VEUX

Eleven

November 24

Saoirse's bedroom door creaked open despite being nowhere near it. She turned slightly away from her gaze over the balcony, half expecting something from a horror film to show up. The white painted oak continued to creak slowly across its threshold, yet no hand was connected to the knob. Like a wall of glass, Eye stood no further than the very edge of her door frame.

Her arms crossed, fully turning now. "What do you think you're doing? You can't just open my door."

"Why not?" His lips slightly tilt. Flakes of snow from outside the window she had just watched dusted the top of his sandy curls, sending them askew across his forehead and becoming mousy in the back.

"What if I were changing?" Saoirse asked, making no move to turn from her position next to the white sky.

"Well, are you?" He raises one brow beneath his bangs.

"Yes." Saoirse whined, then changed her tone. "So you're a liar, Eye? I thought you weren't allowed in my room."

"I am no liar, Saoirse." He says passionately. "Besides, I am not in your room."

So formal. Saoirse rolled her eyes. "Yet somehow my door is open. So you can reach into my room, just not step foot? I don't appreciate when you only tell me half of the pack laws."

"Technically," He begins to ramble. "The door knob was on my side when I opened it."

Saoirse huffed. "Won't knocking do?"

He shook his head with a smile. Saoirse turned back to the blizzard outside, dreaming. Lost in her memories.

"Alpha wants to see you." Eye said monotonously.

Saoirse disregarded his words, for if she didn't, an ache of pain would swelter in her gut. Her eyes continued to observe the pack lands quickly dusting on top of the old layer, mesmerized by the brown branches becoming barely visible at all.

Though the glass windows were cold from the wind and lack of sun, Saoirse's body burned to keep itself warm. Finally allowed back into her room, Saoirse spent hours self grooming— mostly due to the tenderness it took when soaking her back in the bath. As retribution for the guilt she assumed Oracle bore, her hollow closet finally held articles other than Eye's cut t shirts. Despite the unnecessary use or requirement, she had shoes. It took a good ten minutes of roasting between Osric and Osias to get shoes, majority of their argument being it wasn't accepted in were culture. She knew, but her human tendencies yearned for a small bit of normalcy. Of familiarity.

"Saoirse," Eye called her name again.

She stayed rooted in place. "Then he can come see me."

"In his office," The words sunk into her like boulders.

Saoirse feared the second she left her room, that she would be banned again. She thought she'd hate this room, yet slowly she'd begun to cherish it. Aside from Eye opening her door.

"It's best to go," He says. "Disobeying is what will make him upset."

"Don't you think I know that?" Saoirse snapped, circling harshly to face him. Her teeth bit her tongue to keep it in place, hiding the rest of her words. She grumbled, "Sorry. I'm not mad at you."

Eye nodded, quietly speaking. "Female's have a tendency to lash out when they feel defenceless."

"I could do without you speaking to me like I had a manual, though." Saoirse said.

"You shouldn't be afraid of him," He ignores her statement. "He is your Alpha. He will protect you."

"Eye!" Saoirse stalked closer, lowering her voice to a whisper yell. "He's tortured us, made us bleed for crimes only he considers punishable."