The White Wolf #Wattys2020

Chapter 11

Not fully edited :)

Laura

The next few weeks went by as smoothly as they could go after being rejected. The woman who threatened Mira, whose name I learned was Donatella, stayed out of my way thankfully. The other pack members still gave me the occasional stare, but there was a big decrease in verbal insults.

Rina had been overjoyed when she heard that I put Donatella in her place. Apparently Kai told her what I said and she giggled for the next few hours every time she thought about it. "Goddess, how I wish I had been there. And to think she still believes she'll be Luna! My, my, she is pathetic."

I was lucky when the weather got colder. As the winter was arriving, large groups of the pack were sent out to gather food so we would have enough until spring. Fresh kill was sparse in the colder weather, so they were already beginning to stock up. Kai joined most of the hunts, as did many of the warriors, so there were far less people walking around the area. That meant he was gone most of the day and I could move around more freely without worrying that I'd run into him. It was mostly just pregnant she-wolves, Elders and children who hung around.

Amaranth and I loved the winter. It was a season where we could more freely run through the forest, as we blended so well with the snow. Maybe we would be able to sneak out in the middle of the night sometimes to stretch our legs. Amaranth was getting grouchy. We hadn't shifted in almost three months now and every time we restrained ourselves from shifting, it hurt more and more.

"Laura!" I looked up from the book I was reading while lounging in a hammock near the edge of the woods. Sheila, Mira's teacher, was waving at me from the pack house porch.

She came over and smiled warmly at me. Like Rina, she had been very kind to me since I had first met her. We spoke a few times and I almost considered her a friend. She was a small thing, coming only to my chin, her body a petite shape. She had short golden hair that just reached her shoulders and big hazel eyes. She looked as though she would shift into a doe, not a wolf.

"Sheila. Is everything okay? Is Mira alright?" My heart rate picked up when I thought of something happening to my little girl. I would have felt it.

She laughed and shook her head. "Mira is just fine. I actually came to talk to you about her. We're talking about Bonds this week in class, and I was wondering if you would like to come in and talk about a Guardian Bond to the kids. I think you could explain it better than I could."

I blinked at her, not fully understanding. "You want me to...teach? Little children?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Please. And don't say you're not good with kids. You've practically raised Mira and she's one of the best students I have."

"I don't know what I would talk about to be honest, " I told her. What could I possibly talk about? How I was like an overprotective mother who freaked out when Mira was two and ate a whole bundle of crayons, debating if she needed to get her stomach pumped or not?

"Well, you could talk about what it felt like the first time you "connected" with Mira, what it's like being a Guardian and how you can "feel" her. Those kind of things. It doesn't have to be long, just enough for the kids to understand what the Bond is like."

I could do that, couldn't I? "Sure. When would you need me?"

She blushed. "Well, um, how about in ten minutes? I only just thought about asking you and the kids have break right now, so I thought 'why not'?"

Well, I had nothing to lose, right? I slammed my book shut and rose from the hammock. "Lead the way, Ms. Sheila."