All of them had the same mark, the same gaping jaws of a skeleton revealing a wolf's head, ready to swallow her up. They aren't here to arrest me, Mia realized. They’re going to take me back to Grey…
CHAPTER 10: BREAKOUT
Rowan could see everything, and feel the natural wave of energy of all the living things in the forest. He kept to the edge of the woods that bordered Birchton, his head low as he searched with his nose. The leaves still felt wet from the night before and gave off an earthy pungent scent. His thoughts were animal-like, and reduced to sensations. Find her. Hunt. Mate. He tried to push the last urge from his mind, but it lingered there. He was connected to her, and this desire propelled him through the trees. He picked up a sound, a strange babble of two men standing behind the police building. Rowan inched closer. Danger. He picked up their scent, and he couldn't help but growl a bit.
He wound down the hill from the woods, staying out of sight. He crouched behind a dumpster and waited. The two men were deep in conversation. A skinny man had his hand on the larger one and seemed to be consoling him somehow. Though they were human, Rowan could tell they had a secret, like him. Wolves, he thought. The larger man patted his head with a cloth and nodded to the skinny one. The skinny man reached for the door and opened it. Rowan felt a tug in his chest, as a new smell wafted towards him from the breeze of the door. Mia.
Without another thought, he took off in a sprint towards the door. His claws skittered across the concrete as he shot through the doorway. The men screamed at him, though he couldn't tell what they were saying. Rowan didn't care. He knew he had a mission to fulfill and he had to find his mate. Her scent was growing stronger now. It was sweet, with a slight tang, almost like wine. The lights inside were blinding, and the floor cold under his paws. He slipped a bit, lacking solid ground to keep his feet on.
He felt the heavy bodies as they landed on him. It was the men, trying to hook their arms around his waist. Rowan growled loudly, his hackles raised as he wiggled free of their clutches. He skidded clumsily into a wall, but regained his footing and followed the scent. The building was a maze of office rooms and hallways, but he finally found a cracked door. He slid again when he heard piercing gunshots explode near him. He could smell the smoke from the gun and heard the skittering pieces of concrete wall fall to the floor where the bullets had missed.
Another gunshot echoed through the hall, but Rowan hurried on. Mia. Danger. Wolves. But he couldn’t see any wolves on the other side of the door, just another human with a wretched scent. He stared at Rowan with wide eyes, holding a heavy baton in one of his hands. He shouted something that Rowan didn’t understand, holding the baton out in a threatening way. Rowan shrunk down, growling at the man in rage. There was a startled cry that distracted him, a female. Rowan saw the girl with the amber hair tucked into the corner of her cell. Mia.
She was terrified. After all, she had no idea that it was him. Rowan shouldn't have risked the look and was struck hard in his side with a crack of the baton. The man shouted into the hallway, where the others were. Rowan knew he didn't have much time. He snapped his jaws around the baton and swung with all his might, knocking the man off of his feet as he swung towards a desk.
He heard something rattle to the floor, a metallic jangling flooded his ears. Keys. Rowan watched the eyes of the man on the floor, darting from the keys to the cell. Rowan growled as he cornered him. To his surprise, the man tried to growl back, struggling on the floor, a stance that Rowan instantly recognized. Wolf, he thought.
Rowan bounded for him as the man tried to grab the keys. They slid across the tiled floor towards the cell. The man shuddered as teeth sunk into his arm. He cried out in agony, but Rowan held firm, wanting to crunch right into his bones. Painful memories flashed in his mind. He had done this before. That girl had screamed the same way. Flesh and blood, he thought. He shook his head roughly from side to side, tasting the metallic tang of blood as it seeped into his mouth.
The other two men had caught up, and were pointing their guns towards Rowan. Rowan let go of the arm, not sure where to turn now. He could risk running, but he would get a bullet put in him the second he moved. The guards moved closer to him, all of them shouting at each other now about what they should do. He was surrounded, but not for long.
Suddenly, the room went black. The shouting ceased, turning to harsh whispers as the men tried to find their way around the room. But Rowan could still see them crystal clear, not with his eyes, but with his nose and his ears. He could sense movement around him, and heard the jangling of keys from nearby. A desperate flash of a gun went off nearby him, followed by more shouting. Apparently one of them was still trying to kill him. Rowan could smell each of them and tackled the closest one into the nearby desk. It screeched as the man fell, and Rowan jumped away as another gunshot blasted throughout the room.
He could feel the bodies around them, but not the warm comforting one of Mia nearby. He heard a door open, and a crack of light seeped into the room. A shadow lingered in front of it, and soon it was swung open as the men realized what was happening. As they struggled to their feet, Rowan ducked under the desk and slipped through the crack, following after the girl in the bright prison uniform as she nearly tripped around the corner. Rowan ran for her, and she turned and cried out at the sight of him. But he wasn’t going to hurt her. He saw she was going the wrong way, and he nudged at her thigh, pushing her to go towards the back door.
She seemed to understand, and through this archaic method of communication, they scurried out from the back door and towards the woods. The men’s shouting disappeared, even though they appeared shortly after Rowan and Mia had escaped. They cursed out into the trees, unaware that Mia and Rowan were already headed for home.
Mia leaned against a tree, catching her breath. They had been running for what felt like hours, but the soft glow of the cabin was in the distance now, waiting for them. Rowan sat in front of Mia and he could tell that she felt uneasy around him. She leaned down and grabbed a stick, holding it out towards his face. Rowan growled at the gesture but felt it catch in his throat as his muscles began to twitch. He had to get away from her. The wolf was tired, ready to become human again. Of all the times to shift. He shuffled towards a thick cluster of trees, hoping to hide behind one of the trunks, while he completed his horrific transformation, but he didn't make it. He rolled in the dirt and leaves as he shook frantically against the forest floor. His thoughts became clearer and to his horror he realized that he was out in plain sight, revealing his dark secret to the only person he cared about.
His limbs stretched out, completing the shift as the fur was shed around them and turned back into muscle and skin. Rowan struggled to his feet, leaning up against a tree as he took in a sharp breath of cold air.
"Oh my God…" a quiet voice said into the wind. Rowan turned, clutching at his aching chest as he looked at Mia. She took a few steps back, stumbling as she stared at him in horror. This is what Rowan had feared the most. He had saved Mia but somehow he had still managed to look like a monster, standing naked and wild in front of her.
"Mia, I really need to explain," he said as he took a step closer. He placed his hand in front of his crotch, attempting to hide from her. Mia shook her head, clasping her hands over her mouth.
"Please, Mia, "Rowan's voice was desperate as her name left his lips. “I wanted to tell you." He realized at that moment that he couldn't lose her again, although he was certainly very close to.
"Rowan…what are you?" Her voice cracked as tears welled up in her eyes. Rowan held out his hands, helpless. Where could he even start? Especially after the horrific scene that Mia had just witnessed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice breaking. “I’ve been trying to figure that out…” A sharp pain travelled through his chest. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to be there. He lowered himself to his knees, the cold finally getting to him, prickling at his human skin.
He wanted to cry. It was as if every pain in his life ha
d collided together, forming another cruel beast inside of him. He had never been so afraid. He steadied his breath as he held his face in his hands. Leaves crunched around him. Rowan knew she would leave. He would have thought about it too if the roles had been reversed, though he knew in his heart he would have stayed. Maybe for a second, he had believed that she would, which only hurt him more.
But to his surprise, the leaves crunched closer to him. Warmth radiated from nearby. A faint whisper called to him through his stream of painful thoughts.
“Let me help you.” He felt the rough fabric of her uniform brush against his skin, as her comforting arm found its way around his bare shoulder. When she touched him, it was as if the rest of the world had disappeared with the wind.
It was just him and Mia. He felt her fingers thread through his, and this time he held on to them tightly. It made him think of the last time they had touched, on the day he was attacked. She only ran after that, far into the woods. But he she stayed, and it caused a spark to flicker inside of his empty chest.
As Rowan pieced together the events of Mia’s rescue though, he realized their nightmarish reality. They couldn’t sit like this forever. This time, they both would have to run.
CHAPTER 11: IN HIDING
Mia’s eyes were heavy, and she longed to sleep as she propped her head on the arm of an old couch in Rowan’s cabin. To the right of the kitchen was a small sitting room, with a couch, a fireplace, and several shelves lining the walls, each of them filled with books and other oddities. Mia could see a bird skull propped carefully on one of the shelves, next to a stack of books that appeared to have been read. Rowan was always an avid reader, hungrily devouring information whenever he could.
Rowan emerged from the kitchen, and placed a steaming mug of tea in front of her. He continued to watch her out of the corner of his eye as if he were unsure of whether or not she should be there. It made Mia feel uneasy, especially after what she had witnessed out in the woods, just a while ago.
She stared awkwardly at her friend as he poked carefully at a fire that was growing larger under the mantle, her prison uniform burning up into ash inside. How calmly he handled himself, despite the growling fierce creature he had revealed himself to be.
"How long?" Mia asked as she watched the embers swirl up into the chimney. Rowan ran his hand through his hair and scratched at the stubble on his cheek.
“Since the attack," he said, not taking his eyes from the fire. Though she was exhausted, Mia still felt a chill come over her. She would finally know the truth.
“Do your parent’s know?” She asked. Rowan stared straight ahead, silent as his mind wandered back in time. Mia adjusted, sighing heavily. “Look, I’ve waited long enough just to find you again. I think the least you can do is answer my questions,” She didn’t realize how harsh her voice sounded until the words hovered in front of her. But they seemed to snap Rowan out of whatever state he was in. He put down the fireplace poker and took a seat next to Mia. He turned his body towards her, his eyes glancing at her every so often.
“It really messed me up,” Rowan said. “I stayed in the hospital for a while. I was crushed when they said you couldn’t see me. As I was recovering, though, I started to feel really strange. I could hear things, and see things much better than I ever could before the attack.”
Mia watched his chest rise and fall with each nervous breath. His skin gleamed through the gap in his shirt where he was too lazy to button it up all the way.
“Then, one night it got much stranger,” he said. “I shifted for the first time in my hospital bed. It was the worst pain I had ever felt; even worse than when I was attacked. It was very brief, and I thought it was just a nightmare and I shifted back. But then my parents visited during the day.”
He picked at the fabric of the couch. Mia wondered how long it had been since he had told someone this. The thought of Rowan, so young and scared shifting into a wolf had frightened her.
“So they knew?” Mia asked.
Rowan nodded reluctantly. “I was so scared, I just felt it come over me, and they saw what was going on. It was a family secret from then on,” he said. “We had already packed up the house, but my parents knew they couldn’t keep me in town. I could have hurt someone. It wasn’t long before I actually did, despite all of their efforts.”
“What do you mean?”
“My parents found a place, far outside of town. We stayed there a while, but I knew they looked at me like I was some kind of monster. It hurts, feeling as if you're a burden on the people you love the most." When he said that he looked at Mia, and she felt her heart beat a little faster. For a glimmer of a second, she thought he could have been talking about her. "I found some people," Rowan continued. "They were like me, I guess, but they knew how to control their shifting. They offered to help me, and I took them up on their offer for a while. But I was too stubborn."
He stood up and walked over to the window to peek through the blinds.
“There was an accident after that,” he said sadly. “I was still too new to my shifting. I was—,“ he hesitated.
Mia didn’t want to press him any further, though she knew more questions burned inside of her. She stood up from the couch, placing her mug on the coffee table. She went to Rowan’s side and tenderly touched his shoulder. He felt warm under her touch, almost feverish.
“You don’t have to say anything,” she said quietly. “Can you just tell me, why? Why you didn’t even try to talk to me after what happened? I was your best friend, Rowan. We told each other everything.”
Rowan turned over his shoulder to look at her. The glow of the fire spread over his face, making him look dark and ominous as he stood tall over her. Mia wasn't afraid, though. There were worse things out there, one of them being the fear that she'd lose Rowan again. From the way he was looking down at her, she thought he could have been feeling the same way.
"I wanted to tell you," he said somberly. "I just didn't know how."
He stared into her eyes, and Mia wanted so badly to comfort him. However, she was scared to hold him again, scared of her arms feeling empty like when she had embraced him the other night. She was so close to him, and she could feel the warmth radiating from his sturdy body. There was a faintly familiar smell to him that made her ache strangely.
“I wish we could have found each other sooner,” Mia said out of impulse. “Then maybe we wouldn’t have to be in this mess.”
“What do you mean?” Rowan asked.
Mia sighed, not even knowing where to start. She realized Rowan must have felt this way too as he had bared his soul to her.
“I’ve made some mistakes myself,” Mia said as she looked down at her hands. “And I think it’s caught up with me now. Those guys back there, the policemen…” She almost didn’t want to finish. What would Rowan think of her if he knew what she had gotten herself into? The idea of even bringing up her past relationship also made her feel strange, maybe because she wanted to protect Rowan somehow, to preserve this image he may have had of her in his mind.
“Listen, I didn’t even know that shifters were a thing until you told me,” she said. “But now that I know, I think it’s helped me to figure something out. Those policemen; I think they may be shifters too.”
“Hmm,” Rowan said, his brow furrowed. He suddenly became too aware of the window, and Mia felt his firm hand reach around for the small of her back. His fingers pressed into her as he gently guided her back towards the couch. It almost took her breath away. But why? She thought. Rowan had touched her plenty of times. But not like this.
“I could smell something on them,” Rowan said. “Back in the office. They had the sharp smell of wolf.”
“Not only that,” Mia said, still hesitating. But looking into Rowan’s light eyes, she knew she had to tell the whole truth. “They have the same tattoo as…my ex. His name is Grey.”
Rowan’s attention was caught by the word ‘ex’ and Mia watched as disapproval flickered across his face
.
"Your ex," he said, pondering. Mia adjusted nervously on the couch. The way his jaw was clenched made her nervous. Was he just as aggressive as Grey had been?
"I left him just last week," Mia said quietly. "He…he was abusive towards me."
“He…what?” Rowan said, his voice a little harsh.
Mia saw his knuckles turn white as he balled his hands into fists on his lap.
“How long?” Rowan asked.
“A couple of years,” Mia said, slightly ashamed. She knew it had been a mistake, but she was so terrified of Grey, and of being alone, she found it hard to leave.
“Great…”
She couldn’t translate the tone of his voice. She tried to get Rowan to look at her again, to gaze into her eyes so she could at least gauge if he was alright. But he kept his eyes locked on the coffee table. He was upset with her, she figured. Who wouldn’t be? She knew she was stupid to get wrapped up in a horrifying relationship. Mia suddenly felt guilt washing over her, transforming into anger.
“I shouldn’t have told you,” she said dismissively as she stood up from the couch. “I knew it would make you upset.” Her feet carried her towards the bedroom.
“Wait,” Rowan called out. Within seconds he was back at her side, his hand shooting out to grab her arm. Mia caught her breath as she felt herself being pulled in closer to Rowan’s chest. She shuddered at his touch, as his hands enveloped her, resting softly on her back. She felt the soft caress of his thumb against her, through the t-shirt he had given her to wear. Her cheek pressed against him and she could hear his heart thundering in his chest. She wrapped her arms around him, accepting his embrace. She was surprised how comforting he was. She could feel Rowan’s warm breath as he buried his face in her hair. For a brief moment, Mia felt whole again, as if a fraction of her life was back in its place.
Wolf Pack Chronicles Box Set Page 7
