by Renee Carr
My hand was shaking just slightly, bringing to my attention just how nervous I was. I had to give myself a pep talk. “Get it together, Libby. You’ve been in these woods a million times. Remember what your father told you: there’s nothing in the woods at night that isn’t there during the day.”
I continued on until the last part of the path had become completely overgrown. I looked up at the canopy of the trees and the moon beyond it, taking a good guess at which way Christian had headed. If he was going back to the river, I would need to go much farther into the woods. As I stepped forward, my face went right into a spider web and I dropped the flashlight, wiping it away. I shivered with a growl. “I hate spiders.”
Shaking my head, I reached down to pick up my flashlight. As my hand touched it, I heard the snapping of twigs behind me. I grabbed the flashlight and stood up fast, looking around. “Hello? Is anyone out there? Christian?”
There was another snap, and then another, and I narrowed my eyes and stepped to the left, looking into the woods. There was a flash of light. They were eyes, but these were silver and moving fast. They disappeared, and when they reappeared, they were right up on me. I stumbled backward and gasped as I fell into the leaves. An owl burst through the trees, flying forward and then upward, landing on a branch and folding its wings by its side.
I let my head hang back for a moment and rolled my eyes. I was letting my fear get the best of me. I really hoped Christian couldn’t see me at that moment—he would think I was a complete lunatic. I stood back up, brushing the dirt off my pants. Before I was ready to move again, though, something ran fast and hard by me, hitting my elbow and knocking me forward. I stumbled, dropping the flashlight into the pile of leaves. It flickered and then went out. My body snapped upward, and my eyes went wide, looking all around me. Whatever it was, it was big.
My breath picked up and I began to panic. With my eyes darting back and forth, they finally landed on a pair of dark yellow eyes in the distance. We stared at each other for several moments, but I knew right away that it wasn’t Christian. It began to carefully step forward, walking through a ray of moonlight just catching the edge of its back. I could see long, black hair rippling up the wolf’s spine.
Remembering what Christian was like when he turned into a wolf put fear in my heart. If he was difficult to bring down, someone I didn’t know would be even harder. Or maybe it was a real wolf, or maybe something even worse. I didn’t want to find out. As soon as it took another step forward, I turned and ran, putting my arms out to block the branches and twigs I couldn’t see in the darkness of the woods. Even then, small, sharp daggers of bouncing limbs smacked me across the face and arms. I whimpered as I ran, tripping up here and there but trying to stay on my feet as much as I could.
Up ahead I could see a light spot, possibly a clearing in the trees where the moonlight was coming down. I didn’t know what that meant, but for some reason, I just knew I had to get there. As I reached the edge of the clearing, the wolf ran faster, leaping through the air and landing on my back, pushing me down to the ground. I struggled, flipping over, and looked up at its big, snarling jowls. It growled at me, saliva dripping from its teeth and its claws poking into my shoulders. I very slowly reached back into my pocket and grabbed my pocketknife. I flipped it open and waited just a moment, before slicing at the wolf.
It let out a wail and stumbled backward. As soon as it was off of me, I pulled myself back, scooting as fast as I could across the dirt and stone until I was backed up against a tree. I could feel the warm blood trickling down my cheek from the small cuts and abrasions, and I looked over at my shoulder, finding my shirt split and the skin beneath it red and bloody. One of the branches had gotten me pretty good.
The wolf made a strange noise, and my head snapped back toward it, watching it in the center of the clearing beneath the moonlight. It twisted and snarled, howling and whimpering as its body began to shift, changing out of its wolf form. It was just like Christian, a man beneath the fur. It was terrifying to watch, and I gripped my hands into the leaves beneath me, unable to move, frozen with fear. Finally, when the change was done, the man put his hands down on the ground and lifted himself up to his feet. He was a large man, maybe 6’3” or 6’4”, and his body was strong and muscular. He had long, black, shaggy hair and a black beard, and I put him somewhere in his mid-50s.
The lines on his face showed that he had lived a hard life, and his expression was angry and confused at the same time. He stomped toward me and I put my hand up, holding the knife in front of me. He looked at it and reached his hand up to the side of his neck, pulling it back and sniffing the blood. It was just a scratch, but I could tell that it pissed him off royally. He slapped his hand against mine, knocking the knife from my grip. I tried to get up, but before I could, he grabbed me around the waist. I slammed my foot down on his and tried to run, but he growled and grabbed me by the wrist, flipping me around.
The next few moments happened so quickly that there was no way that I could’ve fought him. He reared back and with full force, backhanded me right across the face. I spun around, knocking my forehead into the tree behind me and then collapsing onto the ground. My vision went hazy and I could feel him pick me up right before everything went dark.
21
Christian
On the inside, I was growling, feeling the pain shooting up my leg. During training, things had gotten pretty intense, especially with Arthur feeling like he needed to speed up the process. I wanted to prove to him that I could do it, that I was all in with everything. If there were bad guys out there, I wanted to make sure that they didn’t find their way in and end up hurting innocent people. I already had a family, but it looked like my family was going to grow. I tried to look at it in a positive light. As a shifter, I was going to need all the support that I could get and I was sure that there were other wolf shifters out there that felt the same way as me.
Carefully, I limped through the clearing and out onto the street. It wasn’t yet daylight, but it was very close. I could hear the birds chirping and the sky was beginning to lighten. I needed to get back in bed before Libby saw me out of it. I let my left arm swing naturally as my right hand gripped my thigh, hoping the pain would go away soon. Any tearing had already healed before I changed back, but I was in such a hurry to get back that I didn’t think about it. Some residual damage was obviously left over, but I was sure it wouldn’t be anything too bad.
Quietly, I climbed the stairs, hoping that I wasn’t being too loud. I could never tell if I was being loud or quiet. Very carefully, I turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door to keep it from creaking. I did the same to close it, pausing for just a minute to let everything settle. Turning, I took off my boots and left them by the door so I didn’t track mud in. When I had shifted in the woods, I had forgotten to take off my socks, so I was now barefoot. I doubted she would notice that, though.
Turning the corner into the bedroom, my eyes adjusted quickly and I paused, finding an empty bed. I lifted an eyebrow and looked around, wondering if she was in the bathroom, but the door was open and the lights were off. Hopefully she didn’t get upset when she woke alone in the bed. If she had, though, there was a really good possibility that she was just at the main house. Her car was still out front. I let out a long, deep sigh, and went back to the front door to gather my things so I could go check on her. The last thing I wanted was for her to be upset with me.
Crossing the yard, my mind was on the smell of her body spray and that sweet scent she exuded naturally. About five paces away, though, I began to slow and I turned to my right, narrowing my eyes. I took in a long, deep breath, moving from left to right, taking in her scent and then losing it. Before she had even gotten to the back door, the trail split off, heading around to the side of the house. Considering I hadn’t even gotten home before daylight, I couldn’t figure out why she would get up in the middle of the night and go for a walk toward the woods. My heart began to race a bit, finding the situat
ion a little bit more than suspicious. I sniffed again, trying to make sure I wasn’t wrong, and then started walking slowly after the trail of her scent. She had gone somewhere else, somewhere in the middle of the night, somewhere fully dressed and completely awake.
My senses were going wild, which was strange to me considering as a human, tracking was never my thing. But the wolf inside of me had all its gears going, trying to find out where exactly she went. Immediately I began to follow her trail, turning at the side of the house and pausing for a moment, seeing what looked like an old opening in the woods, possibly an old trail from when she was a child. However, no matter how old the trail was, her scent was very fresh.
Each and every step that I took through the brush and leaves was specific and calculated. Her scent continued to what looked to be the end of the trail, but she hadn’t stopped there. I moved in her footsteps, trying to imagine what she was doing walking through that area of the national forest. Sure, it was close to her house, and it was obvious she had been back there before, but not in the middle of the night.
I reached an area of the woods where her scent was stronger, a pheromone of fear lingering in the air. I looked up at the remnants of a spiderweb clinging to some of the branches and then to the right where there was a pushed-up pile of leaves as if she had fallen. I knelt down there, looking at it, and then back up at the tree above. A large owl was sitting there, feathers puffed out, its head turning from side to side, making no noise. I stood back up and took a step, kicking something hard beneath the leaves. With a furrowed brow, I bent over and grabbed a flashlight. I held it to my nose and inspected it. It was definitely Libby’s. Shaking it by my ear, I could tell that something was broken inside of it.
I stuck the flashlight in the back of my belt and continued on. There were a couple more steps close together and then they became further apart. I pumped my arms and took large steps, realizing that she had taken off, running. From the looks of her zig-zagging steps, she was panicked. Libby had been in the dark, in the woods, and something had scared her enough that she didn’t turn around and go back home, but instead drove herself further into the woods. Up ahead I could see a clearing, the early morning light beginning to shine down on it. I hurried to the edge and blinked, staring at a rough place in the leaves where the dirt had been stirred up.
“She fell,” I whispered to myself. “She…”
Suddenly everything in my body tensed. If I were in my wolf form, my ears would’ve perked and the fur would’ve stood up on the back of my spine. I reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt, taking in a deep breath. Looking up, I hurried across the clearing to a large, old oak tree where another area of twigs and dirt was turned. Very carefully, I ran my finger across a patch of dried leaves, finding blood pooled in them.
Closing my eyes, I could smell her, I could smell her fear, and I could smell the blood that came from her body. But on top of that, even more concerning, I could smell another wolf. This wolf I didn’t find familiar at all. In fact, the smell of fear wasn’t just coming from her, it was coming from the wolf as well. I put my hand on the tree to pull myself up to my feet, feeling something warm and wet beneath my fingertips. I pulled them back and turned over my palm, finding it covered in blood. My heart fluttered in my chest for a moment, and I looked down at the multiple overturned spots where someone had been standing. Whoever it was, they were large.
All of the blood, except for a few small droplets, I could tell was Libby’s. The other blood came from the wolf, but it wasn’t very much. I could smell his wolf and his human at the same time, so I knew he must’ve shifted. I began to slowly back away from the tree, not wanting to think what I had already been attempting to push from my mind. It was obvious that Libby was hurt. And it was obvious that another wolf was involved in that. There wasn’t enough blood there to presume she was dead, but it was more than enough to know that she was injured.
My breath began to pick up in my chest, heavier and heavier, fury flooding over me. I was seeing red, red like the drops of Libby’s blood I had found. All sorts of frightening images were running through my mind, and it was driving me into a frenzy. In that moment, I didn’t know which way to turn. My head was spinning in circles, and all I could think about was getting to her.
My wolf came rushing out of me with no warning and no control. The clothes ripped from my body as I shifted from my human form into my beast. The change was fast and furious and I didn’t even feel an ounce of pain. I rose up on my back paws and then slammed down on my front, growling and hissing through my sharpened fangs. Lowering my wolf head, I used my senses, now that they were stronger. Everything was pointing to the idea that something had happened to Libby, something bad, and something right there where I was standing. She was in danger, and I would do anything I could to save her.
My growls turned to barks and my barks grew louder and louder until my head flew back and a deep, hurtling howl echoed through the forest, bouncing off the tree limbs in every direction. I needed Arthur’s help, I needed him to be ready. When I lowered my head back down and took to the ground, I could hear him signaling back to me. He was on his way to the cave, but we were too far apart to speak telepathically. It was strange how I knew his howl so well. He was the one that had changed me, and he was the only friend I had at that point.
My claws dug into the dirt as I pushed my body harder and faster, trying to get to the cave as quickly as possible. There was no time to lose—Libby’s life was in the balance. I had never felt more motivated or determined about anything in my life. It didn’t matter what happened to me, it didn’t even matter what happened Arthur; we had to get Libby back. Whoever this wolf was, it was easy to tell that they were wild and feral, scared and angry, and there was a darkness to them.
As I raced through the woods, I took the twists and turns, jumping over fallen logs, ducking and diving through the thick brush and leaping over the small ravines. As I grew closer to the cave, I could sense Arthur and began to pick up on his voice. “Can you hear me yet?”
“I can hear you,” I replied. “I’m almost to you.”
“What is this all about? You know that it’s highly irregular that we meet during the day,” Arthur said, worried but not just about what was wrong with me.
“I know, and I apologize, but there’s been an emergency,” I said, tearing around the corner, heading down the straightaway toward the cave. “I’ll be there in two seconds.”
I took a sharp right turn and barreled down into the cave, not slowing until my feet scraped along the wet rocks inside. When I bolted into the cavern, I came to a skidding stop, finding Arthur still in his human form. “You’re talking to me in your human form?”
He smiled at me. “Do this long enough and you figure out a few tricks. Now, what’s so important?”
My wolf began to pace, growling, trying to find the words. “They took her. They took her.”
Arthur shook his head and walked over, putting his hand on my back. “Christian, calm down. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me who they took, or who they are.”
I stopped, looking up at him with my wolf eyes. “They took the woman I love. The dark wolves have her.”
22
Libby
My whole body hurt. It felt like someone had hit me over the head with a frying pan. My ears were ringing, and my pulse was vibrating through every vein in my skull. I tried to open my eyes, but it was almost too much. Just becoming conscious was too much. My mind was all jumbled up, and I couldn’t remember where I was, what I was doing, or why the ground was dusty and gritty beneath my hands.
I turned from my right side onto my back, feeling a hard surface beneath me. Very slowly, I touched my fingers to my forehead, wincing at the pain. I had some sort of cut on my head and stinging pain coming from my cheeks and my arm. I moved my hand over to my arm and yanked my fingers quickly away as I touched the raw cut beneath. The pain slammed into me and brought me back to my conscious state.
My ey
es shot open, then shifted all around me, finding a roof above me, an old, rickety, boarded wall next to me, and the same beneath me. The room was pretty dark, but I could tell where the windows were by the light shining out from the edges of the dark cloth covering them. With a groan, I sat up and turned, resting my back against the wall. I crossed my legs in front of me and looked around the room, already knowing I wasn’t alone. Almost instantly I remembered exactly how I had gotten there. Another wolf, another man that turned into a wolf. This one, though, wasn’t kind like Christian, and I could tell that he was desperate in some way.
A loud bark came from the shadows and I scrambled back into the corner, pulling my knees to my chest. Watching, two yellow eyes appeared but it wasn’t the wolf that walked from the shadows. Instead, it was the man with long, dark hair and a dark beard emerging. This time he was dressed, his clothes torn and old. It looked as if he had sewn them back together himself with some sort of brown yarn. “Please, I don’t mean you any harm. Just let me go.”
He walked forward into the middle of the floor and began to pace frantically back and forth. He didn’t have any shoes on, and his feet were dirty with remnants of his wolf’s fur scattered about. He glanced over at me for a moment and snorted. “Why would I do that?”
I shook my head. “Because I’m not sure why you want me.”
He was caught up in his own head, and not paying a bit of attention to what I was thinking or saying. He turned toward me and pointed. “Those people, or whatever they are, they did this to me. Every time I shift, every single time, it feels like someone’s ripping my body apart. I never asked to be a shifter. This isn’t my life. I want my life back. Sure, it was pretty shitty, with a shitty job and a shitty house, but I didn’t have to deal with any of this. Why did they do this to me? Why did they turn me into a shifter?”