Mist Walkers

Camping

(Venus)

Wind whipped and whistled through the boarded-up windows trying to play a sweet ballet, as the dust danced in the spotlights of sunshine that slowly moved across the room through the gaps in the boards. Slowly the light crossed the room and fell on a small bed in the corner where I slept. The light crept across the bed and landed squarely on my eyes, where it stayed stealing the last remnants of my sleep from me.

            “Really?” I groaned and sat up in bed. Slowly I stood up and regretted it. The wound on my chest was still bleeding and had seeped through the bandages.  I reached for a new set off the dresser and reapplied some iodine to insure I did not get an infection. When I was finished, I slowly stretched, as my stomach grumbled announcing its discomfort from being empty.

            Reaching for my shirt and examining the giant hole I remembered the fight I got into while running from rogues the night before. It was just large enough it showed my midsection and the lower part of my sports bra. Sighing I went over to one of the boxes on the wall and grabbed and put on one of the camp shirts. I also put on my only good pair of ripped skinny jeans and my sneakers. Staring at myself in the mirror I sighed at my outfit thinking it will have to do.

            I am not a rogue; however, I also am not a member of a pack either. My pack had slowly been killed or kidnapped by the Broken Blood Pack. This pack was made up entirely by rogues and a few witches. The council only let them remain due to the fact the alpha was once a prince of the werewolves. He lost his mind after his mate died by human hands.

            I was not sure if I wanted to be in a pack either. The idea of watching them slowly die or be sold off was not appealing to me. I know where all the pack boundaries are and avoid them like the plague.

I have been until recently camping out in human territory at schools or even a hotel now and then when I really needed a shower or to catch up on quality sleep. We had made it to Higgins Lake but that is when everything went to hell. The one who claimed to be my dad’s friend had died during our escape. So, when we arrived no one was there to great us. We stayed at a small cabin until Zeus had finished fetching us a working car. That is when they found us and took Zo. He had sacrificed himself so I could get away. I still feel him, and on occasion when he is not heavily drugged we can mind link each other. So, I know he is still alive. I will find him.

 For now, I am currently staying in the Camp Directors cabin at the Wild Oats Summer Camp. The camp is nestled near a small lake with a river running to it.

            There are 12 cabins, but this one was the nicest and easiest to defend or leave if needed. Boxes where everywhere when I arrived but I pushed them up against the main door and into the bathroom due to it not being functional. There was a bed, a desk, a dresser, a mirror, and a closet, not to say I had much to put in them. There is also a kitchen but without power nothing works, and I did not want to touch the fridge in fear something was left in there to spoil. I had made a small trap door in the Kitchen which led under the cabin through the crawl space as my only means for exit and entry. It was not pretty but it will do.

            “ok so I need to find food, new clothes, and some bedding.” I thought staring around my new room. “oh, and definitely a curtain for that window,” I huffed side glancing at the beam of sunlight that had now migrated to shine itself off the metal door handle to the bathroom.

            Lifting the trap door that was in the kitchen, I shimmied down into the crawl space under the cabin and slowly crawled to the edge. Craning my ears to listened and sniffed the air to see if anyone was around, I waited like that for 10 minutes before leaving the safety of the dark space.

            Wild Oats was an hour walk from the nearest town, but if I used the main road it would go through 3 different pack lands before I reached the city. So, it was going to be about 3 hours before I reached town. The combat training and weapon practice came in handy; my wolf Lilly was a giant teddy bear unless you pissed her off. It seemed everyone but me pissed her off.

            Why not just go through the packs? It’s not like they can hurt us. Lilly scoffed

            I know but I would really prefer to avoid any drama Lilly. We are still healing after our last run in. I think they used wolfsbane or silver because we still aren’t healed fully.  I must go get what we need and come back. Then we can figure out where or what we are doing next.

            Oh, come on, we are like the mist in wolf form if we stay focused. We can be in town in 20 minutes!

            Just because we can change our fur to match our surroundings doesn’t mean we won’t get caught, you remember the time we walked by the cow and almost scared the farmer half to death? We manage trees, grass, buildings, etc. When it comes to living beings however, we do not manage to duplicate them well.

            We will not know till we try, Please Vee I am bored. I can see her pouting from here.

            Ugh fine I huffed as I slowly started taking my clothes off, so I had something to wear when we shifted back. Placing my clothes in my mouth I started to shift. That is when I heard it.          

Talking, and people coming from the main road. It sounded like there were 8 of them total and they were not moving extremely fast, and were not hiding their presence.

            “Skyler you ass” a girl said while giggling and slapping one of the male’s arms. “I thought you said we were going to the beach; this is a pond.” She stated as she pouted. A few of the guys laughed at that and some girls agreed they looked to be evenly paired.

            I rolled my eyes at the stuck-up girl while I stayed perfectly still and blended into my surroundings. The smell of applewood and lilacs slowly filled my nose, and Lilly started to get agitated.

            What’s up Lilly?

            Mate, she said practically dancing, I smell our mate.

            Um what? I asked, normal wolves get to find their mates when they turn 18, which I was not. I do not turn 18 for another week. Why do we smell our mate now? I know we are special but I’m not sure I can handle this yet Lil.

            Just breathe girl we will be fine. I just want to see who it is. As she spoke, we moved slowly closer to the group. Carefully we scooted around the cabins making sure to hug the forest, till we were in front of them allowing our sent to be carried down wind and see who responds to it.

            A tall handsome Greek God, in my opinion, stopped walking. He looked to be around 6’5” with short blonde hair, square jaw and nicely angled face. From what I could see his body was to die for. He looked around almost frantic trying to find the source of the heaven that hit his nose.  

            Lil let’s just get out of here, I’m not ready for this. I said slowly shaking. I don’t need this now, not after what we went through. I am safe here; I shook my head at the rest of the thoughts to clear my mind. When I went back to look for my mate, he was a few feet away from me now.

            Run, we need to get away! My heart is beating erratically at this point and panic is slowly gripping me.

            Calm down, I will mask our scent and head for town, just calm down Vee. She wheeled us around and ran through the woods towards the main road.