I really hoped not. Charlotte was scary enough in human form. She had done a lot of damage as a wolf. One of which was killing my ancestor, and others in that town. She liked to kill humans. But that was over a hundred years ago. I just hoped she had evolved.
"Nah," I scoffed trying to ease her mind. "It's probably just a normal wolf."
"That doesn't make me feel any better," she grumbled as we rounded the bend and started for the long stretch again. There was still no sign of other life. This side of the island was even closer to land. I really wished it was warmer. I'd make a go of it and tow Lauren if I had to.
We walked for about another hour feeling exhausted. My ankle was extremely sore, and we were freezing. The trail we were following had thinned, and we were being assaulted with sharp branches. I wanted to give up; there were no other cabins around. Thankfully, Lauren’s flashlight revealed a boat. Although I was pleased to see it, I didn't get too excited because it was the same one we had seen earlier. I was just glad that we would be able to get in, out of the cold so I could rest my foot.
Just as we came up on the pebbled beach, we heard another howl. This time it was joined with others. Lauren gasped and gripped my hand again so hard I thought she'd break it. We quickened our pace and rushed up to the yard as the howling got louder. I froze as a reddish-brown wolf broke from the trees and stared at us. It was fifty feet away, but I could hear the growl. I gulped, but couldn't move. I was frozen with fear. Lauren was able to gain her composure before I did, and she pulled me along, walking slowly toward the cabin. The lights glowing from the windows were a beacon to safety. After a few more steps, another wolf appeared next to the first one. This one was light brown, almost tan. Once again, we froze. I blinked, now there were five wolves. Was I imagining this, or was I so exhausted that my mind was playing tricks on me? The first one growled again, and took a step closer. With the light from the cabin, I could see that the color was more rust than reddish brown. It was very close to the color of Charlotte’s hair. For some reason, I recognized her as this wolf and knew she hadn’t left. She wasn’t finished with us yet. I didn’t even want to think about her plans for us or why she had changed into her wolf form. Even more disturbing, was the fact that she recruited an entire pack of werewolves just for us, which was odd since we obviously weren’t much of a threat. The tan one stood next to her, while one black and two brown wolves lingered behind them. While their coats were all a different color, the one thing they had in common was their sharp teeth. All of them were snarling at us, baring long pointed fangs. I couldn’t help but gulp, as icy, clawing-fear slithered up my spine.
This time, I was the first to gain my composure and pulled Lauren forward as we took off into a run. In retrospect, this probably wasn't a good idea because the wolves did the same. Thankfully, we had a shorter distance to go. They were right on our heels, growling and snarling. My heart was in my throat as we made it to the cabin steps. As we opened the door, the wolves jumped up on the porch, snapping their fangs. We slammed the door on them and stood against it, feeling relief and the warmth from the room. My skin prickled as I began to recover from the chill.
As I stepped further into the cabin, a thud rang out, and the wooden door shook. I spun around to see Lauren still leaning against it, her eyes wide with fright. Another thud, and the door shook again. The wolves were slamming into it, trying to get in.
I swung around, looking for something to put in front of the doorframe and spotted a thick cabinet. It looked heavy, but it wasn't far. "Help me move this!" I yelled.
We both took an end, while the door shook once more. I counted to three, and...nothing. The thing wouldn't budge.
"Again," I yelled just as a wolf snarled through the tiny window. Its lips were pulled back, showing pointed jagged teeth. The light from inside the cabin reflected off of its glassy yellow eyes that were filled with hunger. I gasped and jumped back. Another thump sounded against the door, making the frame shake. The sound of a whine made me smile. Poor wolf hurt himself trying to kill us.
I leaned forward, channeling every ounce of strength I had. I thought angrily of everything Charlotte had done to us. She knocked us out twice, kidnapped us, and left us with no food in the middle of a freaking island where I sprained my ankle. And now we were being attacked by wolves. If we ever got out of this, I’d seriously give her a piece of my mind.
I don't know where the spurt of energy came from, whether it was fear or adrenaline, but this time, the stupid shelf moved. It scraped against the wood floor with a loud screech. Lauren pulled while I pushed with everything we had, until it finally covered the door frame.
We stepped back, out of breath and panting as we watched the cabinet shake when another wolf rammed into the door. It moved slightly, but thankfully the wood was thick and sturdy. We were safe for now. Exhaustion set in, and I fell into the sofa, lifting my aching foot up onto the cushion.
Lauren went into the bedroom and returned with the checkerboard quilt, which she covered me with.
"Thank you," I gasped, out of breath from all the strenuous and terrifying events we'd been through.
She nodded before moving to the sink and filling two glasses with water. She brought them back to the couch, handed me one, and took a drink from her own glass. I took a long gulp of the tepid, odd-tasting liquid, having never felt so thirsty in my life. My hand shook, spilling water as a howl pierced the air, setting off the rest of the wolves. I wiped the water from my sweater with the blanket and set the glass beside Lauren's on a small table beside the furniture.
We held hands and curled up on the couch under the blanket, trying to ignore the howling and snarling of the wolves. "I'm sorry, Lauren. If you hadn't been at the cottage, you wouldn't be in this mess."
She huffed, giving me a dirty look that was visible from the glow of the lamp. "Don't be stupid. This is Charlotte's fault, not yours." She squeezed my hand, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I was tired, freezing, hungry, terrified, and in agony from my ankle, but above all of that, I missed Nate. We hadn't been apart for this long since I moved in with him. I suddenly felt the need to talk about the guy I loved.
"Nate proposed last night," I blurted. I hadn't meant to tell her that. It wasn't the time, but we might not make it through the night, and I couldn't die with this secret.
She gasped, her eyes alight with happiness. "He did?" She leaned over, careful of my foot and hugged me. "I'm so happy for you."
I smiled, about to say thank you, when a wolf jumped up to the window and scraped its claws against the glass. The high-pitched sound reminded me of nails on a chalk board. The wolf snarled at us, baring its jagged teeth. We jumped at the sudden noise and waited for the window to break. Nothing happened and the wolf disappeared from sight, but we could still hear them on the porch howling and snarling. We huddled together with the blanket, watching the door, making sure the shelf didn't move. That was how we stayed all night.
Chapter Eight
A Night’s Rest
"We had to check." Joseph reassured Nate for the third time. They were inside the car patiently waiting at the ferry dock. Nate had been quiet since they had turned back to their human form, and his silence was overwhelming in the small space.
"They're fine. We will find them," Joe said again, sounding eager to break the silence.
Finally, Nate turned his head. The expression on his Nate's face could only be described as defeat. But his eyes were a different story. They were glazed and wide with a frantic look. The men had been searching for the girls for hours, and the separation from Nate's mate was taking a toll on him.
"You don't know that. Maybe she will kill them." Nate finally spoke; his voice was low and filled with dread.
Joe's face went hard. "Stop it, Nate. You can't think like that. We’ll find them. You just need to rest. We've been searching for eight hours straight, and we're tired. We're no good to them this way." He paused, waiting for Nate to argue. When he didn't and just simply sat staring out t
hrough the car window at the lake before them, Joe went on. "Once we get some sleep, you'll feel better, and ready to find them. And we will find them."
Nate’s first reaction was to balk at the idea; they couldn't rest until they found the girls. But he needed to do what was best for Megan. And after searching for hours on the island with no results, he had turned back human feeling beaten, and ready to die. If their search ended badly, how could he live without her? And when he realized what direction his mind was heading, he knew Joe was right. He needed to rest. He could not let his mind take such a dark path. They would find the girls, they had to.
When the ferry tooted its horn in the distance, Nate nodded his head. "I agree, we need to rest." He didn't say anything more as they waited, or when they drove up onto the boat. They were the only vehicle on the deck. It was after two in the morning, and the ferry that had just arrived seemed eerily silent. Or it was in Nate's head? He felt a weight settle on him, smothering him.
Nate went through the motions of nodding his head when Joe spoke, and noted their route with half a mind when they departed the ferry. Before he knew it, they were pulling into a rundown building with a flashing red sign in front that read 'vacancy'. He stayed in the car as Joe went to check them in for the night. He was still silent when he exited the vehicle once he saw his friend return.
"You alright, Nate?" Joe asked, as he pushed the door of their rented room open. It appeared to be clean but smelled of old urine, perfume and an underlying scent of lemon fresh cleaner that did nothing to hide the foul odors. But they were so tired that the stench wouldn't affect their sleep.
"I'm fine," Nate answered robotically. "Just tired." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he fell onto the bed, causing dust particles to bounce into the air from the puke-green blanket. He closed his eyes without uttering another word to Joe, hoping for the oblivion that sleep would bring.
The sound of deep breathing woke Nate. Opening his eyes and glancing around, he discovered he was in a room that he now remembered to be a hotel. There were two beds with matching quilts. The other bed was occupied by Joe who was still sleeping. Nate himself was about to close his eyes again until green eyes flashed in his mind. The urge to find Megan came with a crushing need. He jumped up and spun around looking for a clock. He cringed when he saw the time—it was eleven in the morning. They had wasted valuable time sleeping.
"Joe, get up," he called as he headed to the washroom. There was only a faint groan in response.
Nate growled, “Come on, Joe!”
"I'm up," Joe finally grumbled.
Nate emerged from the bathroom giving Joe a chance to take his turn. When he finished, they rushed out of the room to check out
Twenty minutes later, they were headed out of Cape Vincent and back to I-81. The sun that shone the day before was hidden behind the clouds. There was no rain yet, but the damp chill suggested it was coming. “We should stop to get something to eat,” Joe said into the silence of the car.
Nate winced. He didn’t want any more delays, but today was the full moon, and they hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday. They couldn’t risk hurting innocent people. “Drive thru will be faster,” was his only answer.
Joe nodded and headed to a fast food restaurant where they filled up the backseat with food bags.
When they turned back onto the interstate, Nate caught Charlotte’s scent.
They traveled for an hour as they ate their lunch. Nate was munching on fries when the scent changed direction again in Alexandria Bay, right before the Thousand Island Bridge. They turned left onto Collins Landing Road to Seaway Ave.
"Do you think we're headed to another island then?" Joe asked with a burger in his hand. They were traveling down a scenic road that held over-sized lake side houses.
"Probably. Like you said, she wants to make us suffer. She's not going to make it easy." Nate sighed, hating what they would have to go through to find them. "You know where we are, don't you?"
Joe swallowed his bite, finishing off his burger and turned his head, his expression blank. "Alexandria Bay, why?"
"Didn't you see the signs, back there?" He gestured behind him. "That was the Thousand Island Bridge."
Joe shrugged "Tis just a name right? They don't mean literally." He wasn't from this area and had only been here for a few months, so he wouldn't know that the name of the bridge unfortunately was literal.
Nate laughed without humor. "There may not be a thousand islands, but there are hundreds. And since the water erases the scent, we'll have to check each one."
Joe's face fell. "That’ll take hours. The moon’s full tonight."
This time of year, the moon came out earlier; they only had a few more of hours of daylight. "We can hold the change off for a while, but we bloody well can't all night. We'll have to turn eventually."
Nate considered their predicament. Joe was right, as they aged, they could go longer into the night without changing, but not for long. However, he was determined to find Megan, so he would go as long as he could. They could find a place to change when the time came. "We'll deal with that as it comes; right now we have to focus on the girls."
The trail led to a public boat launch that held rows of both private and rental boats.
Joe parked the car while Nate stuffed their food wrappers into the bags.
"Can I help you guys?" A man's voice called from behind them. Nate had smelled his approach but didn’t bother to look up. He was looking for clues, and when he found none, he turned around to face a man with a fake tan, silver hair, and a too bright smile.
"Has anyone rented a boat recently?" Nate asked, pointing to the boats in the distance.
The man grinned, almost blinding the werewolves' with his shiny teeth. "We're in the off season. Not many people travel out on the lake in this weather, but I did have one customer yesterday. A pretty little red-head rented a twenty foot speed boat, but she hasn't returned it yet."
"Do you know where she went?" Nate asked, leaning his hand on the nearest boat casually, but inside, he wanted to scream at the man for allowing the witch to use a boat.
"Naw." The man waved his hand at them dismissively. "We don't ask those questions. But I assume she went to an island on the river." He meant the St. Lawrence River, home of a thousand islands.
"Was she with any one?" Joe asked.
"Don't think so. I left her for a few minutes to answer the phone, but I only saw her in the boat as it drove off."
Nate tried not to be discouraged by this information, because it wasn't simply Charlotte's scent in the air, but both Lauren's and Megan's as well. He was about to open his mouth to speak when the man beat him to it.
“She did come back a few hours later to pick up four young men. Not sure where she was taking them, but that's not my business."
Nate's stomach dropped as he swallowed heavily. "Is this boat available to rent?" he asked, pointing to a silver speed boat, trying to hide his wariness. This news did nothing to change their mission. They had countless islands to check and little hours of daylight to do it. Soon they'd be wolves, unable to maneuver a vessel.
"Sure, come with me, and I'll get you set up."
They followed the man to a little office, which was filled with all kinds of aquatic paraphernalia. The air was stale and smelled of cigars. He stood behind a counter and pulled out an invoice book. With a swipe of Nate’s credit card and a payment of two hundred dollars, they were given the keys to the boat.
Nate took the wheel, and when he stuck the key in the ignition, the boat sputtered to life. The smell of gas floated out of the motor. "We'll start with the closest one." Nate called over the motor to Joe who stood next to him.
The sky was overcast, and a drizzle filled the air as they quietly rode over the dark water.
As they came up to the first island, Joe spoke. "I don’t like the sound of this.” He breathed in deeply, a crease appearing on his forehead. “Charlotte takes two human girls to a deserted island and returns to
pick up four young men that were most likely werewolves?" He turned to face Nate. "There's a full moon tonight. It sounds like a hunt—like she's training her new minions."
Nate's face hardened as he gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. He was unable to process that idea. "Let's just find them." His voice was a low growl.
The first island was tiny with minimal foliage on the land. Nate slowed to a stop in front of a large boulder, and Joe jumped out. He was only gone ten minutes before he returned, shaking his head, his gray eyes visibly disappointed. "Nope, nothing."
The next one was larger with three cottages set against a long sandy beach. There were no boats docked, but they tried it anyway with the same result. Joe came back shaking his head, worry lines etched in his forehead.
Hours later, and they were still searching the islands that were getting further away and larger. Both men searched with growing desperation, inspecting every inch of the land’s mass. It was dark now and the moon was out. They were shaking with the effort to hold the animals at bay.
"Nate, we have to stop," Joe snarled as they headed to the next one. He was gritting his teeth, holding the wolf back. "We can change, run for a while, and change back."
Nate shook his head. "Just a few more.” He spotted an island up ahead. It was about three miles long, trees and bushes covered most of the land, but a small cabin was visible in the moonlight. The boat slowed to a stop, and Joe jumped up on the dock to tie it up. Nate followed him up a small knoll.
Joe's head snapped toward Nate, his eyes yellow. "They're here." His voice was a roar; he was having a hard time staying human. "And so are the bloody werewolves." He raced forward up the hill, towards a small cabin that was lit up inside. The building was sided with weathered wood and held a small porch. Gouges and scratches marked the slightly open door and surrounding area. Before they had a chance to acknowledge them as claw marks, they spun at the sound of a growl behind them. A rust colored wolf stalked toward them from behind the house. It bared its teeth and snarled.
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