by Terra Wolf
My grandmother had passed away six months ago. I could hardly talk about it, even with Lauren. It was like ever since she was gone, there was a hole inside of me. And my visions had gotten a lot stronger, and slightly more accurate. I couldn’t go a single night without having some type of dream regarding a vision. And the weirdest part was that all been set in the woods. A girl running screaming in the darkness. Heavy rain on a windshield. The moon rising above the clouds. It was also cryptic. Like a message I couldn’t decipher. And I didn’t know whose future I was seeing. Sometimes I thought it was my own, sometimes I thought it was Lauren or someone else close to me. She would most likely be spending spring break with her parents at their cabin, which was located deep in Acadia National Park. Perfect opportunity for her to go screaming through the woods.
“Still planning on going to the cabin? Are you taking Drew?”
She sighed heavily putting some of her books in her backpack. We’d been sitting in the quad watching a group of guys play Frisbee and studying for a couple tests that we had before break. Those two exams were the only thing standing in our way of freedom for the next week. It was going to be fantastic. I needed a break from all the stress; college wasn’t as easy as everyone made it out to be. Especially in my junior year.
“We’re definitely going to the cabin for most of my break. But I also told my parents that we need to get some stuff for the apartment. So I think they’re going to take me shopping. And as for Drew, we didn’t make any plans over break.”
“Not a single one? I can’t believe that. I mean, you guys only live an hour from each other.”
She shrugged putting her bag on her shoulders and grabbing the blanket that we were sitting on. “His sister’s home on leave. I know that he wants to spend time with her, and I think that’s great. I don’t need to get involved with the family just now. She leaves on tour again in about a month, maybe he’ll introduce me to them then.”
“Meeting the parents. I guess you guys are getting pretty serious then, right?”
She set her lips into a thin line as we started to walk back towards our dorm room. I couldn’t wait for the apartment. We were moving in little over a month and we would each have our own bedroom. It was going to be a godsend for our relationship. Not that we weren’t great roommates, because we were, but we each need a little bit more space. Especially going into our senior year. We’d be applying for jobs, hanging out with her boyfriend’s more. Well Lauren would be. I didn’t have a single guy to speak of. I’ve been so focused on fulfilling my grandmother’s prophecy that I hardly looked at any other guys that didn’t fulfill her physical requirements since entering college. I planned to spend my senior year expanding my horizons and meet other guys. Even if grandma wouldn’t have approved.
“Yeah, I think we are. But listen, that’s not going to come between you and I and our awesome senior year together. Okay?”
She looked at me with her bright blue eyes to see if I agreed with her. Which, of course, I did. We already had our spring break plans for next year. Nothing was going to separate us, not even a boy. “Of course. But I do like Drew. I’d be okay if he hung out the apartment a lot.”
“I’m glad. Because I think you’ll be seeing a lot of him.”
“Oh and would that be with his clothes on or not?”
She threw some serious shade my way. There had been an incident about a month ago where I had come back from the library little bit earlier than expected only to find Drew emerging from our bedroom in well, nothing. I guessed he planned on getting dressed in our adjoining living room, which is where I walked in on him. He was covering himself up with his clothes but they didn’t really do the job. I could definitely see why Lauren was attracted to him. He had a serious sixpack, even though he was shorter than me and a ginger. But I wouldn’t hold that against him. He wasn’t my guy anyway.
I liked tall guys, only because I was tall myself. And I felt like taller guys could handle a curvy girl like me. I liked going to the gym, and I went on plenty of runs with Lauren, but all that seem to do was make my thighs more stable and my ass a little bit bigger. But the guy in my vision, one my grandmother always told me about, he appreciated a womanly figure. I was just hoping the rest of the single seniors on campus did also.
“So when do you leave? What time is your last exam?”
I looked at my cell phone and checked the time, “I have one at one and then another one at four. So I’ll probably be leaving here by six? What about you?”
“Well, the one I can take online so I’m going to do that as soon as I get back to the room, and the other one I have is at two. So I should be out here by two thirty; it’s that stupid English test. It’s not going to take me long at all.”
“Well, I really don’t have time to go back to the dorm right now, so I guess this is goodbye for now. I’ll see you in a week! And I want to hear all about the cabin. And remember, if you get into any trouble…”
She smiled at me sweetly, “I’ll call you. But I’m telling you the woods that you describe from your dreams, they’re not my woods.”
“I just don’t get it. What the hell would I be doing in the words? Especially in the dark?”
She shrugged and then put her arms around me in a tight hug. “I don’t know, but you be careful too.”
I nodded, “See you in a week.” I said as she let go. She gave me a short wave and turned and walked back towards our dorm as I made my way to my math final in the opposite direction.
Three
PIPER
After I finished my last final, I grabbed my bags and made my way to my car. It was a three-hour drive from campus to my dad’s house. And I suspected that first thing in the morning we’d be driving the other hour to my grandma’s place. I tried not to think about her. It’d been so difficult since she had passed away. For both my dad and me. He didn’t really believe in all the psychic abilities she claimed to have, but even he was saying that lately it felt like something had shifted. Like something was different in her house with her being gone. I felt like the house was probably missing her as much as I was. He’d been trying to get it on the market for months, but the only time he really had to go up there was weekends and he hadn’t had many of those free. He had a new girlfriend, and while she seems nice, she was new. So he was spending a lot of his free time with her. And I didn’t blame him. But I knew that my grandmother’s house was probably becoming more dusty and decrepit with every passing day. The longer we waited to get it on the market, the longer it would take to sell.
I went to the dining hall to grab a quick sandwich before I got on the road and by the time I started driving it was dark. But I had done the drive a hundred times in the dark, it didn’t bother me. When my grandmother was still alive I had spent almost every Friday night driving to her house. I would take her grocery shopping and mow the lawn, do things that she couldn’t do herself anymore. Every weekend I didn’t go to see her, I went to see my dad and then we would drive there together. I guess I was a bit of a family girl.
I was only an hour into the drive when the rain started. As soon as I saw the big heavy drops on the windshield, I knew that my vision was about me. Or at least parts of it were. I turned my phone off and put my full attention on the road. I didn’t want to swerve off or hit something. Only a few headlights passed me as I continued on the old highway. It was practically abandoned since the interstate had been put it. But the interstate was so busy and traffic made the trip even longer. Sure, this old road was windy and would be a little bit slower, but it was better than dealing with all the people driving back and forth between the cities.
The rain beat down heavily on the top of my little car. It was an old Civic, the only thing I could afford. My grandmother had even helped my father and I buy it when I turned sixteen. It had been a reliable car, and I had never been in an accident. I was mostly an overly cautious driver. My hands gripped the steering wheel and I turned on the heat feeling slightly claustrophobic from the poun
ding rain. My wipers could hardly keep up and I heard a crack of thunder above me. Suddenly, I watched as lightning hit a pole right in front of me sending sparks up into the dark night sky. I slammed on the brakes to prevent my car from sliding directly into the pole. I braced myself for impact. My brakes screeched as the tires slipped and I heard the crunch as my car careened into the fallen pole. The air bag went off my face. I knew immediately that I had hit it. The crunch of the front of my car and the sudden stop told me, the car was probably damaged beyond repair. I took deep breaths trying to remain calm. I had to get out of the car, that pole had live wires on it. I removed my seatbelt, grabbed my cell phone and purse as I removed myself from the tangled mess that was my car.
I got out into the pouring rain and checked my body for injuries, but luckily I was okay. My head hurt a bit from the whiplash, but I didn’t feel any bumps. I surveyed the damage and immediately realized it was not drivable. I turned my phone back on to call 911 but whatever that powerline had been connected to, must’ve connected to the closest cell tower. I had nothing, not even enough service to use my emergency button. The rain pounded down on my body chilling me to the bone within minutes. My dark hair was stuck against my skin and my clothes soaked through. I had to find help, and a way to contact my dad and the police. I had to get my car out of the middle of the road and warn people about the downed power lines. But as I looked around me into the night, I realized I had no idea where I was. The GPS on my phone wasn’t working due to the outage. Suddenly my vision was turning out to be eerily true.
Four
NOAH
Lucy had had three beers by the time I was trying to pull her off of the bar from dancing like it was Coyote Ugly. Even though a couple of the locals were trying to slip her some ones, I finally got her down and put her over my shoulder and walked out to the truck. “This is why I can’t take you out. You have to learn self-control.” I said to her as I loaded her into the truck.
She giggled like something I said was hilarious. “You have to pay the tab!” She said in slurred words. I couldn’t believe she had been so careless. There was a storm coming, I could feel it. Plus the other shifter was still in the bar. We had to teach her how to remain alert, you could never let your guard down out in the world. You had to stay on top of things. The entire night my bear had been pacing back and forth pushing the envelope, trying to break free of its cage. I was definitely going have to go for a run tonight. Maybe sleep out under the stars, I didn’t mind the rain. I heard a crack of thunder as I nodded to her.
“I’ll be right back. Stay in the truck.”
She rolled her eyes at me and pulled out her cell phone probably texting the guys back at the house. They wouldn’t appreciate her drunk texts, but I would let them deal with it. Anything to keep her entertained while I went to pay the tab. I walked back into the bar and up to the bartender, “Sorry about that.”
She smiled at me flirtatiously, leaning on the bar, giving me a view of her chest. She was pretty. But I didn’t have time for her, I had to deal with Lucy and getting her back to the house. “Yeah, your sister seemed to have maybe one too many drinks?”
Sister. Why was I not surprised she tried to pull that? “Yeah, she’s a little immature. Can you bring me our tab?”
She nodded, smacking her lips as she walked away. Couldn’t help myself but focus in on her tight ass as she sauntered over towards the cash register. It was then that I felt someone brush up against me. I looked to my right to see the man that had been playing pool sitting up on a stool staring directly at me. I balled my fists at my sides trying to control my bear. He put his head casually on his hands looking at me like he was sizing me up. If he knew what was good for him, he would stop doing that.
“I don’t think we’ve met.” He said with an inquisitive look on his face.
“I don’t think so either. You’re not from around here, are you?”
He knew what I was asking him, what clan did he belong to? But instead he just responded, “Kind of a loner type. At least that’s what my Alpha tells me.”
Fucking wolf. I knew it. I clenched my jaw and tried to take deep breaths. “Well then maybe you should go back to him.”
He stood up so now we were mere inches apart. I had a little bit of height on him so, lucky for me, I was looking down at his bald shiny head. “Actually, he is the one who sent me here.”
“We’ve heard that story before. Now if you’re from up north, you should put your tail between your legs and head home.”
He sneered at me. “Not from the north. And I’m not going home, not until I get what I want.”
“And what is that?”
“We’ve heard a rumor down south. That your clan might have a seer among you.”
A seer? No clan in the Northeast had a psychic working for them in over three decades. “Are you kidding? Listen, man, I don’t know where you got your information from but, as you can see, there’re a lot of people here tonight and I don’t really want to have to break your neck in front of them. Now, I really don’t know what you’re talking about some seer, so I’m going to pay my tab and go home.” The bartender had set my receipt down in front of me and I took the pen and went to sign it. But as I set the pen to the paper he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back from the bar attempting a right hook to my face. Sadly for him, I dodged it and regained my balance just in time to send a kick right into his stomach. He was thrown back against the wooden bar but quickly regained his footing and cracked his neck before he made a lunge at me. We were on the floor within seconds, rolling around trying to give each other shots in the ribs or the face. But it only took me a minute before I was on top and my fingers were wrapped around his neck. I was choking the life out of him, and I was enjoying every second.
“Noah! Noah, stop it!” I looked up to the doorway to see Lucy standing there with a look of fear in her eyes. “Let’s go! Now.”
I leaned down to my victim and whispered in his ear, “Don’t ever come back.”
The bar had grown silent except for the music playing in the background and I gave him one final kick in the stomach before following Lucy out.
“What the hell was that?” She turned on me with fire in her eyes.
“What the hell was what?” I said as I turned onto an old highway. It was hardly ever populated and the rain had started, I drove faster than I should have but I was used to these back roads. It was the easiest way to get back to the manor.
“I mean what the hell was it with you and that other shifter? Alastair is going be so pissed.”
A shot her a look, “Only if you tell him.”
She shook her head, “Of course I’m going to tell him. I like to stay on his good side, unlike you. You can’t just fight some random guy in a bar! Doesn’t matter who he is.”
“We don’t even know what his intentions were. He was sent here. A wolf was sent into our territory, doesn't that piss you off even a little bit?”
She shrugged looking out the window into the dark night. She still didn’t understand all the dynamic; she didn’t realize what a big deal this could be. Allister would understand-- I was sure of it.
“I just don’t think you should have done it there, in front of all those people. Now we can’t go back there.”
I rolled my eyes at her, “People fight there all the time. No one called the cops; we have nothing to be worried about. And if the guy knows what’s good for him, he won’t say anything to anyone about tonight.”
She turned back to look at me, “You could have killed him! Then what happens? The police would bring you in for questioning, and they would’ve figured stuff out. You know that we have one job. There is only one rule.”
The biggest rule of all, that our shifter sides had to remain a secret. The people can never know about us. If the humans found out about a separate race, caused by some faulty genetics, they would put us in laboratories and test us like rats. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. Picking a fight with that guy in fro
nt of all those people was a dangerous move. But I controlled myself, or maybe she had controlled the situation for me. But I wouldn’t let her know that just yet.
“I know the rules. You don’t need to remind me of them.”
“Fine,” was all she said before crossing her arms and sitting back in the seat closing her eyes. “Just let me know when we get there. My head hurts.”
I drove for another twenty minutes in silence wondering what the wolf was talking about with a psychic. Women who had visions of the future had been part of the clans in the past. They were usually the mates of clan leaders, but no one had kept a psychic among them in decades. They didn’t even exist anymore. Not real ones anyway. Only those pretend ones at sideshows or reading tarot cards. They weren’t our type of people. They didn’t have shifter blood. The gift of sight was only bestowed upon those of the purest blood, and we diluted the bloodline so extensively that none of them existed anymore. So what information did he have that we didn’t? Why was he looking for a psychic? Wolf packs never had psychics; they were exclusive to bear clans. It didn’t make any sense. I’d been lost in my own head driving blindly through the rain when suddenly I hit the brakes, screeching us to a halt in front of a downed power line and a smoking car. There was a girl standing out in the rain surveying damage. I could barely see her through the rain and the darkness, but I could just make out her figure. She was taller with her arms crossed and long dark hair sticking to the back of what I assumed was a coat. I wondered how long she’d been stranded here. I knew that there was no cell service; we blocked all the towers within a five mile radius of the manor, besides our own little makeshift one which you actually had to be at the manor to use. There is no way she could get any help out here. Lucy and I would have to do something.
