by Reed, Zoe
Kyla wrapped her arms tight around my waist from behind. “Hey, just wanted to see what was taking so long.”
Closing the fridge with a grin, I turned around and returned the embrace. “I was just talking to Eli.”
“Oh, about what?” Kyla asked as I easily lifted her onto the kitchen counter and placed myself between her legs.
I shrugged. I thought about telling her the true nature of our conversation, but I was afraid. She had already stated her opinion on being a werewolf, and I wouldn’t push. “Just catching up.”
Nodding, Kyla absentmindedly twisted her fingers through the ends of my hair, turning the length of my already curly locks into a tighter loop. “He looks so young. I was expecting him to be an old guy.”
“He’s about the same age as my dad. He’s aged really well though.” I laughed knowingly and then nodded my head back toward the living room. “Do you want to finish the movie?”
“Nah,” Kyla shook her head. “I thought we’d leave Luna alone with Will. You know, play wingman and leave them be.”
I stretched and yawned. “Yeah okay. I’m actually pretty tired anyway. Are you staying the night?”
“Yeah, if that’s okay? With Eli.” Kyla whispered the last part in case anyone else in the house could hear.
I nodded my head and took her hand to lead her up the stairs. After changing into pajamas I turned off the light and plopped onto the bed, and Kyla lay beside me and draped an arm across my stomach. Even though Eli hadn’t tried to force it, I couldn’t help thinking about how much he ‘recommended’ that Kyla become a werewolf. All I’d have to do is break her skin with a tooth. The Alpha’s will would be done, Kyla would be much safer than she was now, and I’d get to be with the girl for hundreds more years, potentially.
Never could I do something like that without Kyla’s permission, but I couldn’t deny that it was an alluring solution. I opened my mouth, preparing to talk about it with her when I realized her breathing had slowed, already taken by sleep. I couldn’t help but smile as I nuzzled my cheek against the top of her head and closed my eyes, shortly falling asleep myself.
The next morning I felt Kyla stir and sit up. Opening my eyes I looked over to see her stretching.
“Awake already?” As Kyla nodded I glanced at the clock. “Ugh,” I groaned and rubbed my eyes. Six-thirty in the morning wasn’t my ideal waking time.
“I’m starving. I could go for some chocolate chip pancakes,” Kyla hinted as she kissed me on the cheek. I made a frowning face and put my hand over my eyes, willing myself to go back to sleep. “I’ll make sure you’re thoroughly rewarded,” she whispered in my ear as she lightly caressed my lips with the tip of her finger.
I couldn’t hide the smile as I gave an exaggerated sigh and rolled off the bed. “Okay, fine.”
She grinned and excitedly jumped off the bed, speeding down the stairs ahead of me. As I mixed together ingredients for pancakes, she poured us each a glass of orange juice and then sat at the table, staring tiredly. It took about fifteen minutes for me to finish the pancakes, and Kyla smiled happily as I set a small plate in front of her and then sat down with a large one of my own. I had finished licking my lips hungrily and raised my fork to dig in when there was a quiet thud from the porch. I looked at Kyla curiously, but the other girl didn’t seem to hear it.
I was hungry enough to shrug the sound off, but something told me it wasn’t right. Everything else in the house was so quiet, except for that single sound. I had to investigate. I got up and strode to the kitchen window that overlooked the porch with Kyla watching me curiously.
“Oh my God.” A large copper werewolf lay collapsed on the porch. Julian. “Dad!”
I ran out to the porch with Kyla following close behind. Julian lay on his stomach, the large wolf now a naked man, breathing so slow and shallow I couldn’t even see his ribs rise and fall.
“Dad!” Frustrated that he hadn’t come down yet I yelled as loud as I could until I heard him rushing down the stairs.
Each side of Julian’s torso, just below his ribs, were severely bruised and covered in small, dark red spots. Needle holes, big ones. I put my fingers up to his neck to make sure he still had a pulse.
My dad knelt beside me. “He has a pulse?”
“Barely,” I told him.
Kyla came back out of the house with a blanket, though I hadn’t even noticed she went inside. She was closely followed by Eli, who stood in the doorway and looked on as though he wanted to get involved, but knew my dad was the only one who could take care of Julian. Julian’s face and body were beaten and bruised, his lips dry and cracked, and I was sure there’d be a broken bone or two. My dad shook his head grievously as he wrapped the blanket around Julian’s body and picked him up, carrying him inside and mumbling to himself about x-rays and dehydration. Everyone in the house was awake at that point, now in the living room in his or her pajamas, watching, eyes full of concern.
“We have to go, now.” Carter was the first to speak a minute later as our dad rapidly tended to Julian as best he could.
Everyone passed him glares at his insensitivity, but Eli slowly nodded his head in agreement. “Carter’s right. It looks like he escaped and ran here, which means right now we have a trail to follow back. If we wait too long it will just lead back to nothing, they’ll leave once they notice he’s gone.” He paused while everyone looked down at the floor, knowing he was right but unwilling to leave when one of our own was in such critical condition. “Will and David, take Carter, Niko, Camille and Sky. Luna and Michael will stay with Adrian, Rachel, and I.” As he spoke he pointed, motioning to each of us, and then my father and mother. He then made his way to David and whispered in his ear. If I was any farther away I wouldn’t have been able to hear, and I was glad Kyla couldn’t. “I don’t need to remind you how to dispose of the bodies. I suggest you do it as quickly as possible.”
David nodded and motioned for those who were going to follow him. As we exited the house I could hear Kyla’s soft footsteps following close behind me. I stopped and let the others pass before turning to face her.
“I’ll be back soon. Keep those pancakes warm for me.” I felt guilty for the worried look on her face, and sincerely wanted to squeeze the anxiety out of her. “Hey, there’s three of them and six of us. You don’t need to worry about me okay? Help my mom and dad?”
Kyla didn’t say anything, just nodded and let me peck her on the lips, watching worriedly as I stripped and Phased. Before I took off to meet the five other wolves waiting for me on the other side of the house I looked at Kyla and gave her a wink, wagging my tail playfully. I stood there, waiting for a response from her before I would leave, and eventually she let a smile spread across her face. Taking the smile as the permission I needed, I flashed a wolfish grin and took off behind the house.
I followed right behind Carter, Sky’s paws striking dirt close behind me. Julian’s trail was leading us east towards Fresno, and I prayed that he had gone around the city instead of through it. While it would have been easy for one large wolf to slip through unnoticed, six would conjure a more dramatic reaction. The route we were taking, having to duck through various farmlands in daylight, was already dramatically slowing us down. God forbid we had to track Julian’s scent through the entire of Fresno city.
Ten-mile mark. About another twenty to go until we could see whether or not we’d have trouble with the trail. Luckily for us it was fall and the days, while still a little warm, had been growing cloudy and the sun didn’t beat down on us too mercilessly.
Ten minutes later, another few miles down. The smell of smog filled my nostrils as we kept getting closer and closer. A minute later I sighed with relief as David started leading us south, around the city. Another ten minutes and we came skidding to a halt. It only took me a second to figure out why.
Over a small hill we were crouching behind I could hear the roar of engines speeding by, some louder and more powerful than others. We’d already crossed highway
s, but the others had storm drains leading beneath them. This one didn’t, and it was busy. Not seven seconds went by without a car tearing past, and I started to wonder how Julian had managed it. I waited my turn as one by one the wolves ahead of me darted across the highway, hearing a honk more than once.
It was finally my turn, and I listened carefully for the sound of any oncoming cars. I could hear one coming, a sports car, loud and obnoxious, the roar of its engine near deafening. The split second it whizzed past me I darted out, making it halfway across the highway before I noticed the hybrid. Ah, damn. The car was so silent compared to the sports car there was no way I could have heard it. It was heading right for me and I had too much momentum to stop in time.
The driver saw me and slammed on his brakes, screeching loudly but not slowing fast enough to avoid the collision. At the last second I pushed off the ground, three of my feet landing hard on the roof of the car, but my last back leg hit the top frame of the windshield. With the loud crack of breaking glass the hit knocked me off balance, causing me to fall off the car and skid across the remaining feet of highway on my back. As Carter nudged me concernedly I heard the car screech to a halt on the side of the road, along with a couple of the cars behind it.
Sky and Will, the last two on the other side, came bounding across the road as quick as they could, receiving shouts from a couple of people on the highway. We had to leave before the drivers really saw us, so I snorted that I was okay and shook out my leg before we took off running and continued following the trail. Once my heart stopped pounding from nearly getting run over, I could feel the pain.
Every strike of my paw against the ground sent pain shooting through my leg, and to top it off I could feel the sting of a large road burn straight down my back. So much for telling Kyla not to worry. I must have been limping slightly because Sky caught up and nudged me, laying her ears flat against her head worriedly. Again I grunted and shook my head, the equivalent of ‘I’m in pain but I’ll be fine’.
The farther we got east the more spread out the farmland became, allowing us to speed up at not having to worry so much about being seen. Finally Julian’s trail led us straight to a river that cut a path through the mountains. We followed alongside it for about twelve miles until the trail stopped, picked up on the other side and led us northeast. Each mile became more and more forested, and with all these trees and being in the mountains it was obvious we never would have been able to find the mutts on our own.
Once we were completely surrounded by miles of forest it didn’t take long for us to get traces of the other werewolves’ scents. We were in the right place. A growing relief and excitement started to fill my chest, making me forget the pain and giving my limbs an extra boost of energy. The others seemed to mirror my enthusiasm, because they too increased their speed.
It was another fifteen miles into the forest before we slowed to a crawl, somewhere in the near distance we could hear roaring laughter and the opening and closing of doors. I lifted my nose to the air as the breeze carried the heavy scent of werewolf directly to me. Out of instinct the fur on my neck and straight down my back rose aggressively. David pointed his nose to me, Niko and Carter, snorting to his side to tell us to go left, and then did the same in the opposite direction to Will and Sky. We all crouched as low to the ground as we could get and spread out, surrounding the house. I watched Luther and Charles come out the wide-open front door, each carrying a big cardboard box.
“I can’t believe that son-of-a-bitch got away! Sneaky bastard, huh? Now we got to move all of our shit,” Charles whooped.
“Easy there big fellah.” Luther dropped his box in the bed of their truck and tried to pat the laughter out of Charles. “There’s no way he made it back alive, but better safe than sorry.”
I was shocked at the small stature of Luther. From his picture I had assumed he’d be a tall, burly man. Burly as he was, he was shorter than me. Charles on the other hand was bigger and more muscular than I’d gathered from his picture.
As I watched closely, I saw both of them tense up, and a second later I understood why. A small breeze had picked up and carried Will’s scent across to me on the other side of the house. The two men had undoubtedly picked up on it. In the split second it took us all to spring into action, Luther and Charles Phased and instantly searched for an escape route. Noticing they were surrounded they had a fraction of a second to look for the weakest link, which they decided was me, and went barreling toward me.
I stopped going after them and skidded to a halt, watching each of the large wolves closely to see who would go where. Charles, being bigger than Luther was faster, and darted to the side of me, while only a second later Luther went soaring over my head. I lifted my head just in time to catch one of his hind legs in my teeth, and I ripped him out of the air. Niko and Carter were already chasing after Charles and I could hear the others’ steps hurrying to my aid.
With a hold still on Luther’s leg, I dragged him toward me and stood up, preparing to sink my teeth in while he was still on his back. But the second I stood he kicked his legs in the air, catching me from underneath and sending me flying back toward the cabin. The second I hit the ground near the house I smelt it. Another werewolf, and it wasn’t Jonathan.
A fourth werewolf? How could there be a fourth one and we didn’t know about it?
I checked to make sure no one else needed my help and then poked my nose inside the house. Yep. It stank of him. I’d never met this werewolf, but somehow his scent gave me déjà vu, like I had met him at some point. As silent as I could I crept inside the house. It was clean and decorated, aside from the mess the werewolves had made while there. It was more of a luxury cabin than a house, and it looked well cared for. Which meant it was probably well frequented by its owners, leading me to only one conclusion. These guys hadn’t given the owners a fair chance to keep their house, or their lives.
My ears perked forward and I turned my head toward the ceiling. I couldn’t hear anything now, but there had been the tiniest creak of the floorboards from upstairs. Someone else was definitely here. I crept around the inside of the house until I found the stairs, and then delicately and silently padded up them, keeping my ears and nose peeled for any sign of the other werewolf. I cocked my ears toward the first door at the top of the stairs, and hearing nothing from within poked my head in just to double check. I did the same as I made my way down the hall, clearing the first couple rooms.
The third room I poked my head in was some sort of empty game room, with a single children’s toy chest in one corner, and it reeked of the fourth werewolf. Before entering I glanced in for an obvious hiding spot. On the other end of the adjacent wall was a closet, and that had to be where he was hiding. Keeping my ears alert I snuck into the room and cautiously made my way to the closet. Another step, another foot closer. Step, closer. Closer.
I heard the scrape of nails against the wood floor behind me as he leapt from a cubby in the wall before I had time to turn and meet the attack. The wolf landed square on my back, causing my legs to buckle as I crumbled to the floor. Hitting the ground I reflexively rolled out of the way before he could sink his teeth in and sprung up, lowering my head as I faced my attacker, snarling. The gray wolf was double my size, and as he blocked the doorway to the small room, I was trapped.
I saw his muscles tense and when he pounced, I was ready for it. I ducked at the last second and darted out of the way, causing him to stumble and hit his nose on the wall. But he didn’t leave time for me to counterattack, and right away turned to face me. I was a good fighter, but any other werewolf this size would’ve already given me a good gash or two. This guy was clumsy and unsure of himself, unsure of four-legged balance. Freshly bitten.
He tensed again and sprang to pounce, but instead of trying to land on me, landed a foot short and knocked me backward into the wall. He had crouched down and sprung again as I recovered just in time to kick him away from me. While he was too large for me to kick him across the room,
I managed to knock him off balance and he stumbled, eventually falling. I took advantage of the split second it would take him to stagger back to his feet and pounced on him, sinking my teeth into his neck. To my frustration I got a mouthful of nothing but skin and fur.
I had him pinned on his back and he was kicking up wildly, desperately trying to kick me off of him. One of his paws managed to slash at my stomach, tearing a deep gash down one side. Yelping loudly, I stumbled back and shook it off as he got to his feet. Watching him out of the corner of my eye I desperately searched the room for a line of attack. He crouched down again, but before he could spring I leapt sideways and kicked off the wall to come at him from his left. Being caught off guard, the split second he was dazed was enough time for me to get my head under his neck, and with one strong clamp of my jaws I had him.
I heard and felt everything collapse under my teeth. He opened his mouth to yelp, but when nothing came out he whipped his upper body back and forth, desperately trying to fling me off of him. I had him in a lock, and held on tight until his thrashing eventually weakened and he collapsed to the floor. I held on a minute longer to make sure he wouldn’t be recovering, and then let go. To assure myself I’d done my job, I still stood there watching the body for another minute. When I was finally convinced, I made my way back downstairs and outside. Noticing that everyone had Changed back to clear the evidence, I Phased.
Sky looked up as I exited the house, and noticing my torn side she raised an eyebrow. “Jonathan?”
I shook my head and looked at the cut that streaked my ribs. “Nowhere to be found. A freshie though. He’s upstairs.”
Sky sighed disappointedly and then waved her hand for me to follow her to the porch. “Come on, I found a first aid kit in their truck.”
While I let Sky dab some rubbing alcohol on my wound and then cover it with a bandage, Carter and David passed us and went into the house to bring down the other werewolf.