of here."
I only nod before starting to get up. With one last glance towards the buzzcut guy, I began to walk away from the situation.
"What happened in there?" Vic asked the moment we were out of the mall.
"Some asshole was trying to force me to fight him."
"Was that all he did?"
"He didn't force himself on me if that's what you're thinking." I snapped at him "He just...he said that our kind wasn't allowed there. I'm not for sure what he was." My voice got quieter as I kept on talking.
"He was a vampire, I guess. It's the only creature I can think of that would want to pick a fight with a werewolf."
"I thought vampires didn't live in the city? Y'know, because of all the were's that are around there."
"I thought the same," He muttered before getting into his car.
- - -
A/n- Sorry that I haven't been uploading a lot recently. I have a lot going on with the end of term coming close up and I have been trying to balance my grades better than I was last year. (plus I've been trying to keep my mental health at an alright level.)
I am starting a schedule type of thing for the two fics I'm updating in October only.
Wicked and/or Black Creek will be updated every Friday, weekend (If I am able), and on Tuesdays from now until the end of October/whenever I finish them.