4)

Neal sort of froze in place when he noticed me noticing him, and her. His eyes slowly turned to look down at his arm which the green eyed blond in a red rose patterned summer dress who had hooked her own arm around. Then he developed a look of nervous realization that crossed over his face as he began to try to squirm free.

The blond gave him a questioning look and used her other hand to reach over to try to hang on to him, grinning as the two of them began to sort of wrestle in place. She finally looked up to see where he was looking and finally saw me as Neal tried to give me a pleading look.

She seemed confused at first, but she must have seen something in my face as she looked from me to Neal, then back at me again before grinning again as she began whispering quietly to Neal and hip bumping him away from her.

I think she assumed that since I wasn't a werewolf I wouldn't be able to hear her whisper. "Oh, I see, going for the rich girl, huh?"

At that moment I really wanted to turn around and stomp off, maybe just to see if Neal would chase me down or not.

But I would not back down in front of an opponent. Especially not from a top heavy, big haired werewolf.

I had read a few articles and watched some nature videos. Grandpa had said werewolves were just people inside their heads no matter what form they were in. But he also said a lot of the werewolves tried to act like wolves because they thought they were supposed to.

So I ignored Neal, walked up to the blond, and held out my hand. Which was both social, and would let me start with a good grip on her if she started something. "Hi, I'm Sara. John Lathe's granddaughter. Welcome to my land.”

The blond girl tilted her head at me in curiosity but didn't hesitate to shake my hand with a crooked smile. "Del Sanders. My grandma's the sheriff and even if she wasn't it's not like everyone in the town hasn't heard everything about you and your family."

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She gave my hand a brief squeeze. "I know it's a stupid boy thing, but Grandmother said you were strong so I’m curious just how strong you are." She gave my hand another squeeze, letting up this time. "Care to give it a try."

I hesitated while she stared me right in the eye, then twisted myself free of her fingers while pushing my hand against her to lift them both up flat between us. “Let’s just push against each other’s hands, it’s how my family tests both strength and balance at the same time.”

She looked a little intrigued and shuffled her legs to brace herself, before beginning to push.

I matched with a better stance but didn't try to throw her off balance. All I did was match her, and then steadily push harder.

It wasn’t too surprising that she was matching me. She was the granddaughter of the woman who all the werewolves in this town respected for her power. So I kept pressing and she kept matching. For a moment I could see some concern in her eyes, then some interest as she grinned and leaned into the push.

We may even have been fairly matched.

Until I breathed in, and let my chi flow through my body. Down my legs to anchor me, up my back and shoulders to brace me, and finally down my arms to empower me.

Her eyes went a little wide as I slowly began to press her hand back, for a second she even began to look panicked.

From somewhere over by the bare patch of ground with a circle of logs around it spray painted to warn people not to step on the buried roasting pig, I could hear my father whisper.

Not some words of wisdom. Just a simple reminder.

“Her brother Dare bled for us when he came to help defend our house. Don’t humiliate his little sister."

I eased up and pulled my hand away. "Looks like you're pretty strong, but your curse set a limit on how strong you can be. My training lets me put more of my personal magic into my strength when I need to push my limits."

The blond girl got a confused look, then looked a little offended “My Curse?”

I felt a little embarrassed. “That’s what my Aunt calls it. She says it's a transferable spell and no one normally bothers to do magic that way other than for a curse. But my aunt isn't very nice so I'm sorry if calling it that is offensive.”

Shrugging, I explained, "The only werewolf I've had a chance to talk to is my Grandpa, and he is either too new at this to know, or he makes stuff up so I don’t know what to believe. Like do you guys really hear wolves howling when the moon rises? Like a lot of them, even when no one else is anywhere near you?”

Del started to answer, then looked over to where Neal had been standing before she began looking all around. "Darn it, he got away." She looked at me as set her hands on her hips. "He gets shy around crowds. That's why I was hanging onto his arm like that. If you don't keep a hold of him, he'll vanish on you."

She crossed her arms and gave a crooked smile. “But if you can find him first and keep a hold of him, I won’t fight you for him. At least not for today.”