Bitten

by Noelle Marie

  At least once they’d reached the frozen falls, a somewhat decipherable trail had been created by other wolves whose heavy footsteps had packed down the white stuff as they’d made their way to the moon gathering earlier in the day.

  Katherine followed her pack – their alpha leading the way, of course – as they journeyed through the snow, marching straight by the cluster of pine trees surrounding the waterfall and continued onward until they’d reached the top of a small hill, under which lay a large clearing.

  It was quite crowded.

  Amidst the throng of people, Katherine could make out a large fire pit where red and yellow flames licked at the sky. The smell of smoke and incense was heavy in the air.

  She hadn’t taken more than two steps towards the fire and surrounding mob, however, before she spotted a cluster of her friends huddled together near the tree line far east from the soaring blaze.

  “Can I?” she asked, turning to face Bastian, whom she’d noticed follow her gaze.

  He seemed uncomfortable with the idea of her letting her leave the safety of the pack to go meet her school friends, but reluctantly nodded regardless. “Just make your way back to me at the first sign of moonlight. I’ll be near the fire pit.”

  “Alright,” she quickly agreed and took off before he could change his mind.

  “Katherine!” Mack, the first of her friends to see her approaching, greeted enthusiastically. “We didn’t know for sure if you were going to make it.”

  The small brunette frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?” she questioned, tucking a wayward strand of dark hair behind her ear as she came to stand beside him. “I thought going to these gatherings was kind of required.”

  “It is,” Melanie quickly interjected. “What Mack meant was that it’s only your second full moon and well, we all know how,” she paused, her cheeks reddening a bit as she seemed to search for a word, “protective of you Bastian has been since you’ve been here. And with his fight with Rogue tonight, well…”

  “The fight’s going to be epic!” Jonathan exclaimed, eyes alit with excitement, before Katherine could protest to Melanie’s assertion that Bastian was protective of her.

  “Jon,” Mack said pointedly, jabbing him in the side with a sharp elbow.

  “Oh,” he glanced sheepishly at Katherine. “Well, I mean, Bastian is sure to win, of course.”

  Katherine rolled her eyes.

  “Boys,” Agnes muttered, following suit.

  “Anyway,” Melanie trilled before Jonathan had the opportunity to cram more of his foot in his mouth, “you came just in time, Katherine. Leander was just telling us about a race that’s been planned for tonight.”

  “A race?” she asked, her interest mildly piqued.

  Leander, who’d been quiet since Katherine had arrived – it was nothing new, she hadn’t heard him speak more than a handful of words to anyone since she’d met him – nodded. “Some of the alphas are interested in who the fastest of the upcoming recruits are. I heard Rip talking about it – complaining about how he couldn’t participate, what with his hand and all.”

  Katherine had seen Rip at school since the locker room fiasco a few weeks back, of course. She wasn’t sure how he felt about the cast that’d been present around his right wrist ever since. He’d been ignoring her though, so she couldn’t deny that she was grateful for that at least.

  “You’re such a good runner, Katherine. You should definitely compete. Jon, Agnes and I are going to.”

  She blushed a little at Mack’s praise, but wavered on her answer. “I don’t know. I don’t think Bastian wants me to stray too far from him.”

  What she didn’t say was that she didn’t think she wanted to stray too far from the man herself. The anxiety that overtook her whenever she allowed herself to think of his upcoming fight with Rogue made Katherine more than a little hesitant to leave his side for too long. She wasn’t sure what worried her more – that Bastian could get seriously hurt, or what would happen to her if he somehow lost.

  “Oh, come on,” Agnes attempted to persuade her. “You can’t possibly pass up the opportunity to show up some of the dunces in our class.”

  “Yeah, and think of the alphas that’ll be watching. You’re pretty fast – you stand a good chance of impressing a few of them,” Jon added.

  “I don’t care about that,” Katherine mumbled, glancing at the faint sheen of moonlight that was beginning to creep in through the tops of the trees. She sighed. “I should probably go find Bastian.”

  “I think you should compete too, Katherine,” Melanie pointed out, ignoring what she’d just said about finding Bastian. “The alpha fight won’t start until midnight if that what’s stopping you,” she continued, correctly guessing what Katherine’s hold up was. “The race is scheduled to start pretty much as soon as the moon rises and should be long over by then, right Leander?”

  Leander bobbed his head up and down.

  Katherine still hesitated. “Maybe…”

  “Please?” Mack practically begged. “It’ll be fun.”

  “Imagine the look on those boys’ faces when we girls kick their butts,” Agnes tried to entice her.

  And with all of her friends looking at her with pleading eyes she couldn’t just say no. “Okay, okay. I’ll race.” Paying no mind to the cheer that met her announcement, she looked back up at the sky.

  Katherine’s heart nearly leapt right out of her chest. The full moon – round and impossibly white against the near blackness that surrounded it – was already beginning its ascent over the trees.

  Before she could think too much about the trouble she knew she was going to be in with Bastian, it started – the change.

  It was almost exactly like the first time. Her body temperature rose to such a degree that it almost felt like her insides were burning. And then with a disjointed twist of her spine and a sickening crack, the edges of her vision blurred until there was nothing.

  #

  When Katherine forced her eyes open moments later, she was surrounded by five unfamiliar wolves.

  Unfamiliar, yet not.

  She knew immediately that the wolf furthest on her left – the one whose bright eyes gleamed intelligently as he stared down at her – was Mack. And the slightly larger, dark one right by him was undoubtedly Jonathan. The next – he was covered in shaggy, russet fur – could only be Leander. Then Agnes, or the wolf version of her anyhow, who was about the size of Mack with a coat a similar shade of gray as Caleb’s. And finally, Melanie, whose wolf form was small and black with equally dark eyes.

  Mack and Jon began yipping excitedly when they noticed Katherine stirring. A nudge from the former had her shakily getting to her feet – or paws rather.

  She didn’t know if she’d ever get used to transforming into a wolf. Thus far, Zane had been unsuccessful in teaching her how to do it voluntarily. And she could attest that transforming involuntarily – it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

  Although this transformation had been easier than the first, she still wished that Bastian had been there to help ease her into it – to help her get used to her wolf form again liked he’d done for her the last full moon.

  But, of course, he wasn’t there. And she had no one to blame for that but herself. She allowed her eyes to wonder back to the iridescent moon hovering above them all in the sky. Bastian was going to kill her.

  The guilt that thought brought on made her shrink into herself a bit. She wasn’t allowed to dwell on it, however, as her friends quickly began prodding her and encouraging her to follow them into the thick of the forest.

  What was going on? Where were they going?

  They didn’t make it far, though, before they came upon a relatively small group of wolves, and Katherine remembered. The race. Of course.

  Including Katherine and her friends, there were perhaps two dozen or so wolves. Three, who were larger than the rest and gave off auras of power, were obviously alphas. She strongly suspected that the light brown one with the mean eyes was
Rip’s father. He smelled horrible – like decaying rot.

  Before she could bring herself to be truly bothered by his presence, however, Mack began butting his head into her side, attempting to move her toward where the other young wolves were forming a sort of line. Melanie and Leander scurried off to the side, clearly having chosen to observe, but not participate in, the soon-to-begin race.

  Katherine let Mack lead her to where she was supposed to go, but was feeling more and more uneasy about her decision to do this. Bastian was probably looking for her – likely worried to the point of anger. Not to mention the fact that her friends hadn’t had time to tell her the route of the race before the moonlight had shone down upon them and they’d all turned into giant, hairy beasts.

  Glancing at Agnes, who was readying herself on her right, Katherine supposed she could just follow her. She knew she’d be able to keep pace with her easily enough and besides, like she’d professed earlier, it wasn’t like she actually cared what any of the alphas thought of her. If she got last… oh well.

  So why had she even agreed to race in the first place? Katherine really didn’t know.

  Before she could consider the question too closely, however, the wolf she suspected to be Briggs was lifting his head and howling loudly into the wind. The other wolves who were lined up with her dashed off.

  Okay. So clearly the howl was meant to serve as the starting signal of the race – like an air horn of sorts.

  Springing into action, Katherine leapt forward a beat after the others. She quickly worked to spot Agnes’s gray coat in the blur of furry bodies that rushed toward the trees. And… there she was.

  Katherine swiftly fell into step behind her friend, though it didn’t seem like Agnes really noticed her new shadow as her full attention was dedicated to moving her powerful limbs.

  …Now, don’t get Katherine wrong, because Agnes was fast.

  But the fact of the matter was Katherine was faster. And within minutes, she was fighting the urge to dart past her. Although the results of the race hardly mattered to Katherine, she longed for the feeling of joy – of freedom – that nothing but running could bring her. She yearned to fly through the trees like she had the last full moon. The temptation to do so was strong, but she managed to resist. Barely.

  It wasn’t worth the risk of getting lost.

  But, of course, Katherine’s intentions to stick to Agnes like glue ceased to matter when another wolf – large and fur close to the same color of chocolate brown as her own – knocked her off balance and sent her body slamming straight into the trunk of a nearby tree. She couldn’t stop a pained yelp from escaping when her torso met the rough bark, but forced herself to stay on her feet. Paws. Whatever.

  Her assailant had stopped to watch her as she stumbled, and she growled at him, attempting to discern his identity as she snapped at his ankles in retaliation to the harsh shove. She knew it couldn’t be Rip because Leander had said he wasn’t competing in the race. Maybe it was one of his friends?

  Before she could decide for sure – though she was fairly certain it was Jason Collins, one of her more boorish classmates – he pushed her back into the same tree. This time, she did fall, and the other wolf took off, howling as he did so. The sound was high-pitched and sounded suspiciously like laughter. All too soon, he was out of sight.

  And Katherine was alone.

  And had no real idea of where she was.

  Exactly the situation she didn’t want to be in.

  Growling in frustration, she ignored the painful twinges coming from her rib cage and gave chase. Katherine ran in the direction that Collins had gone, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that she wouldn’t be able to catch him. Or Agnes for that matter. She attempted to make her way back to where Collins had jumped her, thinking that surely there were some paw prints on the ground she could follow to the finish line of the race.

  Unfortunately for Katherine, the wind had picked up since she’d arrived at the clearing with her pack more than an hour earlier and the only paw prints to follow anywhere were her own. It didn’t help that everything was white and all the trees looked the same as the last.

  None the less, she tried to find her way out of the forest and back to the clearing. It took a long while of fruitless searching for Katherine to finally admit that she was lost.

  Why, oh why, had she agreed to participate in the stupid race?

  As Katherine looked for a way out of the woods, her eyes frequently traveled up to gaze at the full, glowing moon. She watched apprehensively as it got closer and closer to the highest point in the sky.

  Bastian was going to be taking on Rogue soon and Katherine was terrified. Terrified that her absence would somehow cause him to lose and what that loss would mean for Bastian. What it would mean for her.

  She was also more than a little afraid of what it would mean for her if she couldn’t find her way out of the forest and back to the moon gathering by daylight. She’d transform back into a human when the sun rose and Sophie had the backpack that contained her change of fresh clothes. If she didn’t make it back to the clearing by the time the moon set, well… she’d be both lost and naked in this dark, cold forest.

  How utterly humiliating.

  It was right then – when she was on the verge of panic and all these horrifying scenarios were running through her mind – that Katherine saw a strange marking on the trunk of a nearby tree. It was almost as if some of the bark had been ripped off by… claws? Werewolf claws?

  Was it possible that the alphas had marked a trail before the race had begun?

  Heart palpitating in her chest, Katherine ran up to the tree, scrutinizing the mark. Yes, it had definitely been made by werewolf claws. She quickly examined surrounding trees, hoping to see a similar mark on another trunk.

  And she did.

  Hoping that she was right about the alphas marking the racing route, Katherine took off, following the marked trees as she saw them. She hadn’t been at it for more than ten minutes when she began to vaguely recognize the landscape. Five more minutes, and she heard a howl.

  Eager to find whoever was howling – she didn’t even care if it was Rip’s dad at that point – Katherine ran full tilt to where she thought the sound was coming from.

  She couldn’t describe the relief that nearly overwhelmed her when she saw Caleb waiting for her where the race had begun hours earlier. Her friends were there too, looking as apologetic as any group of wolves possibly could.

  Caleb, whom Katherine crashed into mid-howl, yelped in surprise before recognizing exactly who it was that’d pounced on him. When he did, he began nuzzling her, digging his snout into Katherine’s soft fur in a faux hug. Then he was pulling back, checking her over to make sure that she was unharmed.

  Once he was satisfied that she was none the worse for wear, he playfully bit her ear – almost like he was chastising her for disregarding Bastian’s earlier instructions and getting herself involved in such a mess. As soon as he had her attention, though, all he did was gesture westward with his head. He took off, clearly expecting Katherine to follow.

  She did, her five friends trailing after her.

  Within moments, they were out of the forest and had made it back to the clearing where the tall fire still burned brightly in its pit. Katherine expected to see wolves everywhere, mulling about, much like their human counterparts had been earlier. Instead, though, nearly all of the wolves were gathered together, many of them yipping excitedly.

  It looked like they were surrounding something.

  …The fight!

  Feeling her stomach plummet, Katherine sprinted to catch up with Caleb. Leaving her friends in her dust, she followed her pack mate’s lead, slinking around bodies until she was at the forefront of the action. She recognized Sophie, Markus, and Zane in her peripheral vision, but didn’t acknowledge them.

  She spotted Bastian immediately. But then, how could she not? There were only two wolves at the center of the circle that had been formed
. There was the large, sinewy one with an almost tawny colored coat – Rogue, no doubt – and there was Bastian.

  Katherine could do nothing but watch helplessly as Rogue jumped on Bastian, obviously trying to take a bite out of him if his snapping jaws were any indication. Bastian shrugged him off easily enough, but as the moonlight caught his fur, Katherine immediately noticed that it was glistening in places – proof that Rogue had managed to dig his sharp teeth into him more than once already.

  The fact that Bastian was bleeding – she couldn’t explain how much it infuriated her.

  But why wasn’t he retaliating? Attacking Rogue in the same fashion that the other was coming at him?

  Instead, Bastian seemed almost distracted. He wasn’t focused on thoroughly trouncing his opponent. He was just standing there, seemingly looking out into the crowd for something… or someone.

  The idea that she could be what he was looking for – that she was the reason for his distraction – well, the guilt nearly paralyzed her.

  Sophie, apparently, was thinking along the same lines as Katherine. While Rogue was busy picking himself up, she began barking loudly, clearly trying to get Bastian’s attention. His head jerked in their direction, his eyes seemingly drawn to Katherine’s by some magnetic force field. His serious blue eyes positively drilled into her remorseful green ones.

  Their gazes couldn’t have interlocked for more than a second, but it was enough – enough to divert his attention – and Katherine watched, horrified, as Rogue once again slammed into him.

  This time, though, Bastian truly bucked him off – nearly throwing the other wolf into the crowd of spectators and by the time Rogue was able to get back up to leap at Bastian once more, he was ready.

  He met Rogue’s attack with one of his own. Stretching on his hind legs, Bastian clawed at Rogue’s snout. Lurching away from Bastian in obvious pain, he took a moment to compose himself. Then sprang at him again. Bastian jumped at him too. Their two bodies clashed in mid-air with a thwack.