I felt tired, like it was taking all the energy I had to be conscious, to be alert as possible, to hold onto things. My arms ached and burned from strain, my feet were sore from pushing against whatever surface I could find, trying to hold myself down and in place with grip. I was fighting an impossible force. Nature was having a bad day.
The cold was seeping into me and I could still feel glass shards being ground into my head, I tried to pick them out, unsuccessfully. My clothing was either torn and I was exposed to more cold than I had been before or there was water coming in somewhere. I opened my eyes and spared a glance. I still couldn’t see a damn thing. I could only feel and I felt wet, but I felt wet all over.
My senses were messed up. I couldn’t tell what was going on. And I had no idea where Megan was, where Paris was or how they were. I had to hope they were both doing better than I was. Because I started coughing against the wind. Although I was beginning to think of it more just as dirt filled air. My chest was burning from trying to breathe through it and my eyes, even shut, were watering.
Without warning the ground I was lying on opened up and I felt myself fall, a small distance to another hard surface and then I was face down in water. This time I could differentiate the difference. If I had to guess, I’d think I had fallen through the houses floor boards onto the ground underneath.
I sputtered at the water and lifted my head. I couldn’t sit up because I would be back up in the vortex above me again. Not that I could tell that there was that much difference below, wherever I was. Other than it felt a fraction easier to breathe and my ears didn’t seem to pop. Maybe deafness had kicked in. It was hard to say given there was only one sound I could make out and it was constant.
The wind was cruel mixture of howling roars and screaming banshees. I couldn’t make out anything else. It was like a constant form of white noise that just pierced my brain. I had a headache the size of the whole of the continental united states and my fingernails felt like they’d been ripped off me.
I wondered how much longer I would have to endure the hurricane. How much longer I could and then something heavy and awkward fell onto my side and I felt winded. My head twisted around above the waterline I was submerged in. Water licked at my ear and I tried to keep my face facing what I thought was up, above whatever the water line was. I couldn’t move my arm, it was trapped underneath the object on me. It was too heavy to move with the pressure of the wind grinding it down into me. Far too heavy and hard for me to move. I couldn’t shove it off me with my one good arm that was free.
I lay trapped under it. My hip felt like it was on fire. I couldn’t feel below my waist and when I tried to free my arm, agony shot through it. Probably broken. I lay in an awkward twisted heap and I tried to concentrate on calling my werewolf out. But concentration was impossible. And I wasn’t sure it was fair on my wolf self to suffer through this any more than it was my human self. I didn’t think the survival rate would improve my odds any more than they currently seemed to be.
Water soaked my hair and I felt it at my chin. I tried to partially shift my legs and arms, maybe I just needed power to push whatever the hell had fallen on me and possibly busted a rib cage, off of me. Pain zigzagged through my side and I gritted my teeth. I wanted to howl but I knew there was no point. My howl would not carry on this wind and it would be shredded to pieces the minute it left my mouth. Nobody would hear it. I couldn’t figure out the shape shift.
Just when I’d learnt of my latent fucking abilities, just when I needed them most, they were going to fail me! It was like my body was reverting back to what it knew, only being a beta werewolf in distress. Letting the trauma and stress of my situation hold me back from the only possible escape clause I could manage under the circumstances.
Then something weird happened. I had no idea how long I’d been under the house, straining to keep my head up and afloat out of the waterline. Or how long the black had been encasing the world. I vaguely remembered it had been evening time when the storm started. There was a drop in pressure and the screaming wind retreated. Just disappeared. It was like a blink.
9
At least I think it did, but my ears burned with a numb signal filling frequency in them. It was hard to tell. Just as a wave of water dumped on me and I found myself completely submerged under it. Water poured into my mouth and I gagged. I had to move, but I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. And the water, it rose and rose and dragged me down under it. Going up my nostrils and into my eyes. It was as murky black as the vision I’d seen above. It was an abyss. I opened my eyes and could make out light around me, off to the sides, of murky shapes, around me and of the bathtub that had me pinned to the ground. It was filled with debris.
I tried to wiggle free. Beyond three minutes ten and I would be dead. It was really that simple. That was as long as I could hold my breath for. But it was near impossible to get any movement, any friction against me and the tub. Besides which I had no adrenaline left in my body. I’d been thrown around and hit from pillar to post and my body was sore and aching and in various degrees of uncomfortable pain. I wasn’t sure it had anything else left within it to fight with.
Still, I concentrated and in the depth of the abyss I closed my eyes and thought of my wolf and the cub growing inside me. That calmed me down enough to concentrate. I felt a change in my lower body and as I wiggled against the tub, some part of the uneven debris I was half laying on gave way. Giving me enough room to move and to push up with my legs. I held it off me with my thighs and moved myself around, under water as best I could. I was almost free when my sneaker’s shoe lace snagged me on some debris.
I thrashed against the restriction and still my foot stay trapped. I could feel the struggle to keep my mouth shut and my force of needing a breath, building in my already sore lungs. I bent towards my half hidden and trapped foot, pulling my foot out of my sneaker. I pushed up from the murky water, quickly, opening my mouth just as I broke the surface. Coughing and spluttering, I moved to a kneeling position, half submerged in the rubble and ruin of what had once been a house. The water looked like it was a foot deep.
There was nothing left anywhere. But debris flattened to the ground Awkward piles of it. No trees stood, no houses existed. Megan’s red car was nowhere to be seen. Megan! I looked around, and started to push up off the underwater debris and slipped back down again.
Pain exploded through my arm and wrapped my torso whole. I stilled, sitting on the debris and tried to remember how to breathe through a coughing fit and a pain filled body. It shot up my spine and my head spun. I couldn’t feel my toes under the water anymore.
I suddenly felt very tired of holding on. Resting my good arm on the debris in front of me I put my head down on it and panted. There was no wind and I could see sunlight on me, but not feel it. I was cold and shivering and every shiver just increased the pain in my muscles and the aches in my bones. The ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop and my head felt like it was thumping and splitting continuously.
Paris, Paris. I’m here. I tried to call out, to open my mouth but I couldn’t tell if my mouth opened and made no noise or I just imagined I done that. Paris, I’m here.
Bg where are you?
Here. Right here. I can’t move.
Don’t try and move, Stay where you are, I’m coming for you. Keep talking to me Bg where are you?
I’m right here. Megan’s house. Third house on the right of the street. I’m right here.
Bg, you have to stay awake. Tell me what you see, tell me what’s around you.
I’ve been awake all night. Or was it day? I couldn’t tell. It was just black. I don’t think I was even here.
Bg stay with me.
Atijd. I sighed a smile on my face as exhaustion gave way to the comfort of passing out.
10
I awoke in a hospital bed. I was in a hospital gown and there was a drip that went into my hand. My other arm was in plaster and the top of Paris’s head rested on my hand. He was curled up over
the side of the bed, holding my hand, sleeping.
“Is this a dream?” I said, my voice sounded rough. Strained, it barely had volume to it and it hurt to speak. He jerked awake in an instant, looking wide eyed and wild. When his eyes connected with mine, they changed, I saw a softness in them that was love for me and I felt my eyes water with tears. He stood up, still holding my hand and leant over me. Placing kisses on my forehead, nose and lips.
Paris sighed softly and rested his head against my forehead. “I’m here with you.” His voice sounded funny and I realised my hearing was screwed. Tears sprang from my eyes and I reached over to him with my unbroken arm and cupped the side of his face. “I love you.” He kissed me firmly on my lips and stood back, reaching for a plastic cup of water beside the bed with his free hand. “Drink this.”
I downed the water greedily and fast. “Slowly, slowly.” He said as I began to cough. I slowed my drinking down and finished the cup clear. “You are some resilient wolf.” He removed the cup from my hand again.
“Plaster cast?” I said looking at my arm sceptically.
“You’re arm is broken. You’re in Brooklyn in a hospital. For now you have to wear it, when I get you out of here, we’ll take care of your arm and everything else.” He replied. Meaning he’d help me shape shift so I could heal far faster than I ever could from western medicine. “I needed to get you checked out first.”
“How’d you find me?” My voice husked back at him.
“You were calling out to me, don’t you remember?” He said holding my gaze, looking at me with wonder in his eyes.
“No. It was all rather surreal and exhausting.”
Paris moved closer to me again and leaned down to my ear. “You were calling to me telepathically. I heard you in my mind.” He straightened back up as I looked at him. I guess I should have been shocked at what I was hearing. But given the last twelve hours of my life, I was all out of shock. “Booker thought I’d lost it when I told him that.” Which made me think of Megan Marisini and all the things she’d told me.
“Megan, did you find Megan? I lost her when the storm started.”
Paris shook his head from side to side. “We couldn’t locate her. Booker was with me and once we had you safe and secure, we both searched through the rubble. Bg we searched for hours. There was nothing left. No sign of her. We had to report her on the missing persons list they started up. The house, it was flat to the ground. I have no idea how you managed to ride a hurricane out, but you are one resilient loup-garou.”
Resilient werewolf. Right. “I’m a Dire wolf apparently.”
Paris’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Yep. Megan did some tests on me and…” Tests. The word made me remember what she’d told me before we realised we were in real trouble in Sea Bright. “The cub…” I couldn’t bring myself to say anything more than that. It was too hard to fathom after the beating I’d gone through at mother nature’s hand. Paris’s eyes glassed over and he dipped his head before looking back up at me. This was the first time he knew of the cub, our cub. I hated that this was how he was finding out about what was amazing news.
“The cub, baby, doctors said,” He sighed heavily pausing, “Didn’t make it.”
“No.” I whispered as tears slid down my face.
“And that it was miracle that you did, given where the hurricane hit land.” Paris said softly wiping the tears from my face. “Bg, Sea Bright was ground zero.”
I looked up at Paris sadly and felt a rush of love fill my chest. “They can’t figure out how you even managed to survive and stay in one piece, with nothing more than cuts, bruises, a broken arm, torn fingernails, a blood shot eye, two perforated ear drums, a dislocated hip and a few broken ribs. By all accounts, sweetheart, even being a loup-garou, a hurricane should’ve torn you apart. I heard one of the nurses say you must be blessed.”
“Being blessed hurts.” I muttered still leaking tears.
“You’d gone into hypothermic shock by the time we found you. You’re more amazing than you know sweetheart.” Paris said planting another kiss on my forehead. “To be here for me to kiss, to love.”
“I’m so sorry I was such a brat before not telling you where I was and,”
“Shh, shh. It’s okay. That’s all in the past. What’s important is you’re here with me.” He kissed me again softly. “The rest, we can figure out later.” He wiped more tears from my face. “We can make more cubs.” He said with a soft smile “After you marry me.”
I half smiled at him. “You still on that trip?” I muttered tiredly with a yawn. Paris had mentioned marriage once before to me, and said it like it was passing conversation. I hadn’t figured him for wanting to settle down and with me. It’d been just after the kidnapping ordeal and now a hurricane. He really needed to brush up on how to propose to a girl after a traumatic event.
“Rest now, argue later. A lot of people want to see you, you know. You scared the daylights out of everyone, so I’m the least of your worries, little wolf.” I grunted at him and still holding his hand, fell back asleep again.
11
What felt like hours, turned out to be days that came and went in a hazy blur of family visits, shape shifting and sleeping. I’d never been so exhausted before in all of my life. Paris told me how my wolf self appeared different now. It was grey with silver highlights and blue eyes. Eventually I got around to talking to Paris about the things Dr Marisini had told me about who I was.
In doing so, I opened up and told him about the attack at age fourteen. I’d never told the shrink my father took me to, I never told my father, nor my brother who rescued me. I couldn’t bring myself to talk to my sister about either. I expected him to be repulsed, to shove me away like I was damaged. But he did just the opposite; he pulled me in close, and held me against him. The warmth of his alpha werewolf radiating through me. His strong arms, encasing me safely.
“I’m in love you with you little wolf.” He muttered into the top of my hair. “That’s not going to change.”
I smiled and kissed his arm. “Thank you.” Paris relaxed his hold on me and I sighed. “I’m about ready for Hawaii now.” He chuckled at me and moved off the bed. Hawaii was the holiday we’d planned on taking awhile ago, and had yet to take. “Or a holiday, anywhere, but here.”
“Me too.” He said. “What do you think we should do first, when we get there?” He asked as he exited the room. I’d pretty much spent the better half of a week in bed, under Paris’s instruction which I was more than happy to comply with. Paris had dotted over me and refused to let me do much more than laze about in bed and boss him around like he was my own personal servant. Which I took full advantage of.
He’d even brought in a flat screen TV for me to watch movies on when I was awake. There was a pile of DVDs towering next to the television set. But not before he told me not to get attached to it, he was borrowing it off one of the boys and was going to give it back after my recovery was complete. Party pooper.
There was constant coverage on the news of the hurricane and it’s devastating affects throughout New York. I truly had been lucky. New Jersey it seemed had suffered the brunt of its anger, with a lot of property damage. Power was still out in New Jersey, and surrounding areas. But it affected Manhattan too. There had been flooding in the lower parts of Manhattan. The subways had been sandbagged off and were now gradually returning to full service.
Brooklyn had suffered minor damage by comparison and there had been a spate of fires in Queens connected to it. All three major New York airports were shut down for days. Various tunnels around the city were flooded and taking time to pump clean again. The Breukelen pack assisted their own and their wider community as best they could. Ensuring that the sick, elderly and infirmed where prioritised with food and temporary accommodations at no cost. Everyone pitched in.
For the first time in its history, the New York City Marathon was cancelled, as parts of the race would have lead runners through affected parts of the c
ity. The daily count for lost lives, seemed to rise and rise. They were up to forty eight lives lost so far and it chilled me when I thought about it.
Each day Paris sent Manhattan Maen werewolves over to New Jersey to assist the Neiwe Teme where they were needed the most, with a second group searching Sea Bright. We still hadn’t found Megan Marisini or her girlfriend, they were both reported missing.
I got out of the bed and stretched, nothing hurt. Everything felt physically fine. I even felt rested. I tried not to think about the cub I had lost that I hadn’t even known I’d had. I had survived and New York had endured, so I it was supposed to be a win-win given how much worse it could have been.
In between bouts of sleeping and food, Paris and I discussed ways to try out what my new abilities might be or to see what I could do as a newly aware Dire wolf. I walked over to the massive pile of dvd’s and picked up the top one and put it in the dvd player, before walking back over to the bed, remote in hand. Paris walked into the room with a bowl of popcorn.
“So, what are we watching?” He asked placing the popcorn between us. I held up the dvd cover for him to see. There was a hot, kick ass chick with bright blue eyes and short brown hair in what appeared to be S&M get up, touting hand guns, behind her, a large pack of werewolves roared.
“Underworld Awakening.” He read out loud and looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders loosely. “Seemed appropriate.” I smirked pressing play.
Related reading:
Growing Up Werewolf
The Pack
Other Bruekelen Girl novels available at smashwords.com
Werewolf Storm Page 5