Lounging Lazily Like Always
Shemika lounged in Ylenia’s kitchen, feet propped up on her counter. She flipped leisurely through a human magazine, smacking on her gum. This was often where she was. As she had been assigned as Ylenia’s assistant soon after she’d reached breeding age. Which is when all wolves in their pack were assigned their roles.
Shemika had asked for it, knowing Ylenia would never really need her help. It was a life of loafing. All she did was relax at Ylenia’s until she was ready to return back to her own place with her relentless mother. A mother who regularly reminded her of how perfect she’d been in her own youth.
Shemika sighed heavily, thumbing through the magazine with little interest. She’d sighed a few times before, but it appeared, her lifelong friend would make no efforts to ease her foul mood.
Shemika sighed again and was rewarded with a sour look from the witch in question. “Ugh,” She sat up straight, slapping her magazine onto the countertop. “What’re you even doing today?” She grumbled, the magazine failing to entertain her completely.
Ylenia gave her own sigh and moved from her collection of open books to the counter filled with a magnitude of witch’s ingredients. “I’m trying out a spell from my latest grimoire. It’s a little complicated but it’s a sleep potion designed for-”
“Forget I asked,” Shemika grumbled, turning away with a huff.
Her and Ylenia weren’t super close friends. Their relationship was that of mutual convenience. Besides, just sticking beside one another for the sole reason they were both she-wolves. Shemika didn’t like to shift, hadn’t for over a decade, and never wanted a pack duty involving shifting or anything dirty or gross. Ylenia never wanted her activities to be monitored by someone under Dancescu’s hold. With Shemika also lying, Ylenia could disappear for personal work and have Shemika lie for an alibi.
Ylenia rolled her golden eyes but continued with her work. As long as she kept her magical barriers up for Dancescu and informed him of her progress every so often, he didn’t get too involved.
Shemika stood from the bar, sulking around Ylenia’s house. It was smaller than that of other members of the pack. Dancescu was definitely partial to the men of the pack. They were typically allowed the larger homes. Ylenia was given a particularly small home. It was the Alpha’s way of discouraging her from starting a family.
While other packs probably wanted their members to conceive many children, Dancescu didn’t really. He felt he owned all the members of his pack. He didn’t want Ylenia having any children, because he wanted her focused on the magical efforts that bettered his pack. He didn’t want Selene to have any children because he wanted her attentive to her temple duties. Shemika, he wanted to stay in his bed like the little purse dog he viewed her as.
Shemika gently snooped through Ylenia’s home. She was always there, but never Ylenia at hers. Her home was larger, but it included her mother. The wretch.
Mileva Loren had been the most attractive she-wolf in the Vale pack for...at least until Shemika had been born. She was average height, with short pale blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and light skin.
She’d been a good enough mother, until Shemika reached puberty. She’d grown taller than her mother, her skin a warm golden shade, her hair darker on the roots and sun bleached by the ends. Her eyes were warm brown with flecks of amber. Unlike her mother, or any other wolf, she was curvaceous, with large breasts and flared hips.
Even then, Mileva had never done or said much to her. It wasn’t until a man in the pack said something to the effect that Shemika had taken Mileva’s beauty from the womb and the woman had lost her appeal. A spiteful thing to say about a woman who repeatedly rejected him.
Mileva had felt replaced, especially when men turned their attention from her to Shemika. She’d lashed out. Regularly. It wasn’t that Mileva had lost her youth, no. She and her mother looked the same age. Simply put, Shemika was just more attractive than her.
She’d thought it a blessing when she was young. A face so beautiful. Besides her luscious curves, which she frequently heard not only from her mother but others of the pack say that she needed exercise. But now, Shemika hated her face sometimes. It started with Dancescu.
Shemika had gone into heat for the first time and had chosen a sexual partner. It was after she’d gone into heat that she’d noticed that the men had changed. They didn’t just leer at her, they touched. Groped here, caresses there. She’d cry to her mother, but Mileva had let her know that her value had and would always only lie in her physical appearance.
She’d begun giving herself to any man that wanted her. That way no one would ever take her against her will. Except Alpha Dancescu. He’d always repulsed her, if she were being perfectly honest, but her denial of his advances made him angry. He’d turned to punishing her for any slight offenses by taking her sexually.
Shemika shuttered at the thought of him and moved toward Ylenia’s fireplace, currently roaring with flames. It did nothing to warm the frost that coursed through her at the thought of Dancescu. She found a new place to lounge: Ylenia’s sofa.
“When are you going home?” Ylenia called over her shoulder. “It’s near sun down.” She snapped, moving around the counter to grab a few things, but quickly returned to her mortar and pestle, jade colored but faded from excessive use.
“I don’t know,” She grumbled. They weren’t really friends, but they watched over one another and Ylenia knew she didn’t want to see Mileva. “Why don’t you ever let me stay the night? Don’t you love me?” She asked, trying for a playful tone.
Ylenia raised a dark red brow, “Do you even want me to answer that?”
She didn’t. She didn’t need more people she viewed nicely, to in turn not love her. She could pretend they were closer. “It’s not even dinner yet.” She whined.
“I’m not feeding you dinner, Mika.” She replied coolly. “You’re incapable of returning the favor.” That is, Shemika never shifted into her wolf form and never hunted for her own game. She liked to think she was a delicate, classy woman.
“I’ll return the favor by allowing you to bask in the glory of my presence,” She retorted haughtily, flicking her curls behind her shoulder.
“Mika, please, I’ve got plans tonight. Why don’t you go visit Colette if you don’t want to go home?” She asked, sidetracked as she flipped through the thick pages of her spell book.
Colette, the newly turned she-wolf was busy, and by busy, she meant getting busy. With Sorin that is. The two were always shagging it up, you’d hear it if you got too close to their home. She knew because she had gotten too close, also his mother was giddy by the prospect of pups. Weirdo.
“But I’d rather stay with you, the heart of my heart.” She said in a sing-songy voice, leaning against the back cushions of her sofa. If it weren’t for her, that sofa never would’ve been broken in.
“You know, you can’t.” Ylenia replied, dryly this time.
In other words, more people would get all up into their business. Not that there weren’t people currently all up in their business. Felix, for example. He was always around, poking in her business.
“Mika,” She turned from her...‘thing’ and pinned Shemika under her hard gaze. “I’d love for you to stay and insult my cooking, I really would.” She said sarcastically, “But, I need to focus on my newest charm. It takes a...certain level of concentration that differs from my current predicament.” After a long pause she added, “You won’t stop sighing every two seconds.”
“I’m loveable.” Shemika snapped.
“That isn’t a synonym for irritating, so it doesn’t apply.” She replied, once again being sucked into her work.
Shemika pouted, but collected her belongings quietly. Ylenia really was her only friend, besides Colette now. Who was an okay friend when she wasn't stuffed with Sorin. Selene was an okay person, but she kept to herself.
Shemika left Ylenia’s and stuck to the shadows on her way back to her own home. Which was all she could do, if she wanted to get home unscathed. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to go home. Home, where Mileva was.
