Olivia
'The biggest threat our nation has ever faced!' How could she be the biggest threat to ever assault the great U.S. of A? She was just an ordinary girl.
Liv took another look at herself in the mirror of her dressing table. She was just herself, nothing remarkable. Sure, she'd been called stunning, breathtaking, mesmerising and all that. But it didn't mean she was an otherworldly being who belonged in another dimension.
For the thousandth time, she checked her ears, then her teeth. Surely a Werewolf would have pointed teeth and ears? She didn't have either and her nails were normal. Not claw-like at all. They didn't grow at a fast rate either.
She didn't like to run, liked her meat well done and had no stomach for hunting. She was an indulged heiress who loved her luxurious life and had no intention of living a primitive life in some remote inaccessible other place.
There had to be something some higher-up in the government had to gain by coming after her family. Maybe even one of the high-profile people her mother had won cases against. They must just want to hurt them by taking her away.
Though Liv trusted her family would find a way to fight this, she was still worried. What if the agent had been telling the truth? What if her existence really was a threat to the nation? Could she live with it?
Though how could her existence be a threat to the nation? If supernaturals were real, there had to be some who masqueraded as humans.
With a last brush of her hair, Liv decided to brave her parents' company. Fear tried to rise from the depths of her being but she forced it down. Just because she might be a monster did not mean her parents would stop loving her. She was still their daughter.
This might not be Teen Wolf, but Scott's mother hadn't disowned him just because he was a Werewolf. If TV moms were that cool real-life ones had to be better. She knew her mom was and her dad was a sweetheart.
As if to prove that, they smiled at her as she entered the living room. Their scent held none of the fear she had been afraid of.
And just because she could smell emotions did not mean she was supernatural. Lots of people could tell emotions in ways most couldn't.
"What if I'm really a monster?" Her mind bypassed her brain to ask.
"Oh honey," her mom came to hug her. "You're the furthest thing from a monster."
"What if I really am a Werewolf?" She asked again, unable to just be content with her mother's answer.
"Then we'll deal with it." Her dad stated, coming to stand behind her mom so he could meet her gaze.
Her mom let go of her and stepped back into her dad's arms. "We're not letting you go honey." She comforted.
"I don't want anything to happen to you guys." Liv pleaded.
"Our family is powerful," her dad said. "We might not have ever had a presidency but we hold more clout than any political family in Washington or any other state. Even if Werewolves existed and were powerful they can't afford to come against us."
Liv nodded, a forced smile on her face good enough to fool her parents, maybe. She wanted to be convinced, to go back to what she knew best. Being the Wainwright princess. The one everyone wanted to be or at least be seen with.
"Thanks, Dad," She rushed to give him a spontaneous hug, acting like the carefree person she usually was. Then she gave her mother a kiss on her cheek. "I'll go hang with Mandy, I promised to help her choose an outfit for her thing with the Cromwells."
"Oh, don't tell me they're still pushing that odious son on her?"
Liv flashed her mother a genuine smile. "We have a plan." She stage whispered. "We'll go out to lunch." She tossed the last as she headed to the door.
She needed to escape. Her parents might believe they had enough power to stand against the supernatural but she doubted they did.
*
"Your parents are too smart to believe that power spiel they fed you," Mandy stated with all the confidence of her privilege. "How about this?" She asked of her headdress as she gave the floor-length mirror a pouting pose.
"I'm pretty sure that's culturally inappropriate."
She tossed the headdress onto the discard pile. "Hey it's my culture I can appropriate it all I want."
"Did you earn any of the feathers on that headdress?"
"Well..."
"It's inappropriate." Liv finalized.
Her friend flopped herself onto her bed where Liv was lying across on her stomach. "You know, these people always complaining about cultural appropriation are going to make it hard to be stylish."
"You're a Native American, Caucasian, Chicana so you can wear anything. Plus your dad thinks you hung the moon, and he's the mayor of Manhattan."
"True. It's so hard being me."
Liv laughed along with her at something most people would curse them for if they ever heard them say. But then most people hated them for having the life they had, even a few in their own circle. Why worry about what they thought?
"Hey, did you hear about the two super gorge guys who moved into penthouse 13B?"
"No, when?" Liv propped herself on her elbows to get a better view of her seated friend.
"Today, like two hours ago. Anyway, this really scary lady apparently bought the suite for them, had it redecorated in like an hour and they showed up."
Liv's heart squeezed a beat through a sudden constriction as a wave of foreboding washed over her. "How hot are they?" She asked in a small voice.
"Well, Dana, the maid who told me, said they were hotter than the sun. Unlike anyone she's ever seen."
Liv paled at that. "Like maybe Werewolf hot?"
Mandy's eyes widened, her reddish caramel skin paling too. Then in her usual fashion, Amanda Fuentes rallied."Dana said she heard them ask about running in the park. Let's go wait for them in the lobby."
"No!"
"Yes."
"Mandy no!"
"Please! It'll be fun." Her friend begged.
"And then what?"
"I don't know. Maybe you'll Werewolf sense them. Isn't that what happens on Werewolf shows?"
"I'm pretty sure if they're Werewolves they're here to take me to their tree-lined huts where I'll spend my days skinning Bambi and her kin. I like meat, but I hate working on it. And I'm definitely not cooking."
Her friend's brow furrowed. "Scent blockers!" She snapped her fingers.
Liv raised a brow, following her friend's logic only because of knowing her for so long. "Do you have any?"
"Well if they're as sensitive to smell as everyone says then the next best thing is to have something soaked in bleach with us."
Liv sighed at her friend. "You're not going to listen to reason are you?" Not that she wasn't eager to see the two new guys.
Even the idea that they were here for her made it all the more exciting. She grinned her agreement to her friend's harebrained idea.
"You're showing more patience than usual," Mandy commented about forty minutes later as Liv continued to pretend she was reading the magazine she held up.
Liv gave her friend a side look. "I'm freaking out." She confided.
"Oh come on, no one is going to force you to leave, you're a Wainwright, no one would dare take you away."
Liv chewed on her lower lip, a nervous gesture she just couldn't shake. "That's what Dad said, but if Homeland thinks I'm a threat wouldn't they do their best to have me gone?"
Her friend scoffed at that. "Even they can't disappear someone from a wealthy family."
"Do you think Werewolves are really real?" She asked the question that'd been eating at her all day. She hadn't had the courage to ask her parents, but this was Mandy.
Her friend got serious, her amber eyes meeting Liv's worried gaze. "I can't imagine Homeland lying about that."
Liv nodded her agreement. There was nothing to say, she knew. What could she even say? She turned to look out the window at the setting sun, its rays hallowed around the park outline. Their apartment building was just across from the park on the east side with a great view of it.
"Hey," Mandy's hand reached for her. "You know I'm here for you right?"
Liv blinked back her tears and tried for a smile, she head nodded. "Yeah," her voice sounded harsh, unused. "But now I've endangered you by telling you about it."
"Please!" Her friend once again scoffed. "Nothing wrong with telling your BFF, and if I ever hear you had a secret and didn't tell me? You're so dead."
With a laugh, Liv held out her pinky and Mandy entwined hers around it. They'd known each other since they were too young to remember and the pinky promise had held true. As they giggled at the childish act Liv's eyes rose to the front doors as if drawn by something beyond her.
Everything in her came alive at the same time as the world became insignificant. Her sense of smell became more pronounced to the point where it seemed she could taste the scents. Which wasn't a good thing as she was sitting with a chlorine-soaked cloth.
She coughed, a hacking cough as the bleach seemed to coat her throat. Tears ran down her cheeks, ruining her make-up. She imagined she looked worse than a raccoon but she couldn't seem to stop.
He turned to where they were and their eyes met. It was as if the moment had been preordained from the beginning of time. She couldn't look away, even as her body tried to purge the scent out of her.
What was he thinking? Did he like her? She wasn't at her best what with sweat now coating her skin and her fighting not to throw up. And she knew her skin would be blotched.
All that crossed her mind and she felt embarrassed but only for a moment. This meeting felt more important than anything she'd ever experienced and not even her not so put together appearance mattered.
His eyes were beautiful, Liv was a little freaked out that she could see everything about him from so far. They were a greyish green, ringed with a dark corona around the pupil with another outlining the iris. Which gave him such an intense gaze.
She was swept away by it, mesmerized. For that moment, she forgot she was hacking for all she was worth. His draw for her was absolute.
Her eyes took in his high cheekbones, the smooth mahogany red of the skin that stretched over their cutting edges. His jaw was well defined, square, with a designer beard caressing its contours. It outlined sensual full lips that Liv suddenly couldn't take her eyes off.
She shivered, her eyes retracing the path to collide with his shrouded gaze. He was like a predator who'd sighted his prey and she was that prey. Instead of being scared of that intensity, a thrill raced through her spine.
Then he looked away and Liv felt like the sun had suddenly been taken from her. She couldn't breathe, her soul at once crushed under a cloud of inadequacy unlike any she'd ever experienced.
Copyright© Tafadzwa Josephine Kashiri™.
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