Badwolf

Blaze (E)

Some of my longest teeth stuck out from my lip as I smiled at Little Red.

"Hurry up and give me an answer before I talk myself out of this and change my mind entirely," she said to me.

Little Red was speaking to me, asking me if I wanted to go for a run with her. Me! Me and her and no one else! This was the chance I needed to find out if she could really be the Little Red I remembered.

I nearly forgot what she told me to do and jerked my head up and down fast to accept her offer.

"I'll meet you out there in a few minutes. I hope you're not a slow one," Little Red said.

As she shut the opening in the wall and turned away, I smiled at her back. I was going to have some time with my sister. To get to know my sister. The sister that I so badly wanted to know if she was the same as I'd always remembered her.

She lifted the red hood she'd just took off when she'd entered our father's den from the chair at the little table where she had been with her shiny box before.

Only a moment later did I sense her coming closer.

"Now, since you aren't going to tell me why you've been following me or how you found me to begin with, can you at least tell me what I should call you?" Little Red said.

I breathed out and barked "Blaze."

"And... do you have a pack name?"

I almost told her. I couldn't do it. My tongue and my lips wouldn't make the word.

Badwolf, my head screamed. Tell her your pack name is Badwolf!

I shook the thought away. Quietly and very unsurely, I said "no."

Her eyebrow peaked for a moment. She had of course been watching, recording, reacting to all of my movements. It was a wolf thing. I was doing the same.

So if she was a smart wolf, she knew I'd just lied.

"I'm Cerise Hood," Little Red said, distracting from my lie. She began trotting off into the night, toward the forest where I felt comfortable.

I knew she'd just lied, at least a little, also. "Hood is not a pack name."

She looked at the shiny moon as she said "ah, so you're well versed in pack names?"

I told my feet to move faster until I was nearly a few paces in front of her.

She frowned. Little Red did not like being second place. As she stared at me, I waited, running. I pushed my body's need to shift off, though it gnawed at my human insides.

Little Red gained speed, dashing ahead of me up a hill to a clearing in the trees. The view showed many beautiful plants and creatures, many easy to miss when you're not looking for them or don't have the heightened senses I knew we both had, and fragrant scents that made me hungry. There aren't a lot of things that don't do that.

At the clearing, Little Red stalked to the end of the hillside, where a steep slope became another stretch of wood and wildlife. "Then you know enough to know my real pack name," she sighed.

I wasn't going to say anything, faking not knowing, but I'd already nearly forgotten I can't lie to Little Red without her knowing that I did. I gave it up. "Yes."

She cleared her throat. "I'm Cerise Badwolf, daughter of Big Badwolf of the Badwolf pack," she said. "My sister, Ramona, will be alpha."

Ramona. It wasn't as pretty as 'Cerise' or as charming as 'Little Red', and didn't howl with intensity like 'Blaze'. It sounded.... flat. It suggested skill, but not power. Confidence, but not wisdom.