At that moment, a motorcycle pulled up outside the dog park. On it was a pallid woman in what seemed to be her early twenties dressed from head to toe in studded black leather. Her dark brown hair was dyed blue at the tips and styled into a side-shaved undercut. Her roguish face was studded with numerous piercings. The biker chick acrobatically leaped off her motorcycle and sauntered into the dog park, despite not having a dog.
Liesel sniffed the air leaped to her feet. She rushed to the new girl and leaped into her arms. "Helllloooo, Claudie!"
The biker gave Liesel a kiss on the cheek. "Hiya, Lee-Lee. I finally finished souping up the Beast's motor! Thought I'd find you here, communing with the trees and puppies."
"You should try it sometime," Liesel laughed. "Sometimes if you place year hand on a tree and meditate with your eyes closed, you can feel like you're actually PART of it!" She glanced back and Selena and Tatiana. "Selena, this is Claudia von Karnstein, my sister, clanmate, and soulmate." She underscored the last point by kissing Claudia on the mouth.
Selena extended her hand to Claudia. "Name's Selena Lyall. Great to finally meet you Claudia. Tatiana and Valeria have told me so much about you. Wow, you look so badass!"
Claudia proudly ran a pale hand through the stubble of her undercut. "Thanks. And you look pretty cool yourself; I dig that spunky red hair and the freckles. Hmmm... Lyall... that's the name of the alphas of that werewolf pack that lives on the outskirts of town. You related to Luna Lyall, kid?"
Selena groaned. "My older sister."
Claudia's hazel eyes softened sympathetically. "Wow, that must suck. I go to college with that stuck-up sorority bitch, and I almost think I'd be doing Washington State U a fucking favor by drinking her dry. Sweet sanguine, I can only imagine how hard it's gotta bite being her sister."
"It so does!" Selena wailed. "She's the hottest and the alpha's oldest, and she goddamn knows it! She just struts around preening, scooping up all the available mates, male and female alike. I'm pretty sure the only reason she hasn't gotten pregnant yet is because she's been settling down with Lucy Littlewolf, but I digress. She's the best of the best, and she fucking loves broadcasting it to everyone else in the pack... especially me. It's been murder since she returned for the full moon!"
"Why does she especially like to start shit with you?" asked Claudia. "You're, like, four years younger than her; it isn't like you're direct competition."
Selena's cheeks flushed, causing Claudia's nostrils to flair. "It's because I haven't shifted yet. It was supposed to happen when I was thirteen, and I'm still waiting. That basically turned me into the pack's omega, and the elders decided that I had until my eighteenth birthday to prove I was a real werewolf and justify my place in the pack. That's less than a year from now. I finally got fed up with waiting, and I asked Tats for advice. She referred me to a place called Morgana's Services for the Strange."
"Oh, Morgana!" Claudia cut in. "I fucking love that place! Did you know she's the only one who could figure out how to pierce me? Without her magic, my healing factor closes up all the holes and forces the metal right out." The vampire biker tugged on one of her lip piercings.
"Cool," Selena said, more turned on by Claudia's heavily pierced face than she was prepared to admit. "Anyway, Morgana sold me this." She held up the Werebrush. "She called it the Werebrush and said I had to brush the animal I want to shift into, and then my own hair. If I do that, I'll shift on the next full moon. In other words, tonight. I came here to brush a dog; salukis are so pretty."
Claudia chuckled. "Okay. I hope your rough-and-tumble pack doesn't mind living with a weresaluki. Heh, I'd pay fucking money to watch that play out, no offense."
Claudia turned to Tatiana. "How's Valeria holding up? Last time you called, you said she and Ruby broke up."
Tatiana sighed. "Not too good. Valeria was one hundred percent convinced Ruby Reynard was her soulmate. Then that tease of a werevixen cheats on her with a kitsune, breaks up with her over text, and fucking skips town! Val's furious, but she's also still in love wit Ruby. As much as she wants to forget Ruby ever happened, she just can't move on and find someone new."
Claudia bit her lip. "I knew something like this would happen. Not to be racist, but werefoxes aren't exactly famous for their monogamy. We'd better check up on her."
Liesel nodded. "Good idea, sweetie. Her aura's been so grey since we got back. Hey, maybe it would cheer her up to watch Selena's first shift tonight. I know I'm not missing it!"