Blizzard

chapter 13

"Shelby?"

Upon hearing Toni say her name, Shelby's last shred of hope that she hadn't figured it out crumbled. Shelby did the only thing she could think of. She turned around and ran.

Shelby darted through the forest–sometimes only narrowly missing the trees in her path–pushing herself to go faster, as if the faster she went, the more likely Toni would forget about what she'd just found out. Like if she could just reach a certain speed, time would go back, Toni wouldn't remember and everything would go back to how it had been. All the progress they had made wouldn't be thrown out of the window and everything would be able to continue like it had. They could continue to grow closer and become friends, maybe even something more. Instead, Toni was going to hate her, probably even more than before now that she had actually given her a valid reason to do so. Shelby was going to lose the one person with whom she felt safe and at peace, who had no expectations for her–not in those moments at least, when Toni had thought she was just a regular wolf.

Shelby was glad wolves were unable to cry, she didn't need to feel worse about herself than she already did. She had not wanted her to find out like this. Or at all. Toni was probably furious with her. And understandingly so. The things she had told her, in confidence. Shelby knew Toni didn't tell those things to just anyone–if anyone. She had broken Toni's trust, both as her wolf self and her human self. Toni had just barely begun to trust Shelby as a person and she had already broken it. Shelby had lied to her just by not disclosing the fact that she was the one Toni was telling all her private thoughts to. Shelby also had made no move to stop her from telling her her deepest, darkest secrets and past experiences. And she hadn't wanted to either, even though she had known Toni wouldn't have wanted Shelby to know about those things. She had been so interested in Toni. She still was. How could she not be? Toni was this incredibly passionate and fiery girl that had refused to let her guard down around her, snapping at her every chance she got, seemingly without reason. Shelby had just needed to know more.

She couldn't believe how stupid she had been by not figuring out what the eclipse was doing to her sooner. This whole mess could have been avoided if she had just paid attention to the goddamn signs.

She didn't want to think anymore, she could worry about everything later. Right now, as a wolf, Shelby wasn't going to be able to do anything about it anyway. She let herself pretend, just until the eclipse was over, that she hadn't just ruined everything. She decided to give in to her primal instincts. To let go. To stop thinking about anything other than the power given to her by the annular eclipse, allowing her to run even faster than usual. She turned her focus on her surroundings, on the trees, on the soft crunch of the snow beneath her paws as she ran, faster and faster.

***

Once the solar eclipse had passed and Shelby began to feel like she could turn back to her human form, she returned to the place in the woods close to the school where she'd left her clothes–or the ones that hadn't been ripped apart by the shift and the shreds of the ones that had. When she got there, there were no clothes to be found, even all the parts of her shredded ones were gone. Aside from her and Toni's tracks in the snow, it looked like she had never been there. All the traces that could've actually pointed to Shelby, were gone. Shelby didn't know if that had been Toni's intention or if she'd just taken them so she could throw them in the trash.

Shelby silently cursed Toni in her head. She was sure she deserved that and more, but how was she supposed to enter her house now? Shelby sighed. She was just going to have to hope that no one was home yet.

When she neared her house, trotting through her backyard, she heard some kind of commotion inside. Then she heard a male voice talking to someone on the phone.