by Kallie Frost
I stayed as far back as I could, while still keeping him in sight, praying he wouldn’t turn around and spot me.
I wondered if I would still follow him if I hadn't developed a crush on him over the last couple of months. And it was a crush. I couldn't deny it anymore. I thought at first maybe we were in some kind of new roommate honeymoon phase. But, three months and everything was still going perfectly. I felt as if we had been living together for three years, not three months. Forget three years, it felt like I had known him my entire life. Sometimes, I thought that I actually felt sick when we were apart. Not horrifically sick, but my head would hurt, my body would ache, and that damn spot on my neck would absolutely throb. Especially if I was thinking about him.
We were walking for a good twenty minutes. It was getting chilly and I hunched my shoulders into my thin jacket. I was starting to second-guess following him and feeling a little bit crazy, when he turned off of the sidewalk and onto a hiking trail that led into the woods on the edge of town. I gave him space and let him get a little further ahead of me before following. The sun was nearly set and the woods were dark and quiet. He walked confidently down the path at a much faster pace than he set in town. Luckily, I made sure to keep him in sight because he abruptly veered off the path and into the trees. I followed him for another ten minutes or so and then he stopped in a clearing.
I hid behind a tree, still keeping my distance, and watched him. Rion knelt down on the ground and started feeling around in the leaves, as if he was searching for something. What on earth was he doing? I was stunned when he picked something up. At first I thought he was just tossing some leaves around but no, he had lifted up a board. I frowned, what was that?
He stood and looked around. I ducked quickly behind the tree, holding my breath. I peered back into the clearing, just in time to see the board falling back onto the ground. Rion had vanished.
I jumped up, where had he gone? I heard the rustle of leaves and turned back to the clearing. I could see movement in the middle, where the board was, as if it were shifting around on the ground. Was it a trapdoor? I crept forward, watching around me for any signs of Rion. I thought I saw a shadow in the distance, but when I looked again it was gone. I found the board and examined it. It was indeed just a big piece of plywood, but there were actually leaves glued on top of it, like camouflage. Hardly daring to breathe, I lifted it. My jaw dropped; there was a metal trapdoor underneath it that led down into the ground.
“I'm insane,” I muttered. I grabbed the handle and very slowly turned it, unlocking the mysterious door. I eased it open and found myself staring at a ladder going straight down beneath the woods. Well, this was it. I nearly had myself convinced that Rion wasn't doing anything odd. Surely, I was the one who was just overreacting to something that probably had a simple explanation. But, a strange underground hideout in the woods was not such a simple explanation.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I swung my legs down into the hole and started down the ladder, pulling the door shut behind me. I heard the board clattering into place above me.
“Is someone there?!” It was Rion's voice. He sounded shocked, alarmed. Not that I could blame him. He certainly wouldn't expect anyone to have followed him here.
The ladder didn't go down very far, and I was on the floor in a flash. I turned to face him and take stock of my surroundings. We were in a surprisingly small rectangular room. The ladder came down on one end and the rest of it was completely barren. The ceiling couldn't have been more than seven feet high and the room was maybe four or five feet wide.
The walls were a smooth, flat metal. And the floor was concrete. It was lit only by a single bulb, recessed into the ceiling and covered with a metal grate. The far end was maybe ten feet away from me. Rion was standing there gaping at me with an expression of absolute horror.
“What is this?” I asked him. “What are you doing here?”
“Get out!” he screamed at me.
I took a step back in surprise. “Whoa, hang on, I'm sorry if you’re pissed I followed you but – ”
He sprinted across the room, grabbed me, and shoved me back against the ladder, hard.
“Hey! What the hell!?”
“Get out of here,” he cried. He gave me another shove. “Hurry! It's not safe! Get out!”
“If it's not safe, then come with me. I don't understand why you – ”
“For you!” His eyes bored into mine, his expression frantic. “It's not safe for you, you have to go! Before it's too late!”
“I'm not going anywhere until you explain what the hell is going on.”
I don't know what I expected him to say, but he pushed me again, this time weakly. Then he staggered back away from me and gasped in pain. “Go,” he said. “Please, Elliott, go!” He gasped again, this time he doubled over, clutching at his stomach.
“Rion!” I moved toward him in alarm.
He straightened and gestured frantically toward the ladder. “If you don't get out of here, I'll kill you!” he screamed.
I almost laughed at the absurd threat. Then, it occurred to me that maybe it wasn't so absurd. I felt so comfortable around him, that it was hard to remember I had only known him for three short months. And I knew so little about him, really. We made small talk, but I hardly knew anything about where he was from or even what he did when we weren't hanging out in the apartment together. I think he had a couple of siblings, because I heard him on the phone with them. For all I knew, he really would kill me.
A strange sound echoed in the room. It was a loud, metallic thud. Rion dropped to his knees. “No,” he moaned, “God, no.”
“What was that?” I asked. My eyes darted around the strange room, my heart pounding. Suddenly, I was afraid for my life. Rion's expression didn't help.
“An electromagnetic lock,” he murmured. “It won't open again until sunrise.” He looked at me, sorrow and fear playing across his face. “I'm so sorry, Elliott.”
“For what?”
Rion closed his eyes and for a long moment said nothing. Then, so softly I could hardly hear him, he repeated, “I'm sorry.” Then, he screamed.
I rushed toward him as he fell to the floor, writhing in pain. For a moment, I wasn't sure what was causing the pain. And then I realized that something was happening to his skin. Was it changing color? No. It was sprouting hair! I watched, enthralled, as hair began growing and thickening on every inch of exposed skin. It didn't even look like hair, it looked more like a coat of fur. It took me another moment to realize that his body was changing too. The hand I was holding was moving in mine, growing. His fingernails were turning black and lengthening, as if they were turning into claws. His clothes were tightening on his body, ripping off into shreds. I looked toward his face, still creased with pain, and watched as his nose and mouth began to lengthen. His teeth moved to fill the long snout, as they grew into wicked fangs. His ears slowly moved up the side of his head, growing larger and furry.
I had watched plenty of movies, I knew what was happening when I saw it, although I never imagined I’d see it in real life. He was changing into a fucking werewolf. How could this be real? How could this be happening?
And then I realized what he meant when he said he was going to kill me.
I was locked in a tiny metal room. With a werewolf.
Until sunrise.
Chapter Three
Rion
I opened my eyes to see the blank wall of the bunker looking back at me. I survived another full moon. A sigh of relief escaped me. Prepared for the usual pain, I slowly started to ease myself into a sitting position. To my surprise, I didn't hurt. In fact, I didn't even ache like I usually did. I held my hands up, studying them. My skin was unmarked, the wolf hadn’t bitten or scratched itself during the night. How strange. I couldn't remember the last time the wolf hadn't busied itself gnawing at its own skin out of boredom, or anger, or whatever emotion drove our animals to attack us during the full moon.
And then I rememb
ered Elliott.
My heart stopped and my stomach twisted into a knot of agony. No wonder the wolf hadn’t hurt itself, for the first time in its life there had been human prey. I buried my face in my hands. I knew that when I turned around I would find Elliott’s mangled body. He followed me and I killed him. I wanted to scream or cry. My eyes started to fill with tears. Even worse than the guilt of knowing I had just killed a person, was the fact it was Elliott. Three months was a blink of an eye in my lifetime, and yet I had come to care for him more than I ever cared for a human. I hated to admit it, but I cared for him more than many shifters as well.
“Rion?”
I froze at the sound of the curious whisper of my name. Elliott!? That was impossible. I turned, slowly. And there he was, sitting there, looking at me. And he was completely unharmed.
“Elliott?” I gasped.
“You're a werewolf,” he said flatly.
“You’re alive?!” I demanded.
“You're a werewolf!” he repeated.
“I could've killed you,” I cried. He smiled and shrugged awkwardly. “Hang on.” I frowned in confusion. “I should have killed you. How are you alive?”
Elliott laughed nervously in reply. “I don't know. You didn't really seem to be interested in it.”
“Interested?!”
He shrugged again. “Actually, you were more like a friendly dog. You just sniffed around and wagged your tail. And then you hit me with your head until I started petting you.”
“What?!”
“Now, can we get back to the part where you're a freaking, honest-to God werewolf?”
“I let you pet me?” That was impossible, this could be happening. Unless… No…
“Yeah, that was kind of weird…” He arched an eyebrow at me. “No weirder than the fact you turned into a wolf.”
“You’re my true mate,” I said, more to myself than him.
“I'm your what?”
“It's…” It was the only explanation. My wolf would kill anyone, or anything, that was trapped in here with him. Except for our true mate.
I reached up and started rubbing the sore spot at the base of my neck. My hand froze. How had I not realized it before? A pain that started in the exact location where an omega would mark me as his mate. And it had started not long after I moved in with Elliott. It was one of the classic signs of meeting a true mate. I supposed that I could forgive myself for having missed it. It wasn't as if I had felt the ache before.
I looked up at him. Really looked at him. My true mate. I always thought of him as quite handsome, although I tried not to, considering he was human. Now that wouldn’t matter. He watched me, still looking a bit stunned. I couldn't blame him, he had just seen someone turn into a wolf. Which led me to the question of how he had gotten here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I followed you,” he admitted. “That night you told me you were attacked by a wild dog, I knew there was a full moon. And then last month when you went out and came back hurt again, I noticed that it was a full moon too. I wasn't sure if it was coincidence or not until I saw you leaving last night.” He laughed weakly. “I sure as hell didn't expect you to be a werewolf of all things, but I had a feeling something strange was going on. I was worried about you, so I followed you here.” He fixed me with a curious expression. “And you turned into a wolf.”
I couldn't hold back the wry smile. “So, you said. What happened last night?”
“You don't remember?”
I shook my head. “That's what makes me so dangerous. The wolf takes over during the full moon, I have no control and no memory of what happens.”
“Well, you changed into a wolf. Not sure if I’ll get used to saying that. And I climbed as high as I could on the ladder, trying to stay out of reach. And you started barking.”
“Growling?”
“No. Barking. Sounded very friendly. Playful sort of. And then you stood up on your hind legs under the ladder, and started nosing at my feet and trying to lick me. Your tail was wagging and you seemed friendly, so I figured since you weren’t trying to kill me, I might as well climb down and see what happened.”
Even though I obviously hadn't killed him it was still very strange to hear his description of the event. There was absolutely no question that he really was my true mate.
“And then?”
Elliott shrugged. “I climbed down and you jumped around and barked some more… I started petting you and… That's pretty much how we spent the night. You curled up next to me and eventually fell asleep. I guess I must've fallen asleep too.”
I shook my head in wonder. My true mate… How long would it have taken to figure out he was my true mate if he hadn't followed me here?
We were interrupted by the sound of the electromagnetic lock releasing.
“What was… oh, the lock?” Elliott asked.
“We can leave now,” I said, nodding. It wasn't until I stood that it occurred to me I was completely naked. I was used to being naked after the change, but I didn't have an audience normally. Then again, as my true mate he would see me naked pretty darn often. He turned away from me, blushing. I hid a smile, certain that I saw him give me a once over before he turned away.
“I usually have time to change…” I picked up the shreds of the clothes that I had been wearing. Luckily, I kept a spare pair. “Hang on.” I climbed the ladder and opened a panel that the wolf couldn't reach, and pulled out my backpack. I climbed back down and fished a pair of clothes out of it.
“So, I guess you do this often…”
I grinned at him. “Every full moon.”
Elliott chuckled. “Secret cubbies and electromagnetic locks that last all night long… Is this place designed specifically for werewolves during full moons?”
“Shifters.”
“What?”
I pulled on a fresh pair of pants and stretched. “We’re not werewolves, we’re shifters. Some of us don't turn into wolves.”
“There are more of you?” he asked in surprise. “I mean, obviously you can't be the only one in the world, but you sound like it's kind of… common?”
“More common than you might assume.”
“But you’re alone.” I could tell he was curious, but he didn't just outright ask me why I was by myself.
“For full moons I am. It's too dangerous to spend the full moon with someone else.”
“Yeah, you seemed pretty convinced that you were going to kill me. But I'm still here.”
“That's not… It's complicated.”
“Because I'm your true mate? Whatever that means.”
“Exactly.” I swallowed nervously, I wasn't exactly sure how to explain it to him. In spite of the fact I always knew if I was lucky enough to find my true mate that he’d be human, I really hadn't spent much time figuring out what to say when the time came.
Instead, I pulled the shirt out of my backpack. It caught on the first aid kit and sent it clattering to the floor. I picked it up and shoved it back into the backpack. Elliott was frowning at it.
“First aid kit?”
“Yeah, just in case.”
“In case of?” His eyes narrowed in concern and his gaze roved over me. “Hang on. You were all cut up the last couple of times… What happened? Were you in here?”
I nodded.
“Then how did you get hurt?”
Well, he'd find out sooner or later. “The wolf hurts itself.”
“What?” he gasped in alarm. “Why?”
“The wolf is a predator. A wild animal. And a pack animal,” I said to him. I gestured around the room. “In here it's caged. There's no room to run, or hunt, or any pack mates to keep it company. The wolf is alone and scared. Maybe even bored. No pack, no prey… and it's a long night. So, the wolf does other things. That's why it's so small and empty in here. It's designed to keep the wolf confined enough that it can't hurt itself, without freaking it out by being too confined. Sometimes I bring in meat for it, but it gets
bored with that if I do it too often.”
“You looked like you were bitten.”
“Sometimes the wolf bites itself. I guess, sometimes it starts as an itch. You ever have a bug bite or something? You keep itching it, even after it doesn't itch anymore? It just becomes a nervous habit.” At his nod, I continued, “Sometimes the wolf just ends up scratching and biting. Most full moons end up with a few cuts and bruises.”
“But you’re fine this morning.”
“Thanks to you.” I smiled at him. “You kept him company all night. It has been a long time since my wolf had company.”
“How long?” He crossed his arms and studied me. “How long have you been a werewolf?”
“Shifter,” I corrected. “I was born one.”
“So, how long has it been since you had company, then?”
He wasn't ready to know the whole truth. Not yet. “Since around puberty,” I answered. It wasn't a lie, not exactly. “Once we get too old we become aggressive to other wolves.” My stomach rumbled. “If you don't mind, I'd like to start heading back to the apartment. I'm starving.”
“You must be. Yeah, let's go.”
I sent him out ahead of me. Then, shut down the power and locked up for the month. I climbed out and made sure that the trapdoor was well hidden.
“Shall we?” The morning was unusually beautiful. There was a lingering winter chill in the air and it smelled cool and crisp.
We were just reaching the edge of the woods when my cell phone started to ring. I paused to fish it out of my backpack.
“Good morning, Mom,” I said, answering.
“You sound… cheerful, Rion,” she said. “Are you all right?”
“I'm great, Mom. It was an easy moon.” Since I was on the phone I didn't bother to hide my smile. “How are you? How’s Dad?”
“We're doing well.” I wasn't at all surprised when she added, “The full moon is always easy with your true mate.”
My smile widened in amusement. My mother unknowingly figured it out. “How is everyone else?”
“Everyone's fine,” she said. “They're all out of their bunkers and up here for breakfast.” I didn't have to ask, I could hear the commotion in the background. It was easy to picture my whole family bustling about my parents’ large kitchen. They’d all be sore and tired, but not nearly as bad as I was here by myself. It didn't hurt that they were a few hours further east than I was. It wasn't much, but their sunrise had come sooner than mine, so they were already well on their way to recovering from the full moon. When my mother called to check in on me a month ago the background noises made me feel lonely. I thought of my empty chair at the table, and the familiar near-chaos of my family around me. Now, I missed it, but it didn't ache. I resisted the urge to reach for my true mate’s hand. He caught my eye and smiled, and I smiled back. I'd never be alone again… As long as he agreed…
