The Alpha Female

ELEVEN: STAINED

CHAPTER ELEVEN: STAINED

            Mason was standing up on his bike, his breath hot in my ear and his cheek brushing into my hair every now and then as he pedaled hard.  At first I had tried really hard to keep myself as inconspicuous as possible, bowing my head and hiding behind my hair, but after a few too many hard bumps that nearly sent me sailing forward I decided to watch the road ahead of me.  It was a lovely sight.

            The trees, now void of leaves, stood like stone structures.  Even their bark seemed to lose its very brown hue, making them gray and lifeless.  I knew life was in there, it was just dormant.  It made them all the more beautiful.

            The humans had large buildings that seemed to span the height of three trees, as well as small buildings that looked like color coded versions of my own home.  Everything was so different here, so new and so colorful.  Yet everything lack naturality.  Nothing was green anymore.  Even the grass was yellow.  It made me wonder how long I had been gone, for back in the den the grass had been green and plush when I left.  I hoped it was just the humans that made this grass yellow.

            "Where are you taking me?" I asked for probably the tenth time on this bike trip.  Mason smiled in my peripherals. 

            "You seem to know little about us," he started, referring to humans.  He leaned on the bike, turning it down a side street.  "So I figured that I might as well teach you some things before you go back." It seemed like a simple idea, a good one at that, but I wouldn't admit it to him.  I also wouldn't admit the fact that I was almost itching to learn more about humans than I was to get home.  It was a strange feeling, one that I quickly tried to suppress.  My pack needed me.

            Mason brought the bike to a slow squeaky stop before putting his foot down, making it lean to the side.  I hopped off of the front, landing on my right foot, as was becoming customary.

            Mason threw the bike on the ground as I crossed my arms over my chest, turning around to see the small street we were on.  It was no wider than a human vehicle, and two large stone buildings rose up on either side.  I hopped over to the closest building and laid my hand down on its cool red surface.

            "That's brick," Mason commented, "But that's not what I want to show you, come on." He gestured to me with his hand and I started to hobble over to him.  He went to put his hand around my waist to help me on my way, but I swatted it away.  I was already in a human's clothes, being touched by one would make me smell even more like one.  There was no way that I was going home smelling like a human, especially a human boy.

            Mason rolled his eyes and slowed down his pace, walking alongside me and shoving his hands in his pockets.  We walked in silence, nothing but the sound of the hollow wind through the dormant trees and the wheels of human vehicles spoke to us.  Everything sounded so dead, I missed my forest. 

            I gave Mason an askance look, taking in his slightly damp black hair and his thin pale arms.  Even I had more muscle than him, which was typical for shifters lived off of the land and only the strong survived, but it was still strange to see a male with so little to his title.  I couldn't say that it looked disgusting, that his gangly limbs were absurd and sickly, it was just different.  Humans had machines that did work for them, and Mason had fallen victim to the numbers.  I highly doubted he could lift a log on his own.  He never would have come of age in my pack.

            My eyes fell to my feet, watching my stitched ankle.  It was still slightly red and puffy, but it looked better than it had the other night.  Still, that didn't mean it felt any better.