7

Glancing over my shoulder, I bit my lower lip in annoyance. The view of my security guard was just beautiful! The floor covered in long ragged claw marks. The same marks on the walls, accompanied by hanging pieces of wallpaper. A wardrobe smashed to pieces ... Hmm ... And, unlike me, his instincts and scent have long been developed, and it will not be difficult for Oleg to understand that I was a weirdo in the second incarnation.

Lowering my head, I silently waited for my verdict. I'm sure he has clear instructions from the leader, just in case I suddenly remember everything. I doubt about the change of hypostasis - after all, I have not heard about alpha girls, nor about the passage of initiation with such a long delay. But what exactly they will do with me - they do not know. Maybe they will kill, or maybe they will erase the memory again.

I grimaced at the thought of waking up in the hospital again, remembering nothing. No, it's better to die than to go through this again. The wolf inside snarled in agreement.

- Maria, are you okay? - Tired of waiting for an answer from me, Oleg again decided to ask. - You look frazzled.

“Uh-huh,” she muttered back to him, not taking her eyes off his polished black boots. - Repair started. All night I smashed the apartment, so I was tired.

Grunting the first thing that came to mind, I expected anything but his quiet laughter in response. Raising my head in surprise, I looked straight at the guard, waiting for an explanation of his amusement.

- Repair, - still chuckling, the werewolf spread his hands, - yes, this is the case. Noisy!

“Very,” I nodded seriously, expecting that Oleg would just stop laughing and say that he had exposed me.

Just a little more, and he will grab me, saying some nasty things, and drag me back to the community, where they will erase my memory again. Or even worse. But Oleg, with his further actions, brought me into a real stupor.

“Since everything is in order, I don’t dare to detain you anymore,” continuing to smile, the man walked towards his apartment, turning to me over his shoulder in front of the door. – Be careful with repairs, Maria .

The intonation with which he pronounced my false name left no doubt - he understood everything. And about the return of memory, and about the awakened she-wolf. And why didn't you get it? Why did he leave?!

The wolf inside stirred anxiously, bringing me to my senses. Quickly slamming the door and closing it with all the locks with trembling hands, I slowly slid down to the floor, leaning back against the wall.

Maybe Oleg just followed Igor? To capture me along with my brother? Silly, of course, he can easily cope with me alone, but what if? I have no idea about the rules for looking after the banished. I only know that they keep an eye on all those exiled, without exception, in order to avoid their relapses. But what kind of relapse can be expected from me? That I will rush to look for Arthur and demand to declare me his couple? Brad some in the head climbs! However, this is exactly what I want to do...

No, most likely, Oleg is now contacting the leader in order to receive instructions on further actions regarding me. So, they say, and so, I remembered everything and spread ...

The she-wolf pretended to faint, diligently shaking her hind legs, pretending that these were convulsions. A thought flashed through me and now I’ll fall apart on the floor, but I’m afraid that this won’t help me in any way.

Run? The she-wolf opened one eye, but again returned to the imitation of unconsciousness. She is right! Nowhere. You can, of course, try, but it is doomed to failure in advance. Firstly, all my money, inheritance, and so on - all this is a cartoon. A legend, just for everything! After all, there were no dead parents, to whom I went to the cemetery in the hope of feeling at least some semblance of kindred feelings and trying to regain my memory. It was all made up specifically for my oblivious personality. The money is actually transferred from the community budget, and as soon as I leave, I will be left without a livelihood. I have almost no cash, and what I have is enough for a maximum of a month, and even then, with a very economical approach. But all the same, I won’t be able to run, because, secondly, they won’t let me go far. Igor and Oleg in the pack were in good standing, so no chance here. They'll catch up. And what is left for me? To sit here and wait for the arrival of these punishers? Obscurantism!

And suddenly, it worked out? I understand that there is almost no hope, but suddenly Oleg believed in my nonsense about repairs? And before that, did not feel the change of hypostasis? And no one will come to me, and in vain I'm panicking now. Therefore, Oleg did not touch me. Yeah. And he laughed, probably because he remembered a funny anecdote! And he called me Maria with indescribable intonations just like that!

Having risen from the floor, and walking along the hallway, I almost stumbled when I saw my reflection in the miraculously survived mirror. My heart skipped a few beats, my breath hitched as if from a blow, and a cold sweat broke through my body. This is the end. Then only a blind man would not understand that I was throwing myself at night. My eyes were now wolf! In the literal sense of the word! With an elongated pupil. Hoping that they have just changed when I was left alone would be the height of stupidity. The thing is really bad. Apparently my attempts to spread still yielded results. But neither I nor the she-wolf had any joy about this at all.

One wolf, and even the one in the bush howls hungry,

or problems with solving problems.

For almost a week now I have not left the apartment in anticipation of reprisals. But she was not and was not! I shuddered at every rustle in the stairwell. She froze if she heard the elevator open on the floor, or the doors of neighboring apartments slammed. Every time, accidentally looking out the window and noticing a car driving up to my front door, I was horrified to expect a knock at the door. Or that this very door will simply be demolished from its hinges. But, despite all my fears, nothing like that happened. Every day the waiting became more and more unbearable. Our nerves with the she-wolf frankly could not stand the strain. It is rightly said that the expectation of punishment is sometimes worse than the punishment itself!

Trying to reason logically, I found only two reasons for the inaction of the leader. Either he was not informed about the metamorphoses that were happening to me, which is unlikely, of course, but possible. Or the leader simply does not see me as such a threat that needs to be eliminated immediately. There was also a third option, that Arseniy could leave the pack on some business of his own, and he would take care of me a little later, when he returned to the community. This answer made me very nervous, but it was quite similar to the truth. A crazy assumption that Oleg really didn’t notice anything, and that I’m winding myself up in vain - once again swept aside. He is far from stupid, and he has a lot of experience. And the vision is excellent. And he could not fail to notice my vertical pupils, which distinguish wolves from ordinary wolves.

And I would have continued to sit in the apartment, going crazy with horror, if the food had not run out. All. I even ate semolina porridge (which I boiled with difficulty, managing to burn most of it), although I never ate it. Since childhood, I can not stand it! And it's a miracle that I even had a bag with this cereal at home. But everything comes to an end, and when this morning met me with an absolute absence of any edible products, I faced a difficult choice.

In fact, everything was quite simple - I had to go to the store. But the thought that I would not have time to leave the apartment, as they would grab me and drag me to the leader, did not give me rest. And like the mind I understand that this is very stupid! Well, if nothing has been done to me so far, then it is unlikely that something will happen or go wrong with a simple trip to the store! But my heart clenched anxiously at the thought of going out into the street.

When my stomach once again rumbled throughout the apartment, and the she-wolf defiantly began to probe her ribs for excessive thinness, I realized that it was pointless to pull any further. Pulling on denim shorts and a T-shirt, she slipped a bank card into her pocket, took one last look at herself in the mirror to make sure her pupils were normal and found nothing unusual in her appearance, sighed and headed for the exit.

The clicks of the lock on the door were unbearably loud, echoing down the landing. The keys that fell out of trembling hands several times while I was trying to close the door of my apartment did not give optimism either. It seemed that at any moment Oleg would jump out of the apartment opposite and grab me, laughing at the remnants of my hope that there would be no punishment.