“This is the smartest thing we can do right now. If we have to fight our way out, then we will. But not unless it is necessary.” While I didn’t like what was going on, I knew it was the smart thing to do. It had to be. The moon had been hinting this to me and I hadn’t listened before so I had to do it now.
He just shook his head and turned from me. Dropping my arms, I sighed and backed away from him to let him think. He had to come to this realization on his own. Someone cleared their throat and I turned to see Lyell standing there.
Slowly his pack gathered around him, all six of them. A few looked upset, such as Alicia, but the rest just looked at us inquisitively. I tried to read their gazes and waited for them to proclaim the verdict. Standing on the balls of my toes, I prepared for the worst.
“Well?” I straightened my posture and waited to see what they said.
“You are welcome here. But we don’t know this runt you bring with you, and cannot take him in.” Lyell’s gaze turned back to Ben who glared back with all the hatred in his soul. In a normal day I could have found it amusing, but it just left me further exhausted. Lyell was trying to play a game but I was too tired to care.
“He comes or we both go.” All eyes fell to me and I shrugged. There was nothing else to say to that.
Alicia was the first one to react, scowling at me in particular. “In that case, neither of you are welcome. Both of you should leave us immediately.”
Lyell gave me a look. “Come, Remy.”
I shook my head. “You have to accept him if you accept me. It’s the two of us or it is neither of us.” Taking a deep breath, I ignored the stares and looked steadily to Lyell. A scowl began to shape up on his face, and it was clear how much he disliked Ben. “Well?”
For a solid two minutes, nobody spoke. The two men glowered at one another until Alicia nudged Lyell, who had to turn away and appeared to have lost the staring game. I glanced at Ben but he was avoiding the stares of everyone looking his way.
“So be it. The two of you.” Lyell pronounced with his jaw locked. He looked between us for several seconds before shaking his head and walked away.
Alicia trailed after him, hurrying to secure him and wrap an arm around him before glancing back at us suspiciously. She was desperate for his approval but that didn’t seem like it would come to her any time soon. I followed them with my gaze before watching the rest of the pack slowly dissemble and follow their Alpha back to their cave.
After everything we had been through in the last couple of hours, my strength was spent. By the time the pack had departed, I finally noticed the exhaustion that draped over me like a heavy cloak. Rubbing my eyes, I glanced to Ben across the grove. He stood there, mulling things over. I watched him and tried to find something to say. Everything that had happened was running over in my mind and it was difficult to digest.
“Benjamin…” Sighing, I shook my head. “I’m not… I’m not doing this because I want to. I swear. I don’t want to be here. I especially don’t want to be around him. I have been honest with you about everything. The rules of our kind are important to me. I left Lyell and his blood-thirsty pack with the intentions of never returning.”
He whirled around to me in disbelief. “I saw their eyes, Rem. Every one of them. Red eyes. It means what you said, right? They don’t care who they hunt, who they kill, who they… Why would you ever be willing to be around them again?”
My mouth was dry and I could barely keep my eyes open. Even through the tiredness, I had to suppress the nausea from having trying to avoid seeing their faces. But he brought up the imagery and I swallowed the bile back down. Staggering around, I shook my head and leaned against a tree. “Right now, I don’t know. The moon… it wants us here. You had to have sensed it. It wants me to do something. I am not doing this willingly; I am not doing this for fun. I look at them and it makes me sick. But… for some reason, I need to be here.”
It was dawn, and the sun only hurt my eyes. I slumped across the tree and slid down to the ground, closing my eyes to the brightening world. Listening to Benjamin, I knew that he paced for several minutes before sitting beside me. I could feel his gaze on me, but I didn’t know what else to say to him.
“I haven’t forgiven you,” he announced.
“That’s okay,” I shrugged, not having expected much more than that. “Right now, that’s okay. I know I’ve forced you through a lot, Benjamin.” I peered up through my eyelashes, trying to focus on his face. “We won’t stay long, we’ll just… I just want to find out what’s going on. If it’s nothing, we can be gone tomorrow.”
Ben drew a little closer, leaning against the tree with his face only inches from mine. “Your eyes get bluer every day,” he murmured grudgingly.
I suppressed a smile, closing my eyes and wrinkling my nose. “It’s just the sky.”
He hesitated. “What if it is something?” I assumed he referred to the situation.
“Then I’ll fix it.”
“You don’t have to fix everything,” Benjamin pointed out. I felt his hands tug at my braid and slowly undo my hair. His fingers began to run through it softly, and it was so soothing I could feel myself drifting to sleep.
My eyelids were heavy as I found his knee, resting a hand on it. I sighed. “I know. I keep… I keep trying to do more, but… I feel like I leave a mess everywhere I go. I was raised better than that, Ben. I was.” My tongue was thick and it was hard to make complete sentences now.
He paused to kiss my forehead and pull me closer against him. “You’re doing fine, Remy.”
I hummed softly, leaning comfortably against him. “I like it when you say my name. He can’t.” Yawning, I turned into his chest and the exhaustion took over. The last thing I remembered was Ben wrapping his arms safely around me.
6: Benjamin
The two of us slept beneath the tree, exhausted from all that had happened during the full moon. Sleep came and went, but I stayed there for Remy. The dark circles beneath her eyes lessened as shifted and turned, dreaming of something I probably didn’t understand. Because with her, nothing made any sense.
What was she thinking, being willing to be around someone like Lyell? He wasn’t going to have her again, if that’s what he thought. After what she had told me, there was no chance of that. I wouldn’t allow it. Shaking my head, I sighed and glanced down at her. I could see her chest moving to every breath, a perfect outline representing her large bosom. She was such a strong woman, but whenever I looked to her I saw how vulnerable she truly was.
Glancing away, I tried to control myself and concentrated on other things. Like keeping Lyell away from her. Remy deserved a chance at happiness just as much as she deserved a proper place to rest her head. She deserved better and I’d be damned if I was going to let him take that from her.
When she finally awoke, the sun was about to set. Remy jerked up in confusion, looking around before she noticed me. Her tousled hair and glassy eyes stimulated an arousal in me. I nodded a greeting to her. Closing her mouth, she managed a tight smile and nodded.
“You haven’t been up long, have you?” I glanced down at her, as she used her long, thin fingers to comb through her hair. I thought of them running through my hair and dancing across my skin, so I bit my tongue.
I shrugged. “Not really.”
“Liar. You’re exhausted.”
“Not as much as you were,” I assured her. Brushing her hair past her shoulder, I considered our next options. “What do you want to do? They haven’t come around to see us. We could just leave.” Any place with just the two of us sounded perfect for so many reasons.
We got to our feet and she shook her head, brushing the leaves from her hair and clothes. Remy sighed and glanced around warily as though she were expecting something to appear. “No, we can’t. I want to get to the bottom of this.”
“You don’t even know what this is,” I reminded her.
“I still have a duty,” she began, but I interrupted her.
“
No, you don’t. These people have done nothing for you. They tried to turn you into something you were not. Why are you trying to do this now?” Running a hand through my hair, wondering if she was going to start making sense again soon.
She bit her lip, and glanced in the direction of where the pack had disappeared. “I… Benjamin. I can feel it in my bones. Something is going on.”
“I don’t like it,” I shook my head.
She shrugged it off. “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I need to be here. And… And I need you here with me. Can you- will you do that for me?”
I was tongue-tied. I didn’t know what to say and I weighed the options. We could stay here, and see what would happen. Things could turn out quietly, or they could end in a fight. Or we could just leave these monsters to whatever they had going on and we could move on. Then I looked at her, and knew that the decision came to having her or not having her. Being with Remy or being alone again. I knew my decision was made long ago, I just didn’t like it. I wrinkled my nose. She was as stubborn as she was stunning.
“Only until we find out what’s going on. If we don’t like it…”
She nodded and continued for me. “Then we move on.” That’s when we realized that the young female who had traveled with us to grab our things last night, was standing nearby.
The girl waved us over and I realized she couldn’t be much older than 13. She was tall and thin, with scraggly blonde hair trailing down to her waist. Her skin was pale with light freckles glittering between several red scars. When we reached her, I could see the faintest red around her irises and I forced myself not to wince.
“We have supper, if you want to join us,” she murmured, only loud enough for our kind to pick up her words. Her lips barely moved as she proceeded to turn away and slowly walked off. My brow furrowed, and I thought of their red eyes. Remy opened her mouth to speak but the girl kept walking, so she looked to me and finally closed her mouth. It was obvious from her expression that we were both worried about what supper might entail.
“Remy…”
She sniffed the air. “No, smell.” She started tugging me forward, walking carefully in the same direction. “It’s deer. Just deer.”
“Are you sure?” I pressed. While my senses told me she was right, I didn’t trust them to be absolutely positive until I knew for sure. I locked my jaw, ready to run, and wrapped my hand around her waist to keep her close.
There were a few trees still standing, but the green had since died. By the dried patches and large clearing, it was evident that the pack had been gathered here for a while now; over a year, by the looks of it. A cave was set just ahead, and I could see several supplies and items set up inside as their camp.
It was bare, and it was lonely. Three of the pack fought over the leg of a deer roasting over a small fire and I held back my sigh of relief. After a few minutes, everyone had fresh meat and were eating away. The pack stayed on the other side of the grounds opposite to Remy and myself.
Everything was quiet until Lyell, who had been pacing about in the middle, suddenly walked over our way. Remy and I stopped eating as we watched the man, haggard and hesitant, take a seat before us.
“There’s been a lot going on,” he began. “Lawless packs have been abounding in the last several months and it’s getting out of control. There’s been trouble.”
I stared at my food as I felt Remy’s gaze fall on me. The ribs I ate were still tender with warm blood dripping down my fingers. It invigorated my senses and I focused on it, because if I didn’t, I wasn’t sure if I could hold back the strong impulse to tear Lyell to pieces.
“What kind of trouble?” The dynamic shifted as I turned to Remy who stared at Lyell who stared at her.
“Do you remember Jereth, and his brothers? They’ve been terrorizing packs in all the northern regions. They’re the only Alphas for… for miles. Miles upon miles in a wasteland, Rem. They’ve taken control and are encouraging others to do the same.
“I know I made mistakes before, but I’m rectifying that. And in the meantime, those of us of pure blood, we’re just hanging on. My pack and I are- we’re leading the others. We need the ways of the ancients; I know that now. Everyone else is in worse conditions. Everything is falling apart.”
Remy was silent as I watched her gaze drop down to her uneaten food. Her long hair piled over her shoulders, framing her face perfectly. She avoided looking my way so I couldn’t read what she was thinking. I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, wondering.
Lyell continued talking. At first he spoke apathetically but by the end he was frustrated, upset, and looking to her for a solution. The latter was obvious, because he really only had three options- to fight, to hide, or to give in. One had to stand up for maintaining the packs by tradition, or rebuilding with new rules. Territories were being claimed and the newer, younger generations were demanding rights they didn’t deserve.
“I need you to help me,” was his final plea as we waited for her response.
My eyes were still on her, and she hadn’t moved a wink since he started speaking. I nudged her after a minute. “Remy?”
That was enough to garner her attention and she turned to me, so I saw the hesitance across her face as she had clearly already made her decision. By looking my way, she was asking me to accept this. The tenderness of her expression seemed to force the fight out of me. I didn’t want to, but eventually I nodded in return.
“Fine,” she told him firmly. Handing me her plate of food, she pulled back her hair with her eyes growing bright with a new plan. “It sounds like you know where the majority of the packs are, lawless or not. We need to meet with them, as many as possible. You can’t go looking for a fight- that needs to be a last resort option. Send out messages and have one or two of them each come in- to a mutual ground, not here- and do it now. No excuses.
“Try to find a solution that way first. Bring order.” She completed her braid and pinned it to the top of her head. Even with her hair piled high, her cheekbones were sharp enough to cut me in half and I wanted to test them.
By then, I had finished the food she hadn’t wanted and Lyell was satisfied with her words. We watched him return to the other side with his pack and there he discussed the new situation.
Before the sun had completely set, he and his people had gone off in search of the other packs. This gave time to Remy and myself to be alone but it wasn’t what I anticipated for she wasn’t interested in exploring anything except the land around us. It forced me to control myself and my thoughts as we wandered around and she pointed out landmarks in the distance that she had once known.
It wasn’t long before we were interrupted as the pack returned with their friends before the sunrise and the meeting was ready to take place. The alone time with Remy vanished and I frowned at the sight of so many strangers. I shook my head as we started in the direction for the assembly.
“This isn’t a good idea. For all we know, we’re heading right into a trap,” I gestured to Lyell who walked at a much faster pace ahead of us. I glanced back to her, but her beautiful face was screwed into a dark look my way.
She pulled free of my grasp. “Yes, I get it. They’re all fools, and so am I for trying to take care of this. But I have to try. If you don’t want to be here, then leave.” She changed form and began to run. Her curvy form changed into another but I couldn’t stop the groan slipping off my tongue. Once she had caught up Lyell, he copied the motions as changed, leaving me in the dust. I questioned my options again only to do the same and hurry after them.
Even after I had changed, I arrived to find them all gathered. Remy stood beside a pacing Lyell, and there were around forty to fifty people sitting around. Nearly half of them were dressed, and only an assortment of them seemed to be clean and well-kept. I drew closer to hear, but stuck to the shadows. After all, it’s not like she needed me. I wanted to prove that point, but it made my bones ache to keep this distance from her.
“You can’t tell us what to d
o,” one of them interrupted her speech, and several others yelled in agreement. These people were unfairly divided, by the looks of it, and I moved closer to Remy, making sure I would be close enough if things turned south.
“I know that,” she rolled her eyes as though she were dealing with fools. I grinned to know that for once I wasn’t the one she was frustrated with, and eyed her entire form. She was calm and collected, her long neck bare as she stood tall before them. “We all know that. It’s not what I’m talking about, Jereth. What I’m talking about is that our kind, our people, need to stick together. We are still a vast minority and we’re not going to survive as a species if you keep tearing other humans apart. That is what we discuss today.”
He gave a raucous laugh. “Nor do you. It’s clear you’ve never tasted the other flesh. What do you live on, nuts and berries? You are more squirrel than wolf.” But the laugh was immediately cut short as she shot him her coldest glare. I didn’t doubt that his blood froze. I grinned, proud that she stood her own ground. Remy was tall and confident, a queen among the rabble.
“We need order. We have to stick together or we stand no chance at survival. That much is obvious. We are fewer than we have ever been, and that is no accident with how many have been attacking villages and other packs lately.”
One of the other women near Jereth stood, affronted. “You cannot claim those two are intertwined, Remy. It’s pure coincidence.”
“There are fewer of us because the majority of us are being killed by humans,” Remy rose her voice over the other woman’s to be heard. “Murdered. That is fact. Ask yourselves why they are being murdered, why our kind are being hunted now more than ever. What else could it be? You mock the people, you kill them- you cannot expect them to just stand there. We are still human ourselves.”
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