Chapter 5-Amara

I don’t know how long we slept, no sun was peeking into our little hiding spot to give me a hint, but I didn’t care; there was no way I could continue this journey being severely weakened. I move my shoulder, it’s a little stiff, but the discomfort doesn’t bother me. I try to look at my other wounds, but it’s dark in this thicket. My werewolf sight gives me a general idea that they’ve all closed, though.

When I go to get up, I realize there’s a warmth sitting next to me. The fuck? Did Bambi come home last night or some shit? The little ball of warmth moves, and I realize it’s a cat. It stretches out and then comes up to me, purring and rubbing itself all over me. How did a cat get in here? I knew we were near a pack and not in the middle of nowhere anymore, but I didn’t expect to wake up to a cat next to me. But regardless, I pet the little furball anyways.

“How did you get here, little one? You know I don’t have any food for you.” I say while scratching its chin.

The mention of food makes my belly rumble, and I realize I don’t have any food for me either. Deciding it was time to get up, I threw my duffel bag out of the small hole in the thicket and looked back at the little kitty.

“Changed my mind, if you want some food, I’ll share,” I tell it before I climb out.

I wait by the entrance for a minute, squinting my eyes at the brightness of the outside. I looked around, knowing that a stream was nearby. I could probably catch something and share it with my new buddy. I hoped he or she would come out; despite being a whole-ass wolf, I considered myself a cat person. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the cat comes crawling out.

It’s an all-black cat with a tiny white spot on its chest; it walks in front of me just as I’m wondering whether it’s male or female and shows off a massive pair of balls. Well, that answers that.

I walk over to the stream with the little guy following me before I realize I’ve never fished a day in my life before.

′Uh, Tamisra, a little help here,′ I say to my wolf, who was trying to go back to sleep.

She groans and tells me to let my claws out and reach into the water. I do that and fail miserably as a fish slips right past my claws, and then another one does the same when I reach in with my other hand.

‘Useless human, here, give me control,’ Tamisra says as I huff at her remark internally.

She effortlessly catches 3 fish and uses my claws to descale them. I hand one to my friend while I let my canines out and start eating one of the others. I’m so hungry that I don’t even notice that I’m literally eating raw fish, gourmet sushi, I guess?

“We have to come up with a name for you if you want to stay with me,” I tell the cat, who couldn’t care less about my presence while he chows down.

Using my nonfish hand, I start petting him and thinking about random names. I actually always wanted a pet cat, but my mom never liked them, and I never even thought about asking Felix. As odd as it sounds, werewolves still had pets. We crave companionship just as much as regular humans who have pets. Thankfully, hunting dogs, cats, and birds is illegal, given that they might be someone’s pet. The whole idea actually came from witches and their familiars. Werewolves and witches have been at peace for over a hundred years now. When the witches were allowed in our territory, they would bring their familiars with them. The werewolves soon realized they liked having pets around just as much as the witches.

“Hmmm, how about Nisha? You look like a Nisha,” I say as if he would respond.

We finish our breakfast, and I realize if I want him to stay with me, I’ll have to figure out how to carry him in wolf form. I reach over to my duffel bag and move some things around, piling my clothes up to make a cushion for him. I lift him into the bag and zipper it so only his head sticks out. Should I go away to shift? I don’t want to scare him. None of the other cats back in the pack were bothered by wolves, so I just decided to shift.

I look at him through Tamisra’s eyes as he lets out a big lazy yawn and closes his eyes. Well. That was easy. Tamisra picks up our bag, and we start in a slow jog, not wanting to make Nisha motion sick, but eventually, she starts running at full speed.

‘How are the lands we will travel through in terms of safety?’ I ask Tamisra, shuddering at my memory of the rogue territory.

‘Safe as far as I know, we’ll travel through some of the allies’ neutral territory, which no rogues or vampires camp out on. There’s some territory I’m not sure of, but I doubt it will be anything like the rogue lands. We should be there by tomorrow night. Seth is probably worried about us; we slept for 36 hours.′

My jaw drops

’36 hours?! Worried is an understatement. He’ll be freaking out! I can’t believe we’re a whole day and a half behind,′ I say, shocked.

′We had some serious wounds; it was for the best. Thankfully that thicket was well hidden. You sleep like the dead, you know.′

‘Shut up, we share a brain; that makes you no different.’ I say, and she laughs in my head

We run for hours; Nisha just sits in his little bed, enjoying the ride. He’s a pretty tame cat, I hope I’m not taking anyone’s pet, but I didn’t notice any werewolf scent on him, so I shrug it off. As night falls, we slow down our run into a trot, but neither of us is tired.

′We made good time today; if we keep going, I can have us there by morning,′ Tamisra says.

‘How about we eat and take a break and then go?’ I respond

She obliges, shutting me out and only giving me control when she tries to get Nisha back into the duffel. I roll my eyes and shift back, picking him up and securing him inside. We shift back to our wolf form and start running again, praying we don’t run into any more issues along the way