“But why did-” Jace started to ask something but I raised my hand to silence him and then continued.
“They wanted to scope me out and get a read on me without me knowing they were wolves first,” I continued. “And that’s precisely what they did. I didn’t lead anyone to you… they only knew about me because of you.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t mean,” Ryder started and I gave him a look that made him stop right there.
“They saved my life, Ryder. When I was in the woods that day and that wolf attacked me, I couldn’t have taken him on my own. He was strong and smart, and… he was different from the rest of you,” I said, not sure how to explain it.
“Different how?”
“He was vicious. Bloodthirsty. He was going to have me, or he was going to destroy me. And I just wasn’t prepared for that yet. I wasn’t strong enough and I’d not had enough training to take on a wolf like that who had been learning and practicing his whole life, and who also had pure lust and rage behind his eyes.”
“Who was this asshole?” Jace muttered, clenching his fist.
“I don’t know, but if Roman and Finley hadn’t come when they had, I don’t think I would have made it back alive that day.”
I continued to explain everything else that I knew and that had happened between me and the guys from the Steelmaw, including when I ran to their camp to avenge the Woodland Alpha, and they listened. For one, without interrupting, they allowed me to finish the whole story.
But at the end, their position had not changed.
“You still need to come back with us Zoe,” Jace insisted.
“Yes,” Ryder agreed. “Now, more than ever.”
“Except I’m not,” I said defiantly. I was tired of them telling me what to do. “I understand that you think you need me right now but I have an obligation to my own well-being, too. I can’t go on wrapped up in the middle of all of this craziness and the demands you’re placing on me are too much.”
“So, that’s it then, you’re just leaving us?” Ryder half-shouted at me. His face was contorted in more pain than anger, and it tugged at my heartstrings, but I knew I needed to hold strong.
A few people from the town stared at the strange newcomers as they passed by, but no one stopped or tried to talk to us, and I was grateful for that.
“Not forever,” I said honestly. “Just for right now.”
“But right now is when we need you,” Jace pleaded.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” I said, throwing my hands up. “I can’t do right now. I need time.”
“We don’t have time, Zoe!” Ryder shouted at me and I saw Jace give him a stern look and whisper his name.
“This is why I need to be away from you,” I muttered as I ran away, barefoot, leaving them both standing in the town square, strangers gawking at them.
Cornered, afraid, and tired of running, I went to the only place left I can think of.
My previous home.
* * *
Going back home may not have been the brightest idea, but it was the only idea I had left. I had not been back in New Jersey since Jace and Ryder found me that fateful day and brought me back to their home in Pennsylvania.
The girl I was before I got bitten seemed like a lifetime ago, someone else’s life, even. It was a pale memory… like a movie you watched long ago, but was only partly paying attention to. The idea of coming back was one thing, but standing here on the edge of suburbia, contemplating returning to my family was another altogether.
I was an adult and I could do what I want. I had no one to answer to, really, but I had given a pretty weak excuse as to why I was leaving when I ditched down and my family before. And I hadn’t called since then either… so I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be welcomed with open arms.
There was likely going to be a lot of explaining expected of me, and I definitely couldn’t tell them I was a shifter. So going in without a plan may not have been my smartest move, but you do what you gotta do, and right now… I had no where else to turn.
I knew better than to show up at my parent’s house, especially looking like this. They’d probably call the police right away and then things would be even more complicated. The only other safe space I could think of to go, was my old best friend, Jeannie’s.
Standing outside her window in the dark, naked, I realized I couldn’t just ring the doorbell like this, and that I probably hadn’t thought this plan out all that well. So, I resorted back to an old trick we did when we were kids and I threw a pebble at her window.
At first, nothing happened, but after I threw a couple more, as gently as I could, I saw a dark shadow moving inside. Another carefully timed pebble at the window meant Jeannie would pull back the curtain and look around.
Initially, she didn’t see me, but as soon as her eyes settled on me she threw open the window and shouted out into the darkness.
“Zoe! What the hell are you doing out there? And why are you naked?”
“Shh!” I said, looking around to see if anyone else had seen. “Can you let me in please? And loan me some clothes?”
Jeannie came down to her front door with a robe and let me in. Thank the Gods for best friends because I still didn’t have a clue what I was going to tell her, but at least I could get a bath and some food and some clean clothes.
“Zoe, what the fuck?”
Chapter 4
I knew that I would have to tell Jeannie something, but I was too tired and cold and frustrated to even think of a good lie right now.
She let me inside, wrapped the robe around me, then looked me up and down.
“Girl, you are a hot mess!”
I just nodded, not even sure what to say.
“Look,” Jeannie took charge. “Let’s get you in a hot bath, and I’ll make you some warm soup, and then when you’re cleaned up with a full belly, you can tell me what the fuck is going on?”
I laughed and nodded as she led me into the bathroom. Jeannie lived in her old family home. Her parents had retired and moved to Florida, like many from the Northeast and she had been living in their old home ever since she got back from college. While I know she bought it from them, I’m also pretty sure they gave her a sweet deal on it.
Making my way into the bathroom I knew well from many years of my childhood here, I turned on the tap at the tub to mostly hot water. I’d been friends with Jeannie since the second grade when her family moved here from New York. Her house was just a couple of blocks away from mine and we spent nearly every day together from second grade to graduation.
Then Jeannie went off to college in Boston and I was accepted into an in-state school. We still talked all the time but only got to see each other when she came home for visits with her family.
Now here I was, 23-years-old, showing up on her stoop looking like something the cat dragged in…
Ahh, I was going to have a lot of explaining to do.
“Be right back,” she said and closed the door behind her.
As I let the rope drop to the floor, I looked down at my feet that were practically black from mud and dirt. I instantly felt ashamed I had even walked through her house like this.
“It’s a good thing she loves me,” I muttered under my breath. I let the water fill in the tub and looked around the bathroom. Not a lot had changed since the last time I was here.
There was a familiar white shelf with lots of soaps, bubble baths and bath bombs on it. And right beside there, were washcloths, neatly folded and in a stack.
I grabbed a bottle of vanilla bubble bath - my favorite scent - and dumped a capful into the running water. Then I also took a washcloth and prepared to step into the tub. Towels were neatly folded off to the left, where they had always been.
There was something very soothing about being back in a familiar space, after all I had been through.
As the bubbles filled up in the tub, I stepped inside, feeling the warmth envelop my sore, dirty body. It was nice…
A
fter the tub was full, I shut the water off and allowed my body to sink down under the bubbles. A few moments later, I heard a little tap at the door.
“Coming in,” Jeannie said in a low voice. She had a bottle of water and a glass of chilled wine with her and she set both on a little folding tray beside the bath.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
“You’re welcome. I have no idea what has happened to you, but we’ll talk about it later. Just remember that you’re always safe here and you can tell me anything. I’ll be downstairs with soup with you’re ready.”
And then my best friend smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her.
As I sank down into the water, I felt warm, salty tears stream down my face as well. I didn’t even realize I was crying. I suppose all the stress and all the emotions were coming back to me now. And maybe there was a part of me that was sad about the old life I had lost.
I’d never even been given a choice.
It wasn’t fair.
* * *
I’m not sure how long I was in the bath but as I noticed the water was cold, the bubbles had all faded and my fingertips were turning to prunes, I decided to climb out. I could Jeannie downstairs with some soft music playing, fumbling around in the kitchen.
As I climbed out and wrapped a big, plush bath towel around my battered body, I realized she had left some clothes for me as well. I hadn’t even noticed that earlier. Drying off, and putting them on, I then made my way down that all-too-familiar staircase. This was the same one we used to slide down inside pillow cases, pretending we were sledding on a big snowy hill.
It was all good fun and games until that one year that Jeannie broke her wrist and her mom made us swear to never do it again. That was the first time I had ever heard her father curse. They were both such mild-mannered people. And they’d always treated me like one of their own.
As I entered the kitchen, a familiar smell filled the air. Tomato soup… just like Jeannie’s mom used to make.
“I’m doing grilled cheese, too,” she said as she heard me rounding the corner.
“Jeannie, you’re a Godsend, really.” I let out a deep sigh and tool a seat at one of the stools at the breakfast bar.
As she made the grilled cheese, just like we used to enjoy as kids, we chatted. She didn’t ask a lot of intrusive questions, which I was really grateful for. I still hadn’t figured out quite what I was going to tell her about where I had been or why I showed up looking so rough.
“So your mom said you left with a guy,” she finally said, as we finished up soup and sandwiches.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t like that,” I said.
“Wasn’t like what?”
“He wasn’t… isn’t…” I really didn’t know how to explain this to her. How could I tell her when I couldn’t tell her that I was a wolf? “He’s not like a boyfriend…”
“But he’s someone important if you up and left your whole life behind for him.”
“I didn’t exactly leave everything for him,” I said, but I still wasn’t sure how to explain it all to her.
“Look, I am not judging girl,” she said with a laugh, waving her hand in the air. “There are lots of reasons to want to get out of this town. I just miss you. That’s all.”
“I’ve missed you too,” I said, taking a sip of wine. It was the absolute truth. And sitting here eating our favorite comfort meal and sipping wine with my best friend made me think of my old life and everything that I was leaving behind if I decided to mate an Alpha ad become a pack leader.
I could never come back to this world and things would never be the same.
Just as I was contemplating how to explain to Jeannie without giving away the big secret I was not allowed to share, she got a call on her cell.
I couldn’t hear what the voice on the other line was saying but I knew it was serious when I saw her face drop. She brought her other hand up to her mouth, and I saw tears forming in her eyes. Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
My ears began to ring as I heard her say, “Zoe, it’s your mom” and I didn’t even wait for her as I ran out of her front door and over the two blocks to my own home. Well, it was my parents’ house now, but it was the only home I had ever known.
I could see the flashing lights from around the block before I even got there, and I knew they were at our house. My chest was heaving, my heart was pumping, and my mind was racing.
As I approached, there was more than a dozen emergency vehicles outside. An officer grabbed me around the waist as I tried to enter the house.
“You can’t go in there, Miss,” he said to me, pulling me back.
“That’s my mother!” I screeched as I saw part of her bloodied body in the foyer.
It took every ounce of self control to not turn into my wolf form right then and there, and rip apart anyone who got in my way. But I pushed the urge down long enough to learn that my mother had been murdered that might, right in the entryway to her home, when she opened the door for a mysterious male.
No one knew who he was or why my mother opened the door for him, but they believed he was looking for someone. The police kept repeating how nothing had been stolen, and they weren’t sure of a motive.
But I knew why he had come here… I knew what he was looking for…
If only I had been here instead of at Jeannie’s, maybe I could have saved her? That thought would probably haunt me for a long time, but for now, I was still in shock. And my inner wolf was raging to get out and to tear something… or someONE… to shreds.
I had to get out of here or everyone I loved could be in danger. In fact, they already were. Now I needed to leave so that I could find out who did this, and make them pay.
I ran to the edge of the woods and shifted without even removing my clothes, letting them rip and the tattered pieces cling to my wolf body as I ran, and ran… and ran…
Chapter 5
I couldn’t even begin to process what I was feeling, what I was thinking… seeing my mom lying in a puddle of her own blood, knowing it was because of me that she was dead.
There was so much shock and rage coursing through my body, that I thought I might explode. And that’s when I did the one thing instinct had always led me to do… and I ran.
But as I ran into the woods that day, the tree limbs and thorns ripping at my fur and flesh, I felt something I had never felt before.
There was a sensation of heat welling up deep inside me, as if a big, burning ball of energy was at my center, and fighting to get out. This was different from anything I had ever felt before and although I had no explanation for it, I knew I needed to get as far away from anyone as I could.
Deep in the forest, outside of my old hometown, I came to a quick halt, my paws digging into the soil beneath my feet. All of my senses were on high alert, even more than usual. But in that moment, I felt all the forest grow silent around me.
The birds stopped chirping, the squirrels ran up the trees, and nothing was moving. It seemed as if the leaves themselves were standing still. This was an eerie sensation, as if something bad was coming…
Only I realized in that moment, the something bad was… me.
Unable to stop the raging thoughts in my mind or the image of my dead mother from flashing before my eyes again and again and again, the heat inside me welled up until it was ready to burst and I worried it might rip me apart.
Not that I cared in that moment. Being dead was better than being in this pain.
And then, suddenly, the release happened.
I felt as is if my every atom was pulling apart and there was a sonic boom like sound that filled my ears. I saw the trees swap back and leaves push away as if some super strong wind had passed through. I closed my eyes and screamed as loud as I could as this current of energy washed over me, no idea whether or not I was screaming out loud, or just in my head.
And then, everything went black.
I woke on the f
orest floor, unsure of how much time had passed, shifted back to my human form. Naked and battered, covered again in dirt, I sat up and looked around. A giant circle enclosed me, with my naked body at the epicenter. Trees were bent back, leaves and shrubs were pushed away and no animals or critters were anywhere inside. It reminded me of a crop circle… but in the forest.
And as I looked around, an even stranger realization fell upon me. I had done this.
I… had done this…
Although I still had no idea what “this” was, exactly, somehow I had created this.
I was the threat that quieted the forest, and the storm that was welling up inside me had burst forth, decimating everything in its path.
As I sat here alone, naked in the dirt, I began to sob. While a part of me felt more powerful than ever before, the rest of me was terrified of that power, especially since I didn’t know what it was or how to control it.
What if I had hurt someone, or something? What if I had killed something? If anyone had been standing close to me when this happened, they would surely be dead. And the very next though to come to mind was that I wanted to be standing next to whomever had killed my mother and then explode like this again.
I wanted them to be unrecognizable in the aftermath of the blast. I wanted them to explode into a million tiny pieces, obliterated, as my heart was feeling right now.
Only I didn’t know who had done it and I didn’t know how to replicate what had just happened.
I curled up into a ball on the ground, my pale arms stretching around myself, my white-blond hair falling in tangled clumps around my body, and I sobbed until I fell asleep.
* * *
When I woke, I still wasn’t quite sure of what to make of anything. My mind was running in a million different directions and my heart was hurting. I knew that Jeannie would be upset that I had disappeared, and I also knew that she would tell the rest of my family that I had been at her house that night, and what condition I was in when I had arrived.
Hunted: Call of the Wolf : Reverse Harem Werewolf Shifter Series Page 2
