by D Wolfe
Denthro nodded in agreement before he looked in the direction of the house. “Best to do that somewhere else though.” He told them. “Jared could be here at any time.” It was the worst timing ever for something like this to happen but it was too late now.
Darian turned into an armored wolf before he looked at Ellie. “Follow me.” He told her. Now that he was in his armored wolf form, he could hear Jared heading towards them. He led Ellie away from Denthro and David.
As Darian and Ellie were running, Ellie realized that she could smell her stepfather. She shook her head, making her stumble a bit. Now that she was an armored wolf, her father’s odor was even worse. She wondered if Darian had followed her father’s odor to their home when he had gone to rescue her.
Ellie then heard a gunshot. She looked over her shoulder. To her horror, she could see Jared in the distance. It looked like he was facing in another direction but she wasn’t sure. She really hoped that he didn’t see her or Darian. That made her wonder why he had fired his gun. She thought that maybe Jared had seen Denthro or David but there hadn’t been any howling or screams of pain.
That was when she heard another gunshot followed by Jared’s screams and snarling. Ellie looked at Darian. “What is happening?” She asked as the scent of blood reached her. “Did Jared hit Denthro or David?” She was tempted to go back to find out. For all they knew, Denthro or David could have been injured.
Darian didn’t look back. “ I have my orders to take you somewhere safe.” He told Ellie. “You won’t be safe if you’re near Jared.” He might have been the alpha but, at that moment and for the rest of his life, Ellie would always be the first thing for him to take care of.
Chapter Seventeen
Denthro wiped the blood away from his mouth. “That was gross.” He said. He looked at David. “Remind me never to bite and draw blood from a human when I’m in my armored wolfe form.” He told David before he looked in the direction that Jared had fled in. It was easy to tell which direction that was. All they had to do was follow the trail of blood from the patch of blood that had a gun and two fingers in it. Denthro hadn’t meant to break off Jared’s fingers but the man had refused to let go of his gun.
David shook his head. He was surprised and somewhat disgusted that Denthro had done that. Jared smelled disgusting and Denthro now had the man’s scent in his mouth. David could smell Jared's odor on Denthro. “You might want to wash out your mouth quite a few times before trying to kiss Demeter anytime soon.” He told Denthro. He was quite serious. He wondered how Ellie’s mother had been able to put up with the jerk for so long.
Denthro looked around them. “We need to get going.” He told David. “With the type of injury that Jared got, he’ll probably go to a hospital. It might mean the police going to arrest him but you can bet that he’ll have called any of his friends from the last town he lived in and tell them what’s going on.” He hoped that David realized what he was saying. None of them were safe anymore. Not at the camp and not in Dalton. Jared had too much power in the last town and they were willing to bet that he was going to use it to get out of jail if the police in Dalton arrested him.
“We can’t leave Danielle though.” David told Denthro. He refused to leave his love behind. “She sacrificed herself so that we could have a chance to keep Ellie safe.” When he said it like that, David couldn’t help but feel a little anger towards Ellie. Their whole life had been destroyed because Darian couldn’t help but falling in love with some girl and he had dragged them all into his mission to protect Ellie. He didn’t care if Ellie was an armored wolf. She was the reason that Danielle was dead. If Ellie hadn’t been at the camp, Jared would have never shown up and Danielle would still be alive.
Denthro took his son by the arm. “I know David.” He told David. “We will get her and we’ll give her a proper burial so if Jared does show up here with his friends, they won’t ever be able to disturb her burial ground.” They couldn’t stay long though. The closest hospital was less than an hour away. As soon as Jared got there and the police got involved, it was just a matter of time before they showed up at the Wolfes’ home and whatever blood was found would lead into an investigation and Denthro knew that that would be bad. There would also be a paper trail from the hospital where they had gotten Ellie’s paperwork to them at the camp. That would prove that the Wolfe family had been hiding Ellie that whole time. The two of them had to remove any trace that Ellie had been there and any trace of there being a fight.
Later that night, Demeter and the others arrived at the safe house. Doug closed the door behind them and locked it before he turned to the present family members. “What do we do now?” He asked Demeter. “We can’t exactly stay hidden for long. Danielle’s death will be looked into sooner or later.” He knew that he was right and the others except for Devoni knew that he was right. Even if they told people that Danielle was away on a trip or studying abroad, the truth would come out sooner or later.
Demeter shook her head and looked at her children. They all had the same concern on their faces that she knew that she had. Devoni also had fear on her face. Demeter turned to Darine. The bullet wounds were already healing. Demeter just hoped that they didn’t leave a blood trail for Jared to follow. She took her police radio out and looked at it.
“Mom?” Derek asked. “What’s wrong?” He could sense that there was a new problem that they would have to face. He looked at the radio. “The police.” He said.
Demeter looked at him. “The police will find Jared before the night is over.” She told him, confirming what Derek was thinking, before she sat down. “By the time the sun rises, they will be expecting me to radio in to help them or to answer their questions. If I don’t, they’ll get suspicious.” They were in a real fix this time. Usually when Demeter took on the job of a police officer in the past, it gave her access to wiping cleaning all of the files and traces of them before she set up new ones. Now she couldn’t do that with the police finding Jared at some point before the night was over.
Diane sat by her mom. “We’ll become fugitives.” She said. “Even if we were to split up and join other packs of armored wolves, we’ll still be hunted by the police or the F.B.I and Jared.” Jared was their problem. They couldn’t let him get captured by the police or he would talk and even if the police didn’t believe him, they would still go to the camp and find traces of a fight, proof that Ellie had been hiding there and blood if Danielle had done any bleeding. They couldn’t kill him either or the police would look into Jared’s death and that would lead them into looking into their family.
“Mom, what do we do?” Dale asked. They had to come up with a plan if they were to survive the upcoming hunt. He personally wanted to find Jared and make him pay for all of the trouble that the man had caused their family. He knew though that they wouldn’t be able to do that quite so easily. Not with an Amber Alert for Ellie that was still happening. He realized that none of them had told Ellie that there was an Amber Alert for her. They had been so busy with hiding her from Jared and then Devoni had shown up so there had never been a good time.
Doug went to the window and peeked out. For the first time in his long life, Doug found himself being worried. They had never done anything like this before. Usually whenever they had added someone to their family, they had always made sure to do it the legal way through a court system before erasing all traces of them before leaving. Now they couldn’t. Demeter was right. She just couldn’t disappear now. Not with all of this happening.
Derek then spoke. “What if we were to have Dad call the police? Report that Danielle had been murdered and have them take care of the investigation? Once Jared is captured, they could prove that he had been at the camp. They’ll lock him up and we’ll be safe.” It sounded like a good plan to him.
“Not when the morgue do an autopsy on Danielle.” Diane reminded Derek. “Once they do that, they’ll see what makes us so different from normal humans.” That would just stick out in anyone’s minds.
At the Wolfes’ house, David entered the garage. His eyes widened when he saw Danielle lying in a pool of her own blood. “Denthro!” David shouted. “She’s in here!” David ran to Danielle and knelt by her. It was just as his feelings had told him. Danielle was dead. David saw the wound on Danielle’s neck. He recognized what made the wound. His anger grew. He would make Jared pay.
Denthro joined David and stopped when he saw the pool of blood. He shook his head. It was very rare for an armored wolf to die. Ever since the massacre committed by the church centuries before, Denthro had only ever seen one or two armored wolves die. Denthro knelt down by David and looked at Danielle’s dead body. “I’m sorry.” Denthro told David.
David looked at Denthro. “We have to make Jared pay for this.” He told his father. “He can’t be allowed to escape with Danielle’s death going unpunished.” David refused to let Jared live. It wasn’t fair. Danielle had done nothing wrong and yet she died while Jared was still alive and doing evil. David stood up and carried Danielle out of the house. Denthro was about to follow him when his phone rang. Denthro took his phone out and looked at the screen. It was Demeter.
A few minutes later, David was getting ready to dig a hole in the ground when Denthro joined him. “Who was on the phone?” David asked, turning to his father. He had heard the phone ringing as well.
“It was Demeter.” Denthro answered. “She has a plan that will help us get rid of Jared for good and a chance for us to leave and start a new life elsewhere.” He knew that it wasn’t entirely what David wanted to hear, it would be hard to start a new life without Danielle, but they all needed this. Especially since they had two new family members.
David shook his head. He wanted to be the one to get rid of Jared personally but he couldn’t risk their family to satisfy his thirst for revenge. “What’s this plan?” He asked.
Chapter Eighteen
“Ellie, wake up.” Ellie’s eyes flew opened and she sat up quickly. She looked around her. She didn’t recognize where she was. It looked like a cave, a very small cave at that. She could hear it raining outside the cave. Ellie thought back to the night before. The last thing she remembered was running with Darian. She looked down at herself. She was in her human form. She noticed that her hands were a bit red though. She wondered if it was because she had been running on her hands and feet when she was in armored wolf form. If it was, she would have to get used to it. She still had a hard time believing that she was able to turn into an armored wolf.
“How did you sleep?” Ellie turned to Darian. The boy was sitting by the entrance to the cave. It was still dark outside the cave but Ellie knew that it was because of the rain clouds overhead. She could see the raining falling outside the cave. She noticed that Darian had set up what looked like a small wall of large rocks to keep the water from entering the cave. It didn’t look like Darian had slept at all. Ellie could see the bags under his eyes.
“How long have we been here?” Ellie asked. She didn’t where in the sky the sun was so she couldn’t be sure what time of day it was.
Darian looked at his watch. “It’s nearly noon.” He told her. “We stopped here late last night when you started tripping over your paws from exhaustion.”
Ellie held her legs close to her chest. “Has there been any word from the others?” She asked Darian. She was worried about them.
Darian shook his head. “Nothing since three this morning. Demeter had sent a text saying that they were making a plan to deal with Jared once and for all.” He looked outside the cave. “We can’t really go anywhere in this weather.” He continued. “We try to go out in the rain, we’ll just risk making it easier for Jared to track us if he’s still out here.” He was just relieved that their tracks had been washed away by the rain.
Ellie’s stomach rumbled. Ellie looked down at her belly. She just realized that they hadn’t eaten anything since the night before at supper. That had been around six or seven. She looked at Darian. He was probably hungry too. “Could we try walking somewhere in our human forms?” Ellie asked him. They couldn’t risk their armored wolf forms but they could try in their human forms. Ellie realized that it would still take her a while to get used to thinking like that. She wondered if the others had all gone through that as well. Besides Devoni, the others seemed so used to the change.
Darian looked down. He was hungry too but it was too dangerous to try to go anywhere to eat at that moment. Even if they walked in their human forms, Jared would still be able to track them down because of their foot prints. There was also that matter of the F.B.I looking for Jared and the Amber Alert for Ellie. The minute anyone saw her who had seen the Amber Alert, they would call the police and Jared would most likely hear about it when the F.B.I would cancel the Amber Alert. He however would be able to go to town to get food.
Darian took Ellie’s hands in his. “I will be right back.” He told her. “I swear it. I need you to stay hidden here though. If there’s only one set of foot prints and Jared is out there looking, he won’t have any reason to think they’re my foot prints or your foot prints. While I’m in town, I’ll get both of us rain jackets and food.” He looked at the entrance of the cave. “I’m not sure how long we’ll be here but it could be a while.” Darian wanted to make sure that they had everything they needed to stay hidden for at least a couple of days.
Ellie didn’t want Darian to leave her alone but she realized that he was right. She crawled to the back of the cave and held her legs against her chest. “Just hurry back.” She told Darian. “I don’t want to be alone.” She knew that it sounded pathetic but after everything that had happened to her, Ellie was scared to be alone. She could still feel the phantom itches from where Jared had beaten her. She looked at Darian. “Please hurry back to me.” She said softly.
Darian smiled at her before he went out into the rain. Ellie stayed very still. She could feel her heart beating fast. She wondered how long Darian would be gone. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was being very quiet or if it was because she was an armored wolf now but her ears perked at every noise that she heard. It didn’t matter what it was. Since she couldn’t see it she had to make sure that Jared didn’t sneak up on her. “Please hurry back Darian.” She whispered.
In the gas station right off of the high way, the cashier was watching the news. The federal agents on the screen were warning the public once again of how dangerous someone named Jared Summer was. The cashier shook his head. Dalton had been such a nice community until that family had arrived. Now there was a dead woman, a missing child and a dangerous man on the loose.
The cashier saw a teenage boy enter the gas station. The boy looked soaking wet. The cashier wasn’t surprise. The boy had arrived there without a rain jacket or umbrella. He had probably run there from his family’s car or from his family’s house. The cashier didn’t know everyone in the town and he didn’t really care about everyone’s past. He was just there to work and to get paid.
The boy got two rain jackets off of their hangers. The cashier noticed that the boy got a lot of bags of food. The kid was probably getting snacks for his family and he and his sibling had probably just forgotten to pack their jackets. The boy went up to the cashier and laid the stuff on the counter. For some reason, the boy looked familiar. The cashier wasn’t sure why though. “Going on a trip?” The cashier asked.
The boy looked at him. “Yeah.” He answered. “My family is going on a trip and my brother and I couldn’t find our rain jackets so our da
d sent me here to get them. I’m just getting the food for the car.” The boy smiled. “Beats hungry stomachs in a car.” He said before he laughed a little.
The cashier ringed the food and the rain jackets up. “Twenty bucks.” The cashier told the boy. As the boy was getting the money out, three men came in. One look at them and the cashier knew that the men were hunters. They were dressed like they were going hunting. The cashier looked out at the parking lot. He was willing to bet that the camouflage pickup truck was theirs as well. “Something I can help you men with?” The cashier asked the three men.
One of the men, a short roundish guy with very little hair and a gray mustache went up to the counter. “We’re looking for a camp.” He told the cashier. The boy gave the cashier the money before he took the bags with the food and the rain jackets and left.
The cashier noticed that the boy had left quickly but he wasn’t surprise. He would want to leave the place quickly too. These three men screamed dangerous to him. “Sorry.” The cashier told the short man. “There aren’t any hunting camps near here.” He told him. “We do have a year round camp though off of Forty-Five. Camp Wolfwood.” He wanted to get these men out of the gas station as quickly as possible and if telling them were Camp Wolfwood was did it, so be it.
The short roundish guy looked at the two men. “Paul, didn’t he say that we were supposed to go to Camp Wolfwood?” He asked.
The taller of the two men nodded. “Yeah. We were supposed to meet a camp director at that camp Cliff.” He replied.
Cliff turned back to the cashier. “How do we get there?” He asked the cashier. “It’s important that we get there quickly.”