Warrior, Princess, Werewolf

Aja

Aja was still a little suspicious, but Sierra actually seemed kind of nice, and genuinely interested in making friends, unlike some of the other girls at school who only wanted to be around her because she kicked Steve Palchuk in the face.

Everyone said that was heroic and "cool", but she hadn't wanted to do that. Steve had been threatening her brother. It had been a last resort. Why was she so popular for it?

Humans were so callous.

Why not pay attention to my brother, for his amazing genius ideas and personality, instead of me for my violent outbursts?

Like Sierra.

Sierra even liked Krel. And she never once said anything about the incident with Steve. The chance still stood that she was just getting close to Aja to get close to her brother, but it didn't seem like it. She only started talking to her after Aja had confronted her about staring at Krel, and she'd definitely come off as a little strange, but everyone thought they were strange, so maybe Sierra had only seen the common ground and thought it would be nice to make friends.

But then there was that bite scar.

It had looks so much like her own wound. And when she'd shown her own wound, Sierra had briefly looked what Aja could have sworn to be guilty. Sorry, ashamed, regretful, but it had been quickly buried. Like she was hiding something.

Earlier that week, Douxie had said that the red-eyed werewolf was most likely a cursed individual that was traveling alone, and that since there was no werewolf pack in Arcadia, the other one was most likely just one person who had been unfortunate enough to run into an aggressive werewolf at some point in their life.

Was Sierra the werewolf?

Unlikely. She said she'd been bitten by a regular wolf.

Unless she was lying. Why would you just tell someone you're a werewolf?

That makes sense, but it just doesn't seem like she'd be something like that.

Like you don't seem much like an interplanetary royal-on-the-run.

The inner arguing with herself was cut short when she opened the door of her house and was met with the outrageous, goofy antics the Blanks were currently taking part in, which mostly involved 60's or 70's commercial slogans and throwing dinner instead of cooking it.

"Why are you so violent?!"

She didn't get a proper response. Rather, she had to duck to avoid a flying mixing spoon.

Varvatos casually turned the TV volume up.

Krel pushed passed his sister and entered the house, pretending not to notice the Blanks and briskly escaping to his room. Luug bounded in after him, happily eating the food the Blanks had scattered on the floor.

Aja shut the door and ducked into the hidden part of the Mothership, removing her transduction before going to see her parents. She sat on the floor in between the two orange pods, wishing she could talk to them. Wishing they could be here to help her through all this.

It wasn't that long ago that another bounty hunter had tried to steal their cores right out of this room, and she'd only barely been able to defend them. She was training with Varvatos now, but the Zerons were very powerful, and most likely very angry after some of the stunts she and the others had pulled on them. What if she wasn't strong enough to protect her brother and her parents next time?

And then there was Kubritz. She wanted the Akiridions for who knows what, and if she ever discovered where they were hiding, it could mean disaster. The last time they'd been to Area 49-B, Krel had been seriously hurt, and ever since then Aja had been even more scared for him. He couldn't fight like her, couldn't defend himself. What if something happened while she wasn't there?