Kierra

I think when I get back to Ava's I need to have a boxing match with one of the guys or something. I'm itching to fight and doing so with a straight human would be a bad idea; don't want to take the chance I go too far and seriously injure them.

"What? What you say bitch? I'll start anything anywhere the fuck I want to! You're on my turf!"

My eyebrow raises at that, my hip cocking as I take a mocking stance.

"Whoa chick, calm your tits. I really doubt any of it belongs to you. Haven't caught your stench anywhere around here. Which reminds me; next time you suck his dick, honey, you may want to clean up better. Not only can I smell it from here, but seems you dribbled a bit onto your shirt. Maybe a bib next time will be helpful?"

All three of them look at me as if I'm crazy, so I help reinforce it by smiling and licking my teeth, top and bottom canines growing to pointed tips. It's so subtle though that they don't even notice. Two of them don't anyway, the poor girl that happens to be the background friend sees them and she pales instantly. Grabbing at 'Lucy' and telling her it isn't worth the trouble. That has to be short for something, there’s no possible way that's her whole name.

Bigmouth Lucy is swearing up a storm, pulling away from the smart one. Eyeing her retreating steps, I flick my eyes off to the side, telling her to go. Her head lowers as she backs off several feet. She's no animal, but she knows about us. Interesting. I look back at the other female as she comes flying at me, her boyfriend going at Kani. I'd worry if I hadn't known that he's at least three times as strong as the male trying to grapple him.

I catch Lucy by her arm, pulling hard and spinning so her back is against my front. The pop coming from her shoulder or elbow dislocating has her screeching. Holding the limb hard to her front as I grab the other, she flails it at me.

Hissing at her to shut up, I point her towards her big tough boyfriend who's on the ground with Kani astride him. The expensive hat smashed on the ground where it had been stepped on, no longer hiding the short hair that had been underneath it. May be short, but there's enough for the fox to have a grip of as he pulls the boy’s head back to look at his girl.

"Now, I doubt either of you has learned a lesson here, but are you willing to walk away now?"

They both yell 'fuck you!' almost simultaneously. Huh. Indeed no lesson learned. I spin her around to face me and she manages to get a kick in to my leg. I bend the knee with the kick to keep from crumpling over and use it to ride her down hard. The smacking of her head against the pavement knocks the air from her. Having fallen in a way so her legs are bent under her, she can no longer use them against me as she stares up in a daze.

Holding her arms down, I lean into her, my face over hers. My long hair falling around our faces hides us from all others. Yellow eyes flare to life as my annoyance peaks, her blue ones widen in fear as my expression goes bestial.

"If you scream again, you will not like the results, understand me?"

She whimpers as I growl the words at her. Bad enough the cops have more than likely been called from all their damn yelling earlier. Staring into her face, I let her see how annoyed she's made me.

"Are you going to walk away now, or do I have to...get creatively persuasive?"

I lick at my teeth again, this time obviously longer. Her prepping to scream again has me squeezing her arms in warning, so it comes out as a whine. The blond head shakes fast as she tries to pull her face as far away from me as possible.

Pushing away, I release Lucy to go on her way. The stumbling gait takes her over to her lover who also looks pale, his pants wet and reeking of urine. Why is it always the male wetting himself? Weaker cover valve or something?

They try to run, but his pants keep falling down his legs and tripping them. I shake my head as I watch, really afraid for the newer generations to come. Turning, I smile to Kani, who actually looks invigorated. The shy, submissive fox starting to come into his own? We high five and turn to Zypher who's just sitting and watching us.

"I didn't have any popcorn or a beer. I call for a rematch, that was disappointing."

I laugh yet agree.

"Let's get the rest of this stuff loaded and get to the hobby store before it closes, then we can get to Ava's and duke it out with the guys."

His grin is wide before barking out a laugh. His small, dark blond beard moving with him, he shakes his head and motions to the fact he already has everything loaded in.

"I got bored, so figured I'd do something useful. Don't think the woman saw me at all, but the boy did. Think that may have been why he pissed himself."

I don't doubt it for a second; large, menacing, tattooed biker-looking dude. Piling back into the cab, we head off down the street where the next stop is. As we pull up front to park, we can hear sirens blaring off in the distance.

Yep.

Shrugging, I hop out and run in. Getting several of my normal-sized and a couple larger ones, just in case. Got those demonic kitties to do and I think they'd look better on the bigger canvas. More detail can be shown.

It's not till I'm paying for them that I remember I wanted to get to the diner as well. I'll wait to do that tomorrow since it's getting so late now. Not even sure if the place is still open at this hour anyway.

I get the added cargo put in then we're off back to Ava's. Thoughts of getting into a good romp at her place then going home and having a run with everyone sounds like a plan to me.

When we're pulling up her road, I'm trying to decide when to go see the owner of the preserve. Should probably do that first so I'm not looking all grubby from roughhousing. Everything but the food is left in the truck, and half of it gets brought back out.

Laundry had been switched out while gone, so half of it is done as well. Feeling like I'm bouncing from foot to foot, I urge a slow-moving Ava along. She's doing so just because she knows it's annoying me.

"Come on Chicky, move your butt. I got some guys I need to put a hurtin' on."

"They aren't going anywhere. You sure you don't need any of them to come along?"

I give her a droll look to which she just grins, pulling out the four-wheeler I forgot she even had. Stashed in her garage, it's used for getting around the property without having to walk, saddle horses, or use her truck. Remember begging her to let me take it out several times when she’d first gotten it.

She'd given the owner a call while we were gone, then again when we got back. I know he lives in the preserve as well, just don't know where.

"When I got a hold of him again, he said to meet him at the plantation, it's the place right up the road from me."

Nodding, I sit behind her on the buggy. It might not look like much, but it's fast. When off her property is when she decides to sideswipe me.

"By the way, the owner of this land is the Gray Wolf Alpha. Reason he wouldn't let you live here before is that he only allows animals to live within the park. I didn't mention you specifically were the one wanting a place, so he doesn't know who you are, just that you're a wolf friend of mine. Which he found really amusing by the way."

I growl in her ear as we speed off. Makes sense now, but a heads up earlier would have been nice. My urge to tangle with someone just heightened dramatically by her out of the blue confession.

"You better be really glad I love you, otherwise we'd be having a serious go around right now."

The snow leopard just giggles, my lips pursing at her warped humor. And people think I'm bad. A tickling in my brain of a memory trying to surface licks along the front of my skull, but once I focus on it, it's gone. I hate when they do that. Like only being able to see something out of the corner of your eye, but once really focused on, it isn't there. Mirages. Just in thought-form.

In jeans, steel-toed boots, and a t-shirt, I feel right at home with the cold air rushing past. Long, thick hair streams out behind me as I lift my face, having to swallow down an urge to howl. Don't think Ava would appreciate that right in her ear.

Also won't sound as pretty with human vocals. Mine anyway, while on two legs, my singing voice is non-existent. Warbling I'm sure I could do well, if attempted.

"How was Bastion while I was gone? I didn't see him when we got back."

"They're still in the training area. He'd come in for a little bit so I could get a warm drink into him, but then he went right back out. Seems very intent on what Xavier's teaching him."

Good. Someone will always be around him, but I want him to be able to protect himself if for some reason no one is near. I may work from home, but there's so much going on lately that I'll be gone a lot. His going to school is good for more than one thing.

With her speeds getting up there past the thirties and into the forties, I grab at my hair to prevent it whipping at our faces. Hers is in her braid safely tucked between us. Have a feeling she was planning this.

We slow and pull up on a dirt road branching off to the left. Ava's farm is right on Pierce Lake, tucked between it and Olson Lake. We've gone past it but haven't gotten far enough ahead to worry about Spider Lake.

I don't mind water until it floods or brings in hoards of bugs. You won't catch me anywhere near a pond. People always romanticize them not realizing or ignoring that it's still water. What's the problem with still water? Mosquitoes. They breed in it. One of the many perks of cold weather; no skeeters. Or flies. Spider Lake, if I recall right, is half in the campgrounds that are further northeast. They're sectioned off from the rest of the park and have their own trails and such.

Wonder how he keeps campers and hikers from going into the park since there are always those that push boundaries. I should know, I am one.

Ain't no snarky 'No Trespassing' sign goin’ to stop me from explorin'.

Ava's land has a pretty long driveway, this one seems to be about half as long. Where her home is on a cleared farming plot that borders the tree line, this one is all trees. My heart pounds at the possibilities. She said 'plantation'. Those tend to be huge. Would be just my luck that I fall in love with the place and it be perfect and exactly what I'm looking for, then be wa-ay out of my price range. That happens a lot. It's depressing.

You tell yourself not to get your hopes up but it happens anyway, even if it isn't shown outwardly. I had to save for a few years before I was able to get what I have now. Granted I was just starting out with my writing getting published, my art having yet to be seen by anyone other than family, but still.

Housing market these days is all over the place. One day it will be low, the next it's near impossible. Chewing on my lip then flicking my tongue ring between my upper teeth rapidly tells of my nervousness.

Trees clear and I become a rubber-necker, trying to take everything in at once. Having slowed way down, I release my hair just as we come up on the cleared area around the property. A few pines and birch dot around the clearing, others on either side of the huge house to my right reach up past the roof of the second story. Pillars go around the outer edges, connecting the railing while going all the way up. From what I can see, the house is a very big square with a large two-car garage straight ahead. Memory once again tries to surface, but can't seem to breakthrough.

Ava stops, but all I can do is sit there and gape. Done visually as one of the plantations you'd see in Louisiana, just without the crop fields. Wrap-around veranda and porch included, the later raised so there are steps to go up.

The sky is clear, the sun having just set has the place in twilight. I can see it with no problem when I finally swing my leg over to get off. Woman with me had gotten off it a minute or two before. I don't see her face as I look the place over. She'd stopped in the wider dirt area that is the driveway in front of the garage. There's a car within, but I don't pay attention to it either as I take a couple steps forward.

Now watch, with the outside being this gorgeous, the inside is either hideous or just as beautiful. Just looking at it, I know it's going to be way out of my league, even without seeing the inside. That thought in mind, it almost hurts to step back.

Running a hand through my windblown hair in disappointment, I turn back to Ava and shake my head. She frowns, looking from me to the house then back.

"You don't like it?"

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, so some noise in between there is made.

"Just the opposite actually. Don't even have to see the inside to know there's no way I can afford this, and in the acknowledgment that I can't, I don't want to see the inside and become that much more depressed."

I give her a mocking parody of a smile, almost jumping out of my skin as a deep voice comes from the front doorway. A low chuckle sounding before speaking.

"Shouldn't give up so fast, you may miss out on a good thing."

Heart pounding, I curl clawed fingers into my palm. Yay for automatic defensive responses. Ava did say however that the owner was the Gray Alpha, so I'm guessing this is he. Just didn’t click that she meant the Werewolf Alpha. Having been so wrapped up in the house itself, I ignored my nose and the draw he seems to be producing.

Have you ever seen a robin’s egg? The bird, I mean. It's a light cream blue with black specks, really pretty. That is the color of this man’s eyes. A sharp inhale brings in the scent of a very Alpha male. The visual sparking in my head has my breath catching. A dream vision overlapping the visage of his wolf form walking towards me. Larger than life and just as overbearing. A black and gray colored pelt covers the massive creature, not an 'old' gray, more a shading. Think burned charcoal.

Flashing between what I'd seen in a dream to where his breed came from has my head reeling. My hands go to my head where I press my heel into my temple. He's not your normal, everyday garden variety gray wolf. He, ladies and gentlemen, is what would be called a 'Dire Wolf'.