Lone Women 소설 & 이야기

Little Rian, one of the pups, sneaking into the kitchens to steal dough and then giggling when the flour exploded all over his fur. Even Selene. Her scornful laugh. The way other wolves had laughed *with* her, piling on. Back then, surrounded by all of that, Luna had felt alone too. Invisible, except when someone needed a target. Yet there had been *structure.* A net of bodies and rules and expectations that, even when they hurt, had held. Out here, there was nothing left to push against but hunger and horizon. "I don't know which kind of alone is worse," she admitted to the water.

Outside, the night stretched on—merciless and indifferent—while two women savored very different emotions. One reveled in victory. The other learned, painfully, what it meant to love alone.

I shared with Khan. I had feared a lifetime of loneliness, but now I was blessed with love and happiness. "It seems the goddess is being kind to you or making up for her mistakes," Khan said, her tone uncertain. "I’m not entirely sure." "Mistake? What do you mean?" I asked, but she remained silent. Though her response left me puzzled and somewhat uneasy, I chose to hold my tongue to avoid saying something that might be inappropriate or beyond her authority. "If the goddess is making amends, I’m grateful," I told her. "Even though I sometimes question her, especially after losing my mate so suddenly, she still offers me a second chance." Khan nodded in acknowledgment.

In a dark corner, Lilith stood with tears in her eyes. 'Jasmine… can you see it all? The truth… has finally come to light.'

Jesus! “Dorathy.” “I was given an award as a knife expert,” she warned, her eyes narrowing into slits. “Don’t make me use those skills on you.” Her finger jabbed angrily into my chest before she pointed it at my face. “If this were my restaurant, I wouldn’t even let you eat here. But since it isn’t, I’m going to give you one piece of advice for your own safety.” She took one step closer. “Stay the fuck away from me and my friend, manwhore!”

A widow in a desert city who ran a flower stall and had buried a human husband who never knew what she was. A girl, just turned twenty-four, who'd grown up in foster homes across an entire country, because Selene's network had judged — correctly — that a child no one keeps is a child no one finds. A quiet man who fixed engines in a port town and flinched, every full moon, from a hunger he had no name for. Eleven of them. Eleven Auroras, scattered to the wind, each one believing they were broken and alone. I made her describe them until I could see them — not as a list, as people. The fisherman's daughter who flinched from the full moon and called it migraines.

“Lavender Page is an abused woman who’s struggled through her entire life. She grew up without her parents in an orphanage and was never in contact with anyone who would provide her with the love she needed because she required more than anyone could ever fulfil.” Holy shit. Is this guy a writer? I stiffen up like a stone. Everyone’s gonna think I’m a weak little girl if he goes on like this. “She married Jim two months after they finished high school and like every marriage, they had their ups and downs. One of the hardest blows was an abortion Jim forced upon her.” At this point, I’m struggling not to run out of the courtroom as everyone’s eyes are on me, including the judge’s. This is rea

Since we got to the room, she has been awfully silent, just clenching her fists and staring into space. I didn’t ask again and just let her be. It was normal for her to be shaken. Even after twenty women were evicted on the grounds of sexual misconduct, five more women were sent home because they couldn’t meet the benchmark. So we had only ten were-women left. As you can already guess, seven of them were members of Leah’s group and the remaining three were Fiona, Lami and Ariel. It was going to be a very tough one, especially since Fiona ranked fifth.

“How are you enduring this? God, if I was in this dry of a spell, I’d just lay down in the dirt and wait for death.” “Okay, Miss Dramatic, take a chill pill.” I feel my own head beginning to pound from the stress the two of them are putting on me. “People can go without sex.” The women look at each other before Annie touches my hand on the bar. “Esme. I love you. I do. But this alone should have shown you the piling red flags!” “Women in our age range? They’re becoming like…wolves or tigers,” Lily adds. “We’re hungry, dude.”

The women congregate into groups as if they already know one another, and I watch from the fireplace as they chat mindlessly and drink as if they were dehydrated. It's funny being the outsider looking in, because that's exactly how I feel standing here alone as three groups of women talk about their mates, children and packs. They all have something in common, whereas I have nothing in common with these people. My mates are one land over, alone and without me. The pack I'm supposed to be lunar residing with them. I do not know any of these women, nor will I try to get to know them. "Has he hurt you?" The gal blonde woman, Clementine, asks me as she walks to look at the fire.