Dead Girl Walking

I sigh and ask for the check as soon as I finish eating. It's ten thirty now, logically speaking, I don't think my car is even being serviced yet and I don't think I can find Alex just walking around. I need to find a place to sleep and try to get inside my brother's mind so I can figure out...

"Your card declined," the waitress says, holding my card with a grimace. I stare into her eyes expecting her to tell me she was lying or something, but the girl just gets nervous under my eyes, "Sir?"

"Can you try again?"

"I already have. Several times," she whispers, swallowing.

"Okay," I mutter, taking my card back and forcing myself to give her a smile to reassure her, "Can you give me a moment, then? I'll go get cash from my car."

"Uh..." the girl stammers as I stand up and grab my backpack, "Sir? Y-you're coming back, right?”

"Oh, yeah, totally," I lie and continue walking towards the exit. The girl just stands there, defeated. We both know I'm not coming back, but she doesn't do anything to stop me. It's not like she could anyway, and there are no other waiters around, "Thank you for your service. I'll bring your tip, too."

As soon as I leave the restaurant I run down the street like a deranged man until I reach a lonely, dark alley and hide in there. If I go to jail for not paying a fifteen dollar check I would never recover.

I grab my phone and log into my bank app. I've never had a problem with my card, until now. This dumb app lies, it says I have nothing available. Zero.

I have no choice but to call my dad. Sadly, my mom is the one who answers his phone with an amused tone.

“Yes, pup? Everything okay?”

"I need help," I admit through my teeth. My mother lets out a derisive laugh that makes me grit my teeth in annoyance, "My bank is acting crazy, I have no credit available. I need you to do something about it."

"No, my boy, you need to do something about it. Alex decided he's going to start living on his own. If you think you can do the same, go ahead. If not, come back," she says, making my mouth drop open. She did this? She cut me off? "Now we know where your brother is, that's good enough. Come home and I'll give you your money back."

I should accept. What the hell am I going to do here without money? But to do that would be to accept defeat and I can't. At least not with my mother, my wolf refuses. He’s upset inside of me, refusing to bow to her pressure.

"You think I'm not capable of surviving on my own, don't you? You think Alex can, but I can't," I mutter. My mother immediately agrees with a sound, making me even angrier. She doesn't even bother to deny it, "You're wrong. And you hate me.”

"No, I'm never wrong," she replies, as arrogant as ever, "You say Alex is my favorite, but that's not true. I love you both equally… but I worry about you more. I know what you both need and I know how you both work, together and apart. Alex is capable of doing anything to prove a point, he could become president just to let us know he can, he has always been the more independent of the two. I'm not stressed about him being alone. But I am stressing my ass out about you. You need someone by your side to keep you in check and calm you down, you need the stability of someone else. You’re very prone to stupid ideas, I need you to come back to us before you end up doing something impulsive."

I'm not impulsive, I don’t even know what she’s talking about.

"I'm not the dumb pup you think I am. I'm an alpha now, a grown man. I can fend for myself, even without money," I say. My wolf is annoyed, he doesn't like the way my mother talks to me, the way she thinks I’m useless and stupid. She might be right, but she doesn’t have to keep repeating it.

"I know you like the back of my hand," she continues, "As soon as we finish this call you're going to call everyone asking them to help you and send you money, but they won't. I made sure they won't. And what are you going to do then? You’re a spoiled brat. Are you going to get a job there? I doubt it.”

"I’ll manage somehow,” I grunt, "I'll stay here. I'll take care of my omega brother and I'm going to prove you wrong. Goodbye, mother."

I end the call and curse out loud.

I can't believe this is happening, what kind of curse just fell upon me? My brother went crazy, my mother is a giant pain in my ass, my car is destroyed, I'm living in a city that stinks and now I'm poor, too? What the fück.

I have to stop myself before I start to spiral. This is not the end of the world. Maybe my credit card is frozen, but I still have a debit card. I have about ten dollars in there. That's at least one meal, right?

Besides, aunt Olivia never listens to my mother, she's always ready to help on the downlow.

"I can't, Rio," my aunt says into the phone when I ask her for money, with an embarrassed tone, "Your mother was very direct when she ordered me not to do it and I also think it's for your own good. Just come back."

"Really? You're going to let me be poor? Since when do you do what my mom orders you to do? I thought you were cool."

"I am, I'm the coolest. Your mom is my bitch, she can't order me shit," she immediately replies with a snort, "But I care about you, too and I think she's right this time. We want you back and if this will make you do it then I'm really sorry."

"Wow, I can't believe this," I mumble and say a curt goodbye before hanging up.

Why does everyone think I’m incapable of living alone? They are wrong. They think I’m going to get in trouble, but when have I… okay, maybe I have gotten into a few little inconveniences here and there, but not even that many.

I need Laurie. He's the only one who can help me. The only problem is that he's asleep right now, he said good night at eight and he has a huge day tomorrow, I can’t bother him.

But it’s okay, I just have to survive one night.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I have to find a place to sleep so I can wake up tomorrow and ask my cousin for money. Everything will be fine.

I take my backpack and leave the alley to start walking around and investigate. I'm in an ugly and lonely street, there are some business that are already closed, so there's not much movement. I wander into another dark alley until I reach some backyard, there is a huge park with tall trees that looks completely forgotten and dangerous. I don't think any human with a brain would dare approach it, so I feel confident to walk over there and get as far in as possible.

I know I shouldn’t shift here, that’s like the number one rule I need to follow… but what else can I do? Sleep on my human form on the floor? That would make my neck hurt in the morning.

I take off my clothes, leave them folded neatly on my backpack and let my wolf come out. He immediately starts investigating the territory and I can sense that he wants to go get something to eat but I stop him. He could eat someone's pet.

That would definitely count as doing something impulsive and foolish and would only make my mother's point clearer.

'Just go to sleep,' I tell my wolf. He's not very happy, but he's smart enough to know that this is not his safe place. We have to stay hidden here. So he listens to me and lies down on the ground.

➿➿➿➿

I've only been asleep for a couple of hours when my wolf decides he needs to eat again or he's going to die. He refuses to sleep any longer on a practically empty stomach after that pathetic free meal I ate. It wasn't enough for him.

With my brain half asleep, he manages to take partial control of my body and gets up to stretch with intentions of going to hunt something. He heard movement a few seconds ago so he knows there must be something he can eat around and wants to go get it, but the more I wake up the more I realize that's a bad idea. I can't let him do that.

I decide to shift back and get dressed to go buy something with those ten dollars. That way...

There's some movement behind me that catches my attention and when I turn around, I immediately see a human a few meters away.

She’s looking at me.

It's a woman and she seems to be alone but completely aware of me and what I just did right here in front of her eyes.

She screams loudly when our gazes meet and falls to the ground as she tries to run away, which is extremely bad.

I can't let her leave here because then I would be completely screwed.

I run towards her, but the woman gets up and tries to run. Uselessly, of course.

"Hel-" I obviously catch her before she can get too far, covering her mouth and heading back into the depths of the park hide for a few seconds in case her screams alerted someone.

The woman struggles against me, but she has no strength at all. I lean against the thickest tree, hiding from anyone who might approach, and I close my eyes with stress.

If my mother finds out about this, I'll never hear the end of it.

Whatever this curse is, it's getting worse. I just did something that could put, not only me and my family at risk, but my entire species.

The woman in my arms is still fighting, she tries to kick me and even bite my hand but I put more pressure on her until she realizes that my strength surpasses hers and she stands still, just sobbing.

What am I going to do now?

I can't let her go free and just ask her to please not say anything, I'm not that stupid. And I can't break her neck either because... well, that's a good option, but I'm not a murderer. That would stay on my conscience forever. Although... what's one human's life worth if I'm protecting thousands of werewolves?

"I'm sorry, but I have to kill you," I say. The woman, who was already starting to relax, goes hysterical and crazy in my arms again.

Poor little thing. I’ll make it fast and painless for her.

I take a deep breath and get ready, but then a thought pops into my head.

"Do you have any money?" I ask. The girl immediately nods. My hand is completely wet with her saliva and tears, "Good, that can buy you a couple extra hours of life."

Without letting go of her, I lower my other hand to her pants to look for her phone, but it's not here.

"I'm going to let you go, but if you scream again I'm going to... I'm going to have to stop you and it won't be in a nice way, you understand?" I ask her. The girl nods again and when I let go, she doesn't run in terror or scream hysterically like I was expecting, she just stands, petrified. I have to push her to make her understand that she has to get away from me now.

"Please, don’t kill me," she begs and turns to look at me with her hands up as if to let me know she is not a threat to me. As if I don't know, "My money is in my purse, I left it there."

"Okay, hold on a second," I order and walk over to my stuff to get dressed.

The girl swallows and stands still as I get dressed, looking at the ground and contemplating how she ended up here, I guess.

Now that I can look at her better I realize she’s young, about my age. She has chin-length dark hair, pale skin and black eyes. She’s pretty, actually.

"Thank you for your wait, now move,” I rush her. The girl nods again without wasting a second. Her heart is beating so hard I hear it like a drum as she dares to walk fearfully to get her bag, "Good girl. Don't be afraid, I won't kill you painfully."

"Oh," she whispers with a broken voice, shaking even more, "Thank you."