Yuki
Moonlight Manor
7:20AM
The female had simply touched the man’s arm, her hand soft against his arm though she had no idea how he would react to her touching him as casually as she had. It was chilly outside, though she often welcomed the cold when she went out to meet him; of course she had always been careful not to upset him. The last thing she had expected him to do was reach out and touch her as well, to pull her close to him and cradle her head against his chest while his arms wrapped around her. She was small compared to him, her body thin and frail in comparison to his while he held her. She was at least a foot shorter than him, his arms large and well-muscled where her own were small and lean, more for caring and holding then fighting and killing. She closed her eyes and leaned against him, allowing the heat of his body to seep into her, warming the skin that had grown cold because of the wind and its lack of coverage. The shirt she wore only covered her a quarter of the way down her arms, loose and light over her body and the pants were still those that she would have worn in the summer, a soft black silk that fell past her ankles. She often stepped on the fabric when she walked around, though it never torn and it wasn't worn enough to pulling it apart though she wouldn't have enjoyed that much at all in the first place.
. . . Like a small child. . . Yuki heard him speak, his accent brushing lightly against his words though it wasn't often that she heard the Russian in his voice, the same with her Japanese though her accent and heritage had always been more clear to see and hear than his. He looked like an American man, even though his parents had both been Russian, perhaps it was the time he had spent here with the people, learning to act like them that had changed him. Perhaps it was the need to be different, to get away from them. The young woman looked up at him, thinking for a moment, how they would be if he would only let her in as well and be together with her. Yuki sighed quietly, the sound and breath muffled by the man’s chest that her cheek rested on. The phrase itself made her think of her son and how peaceful he was when he was asleep, so very quiet and lovely. The child would always be hers, regardless of whom his father was and how he had died, the boys blonde hair so fair it was so unlike hers that few really believed that she had given birth to him, even when they didn't know that he was eight years old.
“I’m not a child.” She responded, her voice muffled as well though she hadn't made much of an attempt to be very loud in the first place.
She felt the touch of his lips on her forehead and she felt the heat rising in her pale cheeks, turning them a soft rose that seemed to extent all across her cheekbones toward her ears, the tips of which were slightly pointed even in her human form. She couldn’t stop the small smile the curled up the corners of her mouth, soft lips pulling quietly on her face while she moved to look up at him. Her back was to the railing of the balcony, her cool metal against the small of her back and the front of her body pressed against him in a way that rarely happened for the two of them. He’d kissed her though, more than once in the last twenty four hours and she took that as a sign that he was getting closer to ready to open up to her. Yuki giggled, almost girlishly, and reached up, stretching to reach his throat with her face. She brushed her nose affectionately over his throat, her lips brushing against his jaw as she nuzzled him quietly.
“Do you want to talk about it?”Yuki had never enjoyed hearing that he was not alright and more often than not she had wanted to hurt what it was that pained him though much of it was too far in the past and in such a far off place that she was never going to be able to touch it; let alone kill it. His forehead against hers and the soft touches of his lips were dancing still across her skin, warm and sweet with his affection though it was not often he was so open with his love and kindness. She loved him, really, and wanted to best for him as much as she wanted the best for the pack – more so even. It was when she was most focused on the man who held her in the cold that another made her appearance, Aurora, the Beta Female, was awake and already biding for their attention and approval. She had scented the blood on the wind earlier though she didn’t mind much at all that someone was killing deer in their territory. Both she and Damian had known of the loners’ presence for a while and neither had chosen to speak of it or do anything about it.
She looked over Damian’s shoulder at the girl who had walked through their top floor bedroom into the doorway of the balcony to see them, her eyes a soft grey as she glanced between herself and the male who held her now and knew that it was a rather intimate situation though the Japanese woman looked at the girl and smiled again.
“I don’t see why not. What do you think Damian?” She asked her mate, though she didn’t want him to let her go or for him to go off with her. Aurora and her daughter and mate were the only others currently living inside the house, with the children occupied downstairs with books and games and toys, and the two Beta’s away, it would give the two time alone that they rarely got from the pack and instead of simply running off together like a pair of irresponsible teenagers they often owned up to their responsibilities of the roles as the packs leaders.
Freya
7:20AM
Volrath’s Forest
The wolf had fed, tearing nearly everything that could be gathered from the large deer by claws and jaws alone, since the predator would much rather not have to change back and forth between human and lupine forms. Her muscles rippled beneath her thick coat as she turned away from the kills, leaving the large corpses behind for smaller predatory animals and scavengers to finish off and tear apart. She was huge, comparatively, and even larger than most of the members of the pack nearby whose territory she trespassed on right now. The wolves born in this forest were always larger, more ferocious, savage and smaller, stronger and faster than those who were not; they thought it was because of the ancient native magic woven into the forest though no human ever really believed it was true because none of them even thought that werewolves existed in the real world. The wolf moved, great paws landing almost silently on the forest floor while she walked away from the place where she had eaten enough for this morning, her taste for blood sated though she could always eat more. Like a wolf that was just a wolf in the wild she had spared the pregnant doe, hoping that the prey animal would carry to term and continue on with the population of her primary food source. Unlike a wolf in the wild, she would never go after the injured or elderly of the herd, leaving the easy prey for those who couldn't kill bears.
The wolf heard the sound of an angry grizzly, one of those who were closer to normal and when the wolf stopped to swing a massive head around to look over one shoulder it saw the animal, quite a ways off, convulse and die apparently because of a set of poisons injected into its system. Or, perhaps, it had eaten a plant it should not have, or the corpse of an animal who died of said poisonous plant. It wasn't entirely uncommon, for animals to die of the plants in this forest, because if one was not careful, the strange flora and fauna could kill when one is least expecting or playing the less of the attention. She stared for a moment longer, eyes narrowing as the breezed picked up and brought her the scent of a human nearby; her ears perked slightly as she listened to the sound of the creatures breathing, quick and hot as if he was excited by something. Was he one of those hunters that sometimes came to their woods? The wolf turned again, this time turning to prowl in a large circle.
Freya followed the river nearby, walking with her paws in the water to leave little scent trail and no paw prints she swung around in a wide circle to end up upwind of the male who looked as if he had planned on doing little other than set a trap. He certainly looked the part of a hunter, though he fit the mad scientist persona as well, as far as the beast was concerned. The girl inside the beast was sleeping and in fact she had not wanted to wake again after this last shift to come to the forest where none would ever find her. She was better at hiding than the packs here, better at hunting. She was the beast where she was not human, she’d been raised the animal instead of the human and in turn she had lived this way with little real curiosity of the outside world. She didn't care much for it at all and instead of looking for ways to kill insignificant and boring prey like humans, she had found the perfect hunting grounds in another packs territory where none would go against her. Not when she knew their forest better than then.
Claudia
Town – Diner
7:20AM
The girl had settled into place next to the man, leaning on the side of the bench across from him with her fingers in the apron pocket, playing with the pen she kept there with the notepad for easy use when getting orders from the customers. She saw him look at her before she spoke, him staring at her hair for a moment and she lifted a hand to brush a lock behind her ear nervously. She’d never once died it before, her mother had always told her that the pink was a trait she inherited from her fathers’ family, red mixed with the broken genes of an albino to create the pink that shone as an odd natural pigmentation for her hair colour. Her father on the other hand said it was because of all the time she spent with strange herbs and native magic that her uncle had known since he was actually a Cherokee man. She heard him speak in response to her, commenting on her lack of a social life or sleeping habits.
“I don’t have time to sleep in. I have school work, tutoring, chores.” She just barely started the listen to answer what he had said, though she hadn't wanted to bore him and instead she’d turned and walked away to see if his sandwich was finished yet though this morning, like all others, she knew it would be done by the time she went back to get it for him. When she walked her hips swayed, as if she was older than she really was, although much what how she acted and many of the things she did often gave that impression as well. In truth she was only sixteen years of age, and had gone through a lot more than most girls her age and instead of the normal things like having friends and going to the movies and talking about boys and dating, she spent her time working and doing homework, tutoring and taking care of her cousin and uncle. She had a family that she had to help, and little time for strangers. Especially after that wolf had attacked and killed her aunt.
“Of course, it took him a lot longer than I thought it would but he finally fixed it.”Claudia responded with a smile, sliding into the booth across from him with a mug in her hands, a spoon and tea bag inside of the warm white mug as well as she sat down. She was tired and he was the first familiar face to walk inside today as he always had since first coming here and she quite enjoys their normal morning conversations. He was older than her, surely, though she didn't mind much at all, so long as he didn't talk to her as if she was meant to be some flighty teenage girl from a back water town so far out of reach that she would never have seen a city before. She yawned, her jaw snapping shut loudly in the quiet diner and she rubbed the sleep from one of her eyes while she looked at the man with his sandwich.
“Do you mind if I sit?"
