Chapter 5 Cha 5

Luna

The second we emerge from the safety of the bayou, my instincts soar into high alert. Instead of being surrounded by pine-oak and tupelo trees and picking my way through the inkberry or Joe-Pye weed, I find myself on a road, which I've only seen from a distance. Up close, they're bleached-out, hard surfaces with the texture of a dried alligator carcass.

Cars zoom past at alarming speeds. When trekking through the swamp, I'd heard the distant sounds of these beasts and seen them from afar, but up close, the rectangular metal boxes are bigger than a swamp monster and even more intimidating. I stop and shake my head, unwilling to take a step into this foreign land and be trampled by one of their metal monstrosities.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Ama mutters. "Has Axel made a mistake or what?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, grabbing her sleeve.

"I didn't say a thing," Ama says. She steps onto the hard surface of

the road, yanking on my wrist.

I plant my feet and turn to look behind me.

We dropped Mama off at a healer's hut not far from here, and now Ama is taking me to her Alpha. I know what that is from Mama. It's the head of all the wolves, the most dangerous and fearsome of them all. I long for her comfort and wisdom as I take this giant step, but I'm on my own, with only Ama, who seems none too friendly.

Though I wanted to stay by Mama's side until she was looked after by the healer, the wizened old woman with skin the color of clay and eyes like an eagle shooed us away, saying, "Your mother is standing at the edge of a precipice. I must tend to her at once to keep her from jumping."

She assured me it would take a while and that I had better leave while she did her best to save my mother. So here I am. I turn to look over my shoulder in the direction of the healer's home. My voice trembles as I speak. "I should stay here and wait for Mama... Make sure she's okay."

"No, what you should do is get to Axel's so we can burst his bubble and get this over with. Then, when he's accepted his fate is just a fancy that isn't compatible with reality, I can assume my rightful place by his side."

"What does that mean?" I ask again, completely lost by this talk of bubbles and fate and rightful places.

Ama tugs at my arm. "Forget it. Let's go. We need to get you cleaned up, so you look less like a bog hag and more like what Axel wants to see. Although..." Her mouth turns up at the corners in a secretive smile.

I don't like that smile. I pull my skinny frame as tall as I can, though I'm still no taller than her. "I'm not a bog hag," I say loudly. "I'm a lone wolf, and I'm proud of my heritage."

"You shouldn't be," Ama says. "Lone wolves are fools."

I step onto the coarse surface of the road. "What is this stuff?" I ask, crouching to run my fingertips across the textured surface. It feels hot, the way rocks heat in the midday sun. I always thought it was stone, but it doesn't feel like any stones I ever felt.

A loud, blaring sound fills the air, startling me. I look up to see one of the beastly cars rocketing in my direction. Mama told me people ride in them, but this one is roaring like an animal.

I leap out of the road, my heart pounding, just as it whooshes by so fast it makes its own wind-a stinky wind I've smelled in the swamp from time to time when the wind blew just right.

"Christ, you're stupid," Ama snaps. "You almost got yourself killed. Quick reflexes, though." She looks me over the way Mama did last time she was thinking about going to town to get me clothes, a look like she hadn't really seen me in a while.

Ama grabs my wrist in a fierce grip. "This," she says, sweeping her free arm before her, "is a road, also known as a street. It's made of concrete or asphalt. And those things are cars. You never get in front of one when they're moving. Got it? And that, over there..." She points to a group of structures. "That's the shopping mall where we're going to get you cleaned up and buy you some new clothes. No way can I take you to Axel looking like that."

I look down at my nearly naked body, covered with dirt and mud from the swamp and a few old rags of the same color. Before we left, I wound a few rags and Spanish moss around my hips and breasts, the way Mama had taught me to do. "What's wrong with the way I look?"

"You're dirty, smelly, and you look like a wild thing. Axel expects something a bit more... Civilized." Ama sneers, towing me along.

I frown. "Why does this Axel man care what I look like?"

"You'll see." Ama drags me away from the road and heads for the buildings. They're massive and look way more sound than the little house I built. I wonder how they got their stones cut into such precise shapes. I could have built a stronger house with rocks like that.

Ama gestures toward the buildings marked by a sign that says, Paradise Acres. Around it, a few cars sit unmoving in the places that aren't marred by long cracks and gaping holes in the ground, which is covered with the same stuff as the road.

"What happened here?" I ask, pointing to one of the holes filled with dirty water. "And why are some of these houses falling to the ground?"

I gesture toward a pile of wood and metal a ways off through the weeds.

"They're not houses. They're stores. And shit happened. While you've been shacking up in oblivion in the swamp, the rest of the world has been dealing with the effects of the natural disasters. Winds, rain, hurricanes, storms... You name it."

"That stuff happens in the swamp, too," I say, feeling defensive at her nasty tone.

She snorts. "And I'm sure your little hovel has been knocked down at time or two. Some people have simply given up on repairing something that'll only be destroyed again and gotten the hell out of dodge. Others have built more substantive buildings that can withstand the storms." She points toward a formidable building that looks like it was made of the same stuff as the streets. The words Lew's Bossy Beauties are painted onto the concrete.