“I think when a human changes into a Werewolf for the first time, their bloodlust has to be controlled.”

  (‘Scent’ Excerpt Chapter 2)

My indigestion grew worse, as the discomfort was harking on the painful side. But then I wondered if it was indigestion, as I felt my mouth water and I craved something.  It was as if my stomach was experiencing was hunger pains.  I’m not hungry AGAIN am I? I don’t get it, pasta always fills me up and I only ate an hour ago.  What’s going on here?

I stopped walking to pry the lid off the tupperwear container I was carrying.  I sniffed at the tiramisu, tempted to eat some right now.  But then my stomach lurched in an objectionable manner.  My taste buds told me that my body didn’t want something sweet, but it wanted to eat something savoury.  It wanted something like – like - like a huge thick piece of red meat that was cooked at such a rare state it was still bleeding freely…

Now that IS weird!  Usually I prefer my meat well-done. Where the hell is all of this coming from? Why do I feel this way?   My shoulders were tense and I could feel my heart begin to race.  I felt like sprinting the rest of the way home, so I did. 

I shut the lid on the tupperwear container before I broke into a run.  I easily ran the rest of the way up the hill, not breaking a sweat let alone becoming breathless.  I ran up my driveway, easily high jumped over my veranda railing and I threw open my front door to go inside.

Mum looked up startled from reading a book on the couch.

“Has Dad gone hunting?” I asked as I walked past into the kitchen, to put the tiramisu in the fridge.

“No, he’s at your Uncle Ian’s place.”  She answered.

“Why is he there?” I walked back into the lounge room.

“With Jack’s death, the pack thinks it’ll be Ian’s son Leaf who is going to change instead of Jack’s grandson Meadow since he’s only 9 years old.”

“Ah,” I raised my eyebrows, “and the pack want to be ready to initiate him or something?”

“Yeah, something like that.” She sighed. “I think when a human changes into a Werewolf for the first time, their bloodlust has to be controlled. The pack want to be ready to help Leaf so he doesn’t take off from the tribal lands and into Alma, to try to eat a townsperson or something.”

“Eugh!” I shuddered at the thought.  “But mind you, after what happened to Uncle Jack?  Maybe we should let Leaf go nuts, particularly on the bad element of town.”

“The Tribal Elders along with the pack have decided to help the people in Alma remove the bad element.”  Mum looked up from her book again.  “This will be the first time that the Lokoti will be policing off their land.  The people of Alma have always had suspicions the Lokoti Werewolves existed, with the odd eye-witness report here and there.   When the invaders tried to take over our land when I was pregnant with you? That confirmed their existence.”

“So the people in Alma aren’t scared of the Werewolves?” I asked curiously.

“They are wary, yes.  But since no good townsperson has ever been attacked by a Lokoti Werewolf, they trust them.  The only time they’ve injured a townsperson was if the they were on our land, doing something they shouldn’t. The people of Alma know this. It was one of the reasons why they asked the Tribal Elders if the Lokoti Werewolves would remove the trouble makers.” Mum went on.

Her eyes widened in worry when she noticed I was slumped over the back of the easy chair, rubbing my tummy.  She asked, “B are you alright?”

“Cramps.” I flinched.

“Go to bed and I’ll bring up the hot water bottle and some pain killers.” She put aside her book to stand up.

“It’s not those kind of cramps.” I said weakly. “I feel like I’ve got indigestion or something like it.”

She frowned as she walked over to my position to put her hand over my forehead.  “Right now your skin does feel rather hot.”

“I’m going to go lie down.”  I turned away.  “There’s tiramisu in the fridge that Aunt Susan told me to bring back for you and Dad.”

“Thanks.” Mum watched with concern as I slowly walked over to the staircase.

Whilst gripping onto the banister hard, I slowly made my way up to my bedroom.  I didn’t even bother to shower or change into my pajamas.  Instead I simply lay down on top of the covers as I curled up into a ball.  I started to tremble as I experienced hot flushes whilst the pain grew worse.

My mother came into my bedroom carrying a glass of water as she came to sit on the side of the bed to help me drink from it.

“Drink lots of water.” She advised. “Maybe your body needs to flush out a toxin of some kind.”  I nodded weakly, but then I emitted a small smile in appreciation as she began to rub my tummy to ease the pain.  She continued, “if you don’t start to feel better in a couple of hours, I’ll take you to the Medical Lab at Circulate Headquarters. I’ll get Vincent to do a scan and check you out.”

I gave a final nod, before I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to concentrate on the massage instead of the pain itself.  I could feel a layer of cold sweat appear over my hot skin, which made me feel worse…

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