The Lycan Within

c. twenty three

I chased after Catori with everything I had and her quiet sobs sounded like thunder to my ears. I could see her walls tumbling down as her hair wavered around her in the wind. The panicked thud of our feet hitting the ground sent the birds running from the trees.  I came to a stop, having realized I'd lost her and I cursed as I frantically looked around for her.

A pained howl echoed through the trees and the rising moonlight lit up her trembling form and I slowly stepped through the forest bramble to see her curled up, arms wrapped around herself as she sobbed violently, her screams sending wildlife running.

I knelt beside her and placed an arm, and she looked up at me eyes bloodshot, tears streaming from her eyes. My heart crumbled as the dark and brooding woman I'd come to know broke before me. Tears prickled at my eyes, and I simply pulled her trembling form into my embrace. I don't know how long we sat like that, Catori breaking in my arms and me gently stroking her hair and whispering promises that everything would be okay. She feebly nodded as I spoke to her.

It was when her sobs had grown silent did she pull away from me and look up at me, and instead of anger or hatred burning in her chocolate brown pools, I met warmth, and a small broken smile. She opened her mouth to speak, but I took a deep breath and shook my head but she carried on.

"You're right, that back there wasn't the woman Ann loved," she said, her voice shaking unsteadily, "I'm so-"

"I don't want an apology from you Catori," I said, returning the pleasant smile that brightened her features. She looked at me quizzically and I continued, "Sebastian told me everything, and I'm not upset with you," I said, and her mouth opened somewhat in shock and I laughed gently. We simply stared at one another for a moment before she finally spoke up, "You're not?," she asked, looking up at me tenderly.

"Not at all Catori, all I've ever wanted is a friend, a sister even, and I'm willing to give you all the time you need, go through whatever you put me through if theres a chance of that for us," I said, laying my hands atop hers.

"It's just, seeing him with you, made me think of what me and Ann might have had," she said, her usually stone cold voice filled with pain. "I was jealous, not angry, jealous because you had the thing I'd lost in the blink of an eye,"

"A mate," I finished for her, and we nodded solemnly, and I could feel the tension between us dissipating into nothing.

A long moment passed before she spoke up again, "You're so much like him, you're so gentle," she said, as her bittersweet sigh echoed through the trees.

"Well, I've been hoping to win your friendship somehow, and if being a reminder is how I do it, then sure," I said with a laugh.

"You're starting to make me feel bad," Catori said and I smiled.

"Don't, I won't pretend to know what you went through, but in the short time I've known Sebastian, he's become everything to me, and I might be young, I might not know exactly what love is, but I know I love him, and I would definitely handle loosing him far worse than you did."

Catori smiled, a rogue tear streaking down her cheek and she slowly began to pick herself up from where she had been crumpled a while ago.

"If I'd had someone to love after I lost my mate, I would not be happy to lose them either,"

I stood up, outstretching a hand of help towards her which she took and I pulled her up with ease.