Intimacy | ✔️ {Wattys 2017}

Walk the Line

I stand alone tonight. I stand alone as the woods around me are dark, what looks like could appear in a horror film where monsters lurk. My eyes scan the deserted road before me, my car not here as I ran here in my wolf. My wolf that he will soon greet. I had left my phone at home, realizing it all too late as he should be here any moment now. I'm worried that Flynn is trying to contact me as I wait out here. I'm worried he needs me and cannot reach me.

I can hear a car in the distance, the lights beginning to illuminate the road. My head snaps to the left, watching as his car pulls up next to where I stand. He's going to have questions and I may not be prepared to unleash the answers, but courage is what it takes. If Flynn can stand up to his father today, I can stand up to Augustus today. As his car is shut off and his blue eyes meet mine, a bittersweet feeling settling within my gut. He is about to have his world flipped upside down.

"Amory?" I have a feeling he may even faint. No one has told me how to prepare for this. Not only rejecting someone, but submerging a human barely into the world that I call my own. How am I to handle him? "What's wrong?"

I'm speechless, my throat sour as I have no idea what to say. How do I ease him into this conversation? To this topic? I clear my throat. "How much time do you have?" He raises an eyebrow. I'm already off to a weird start. "Did you experience pain last night? Burning and cramping, your muscles sore, feeling as if your gut is being punched?"

Silence.

He experienced it. He did, I can see it written all over his face. We were once best friends. We know much about one another, especially how to communicate with just one glance. "How the hell would you know that?" He asks, crossing his arms as his tone is negative. He doesn't like this subject.

"Because I felt it today at noon...." He's uncomfortable and I'm just at the tip of the iceberg. "Because I had sex last night you were in pain. Because you has sex today, I was in pain as well."

"What the fuck are you saying? How the hell could you know that I was having sex?" He grabs his keys. I step in front of him, shaking my head. He tries to step around, I stand my ground, grabbing the keys from him. "Amor-

"I'm about to do something and say something that will either cause you to faint, bombard me with questions, run, or never speak to me again."

"Are you stalking me?"

"I'm not close to a stalker," I reply, taking in a deep breath as I get ready for the words I'm about to say. "We are mates. The whole reason why those sparks were present when we kissed was-is all because we are mates." He raises an eyebrow, looking at me as if I am crazy. "I am not human."

"Is Flynn into drugs? Does he smoke a lot? Does he drunk a lot? Are you-

"I'm not human and I'm sober," I state. "I am a werewolf."

He laughs. I know what I'm about to do is a horrible idea.

Taking a step back, I take off my shirt, my sports bra the only thing keeping me distant as Augustus looks at me like I am crazy. I am. I am crazy. Crazy that I am rejecting not only Auguatus today, but tradition over thousands of years old. I look to Augustus as my canines begin to grow, fur sprouting from my limbs, and my bones snapping as they take a different form. I watch as Augustus's eyes widen, watching in complete horror as I shift before his human eyes. Within seconds I am before him in the form of a brown wolf, my paws on the dirt under my claws, Augustus screaming, fainting in seconds as I know this will be a tough day.

Shifting back to human form, I take action, putting on the clothes I saved, I rush over to Augustus. I make sure he's not injured, my heart aching as I know what I am about to do tonight. I rest him against a tree trunk, taking a seat opposite from him as I think of Flynn. I worry about how he's doing. For the next five minutes I wonder how Augustus will wake up, how he will react and see his once best friend turned short-lived girlfriend turned mate and about to be ex-mate.