by Mia Rose
He walked up to the door and listened, but he couldn’t hear anything from inside of the house. He knocked lightly. No one responded. He knocked on the door harder, but to no avail. He waited a few minutes longer before walking around to the back of the house.
He looked in, through the window connected to the kitchen, but he could not see anyone there. He walked further along and looked into the family room and he realized that no one was there.
Why are there so many cars here, then? he asked himself.
He walked further along until he got to the window that looked into Noelle’s room. He could see her form hidden beneath the comforter and he tapped at the window lightly, but she didn’t move. He knocked against the glass harder and he could see her legs move around the bed. She turned her groggy face to see where the noise was coming from.
He saw her eyes light up when she noticed it was him standing at the window and that made him smile. She signed to him to walk around to the other side of the house and he did as she asked. He waited again by the front door.
Noelle opened the door wearing gray sweatpants and a white sports bra; her hair pulled back in a high ponytail, but Declan was stunned by her beauty. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hey yourself,” he responded, with a smile on his face.
“Come in,” she told him, stifling a yawn. She looked at him and shook her head softly.
“What is it?” Declan asked her.
“I just —I thought you were ignoring me or something,” she admitted, “I thought maybe, since I got my memory back that you —well, I don’t know exactly.”
“Noelle,” Declan said quietly, “I could never ignore you.”
He closed the space between them and embraced her tightly. He could feel her body melt into his and he pulled back from her just enough to look into her blue eyes.
Declan closed the space between their lips and he relished in the sweet taste of her kiss. He felt her body move closer into his, like two magnets that could not stay separated. Declan kissed her with more urgency, not realizing how long it had been since he’d felt like this with anyone.
With Aria, things were done purely out of manipulation and guilt. Every kiss and every touch had a reason; a purpose for happening. But with Noelle, everything happened completely organically. It never felt forced or coerced, it just was.
He led her back to the sofa where he sat her down softly. He took her face in his and he smiled saying, “Noelle, I think I’m in love with you.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond before he was back to kissing her. He moved his lips to the crease where her jaw and neck met. He let his tongue travel slowly down to the top of her sports bra.
Declan snuck a look at Noelle and he found her leaning her head back with her eyes closed, enjoying every sensual moment. Declan removed her sports bra and released her full breasts. He massaged them and took her nipple into his mouth, tickling the tip of it with his tongue. He traveled back up to her lips and kissed her while continuing to massage her breasts.
Declan made his way to her pants and untied the string that kept them snug against her waist. He tugged them down from her body and found that she was not wearing any underwear.
“You naughty girl!” Declan smiled at her.
Noelle looked him in the eyes and smiled. He touched her in between her legs softly at first, letting his fingertips roam in the silky-smooth skin. He found that familiar patch of raised skin and rubbed it softly. He could feel Noelle’s body responding to his touch.
“Declan,” she whispered.
“Yes?” he asked quietly, still looking down at the glorious space between her legs that he wanted so badly to invade.
“Oh my God, Declan,” Noelle said, suddenly sitting up. She held her head and nearly fell over, but he caught her just in time.
“What’s wrong, Noelle?” Declan looked at her expression and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking or feeling.
“What time is it?” She gasped.
Declan looked down at his watch. “It’s just after eleven pm, why?”
Noelle looked at him, her face stricken and she said, “My family went out for a final hunt tonight.”
Declan’s face went white. He looked at Noelle and he could tell that she knew he was worried. “So, did mine,” he said quietly.
The two of them looked at each other unsure of what to say or do in that moment. Noelle was the first to move as she grabbed for her pants. She pulled them on, one leg at a time and then slid her sports bra over her head. She grabbed the arm of the sofa and lifted herself up.
“We need to find them,” she said. She hobbled over to the wall where her crutch rested against the wall. “This is why I called you today. I needed to warn you about this. Why didn’t you answer me?” She was yelling at this point.
He followed her into her room where she threw on a black tank top. She knelt to slide on her socks, but she grabbed at her ribs as soon as she did so.
“I was looking into something, Noelle. I can explain more later. Here,” Declan said, reaching down to help her with her socks and shoes, “let me help you.”
Noelle stood up and grabbed her bag from the back of her chair and swung it onto her shoulder. “Let’s go,” she commanded.
Declan led her outside to his car and opened the door for her. He had no idea what to expect from this evening, but he did have one hope. He knew the hunters would most likely go to the nature preserve which were the wolves’ usual hunting grounds. Declan had told Brady to avoid that place, only yesterday.
“I’m going to make a quick call to see where everyone is,” he said. He reached for his phone, but quickly realized that he didn’t have it. “Fuck, my phone broke today! I don’t even know the number.”
Noelle got her own cell phone out of her bag and punched in a number. The line rang a few times, but then it went to voicemail.
“No answer,” she said.
They didn’t know where to go, but Declan knew without a doubt that they couldn’t stay there.
Aria pulled up the hunting grounds, and noticed that the majority of the pack had already transformed. She found Gabriel standing over by the edge of the woods with a few of the other pack members.
“But Declan said…” the voice belonged to Brady.
“I don’t care what Declan said,” Gabriel growled, “he’s not here right now, I am. So, that means I am in charge. Got it?”
“What seems to be the problem?” Aria asked, flipping her hair away from her face.
“Why the hell are you here?” Gabriel asked.
“I’m a part of this pack, aren’t I?” answered Aria, smiling at him sweetly.
“Aria,” Brady interrupted, “Declan told us not to hunt in this area. He said it wasn’t safe, yet. That’s what I am trying to explain to Gabriel but he doesn’t seem to want to listen to anyone other than himself.”
Aria looked over at Gabriel and smiled at him again. “Well, Brady dearest, we are already here. Might as well get some food.” Brady shook his head and walked further into the woods where he transformed into his wolf self.
“Thanks,” Gabriel said, nodding at Aria.
“Don’t mention it, Gabe,” Aria said. “Out of curiosity, what is the plan if we run into any hunters out here?”
“What do you mean?” asked Gabriel. “We kill them on sight.”
“Ah,” Aria sighed and said, “but I think that I might have a better idea.”
Aria pulled Gabriel to the side and started to whisper into his ear while the other wolves turned their heads in the opposite direction, trying not to pay any attention to what was going on.
Gabriel smiled when Aria was finished and he said, “You know, Aria, sometimes, I really like how your mind thinks.”
“Sometimes I do too!” Aria laughed and walked into the woods. She let out a loud howl as her skin ripped apart exposing her beautiful, mahogany fur.
She looked back
at Gabriel with her huge, hazel eyes and licked her lips knowingly. No matter what happened tonight, Aria was certain that it would be one for the books.
Declan drove in silence with Noelle next to him. He had never before seen her look this worried, and it didn’t help to calm his own racing heart. He looked at her and took her hand in his. Her palms were sweaty, but he wasn’t sure if it was from her nerves, or if she was feeling unwell. He didn’t want to ask either, because he felt like the silence was protecting them in a glass case and that any noise would shatter it and force him to face reality.
Noelle tried to reach out to her family again, but there was still no answer. She slammed the phone down in her lap and bit her lip.
Noelle finally broke the silence, “Try the nature preserve first because I think that’s where they went.” She tried to recall the details of Megan’s plan, but she was certain that no one ever reached a decision on the place.
As soon as Noelle spoke those words, Declan felt his heart sink. He pressed down on the gas rocketing them forward. He had an unsettling feeling that they were already too late. He remembered now, why he had needed her… this love of his life meant everything to him. He was always going to search for her.
He needed to find Noelle. And now.
Chapter 22
The Final Battle
“This is just plain old dejavu…”
The hunters pulled up to the preserve on the opposite end of where they usually parked. They snuck quietly between the trees and once they reached the bank of the river, they sat down and stayed hidden behind the trees.
“This is kind of fun,” Megan said, cheerily.
“Speak for yourself,” her mother complained, “I ate way too much at that damn restaurant and now I feel like I’m in a food coma. I’m so not in the mood to hunt right now.”
“Mom, can you at least pretend to support me, for once?”
“Megan you’re so sensitive all the time! I do support you, all I said was that I was full.” Megan rolled her eyes at her mother, but she refused to be brought down by her mother’s blatant disinterest.
Megan could feel it in her bones that something was going to happen, tonight. She sat there until her muscles started aching and cramping in place.
“Megan,” Abigail whispered, “it’s almost eleven o’clock now. I don’t think anything is coming out tonight.”
“Let’s just wait a half an hour more,” Megan said.
Abigail nodded and retreated back to her position, crouching next to her husband. Megan squinted her eyes and strained to try to see better in the dark. She couldn’t make out anything, but then she remembered something from her hunting school.
“When your vision is limiting you,” her instructor told her, during a fighting lesson, “rely on your other senses. Close your eyes and enhance your other senses.”
Megan closed her eyes and focused all her energy on listening. She could hear the steady movement of the water and the trickling of the liquid as it moved its way across the rocks in the shallow bed. She could hear the deep, steady breathing of her mother who sat behind her. She stayed that way for a while before she finally heard a sound she was hoping for —leaves rustling across the way.
She looked behind her at the other hunters and said, “They’re here.”
Aria sniffed around the ground hoping to catch the scent of some unsuspecting game. They had been hunting for over an hour already and no one had caught anything. She wanted to go home because she’d grown bored, but Declan had asked her to keep an eye out… so that’s exactly what she intended on doing.
She heard the crackling of dried leaves behind her and she turned around to see a young woman pointing a gun straight at her.
“I got one!” the girl shouted.
She’s not alone, Aria realized.
She let out a loud howl to call out to the rest of the group. It was one girl, so she wasn’t that nervous, but then again, who knew what kind of bullets were loaded in that gun.
A few other wolves came in behind Aria, but to her surprise, the girl smiled fiercely. “I know that you’re just a beast, but as you showed us last time, you still have the ability to talk, so why don’t you tell me your name.” The girl grinned as she raised her gun higher, her eyes flashing between the four wolves that stood before her.
Wow, Aria thought to herself, this girl is actually an idiot.
Aria hadn’t been a werewolf for long enough to master the art of speaking while transformed. She looked at the other wolves and they began to move forward on the girl, but she stood her ground.
Aria growled low, trying to warn the girl. She didn’t feel like letting this girl think she was in control. She also knew that if she tried to run at her, the girl would be able to get at least one or two shots off before Aria got to her. Considering that she was most likely a hunter, her bullets might be made of silver… and Aria did not feel like taking that chance.
She took another step toward the girl, but then she heard more footsteps approaching. She could tell by the sound that they belonged to humans. Aria looked to her left and saw two humans with weapons raised, pointing at her. To her right, there were two more. Aria didn’t turn to see them, but she could hear that there were more standing behind her. These hunters had the four wolves surrounded, now.
Aria began getting nervous. She and the others let out loud howls trying to locate the others so that they might join them. The girl cocked her gun and directed the barrel straight at her muzzle, but she didn’t pull the trigger.
“Your name?” the girl asked again.
“Megan, what are you doing?” one of the other humans asked, clearly anxious. “Stop playing around and just shoot the damn thing.”
“It used to be a human, Mom.” She laughed. “I thought at the very least, I could know the name of the thing I’m shooting.”
Aria was repulsed by the girl’s enjoyment of the situation. She reared her head back and started running toward the girl, but she didn’t even make it more than five feet before the girl pulled the trigger.
The bullet landed right into her chest and just as she feared, it was made of silver. Aria’s fur and skin began deteriorating at a rapid speed. It had taken a while to affect Cassidy because of her rapid healing abilities, but Aria was not an alpha and she did not have that capability. She howled for the last time, crying out a plea to the other wolves for help.
Aria’s wolf form laid destroyed on the ground in front of the girl. “Well,” the girl said, “I didn’t get her name, but here’s mine. Megan.” She laughed and took a few steps toward Aria’s body. “So, who is next?”
The wolves all howled into the sky and the other hunters raised their weapons. Megan let out another shot and it sank into the side of a smaller wolf who was trying to back away slowly.
“Don’t try to run,” Megan taunted them, “I will find you!”
“Umm, Megan?” a voice called from the left side of the woods.
Megan looked up and saw that the group of hunters were now surrounded by at least twenty or more wolves, their eyes glowing in the dark of the night. She had assumed that they all traveled with each other. She had thought this small group of five wolves were all that were out there.
She was wrong. “I, uhh,” Megan mumbled, taking a few steps backward.
She ran into something hard behind her. She didn’t turn around, but she felt the drool slide down her shoulder. She looked up and saw an enormous muzzle hanging over her.
“Don’t you dare hurt my baby!” her mother screamed, pointing her own gun at the wolf behind Megan.
“Your name?” the wolf growled. Megan was shaking so hard, she couldn’t get her mouth to open. The wolf growled and said, “At least I should know your name before I kill you.”
“Please, don’t!” The woman started crying hysterically. “We’re sorry, we shouldn’t have come here. We’re sorry that we killed…”
“Enough!” the wolf yelled out, growling. The woman fell backward against
a tree, shaking in fear. “I won’t ask again,” the wolf said, pulling back his lips to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“Meg —Megan,” she whispered.
The wolf sneered and said, “Goodbye now, Megan.”
Without hesitating a second longer, the wolf bit into Megan’s shoulder and viciously threw her across the floor of the woods. Megan’s screams could be heard ricocheting off every tree branch and leaf. It was as if the nature around her absorbed her anguish and played it back in stereo.
The wolf that had bitten her walked up to Aria’s decimated body and then his eyes traveled to the other wolf that had practically vanished from the poison of the silver bullet. The wolf let out a howl that was so filled with despair, it made every living being cringe from the sound.
The other humans had their weapons pointed in every direction, ready to shoot at anything that moved.
To their surprise, this wolf said, “Go!”
Immediately, all of the other wolves in the pack began running toward the humans. Garrett saw a smaller, red wolf running toward his wife and he took a shot but missed. Abigail turned to face Garrett and as soon as she did, the red wolf bit her on her side and forced her to the ground.
The red wolf looked up at Garrett preparing for his next victim, but this time when Garrett shot at the wolf, he didn’t miss. The bullet landed right in the wolf’s chest and Garrett watched as the wolf’s skin started peeling back from his body. Incredibly revealing the bones and muscles underneath.
Garrett ran over to Abigail and took her head into his lap. “We need to get out of here, now!” he yelled at her.
Abigail tried to stand up, but she was too weak. So much blood covered the ground from where she had fallen.
Abigail pulled Garrett down to her and she whispered urgently into his ear, “Go home! Get Noelle and get out of this place.”
