The poison continued on its course through her bloodstream, gushing through the rest of her with an even more intense burning and bursts in her organs and muscles. There was no place she didn’t feel the excruciating pain.
Katey squeezed her eyes tight and tried to listen to the music to distract her. “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence. How appropriate. She was dying to this mortal life and being born into this new endless existence and Logan was leading her all the way. Katey felt her warm blood drip down her chest and back.
Logan’s grip became tighter around her, digging his claws into her waist and arm, piercing the fabric of her hoodie. He had to keep pulling her in tighter as her own body was growing limp from the pain and exhaustion that washed over her. Even with her eyes closed, she felt like her whole world was spinning out of control and waves of nausea multiplied the discomfort.
She began to get lightheaded, her hands still resting on his biceps as his teeth sunk deeper into her flesh, but her hold was weaker now.
Her head swayed before leaning dazedly against his. His wet hair felt cool against her flushed cheek and throbbing temples. Her knees began to buckle beneath her, but Logan refused to let go, injecting more venom into her bloodstream. All she could feel was the searing pain of the venom infiltrating every nerve, every muscle, and every part of her down to her nails and tips of her hair. Nothing existed but the pain.
Just as she felt herself slip away, Katey heard the classroom door open across the room.
“What the…Logan!” Dustin’s voice shouted from the door. Logan didn’t loosen his hold; in fact, he held on tighter. He wasn’t done. He never wanted to be done.
Her eyes couldn’t open, but she could tell Dustin was by our side.
He grabbed a heavy textbook from the counter and swung it at the back of Logan’s head.
Logan finally broke his hold on Katey and they tumbled to the floor, both unconscious.
Dustin staggered back and looked to both of them, his eyes full of a strange mixture of anger and fear. He pulled out his phone and dialed Darren.
When the alpha picked up, he said, “Darren, we have a problem.”
Sneak Peek into “Becoming the Enigma”
Darren rubbed his forehead worriedly as he reclined back in one of the plush armchairs in the sitting room, while Ben sat on the piano stool looking just as nervous while Dustin slowly paced in the foyer just beyond the open French doors, diligently watching the sleeping figures of Katey on one couch and Logan on the other across from her.
The teachers had loosened their formal attire, their top buttons and ties undone, and Darren had shed his jacket long before then in the heat of getting the two unconscious kids safely into the house.
It’d been hours since the attack and neither of them had moved. But, as long as the three men could still hear their gentle breathing and strong heartbeats, they knew that there was still hope.
Katey moaned from the aching pain that overwhelmed her. She moved her head and pain shot down her spine. She hissed and struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids were aching like old bruises.
Lights blinded her and she squeezed her eyes shut again with a whimper.
All three men were on their feet the moment she stirred.
“Ben, turn off the lights,” Darren whispered. Ben quickly obeyed and flicked them off, leaving only the light from the foyer to illuminate the sitting room.
Katey sighed and blinked for a moment, trying to think, but that too made her hurt. She glanced between her three teachers and their frantic gazes.
Through the haze and chaos of alien sensations and pain, she tried to remember where she was. The faces that stared down at her now were clear and unforgettable. She squinted around and recognized the old furniture and crystal chandelier.
But as her mind reached into the past, another face flashed in her vision. One distorted with rage and the golden eyes of the wolf staring at her with hunger and anguished longing. Growls and harsh words hummed in her ears and she remembered what happened.
More pain hit her body, but it could do little to distract her from the memory of Logan bent over her with teeth bared in a snarl, ready to bite into her shoulder. Katey found the energy to push herself up, but Dustin gently pushed her back down onto the sofa, his touch like needles jabbing into her flesh.
“Just take it easy. Everything’s ok. How do you feel?”
“Don’t shout at me,” she moaned, her own voice sounding like a clanging gong in her ears.
“I’m not.”
“Give her ears a bit to get used to it,” Darren whispered from behind Dustin.
Katey blinked hard and raised her hand to her throbbing head. “Where’s Logan?” she asked.
“He’s right here,” Ben replied softly.
Katey turned her head and her eyes fell upon the couch across from her. There lay Logan’s limp and unconscious body. His face was blank, as if he were peacefully sleeping. It was certainly not the face she saw last in Dustin’s classroom.
“Don’t worry, we crammed meat down his throat so he should be fine when he wakes up,” Dustin assured, gently rubbing his thumb against her tender shoulder, but she could hardly feel it through the mass of bandages. .
“Everything hurts,” she remarked.
Darren took a careful step forward. “It’s going to hurt for a little while. But, once everything sets in, you’ll feel relatively normal again.”
Katey stretched her head over and looked at the sleeping Logan. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, searching for an explanation why everything was so sensitive.
“Am I…” she muttered.
The guys glanced to each other and Darren nodded solemnly. “We think so.”
Katey took deep breaths and it was like each breath was fresh air, each inhale a new experience.
She glanced over to the coffee table in the middle of the room and saw that her glasses were folded up and resting on the cool marble. Her eyes fluttered around and nothing was hazy or fuzzy at all. She had perfect vision. It was like she could see the way she did when she had her glasses on, only better. Every detail from the fibers of the red carpet to the rough texture of the wallpaper was clear and vibrant. With her eyes wide open now, she realized that colors were brighter, more distinct in their varying shades.
Not only that, but her mind was assaulted with potent scents and smells she couldn’t quite recognize. The guys’ distinct scents from their cologne and deodorants, the metallic acrid scent of dried blood smeared all over her hoodie and jeans, the musty smell of old carpet, chemical odor of the paint and building materials, the earthy scent of the wood floors in the foyer and living room. She could even smell the food in the refrigerator all the way from the kitchen.
As the aching slowly began to subside from her nerves, she began to feel little twinges all over her body like little electric shocks. It was like static shocks under her skin. And there was another tingly feeling in the back of her skull. Sort of like a caffeine buzz from an energy drink.
And there was another sensation that was completely strange to her. It was a spiritual and emotional pull, like a loosely tethered rope between her and each of the men in the room that allowed her to move independently, but a constant reminder. The connection pulsated as if strength and life were surging between all five of them. Was this the pack bond they had talked about before? Was this was imprinting brought or was it something else to do with what she had become?
“What time is it?” she said, straining her vocal cords to speak louder.
“A little past ten o’clock,” Ben replied. “You’ve been out for a while now.”
“We are so sorry this happened,” Dustin pleaded. “We had no idea Logan was going to do something like this.” Katey could hear the sorrow in his voice, but what was more, she thought she could smell it. Like a predator smelled fear on an animal of prey, Katey smelled their worry, their regret and guilt clearly as if it were written on their faces.
“If we had known, we
would have taken every measure to stop him.”
“But, I asked for it,” Katey managed to say through the haze.
Dustin sat back on his heels, a look of shock on all of the teachers’ faces.
“You asked for it?” Dustin questioned. “But we told you he wouldn’t be the one to change you. One of us would.”
Katey felt the edges of her mouth twitch into a weak smile, straining against tired and sore facial muscles. “But he did.” She was proud of him in a weird, morbid sort of way. Logan did what they thought he couldn’t do, what they thought no loup-garou could do. It was worth the risk of death.
Darren shook his head, fury returning to him like it had hours before when he got the call from Dustin. “That’s not the point. He could have killed you. If Dustin hadn’t walked in, he probably would have. We don’t know long he had been holding onto you like that. He could have put way too much venom into you. You lost a lot of blood… We thought you weren’t going to make it, Katey.”
The aching had faded away and Katey felt a sliver of worry pierce the fog in her mind as she tried to comprehend it all.
“Please,” she whispered, “don’t scold him too much for this. Everything turned out fine.”
“Oh, we will scold him,” Dustin retorted in his Irish accent. The anger flowing off of him in buckets, threatening to drown Katey’s sensitive nerves. “He knows better and it might not have all turned out fine. It could have been much worse.”
Katey looked between their frustrated gazes and felt guilt and shame rise in her. She understood how much worse it could have been. She wasn’t a fool. They all told her the dangers and Logan made it perfectly clear that being around him was more dangerous than she could have imagined.
By agreeing for Logan to change her that day, Katey wasn’t meaning to sign her death certificate. That was the last thing she ever wanted to do anymore. More than anything, she wanted to be part of their pack, part of their family, and a permanent fixture in Logan’s life. Love was the reason, not foolishness.
The guys’ heads swiveled around to look to Logan who was just beginning to stir on the couch.
“Ben, take her upstairs until we’ve had a talk with Logan,” Darren ordered.
“No, I want to stay,” Katey pleaded, grabbing at Dustin’s sleeve, her weak fingers gripping at the material.
He pulled her hand away and stood to join Darren. “You will not stay down here. Take her up, Ben.”
Ben approached and in one slow, fluid motion, pulled her to her feet.
Katey felt more shocks and tingles in her muscles that made her tremble. Ben’s hand gripped under her arm and he platonically wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her. The room swayed in her vision and she felt as if she’d puke.
“Your strength will come to you after a while,” he told her. Katey took his word for it, knowing that he had been where she was over a century ago.
As they hobbled out of the sitting room and into the foyer, her eyes were fixed on Logan, apprehensive to leave him to his alpha’s rage. She wanted to tell them everything, convince them to be gentle with Logan, but she was too weak, too dazed to form the words coherently.
Katey and Ben soundlessly made their way through the living room and just as they were taking the first step up the stairs, Katey stopped to hear Logan rise from the sofa in the sitting room. She pushed herself from Ben’ grasp and clung to the corner of the wall, desperate to eavesdrop.
Logan rubbed his hands over his aching head and neck as Darren and Dustin glowered down at him.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Darren growled.
“I’ll tell you what he was thinking,” Dustin rattled off in his thick accent. “The buck wasn’t thinking anything. He just wanted to go and kill Katey, blatantly disobeying us.”
Logan turned his eyes to his mentors and exhaled deeply, recalling only vaguely what had transpired at the school. The wolf in him had taken control. It were his words, his passion behind the prompting to change Katey, but the blind rage wasn’t his.
“Takes after you alright,” Darren quipped.
“Kill? Is she alive?” Logan’s scratchy throat managed to mutter. His senses probed out to find her. Her scent was fresh in the sitting room and he felt a new addition to the pack bond, just as he had felt when Ben joined them decades ago. Yes, Katey was alive and she was loup-garou. Hope flared in his heart.
“She is alive, but that’s beside the point. You could have killed her!” Darren roared, making everyone’s ears ring. “Why didn’t you come to us first? Why didn’t you make sure there was someone there to watch you?”
Logan was not fazed by his anger. He’d been in trouble before. Nothing this serious, but he was accustomed to getting a verbal thrashing from his alpha. This time was different and he could practically taste the unquestionable authority in his voice. “I knew if I told any of you what I wanted to do, you’d just hold me back.”
“Damn right we would have!” Dustin exclaimed. “Why in hell’s blazes did you do this?”
Logan lowered his gaze and ran his fingers through his matted hair in frustration. “I … I just wanted to be with her.”
Darren scoffed. “That’s a lame excuse. You could have been with her in the way everyone else deals with having a mate.”
“She was ok with it,” Logan countered.
“Yeah, I’m sure she would be after being terrified out of her mind!” Dustin cried. “I’d hate to have seen how you looked since you didn’t eat all day.”
“I didn’t mean to scare her.” Logan’s eyes drifted shut at the realization that he did frighten her. He could smell her fear, see it glimmering in her eyes like unshed tears. Katey had even said so herself and it barely fazed him. Logan felt shame rise within him, knowing he had done the one thing he had promised never to do.
“But you probably did,” Darren said. “You pushed her into making that decision. This situation could have been a lot worse than it was. I’ve given you a lot of chances, Logan, but this takes the cake. And I’ve taught you better than to go and do something like this.”
“I’m sorry,” Logan whispered, feeling the gravity of his sins weigh heavily upon his shoulders. His alpha always had a way of convicting him better than even he could himself.
“You’re sorry?” Dustin exploded, pacing behind Darren. “What would you have said if you killed her? Sorry?”
Logan’s head shot up and looked towards the foyer. “Where is she?” he asked anxiously.
“Ben took her upstairs to rest,” Darren said, then raised his voice a bit and angled his head toward the foyer. “Aren’t you, Ben?”
Ben took the cue that they knew she was still listening. He pried Katey’s hands away from the wall and began to lead her upstairs again. Katey’s heart broke for Logan, wishing with all that was in her that it was her that was being reprimanded and not him. She couldn’t change the past and she didn’t want to.
“Is she ok?” Logan asked, his voice cracking from the emotions that welled within him.
“She’s fine,” Dustin answered. “She just needs to rest.”
“Do you realize how selfish you were being into pushing her like that?”
“Why couldn’t you just accept her the way she was?”
“There was nothing wrong with the way she was,” Logan pleaded, looking back up to his alpha and grandfather. Neither of them were calming down.
“Then why change her just to be with her?” Darren couldn’t comprehend anything the boy had done. He remembered being in love, but never this irrational.
Upstairs, Ben succeeded in taking Katey to the upstairs hall. As they passed the bathroom, Katey tore away from him again and stumbled in. She flicked on the lights and gasped at what she saw staring back at her.
“You both have told me stories,” she heard Logan plea, “of how our kind mate with a human and have to watch them age and die before their eyes. You’ve told me how it’s the worst pain in the world… I didn’t want that to happe
n to Katey and I…” His voice trailed off.
Katey was met by a pair of bright green eyes staring back at her in the mirror. She leaned forward over the counter and touched just below her eyelid. Examining them closely, she saw bits of gold flecks around her iris and ringed by an even darker shade of green just around the outer edges. They were stunning and mystical.
“Yes, we’ve told you how horrible it is,” she heard Darren say, “but we should have been there at least.”
“I had it under control.” Logan’s voice grew more aggressive.
She leaned back from the mirror and ran her fingers through her hair. It was soft and thick as before, but she could see faint and subtle highlights of blonde streaked through the dark brown base. The contrast between her eyes and hair were striking and almost exotic.
“She was bleeding all over my classroom floor, Logan! That’s going to take hours of hard scrubbing to get out!”
Logan leapt to his feet in rage. He was growing tired of this. “Then I’ll do the scrubbing if it’ll make you happy!”
Katey lifted her hoodie up. Her hand flew to her mouth in shock, as she saw not one ounce of fat left. In its place, she could see only a flat stomach and the faint subtle edges of hard muscle. She poked at it and couldn’t help but let out a strained laugh. Never had she looked so trim and fit. Turning in the mirror, she inspected every part of her body, finding each one had changed in the same way. She had the body of an athlete, not a borderline anorexic high school student.
Dustin stepped up to Logan and eyed him angrily. “What would make me happy is if you stop playing this ‘oh, pity me, I’m a monster and all alone in the world’ act and get it together. You’re about to be one hundred and twenty-six years old and you haven’t gotten over it yet! You’re not alone, you have a pack and now you have your precious girlfriend. Are you going to grow up or keep acting like a human brat?”
The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1) Page 35