Until the Hunter's Moon (Dabillmann)

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

"Yeah well, it's easy for you to say that," Natalia muttered, gently hugging her arms as though a cold wind was blowing past her. But it wasn't the climate that was making her rubbed her arms for warmth, New York was in the middle of a heat stroke summer. No she was rubbing her arms because she felt cold and helpless inside. "You at lest have the ability to chose your life."

The role of a female in a werewolf pack was a very old fashioned one. Few of them had any modern rights or choices in their lives. Not that the males were always better. They needed to find flexible communities, jobs, schools, they had to be careful about their emotions because they two could trigger their glamor and changes. Hell pups weren't allowed outside until the age of six and even then they had to learn how not to allow their inner animal just run loss and chase down cars. Natalia had just been special as a pup since she and Atrigon had unusually strong senses of self control.

But pack to the roles of the werewomen. As an alpha's daughter, Natalia's life was prematurely decided by her father and now as his only heir, it was looking more and more decided. As a tween she had always thought that she would be introduced to some neiboring pack's son and then their fathers would decided that they should be mated so that they could bind the packs together. She had always hated the idea, so that was why she was going to announce on her coming of age that she was leaving the pack, with or without Damien's approval.

"Let's just get going." she sighed, shrugging off Bill's hand though it had felt nice on her shoulder. Se sounded tired, stressed, and defeated.

[dabillmann]

"Let's just get going," she sighed, shrugging Bill's hand off.

Bill followed Natalia to the car. She had aleways had a temper, and she could get sad sometimes, but he had never seen her seeming so...defeated before. He let her get into the car then got in himself. He looked over at her.

"Natalia," he said. "I meant what I said. I am ALWAYS here for you." He reached to the seat behind him and grabbed the container with his bacon cheeseburger and held it out to her. there was a soda for her in the drink holder on her side of the car. "You didn;t get to finish you steak. Would you like this? It'd be easier to eat in the car."

He wasn;t sure if she would normally eat a burger or not. Because of their nature, few werewolves ever even TRIED to be vegetarians, and cholesteral and fat did not bother them the way it did normal humans, but some still insisted on eating healthily.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Sighing, Natalia took the burger and bit dully into it. It probably was the worst burger she had ever had, full of grease, but who was she to complain. Food was food right?

Even if it tasted bad.

The truth was, Natalia was a bit of a heavy eater but she was far from a vegetarian. Hell, as Marcus had said once as a joke, she could probably 'suck a cow threw a straw'. She just wasn't fond of greasy food. Once she finished the burger though she kicked back the chair and reclined. There really wasn't anything to do in the car and she suddenly had lost the will to start up a conversation.

"Just wake me when we get somewhere," She mumbled. "Where ever that is."

[dabillmann]

Bill drove on for a bit in silence as Natalia ate her (his) burger. As said before, the shift and their metabolism made werewolves need a lot of food, so he had known she would need, if not want, the burger.

"Just wake me when we get somewhere," Natalia mumbled. "wherever that is."

"Ok, then," sighed Bill. He reached over and turned the radio on, making sure it was low enough as to not disturb Natalia, but loud enough for him to enjoy it.

As he drove he thought about where "there" was. There was a cabin in the woods that could not be traced back to Damian that Bill had been told to take Natalia to. they should be sagfe there ,and it was a fairly short drive to town for supplies. And there was plenty of game in the woods if they wanted or needed to hunt.

but, it was still a fair distance to the cabin, and they would need to stop for the night, as they got a sligjhtly late start. He drove a bit further then pulled into a motel parking lot. It was actually a fairly nice looking place. He turned off the car and gave Natalia a light nudge. "Hey you," he said softly. "How'd you like to sleep in a real bed instead of the car?"

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

With the nudge to her shoulder, Natalia awoke with a small groan. She felt disorientated, like the time she had walked into the girl's bathroom at school just as the tough girls were smoking pot. Other then getting a second hand high, Natalia had stayed home for three days with a class A headache and stuffy nose. Drugs were about the only thing that no werewolf could handle.

Last thing she remembered was falling asleep to 'Sweet Home Alabama' playing on the radio. Honestly, Bill's taste in Stations sucked.

Then again, she only listened to underground music so she hardly listened to the radio.

"Where are we?" She asked, rubbing her eyes and straightening out. Gods her back hurt as did her tail. It was hard to for werewolves to sleep on their backs because of their tails, but tere wasn't much of a choice when one was in a car. "What time is it?"

[dabillmann]

"Where are we? What time is it?"

"It's about 11:30 at night," answered Bill. "we are at a motel. I thought it would be better to stop for the night That way you can sleep a littel more comfortably and I can actually GET some sleep." he popped the trunk and got out of the car, grabbing their bags.

From the outside the motel didn;t look like much, but it definately was NOT one of those cheap, sleasy places men went with prostitutes to cheat on their wives.

"Well," said Bill. "It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's got to be better than the cage."

a werewolf alpha HAd to have obedience, and Damiian had found a good way to enforce this. In a private room in the building he had installed a cage, where he would have one of his wolves who had been too disobedient put for up to a couple of weeks. The cage was just large enough for someone to lie down in wolf form, but the could NOT get comfortable in human form.

anyojne who has ever seen a wild animal in a cage has seen how bored and restless they get. Now imagine that hunbters instinct coupled with human intelligevnce, where you can REALLY understand what is going on. Put those together and you have an effective punishment.

There was in fact a rumor going around the pack that Bill himself had once spent two weeks in the cage.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Natalia looked at the motel and frowned. Even if it wasn't one of those sleazy motels were the whores practically lived in, she didn't have some standards as to her sleeping arrangements. She wasn't a five star girl though, she had never liked the up tight expensive rooms where she felt she couldn't get any peace but her up bringing did demand a bit of class. Just like her clothes. It didn't have to be designer brand but it needed to be good quality.

"What a pit." She muttered, crinkling her nose as she looked at the flower beds near the office. There was no scent from the flowers and they were too open considering it was night time. It was all too painfully clear that they were fake. "How did you pick this hole?"

"Well," said Bill. "It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's got to be better than the cage."

Natalia shuttered at the thought of the cage. If any one was left inside it too long, it could drive them insane.

"What isn't better then that," She muttered and then looked up at the sky. "Full moon tonight. Typical."

Had she been still a pup, Bill would have had to convince the motel owner that she was a pet dog because then she wouldn't have been able to control her transformation or glamor. She would have changed in her sleep and turned into the beast within her.

Well, one of them. there were two beasts in a sense inside werewolves. There was the wolf, a creature that was smart but looked like an everyday timber wolf, and then there was The Wolf, a massive creature that stood on an average 7 feet tall on it's hind legs with razor sharp claws. Normally the pups would turn into the wolf.

Of course the Full moon left Natalia even more moody. It was normally on nights like this she would sneak out past hours to join her friends for a night of dancing in the clubs and hard core partying. Hey she wasn't a cub anymore and if Bill or Damien ever saw the outfits she wore to those clubs they would probably bot suffer a heart attack.

"Jeez, what a shit hole," Natalia kicked one of the palm trees to inspect it. Typical. If the flowers were fake why not the trees as well? "You really know how to pick 'em don't cha Bill."

[dabillmann]

"You really know how to pick 'em don't cha Bill?"

Bill rolled his eyes at that. He understood that Natalia was a bit upset about the situation, and that the full moon was affecting her moodiness, but he was starting to get exasperated with her attitude.

"Well, it's not exactly like it was my FIRST choice," he snapped, getting their bags out of the car. "Is it MY fault that this is the only plave open? And I thought we already had a little TALK about your attitude." he gave her a meaningful Look.

He led her inside the motel, where a very bored looking young man was behind the desk. "We need either two adjoining rooms or one room with two beds," Bill told him.

"Sorry," said the guy behind the counter. "None of our rooms adjoin. But we do have one with two queen size beds." He pushed a registry towards Bill.

"That'll do," said Bill, signing a false name to the registry, and taking out a debit card that could not be traced back to Damian or anyone in his employ to pay with.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

But Natalia was faster and before Bill could even hand the card to the human, she reached into her pocket and and yanked out her wallet.

"How much?" She demanded, her attitude no where from disappearing. The man looked confused at her, finding it odd a girl would pay for both hers and a man's stay. "How much for the fucking room?"

"60 bucks a night plus 30 for breakfast." He answered sourly. Natalia slapped a hundred and eighty dollars before snatching the key from the man and heading out the door with only her back pack hanging losely off her shoulder. He then looked dryly at Bill. "Nice piece of work yah got there busy. Bit of an attitude though."

***

Natalia looked sourly at the room and shook her head. Now she remembered exactly why she hated motels or hotels run by humans. They never properly cleaned the rooms. Or aired them out for that matter. Without wasting a second, Natalia tossed her back pack to the floor in front of the bed she was claiming and jerked open a window.

Well tried to.

The window was practicably glued to the frame in the wall, that Natalia had to literally throw her weight into the glass to even crack it open. But it had it's cost. The moment the window was liberated from the frame, Natalia's arm slipped down and she cut her arm on the metal frame.

"SON OF A!!!" She instantly clutched her arm and cringed. She hated blood. HATE it! And with a good four inch gash in her arm there was a lot of it.

[dabillmann]

"Buddy, you have NO idea," said Bill to the clerk. He snatched up his own bag and went off to the room.


x.x.x.
Bill opened tothe door to the room to find Natalia standing there with an open window and a four inch gash on her arm. if any body knew how Natalia hated the sight of blood, it was Bill. He still remembered the time she had nearly fainted when he had ripped his leg open climbing a fence. The funny part was, SHE had dared him to climb the fence in the first place!

"Here," he said, running to the bath room and coming back with a clean towel, which he immediately used to apply pressure to Natalia's wound.

"Ok," he said, applying pressure to the wound with one hand and putting hsi other arm around her in case she needed support. "I brought a first aid kit,Let's get you into the batrhroom and get that cleaned up."