SAMANTHA:
Samantha twirled around and froze. Her heart raced, her eyes widened and her mouth formed an O. Samantha couldn't make a single coherent thought even after she faced Phiona.
"pffft."
Phiona couldn't hold back her laughter. "I've only seen a face so expressive in cartoons."
It took Samantha a moment, but soon she was laughing, too. She could only imagine how exaggerated her face looked. She exclaimed between fits of laughter. "I thought you were going to kidnap me or something!"
"I could tell!"
Samantha relaxed as they laughed together. Phiona raised a large grey shirt and handed it to her.
"It's my dad's. You didn't seem like the kind of girl who liked to show a lot of skin."
Again, Samantha wasn't sure how to take Phiona's words. She wanted to take them at face value, but it was difficult.
A low growl sounded a few feet behind her as she rook the shirt. Phiona looked up seconds before Samantha.
Samantha knew it was Alester before she looked. Still, she needed to see it with her own eyes. He had stood facing them, a growl coming from his twitching lips and his hands fisted at his sides.
He glared at Phiona first, before staring at Samantha. 'Why was he so angry?' She couldn't help but wonder if he was mad at her. Did he want her to stay away from his mate? But why?
Alester hightailed it out of there, reminding Samantha of whiplash once again that day. Are all wolves so hot and cold? Maybe Phiona and Alester deserved each other.
The thought hurt her more than she expected. She regretted the thought immediately.
"Thanks."
She put the grey shirt on and eyed Phiona. Phiona was subtly shaking. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips pouted. Her feet pointed towards the door Alester had left from.
"Are you going to chase after him?"
"No."
Phiona sighed, defeated. "You still need to be trained."
...
Phiona was no pushover. She looked weak, but her workouts were no joke.
"How many planks are we doing again?" Samantha huffed.
"You'll know when I tell you. 30 more seconds for this round."
If that wasn't enough, Phiona also quizzed Samantha while she was working out.
"2 Miles left. How do you know when you've made it to the edge of pack grounds?"
Phiona asked Samantha questions from a first graders wolf safety test without breaking a sweat as she ran beside her.
"Uhh... Is there a fence or something? A giant red line? Banners that say 'Don't go beyond this point?'"
Samantha huffed her answer, the grey shirt drenched in sweat. The sun was scorching, and she wasn't used to such intense workouts.
"This isn't a question to laugh at. It's very important to know how to detect pack borders."
They ran in silence as Phiona seemed to contemplate something.
"Well?"
"Well, what?"
"Well. Are you going to tell me how to detect pack borders?"
Phiona stopped running and stared off into space. Samantha waited, wondering if it was a hard thing to explain. It didn't take long and Phiona had the look of recognition back in her eyes.
"Oh. You can tell a pack border by listening to your senses. The closer you get to the border, the more a sense of danger arises in you. Once you leave pack grounds, you'll feel a sense of loss. But it doesn't last long, or at all if you have permission to go past the boundaries. As for other wolves' boundaries. The same feeling of danger will come over you as you come closer to the border, whether you are leaving or entering. Unless you have permission. We have a mile left. Let's hurry. I want to show you the garden."
Phiona flashed Samantha a smile and took off ahead of her, daring her to catch up.
Samantha ran as hard as she could, unable to catch up to Phiona, but only by a little. She realized these things were important to know, and it was scary to consider how many more important things she had yet to learn.
When they reached the garden, Samantha could finally rest. She found a patch of stone and sat down.
Phiona scrunched her face at her as if she had sprouted a limb.
"Are you really so tired you'd sit on the ground?"
She looked a few feet ahead and pulled Samantha back up to her feet.
"There is a bench up ahead we can sit on."
"Ok. But it's really no big deal."
"Whatever. Why don't we go over a few more questions? I'm sure you know something on here."
"Sure."
"How many times should you transform into a wolf in a month?"
"Wait. In a MONTH? You mean you have to transform at least once a month?!"
"Oddly, though you don't actually know the answer, that is mostly correct. The answer is as often as possible, but at the very least once a month. Though it's advised to shift at least twice."
Phiona stood up, restless, pulling Samantha with her to walk the garden path. The view was beautiful and full of various colored flowers and vines. But she couldn't keep her focus on it, as she learned that being a wolf might be more disadvantageous than she had considered.
Samantha looked at Phiona to make sure she was serious.
"So you are telling me that from now on, I should be shifting into a wolf twice a month while living in the city?!"
"Yes. You live in the city?"
They didn't really know much about each other, Samantha realized. It had only been a day and most of her time focused on a boy and wolves.
"Yea. In an apartment. The closest thing we have to nature is a city bench with some grass and a gravel path. It's pretty out in the open, though."
"We?" Samantha couldn't help but notice how Phiona sounded a little hopeful, or maybe it was in her head.
"Yea, me and my roommate Rachel."
"Oh, the girl who asked you to steal her identity."
The words sounded harsh yet again. But Phiona's face was smooth as if it was a matter of fact, rather than scrunched in astonishment like when she sat on the ground. Still, she felt like she needed to defend herself.
"Yea. Her. She, uh, had some stuff she had to do that day. A family emergency."
The more Samantha thought about it, the more she realized Rachel was never really clear about why she couldn't do the job. She said a family emergency, but she'd never talked about her family before. Is that why she had taken the job so willingly? Was it because she assumed it must be serious? But was it? Did Rachel really have a family thing going on?
"What does she do to let her wolf out?"
The question caught Samantha off guard. "I. Don't know. We never talked about it."
"Hmm. It seems like something you should ask. She might have some good options."
"You're right, I should. Wait, how did you know she was a wolf?"
Phiona chuckled. "You said that you took her place for this job. Only wolves may join their company. They typically do a heavy vetting process."
Samantha chuckled at her choice of words.