Oooowww!

[axeslade]

Outside of a very crappy (but hopefully sufficent) Matrix paper, this is what I got done today.

“Little old lady got mutilated late last night, werewolves of London again.”

Brielle threw her head back, grinning as she turned her face up into the shower spray. Swinging her hips and tossing her head, she sang along.

“Oooowww! Werewolves of London. Oooowww!”

“Ahh! My ears!”

Brielle rapidly planted both feet firmly on the porcelain, turned off the water and turned her head to the bathroom door, growling when she realized it was her sister Rosaline.

“What are you doing here, Rosie?” she shouted through the door as she grabbed her robe.

“It’s the twenty-first, sweetie.”

“So?”

Rosaline sighed and threw open the door.

“Hey!” Brielle pulled her fluffy white robe tight to her chest and Rosaline rolled her bright green eyes.

“Full moon’s this week, hun, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Brielle laughed as her sister held out her furry arm.

“I have. Speaking of, I need to shave. ‘Scuse me,” she said, edging past her sister to stand in front of her mirror.

Rosaline snorted, shaking her head so her rich black hair fell in messy waves across her face.

“You’re ridiculous. Someone’s going to catch on eventually.”

“It’s been five years and no one’s the wiser,” Brielle mumbled as she rubbed shaving cream on her face. Then she picked up a razor and, in several clean strokes, began removing the auburn stubble from her cheeks.

“So you think,” Rosaline said, sitting down beside Brielle on the toilet. “Honey, eventually something’s going to happen. You’ll forget to shave. Someone’ll piss you off enough to force a change. You can’t keep risking us like this.”

“All of us risk the family, Rose, just by having jobs. Just because we don’t work during the full moon doesn’t mean we won’t change, you know that.”

“But’s a hell of a lot less likely! Damn it, Bri-”

“I’m Pauline today.”

Rosaline inhaled sharply, biting her tongue for a moment before she spoke.

“Back to your original question, I was going to ask if you wanted to come over for breakfast. But I see you’re too busy risking our hides. I’ll call.”

Brielle closed her eyes, dropping her head as she listened to her sister walking out the door and out of the house. She should have heard Rose come in, hell, she should have heard her car a mile away. Maybe Rose was right. Maybe she was risking all of their lives. After all, if she couldn’t hear or smell someone in her house, how could she know she wasn’t being watched on her midnight runs?

No, she thought as she snapped her head up and looked into the mirror, hazel eyes burning holes in the glass. Rose was just trying to guilt her into coming back home. None of them had been able to forgive her for breaking tradition and leaving without having a mate first, for refusing to even try to find a mate, and for trying to have an almost normal life. Something they would never let themselves have because they were too concerned with their own status quo.

Well, they couldn’t guilt her. Sure, after five years it still hurt to go running alone, to not have anyone to hunt or howl with. But Brielle-Pauline-didn’t have time to worry about that right now. She had to get to work.