Through the Woods

by Cassandra Johnson

  The brothers were once again at odds with one another because of a woman, Elle wondered if this was to always be their relationship. She didn’t want to cause strife between them even when she wasn’t sure it was her fault it still felt like her own doing.

  “The whole story is going to sound crazy, but I will try to sum it up for you,” Elle responded, she would have talked about anything to try to get the situation between the brothers out of the forefront of her mind. “Apparently Gaerik has read my books and being a werewolf, it made him suspicious, then he got obsessed with me somehow, the Council in Connecticut wants the Chaliceman men dead and so did this other guy. Long story short Marik found out that Gaerik was stalking me and it all kind of went downhill from there.” She conveniently left out the part that she’d slept with Jamal the year before, that he’d raped her and tried to kill her and nearly succeeded in doing so only for the Chaliceman to arrive just in time to save her. Elle still wasn’t sure she understood how she was alive, a wound like the one that she’d sustained would have killed anyone, gypsy or not Elle didn’t understand any of it. Elle didn’t feel special at all.

  “So, that’s it?” Molly looked at her skeptically before her eyes narrowed at Gallen knowing better that this was the man to go to the whole story for. Elle wasn’t going to tell her anything that she thought would upset her. Even when she was a little girl and Lucas pushed her down in the mud Elle took the blame for it.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Humans milled in and out of the storefront as the two brothers entered, the GPS on the Escalade got them to Wal-Mart easily enough but finding a parking space was a different story. Marik finally settled on an area that was two city blocks away from the store. Once inside Gaerik had to force a deep growl into the pit of his stomach. He, of course, did not do his own shopping. Frequently they were delivered to his apartment, or he had his maid pick up odds and ends for him. Marik, on the other hand, seemed unbothered while people turned to cast eyes over the two large males.

  Taking the shopping list out of his pocket he scanned over Elle’s handwriting.

  “How can you stand this?” Gaerik hissed through clenched teeth, he was holding his breath.

  “What do you mean?” His brother asked, directing the cart towards the produce aisle.

  “This.” Gaerik motioned around them.

  So, he had this over his brother? Marik was successful in getting him out of the house, away from Elle. He didn’t want Gaerik spending the day watching Elle’s every move, but he knew that he couldn’t do that forever and his dad was right, in the end, the choice would be up to Elle and she might not want either one of them.

  “Not everyone has a personal shopper, brother.” Marik reminded him, circling around looking for tomatoes, Elle wanted them for some reason so he would make the purchase. She also wanted onions, bananas, canned pineapple, and cornbread mix.

  “Not this,” Gaerik responded. “The smell.” He said taking a breath through his mouth with his nose twitching as he looked at a woman picking out oranges. She was a large woman, in a sleeveless t-shirt with no bra on underneath it, her breasts looked like two large pendulums playing a game of knock-knock under her clothes.

  “You remember our lessons as kids, you get used to it the more you subject yourself to the public –makes it easier to ignore some of the smells like overpowering perfumes and strong body odors, you know that” Marik told him working his way around the produce section and bagging up everything Elle had on the list.

  “Well let’s hurry this up,” Gaerik said snatching the list from Marik’s hand and scanning it over. “A turkey? Why the fuck does she want all of this shit?”

  “Because she’s planning ahead. Thanksgiving is this month and Elle’s betting we will be here a while, you don’t build an army overnight.”

  Shaking his head, Gaerik ripped the list in half and tossed the other half back at his brother. “Fine, let’s get this done as quickly as possible so we can get out of here.” Gaerik turned back the way they’d come in, grabbing a cart of his own and glancing down at the list once more. Marik watched as his brothers head snapped up, eyes darting overhead before he saw the whites of his knuckles tighten around the handle of the cart. Marik just hoped that he didn’t plow some little old woman in a scooter down for getting in his way.

  ~

  Elle suspended the landline the day that she left for Connecticut, the way that it was explained to her was that whenever she should choose to have the phone turned back on she could call up the company and tell them to turn it back on. Elle had paid up the phone bill for that month even though she technically didn’t need to, but at the time she hadn’t wanted any issues. Standing in Molly’s kitchen she called Comcast, giving them the account numbers and answering a list of security questions, some of them made her scratch her noggin for a moment before coming up with the correct response. Kyle, the customer service agent informed her that the phones, cable and internet should be back on within the hour.

  Stretching in her seat, she was tired, dirty and starving and hoping that perhaps by the time she finished her business with the phones that Gaerik and Marik would be back from shopping. She wanted food, a bath, and a nap.

  “So, where is Gallen’s wife?” Molly asked casually as she lit a fresh cigarette and opened a can of beer, sitting across the table from the young blonde.

  “I believe that she passed away when the twins were boys, or she may have passed in childbirth, Gallen never had any interest in women afterward I guess.” It occurred to Elle that while they were in this mad situation together, she didn’t know diddly squat about the man.

  “He’s very handsome,” Molly commented taking a sip from her beer long enough to leave a questionable silence between them.

  “I suppose he is, yes. In a very Harrison Ford type of way.” Elle mused slightly before glancing at her neighbor a moment, attempting to hide the fact that she wanted to smile.

  “He does look a bit like Ford, doesn’t he?” Molly laughed sliding the cigarettes across the table to Elle.

  “And he’s very kind.” Elle didn’t think that she necessarily needed to talk Gallen up, but she also wasn’t sure how Gallen would feel about being found attractive. She didn’t know much at all.

  “I should start getting in touch with people to let them know you are here,” Molly said changing the subject very quickly as if she had heard Elle’s thoughts.

  “I’m not sure right now is the time to have a reunion,” Elle said softly.

  “No, honey. I mean the other wolves. We need to start getting the packs together.”

  “There are packs here in Arkansas?”

  “Of course, Sam was Alpha in his time but eventually when he was passing Lucas went through the trails and fought and took his place.” Molly looked surprised at how little Elle knew.

  “Nana never told me any of this.” She admitted softly as she looked away, slowly picking at her overgrown fingernails.

  “Grace wanted to protect you from that world, she always told me so, but I always hoped that maybe she would have told you before she passed.”

  “She told me stories about wolves,” Elle spoke up. “I never knew any of this was real until the Chaliceman men came into my life and by then I was knee deep in a situation I could barely get a handle on. It’s kind of crazy isn’t it though? They are sort of like an extended part of my family that I never even knew that I had and then I grew up and decided to go back to Connecticut and end up in this mess.”

  “I think in part it was supposed to happen this way, fate has a way of weaving those threads of life so that no matter what we try to leave behind, we’re once again gathered into the fold.” Molly leaned over, taking one of her hands. “Don’t be afraid. We’re all a part of this, you were meant to be with them in one way or another.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Elle is back?” The voice of Lucas Pritchett carried over the telephone.

  “Yes, you heard me, and I need you to call a gather
ing. Elle came home with three wolves, Chaliceman.”

  The name was familiar of course, the news about what was happening up North had spread far and wide –as well as the Chaliceman family’s deaths when they had tried to kill the head of the Council. Lucas was interested to hear how they’d miraculously survived the beheading. Apparently, not all the rumors were true.

  On the contrary, Lucas had only listened in passing, they were northern wolves. Whatever problems happened in their territories weren’t any of his concern. Lucas had enough to handle within his own pack.

  The Connecticut wolves were the only known pack to initiate a Council, but the rest of the world, including his pack, still operated in the old ways. Lucas was only eighteen when he became Alpha, and the weight was a heavy burden to someone who couldn’t even legally drink yet. If his mother hadn’t passed away, she would have taken over when his grandpa was ready to step down until Lucas was older, but instead, he shouldered the responsibility and carried himself with pride.

  “I’ve heard something about what’s going on up North, gran, but I never imagined that Elle might be involved in it somehow. This is all pretty crazy. The truth can change from one ear to another.”

  “Whatever you’ve heard, remember that you grew up with this girl. Elle came home for help, and we’re going to do everything we can to help her.”

  “I’ll come by in the morning and talk to Elle, try to get the full story, and we will go from there. I don’t want to call a meeting until we know what we’re dealing with.”

  “Whatever you feel is best, dear.”

  ~

  “Don’t worry about the dishes, I’ll get them.” These were the first words Marik had uttered since they got back from the store. Gaerik disappeared out the back door, almost immediately after returning, muttering something about needing to stretch his legs. He also left his clothes behind.

  Gaerik still hadn’t returned, Elle cooked and served dinner to keep herself busy, Molly also joined them for a cup of coffee after supper. Lucas was coming over in the morning to talk to them. Even while they sat around the table discussing what was to come in the morning, Elle kept glancing back at the kitchen window, or the back door waiting for some sign of his reappearance. All of this without Gaerik present had sent her into a whirlwind of chaotic thought patterns. Elle knew the wolves of her books, but she knew nothing of the ones that surrounded her. Was this typical behavior of Gaerik?

  At Marik’s request, she nodded, once more looking out of the kitchen window before closing the blinds. Smiling at Gallen as he sat sipping his tea she gave him a half-hearted shrug of the shoulders before going upstairs to retrieve the few nighttime toiletries she possessed for a bath.

  Elle was so sure that coming here was the right thing to do, but now she wasn’t confident anymore. Aside from Molly, she couldn’t count any allies that they had, and now Gaerik’s cagey behavior had her on edge too.

  What if he’d decided that this was a lost cause and abandoned ship?

  Closing the bathroom door behind her, Elle leaned against it and let her shoulders sag. Was she kidding herself?

  Coming here felt like the right thing to do, but was it just a means to an end? An end where they all were carted away in body bags?

  Turning the hot water on, her thoughts continued to drift and torment her.

  Again, she tried to give herself council, where else could they have gone? After the attack at Gallen’s own home, Elle found it difficult to believe they were safe anywhere in Connecticut. Harried aside, what allies did they have?

  Jamal’s face loomed to her memory; Marik treated him like a brother actually he was closer to Jamal than he ever seemed to be with Gaerik. He trusted Jamal with his life and look at the monster he turned out to be? Jamal killed two women and attempted to make Elle herself a third so that the Council would have no problems turning against the Chaliceman family. Not that they had a lot of love for them.

  Dumping two caps of bubble bath into the running water, the bottle was old, something from beneath the cabinet –bubble bath didn’t expire, did it? Either way, she figured that it was too late now as she sunk down into the water. She had to put her fears to rest. This was, in her opinion, the only option available, what were they supposed to do? Stay in New Haven and wait to be found? No. Elle had to believe that they were backed into a corner; otherwise she was going to drive herself crazy with the ‘what ifs’ of the whole situation.

  This was where they were, and this was where they had to make their stand. It was just that simple and if Elle had to tell herself that ten thousand times a day then she would do it. It was a miracle that they hadn’t all been asleep the night of the fire.

  Leaning back in hot water she thought back to the way the flames had utterly engulfed Marik’s bed. That could have been them. There was a reason they were here and alive now, and it had to mean that they were going to make it through this.

  Elle was broken from her thoughts when a soft knock came at the bathroom door, then the slight creak of the knob turning.

  “It’s just me, may I come inside?”

  “Sure.” Sighing she pulled the shower curtain a little closer around the tub so that the only thing visible were her calves and feet. Not that she felt like Marik was a peeping tom, but she wanted to keep a small degree of modesty between them at the least.

  “Are you okay?” He asked as the door clicked shut behind him and she heard him set something down on the counter.

  “To be honest, I’m not sure,” Elle admitted after a long pause, considering the question.

  Marik’s hand appeared with a glass of amber liquid and sat it down on the edge of the tub.

  “I thought maybe you could use a drink.” She could see his shadow outside the shower curtain, putting the toilet seat down before he sat on it.

  “I’m ok. I will be anyway.” Elle told him finally before she sat up slightly and took the glass from the edge of the tub and smelled it. Whiskey. She inhaled softly before she gulped it down and sat the glass down. “Did Gaerik leave us?” Elle couldn’t hold her private thoughts at bay anymore and just asked the question she had thought since the twins returned and Gaerik disappeared into the woods.

  “What?” Marik coughed slightly. “No, he was just out running to get rid of some tension. He came in just before I came up to check on you.”

  Elle sat back on the tub wondering how incredibly stupid she sounded.

  “I was afraid he thought we were a lost cause.” She told him shaking her head softly. That was dumb of her. “I’ve been so afraid that we made the wrong choice.” Dunking her washcloth into the hot water, she sat up slightly so that she could run the hot water down her back. “Do you think we made the wrong choice?” Elle asked, tilting her head back slightly as water ran down her back.

  “No.” There was a certainty to his tone that he hoped might help soothe her fears. Taking her glass, he poured another shot of whiskey into the glass and set it down for her, so she could reach it.

  “How do you know that, Marik?”

  “It’s difficult to explain.” He said softly, a low rumble in his throat making his voice thicker either caused by the effect of her naked body just on the other side of the shower curtain or by the burn of the whiskey thickening his vocal cords, warming them in that pleasurable burn.

  “Can you try because I really need some reassurance here that I didn’t just lead us all to the slaughter by coming here.”

  “You didn’t, Elle. Don’t even think like that. I think that everything that has happened has been leading us here the whole time, there is a reason for it. Maybe it’s to get rid of the Council, maybe it was to bring us all back together after what happened to your parents but we’re not going to die. We will walk away from this. I’ll protect you.”

  “Even Gaerik?” Elle asked.

  Before he could even stop himself, he laughed, loud barking laughter before nodding up and down. “Yes, even Gaerik I will protect him too.”

  H
eaving a low sigh, she curled her fingers around her washcloth.

  “You’ve been tense since the night of the fire. Is that because of me?” Elle asked him out of nowhere.

  “Yes.” He didn’t need to lie to her.

  “Why?”

  “I should have sensed that there was something off about Jamal from the beginning and I completely ignored my nature. I didn’t believe what my senses were telling me and because of that it has impacted the way that I saw my brother, it almost got you killed. It’s my fault. Gaerik never liked Jamal and maybe for his own reasons, but he always knew that there was something about him that couldn’t be trusted, and I just pushed it aside like it was nothing.”

  “It’s different now though, you’re smarter. You’re learning from that lesson even if it was like being hit in the back of the head with a two by four.” Elle told him.

  “I know,” He said, his voice growing deeper. “There is one other thing too.”

  “What?”

  “Gaerik still wants you.”

  “So?” Elle questioned as she curled her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

  “He’s going to try to get you,” Marik told her shaking his head somewhat.

  For whatever reason his response made her laugh not meaning to. Elle knew that he was dangerous and that this bothered him.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you, but what does it matter if he tries? Can’t a person try? It doesn’t always mean that they will succeed. Maybe if I had met Gaerik before any of this happened, who knows but don’t let his obsession get to you. Don’t let it bring another rift between you two. You are brothers, and you always will be. Shouldn’t that be more important than his choices? Shouldn’t blood be more important than that?”