Katey’s thoughts ran back to when she had passed to the other side and got to see her parents for the first time. She sighed and nodded. “I know... She’s beautiful.”
“You saw her?” Michael asked, a string of excitement in his voice as he crouched down next to her bed.
Katey turned to him and nodded an affirmative. “And my father... They were both there... She says hello.”
She saw a wealth of pain and gratitude in his eyes, and just like with Logan’s joy, she felt it in her own soul. She wasn’t the only one who had been separated from her family for eighteen years. Not only were they bound by blood, but by a common grief that they could share and empathize in.
“I’m glad I got to see them, at least once,” Katey mumbled.
“I am, too... Oh, I almost forgot.” Michael reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out a red rose. It appeared to be a little crushed from the ride it took in his coat on the way there. “Martel told me to give this back to you.”
Katey carefully took it from his hands and sniffed the petals like she had the other night. It still smelled just as sweet as it had then, but it no longer held the same meaning somehow. Hearing Martel’s name and learning that after everything, he still wanted her to keep the gift, Katey felt next to nothing. His spell over her had been broken in light of all that had happened. Even though she would never return Martel’s affections, she would never forget him.
“Are you going to stay?” Katey asked Michael, hoping that he would. He was the only living blood family she had left and she wanted to hear all about her parents. Not only that, but he was the only one who might have known about the prophecy and the spirit of peace. He could tell her everything that she needed to know and she had so many questions.
“Alas, I have been given orders.” Michael smiled proudly.
Katey nodded her understanding, knowing that the spirit of the princess had given him the assignment to go recreate a joint council of loups-garous and vampires. It’d be a difficult task, but the spirit knew he would be perfect for the job. After all, they were familiar with one another.
She was sure there would be opposition. Vampires and loups-garous alike would be too absorbed in their hatred to put down their airs. But with time, Michael and John would do whatever was necessary for the sake of peace.
“I will be in touch. Now that I have found you, I won’t lose you again.” He stood up, planted a tender kiss on the crown of her head, and turned to walk back toward the window.
Katey glanced down to Logan and remembered their inevitable mating and turned back to Michael to invite him to it whenever it would happen. But he had disappeared as if into thin air, leaving no trace of his vampire scent.
Something told Katey he would be there somehow, even if she didn’t invite him formally. He would find a way and they would speak again. When that time came, she would ask all of her questions. In the meantime, she had a life to live and training to continue with her pack.
Her stiffened muscles protested as she tried to sit herself up and stretch out her back to place the rose on the side table next to her bed.
The movement must have woken Logan up. He took a deep inhale and looked up to Katey, his blue eyes bright and glistening in the dimmed lights.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey.” He kissed the back of her hand, all the love in his heart pouring from his lips.
Katey gripped his fingers tighter and smiled. “So, that was a little crazy, huh?”
Logan chuckled and sat himself up onto the cot, still holding her hand between his. “Yes, it was... I thought I lost you.”
“You did, at least for a couple of minutes.”
Katey then proceeded to tell him about meeting her parents.
“I’m glad you got to see them,” he said. “But, I’m gladder that you didn’t stay with them,” he said.
She nodded and they were silent for a moment, as they gazed into each other’s eyes, overjoyed to be together again. After all that had happened, it was the simple things that made the moments worthwhile. Just to hear his heartbeat pumping strong, feeling his pulse in her hand, and knowing that he was alive and well.
“I changed,” Katey finally said, her words woven with awe and delight.
“Yes, you did... You look so beautiful in white.”
They both laughed. “Who all saw me?”
Logan looked away, recalling who all had been there. Dustin and Ben, of course. Gregory, Erik, Forrest, and several of the Devian pack were also there. But no other alphas. John and Darren didn’t get to witness her magnificent change or the proclamation of peace. The two loups-garous whom she wanted to prove herself to hadn’t been there to see her in her glorious emergence into her full form, but there would be plenty more chances to show them.
“Oh, I forgot that I was supposed to call the guys when you woke up.”
Logan quickly pulled out his cellphone and speed dialed Darren, who picked up on the first ring. Logan told him the message, and then tucked it away into his jeans. Katey suspected the guys would be here within a matter of seconds.
“So, what all happened after I passed out? Is everyone okay?” Katey asked.
Logan related to her how they took the vampire’s helicopter up and over the mountains to the lodge. Himself, Katey, Dustin, Michael, and Forrest were the ones who took the flight. Ben was put in charge of getting the remaining Devians over the mountain on foot and the two rougarous went off on their own. Katey was sure she would see them again in Crestucky.
He told Katey about how they had met Michael and gotten better acquainted with him during the flight. Michael had related the entire story of her parents, his involvement, about the feud, the prophecy, and brought them up to speed on everything involving what they had witnessed back at the castle.
He told her that when they had all arrived, the families of the loups-garous were waiting at the lodge, worried sick for their loved ones. Darren and John hadn’t arrived with the others yet.
Dustin explained to the families that Darren and John were leading the others over the mountain and that they wouldn’t arrive until later. As soon as the helicopter arrived, the lodge cooking staff started preparing as much meat as he had for those that would be coming in with Darren and John. They arrived a couple of hours after Katey’s group did and everyone was fed as much as they could stand before being rushed to the clinic for any emergency care they needed.
Katey asked if they had lost any in captivity and in the battle.
“A few Devians were killed in the fight. Several were injured that managed to make it out, but their wounds healed slowly because of starvation. We lost one in the cell, a young one who couldn’t control his hunger. We carried the body back for his family.”
The battle in the castle had been a massacre of loups-garous and vampires. She remembered the blood and carnage so vividly and knew that it would take a long time to erase such images from her mind. It would have been naïve to think that they would all escape unscathed, but somehow, she wished that the death toll hadn’t been so high. She wanted to believe that this whole fiasco wasn’t her fault, but she couldn’t wish away the nagging guilt that if she hadn’t provoked Erik, none of this would have happened.
All she could do was carry on, mourn those who had given their lives, and learn from their mistakes. An era of peace was dawning and if Katey had anything to do with it, no more blood would be shed. But, like Logan had said so long ago, death was part of their lives. Violence might not be avoidable.
Just then, her pack charged into the clinic, all wearing grins and clean clothes. They looked better too, full and well nourished. It was like everything had returned back to normal and her soul rejoiced beyond words.
They all approached her bed. Darren sat on the edge of the cot, opposite from Logan while Dustin and Ben stood on either side of her. At first, she thought there would be a bit of awkwardness, now that they knew she was someone special, the one who fulfilled the ancient prophecy and
saved the loups-garous and vampires from waging more war on each other. But they were the same men as before, giving her kind and reverent smiles for the girl that she always had been, not who she was now.
They all expressed how happy they were to see her awake and that she was okay. Ben brought a snack of beef jerky, the last of their reserve snacks from the trip, and offered it out to her. Katey gratefully took it and chewed on the stick, savoring the tasty flavor. It wasn’t until the last minute that she noted it was jalapeño flavor, Darren’s favorite.
“So, how do you feel now that you’re fully a loup-garou?” Darren asked.
Katey took a deep breath and shook her head. “Honestly, I was so worried that I didn’t belong anywhere. Not with humans or loups-garous. Before I changed, the loup-garou part of me was fading away and I was scared that I’d be human again. Now that I know beyond a doubt that I am loup-garou, it’s a relief. It’s like I know who I am now.”
The guys exchanged peculiar, confused looks and then turned back to her.
“We didn’t know you felt like that,” Dustin stated.
Katey grimaced, remembering the days spent in mental anguish as she wrestled with the thought of whether she was loup-garou or not. Those days were behind her and there was nothing to stop her from excelling as a member of their pack.
“After I didn’t change and how I wasn’t getting burned by the silver, I felt like I wasn’t really a part of the pack. I wasn’t even getting that hungry for a while and the wolf inside me wasn’t doing anything.”
Logan pressed the back of her fingers to his lips and shook his head. He had shared the same fear when she told him that day when they walked in the snow, but that seemed ages ago and it no longer mattered. All that mattered was that she was alive, safe and indeed, a loup-garou with them.
“No matter what would have happened,” Ben said, “you would have always belonged here with us. You were one of the pack even before you changed.”
“And that makes you family,” Darren added.
She never knew they accepted her so unconditionally as a human. Darren had mentioned it a few times before, but it never quite hit her the way it had now.
All she could do was utter a soft thank you.
She gazed up into Logan’s rich blue eyes, and remembered when she had seen his face in her first moments of death. She thought he had never looked more handsome and she would never forget the loving sparkle in his eyes. Katey wouldn’t forget any of their faces. When she died again, she knew she would relive this moment.
This was the moment when Katey finally realized where her home had always been. She had found her family.
Sneak Peek into “Beast Within”
With Katey’s hand firmly gripped in Logan’s, they walked through the north entrance of the high school. The halls were already teeming with bustling teenagers and faculty as they made ready for another day. Katey smiled as she watched some hustle to first period while others leaned against the painted brick walls and talked with their friends.
She remembered the first time she walked through the halls as a newly turned loup-garou. The chaotic cacophony of laughter and shouts were overwhelming. Not to mention the myriad of odors and scents that assaulted her newly refined senses. It had been a harrowing ordeal, to say the least. Now, Katey had learned to tune them out and focus only on what she wanted to smell and hear. With Logan’s coaching, she was able to integrate back into student life with surprising ease. Even Darren was impressed with how quickly she progressed in her training as a “pup”.
As they made their way to first period – Darren’s environmental science class – Katey met the gazes of other loup-garou students she had met in the last few weeks. Some of them had been with her pack on the trip to Alaska, and it took a while to get over the image of their dirt smudged faces behind silver bars. Against the odds, they had made a full recovery, and no human was the wiser to what they had suffered on their winter break.
Just like every other day, these loups-garous bowed their heads as a show of respect and appreciation to Katey. It was unsettling the first day they returned, and one freshman boy came up to Katey and kissed the back of her hand until it was glistening with saliva. When she looked to Logan for help, he only smiled and told her the fellow loup-garou was only expressing his gratitude.
When the freshman lifted his head, Katey recognized him as one of the younger loups-garous that was on the edge of death when they finally escaped the castle. He had a right to be grateful, and from then on, Katey took it all in stride.
A scent caught Katey’s attention, and she turned to see her friend, Lily, practically skipping through the masses toward her. Katey grinned and let Lily pounce on her with her usual bubbly giddiness. How they had maintained their friendship through their differences, Katey would never know. They were nearly exact opposites.
“It’s so good to see you!” Lily cried, tossing her wavy blonde hair over one shoulder as she pulled away from the bear hug.
Katey laughed. “It was just a weekend!”
“I know,” Lily groaned dramatically. “But you won’t believe how much fun we had at the studio last Saturday! You would have loved it.”
Katey’s smile faltered for only a fraction of a second. Since they arrived back from Alaska, Darren pressured her into quitting her jobs. Her position at the bookstore was already slipping with her extended leave of absence, and it wasn’t hard for Katey to give it up, but Darren had wanted her to drop volunteering on the weekends at the ballroom dance studio on Main Street, at least until she had completed her training.
It broke her heart to tell Lily and Forrest. Forrest understood, but Katey could already feel the strain between her and Lily. They only shared one class together and those few minutes in passing each weekday was not enough for either of them.
Katey had one thing in common with Lily that she didn’t have with Beth, her other close friend. Lily knew about loups-garous. In fact, she was engaged to one. Lily had known about loups-garous long before Katey did. She was the only human to know her secret and Lily was like a lifeline to Katey in more ways than one.
The few times they were able to talk on the phone, Katey splurged details about her struggle to get a hold of pack dynamics and all the difficulties in learning to change. Instead of being horrified or disgusted, Lily offered advice based off her own experiences with Forrest and his pack, the Devians. Katey felt as though she had more freedom to talk to her than Beth or sometimes even Logan. Although, she was sure Logan heard every word of their conversations on the phone.
“I wish I could have been there too,” Katey replied. This past weekend had been consumed with training and staying cooped up in the house.
Lily’s eyes glanced to Logan, and she lost a little of her excitement. “I understand why you couldn’t be there,” she said as they began to walk together toward the hallway where Katey’s locker was located. “Maybe Darren will let you come out to the next party. It’ll be this weekend. Plenty of time to plan.”
“I don’t know if Darren will agree,” Logan intercepted before Katey could reply. “But it’s worth asking if you feel up for going, Katey.”
She still felt a little jolt of pleasure when he said her name. “I’ll have to remember to ask him when we get home today.”
They chatted for a little longer, mostly about the fact that Lily’s parents would be out of town for the next two weeks on an extended anniversary trip to Europe. Lily would be spending most of her time with Forrest, of course, but Katey wondered if her short burst of freedom from her parents would mean they could hang out more as well. After they had finished talking, Lily broke away to go to her first-period class on the other side of the school.
Katey and Logan were about to round the corner when Katey caught a whiff of something that didn’t seem familiar. It was a wonder she could detect it in this crowd, but Katey was sure she smelled something like dog. This wasn’t the faint scent of dog hair on a student’s clothes, as she sniffed tha
t many times throughout the day. This was much stronger.
They turned, and Katey froze. Halfway down the hall was a man dressed in an officer’s uniform, holding a leash for a German Shepherd that was vigorously sniffing the base of the lockers. It was something she had seen many times before at school. It was practically routine for the police station to check for illegal drugs at the high school. However, this didn’t seem right somehow.
Logan stopped too, and Katey felt his grip tighten and tremble. She looked at him and saw an emotion she had seen so often in him. His blue eyes, usually so calm and loving, turned cold as he glared at the officer and his dog. His body went rigid, every muscle tensing as if ready to fight or run. Buried deep within his fiery stare, Katey could see a twinge of fear leak through.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. They had been around dogs and policemen before, and Logan never reacted this way. “I’m sure it’s just drug dogs. They make the rounds at public schools every few months.”
Logan didn’t respond, and she looked back to the dog and its owner. The animal lifted its brown muzzle and sniffed the air. The shepherd’s fierce brown eyes locked on them and went into a barking frenzy that startled everyone in that hallway. Students jumped away, and a few girls shrieked as the dog strained against its leash. Jaws snapped and growled as it stood on its hind legs, eager to charge Logan and Katey.
Katey flinched and felt the unmistakable urge to run like a frightened deer.
Logan wasted no time and bolted into a run down the hall in the direction they came from. Katey kept pace with him, too confused and startled to ask Logan any questions just yet as they bobbed and weaved through the throng of students and faculty who shouted at them to slow down.
They arrived at Darren’s classroom and thankfully it was empty. They stood at the threshold as Darren was already making his way to meet them. She could tell that even he was a little confused by Logan’s intensity.
“They’re here!” Logan barked out.
Becoming the Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 2) Page 46