happy new year
Happy New Year Cole/Isabel, PG
It'd been months since the aerial hunt. Months since Beck had died, since I'd killed Shelby, since I'd been shot. It'd been nearly as long since we'd packed up the pack's house and moved into the lodge, since I'd bought the place - Kindness is great, a deed in my name is better, since Isabel had left for California. Isabel. One of the nice things about losing my human thoughts was losing the pain I hadn't expected to feel after her departure. I could vaguely recall her face, pick up her scent around the Culpepper's old house, filled with a strange longing just from the sight of it, but nothing as complicated as the emotions I'd felt before shedding my skin, before losing Cole.
I'd changed for the first time this year (on my own with no outside help from my science experiments) in late September. Summer never lasted long in Minnesota and I never was one to take the proper precautions in any situation. Being my second year, I hadn't expected to still be switching back and forth between the wolf and Cole so much, but here I was - human, naked, my palms and knees caked in dirt. I'd stashed a few changes of clothes in the shed just behind the lodge for occasions such as this, for myself, Sam, and Grace. As I pulled on a pair of jeans, I wondered if either of them were still human, holed up in the lodge with their obscene library of books, desperately trying to stay warm.
As I approached the back door to the lodge to check, I realized it was December. Through the floor to ceiling windows, I could see twinkling lights, a large wreath hanging in one of them, and a Christmas tree off toward the far corner by the front door. I wrapped my coat tighter around myself as I pulled the door open, keeping it cracked only as much as I needed, keeping the heat inside the building.
My nose registered it before the rest of me caught up, my brain still slightly in wolf mode. I began to frantically scan the room for the source of the flowery scent. We'd moved a few couches and old, squashy leather chairs into the old lobby to make a living room. I slowly walked over toward the fireplace and the couch in front of it, spotting a large pink suitcase propped against a nearby chair. Leaning over the back of the couch, I found her asleep, a textbook from college open on the floor beside her. I grabbed her phone from the end table beside the couch, pressing the button to illuminate it, checking the date, curious to see how far into her winter break she was. December 31. She must have been here for over a week, waiting for me to change, waiting for me to come back to her, knowing full well it was winter and I may be lost to the woods until spring.
I set her phone down quietly, looking to the clock on the mantle in front of us as I moved to stand in front of the couch. 11:52. I stood for a while, impatiently rocking back and forth from the balls of my feet to my toes. As the clock ticked over to midnight, I gently sat myself on the edge of the couch and leaned down to kiss her awake. Her eyes flew open in shock as she sat upright, her now long, blonde hair falling around us like a curtain, trying to get her bearings. I leaned back as she moved forward, my mouth following hers, unrelenting. When I finally moved away, she opened her mouth to speak, and in my usual fashion, I cut her off.
"Happy New Year, Isabel."
It'd been months since the aerial hunt. Months since Beck had died, since I'd killed Shelby, since I'd been shot. It'd been nearly as long since we'd packed up the pack's house and moved into the lodge, since I'd bought the place - Kindness is great, a deed in my name is better, since Isabel had left for California. Isabel. One of the nice things about losing my human thoughts was losing the pain I hadn't expected to feel after her departure. I could vaguely recall her face, pick up her scent around the Culpepper's old house, filled with a strange longing just from the sight of it, but nothing as complicated as the emotions I'd felt before shedding my skin, before losing Cole.
I'd changed for the first time this year (on my own with no outside help from my science experiments) in late September. Summer never lasted long in Minnesota and I never was one to take the proper precautions in any situation. Being my second year, I hadn't expected to still be switching back and forth between the wolf and Cole so much, but here I was - human, naked, my palms and knees caked in dirt. I'd stashed a few changes of clothes in the shed just behind the lodge for occasions such as this, for myself, Sam, and Grace. As I pulled on a pair of jeans, I wondered if either of them were still human, holed up in the lodge with their obscene library of books, desperately trying to stay warm.
As I approached the back door to the lodge to check, I realized it was December. Through the floor to ceiling windows, I could see twinkling lights, a large wreath hanging in one of them, and a Christmas tree off toward the far corner by the front door. I wrapped my coat tighter around myself as I pulled the door open, keeping it cracked only as much as I needed, keeping the heat inside the building.
My nose registered it before the rest of me caught up, my brain still slightly in wolf mode. I began to frantically scan the room for the source of the flowery scent. We'd moved a few couches and old, squashy leather chairs into the old lobby to make a living room. I slowly walked over toward the fireplace and the couch in front of it, spotting a large pink suitcase propped against a nearby chair. Leaning over the back of the couch, I found her asleep, a textbook from college open on the floor beside her. I grabbed her phone from the end table beside the couch, pressing the button to illuminate it, checking the date, curious to see how far into her winter break she was. December 31. She must have been here for over a week, waiting for me to change, waiting for me to come back to her, knowing full well it was winter and I may be lost to the woods until spring.
I set her phone down quietly, looking to the clock on the mantle in front of us as I moved to stand in front of the couch. 11:52. I stood for a while, impatiently rocking back and forth from the balls of my feet to my toes. As the clock ticked over to midnight, I gently sat myself on the edge of the couch and leaned down to kiss her awake. Her eyes flew open in shock as she sat upright, her now long, blonde hair falling around us like a curtain, trying to get her bearings. I leaned back as she moved forward, my mouth following hers, unrelenting. When I finally moved away, she opened her mouth to speak, and in my usual fashion, I cut her off.
"Happy New Year, Isabel."