"Are you out of your minds?" I asked Olive. Looking back at Rachel, I continued to rant," There is no such thing as werewolves. They`re stories. Made up stories. Now witches, they`re real. I would know because I am one."
"Not anymore, "Olive corrected me.
"Not after your attack, sweetheart," Rachel reminded me.
I sat still. I didn`t speak for what felt like an eternity. Both Olive and Rachel watched me. My attack. I had yet to acknowledge what that meant for me. Most people who get bitten or scratched by wildlife go to the hospital, get meds and go back to being themselves. That`s what I had seen on TV. It must be the same for me. Right? Except, when I was outside, I had felt it. There was a silence in my space. I couldn`t feel my magic or the magic in nature.
I looked to the window and tried to draw in power from the sun. When it didn't work, I held up my left hand to conjure up something. Anything. I waited.
And waited.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
"My magic`s gone," I croaked as I felt my eyes burning up before the first tears began to roll down my eyes. Olive reached out to rub my shoulder while Rachel sat down and held my hands," It`s gone forever. I`m never going to get it back."
I then full out burst into tears. Both ladies sat beside me and gave me space to cry. I never cried in front of others. I`ve only ever cried in front of my family. This was a new low for me.
Eventually, I laid down and continued to cry. Olive left after Rachel told her to go and maybe get me something. Whatever they were talking about, it wasn`t important to me.
My magic was gone. No more levitation spells, potion making, bursts of magic or even Oracle. She couldn`t be summoned to me or even talk to me anymore. I don`t know how long I cried before I fell asleep.
I dreamed of nothing but wolves inside my home and my family. Something made me wake up. I don`t what it was but it shook me so hard that I jerked from my sleep. Blinking slowly, I could see that the room was getting dark. Maybe it was night or morning. I didn`t know.
When I turned my head to the left, I saw Rachel seated next to my bed with a book in hand. I recognized the title as Frankenstein. A classic story of a monster who wanted to be more than what his creator had intended. I also remember that Hugh Jackman had acted a movie in that combined both Dracula, Angels, Werewolves and Frankenstein.
Remembering the werewolf scenes from that movie made me groan and turn my face against my pillow.
"You`re awake," I heard Rachel before I heard a snap. I peeked from my pillow and saw that she closed her book and was putting it on my nightstand," Good. Maybe now you`ll eat something before we go outside? Our Alpha says you need to meet the other pups."
I sighed and pushed myself up from my bed, "I`m hoping that whatever I had learned earlier about the wolves was just part of a bad dream."
Looking down, I saw that someone had thrown a brown quilt over me. I ran my fingers over it as Rachel replied, "Sorry, no dream. But if it makes you feel any better, you won`t be alone in this. Olive and I will be helping you every step of the way."
"This is unbelievable," I groaned and shifted the covers off. Rachel made me sit while she stood and retrieved a small tray of food. When she put it in front of me, I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn`t dreaming. Two meat burgers, two subway sandwiches and a bowl of fruit.
"Rachel," I turned to her with horror," I think you`re overestimating my stomach, I don`t eat this much."
Rachel, who had gone to the pick up a large bottle of water and a cup, came back and sat down in her seat, "Trust me, you`re going to be eating a lot now."
She poured the water in the cup as I hesitantly picked up the one of the sub sandwiches and bit into it. I chewed before swallowing and stopped to ask, "What if I gain weight?"
"You won`t, our chemistry won`t allow it."
I titled my head to the side, "Chemistry?"
Rachel smiled as she picked up her book and resumed reading, "Your werewolf side won`t allow it."
I hummed. Turning back to my sandwich, I continued to eat. Then I ate the burgers. I finished the second sandwich before tackling the fruit bowl. When I finished, I leaned back and rubbed my slightly rounded stomach, "Guess I really was hungry."
Rachel put away her book and picked up the tray before putting it back on the table. She then suggested we go outside and meet some of the pups now before they left. I was going to be staying here so I needed to meet some of the teenagers who I was eventually going to be house mates with. Plus, I also needed to meet the Alpha.
When we walked down the corridor, I kept glancing behind me and rubbed my arms as if I was cold. Rachel must have caught me because she smiled and assured me that no one was going to hurt me or coming running out of nowhere to bite me.
"Where am I?" I asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"You`re at what we call the Cave," Rachel answered as we turned around a corner," It`s kind of like our Main House. The Young Wolves that don`t have a place to stay, stay here. Along with some of our warriors, our teachers and the Alpha`s Family. "
"It`s made of rock," I noted. The entire place was hard rock that looked like it`s sharp edges had been polished ad smoothed down.
"More like built into the rock," Rachel revealed," When the first Alpha found this place, his Mate convinced him to build a home inside the hill and rocks and not bulldoze the entire thing. She didn`t want a huge mansion like fortress but a cave like home meant to mimic a normal wolf den."
"It looks crowded," I commented.
Rachel chuckled, "Not really, it stretches out so most of don`t see each other unless we go looking for each other. There are four wings for us to use. The Alpha Family live in the East Wing. We are in the south Wing."
"Okay, I might need a map."
As we reached the living room from earlier, I looked around and saw that it was lit up but empty. Rachel then led me out of the living room into another shorter corridor that lead out into a large porch that had a huge stone raised fire pit and a bunch of brown couches surrounding it. It looked like something out of a magazine.
When we cut around the couches, I saw Olive standing at the edge of the porch in nothing but a silk lilac robe as two boys left her and ran a head wearing nothing but black robes.
"Aren`t you cold in that?" I asked out loud.
Olive turned and smiled as we approached her, "Hey, you finally came outside."
"Rachel wanted me to meet some housemates," I told her.
We then stopped beside her as Olive smirked, "Well, you missed most of them. They`re all out running."
I saw Rachel arch her brow at her before she folded her arms, "Already?"
Olive shrugged, "School starts tomorrow so we`re trying to get as much free running as possible."
Rachel scoffed and rolled her eyes as I tried to understand what was bad about teenagers running, "That`s ridiculous, you all have time to still run. You`re just going to now use it to party."
"True," Olive admitted.
And I was still lost.
I then saw the two boys from earlier begin to take of their robes. My jaw dropped as they began to growl from a distance as their bones shifted and broke. Shrieking, I backed away from both women as I saw the two boys finally shifted into two timber colored wolfs. They shook their fur before running around on the grass. Finally, they picked up their robes with their mouths and then took off towards the forest as a number of wolves howled around the property.
"See? Werewolves," Olive stated with a smile.
I nodded slowly as the image in my mind began to play over like a broken record. There was no way to deny it now.
"You`re not fainting or screaming," Olive observed me before she turned to Rachel," Why isn`t she doing either?"
"I saw six years when Oracle, my familiar, began disappearing in a cloud of pink glitter and I was eight when I made all the books in my room levitate," I told her before shaking my head," I`ve been doing magic for my entire life. It really shouldn`t surprise me that there are people who can turn into animals."
"Okay."