Until the Hunter's Moon (Dabillmann)

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

"Besides,I'm already taken," She reached into her shirt and pulled a gold chained heart locket out and showed the boy the picture inside it. "This is Marcus, my boyfriend."

That was only half true though. Marcus was by technical terms Natalia's boyfriend. He was after all a boy and he was her friend, but they had the relationship of a brother and sister. The truth was, Marcus was as straight as a rainbow and already had a sweet little thing down in Queens, but he wasn't open about it to others. In fact, besides his boyfriend, only Natalia knew his secret and she planned on keeping it that way. She also owed him that much since he knew about her special condition.

"Oh," Natalia ignored the hurt in the boy's voice as he looked at the stud in the picture and turned away. "Sorry to bother you."

'Too late.' "It's alright," She glanced out the window again and sat in silence before she finally started to growl. "What the hell is taking that food so long?"

[dabillmann]

Bill chuckeled as the teen walked off dejectedly.

Natalis groweled "What the Hell is taking the food so long?"

"Take it easy," he said. "It takes a while to grill a steak, much less two, and I bet the "chef" isn;t too used to actually cooking them with this clientelle.." He frowned a bit. Damien had said nothing to him about Natalia having a boyfriend, and Damian made it a point to knw what was going on in his kids lives. Plus, even if they hadn;t seen each other in awhile, he knew Natalia, and could tell when she was lying.

H looked around to make sure the teen and his friends could not hear him. "So, who is that guy REALLY?"

Just as he asked, the waitress brought their order, putting the steak with the mashed potatoes and the regular pepsi in front of Natalia, and the one with the fries and the diet Pepsi and the burger in front of Bill. "Can I get you anything else?" she asked. Bill shook his head and looked at Natalia.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

"A shotgun," Natalia said sarcastically with a sugar sweet smile. The waitress looked confused at her before she waved her off. "Ignore my dark humor. We're fine thank you."

"Alrigth hun. Ya'll enjoy yah meal right."

Natalia didn't even justify her with an answer before she stabbed her steak with her knife and fork and dug in. She chose to ignore Bill's question, reasoning inside her head that it was none of his damn buisness and in honesty this ws the first time infront of a pack member she ha announce she had a 'boyfriend'. Heck she had been together with two other boys were they had gotten to second base, but she had been the one ending it each time because she found them too immature or suddenly gross in their sexual appitites. It wasn't until Bill pressed again that she got annoyed.

"None of you damn buisness that's what," She snapped and pointed at him with her fork, her eyes narrow. "Look Bill, you may be playing watcher again in the moment but my private life is my private life so stay out of it."

[dabillmann]

"None of your damn buisness that's what," she snapped and pointed her fork at him, her eyes narrow. "Look Bill, you may be playing watcher again at the moment, but my private life is my private life so stay out of it."

Bill's syes darkened as he cut a ppeice of steak and put it in his mouth. He chewed ans swallowed. "Fair enougn," he siad, nonchalantly, but his eyes showed that his feelings were slightly hurt. "You used to tell me everything though."

He remembered when she was a pup, and hell, he hadn;t been much more than a pup himself. it was HIM she ran crying to when Tommy Miller had pushed her into a mud puddle. (Tommy was dead now, but not because of that.) HE ws the omne who often put her to bed at night, and read to her. As said before, he had even taken her on her first hunt, and she had helped him bring down a large buck. He shighed a little.

"Natalia," he said. "I know you are not happy about all of this, and frankly, who could blame you. Nobody wantsto be uprooted like this. but some of the attitude you have bee ngiving me feels personal. Are you mad at me in particular for something?"

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Natalia didn't say anything and only continued to eating. She didn't want to have this discussion with him, because in a childish way she felt he knew why she was angry at him as well.

'You were the one that left.' She thought angrily, remembering the day he had been promoted to Damien's right hand. After that, she never saw him agian except for a few seconds here and there. "Will you just drop the damn subject?"

She let out a growl, barely loud enough fro humans to hear but thankfully didn't call attention to herself or Bill.

"Look Bill, I can take care of myself okay? I survived middle school and high school without you nanny goating me then and I sure as hel don't need you to do it now," She said. "nad that fact the onyl ones whom don't seem to get that I'm not the same dumb runt that use to go you with every blodding scraped knee seems to be you and Damien, so can we just leave it at that?"

[dabillmann]

Bill paused with his fork halfway to his mouth at her outburst. He somehow managed to look simlutaneously hurt and angry.

"Look," he said in hios most no nonsense tone of voice. "We have already had one TALK about that attitude, don;t make me have another one right here. You SAY you can take care of yourself, and that you are not a pup anymiore, but tthe whole time you are saying uit you are being a first class spoiled brat. I WILL drop the subject, if you jsut tell me what I did?"

Suddenly, his mind ws filled with an image of her crying the day he said "Goodbye" to her. She had always seemed like such a happy child to him, but that day she had just looked.....lost.

"Natalia," he asked, cutting peice of steak but looking her square in the eye. "Is it beause I left?"

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

The clatter of Natalia's fork and knife slamming into the table and plate was all that was needed to draw every single eye in the room on the odd pair. She roughly pulled the glasses off so he could see her eyes glaring daggers into his eyes, the only readable emotion was angry.

"Don't think so highly of yourself," She grounded out and got up and headed fro the door. "It's not all about you."

She pressed her hand against the door, knowing full well that Bill couldn't follow her, at lest not quickly. He would have to pay for the food first and then there was the left over food. Werewolves were notorious about wasting food. It would give her enough time burn off a few negative emotions in a tree of a dumpster before he could even get near her. Not to mention he knew she couldn't run off anywhere since Bill still had the keys to the damn car and it was one of those smart cars where you couldn't hotwire it.

[dabillmann]

Bill looked a little embarrassed at Natalia's outburst. "That's ok," he said. "You can all go back to you meals. The waitress came over and he asked for a bos for the burger, and the rest of her steak, and he finished his own as he waited.

Somehow, despite what Natalia had said, it seemed to him like maybe he had hit the nail on the head. What was the phrase? "Methinks thou dost protest too much." He sighed as the waitress brought the boxes, then paid the bill, grabbing a couple of soda's for them for the road. he went out and stashed them in the car then went looking for Natalia.

By instinct he started towards the tree near the dumpster. Natalia always had liked to climb trees, and he somehow sensed that she had not outgrown it.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Out grown was an understatement, as Bill was about to find out. Upon finding a tree hidden from public view, Natalia had landed a powerful round house kick, damn near shattering the trunk of the tree. She was breathing in deeply but hard still feeling extremely pissed inside and out over all the shit that was happening in er life. She hadn't asked to be the alpha's daughter. Hell she hadn't even asked to be a damn werewolf but just because she was this now, it meant she had suddenly no rights to control her life.

"Grrrrrrr," she growled and then yelled at the top of her lungs. "THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!! I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!"

[dabillmann]

Bill walked up just in time to hear Natalia's outburst.

"Grrrrr," she groweled at the top of her lungs. "THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!!!! i DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!"

"Yu're right," said Bill quietly. "It is and you didn't. None of us did. We don;t get to choose the circumstances of our birth , Natalia. We jsut have to make the best of what we are born with. I know this situation totally sucks, do you think i WANT to do this?"

He came up behind ehr and gently put his hands on her shoulders. "But you aren;t alone in this, Pal. I'm here." He used the nickname ha had always used when she was a pup. he had always told her she was his "Best Pal."