For Lynnix.
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Her legs hurt, so damned badly. The muscles felt like they were bathing in lava. She could swear her quads were about to peel off from fatigue. But she didn't stop running. Even as her lungs burned and screamed for oxygen from overexertion, she didn't DARE stop running.
Not if she wanted to live.
*** One Week Ago ***
Rebecca was frustrated. There was a small group of very loud obnoxious people in the library, and they were making it terribly difficulty for her to get any decent stidying done. Worse yet, none of the staff seemed to be willing to step in to ask them to quiet down. She had tried to ignore it and focus on her studies as best she could, but when a book whizzed past her head, barely avoiding contact, she'd had enough.
She stood, furious, and stormed over to their table, where a group of eight young-looking people were gathered. Four men and three women were being rowdy and rough-housing. The eighth was a quiet woman intensely studying a very old looking book. Rebecca cleared her throat.
"Would you louts mind so terribly being quiet so the rest of us can study?" she asked firmly. All but the studying turned to her angrily, their voices a loud blended gaggle of indignation and threats. Rebecca couldn't even differentiate who was shouting what, but she certainly noticed the three women starting to move toward her.
Then a low growl was heard, and all seven stopped cold. Rebecca followed the sound to the eighth, who was now quietly staring at her, her nostrils twitching as if she was sniffing the air.
"She's right," the girl said in a calm, almost melodious voice. "You thugs need to shut up and sit still, this is a house of wisdom, show some respect."
The others all grumbled and cursed under their breath, but they complied without any real protest. Rebecca nodded at the girl and thanked her for getting her friends to behave, then went back to her own table to resume studying for her mid-terms. With the library quiet again, she got lost in the studying, and failed to notice that the growling girl wasn't studying the old book anymore.
She was studying Rebecca.
***
The library was closing, and Rebecca reluctantly packed up her textbooks to go home.
As she walked out the front doors she fumbled to find the key to her bike lock, when she paused. Not quite knowing how she was able to do so, Rebecca had always seemed to have an innate sense of when something was out of place. She stopped in her tracks, and as she resumed digging through her backpack for her bike lock key, without even turning around she said "Is there a reason you're following me Miss?"
"I wanted to apologize for my siblings," said the melodious voice, "and to tell you how impressed I was that you didn't back down from them. They're not used to anyone standing up to them except me."
Rebecca turned around. The girl was a little taller than her, dressed in a suit, with short-cropped black hair and various piercings. Her siblings as she called them, were several yards away, mulling about acting like scolded children. The girl's eyes were locked on her, as if studying her.
"I never back down from bullies," Rebecca said matter-of-factly.
"I can see that," said the girl, smiling, and offering her hand. "My name is Anika. I'd like to buy you a coffee to make up for it, if you'll allow me?"
Not knowing why, Rebecca quickly took the offered hand. Anika's skin felt silk-soft and yet strong and tough. The contact sent an involuntary shiver up Rebecca's spine.
"I'm Rebecca," she replied, "and yes, I think I'd like that."
Anika turned to her siblings, giving them simply a nod, and they all turned and left. Anika the offered her arm in an almost gentlemanly fashion to Rebecca, who took it and smiled. As they walked to the nearby coffee shop, the siblings stopped and turned.
"Tell me you didn't smell that cunt," one of the men growled.
"Like shit on my lips," one of the women said contemptuously.
"I thought those freaks were extinct?" said another.
"Well they will be soon," said the eldest woman. "If our little Ani doesn't gut that bitch, I will. It'll be my chance to be Alpha again."
"Oh let it the fuck go Julia," said the eldest male. "You know you can't touch her in a fight."
"Not by myself no," Julia replied, "but if she fails to carry out her sworn duty to kill the Cait, I can call the Challenge, and if you all help me, we can kill our little suit, and get our pack back to the old ways."
"You mean you'd let us hunt humans again?" the youngest male asked.
"Hunt them?" Julia smirked. "Fuck Clive, I'll let you wipe them all out and make this little shithole town ours."
****
Rebecca and Anika talked over coffee well into the night, and every night for a week. They bonded instantly and spilled almost their entire lives to one another. Rebecca knew she was enamored by the strange gentlemanly woman. Every night grew more and more intimate, until on the sixth night, Anika kissed her goodnight, and it was the kind of kiss that makes the world turn upside down. Rebecca was in love, and eager to see Anika again the next night.
But on the seventh night, Anika seemed suddenly different. When she arrived to pick Rebecca up for their dinner date, she seemed very upset, and when she took her trenchcoat off, she was bloodied and raw.
"Oh my God Ani!" Rebecca said in shock. "What the hell happened to you?"
"We need to leave," Anika replied. "My siblings want you dead Becca. I can't wait to tell you the truth anymore."
"Wait what?" Rebecca replied, confused. "Why do they want me dead? And what truth?"
"The truth about what I am," Anika replied, changing her shirt, "and about what you are."
"What are you talking about?" Rebecca asked, trying to clean Anika's wounds, noting the looked like canine claw and teeth marks, but seemed bigger than any dog breed she knew of. "You're delirious from the injuries. Just calm down and let me dress your wounds."
"Becca you REALLY need to listen right now," Anika said, and suddenly took Rebecca's hand, tugging a ruby ring from Rebecca's ring finger.
