🐺🌙Never Wolf
Banished at sixteen for her inability to shift, Mabel Mason endures a solitary existence as a never wolf - a mysterious anomaly in the werewolf world. For eight years, Mabel roams the world alone, her heart marked by the painful memor...
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Mabel
I spent the next week wondering if I had made the right decision by accepting my brother's offer. The crows had stopped sitting on my porch, and the black cats were now avoiding me, so I hoped that meant the universe approved of my choice.
On Friday night, I boarded the red-eye flight with a bag of makeup, a toothbrush, and a cheap dress I had picked up from the thrift store. The flight was long, and I got a few hours of sleep before we landed.
As my brother promised, the taxi picked me up from the airport and drove me two hours northeast, deep into the mountains. Seeing the familiar countryside of my childhood with its snow-capped mountains and evergreen forests stretched for as far as the eye could see was strange.
I had mixed feelings about going back to Cedar Falls. I never thought that I would return there - especially to the ranch. Even though Hector had been dead nearly a year, I could hear his voice drunken voice slurring in my head, "Mabel, didn't I say what I'd do if you came back? I got a silver bullet here with your name on it."
As we approached the town, my phone vibrated with an incoming call. The caller ID was withheld, but I knew it was my mother.
I answered the phone.
"Janine," I said.
"Oh, Mabel. I wish you would stop calling me that," she snapped disapprovingly. "I was only calling to check that you had landed safely."
"I landed safely - I'm en route to the wedding," I replied flatly.
"Wonderful, I can't wait to see you, darling. Now, tell me what you are wearing?" She said.
I gazed down at my plain navy blue dress from the thrift store and replied, "A blue dress."
"Don't be clever, dear. I want to know what brand - Gucci, Chanel, Armani?" she said.
"Salvation Army. It was five dollars from the clearance rack due to a mysterious stain on the front of the dress," I explained.
My mother fell silent on the other end of the line. So I waited a few seconds before casually adding, "Don't worry, I got the stain out with a detergent pen. Plus, I blasted the dress with a can of Febreeze, so no one should pick up on the weird smell."
The dress didn't smell. In fact, I had taken it to the dry cleaners earlier in the week to get professionally cleaned. Admittedly, there was nothing special about the dress, but there was nothing wrong about it either. I just wanted to make my mother sweat - it was the least she deserved after what she had put me through.
"That's not funny, Mabel. This is your sister's wedding. I will not have you mingling with our distinguished wedding guests in a stinking second-hand rag. We have a reputation to uphold in the pack," she snapped.
"Sorry, Janine. I can't afford designer clothes. My pack threw me out on the streets when I was sixteen, and since then, I've had to choose between heating and eating," I said.
