Ciran

I was not a man. Not even close to being a human, but something else, more powerful than that. Deadly. The strongest creature from Otherworld known to walk the planet.

Mine.

The distorted growl of my inner Lycanthrope reverberated through my skull, my body energized with force, my focus sharper than ever in the more than two and a half centuries I'd walked this world.

It was his voice that made my inner beast rise up in a way I had never felt or experienced before, causing pain I couldn't have imagined. I thought she was strong before, but hearing her voice made it exponentially, like I harbored a hundred thousand werewolves inside of me, and would destroy anything or anyone who thought to push her away or get in my way.

My hand would go up by itself as it grabbed my shirt, right over my heart. The organ was revving up, hitting something painful and fierce as I got closer to the source of the most enchanting and beautiful sound I had ever heard.

And then I was standing there, looking at Blaine's partner as I held up a cell phone and walked around the interior, showing off the wealth and luxury of the Scottish Lycanthrope King's estate.

My inner animal pushed and clawed forward. I felt my eyes sparkle as he took over.

She was ours, we had found her.

Enid

“For the record, this is a fucking stupid idea.” The words came out of me and Daira started to laugh, but I could tell that she was going through just as difficult a time as I was.

My best friend. My sister by choice, not by blood. We had always supported each other. We had to, because as orphans that we were, we had had to face this ugly and unpleasant world alone from the beginning.

Having been pushed into the foster system at a young age, I had to learn early on that either you got stronger or you would always be seen as weak. And I would never be like that. I would never let my circumstances dictate who and what she was or how she would shape my future.

And so, even though I was heartbroken that Daira was going to Scotland and trying to figure out her future and her past, I wanted her to succeed just as much as if I were the one embarking on a new adventure.

So I stayed there and said goodbye, but it wasn't forever. It was to make life better for her, to find her way…to make sense of it. A part of me wished that I had something to find, search for, connect with.

So even though I didn't have an amazing journey to go on, one where I knew Daira would succeed, where she would find that future she desperately wanted, I told myself that she too would get what she always wanted.

One day, somehow, I would get my own happily ever after. She didn't know when, why, or how…but she was going to make it, no matter what, if it was the last thing she did.

One day. Twenty four hours. A little over fourteen hundred minutes.

That is the time that Daira had gone on the greatest adventure of her life. And what was I doing meanwhile? Lying in bed and listening to the life of the city that should have woken up after a long night, but the truth was that this stupid damned city never slept, never did. There was no downtime, no silence. It was always chaotic and stormy.

But lying here in my semi-darkened bedroom looking up at the stained and chipped ceiling of my apartment one step above a shack solidified the feeling that I was truly alone for the first time since Daira had entered my house. I felt that feeling of: yes, that's life.

I felt this gnawing hole in the center of my chest and a cold hard slap of the inescapable truth hit me on the head as I realized that I could have been using Daira as some kind of crutch, an anchor, a life jacket. ...heck, the foundation of the house that supported my whole fucking life.

I tried to block out the sounds of early morning city life right outside my apartment window, but to no avail. It was incredibly noisy because the cheap windows were paper thin. But I couldn't complain too much. It had a good view, even if it was just a side street and a bunch of professional buildings. I knew the tenants on the other side of the building had a shitty view, one that spanned the entire width of the complex and blocked all those windows. Bad for them.

“It could be worse, so stop complaining. It's been worse,'' I complained. I closed my eyes and rubbed them with the palms of my hands. She was tired to the bone, but she couldn't sleep at all. After coming home late from work, I managed for a few hours, but I had broken down, restless, and now I couldn't even pray for any sleep.

I had been having sleepless bouts for the past few nights, as if there was something inside me brewing, ready to explode out. I couldn't describe it, couldn't even mention the precise problem that might be troubling me. Maybe it was just all those nerves and anxiety about Daira's departure on her trip that they had that way.

Or maybe it was a message from my body finally telling me that I needed a big change in my life.

She had worked in the service industry since she was very early sixteen years old and had been saving every penny she could ever since, for the last seven years, to go to school and get a degree in history. But the classes here and there that I had been able to take made it very clear that this dream, my specific dream, would take more time than I ever wanted.

But it would happen. I would make sure of that.

I opened my eyes and felt a pang of jealousy at the thought of Daira in Scotland; then I quickly hated myself for being a mean bitch and feeling anything but pure happiness for her. She deserved it more than anyone. And I also. And one day I would have that adventure too.

I squeezed my eyes shut again, hoping to finally fall asleep and stay that way for a while, when my cell phone bounced and vibrated next to me. I grabbed it so fast my wrist slammed into the corner of the cheap-as-hell pressed-laminate nightstand hard enough to swear like a crazy beggar who hasn't had a meal in days.

"Daira?" I hadn't even bothered to see if it was her before desperately calling out her name. But it wasn't like she had hordes of friends or family calling. It was literally just her and her alone that he was willingly socializing with.

I felt comfortable and smiled so much when her face appeared on the screen as the video chat was fully connected. I didn't even care that it was pixelated as hell. I was so happy to see her and hear about all the adventures I had already had on her journey, like, we did a few days ago.

"How long are you supposed to feel like an idiot about the silly jet lag?"

I laughed at the first thing she said and felt that hole in my chest start to fill up again, however the older I got the more I felt like it would never really fill up. It would never be completely full. When I thought that one day I would have my own family, a clean-faced husband to love me, little babies that looked just like us, it gave me a look of wholeness, but it also had a detachment. Maybe I'm just a mess inside of me that doesn't have any kind of hope.

It was like I was looking at this stupid ball of dough that totally represented my life, and I had no idea how to mold it the way it was supposed to be.

“You're asking the wrong girl. I haven't been out of town, let alone been on a plane." I smiled, laughing as the screen froze and lag, Daira's face turning into an odd expression before quickly speeding up as the connection went down. on going.

"That was incredibly rhetorical."

I rolled my eyes in good humor and Daira laughed.

She's only been there twenty-four hours. I'm sure it will take a few days for your body to acclimatize. I got to see a bit of her bed and breakfast room as she sat up in bed. I wanted to order a little video tour right now, eager to live vicariously through her and with her.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I fell as soon as I got here and woke up twelve hours later with a completely dark room and an excruciating lower back cramp from not moving for hours on end.”

"Did you at least feel better?"

she snorted. "No, not at all. I felt like complete shit and was so groggy. Then I couldn't sleep until the sun started to come up, at which point I went back to sleep and woke up with just enough time to spend an hour in the public records office. Before the old lady who worked at the front desk threw me out of there.”

She was moving around a lot and he had to assume that she was getting ready for more exploring. With her six hours ahead of me, she'd probably already done so many exciting things while I was here, lying in bed and staring up at the yellow-tinged ceiling.

"So it wasn't the most productive day, but I did find out a bit, which is exciting and better than nothing."

I felt a genuine happiness and euphoria fill me. I sat up straighter on the bed and smiled. ``That's fantastic! So, exactly... what did you discover?''

I could see that she was just as exhausted as I felt and, hell, she probably looked too.

“Well, when I say that I found quite a bit, it was basically just the birth records of my grandparents and my mother. They were residents here and had no family apart from each other." He got this strange expression on his face from her, and he could practically see her turning over in her head what he had just said about her. "That's weird, right? Like just the three of them. No cousins. Neither necessities nor nephews nor brothers or anything like that.’’

I shrugged and wished I was there next to her and could have been some kind of help to make her feel better. However, I could see the deflation of her in her face from her. “I think that might be normal under the circumstances,” I said, hoping to show him some kind of silver lining that might make things seem less hopeless. “I mean, look at me. Other than my broken mother, I have no one else in the world but you." At least my words brought a small, albeit sad-looking, smile to her face.

"You'll always have me". I smiled after she spoke. “But needless to say, I didn't find out much more than that. And since tomorrow is Sunday, they won't be open. And there are so many possible matches that you could get if you had enough time to go through all the documents and files.”

I shifted on the mattress, letting my back slide down to be flush with the bed, my head pounding something ferocious from lack of sleep and the full night I'd had. I held the phone against my chest and wrinkled my nose.

"My God, what a horror, this angle makes me have three chins," I muttered and sat back down, my head pounding once more and cursing myself. I held the phone away from me, but it didn't help the chin party I was currently having. I finally said, "Fuck it," and let the phone sit on my chest. I focused on Daira again and smiled. "Before you say it, because I can see it in your face, yes I'm listening, and yes I heard everything."

She smiled widely, and the image of her on the phone shook slightly as she settled back on the bed.

The conversation continued, she still looked a bit pixelated on the screen, the resolution wasn't that good, but it was normal, the distance between them was great. He wanted to talk as much as she could while she was on the call, maybe her day would go better where she was. Maybe better than me.

“So what are you going to do for the rest of the day? It is just that...? My mind was mush, so I had to count the hours on my fingers. "Five?"

“Yes, dinner time. I guess on Saturdays, the businesses here close early, if at all. I'm pretty sure the bars are open until call time, which is like sunrise,” she joked.

I started laughing, which took away my headache, but then again, fuck it. "I wish I was there. We could have gone to the pubs. Wait, there are pubs there, aren't there? She knew that the town she was in was small and a good distance from any major part of Scotland.

"Some, which should be weird, because the town is so small, but they're more like mom-and-pop restaurants where people are going to get torn apart anyway."

“Any cute or handsome boy? It may be unexpected, but maybe you will fall in love there." Even I heard how capricious I sounded and promptly gagged my mouth, which made Daira snort in amusement.

"Hardly. The average age of the population here is about sixty. Though you probably think the B&B owner is cute. He's around our age. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a Michael Phelps-type body."

Well, it was a good way to cheer me up. Living vicariously through her and all that. "Don't you think so?" I felt my slow smile start to spread across my face. But the truth was, it was all for show. I was pretty sure there was something physically wrong with me, since my arousal switch had never been activated. Or at least I hadn't felt it.

Sure, I'd noticed plenty of attractive people, but I'd never felt any hint of desire, no need to go out, to let a man touch me, kiss me, or pleasure me in anything. And he had never mentioned that to Daira. It was this secret that I harbored, not because I was ashamed, but because I really thought there had to be something wrong with me. What twenty-three year old had never felt the slightest flicker of need and lust for a man? What woman my age had never even kissed a man?

So yeah, she was good at acting like she was interested and wanting more details, but it was all very mediocre to me.

“Maybe I should take a trip to Scotland and show my charm to the bed and breakfast guy. He'll fall for my witty sense of humor and stunning good looks"—I teased.

Daira snorted again, but then it turned into a laugh. "Yeah, it's nice and all, but…" she shifted a bit and looked at something out of the camera's field of view.

"That?"

She turned back to me and shrugged. "I don't know. It just comes off as a little weird."

I felt my eyebrows go down. "What do you mean 'weird'? Like what?"

"I don't know. I'm being stupid. He's very nice. He's not Scottish, but I'm not sure where he's from. I can't place his accent or match it to the people here." I noticed her a bit strange.

"I'd comment that he's a sexy foreigner, but if he's making your weird radar go off…"

"No, no. He's harmless. I'm pretty sure it's the different cultures, the language barrier, and the fact that he's in another country for the first time that things seem weird. I'm probably the only one that seems weird to him."

I felt the worry that had been clawing at my back begin to dissipate. She could imagine the culture shock Daira was facing right now.

"But I'm actually going to brave socializing and have dinner in one of those pubs."

I sighed with feigned jealousy. “Eat something exotic. like haggis. Is that considered exotic?

I frowned at the thought of Scottish cuisine. "I don't know, but try anyway and let me know." I laughed when Daira wrinkled her nose.

“I don't know if I'm brave enough to jump right into all this about the kind of variations on Scottish food right now. I was thinking, hoping, that I could get some fries and a cheeseburger first, yes, before trying the local food. "

“Okay, well, try it all for me. Remember, I am living vicariously through you. "

We stayed in the video chat for another five minutes, although I could have stayed there all day. When the call ended and I put my cell phone on the nightstand, I hid under the covers, closed my eyes and prayed to sleep.

Maybe in my dreams I could fly off on some amazing adventure and find out what the hell I was supposed to do with my life.

Enid

If anyone had looked at me as I walked to the tables at Foresta's, the bar where she worked as a waitress, they might have thought I was a fucking social butterfly. They would see a confident girl with a carefree attitude, maybe even assuming I liked the party, always with a smile on her face. I'm sure they'd think I'm a hardcore extrovert.

In truth, being around people exhausted me, not only mentally but also physically and emotionally. It was the worst, I hated it, I'd rather be isolated in my study and staring at the wall than having drinks with strangers. Daira understood that, because she was like me in that sense.

So being a waitress in a busy city bar was like getting skinned alive. She had been working at Foresta's for a long time and, before that, she was a waitress at another bar. Same old way in regards to my employment, especially when it came to getting manhandled and sexually harassed.

Putting on a fake smile for these drunk assholes who thought they had some sort of right to try to grope and slap me with their big meaty paws was like pulling your teeth without anesthesia.

And then there was Rikard, the owner of Foresta's. I wanted to kick him in the balls more times than I could count because of his sly look on me, his subtle manipulation, and his very clear sexual harassment that he tried to cover up as "playful banter" among his coworkers.