Creatures of the Dark Series Book 2

Shemika was sprawled out in Ylenia’s kitchen, her feet resting on the counter. She was lazily flipping through a human magazine, chewing her gum with a loud smack. This was her usual spot. She had been assigned as Ylenia’s assistant when she reached breeding age, the time when all wolves in their pack were given their roles.

She had requested this assignment, knowing Ylenia wouldn’t really need her assistance. It was a life of leisure. She spent her days lounging at Ylenia’s until she was ready to head back to her own home and her nagging mother. A mother who never missed an opportunity to remind her of her own perfection in her youth.

Shemika let out a heavy sigh, flipping through the magazine without much interest. She had sighed a few times before, but it seemed her lifelong friend wasn’t going to make any effort to lift her spirits.

She sighed again, earning a sour look from Ylenia.

“Ugh.” Shemika sat up straight, slapping her magazine onto the countertop. “What are you even doing today?” she grumbled, the magazine failing to hold her attention.

Ylenia sighed in response and moved from her pile of open books to the counter filled with various 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 interrupted, turning away with a huff.

Their friendship wasn’t particularly close. It was more of a mutual convenience. They stuck together mainly because 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 didn’t want her activities monitored by someone under Dancescu’s control. With Shemika also lying, Ylenia could disappear for personal work and have Shemika cover for her.

Ylenia rolled her golden eyes but continued with her work. As long as she maintained her magical barriers for Dancescu and updated him on her progress occasionally, he didn’t interfere too much.

Shemika got up from the bar and wandered around Ylenia’s house. It was smaller than the homes of other pack members. Dancescu clearly favored the men of the pack. They were usually given 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 encouraged their members to have many children, Dancescu didn’t. 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 benefited his pack. He didn’t want Selene to have any children because he wanted her devoted to her temple duties. Shemika, he wanted to keep in his bed like the little purse dog he saw her as.

Shemika casually snooped around Ylenia’s home. She was always there, but Ylenia never visited her. Her home was larger, but it came with her mother. The hag.

Mileva Loren had been the most beautiful she-wolf in the Vale Pack until Shemika was born. She was of average height, with short pale blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and light skin.

She had been a decent mother, until Shemika hit puberty. She grew taller than her mother, her skin a warm golden shade, her hair darker at the roots and sun-bleached at the ends. Her eyes were warm brown with flecks of amber. Unlike her mother, or any other wolf, she was curvy, with large breasts and wide hips.

Even then, Mileva hadn’t said or done much to her. It wasn’t until a man in the pack commented 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 had repeatedly rejected him.

Mileva felt replaced, especially when men shifted their attention from her to Shemika. She 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.

Shemika had thought it a blessing when she was young. A face so beautiful. Besides her voluptuous curves, for which she frequently heard not only from her mother but others in the pack say that she needed to exercise. But now, Shemika sometimes hated her face. 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, caressed 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 started 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 shuddered at the thought of him and moved toward Ylenia’s fireplace, currently blazing with flames. It did nothing to warm the chill that ran 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 almost sundown,” 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. Although they weren’t really friends, they looked out for each other 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 to sound playful.

She didn’t. She didn’t need more people she cared about, to not care about her in return. 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 food. 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, distracted as she flipped through the thick pages of her spell book.

“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 in 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.

“I’m lovable,” 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.