The Werewolf Queen

by Brandi Elledge

  I didn’t reply, opening my eyes and unabashedly studying him. He was back to his normal size, but that was anything but ordinary. His black hair curled in the back and around his ears and was ruffled like he had been running his hands through it. Stubble grazed cheeks that looked like a master sculptor had carved them. Specs of blood were all over his shirt. The hottie sitting next to me was mouth-watering, even after all we had been through in the woods. I must still be in shock to have such thoughts after I’d witnessed him rip four demons’ hearts out. I rubbed a hand over my chest. I just had to make sure he didn’t get mine.

  He must have read my mind because he said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  With every part of me, I believed his words. His body turned rigid and then he jumped up from his seat. A screeching sound assaulted my ears, and the entire plane trembled from whatever force had hit it.

  CG yelled at me, “Stay here and don’t move!”

  I watched him exit the plane while Celia, looking none too worried, sat in her seat reading a magazine. I followed his directions for exactly thirty seconds before something smacked the side of the plane. I was up and running towards the exit. As I started down the ramp, I heard an evil laugh coming from above the plane. Stopping, I glanced up, and my mouth dropped open. The ugliest creatures I’d ever seen flew around in circles, cackling. Their long, stringy black hair covered their deformed faces, and their puke-green skin made them appear even more hideous, if that were possible. What was even more startling was they had no auras. I noticed two of the creatures on the ground, decapitated. The remaining creatures flew circles around CG, and I was shocked to see Stephan. He fought beside CG, so one could hope the vampire was on our side.

  CG looked at me and shouted, “Get back on the plane. One cut from their claws and you will be poisoned.”

  I turned to go back in but I couldn’t. Celia had shut the door. She put her face right up to the glass window and smirked at me. Well, shit. I turned around again, facing the flying creatures. Their rotten skin oozed off of them, making a hissing sound when it plopped on the runway.

  One of the creatures said in a hoarse voice, “Quick, kill the girl.”

  Oh, great, we’re back to “let’s kidnap or kill Sadie” because that game was so much fun. One of the creatures soared straight towards me. Just as she was about to reach me, CG grabbed hold of the back of the broom-like object she was flying on and pulled it from underneath her. She crashed to the ground. He broke the wooden handle in two making it into a wooden weapon, throwing half of it, and piercing her neck. The others shrieked. I covered my ears as CG took the other half of the wooden apparatus, hurling it at the creature hovering closest to me. It pierced her heart, and she spiraled to the ground.

  The remaining female tilted her head back and made a gut-wrenching sound, causing bumps to rise all over me. She came at me, and I knew CG would never make it in time. I was frozen with fear as Stephan jumped in front of me and intercepted her, knocking her to the ground. With blinding speed, the vampire stepped over her and broke her neck.

  The skin on his hands was almost entirely gone from where he touched the creature. I tried to make words form, but nothing came out of my mouth, so I just pointed at his burns.

  “It’s okay.” Stephan held his hands up for my inspection. “Don’t worry. I heal quickly.” I watched in fascination as his hands began to repair the damage.

  CG barked, “Are you all right?”

  It took me a second to realize he was talking to me and not the vampire. I gave a small nod. The stench wafting from the creatures made my stomach roll. I put a hand over my mouth and nose and tried to calm my queasy stomach.

  Stephan yelled, “There are hundreds more coming from the west. We need to get on the plane.”

  I glanced over in the direction he was pointing. It looked like a huge, dark cloud coming our way. Celia opened the door for us before going back to her seat.

  CG grabbed my elbow as he steered me onto the plane. “Why the hell were you not on board?”

  “I wanted to see what was going on, and then I couldn’t get back on because Celia locked me out.”

  With her actions, she had literally tried to kill me. But why? What was in it for her? Even though I didn’t know this girl, she had definitely let me know exactly how much she despised me. It was one thing to be hostile to me and another thing entirely to try and send me to my grave.

  CG turned his wrath onto Celia. “Endanger her one more time, and you’ll answer to me.” Then he growled at Stephan, “And what the hell do you think you are doing, vampire?”

  Stephan smiled, showing his dimples. “Well, it looks like I was saving all of your asses. Listen, you don’t have to thank me now. You can wait.”

  CG ran a hand through his black hair. “I know your kind. You always have some ulterior motive. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you right where you stand.”

  Stephan laughed. “Well, first, you would ruin your upholstery. Blood stains are a bitch to get out. And second, I hate to let an instrumental part in winning the war out of my sight. Not that I don’t trust you and your dog friends, but all the same, I would like to keep an eye on her.”

  It all happened so fast. CG grabbed Stephan by the throat and slammed him into the ground. He pulled a knife from his boot, and it looked like CG was about to make slow work of decapitating Stephan when the vampire procured a silver blade from somewhere and was about to stab CG through the heart.

  I screamed, and they both stilled their weapons. My voice didn’t even sound like mine. “CG, you will not hurt him. He just saved my life seconds ago.” Stephan smirked, and I pointed a finger at him. “And you vampire… if you stab him, I’ll stake you myself. If I’m such a hot commodity and everyone wants to acquire me, don’t you think the more people protecting me, the better? Let go of one another!”

  Celia sighed. “And things were just getting interesting.” CG seemed to squeeze Stephan’s neck tighter. “If at any point I think you don’t have Sadie’s best interests in mind, I will torture you before I kill you. Do you understand?”

  Stephan gurgled, “Perfectly.”

  CG hopped off of him as fast as he took him down.

  Stephan slowly stood up and brushed imaginary dust off his pants. “Well, it looks like I’m out of the dog house.” Then he walked over to where I stood and pointed to the seat next to me. “Is this seat taken?”

  CG looked like he was about to tackle him again, and I was so over this whole day. “You better take the one in front of me instead.”

  He chuckled. “Where is your sense of adventure, Sadie?”

  I sat back down in my seat, pointing at the one in front of me. “I can’t do any more fighting or drama today. Unless someone decides to throw Celia from the plane then I’m all for that. Otherwise, I am literally about to check out.”

  The plane took off, and although it was my very first plane ride, I couldn’t feel any excitement over flying through the clouds or dread over possibly crashing. I was too tired. I glanced at CG. It was evident he was going to give Stephan the death stare for the next couple of hours, and the vampire was going to ignore him. I had nothing to say to either of them or Celia. She’d made an enemy out of me today. At least my anger replaced the sickening smell of fear. I was tired of a lot of things, and that smell was pretty high up on the list. I curled my feet under me and closed my eyes. I was going to rest for a minute. My only wish was that when we landed, I would get a break from people trying to steal or kill me.

  Chapter Eleven

  After arriving at the landing strip, we all hopped into a large, black SUV that cost more than Jo’s and my trailer. After a short drive, we arrived at CG’s family estate. I was amazed by what I would call a rustic mansion. The house had four levels made up of stones and hardy boards that were natural, earthy tones. Several chimneys jutted out of the roof that sported many gables. I could easily see a whole family of wolves being raised in a house like this.

&nb
sp; CG came up behind me. “You look like you are about to fall on your feet. Let me get you up to your bedroom where you can sleep. We will start with your training bright and early in the morning.”

  His words reminded me of a previous conversation. I let out a crazy laugh. “Damn that Jo. She knew you would be training me, but could she give me a heads up? No. I said, ‘my brother is coming in to train me,’ and she said, ‘oh and yeah, you’ll be getting the best training,’ which I thought had a little bit to do with her infatuation with my brother. But she knew!”

  He gave me a nod, and that’s all I got from him. It wasn’t that CG lacked emotion; it was that he just seemed so matter of fact all the time. Good for him that he had his stuff together, but my ducks weren’t in a row. Hell, somewhere along the way, I’d lost my ducks. I didn’t have any ducks to give. I both laughed and sobbed at the thought.

  “I know today has been crazy, Sadie. Let me help you to your bedroom.” His words were kind, but there was no empathy in his voice.

  I was homesick, overwhelmed, and the guy in charge of my safety acted like a robot. Just as I tried to maneuver around him, he swooped me up in his arms. He was probably scared I would endanger myself going up the steps. Posture stiff, he carried me down a long hallway and somehow managed to open the door with me still in his arms. After he gently sat me on the huge king-size bed, he shocked us both by brushing a stray hair away from my face.

  “My room is beside yours. I’m close if you should need anything.”

  “Also, you’ll be able to hear if anyone sneaks into the house in the middle of the night and tries to steal me. If I’m a key to saving this world, it would just suck for you to misplace your ace in the hole.”

  CG leaned down to my level. “What other reason would I have for guarding you? I have a job, and you’re part of it.”

  What a jerk. “Got it. We’re not going to be friends. You stay in your lane, and I’ll stay in mine.”

  “I can’t let you be anything else. I have enough friends.” He stood and walked to another door. “We share a bathroom. If you need me at all through the night, you can come find me. I’ll shut your door, but I will leave mine open.”

  “Thanks for the hospitality.”

  “Good night, Sadie.”

  I’d been through hell and back today, and this was just day one. I wasn’t saying I wanted CG to tuck me in at night and tell me bedtime stories, but jeez. One would think if he needed something from me, he wouldn’t be such a douche. Maybe I was overly sensitive, but in my humble opinion, a little Southern hospitality would have gone a long way.

  I took off my dirty clothes and left them in a heap by the bed. Crawling between the sheets, I wiped a tear from my face. I was just tired. I was almost kidnapped… twice. Practically killed. Had to leave the only town I’d ever known. Didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to my loved ones. I was entitled to feel the way I felt. I would have this night to feel sorry for myself but tomorrow… Well, tomorrow, I would come out swinging. I finally got my power, and I was going to learn how to use it.

  Chapter Twelve

  I woke up to the sound of silence. Jo wasn’t swearing we were going to be late for school. My granny wasn’t calling to make sure we weren’t going to be late for said school. Obviously, Jo had let Mr. Boring in on where I would be the final week of school. That had to be the reason for his impromptu history lesson on the key players. Hopefully, he would talk to the headmaster and explain my situation, and I would still get my diploma.

  Man, I was already homesick.

  For the first time, I noticed my surroundings. My room was huge and masculine. There was no pretty floral bedspread or chic curtains. Everything was either beige or green, and the furniture was big and bulky. For once in my life, I was surrounded by expensive, lavish things, and all I wanted was to feel my mustard-colored shag carpet from the trailer under my feet. If I made it out of this thing alive, I was going to use this whole crazy situation as a life lesson. One must be careful for what they wished for.

  I got up, naked as a jaybird, wrapping the sheet around me. I glanced out of the huge window to get an idea of my surroundings. The land was no longer flat but had rolling hills. There wasn’t the tell-tale sign of sand, but instead lush green grass was everywhere I looked. The trees weren’t the kind I was used to. They were massive, and the branches were thick with leaves. The Carolina mountains were different than the coast. I was so tired last night when CG showed me to my room that I barely remember crawling into bed. I shuffled my way to a door that I prayed was the bathroom. I groaned, as I realized it was a walk-in closet. I went to the opposite end of the huge bedroom and opened another wooden door. Bingo! After peeking into it to make sure CG wasn’t in there, I went to the opposite side of the humongous bathroom to shut his adjoining door, so I could take a shower. A clean body might not help the situation, but it wouldn’t make me feel worse. As I grabbed his door handle, I heard a throat clear. My head swiveled to where CG sat shirtless in an armchair looking sexier than ever. Why did someone so rude have to be so freaking hot?

  “Good morning, Sadie.”

  “Um, good morning. I need to take a quick shower, and then I’ll be ready.”

  His gaze raked my body with… hunger? Then as if he realized what he was doing, he waved me off like I was a nuisance. “Take your time. I’ll meet you downstairs in the kitchen.”

  Before I could shut the door, he said, “Oh, and Sadie, we wouldn’t want you running around in a sheet. I put some clothes in your armoire while you were sleeping. I hope that you find them to your liking.”

  “Oh, okay, thanks.”

  Not sure how I felt about him coming into my bedroom while I slept, I quickly pulled the door closed and locked it before I felt comfortable hopping in the shower. Well, today was going to be interesting, but I hoped the theme of today wouldn’t be awkward.

  Totally miscalculated that one. The theme wasn’t awkward; it was total crap. Everything I did turned to complete crap. In fact, so much so, that I was thinking of opening up my own fertilizer store.

  “You are not focusing,” CG snarled for the hundredth time. “You need to try harder. This is not a game. In case you have forgotten, it has been foretold that you will be instrumental in finding one of the lost keys. Therefore, there will be a lot of innocent people who will die if you are not capable of defeating the Degenerates.”

  Wow. No pressure or anything. I blew a long strand of hair out of my face and rolled to my feet on the training mat. There was a theory that once I siphoned off a supernatural I could call upon their powers at any time. My body was supposed to naturally store their auras into a storage bank. The problem was I hadn’t figured out how to call auras to me, and my teacher wasn’t a patient one. I put my hands on my hips and glared. “Believe it or not, sunshine, I am trying. I’m doing the best that I can.”

  He picked up the tail of his shirt to wipe his sweaty face. His chiseled abs glistened. “Well, if that’s your best, we’re all screwed.”

  “Maybe it’s your teaching that sucks.” I was at my breaking point an hour ago. “Hey, just saying.” It was true; something wasn’t clicking for me. It was as if I was purposely trying to sabotage myself. All the power I was around was getting to be too much, so I built a wall, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to let the wall down while keeping my sanity.

  CG started circling me. “You have to concentrate. Reach out with your mind and feel for the surrounding powers near you.”

  I shifted from one foot to the other. “Why can’t I just touch you and siphon your power?”

  CG sighed. “All right, try it.”

  I went to touch him, and before I knew it, he had his hand on my throat. I was pinned to the ground with him straddling me. He looked at me with that arrogant expression I was dying to wipe off. “Having to touch your enemy puts you too close to danger. I could have broken your neck before you hit the mat. You need to learn how to siphon from a distance, or you won’t live to see your next
birthday.”

  I knew how to do that. Every time I concentrated on a person, I saw their aura and felt their power, but I was tired, and my temper was getting the better of me. “Get off of me!”

  He put his face closer to mine, appearing even more intimidating. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

  I put both my hands on his thighs. His nose flared and his pupils dilated. My touch distracted him, so I was able to take enough energy without him knowing it. His body flew through the air. Too bad he landed on his feet. I was hoping for his head.

  “Yeah, I heard you, but did you hear me?”

  Clapping sounded from behind us, and both of our heads turned in the direction of the intrusion. Stephan stood propped up against the doorway to the gym. With one of his crazy vampire abilities, he flashed beside me on the training mat. He leaned down to grab my hands and helped me to my feet.

  “Thanks, Stephan.”

  He raised one of my hands up to his mouth where he placed a kiss. “Anytime, love.”

  CG growled, “What the hell do you want?”

  Stephan took his time looking at me before he finally focused his attention on CG. “I do have things to do and people to see. How long am I to be trapped here?”

  CG crossed his muscular arms. “Ahh, so you found out about our little protection spell surrounding the property. The great thing about it is not only does it keep others out, it keeps all of us in until I remove it. Remember, you wanted to have Sadie in your sights. Why would you need to leave?”

  Stephan smiled. “Hey, I don’t need to leave. Just bored, my friend. The blood supply is a little low around here. I had to resort to chasing wild game in your woods last night. It would be nice to be able to hit up a bar where there is more appealing game. Maybe I should resume training with Sadie to help my boredom?”

  CG smiled back. “And maybe I should just stake you.”

  “You could try,” Stephan said. “Touchy and brooding fits your surly personality so well. But this sensitive? One has to wonder why, unless that someone is me and has already figured out why.” Stephan turned to me. “Beautiful Sadie, should you require a less grouchy training partner, I would be more than happy to accommodate you. In the meantime, I’ll be in the library killing time by laughing at all the numerous history mistakes.”