Katrina wasn't just mad; she was absolutely furious. Her lips turned up to reveal a nasty snarl as claws started to elongate from her hands. She could feel Alfie pat her on the back as he told her to calm down. She took deep breaths as her heartbeat echoed throughout her body. Katrina's blood boiled, but she kept her eyes forward and unbuckled her seat belt. 

If Henry didn't want to leave, Katrina was going to force him to. She opened the car door with her duffle bag thrown over her shoulder. Her eyes connected with Henry's and there was an instant spark of electricty that ran down her spine. She wondered what this feeling might have been. Hatred? Fury? Agony? None of those could properly describe the pain that she felt in her heart. This was one person she should have been able to trust; this was someone she has known for two years and considered a loyal friend. So why would he not respect her? Why would he wait out here on her door step if he knew she would be home? Were there no boundaries?

"Katrina---" Henry started his sentence, but Katrina immediatly put her hand up to shush him. Betrayal was the right word. Every inch of her body felt betrayed.

"I asked you for one thing, Henry. One FUCKING thing. And you didn't listen. How do you expect me to trust you when you can't respect my wishes to be left alone. I told everyone I knew to give me some time, to leave me alone for three fucking days. I didn't want to be contacted; I just wanted to be in peace and quiet for one weekend." Katrina started her sentence softly but by the end she started to shout. Angry tears started to well in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had done enough crying today; she was done. 

"I was worried, Katrina. You can't blame me for being worried. Not to mention you come here with a random guy in the car. I don't want to assume anything, but I can't help but see the duffle bag and random guy and think that you might have taken the moment to cheat on me." Katrina let out a gasp before clenching her duffle bag in rage. She had a gut feeling that he would turn it on her. He didn't want to admit that he screwed up, so he turned it against her. Of course of he did. Katrina tasted blood on the inside of her mouth as she casted her head downwards. 

"How dare you assume I'm cheating. You think so little of me." A sob made its way out of her throat as she walked past Henry to go inside, but she never it made it to the front steps. Henry grabbed her by the arm and pulled her backwards; she could see his eyes plead to her. But, the damage was done. Katrina yanked her arm back and gave Henry a long look. Pain evident in her expression. 

"Leave me alone, Henry." Katrina walked up the stairs and went inside. She locked the door shut and closed all the blinds. She tossed her duffle bag aside and collapsed on to her chair. The amount of disappointment she felt was immense; her boyfriend was one person that should always have her back, someone she could rely on for anything. But, never did she think that he would ignore her pleads.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Whimsey approach from a corner and walk towards her. Despite anything that happened, this little kitten would always bring a smile to her face. Whimsey let out a meow before she plopped herself up on Katrina's lap and made herself at home. Katrina let out a little smile as she ran her fingers through the cat's soft fur. Whimsey let out purs as she turned into Katrina's touch. It was a little relief to Katrina; she had a small outlet, at least. 

"I suppose calling mum would be the best option. What would you do, Whimsey? Should I just ignore everyone for the rest of the day and pretend that this entire weekend never happened? Should I call mum and rant about every little mistake in my life? Maybe I should call dad and let him tell me some stories from his military travels. What would you do?" Whimsey looked up to Katrina and blinked slowly. She then let out a little meow before she went back to being a little ball that laid in Katrina's lap. Katrina could only sigh; she didn't know what to expect from a cat.

"Mum it is." Her voice was a mere whisper as she pulled her phone out and dialed her mum. No words could describe the nerves that bubbled within her stomach; the last thing she wanted to do was worry her mum, and that is EXACTLY what she did. Katrina knew she left her parents in the dark, and they could only assume what happened last night. Was their daughter dead? Was she a monster? Was she just extremely hung over? 

"Katrina?" Her mum's voice echoed throughout the room as Katrina put her phone on speaker.

"Mum, I'm so sorry." Katrina allowed herself to start to sob as all the pent up anger and rage turned into pure hopelessness. She didn't want to cry. Who the hell wanted to cry infront of their parents when they swore to be oh so strong? "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how scared you were. You probably thought I was dead. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have worried you; I should have just ---"

"Katrina, it's okay. The fact that I hear your voice is beyond enough to tell me that you're alive. I was scared I would never hear from you again."

"You can't get rid of me that easily. Is dad there?" Of course Katrina was worried about her dad. She loved her mom, but she prefered for both her parents on the line. 

"He's right here." Her mom laughed as Katrina heard her dad's voice in the background. Her mom fumbled with the other line and within a minute Katrina could hear the speaker mode go on. 

"Katty." Her dad's voice was a refresher to Katrina and the sobs soon became less frequent. Katrina thanked god for hearing her dad's voice once again. She didn't know when it would be the last time.

"So, I guess you're wondering what happened last night. And, you're right, I have lycanthropy." The silence was deafening on the other side as Katrina was sure her parents looked at each other while wondering what the hell happened. She was still at a loss of words herself; the thought was foreign. She pondered why this had happened? What could she have possibly done to deserve this god damn disease?

"Well, it may not be what we want, but we can figure this out. Truth be told, this isn't something I would expect to hear from my daughter, ever." Her mom's voice was airy and nervous, but she was handling it a lot better than Katrina would have handled it as a mum. How the hell does someone tell their parents that they may or may not be a monster that can transform into some eight foot something freak?  

"I don't know what to do, mum. Henry is being oddly suspcious, I've gotten random deposits of money into my account from some random man, and my head is being invaded by some sort of animalistic tendencies. I'm losing my mind, mum." Katrina looked towards Whimsey as she grinded her teeth together in agony. She casted her eyes towards the kitchen table and allowed silent tears to fall from her eyes. Her tear stained cheeks reflected the emotions that were finally no longer shown on her sleeve.

"I have many questions. But, let's start with Henry. Wasn't this the boy that is in your biology class? Sweet kid, right? What's wrong with him?" Katrina let out a dry laugh as she reflected on the past few hours. 

"What is wrong with him? I thought he was a lovely guy, you're right. But, over these past few days I believe he has tried to poision me with a golden ring. When I told him to leave me alone for the weekend while I dealt with the whole, scary werewolf thing, he shows up at my door step and stays there for god knows how long. He then has the odasity to say that I am cheating. I thought he was a nice caring guy, but I want to rip his head off at the moment."

"I'll come over and do it for you, Katrina." Her father wasn't simply mad; Katrina could tell that he was beyond outraged. And she couldn't blame him. Katrina, herself, was three seconds away from going outside and cursing him out in the three languages she already knew. But, she kept herself restrained and simply rolled her head to the side in a long groan.

Whimsey stood up in Katrina's lap and pushed herself down off Katrina. She rubbed along Katrina's legs before exiting the room. Katrina blew a puff of air towards her bangs as they lifted upwards. 

"Murder isn't the answer, dad." Katrina laughed a bit, but it was clear that there was a tension hanging between the line, "Anyway, the money thing. I think it was from some guy in Kule, if my memory serves me right, that deposited a whole chunk of money into my account. It was enought to cover my whole tution for this year alone." There were two audible gasps on the other side of the like. Truth by told that Katrina still hadn't really accepted that there was this much money in her account.

"Did you get a name? Maybe we can find this person and ask them what the hell they're thinking?" Katrina agreed with her father as she jogged her memory on who deposited the money. All she had was a last name to remember; it was on the tip of her tongue when it finally it hit her.

"I think the last name was Nkosi? Do you know anyone with that last name?" 

"It sounds very familiar. If you give me day I can probably figure it out." The hope in her dad's voice slightly surprised Katrina. The mystery of the entire situation would normally freak out a person, but the fact that her dad wanted to play detective to figure out who in the world this Nkosi guy was brought a small yet confused smile to Katrina's face. Her dad always had the knack for bringing the mood uplifted.

"Thanks, dad. Now for the elephant in the room. What the hell do I do about this --- issue?" It was a fair question; Katrina pondered how the fuck anyone would be able to handle this issue without going mad. Just sitting there alone left a restlessness that settled within her stomach. Her body ached for something, and she wasn't sure what it was.

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure I have any ideas about that one."

"Wait, dad, didn't you get in contact with someone to get that guy Carson get on over here? Doesn't that mean you have some sort of contact with someone around here?" There was a pause on the other line as she let out a shiver. A random flash of pain echoed throughout her spine, and Katrina let out a small groan of pain. 

"Yes, I do have connections. I always suspected this might happen ---"

"And, yet, you let me go over half way across the world. What were you thinking?" 

"It was a vacant thought; the chances were near zero. I only thought there was a chance because my grandmother had the gene. My mom didn't have it, I didn't have it, and your brother." Her dad let out a breath. "We suspect he had the full disease. Most children with the disease will die in childbirth or months after."

"But he didn't die months after? He died when he was twenty. That doesn't make sense, dad." Katrina let out a choked cough as her mind flashed to her brother's funeral. It was a beautiful day on the beach when she was given the honor of spreading her brother's ashes among the ocean. They both had decided when they were young that being cremated and released was what they wanted to happen unless they were already married. 

"Katrina, think about it. He died four days before his twenty-first birthday; he was visiting someone in Australia. There was a reason he was visiting; they were going to try and help him throughout his --- ordeal. Then he got---." Her dad didn't finish the sentence as they both knew what happened. Her brother got murdered when he was in Australia, and the murderer was never caught. Katrina and her family had fought to find out who it was, but they never had succeeded. 

"But, if you sent him for help, then he obviously knew. So why didn't you tell me?" 

"Your brother showed signs very early that he was inflicted with this syndrome. You, on the other hand, were completely devoid of the symptoms. The reason your mother and I were keen on sending you right where you are is because of the pack. We knew if anything happened that there would be someone like you to at least help you out." 

Katrina let out an elongated sigh as she saw Henry's contact number calling her; she immediately denied his call and went back to being engulfed by her thoughts. Her parents knew about this, but they failed to tell her. She wants to be frustrated, but at the same time, she sympathized with them. It was hard to grasp that him being inflicted with this disease was most likely the reason he got --- killed. 

"What do we do now?" Katrina shifted in her chair while pulling her quilt over herself. Her eyes were glassy and red, but she failed to let herself start crying, again. 

"As much as you might hate this, I think you need to keep in contact with this pack so they can maybe figure out a cure."

"Is there even a cure for this? A chance at least? This sounds like it is something I will forever have to deal with, being a monster every full and new moon. Not being able to control myself when I get angry or frustrated and having to deal with alergies that I didn't even know I had."

She lifted herself up and moved to go to her bedroom. Katrina looked back towards the door before slowly dragging herself towards her room. 

"We don't know, and we may never. But, I promise you we will figure something out." Katrina wanted to scoff in fustration, but she didn't want to take her anger out on her parents. It wasn't their fault that she was sick. 

"Okay, well, just get back to me as soon as you know something. I love you both." Katrina fell into her bed and pulled the comforter over her body.

"We love you too." Katrina hung up the call and tossed her phone on the opposite of the bed. She laid face down into her pillow and let out a loud scream. This wasn't how she imagined spending her twenty-first birthday; she would have preferred the hangover versus anything that has happened right now. 

She turned to look at the ceiling as she felt her ear twitch; she sneered at the feeling. The sensitivity that rung in her ear drums was uncomfortable. She couldn't help but lift her head up as her nose picked up on a scent. This one was different; it smelled like strawberries and kiwi. It wasn't the same as Hayden's though, it was extremely different. 

Katrina pushed herself off the bed and tip toed to the kitchen where the smell only got stronger. Her eyes flashed gold before she forced them to change back. The smell was strongest at the door, and low and behold a car door had slammed shut with a stranger she had never met walked towards the door. Her eye continued to peep through the peep hole as the man wore plain jeans and a grey t-shirt. He had nothing on him besides keys and a wallet; Katrina didn't know who he was, but she knew it was someone important. The beast that welled within her trusted him, for some bizarre reason. 

Katrina unlocked and opened the door to stand in front of the man. He walked up the steps and looked right at her. 

"Who are you?" Katrina's voice was gentle as her hands rested by her sides. She tiled her head sideways as she took another sniff in the air; the strawberry and kiwi smell certainly remained to this man. She looked towards the car which happened to be a very nice Audi convertible. 

"Someone you'll want to trust."

End of Ashes and Flames.