by Alex Anders
“Saki?” She heard her mother yell as she approached the front gate. “Saki?” She heard again as she started down the sidewalk.
Saki wondered if her mother would follow her outside. She doubted it. Her mother was slow moving. It would take her almost a minute to get out of bed. By that time Saki would be halfway down the street. Her mother would have to make a scene, spreading their business in public. Her mother was too concerned about what other people thought to do that.
Saki turned her attention on what she was about to do. They were going to take Lane’s speedboat to the Florida Keys. He had said that it would take 5 to 6 hours. That was a long time in open ocean. It was unnerving, but she knew that it was the only way they could get the answers they needed. They had to find out if there was a way to stop an alpha. If this old wolf helped Lane before, then he was the only one to ask now. It would have been the perfect plan, except for being in open water that long.
Lane was dressed and waiting for her when she arrived. He let her in, and they both headed toward the kitchenette. He had made a stack of sandwiches and was stuffing them into plastic bags.
“Corned beef,” he said, when he saw Saki smell one. “Do you like it?”
“Yeah,” she said, apprehensively.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like it. She just couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a corned beef sandwich. It had to be a Bahamian thing.
“How many did you make?” She said, looking at more than they could possibly eat.
“When you’re going on the boat, you always pack more than you need. It’s easy to unload it if you don’t eat it. But there is nowhere to get more if you need it.”
His explanation made sense. She looked down at the red ice chest. A couple of water bottles were inside.
“We’re going to have to get some more,” Lane added.
“Oh, I don’t have much money,” Saki said, suddenly remembering her situation.
“That’s okay. I have some,” he said without further explanation.
Lane put the bag of sandwiches in the chest, and they carried it to the car. Returning, they found a disheveled Torque looking around curiously.
“Where you goin’?” She asked, ignoring Saki.
“Remember the old wolf I told you about? We’re going to see him.”
Torque look surprised. “Shouldn’t I come?”
“No, I need you to stay here. Can you take care of the dog for me today?”
Torque fell back onto her heels, disappointed, then glared over at Saki with resentment. “You know I wanted to meet him. You told me you would take me.”
“This isn’t by choice, Torque. We’re going there to find out how to…” Lane stopped and looked at Saki for a moment. “We’ll explain it later. You just need to cover for me until I get back. Can you do that for me?”
Saki watched as Lane stared at Torque intensely. He looked powerful. It was the first time she had seen him act like an alpha toward his pack. It filled her with a mix of emotions. She felt weaker in his presence, while simultaneously feeling more secure about their trip.
“Yeah, I can do it. But don’t make this a regular thing,” she said, heading back toward her bedroom.
Saki and Lane shared a look before he signaled for them to go. Entering the car, she took a look around to see who was watching. The street was empty. Sniffing deeply, all she could smell was Lane, the dogs, and the fresh morning air.
Their first stop was at the food store. They collected a few more bottles of water and snacks for their trip. Parking at the dock, they loaded the boat and then set off toward the gas station dock.
Lane removed a cap from the side of the boat and inserted the nozzle. The total was $300. Saki felt her chest clench, as she remembered she didn’t bring much money. But without a word, Lane pulled it out of his wallet and paid.
“I can give you some money when we get back,” Saki offered.
“Don’t worry about it. What? Do you think I take care of the dogs for free? How do you think I paid for this boat?”
Saki hadn’t thought about it. But it did make sense. Everything Lane had was because he worked for it. It was Dax and his friends who were given stuff by their parents.
“Last chance to change your mind,” Lane said with less of a smile then she would expect.
“Let’s go,” she said unwaveringly.
The water between Nassau and Paradise Island was always calm. Saki took the padded bench in front of the steering pedestal. Pulling a hair tie from her pocket, she pulled her hair back. Looking back at Lane, he was wearing sunglasses and was focused on the waves. Saki settled back into the ride.
The homes on the eastern end of Paradise Island were astounding. They weren’t mansions, but they were exceptionally beautiful. Without her asking, Lane volunteered that one of the homes was owned by a Sheikh. They took the narrow channel between Paradise Island and the island directly next to it. Lane pointed back toward the island, indicating which of the homes was Oprah’s. Saki continued to stare at it until it became nothing but a small dot above a sea of blue.
Once they had travelled 30 minutes northwest, Lane reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone. Turning it on, he navigated to his GPS map app.
“What’s that?” Saki asked yelling over the sound of the engine and the wind.
“It’s so we don’t get lost.”
“So it’s important?” Saki asked with a smile.
“Yeah, it’s important.”
Saki who was now standing next to Lane, got a better look at his phone. It plotted a path from where they were to an island just south of the Florida Keys. Surprisingly, it was farther south than where they were now. She had always thought of the Bahamas as south of Florida.
After a few course corrections around Grand Bahama Island, Lane again shut his phone off. “We have to conserve the battery,” he said, returning the phone to his pocket.
“So what is this guy like?”
“You ever heard the phrase, ‘lone wolf’?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s a lone wolf. He’s pretty old, maybe in his 60s. And he doesn’t like people. The last time I was there, he told us not to come back. I don’t think he’s gonna to be happy to see me again.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he wasn’t happy to see me the first time.”
“So, Dax didn’t do anything to ruin it?”
“No, that was before.”
“Before” meant before they split out into two packs, back when they were friends. Before Dax had tried to kill him. Before Saki and Lane decided to kill Dax for the island.
“What was Dax like before?”
“A lot like how he is now. I don’t know. He likes getting into trouble. My dad didn’t like him too much. He used to say that Dax was going to lead me to no good. I should’ve listened to him. If I had, my dad would still be alive.”
“You blame Dax for you being turned?”
“No,” Lane replied, though his expression hinted that he might.
Saki remained silent and watched Lane‘s face become lost in thought. Saki wondered about his true feelings towards Dax. She wondered if he was willing to go through with what needed to be done. She wondered if she could.
Saki had never killed anything in her life. Yet a part of her knew that she could never be caged again. Even now, she had to fight back the overwhelming emotions her mind attached to the experience. As the feeling ebbed, she decided she did have it in her. She was willing to do whatever it took to not be caged again.
The hours passed slowly. It wasn’t a smooth ride. Their boat was only 15-feet long so it didn’t exactly cut through the waves. Many times the front of the boat took air off of a wave and slammed onto the ocean. After 3 hours, it begun to wear on her. The constant slamming and the perpetual noise seemed even louder because of her acute hearing, and it was really tiring her out. Looking back at Lane, his expression showed he was feeling the same way.
“Do you want a s
andwich?” He yelled over the noise. Saki nodded her head in reply. “Can you get me one, too?”
Eating the corned beef sandwich, she fully understood how little she was prepared for this trip. The slamming was endless. It hurt to sit down and standing wasn’t much better. At one point, she tried lying on the bow of the boat. Lane said it would keep the nose down, making the ride smoother. It did but at the expense of her body being impacted harder. No relief came until after the fifth hour when land became visible on the horizon.
“Is that it?” Saki asked, needing it to be true.
“That’s the Keys. We’re about 45 minutes away from where he lives.”
It was in those last 45 minutes that Saki truly started to feel sick. The trip had been torturous. It was nowhere near her experience in the cage, but the experiences had similarities. She couldn’t believe that in a short while, she would have to do all this again. She tried not to think about it.
Instead, Saki focused on the thought that soon, she would have all of her questions answered. Maybe he would even be able to explain to her who she was. Maybe he would explain to her the inexplicable yearning that never quite left her except during the full moon.
Eventually, the boat slowed to a stop. In front of them, a beach was framed by coco plum bushes.
“I’m going to run the boat onto shore, and you jump off with the anchor. Plant it in the sand as far up as you can go.”
“Where is it?” She asked.
Lane looked around the boat. “It’s under the bench,” he said referring to the cushioned bench in front of the engine.
Saki removed the cushion and retrieved the anchor. It was attached to the back of the boat. Saki took the excess rope with her to the front of the boat. Trying to figure out how to jump off with it in hand, she waited for the boat to hit shore and then threw it forward, jumping onto the sand after it. Retrieving it, she buried it deep into the sand. Lane cut the engine and joined her.
“Do you smell him?” Lane asked, tilting his nose in the air.
Saki tilted her head up and inhaled deeply through her nose. She mostly smelled salt air, with an underlying earthy aroma that she suspected was rotting fruit. “I don’t smell him.”
“There is just a hint of him. Try again and allow your mind to picture what you’re smelling.”
She again closed her eyes and inhaled, allowing her imagination to take hold. The image of squashed coco plums came to mind. She pushed past that and imagined a mango tree. She next thought of fish scales and then somewhere in there was the image of weathered skin. She inhaled again, moving her head to fine-tune the scent.
The image of a man came to mind. She imagined him hiding in some type of hut covered in rotting fruit and dried fish.
“I think I smell him. He’s that way,” she said, pointing into the bush. Looking over at Lane for confirmation, he smiled back.
Both walked in the man’s direction.
“Do you think he’ll talk to us?” She asked suddenly realizing the man could be upset by them being there.
“He won’t be happy, but he might talk to us.”
Saki followed the path as Lane pushed aside branches. She was surprised to see how similar the foliage was her island. All of the trees had that same mid-day burning sun look. None of the tree trunks were very thick, and most of them were in shades of gray.
As the man’s scent got stronger, the trees thinned out. Eventually, they entered a clearing with a hut that looked like it was stained with fruit pulp. Although she couldn’t see it, she was sure that he cooked his fish in the back. Saki turned to Lane, looking for acknowledgment that he was inside. He nodded.
Saki hung back allowing Lane to take the lead.
“Hello? You might not remember me, but we spoke before.”
“I remember you,” a gruff, raspy voice said from behind the aged plywood. “And I remember I told you never to come back. Do you remember what I told you will happen if you came back?”
“I’m sorry. We just have more questions. My friend who I brought the last time is an alpha. And now we need to know how to stop him.”
The front door flew open, banging against the wall behind it. Out stepped a bare-chested old man with a beard. He looked crazed and dangerous. Saki took a deep breath and might have run if Lane hadn’t reached back and grabbed her wrist.
“And you came to me to figure out how to kill an alpha?” He said, charging them.
Holding his ground, Lane didn’t move. The old man stopped inches from Lane‘s face and slowly growled as his face distorted, almost undetectably, into a wolf. Saki‘s body shook under the sound of the old man’s powerful growl. Lane, however, refused to move.
Lane waited until the old man took a step back. “We need questions answered, and you’re the only one we know who can answer them.”
“So you think you’re an alpha now? You don’t know what an alpha is. You know what it is to be killed by an alpha? Is that what you want to know? Because that I could help you with.”
In an instant, the old man shifted into something closer to a wolf, cocked back his clawed fist, and was about to strike.
“I’m not challenging you,” he shouted, lowering his head. “Answers. We just wanna know who we are.”
The old wolf stopped again, moving his snout inches from Lane‘s face. Sniffing him, he paused, then shifted back into the weathered old man.
“Ask your question. Then leave. If you ever come back, I’ll kill you before you can blink twice. You understand?”
“We understand,” Lane declared.
Lane loosened his grip on Saki‘s wrist. His nails were digging into her flesh. Once released, she looked down and found deep, sharp imprints in her skin. Looking at Lane‘s hand, she couldn’t figure out what made the indention. She turned her attention back to the old man.
“Saki?” Lane said, prompting her to speak.
Saki opened her mouth but nothing came out. She cleared her voice and tried it again. “How do we defeat an alpha?”
The old man looked at her, reluctant to answer.
“He’s going to kill us if we let him. We need to get him first,” she explained.
“You can’t kill an alpha,” he said unflinching. “But, if your friend has become an alpha, you can stop him by destroying his pack.”
“We have to kill everyone he turned into a wolf? All 50 of them?” Lane asked surprised.
“It’s doesn’t take 50 wolves to make an alpha,” the old man said gruffly.
Lane looked at him, confused. “But you told us you have to turn 50 people to become an alpha.”
“Yeah? Well I was wrong. It takes a pack to become an alpha. The number doesn’t matter.”
Lane was stunned. He stood unmoving, trying to process what he had just heard.
“Wait. I don’t understand. So you don’t need to turn 50 people to shift?” Saki clarified.
“What did I just say?” He asked, angered.
“So, can we control our turns?” Saki asked fanning an ember of hope.
“You can’t. But an alpha can.”
It was Saki turn to be speechless. She wanted to know more, but she didn’t know what to ask. The more she thought about it, the more turbulent her mind became. She couldn’t get any questions out.
Saki turned to Lane, looking for help. Staring into his eyes, she found none. When she turned back to the old man, he was gone.
“Wait,” she squeaked.
She and Lane stood there, unable to speak, unable to move. They were at once filled with hope and distraught that they had let this opportunity go by without learning more. When it was clear that the old man would not return, Lane led Saki back to the boat. They could still smell him on the island, but they weren’t going to chase him down. He had given them what he promised. It was now time for them to go.
Lane dug up the anchor and placed it in the boat. Saki climbed in. He pushed the boat off the sand. Climbing in after her, he started up the boat and pointed it out to sea.
>
“We need to get some gas,” was the only thing that Lane said before powering up and leaving the old man’s island for good.
It took 20 minutes for the two of them to get to the main island of the Florida Keys. At the pump, they stood in silence in the line. Neither one wanted to speak. While Lane stayed focused on his duties as captain, Saki searched her mind for ways she could kill Dax‘s pack without killing the boys that she had grown to know and like.
Gully, Frank, Mark, and Patrick were no longer just the boys in her class. In a way, they had become friends. Saki wasn’t sure how much she trusted them, but she knew they had good in them. They weren’t the monsters she was first introduced to on the island. They were just boys with parents and an addiction to video games. They were just followers. Unfortunately, they chose to follow someone dangerous.
Saki watched as Lane filled the tank again. The numbers on the pump just kept increasing. It finally stopped at $236.24. It wasn’t quite as expensive as in the Bahamas, but it was still high. As before, Lane took out his wallet and paid.
“Do you need anything from the store before we leave?” He asked, breaking the silence.
Saki opened the ice chest and counted the water bottles. They still had four left. Considering they had only drank one each on the way, Saki was sure that they had more than enough.
“No, I think were good.”
“Oh,” Lane said looking at his phone.
“What’s the matter?”
“I left my phone on.”
“Is it dead?” She asked, a little concerned.
“No, it’s fine,” he assured her with his eyebrow still furrowed.
Lane pulled away from the dock, setting an angle perpendicular to the waves. Saki wasn’t sure why, but the waves seemed bigger. Perhaps it was now high tide or perhaps the wind had shifted. Whatever it was, the front of the boat kept shooting into the air and slamming onto the water below. Lane slowed down, trying to reduce the impact.