I put a fuzzy blanket on the living room floor. Hunter and Connor placed Kayden carefully on the blanket, covering him with the other end.
I watch Kayden and I’m also scared... Beautiful, huge, the long and thick gray fur, he’s so quiet, frail, to see him like this, so vulnerable breaks my heart.
Hunter went to the porch and sat beside Adam, man and wolf, brothers, by the threshold of the house, on the lookout for the enemy.
Hunter petted carefully the brown fur and after a few minutes, he was out of the porch and back to the living room, leaving Adam alone.
He sat looking tired and told me lamenting:
“He won’t come in, I know him... He’s patrolling, waiting some hunter ambush. While Kayden or any of us is in danger, he won’t return to his skin. Sit here Samantha, I have a few things to explain.”
I sat on the couch beside Hunter, worried, what was he going to say? Adam isn’t going to go back being the man I know? Ever again? Is he going to be in his wolf form forever?
“Samantha, we, the Vaughs, descend from a linage of ancient lycans, our blood is half human half wolf, I can lend you countless books so you can understand what we are, but you can understand in a simpler way, it’s better for me to explain it like this. Our father was a lycan, a wolf man who feel in love with a Cherokee, therefore we inherit our father’s wolf blood and the our mother’s warrior blood. We live and adapt ourselves in society like everyone else, but we are different, we have a beast deep inside our souls, and in certain moments, this beast frees itself. We are not complete animals and we are not only humans, we are a mix of the two races, we are proud to be lycans.
“We can’t stop being what we are... who we are!
“When our parents died, Adam being the older one, in lycan tradition, became the leader of our pack, our small group of wolves: Connor, Kayden and me. We’re all lycans under Adam leadership, the oldest and strongest male in our pack, the one with capacity to lead us and take us in this double life we live.”
I blink still trying to absorb all that was said to me, I remain in silence trying to understand the truth that is revealed in front of me, at last, I ask:
“Adam won’t get back to being Adam?”
Hunter gives me a weak smile and pets my back.
“Yes, he will, but not while he think we’re in danger, that we may be ambushed. He’s our Alpha wolf, he’ll only get back to his skin, to be the man you know, when he’s sure Kayden is safe and none of us are in danger.”
And if the danger last longer than the expected?
“How long Hunter?”
Hunter went to the kitchen and brought me a cup of tea. I thanked him and drank it slow. He answered me:
“I don’t know what to say, hours, days, while danger is at bay. This was the duty he was in charged by our ancestors, lycans and Cherokees: to lead our pack, to protect us, to guide us. For that, he’ll remain in his fur, till the danger diminishes or ends.
I go to the bedroom and I can’t sleep again, I wander through the living room, Kayden is still laying down. Defenseless on the floor, a huge wounded wolf, fighting for life.
I won’t be able to sleep without knowing if Adam is alright. I go to the fridge and search for something I could feed Adam with.
I get scared by Hunter entering the house, he must have spend the night without sleeping, worried about Adam. I ask him:
“When you are, like, this way, in your fur, is this how you say it? What do eat?”
Hunter smiled with my confusion to explain it.
“Yes, this is how we say it, in our fur, transformed, anyway, when our wolf is freed we eat chunks of raw meat, sometimes vegetables.”
I look at a tray of raw porterhouse steak, show it to Hunter, he nods, I put it on a plate and as soon as I open the door, Hunter says:
“Be careful, Samantha, if you really want to do this be careful, put the plate down with some distance from him and back away, he knows you, but the wolf now is stronger than the man.”
I put the plate down on the threshold of the door, he approaches fast, sniffs it and eats avidly, scaringly famished.
I see in his shape an enormous strength, at the same time that it scares me, it also attracts me to approach him more and more.
I think that are the eyes, the same eyes I love so much, I recognize them even hidden in his animal shape, that frightens and instigates me.
I sit on the porch bench, the smooth breeze swipes my hair, Adam patrols near me, watching me with his huge brown eyes.
His brown and shinny fur is up, huge paws and sharp claws. The immense and pointy teeth, non docile, beautifully wild, a creature made to rip, dilacerate, devour... but even so, completely beautiful.
I fall asleep on porch bench.
At my feet, Adam finally rests, his neck resting on my ankles, protecting me with his warm body, in this somber dark moon night.
CHAPTER 15
SAMANTHA THOMPSON
I wake up shaking and scared by moaning louder and louder.
“No, let me go, be careful... Adam... Watch out.”
I jump out of the bench and Kayden is laying on the floor completely naked, his body twisted, flopping either way. I go to Hunter bedroom and knock apprehensively, Hunter asks me to wait and opens the door still rubbing his eyes.
“Hunter, Kayden is moaning, laying on the floor, how can I say, I don’t know how to say it right, he came back to normal.”
Hunter is quick.
“Ah! Got it, that’s great, let’s see how he is.”
Hunter gets to the living room and crouches beside Kayden, he’s sweating, his lips are dry, he’s mumbling some words.
I put my hand on his forehead and confirm what I was suspicious of, Kayden is burning in fever.
“Hunter, he has a fever, it seems high, do you have a thermometer?”
He goes to the bathroom and gets the thermometer in the first aid kit.
I check Kayden’s temperature and it’s very high, 107ºF. I suggest we take him to the hospital, but Hunt doesn’t want to.
“It’s better not, Sam, how are we going to explain the poisoned arrow and he’s still weak, while we can we’ll treat him at home, it’s better.”
I go to the porch hoping Adam is back to normal too, but he’s still like yesterday, my heart gets tight, sometimes I pinch myself thinking I’m crazy. I was always a skeptical woman, with my feet on the ground, I would never have thought that wolf man existed, it’s still absurd, not only they exist as well as finding out that the man I love is one of them, him and all his brothers, a family, a pack of wolves.
He’s laying in an alert posture and Hunter gets near me saying in a low voice, as if he was thinking out loud:
“It’s weird that he’s still transformed, patrolling, so alert, someone must be out there looking at us, it’s our instinct, Adam is smelling danger and I can feel it too.”
I don’t know if it’s my lost look, Hunter at looks me and I think he’s saying the truth, it must be their instincts, it’s like Hunter could smell my angst, my doubts, the fear I have of never getting my Adam back like before.
“I know it’s hard for you, I still don’t know how you haven’t gone out running away from here, running from us. What I can say to you is that we’re not the same, regular like other men, we can’t stop being who we are, Samantha, but I guarantee you that we can be much more than wolves, freaks of nature, we can love and when we love we are capable of defending the people we love with our lives if necessary. Adam loves you Sam, if were able to see his heart, his soul beyond that shape that’s out there, beyond the fact that he’s not like any other man you had, I know no other man will love you like him, Samantha, you can be sure of that.”
I remain in silence taking it in everything that Hunter said, soon after he finishes making the plaster and tea for Kayden, a mix with a variety of herbs that Adam kept in a brown case.
“There potions of roots, plaster, all these traditions we acquired from our mother, she ta
ught us the Native American knowledge of the leaves to protect us from the hunters. Twice dad almost died, like Kayden, wounded by a poison arrow, but she treated him with herbs and potions from her people, and he survived. Kay will get out of this one, I’m sure of it, I only get insecure because the best person to make the plasters is Adam, mom taught him a lot of what she knew, but while he’s protecting us outside, I have to do this, I hope to God I’m doing it all right.”
I encourage Hunter to keep going, we can only count on him.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to do it, you just have to be calm and as you said: trust your instincts.”
“Thanks, Sam, thank you for being here with us.”
Connor woke up and came straight to the living room, he was surprised to find Kayden in his “normal” state.
“Kay, yo... you’ll get be... better, I st... still have to ki...kick your a... ass, kid.”
I cheer up and hug Hunter and Connor.
“Did you see, he opened his eyes, let’s have faith boys, he’ll get better, Kay is young and strong, he’ll get out of this.”
We spend the night taking turns in checking Kayden’s temperature, his fever was still very high and that worried me too much, but he opened his eyes twice, Connor made hot chocolate for both of us and now he and Hunter are napping for a while.
Adam naps by the door and I watch him from a distance, without knowing exactly what to think and how will our relation be after the reveal of this other side that he always tried to hide, he and I have a lot to think about, but now the most important thing is to get Kayden out of danger and he needs to recover from his wound.
I called and asked John a day off at Mathews, he asked if I’m in some kind of trouble, I lied saying that it wasn’t anything serious and today I’ll be in the house to take care of Kayden. He’s oscillating from waking up and falling in deep asleep again, his fever broke down a little, but he’s still very pale and very weak.
Connor went to work, even though Hunter said he wasn’t supposed to, Hunter insisted on no one leaving the ranch, when Connor got back by night fall, before we locked all the doors, we hear Adam howling, making Hunter and Connor be in an alert state, Connor runs to the bedroom and returns with a gun and a knife, he gives the knife to Hunter and keeps the gun. They run to the porch, agitated and tense, telling me to get in quick and lock the house. Hunter strangely smells out the air and says:
“Sam, get in and lock everything, don’t get out for anything, do you understand?”
I nod nervously, lock the living room door and go to Adam’s bedroom looking for a hunting knife I know he keeps it under the mattress.
I get back to the living room and I hear Hunter telling Connor to cover the back of the house while he protects the front.
The events occur really fast, like a nightmare in which it takes some time to be able to wake up.
Adam puts himself in attack position, his ears are up, he’s growling and grunting towards the trees, the sounds that he’s making make me feel terror inside.
He runs like mad, his face distorted with anger, by the killer instinct of killing, he has his fangs out, going towards the front gate.
I can hear the movements of someone moving behind the trees and then after a few seconds, the agonizing sounds of tearing flesh takes over the place.
And screams, a lot of screams, terrifying, hideous, my entire body shakes without being able to control my fear.
Two shots are fired, one after the other and then nothing, just silence.
The silence is even more distressing than the screams, because I know this is not any silence, is the silence of death.
I unlock the door even against Hunter’s order and run desperately towards the trees, Adam is not there, there’s not a sign of anyone, only a wallet left on the ground.
Hunter and Connor come after me, they get the wallet that was left behind and Connor drags me by the waist to the house, while I struggle desperately because of Adam.
I sit on the porch and my body is shaking so much I can’t control it, I trash about and sob, I don’t have the courage to speak out loud, but he can only, he can only...
HE CAN ONLY BE DEAD...
Why I can’t have the people I love? Why do I have to lose all that insist in getting near me? I should have never gotten involved with Adam. There were two shots, only two shots and then sepulchral silence. The so called hunters must have shot him and to make things worst, they’ll probably get in here to kill us all.
I pace around murmuring to myself, feeling reason getting distant from me, they are going to kill us all, just like they’ve killed Adam.
Hunter yells at me trying to get me out of my hysteria and I dive even deeper in unbearable pain.
“He may still be alive, listen to me, I’m getting the car now, if they did this to Adam, I may even die after, but I promise I won’t let them live.”
Hunter gets the car keys and Connor takes care of Kayden trying to dry his tears.
We got to the porch and again a shadow moves behind the huge pine trees at the ranch entrance.
Hunter points the gun towards the trees and is ready to shoot when he smells out the air and throws the gun on the ground.
He covers his face with his hands and his knees buckle.
Adam walks towards us, naked, his skin covered with dirt and flesh blood.
I’m afraid of getting closer to him, the flesh in my body is trembling, my muscles stiffen to think.
Is he hurt? God, don’t let him die in front of me.
As if he could guess my angst, he talks to me in a hoarser tone than usual:
“All this blood is not mine, Sam.”
I go running towards him and Adam steps back.
His eyes are still skittish, I look him up and down and every centimeter of his skin is covered in blood and mud. Adam raises his arms for me to stop, still disturbed and out of himself, pointing to his naked self, dirty and wounded.
“Look at me, please, no, I need to clean myself from all this, this dirty, all this blood, this smell of death, no, Sam, go back home with Hunter.”
Hunter smiles at Adam and some tricky tears escape his eyes, he huffs and sighs longly, saying to Adam:
“You gave me a hell of a scare, old man, the through in the back is full, I’ll get you a towel, come, Sam, lets get inside, Adam will be back soon.”
Adam strides to the back of the ranch and I accompany Hunter, I try to contain myself, but the joy of seeing Adam back takes over me and is too much. My heart is beating fast and unruly, I pass by to Connor who’s cleaning Kayden’s head with a wet towel and I go to Adam’s bedroom, to our bedroom. I get two warm towels in the bathroom cabinet and I exit the bedroom with the towels on my shoulder, going to the back of the ranch.
Hunter gets near and asks worried:
“Wouldn’t you prefer for me to take him the towel? These last few days has been really shitty, Adam is like crap, Sam, he still needs some time to get back to himself, I don’t know if it’s safe.”
I pass by Hunter determined and before closing the kitchen door, I say:
“I understand, Hunter, but I don’t care, I need to see him well with my own eyes.”
The area in the back of the ranch is dark, lit only by a weak lamp by the well, all the deep confidence I had just shown Hunter has escaped me. The truth is that I’m a pile of nerves, scared and insecure, I don’t know if the Adam I’m going to find is the same man I met and fell in love with, I don’t know if his feelings have changed.
I can’t pretend nothing happened: HE’S A WOLF, A FUCKING DAMN WOLF, that’s a fact, I can’t pretend I was dreaming, that’s I imagined everything and just throw it under the carpet.
I escaped from New York wanting to put my life back on tracks, to get back to a normal life, to get out of the swirl of things and what happens here in Portland? I fall in love with a sheriff while being investigated for robbery, at the highest point of my intelligence I decide to get involved with a man of the law, th
at would have all the reasons to hand me to justice and to top it all my shit quota, undeniably the man I love if a wolf man or a werewolf, I don’t even know what he is and what to think!!!
All that would already be very absurd wasn’t for his revelation about his other identity, the danger that almost got me killed, even so, instead of running miles away from here, I run towards it, to his arms, the only place where I want to be.
Adam is sitting in a huge wooden trough, his arms relaxed on the borders and his eyes instantly locked on mine.
I approach him with hesitating steps, I see his clean body, his skin full of scratches and wounds, but what scares me are his eyes: wild, intense, predatory.
He’s watching me coming closer and I see his nostrils dilate, a deafening silence is upon us, Adam is different, as if a shadow, a strange force was consuming him. I get to the edge of the through and put the two towels in a small wooden stool.
“I brought you towels.”
Adam answers me, raising his eyebrow.
“Just that?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
“I asked you if you came here just for that, little bunny.”
I breath relief, he called me little bunny, the nickname he gave, but his eyes are different: raw, wild, wanton.
“I came to see if you were alright.”
He gives a straight answer:
“Do I look alright? Look at me, Samantha, look deep in my eye and tell me what you really see.”
I try to show confidence but the words got tangled in my mouth, so I stutter:
“I, I se... see you, Damy.”
He shakes his head and is quiet, without taking his eyes off of me for a second.
“It’s bad to lie, what should I do to you, little tasty bunny?”
Before I can answer him, he stops me and speaks with a smooth low voice, very slowly, almost in a whisper:
“Take. Off. Your. Clothes. Little. Bunny.”
I look to the back door, trying to see if someone can see me taking off my clothes, seeing me hesitating, Adam orders me again:
THE STRAGGLERS PROTECT Page 12