This Wicked Wednesday brings a little more of a story you’ve seen before — my urban fantasy involving a twist to the werewolf mythology, battles with vampires and a struggle for control in a werewolf pack. The tentative title is UNDEAD UPRISING and I hope you like this next free chapter that I’m offering you.
The scene follows an eariler chapter where the backstory which explains how Catalina’s pack was created. In this chapter, you’ll meet one of Catalina’s half sisters and learn a little more about werewolf puberty and the rules of the pack. I hope you enjoy it!
For those of you who may have missed the first three chapters, you can read them here:
A good workout in the gym followed by an even more vigorous one in bed kept the werewolf at bay. The mental discipline she exerted during both allowed her to control her inner wolf because once that animal emerged . . .
She disappeared and the uncontrollable animal asserted itself. An animal with no reason that had to be chained to a bed to avoid hurting either herself or someone else.
Like she had hurt her mother, she thought with a pang of guilt as she opened the door to the gym and spotted Hembra, her youngest half-sister. Hembra had slipped on Catalina’s leather jerkin and tried to practice her sword play with Catalina’s blade. The too big jerkin hung on the young fourteen-year-old’s slender body. As Hembra tried to heft the heavy sword up over her head, it nearly came back down on her.
Catalina rushed over and grabbed the blade to keep Hembra from hurting herself. “Easy, hermanita. This one is a little too much for you to handle.”
Her young half-sister whirled to face her. “Catalina! I didn’t think you’d be home yet.” Surprise and a trace of guilt tinged her voice.
She chuckled at the sight Hembra made with the oversized clothing and sword. “I can see that. Why are you here instead of in school?”
Hembra looked down, clearly embarrassed, and held out one
hand — one delicate semi-furry hand.
She had finally hit puberty and with it came not only the typical human periods, but the monthly transformation, she thought, took hold of her sister’s hand and gave it a playful shake. “It’s not so bad. Trust me.”
Her sister’s head popped up at that, her young eyes wide and questioning. “Really?”
“Really,” she lied since she viewed the emergence of the wolf as a curse. Her change had first occurred at the age of nine, years before what was the norm. She hadn’t really been ready for it, either physically or emotionally. Come to think of it, she didn’t deal with her transformation well now.
Trying to change the subject before her sister could pick up on her true feelings, she said, “Would you like to train together?”
“Really?” her sister repeated, once again dragging a chuckle from her. Had she ever been both so adoring and yet scared? It made her embrace her sister and wish that things were different for the young child.
Hembra was a little stiff in her arms at first. A subconscious reaction since the youngster had to always be on guard, her position within the pack uncertain. Eventually she relaxed and returned the embrace. Lingering for but a moment more, Catalina pulled away.
“Let’s find something comfortable for you.”
As she walked to the weapons closet at one end of her gym, Hembra followed behind her like a lost puppy. Catalina opened the door to the closet, rifled through a section that held some of her older clothes until she found something that would fit Hembra’s smaller frame. Turning, she raised the garment up to the girl to eyeball the fit and satisfied, passed it to her. “This should be perfect. It’s yours.”
Once again that look of adoration came to Hembra’s eyes, stabbing her with guilt. She might be her father’s pride and joy, but Hembra embodied his failure. Because of that, her youngest sister was shunned by him and many within the pack.
Even her name branded her with his shame — Hembra.
“Es otra hembra,” the doctor had advised at her birth. “Another girl” and with those words, her father had turned away from his newly born daughter, not even bothering to name her. Hembra’s mother, humiliated by his actions, had fled the pack that night, never to be seen again.
But she would not ignore her half-sister. Nor could her mother. She had taken the child to be her own — one outcast fostering another — rather than see the child sent to another pack or left in the forest to die if no pack would have her.
“Put it on while I choose a sword for you.” From the corner of her eye, she watched as her sister carefully positioned Catalina’s jerkin and sword back in their place, and slipped on the leather and mail shirt Catalina had selected.
From the closet, she removed two wooden practice swords and a smaller silver blade. Her father had used these to teach her and then her two other half-sisters — Helena and Selena. As for Hembra . . .
As she held out the practice swords to her sister, she realized that her sister’s training would be up to her, much as her sister’s existence within the pack depended upon her and her mother.
Throwing an arm around Hembra’s thin shoulders, she walked with her to the middle of the room and the large exercise mat there. She was about to begin their session when Ramon entered the gym and stopped in surprise. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize anyone was with you.”
“It’s time to train my little sister,” she said with some affection and a tone in her voice which she hoped would explain to him what had happened.
Ramon looked from one to the other and immediately understood what Catalina hadn’t said outright. Hembra was about to experience her first change. As a full wolf, she would be expected to eventually hunt with the pack and to do that, she needed to be ready. With a nod, he walked to the edge of the mat and sat down to watch as Catalina patiently tutored her half-sister and then ran through some preliminary exercises. At first they worked with just the wooden swords, but after some basic instruction, Catalina let her sister practice with the metal weapon.
Hembra proved a quick study and picked up the moves handily. Catalina appeared pleased and encouraged her sister with praise, affection and pride. The young girl seemed to grow with it, her stance becoming straighter and filled with self-esteem.
As the two stood beside each other and then began another round of training, the similarity of the two women struck him. Something about the way they both moved and their general body type marked them as sisters. And although Hembra’s coloring was lighter, she resembled Catalina more than her other half-sisters.
Which made him worry whether Hembra would be like the rest of the pack or resemble Catalina when the wolf emerged. And who would take care of her this night — her first as both a woman and wolf?
As if in answer to his question, a knock came at the door followed by Marina’s entry.
“Mi’jita, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Marina said and hurried to Hembra’s side.
“She was with me, mami.” Catalina slipped an arm around her half-sister’s shoulders.
A broad smile eased over Marina’s face. Her beauty and contentment shone there as she gazed at her two daughters — one by birth and the other by adoption. She tenderly laid a hand on each of their heads. “I know, mis niñas. I know my girls will take care of each other.”
Catalina embraced her mother first, and then Hembra. After, her mother wrapped an arm around Hembra’s shoulders and was guiding her away when she finally noticed him sitting there. A pained look crossed Marina’s face. He recognized it well. It was the look of someone who understood what it was to love someone they could not have.
