POV: (Jared)
Celise was moving outside in the living room probably picking up everything that had been left on the floor. After my shower I still couldn't make myself leave my room. I'm sure Celise thought something was wrong considering I'd have never left her alone in the house.
The only thing that kept running through my head was what Sloane had said. With the smell of Celise wrapping around me even through the door, I knew I was in a lot of trouble. I had two options here: I could either take a human for a mate or push Celise completely from my life and never see her again.
Neither option sounded permissable and so instead I sat on my bed trying to breathe into my pillow. Now that I had calmed down a bit I could finally concentrate on the fact that a wolf was pacing back and forth underneath my skin, literally. It didn't have any real thoughts of its own except 'mate', 'hunt', and 'food'. I wish I could've seen what my wolf looks like at the very least but instead I don't even remember changing at all.
My phone rang, breaking me from my thoughts.
"Hello?"
"I heard from Essie that you and your sister went to the Library today."
Of course my aunt would call at the most inopportune time.
"I see the Coven's gossip is still strong as always. Why'd you really call me though, Aunt Beatrix?"
"Some of the Coven's members have been worried about this new coalition between the Supernatural community that you're sister has thought up." Shifting noises came over the line and I could picture seeing my Aunt with her purple tinted hair running her hand down the length nervously.
"What you mean is that most of the older Mage's are fussing about having their descendants working with Vampires. Right?"
I tried really hard not to let my anger show but I new I failed. With the wolf inside of me, all of my emotions kept taking control. It felt like I had no control over my anger since I touched that parchment earlier. From the silence over the phone, I knew I was correct in my assumptions. All the older Mage's had looked disdainfully on Sloane and I when we were growing up. It wasn't until I showed signs of becoming a great mage and no thirst for blood that the eyes that regarded me changed to anticipation.
"Look Aunt Beatrix, I'll hold a meeting and try to clear it up with the elders but regardless of whether they wish to or not we will still go through with this. It's a good idea and could decrease the amount of death in the Supernatural community that goes unnoticed or ignored. I'm behind Sloane completely in this regard. I've taken down your concerns but trying to appease these ancients who aren't with the times isn't top on my priority list."
"I understand Jared. I'll let the elders know that you want to hold a collective meeting. When should we schedule it for?"
"Do it for next week some time. I've got to go though. Give me a call tomorrow."
We hung up and I sat there staring at my cellphone screen with a picture of Sloane, Celise and I in a group huddle on one of our many camping trips we took into the mountains. Ever since I got my license at 17 and had saved up enough money from my part time job to buy a car, I'd taken both Celise and Sloane camping about an hour away. Every year we took the same camping trip even though it was complete wilderness. It was easy keeping wild animals away with a simple spell.
Of course the first time we'd taken the trip when Sloane and I were 17, it had been an utter disaster. We both weren't completely stable in our powers yet and the spell had backfired during the middle of the night. A cougar had jumped on top of the tent the girls had been in but luckily it landed on Sloane instead of Celise. With her vampiric strength she'd snapped it's neck but in the process destroyed the tent. In the end, all three of us had huddled into my small dome tent.
Needless to say, even when huddled inside of a small tent together and waking up with all our limbs intertwined I'd never felt anything but brotherly love for Cece. Now I gained a wolf and suddenly that love has morphed into something I had never wanted. It was difficult to make sense of.
Instead of holing up inside of my room, I decided to head the issue right on. Once I opened my door I nearly ran into Celise who was standing a few feet away with a determined look on her face.
"Are you done having an attitude?"
My senses were assailing me as I tried to process what she had just said. She smelt like pines and something similar to cotton candy. Such a strange mixture to be but to my wolf it was the best smell on earth. My eyes opened and closed a few times as I tried to shift through the different thoughts running through my head as well as trying to calm the wolf who had pushed to the surface.
"What," I questioned as I continued trying to make sense of what she said.
Instead of answering she looped an arm through one of mine and huffed out a breath.
"Come sit down. I made you a couple of sandwiches. Even though you just ate a bunch of meat, I doubt that will keep you full for long. With Werewolves, they need a lot of food to keep their stamina up and since I don't know much about Skinwalkers or how they differ we'll just have to learn as we go."
She led me over to the kitchen table and pushed me into a seat before she walked to the counter to retrieve a large platter. On top of it were about four whole sandwiches cut in half which she set down in front of me. I hadn't been hungry until I could smell the food with it underneath my nose. Celise's natural scent had overpowered most all my other senses.
"Thank you," I said before shoving one of the sandwiches in my mouth. The peanut butter and jelly tasted different than it had before and when I thought about it, it made sense. With how all my other senses were going crazy, having my taste buds change wasn't too surprising.
Celise sat across from me with her elbow on the table and her fist underneath her chin. Had it been before, it wouldn't have bothered me too much. With my new senses I could smell her arousal and as much as I tried, I couldn't get her out of my mind. Within five minutes I was already on the last two halves. My skin was itching and as I looked down I could see my arm hair start to thicken and lengthen before going back to normal.
That's when I realized that if I didn't leave immediately, I very much might shift again.
"I need to leave. When you see Sloane, tell her I went for a run," I said as I pushed the chair back with a loud screech and took off to the front door so fast that I was a mere blur.
"Jared," Celise said as I shut the door behind me and took off in the direction of the woods. By car it would've been about a twenty minute drive, but by Supernatural speed it took me about ten minutes.
The wolf inside of me wanted to hunt and mate but since I'd taken away the mating possibility it wanted food. Even though I'd just eaten a lot of food, it seemed I was still hungry. For most Werewolves, shifting could only be done once a day sometimes even a week. Especially for the younger ones. Yet for Skinwalkers it seemed different.
This time around I was completely aware of what was happening when I changed shape. I'd read up on Werewolves and in wolf form they could only see in black and white, yet I could see in color. When I looked around, I noticed how high up from the forest floor I actually was which was an indication of how big my wolf form looked.
Even though the moon was out and the trees nearly blocked any light from filtering through, once the wolf had taken over I could see everything in sharper contrast. In the distance I could hear the sound of leaves crunching and twigs breaking. As the wind drifted into my nose I could smell a lot of the smaller animals but also a stag.
I took off in the direction I knew the stag was walking. Trees blurred in my peripheral as my paws pushed off from the ground in a steady beat. With every step I took I had expected to hear the foilage breaking and making a racket but I soon noticed that there was a sort of magic when my wolf and I hunted. Everything beneath my paws almost seemed illusionary, or maybe I was the illusion.
Soon I came to a clearing and saw what I had been hunting. Usually wolves hunt in packs to take down larger prey but with how large my wolf was and the fact that I didn't have a pack I'd have to take it down alone. I crouched down enough that I wouldn't be completely noticeable if the Stag looked my way. It was chewing on something as it stood there calmly and that's when I pushed off the ground with my back paws.
When I was almost upon it, that's when the Stag noticed me and turned to run away. Unfortunately the direction it chose would've been useless because as I bit into it's back leg I realized a glint of another wolf latching onto it's neck. By the time my prey was killed I was already standing across from the other wolf growling. It was a little smaller than I with greyish red fur as it stared back at me- challenging me. Of course I knew who it was but I couldn't control my wolf's urges to fight for dominance- a dominance battle with the Alpha of the local Werewolves.