by Alexis Davie
The burly man sighed to himself. “I was hoping we could’ve done this the easy way.”
As soon as he had finished speaking, his lips curled back to show his teeth, except that they curled back in a way that wasn’t… human. The two men at his sides copied his gesture, and Penelope watched, aghast, as their teeth elongated until their teeth were sharp fangs in their mouths, their mouths became giant maws, and their hair grew until it covered their entire bodies. They stood on all fours in front of Penelope, and they growled and snarled at her.
They weren’t humans anymore. They were wolves.
She had just seen three men transform into wolves right in front of her!
Their eyes, focused on Penelope, glowed red.
Even though she had seen them shifting with her very own eyes, she couldn’t believe it. It made no sense. It wasn’t even possible. Werewolves were creatures from movies and TV shows and fairy tale books; they were not real.
And yet Penelope couldn’t deny their existence. They had haunted her since she was a child.
They were the wolves from her nightmare that had never come true.
Until now.
She could recognize them as the same men she had seen before because of the color of their fur, the same color as their hair had been. The three beasts quickly closed the distance between themselves and Penelope, and she could do nothing more than try to outrun them, even though she knew she couldn’t. She tried to scream, but her mouth made no sound. She tried to call for help, but she suddenly couldn’t even think of the words she would say. Her legs were so frozen in fear that she stumbled over her own feet and fell backward into the snow, crawling away from three wolves that were big enough to swallow her whole.
She was going to die three houses away from her home, ripped apart without anyone knowing where she had gone or what had happened to her. Would anyone even notice? Would anyone even care?
Penelope watched as the three wolves lunged at her, a scream of pure terror tearing its way out of her body.
But the pain never came.
In fact, the wolves never reached her.
5
Penelope thought she had seen everything, and then she realized how wrong she was. Nothing could have ever prepared her for the scene that took place in front of her.
Fighting against the wolves that had attacked her were two other wolves: they were around the same size as the two black wolves, smaller than the gray one, except that their coats were colored a dull orange color, almost as if they were giant foxes. After a few seconds, Penelope couldn’t distinguish one wolf from another. She could only see flashes of black and grey and orange, as the creatures slashed at each other and fangs bit into flesh. It was a mass of snarls, growls, and whines of pain and fur being scratched off by giant paws and skin-piercing claws as the five creatures rolled in the snow and tossed around beneath the lampposts illuminating the snow-covered street.
Penelope still felt frozen to the ground, unable to get her legs to respond to her. She could feel her entire body shaking while she tried to stand up, but at least the two orange-colored wolves had bought her more time than what she’d had. She couldn’t help rooting for them, hoping that nothing bad happened to them and that the two of them were enough to fight off the other beasts.
She saw one of the black wolves collapse onto the ground and stop moving, though she couldn’t see if it was dead or just unconscious. He was quickly followed by the second black wolf, and then they both shifted back into their human forms. The only creatures left standing were the orange wolves, who had saved Penelope, and the gray wolf, who had attacked her.
The two smaller wolves didn’t lunge at the gigantic beast. Instead, they simply growled and snarled at him, walking forward on the street so that the gray wolf was forced to retreat. His red eyes focused on Penelope once more, but one of the orange wolves leapt at him and pushed him away before he could do anything. Without looking at Penelope again, the gargantuan wolf glared at the two wolves in front of him, and then he turned back and ran away, disappearing into the darkness of the night. The only sign that he had ever been there was the giant footprints left by his massive paws, accompanied by a thousand other footprints that circled around each other.
The wolf that had made the gray wolf retreat suddenly fell to the ground, and the other orange wolf hurried to his side. Penelope’s legs finally responded to her commands, and as soon as she was standing on her feet, she rushed to the two beasts, knowing that they would not hurt her. They had both protected her, hadn’t they? They wouldn’t have scared the other wolves just so that they could kill her instead, right?
Before Penelope reached them though, she saw the two wolves shifting, just as she had seen the black wolves turn back into their human forms. Their fur began to recede, as if their coats were blankets being pulled back; she saw their paws being replaced by human arms and legs, scratched clothes covering them both. Two people stood in the middle of the street: the one who had collapsed, a man, was being held by his companion, a woman with her hair tied back into a messy and disarrayed ponytail.
Both figures turned to her, and then Penelope stopped dead on her tracks, her eyes widening as she recognized them.
“Alana?” she asked in disbelief, staring at her co-worker, who had her arm wrapped around… “Nico?”
The two siblings were wearing the same clothes Penelope had last seen them with, except that they were scratched and had a few rips here and there. Not only were their clothes scratched, but both of them had some scratches and bruises on their faces. Alana didn’t seem to be hurt all that much, but Nico…
Nico had a bloody cut on his leg that had stained the fabric on his pant leg a dark red. Penelope also noticed a couple of red lines on his forehead and on his cheek, as well as a deeper cut close to his jaw.
He could barely stand up, and Penelope wondered if he was only on his feet thanks to Alana’s arms supporting him. All she wanted to do was rush over to him and embrace him, just to make sure that he was okay, that he was alive after that fight.
“Hey, Penelope,” Nico said, his voice hoarse until he cleared his throat. “I, uh… I know you must have a lot of questions—”
Alana interrupted him. “Penelope, do you think you can help me get him back home? The sooner he can rest, the sooner his wounds will heal.”
Nico seemed to be on the edge of consciousness, his eyes blinking tiredly, and Penelope knew there was no time to argue. He had just saved her life. Helping him was the least she could do.
6
Alana was far stronger than Penelope could have ever imagined. Then again, she was apparently a werewolf, so there must be a lot of things about both her and Nico that Penelope could have never imagined. Although both women helped Nico walk and eventually climb into his bed when they finally reached his home, Alana was definitely the one carrying most of his weight, despite the fact that she had fought against three wolves bigger than her and had ended up hurt in the process.
The room they walked into seemed to be Nico’s. There was not much in it besides the bed, a reclining chair next to it, and a nightstand on the other side of the bed. The room was warm compared to the coldness of the street, so Penelope and Alana had taken off their jackets, working together to carefully remove Nico’s and put all three items of clothing on the back of the recliner.
Alana gestured to the reclining chair with her head, and Penelope immediately collapsed onto it, feeling like her energy had abandoned her body. However, she forced herself to pay attention to whatever Alana told her to do next, in case she needed Penelope to help her with something else.
Nico was breathing heavily, even though his eyes were closed. Penelope was worried that they might not have the necessary equipment to treat his wounds, but Alana explained that they would heal on their own as long as he rested. All they needed to do was clean the blood off his wounds to avoid any infection.
“But,” Penelope began after Alana came back into the room with a bottle of
rubbing alcohol and a cloth, “he’ll… he’ll be fine, right? I mean, his scratches and cuts will heal, right?” Alana sat down on the edge of Nico’s bed.
“Yep,” she reassured her, dampening the cloth with the rubbing alcohol before she used it to clean the blood off Nico’s wounds, starting with the cut on his leg.
Nico hissed in pain, his eyes shut tightly, as he gripped the bedsheets underneath him.
“Oh, quit being a baby,” his sister said, moving the cloth to the cut on Nico’s jaw, and a chuckle escaped from Penelope’s mouth. “I got thrown around as much as you did, and you don’t see me complaining.”
“You didn’t get a cut dangerously close to your neck,” he replied, his eyes still closed.
“You poor thing,” Penelope said, reaching out to hold one of Nico’s hands in her own. Nico’s eyes fluttered open, and he offered her a small smile, his fingers entwining with hers. Then he bit his lip as Alana continued to clean the rest of his scratches.
Once all of the dried blood was gone from his wounds, Alana bent down to kiss his forehead and then fondly ruffled his hair with her hand.
“Get some rest, you big dolt,” she said. Then she turned to Penelope. “I think he’s got a guest room downstairs, but you can stay exactly where you are if you want. I’m gonna go home and call our parents and see what we should do about the gray wolf that got away. You should stick around here for a few days so that we can keep an eye on you though. We don’t know if he’ll try something else. And I bet Nico will be fine with your dog, so I’ll see about bringing him here. And don’t even think about work,” she added just as Penelope opened her mouth to speak. “Right now, that’s the least of our worries.”
Penelope supposed she couldn’t argue with that. She had just been saved from three werewolves, who had wanted to kill her, by two other werewolves, who happened to be her only friend and her brother, whom Penelope felt drawn to in a deeper way than simple physical attraction.
“Well, I’ll leave you two alone then,” Alana said, getting up from the bed to walk to the door of Nico’s room.
“What about your wounds?” Penelope asked her. “Will you be okay?”
Alana smiled at her. “I’ve gotten over worse,” she said, and then she was out of the room.
The fingers interlaced with hers squeezed her hand, and Penelope looked back at the bed to find Nico looking at her, his green eyes as bright and beautiful as the smile on his face.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Penelope barely held back the urge to scoff. “Me? You were the one who fought a giant wolf!”
“It honestly looks worse than it actually is,” Nico mumbled. “I was just… out of practice. I hadn’t shifted in a long time. Almost since I left Evergreen Grove, I think.”
Penelope looked down at their hands. Questions raced through her mind. Nothing seemed real.
“So,” she started. “You and Alana are… werewolves.”
Nico took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
“And you fight other werewolves.”
“We try not to,” he replied. “We only fight the bad ones, who try to hurt people we care about.”
“How did you know where to find me?” she asked.
“We, uh…” Nico cleared his throat. “We kind of… tracked you? You have a very distinctive scent, so it’s no wonder those other shifters found you, too.”
Penelope watched as Nico’s thumb caressed her knuckles.
“Was…?” She licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Was any of what you told me before true?”
“Our family does have a bunch of youth centers scattered across the country, but most of the kids and teens and young adults we take in are shifters like us. Sometimes they’re the only ones in their families, and so they get kicked out or abandoned. Sometimes their families just don’t know how to handle them, so we help them control their shifting and how to deal with it without hurting themselves or others.”
“And why did you come back to Evergreen Grove?”
Nico glanced back down at their hands, and he seemed to take a moment to clear his thoughts before he answered her.
“A few years back,” he began, “a lone wolf started spreading this rumor about a girl who could see the future through her dreams. Most of us didn’t believe it, but some others did, and werewolves from all over the country started looking for this mysterious girl so that they could use her gift for their own benefit.”
Penelope couldn’t help shivering. If Nico and Alana hadn’t shown up when they had… She didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened to her.
“Even if we didn’t believe this stupid rumor,” Nico continued, “we all agreed that we would remain alert, just in case these shifters decided to go after some innocent girl. Then, almost a year ago, Alana called me and said that maybe the rumor was true, because she had just met a young woman who had trouble sleeping at night and suffered from insomnia.”
Penelope’s eyes widened. “Alana… told you about me after she had just met me?”
Nico chuckled. “It was actually more like a few months after. She wasn’t sure if your insomnia meant that your dreams could foretell the future, but she said she’d be on the lookout. And a couple of days ago, she called me again to tell me that she’d felt the presence of more werewolves in Evergreen Grove, and if her suspicions were right and you were the girl they were going after, she might need my help to keep you safe.”
“So…” Penelope tightened her grip on Nico’s hand. “You basically came back to Evergreen Grove… for me?”
She felt the blood rush to her cheeks as she asked the question, fearing what Nico’s answer would be. She didn’t expect for him to squeeze her hand back, nor did she expect the soft smile that overcame his lips.
“I did,” he answered. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
He tugged on her hand, only slightly, and Penelope stood from the reclining chair and sat down on the edge of his bed, where Alana had been sitting only minutes before. She hadn’t noticed, but most of his scratches were already gone, and the deep cut he’d gotten dangerously close to his jaw was almost a scar. He was just as handsome as he had been when he had walked through the door of the coffee shop, as handsome as he had been when they had been so close that Penelope had felt his breath on her face.
“I really want to kiss you,” Nico whispered, and a shy smile took over Penelope’s mouth.
“I really want you to kiss me,” she echoed.
She knew that it was best for Nico if he continued resting, so she scooted closer to him and then leaned down to press her mouth against his.
The moment their lips met, electricity coursed through Penelope’s body, lighting every single one of her nerves on fire. Nico’s hands moved to her waist and tugged her closer, leaving Penelope no other option but to carefully straddle Nico, pressing their bodies as close together as they could possibly be. Her mouth parted above his, and his tongue caressed her lower lip before gently biting down on it.
Penelope cupped Nico’s jaw between her hands, as they kept kissing, while his own hands toyed with the hem of her blouse before they moved beneath it. His fingers trailed up and down her sides, causing her to moan into his mouth. She felt his hardness beneath her, their most private and intimate parts separated by only a few layers of clothes, and she sighed against his lips, her body relaxing on top of his.
Nico’s fingers unbuttoned Penelope’s pants, pushing them down as far as they would go before she kicked them the rest of the way off, leaving her in only her undergarments. Then he grabbed the hem of her blouse and began to pull it up her smooth abdomen, above her chest, until Penelope took it off. Before she could undo her bra, Nico moved his hands to her back and released the clasp, freeing her supple breasts.
Penelope gasped when Nico took one of her firm nipples into his mouth, gently sucking on it, and she bucked her hips forward against his, making them both moan. One of Nico’s hands moved between her legs, softly pr
essing into her center through the fabric of her panties, and Penelope gasped again, rocking her hips into the touch, begging Nico to pleasure her while she pulled Nico’s shirt off.
After he had paid the same amount of attention to both of her breasts with lavish caresses of his tongue, Nico trailed kisses from Penelope’s chest up to her jaw and then to her mouth. He slid his fingers underneath the fabric of her panties and into her wet, hot core, caressing the bundle of nerves inside her. She was so open, so aroused already.
Her breath caught in her throat, as she felt her climax approaching, and as wonderful as his fingers felt in her center, Penelope wanted Nico inside her, and she wanted the two of them to reach their peak together.
Her hands pushed her underwear down before they moved to his pants and undid the button and zipper. Then she helped him slide his underwear and jeans down his legs just enough to free his member, which Penelope sucked into her mouth—only the tip, and only for a second—giving it a small teasing lick of her tongue before Nico was pulling her head back up, capturing her mouth with his.
Penelope carefully raised herself above him, her hands resting against his chest to steady herself. She grabbed the base of Nico’s hardness and held it, as she slowly sank down onto it, and they both released a groan of pleasure when Nico was finally, completely, inside of her. She immediately rested her hands back on his chest so that she wouldn’t lose her balance.
His hands grabbed her hips, helping her raise herself up and down on top of him at the same time he thrust his member into her soaking wet core, and Penelope knew she wouldn’t last much longer. She had never felt such great amount of pleasure and arousal. She focused on the way Nico’s hardness slid in and out of her, every one of his thrusts driving her closer to her climax, as she listened to the grunts and groans he let out.
She was panting for air, and as her orgasm quickly approached her, she glanced down at the beautiful man beneath her and saw the love and devotion in his bright green eyes.