Soz about the tablaeux the video is on, haha.
^ Gif is of VIOLET!
I slipped out of the tent into the warm night. The howl was still faintly echoing off the trees around the bush. I watched the tent across from me open up and Kaycee stepped out.
She rubbed her eyes and then they landed on me. Kaycee whispered with wide eyes, "Do you hear that?"
The sound was fading out now but I nodded distractedly, "Yeah."
She approached me and looked around, "What was it?"
I pressed my lips together before answering, "It sounded like a wolf howl."
"A wolf howl? But Ezra and Aaron were supposed to be back ages ago."
I glanced to her to see she was staring at her watch under the light of the almost full moon.
I asked, "Are the boys in their tents?"
I approached Ezra's tent and unzipped the fly, only to find an empty bed.
I took a step back in urgency, "They're not there. Kaycee..."
Kayc sighed loudly, "They're in trouble, aren't they?"
Another alarming howl rang loudly and I felt my entire body freeze over. Slowly, my eyes went in the direction it came from.
Kaycee shouted, "Come on!"
We had to find the boys.
Kaycee began walking slowly towards the bush. I moved to follow after her. We walked towards the line of trees as a third howl hit the sky tonight. This one was more urgent, calling for desperate attention. Something was definitely wrong...
I began running in the direction of the howls, pushing past Kaycee. My breathing sped up, worried for what could be ahead. I could feel the heat pick up around me violently as I ran. Was the night always this warm in Australia?
I stopped finally after losing any sense of direction. I couldn't see Kaycee or the two lycanthropes I was searching for.
Yet another howl hit my ears and I took a thankful breath before taking another run in that direction. However... the sight that laid in front of me made everything boil over.
"Ezra!" I screeched, running to the boy in the bushes. Aaron was pacing around the bush in his jeans.
Kaycee ran in and began calming down Aaron, "What's wrong with Ezra?!"
Aaron shrugged, "He's being a dick. Knocked himself unconscious."
The boy's torso just stuck out of the shrubs, his lower half covered by it. He was draped to the side across it, unconscious. I smoothed back Ezra's dark brown hair to inspect his face. He almost looked like he was sleeping.
"Ezra?" I repeated, hesitantly.
I watched his chest rise and fall extremely slowly. He was alive, at least. I repeated his name again, watching as his eyes twitched.
He was awake.
They opened and he croaked, "Vi?"
"Ez, are you hurt?" Kaycee called.
Ezra began to shake his head but with the motion, he changed. His body shrunk in and then grew, growing fur and morphing into another species.
The large brown wolf had taken Ezra's place. The wolf twisted and squirmed in the spot in the bushes and nipped at my hand, making me jump back. The wolf let out a loud growl, glaring at me.
"Ezra," I said warningly, "Calm down."
Aaron muttered, "He's not going to calm down."
"What?" I snapped my head to look at the younger Asher brother.
Aaron repeated, "He's not going to calm down. It's three days until the full moon and everything about Ezra is changing, including his connection to me."
"What do you mean by that?" Kaycee whispered.
Aaron stormed over to me and glared at Ezra in the eye before shying away from the wolf, "When he first bit me, he was in charge but he treated me somewhat like an equal. Getting closer to the full moon, he gains power and I feel more inferior to him. That's how a wolf pack works." he shyed away from the wolf a second time, approaching Kaycee.
Aaron was in nothing but a pair of tattered jeans that I'm supposing he had put on after morphing back to human. Ezra's own pants were lying by a tree near me.
"How did he get into the bushes, Aaron?" I asked, staring at the wolf squirming in its spot.
Aaron went slightly red-faced. He slowly explained, "Well, you know how we were saying the full moon makes him horny?"
A faint blush painted my cheeks as I nodded, "I remember."
"Well, his thoughts went a little... impure and I snapped at him as we were running. Bad idea this time of the month because he howled at me as we ran and he crashed into the bushes, getting stuck. Then he squirmed so much that he hit his head on that tree and knocked himself unconscious..."
Kaycee was laughing hysterically but I was more concerned for his possible head injury.
The wolf let out a low growl and Aaron froze, staring at Ezra.
"What?"
Aaron laughed nervously, "It's probably a joke."
Ezra let out an ear-breaking howl.
Aaron whimpered, "Okay... maybe not."
"What's wrong?"
Aaron winced, "Nothing... he just thought he wants to kill me for getting him stuck in the bush."
Ezra's wolf let out a sad whimper before completely stopping movement. He stared in the same spot with his glowing eyes before lowering his head to lie down in the shrubs.
I gradually reached out and ran a hand through his fur. His eyes landed on me. I stroked him from his ears down to his tail and then down his muzzle. His eyes stayed on me.
I whispered, "Are you okay, Ezzie?"
The wolf let out a huff, like a sigh.
Aaron translated, "He said, 'Do I look okay?'"
Ezra reached out his nose and sniffed my hand. I let him sniff my hand, watching the wolf. His nose ran along the length of my forearm and then his eyes focused on me.
Aaron chuckled, "Horny werewolf."
I moved to stroke Ezra's soft ears and relished in the coolness of his fur, such a contrast to the still boiling weather.
It happened in an instant. I was stroking the hair by his ears when the wolf shifted back into the stuck Ezra in the bushes and I was playing with the hair on his head.
Ezra blushed beet red, looked around and stuttered, "C-can I have m-my jean-ns?"
I took a step back, chewing on my bottom lip to contain a laugh.
Kaycee asked Aaron, "Where are his jeans?"
"Behind that tree over there," Aaron gestured.
I walked around the massive tree he'd gestured to. I bent down and picked up his small-town jeans. I straightened up, brushing the dirt of them, when something caught my eye.
I flicked my gaze to catch a glimpse but the flash of white vanished behind a tree several hundred metres away. Probably a trick of the moon.
I turned back around and tossed Ezra's jeans at him. He began struggling to get them on without revealing anything.
Aaron kept us distracted, "I'm excited for this full moon but scared at the same time, y'know?"
"Why's that?" Kaycee asked, bored now.
"I want to see the full extent of his power but I also don't want to," Aaron said, remaining cryptic.
"Aaron!" Kaycee snapped.
"We've all worked out that Ezra's getting angrier, hornier, more powerful towards the full moon. Jez and I reckon something big is going to happen this full moon instead."
"Which day is the full moon again?" I raised an eyebrow.
Kaycee quickly thought it through, "Monday night I think..."
"Hasn't Ezra been through a full moon before?" I raised an eyebrow.
Ezra cut in, "Y-yeah... and they've all been pretty bad. But no full moon's been like this one."
"What's this one?" Kaycee raised an eyebrow.
"For one," Ezra raised a finger, "It's a supermoon. Big, yellow, close to the Earth?"
I nodded. Were they rare or something?
"For two," Ezra said, pointedly looking at Aaron, "Aaron's technically a part of my pack now."
***
So, technically we were breaking the law yesterday. Kaycee and Ezra are the only ones on their Ps and so Jeremy and I shouldn't have even been driving. Jeremy was only on his Ls and I was still driving with an English car license, not an Australian.
So basically, Liv got angry at us.
"You guys are downright terrifying!" she screeched at Jeremy, holding the keys behind her back, "There's no way either of you are driving again today!"
"I didn't drive that badly," I defended myself.
"Yes, you did!" she sighed, "You barely stayed on the right side of the road."
"You mean the left?" Aaron raised an eyebrow.
Liv nodded, "Yeah, the left."
"You said the right," he corrected.
"Yeah, because that's the right side?" she tilted her head.
"No, it's the left side," he shook his head at her.
"I know that. I said it's the right side," she scowled.
"Stop!" Kaycee lifted a finger, "Both of you. I'll drive and then I'll swap with Ezra in a few hours."
She snatched the keys from Liv, fed up with something.
I called shotgun and slid in next to her.
"You okay?" I raised an eyebrow as she struggled to put the car key in, with frustration.
"No," she muttered sharply.
"Need to talk?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I got rejected," Kaycee shrugged, "Over text. Fed up with everything."
"What do you mean? Who would do that?"
Kaycee sighed and then stared ahead, "People found out about the girl in my Chem class. Word got back to her and... well, she wasn't impressed."
"Why?"
Kaycee scoffed at herself, "Guess."
"I can't, honestly. If I wasn't straight, you'd be perfect," that's what a best friend says, right?
"Yeah," Kaycee shrugged, "That's the problem. The girl is straight. There she goes. Rejected over text and I'd never even gotten to ask her out."
"Harsh," I whispered.
Kaycee grinned wickedly, "But don't worry. I have 85% of the male population and 15% of the female population available to me. You only have 85% of the male population."
I chuckled at her statistics as she finally started the car.
***
Song: She's Out of Her Mind - Blink-182
"Heartbreak will come and go but the feelings will never leave."
xx Sharky.