Kitty's got claws

Katies Pov

"Sitting all alone pussycat?" Ezra mocks, typical Ezra, always the joker,

"I would rather be sitting all alone than with you." I couldn't help but bite back playfully. "Who are you running away from this time anyway?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Ah, pussycat. You know me, I have to keep moving or the ladies will surely catch me, you know they are after all of this, of course." He runs his hands down his body and winks as he says it. I just laugh, shaking my head - he never fails to try and wind me up and I always bite back. "Don't worry darling, I'm just gonna run the perimeter to make sure your cute little ass is safe."

"Oh thank you! Whatever would I do without my big, strong Ezra to save the day." I banter.

"Ah, Katerina - don't miss me too much!" He blows me a kiss heading off on his run.

I slipped away from the bonfire, sitting away from all the noise - I just felt like I needed a moment of peace tonight. I'm sitting down against one of the large trees bathing in the moonlight and watching as the pack comes and goes. Shortly after Ezra leaves, I notice Addison has slipped away from the bonfire and goes into one of the elder's houses - what in Domilia is she playing at? I stayed seated watching for some time to see how long it took. Eyes fixed on the large painted blue door, I saw she was in there for maybe 20 minutes. Upon her exit, she looks all around before disappearing into the night. It could be a genuine visit, many members of the pack seek out the elders for advice - I debate with myself. Something's not sitting right, honestly, I have never much liked that girl. With this logic, I conclude not to let my own dislike cloud my judgement but decided to keep a closer eye on her just in case.

Stewing on Addison has set me off and I need to let loose some steam. Power walking back to the bonfire, I examined the area to see who was about. Luckily for me, I noticed Sara's red hair straight away, but no Drew in sight. "Hey stranger, you all alone?" I asked.

She looks around. "Seems so. Drew was here with me but I don't know where he is now. Are you alone?"

"Not now, come on, let us go get a proper drink." Linking our arms together, my hand grasps a bottle of citrus vodka before we headed up to the cliff top. The clifftop always manages to make me feel at peace. It's such an amazing view up here, looking out over the kingdom. The buzz and light from the bonfire travels up to reach us, close enough to feel the excitement, yet we are far away enough to enjoy the privacy.

Sara is wearing the white dress we picked up for her today. It really suited her and it was doing a fantastic job of highlighting her natural beauty. "Where did you guys get to today?" I passed her the bottle of warm vodka to have a drink. It would have been nicer to drink cold but I did not consider bringing ice or glasses with us. "Who?" She replies, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"You and Drew." Who else would she think I am talking about?

"Oh, of course - sorry. He showed me the library and the lagoon." She took another drink, her face twisting as she swallowed. Did he take her to mothers lagoon? He's never taken anyone there before - could she mean more to him than he's letting on, I couldn't help but wonder. After I had not answered, I could see Sara had gotten uneasy. "Was that ok? I know he said it was your mother's lagoon - I would hate for you to feel I intruded."

Reaching out, I grabbed back the bottle dramatically, as if I had been offended, taking a big gulp and smiling to let her know I was just playing before replying. "You are welcome anytime Sara. I was just thinking about the lagoon. It's been a minute since I visited. Did Drew tell you about the moon blooms? They were always my favourite." Passing the bottle back and forth, she shakes her head, taking another gulp. "They are these flowers..." I turned towards her "... they are unpredictable in every way. Every full moon they let off these spores, but they affect people differently and it can be different each time. They are just so incalculable- I love them, they fascinate me." She nods repeatedly with her eyes closed, clearly drunk at this point. She looks like a bobbing headed doll. We both burst into a fit of laughter, falling into each other. "I loooove you, did you know?" Sara asked, pointing a finger at my face. "You love me?" I grabbed the bottle and took another swig. "I love you!" Booping her on the nose with my finger. We are rolling around in fits of laughter once more. We spent the whole night chatting about nonsense and watching the bonfire from the distance.

The sunlight creeps in through my bedroom window, waking me up. My head throbs due to the light entering my eyes. Oh, goddess, what happened last night? I spit hair out of my mouth. What in Domilia? My hair definitely is not long enough for this. A red orange shape is unclear in my vision. I open and close my eyes a few times to try and decipher what it is. Sara? My mind is ticking over to last night. Remembering our drunken bonding, I let out a chuckle. Oh my head, I wince, this is not good. Snoring gently, I decide to leave Sara asleep while I pop to the local apothecary for some hangover elixir. I can't be dealing with this today - my guess is neither will she when she wakes.

"Morning Miss Katerina, how are you this morning?" A loud cheery voice echoed in my head, causing me to grimace.

"Not so loud Marlin please, he let out a chuckle." My hand rubbed my head. Marlin is our local pack doctor if you will - he has been part of the pack for longer than I have been born, longer than my father even. He is a thin man, with a long crooked nose, grey hair and wrinkles - he was never without his apron either. He could regularly pull out whatever treatment you would require for your ailment from his little apron pocket - much like a magician pulling a bunny from a hat.

"I see..." He titters "...I believe this could be what you need." He says certainly while riffling through his apron and pulling out the hangover elixir I have been yearning for. I reach my hand out to grab the bottle, trying to hide my desperate need to down it here and now. "Oh, and maybe a healing potion too?" he queries, eyeing up the palm of my hand. Confused, I glanced at my hand and saw a long, clean cut directly through the palm of my hand. Thinking back on last night, we were on the cliff... We had been laughing and drinking. It was pretty late, the moon was at full peak, the smoke from the bonfire following us up the cliff. What happened next, I urge myself to remember. "You're like my best friend - ever", I confessed drunkingly, lacking the usual embarrassment that would come from that comment, "I haven't been able to trust anyone before, people play games always trying to use my position to gain favour with the Alpha" Saying alpha so sarcastically, "... but not you," I tell Sara pointing my finger into her chest.

"Well you can trust me, I am the MOST, bestest secret keeper ever. Aaand you are my only real friend ever!" Intoxication muddling her words to slurs. "We should do the pact!" I declared.

"Yes, the pact! What's the pact?"

"Here look..." I grab her hand and flick open my pocket knife, cutting straight down her hand.

"Oww!" she screeches in a baby voice "you made me bleed!"

"Baby!" I then cut my hand too. Interlocking our fingers, I instructed her to copy me. Sara echoed every word willingly, blissfully unaware of what we were doing: "Under the light of the moon goddess, I promise to be loyal to you; To treat you as family and always be honest to you. I promise to care for and protect you. You are my friend and this bond will not be broken. We will be bonded until the end of our days, should we break this promise - pain and death may endure." We both burst out laughing after.

"So you are really like my best friend now?" Sara asked me just before we fell asleep. I felt a great peace in my heart.

"Yeah, I guess I'm kinda like your best friend now." I cannot remember anything after that, so I am assuming we fell asleep.

Coming back to the moment, I felt a smile on my face remembering last night. "Yeah erm, one healing potion please Marlin, and another hangover elixir if you wouldn't mind?"

He smiled as if he was happy for me. "No problem at all, Miss Katerina." He turned around and quickly gets to work, picking up different ingredients from the glass jars behind the counter, weighing them on his little golden scales and mixing them to create the healing potion.

Upon leaving the apothecary, I caught a glimpse of someone in the distance. It's hard to tell, but the long hair and the way she walks lead me to believe it is Addison - she is never up this early. I follow her from a distance, she is moving quickly heading past the pack borders, to a sketchy area. I hesitate to leave the borders for a minute - it could be a trap. She would never be able to know I was going to be there, I told myself. With that thought, I decided it must be safe. Waiting those few minutes was enough for her to evade me. Damn! I curse myself for losing her - she's starting to really bother me lately. I've never much liked her, ever since we were children she has pranced around like she owned the place - all due to that idiotic betrothal! Continuing to search for her for a while before caving and heading back home, kicking myself.

Heading back into my room, Sara is still sleeping wrapped in my once white bed sheets, wearing the same dress as yesterday. I smirked, giving her a quick nudge "Wakey, Wakey sleeping beauty!" Her groaning let me know she was awake and not at all thankful for it. "Come on, let's get some food down you." Sara could barely do anything but grunt her understanding, this makes me chuckle - I felt this same way not too long ago. We headed down to the table, Sara took a place near the opposite end to where she usually does - strange I thought. She sits with her head in her hands, groaning like she might throw up at any moment. The rest of the family comes down making plenty of noise as they chatter. "Where did you disappear last night? I was so worried when I couldn't find you but some of the pack said they'd seen you with Katie." Drew asks Sara directly.

"Katie..." Is all she mumbles out "...oh gosh" I saw Drew look at me for an explanation and couldn't help but joke.

"I am innocent, I had nothing to do with this!" I joked, receiving a side eye from Sara. "Here drink up princess, you'll be right as rain in no time." I chucked two bottles at her. She caught these with her injured hand. I'm sure catching the bottles must have stung due to her sharply sucking in the air as she did. She glanced at her cut hand before gulping the contents of both bottles without removing the hand from her head, completely trusting whatever I gave her could not make her feel any worse.

"I'm guessing you two ladies had a good night?" My father chuckled at us, as Sara was finishing the last of the elixirs - she looked up at him, narrowing her eyes lightheartedly. "Oh wow! Holy Cow - what was that?" She enthusiastically asked, her whole demeanour changing instantly.

"Just a little hangover elixir for your head and a healing potion for your hand - I figured you might need them." I grinned, stealthily looking down at my own hand to see the cut knitting back together, as if sewing a rip in a dress. I make sure to hide my hand to avoid confrontation. Creating a bond is extremely symbolic and I can hear their opinions already - what were you thinking, Katerina? You've been irresponsible again, Katerina... You don't think things through, Katerina... I could go on and on. No, this is a secret I am choosing to keep. Hopefully, Sara doesn't feel up to sharing the news so freely either. Maybe I could convince her to keep it to herself. That doesn't seem so hard. Looking at the table this morning suggests something is different between Drew and Sara. Drew couldn't keep his eyes off Sara, whereas Sara seemed to actively avoid making eye contact, shovelling down an omelette to avoid chatting. "You seem to be feeling better," I said as she grabbed another omelette. She looks up like a child caught with her hand in the treat jar, "Magic potions for the win!" She jokes with her mouth full. She popped the last piece of her food into her mouth, chewing and getting up. "Right, best get cleaned and changed." She begins to leave while our cook comes to clear the table. "It's Gwyneth, isn't it? Did you make all of this?" Sara quizzes, pointing towards the table of food. The omega is clearly taken aback and slowly nods. "Yes, was there something wrong?" Nervously, Gwyneth looks over to her alpha who just pushes out his bottom lip and shrugs his shoulders, suggesting he doesn't know what was happening either. Sara did not hesitate, grabbing the woman by the shoulders gleefully. "You have saved my life this morning Gwyneth, I could kiss you!" She then continued on her way jogging into the house shouting "Thank you!" even when she was out of sight. The whole table looked at one another and burst into fits of laughter - I think we all agree that the redheaded lady is a character and we thoroughly enjoy having her around, human or not.

After finishing his food, Drew excuses himself to do his duty. I quickly caught up shouting "Drew, hey - wait up!" I could see he was reluctant, but he caved, coming to a stop. "What's up, are you and Sara not going out today?" I watched him carefully to try and pick up a nonverbal response. Drew reached his hand up and rubbed the back of his head. "You guys get on well. Do you think you could spend some time with her today? I've got... stuff on."

"Addison related?"

"Ah has she said something to you?" His eyes met mine filled with regret. "She isn't happy with the lack of time she's seeing me lately - I don't know why she cares now, it's not like we've spent much time together before." He explained, clearly unhappy. I have plenty I would like to say, but right now nothing would help my brother, so I choose to stay silent out of kindness and nod.

I could sense Sara had returned to the porch, so I turned and shouted "Come on sunshine, let's go shopping!" A smile lit Sara's face while torment was clear in Drews as we walked away.