Fangs vs Claws

by Rua Hasan

  “Hell no!” she shouted while shaking her head sassily.

  “You need to get him on his knees, girl, and beg,” she told me while snapping her fingers with more sass.

  I laughed at her enthusiasm. This was what I needed, someone like Marie to help me forget about all my problems.

  “Hey, would you mind if I slept here tonight?” I asked nervously.

  Her eyes widened as she shook her head. She got up on her bed and jumped up and down.

  “Yes! We’re having girls’ night!” she yelled.

  “I have to get sleeping bags, chocolate, three bags of chips, bottles of soda, and the whole collection of the Twilight series,” she told me while sprinting out the door.

  I stayed behind laughing.

  

  It was about nine o’clock, and Marie and I were making our way outside the pack to say goodbye to Nate who was leaving for his pack.

  I thought a lot about what Marie said, and I decided to ask Aiden what happened but not to forgive him completely.

  Once we were outside, the cold breeze as hit our skin, forming goosebumps. I saw Nate, Liam, and Aiden standing next to Nate’s car. Once they noticed us, I could see Aiden growing tense in my presence.

  Nate hugged Liam and Marie goodbye. He then came forward to hug me, and I could see Aiden grow tense even more when he wrapped his hands around my shoulders. Oh, but he didn’t dare say anything after what happened today.

  Nate was about to pull away before I whispered in his ear.

  “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not leaving yet. You lost that bet remember?” I said as I smiled evilly at him.

  His face held nervousness.

  “Oh come on. Can’t I do it over text, when I’m all the way in my pack, where Aiden can’t harm me?” he whispered, but I only shook my head.

  He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. I heard him mutter something that sounded like, “You’re trying to get me killed.”

  He then walked over to Aiden chuckling nervously. He gave him a hug and patted his shoulder.

  “Bro, I’m going to miss you. You know we are best friends, and we don’t try to kill each other—haha, yeah, well…I slept with Stella,” he said the last part so fast and rushed to his car.

  “What!” Aiden yelled.

  And that’s when I lost it. I fell to the ground laughing hysterically as Aiden ran after a screaming Nate as if he was going to kill his friend.

  “Bro! Bro, I’m kidding. I swear I’m kidding. Please don’t kill me. God, I swear I would never mess with you,” he said breathlessly while hiding behind his car.

  Liam and Marie were also laughing with me as they took in the scene. My stomach was starting to hurt as tears formed in my eyes.

  This was only the beginning. I was going to make Aiden fall to his knees.

  Chapter 22

  Hoo.

  I scrunched my nose at that sound.

  Hoo hoo.

  Is that an owl?

  My question was answered when I heard it again.

  Hoo.

  What is it doing hanging around the bedroom window? Gosh, how am I supposed to sleep with all that noise?

  I stretched my arm to grab anything to cuddle with—a blanket, a pillow, or even Aiden.

  But I felt nothing. Not even the mattress underneath me.

  My eyes snapped open, half expecting to be met with the sunlight, but it was the exact opposite. The place was dark; there was only one source of light.

  The full moon.

  I looked around to see that I wasn’t in my bedroom at all. Not even in the pack house. I was in a graveyard. Again.

  But how did I get here?

  I started to panic. I was never too fond of graveyards. They scare the crap out of me, with the creepy vibe and the clouds taking over the sky. I looked around and saw that there was, in fact, nothing in the sky. It was clear, not one star, only the full moon shining brightly. I got up from the hard rock floor, dusting the dirt off me. I looked around for any exit. Any way to get out of here. But there looked to be no way out. I could see miles and miles of the same dull and scary place.

  I was startled when a crow flew toward me while squawking at me. It was about to hit my head but instead flew over it when I ducked down. I stumbled backward before gaining my balance. I looked up to see that the crow was gone.

  Weird.

  I heard a dripping noise. Like when a sink is not closed all the way and drops of water are falling. I looked around but saw no sink, no source of water anywhere. There was an ache in my arm which I just noticed now. I was too busy worrying about how I got here to even notice.

  I looked down to find my answer.

  There was blood dripping from my right arm and to the ground. It was no simple cut; it was bleeding severely. I was surprised that I was still standing with the amount of blood I lost.

  But how did this happen?

  I was so confused as my panic increased.

  Am I in hell? But how did I die? I don’t remember anything. Why was my arm bleeding so bad? Who caused it?

  My thoughts were broken when I heard leaves crunching from behind me. I snapped my head toward the sound, the sweat on my forehead increasing. I looked to see where the sound was coming from and gasped.

  It looked like I was in the center of the graveyard, and around me were the dead.

  In every direction, I was surrounded—I’m not even sure what to call them—mummies, zombies, or ghosts. But they surely weren’t alive. I could tell just by looking at them. Their eyes held darkness, loneliness.

  Death.

  I took a step backward, feeling my heart beat quickly against my chest, but it was useless. They were everywhere.

  Oh, if I wasn’t dead before then, I am surely going to die now.

  Someone from behind me grabbed my arm, turning me around.

  “Pick me!” he yelled as he shook me.

  “Make it me!”

  What the heck is he talking about?

  I yanked my arm from his grip and made a run for it. I pushed a person in front of me and ran past them as fast as I could with them yelling from behind me.

  “No, pick me!” one yelled.

  I ran past the gravestones, my hair flying in the wind. I saw not one but two crows flying above me. My injured arm wasn’t helping; it only made it hurt to move.

  “Please, you have to save me!” a woman’s voice echoed through the air.

  What did they want from me?

  I forced my legs to move faster; I couldn’t let them gain on me.

  Who knows what they’ll do?

  “You have to do it!” a little girl said from behind me.

  “Just make it me. I have to be the one!”

  I turned my head around so I could see how far I was and saw that they weren’t too far behind. The look in their eyes scared me, sending shivers down my spine. I felt the tears form behind my eyes, but I held them back, not wanting my vision to blur.

  I couldn’t stop now. I had to escape. I let the vampire in me take over, helping me run faster. But what surprised me was that through all this, my arm was still not healing. If I had lost the people who were after me, they would sure have found me because of my blood dripping everywhere.

  My legs were becoming tired as I ran out of breath.

  Is there no end to this?

  My body stopped suddenly when I hit a hard wall, and I stumbled back. I looked up to see that it wasn’t a wall. It was a hard chest. I moved my eyes up from the stranger’s chest and to his face.

  He looked so familiar. Like I’ve seen him before.

  “Do it!” he ordered with a low scary voice.

  Once those words came out of his mouth, I remembered where I saw him. I dreamed about this before.

  “Do what?” I asked as my voice rose. I was getting tired of all this.

  What is going on? I just want to go home.

  “Do it!” he shouted pointing to a gravestone beside me.

  I looked around an
d saw that the graveyard was empty; no one was in sight.

  Wasn’t it just filled with the dead trying to catch me a minute ago?

  I looked at the gravestone he pointed at and saw what was written was the same thing I saw the last time.

  r.i.p. Lilly Claze

  

  My eyes snapped open as I was sweating with a fast-beating heart. I looked around frantically and sighed in relief when I saw I was still in Marie’s room. I rubbed my hands over my face as I recalled the dream I just had. Or should I say nightmare?

  I don’t know what to think of it. Was it a coincidence that I saw the same person twice? Or did it mean something?

  I didn’t want to think about it, so I decided to forget. I looked around and saw the sun was bright as the birds were chirping.

  I looked at Marie sleeping next to me and smirked when I saw her mouth open. Drool came out of her mouth and hit her pillow. Her bed was big enough to fit the both of us.

  It had been three days since the incident, three days since I’ve been sleeping here, and three days since I started avoiding Aiden.

  I wasn’t avoiding him because I was mad. Yes, I was still ticked about what he did to me, but I was mostly doing it to drive him nuts. I know when someone has been away from their mate, it drives them crazy.

  And that was my motive.

  Through these past three days, I had been sleeping here with Marie. We stayed up all night long, watching movies or just talking. I didn’t even see Aiden; I was trying my best to avoid him. But today I knew that I had to face him sooner or later.

  We had to talk about what happened. Marie kept persisting that I get his side of the story. Now, you might be wondering, Big deal. Why is she worried about him sleeping with other women when she’s trying to resist him?

  Well, let me tell you. How does it feel to have someone snatch you away and force you to live a life you weren’t expecting, telling you that you belonged to them and the next thing you know is he’s sleeping around? And you get the feeling as if he can do things you cannot, which makes you feel inferior to him.

  Which is what I felt when I saw Kayla coming out of his office.

  I looked at Marie and heard her mumble something in her sleep about beating Liam up because he stole her cookie—I don’t know, it was vague.

  Wanting to tease her a bit, I grabbed the old, cold slice of pizza on the counter. I smiled evilly at myself as I lowered the soggy pizza into her opened mouth.

  At first, nothing happened, but after a few moments of silence, Marie shot up from her bed spitting the pizza out of her mouth. I laughed out loud, tears forming in my eyes. She looked around the room until she saw me next to her. She gave me a deathly glare and grabbed a pillow from behind her.

  “That was so not nice, immo!” she yelled as she hit me with the pillow with so much force, I fell off the bed.

  I lay on the ground still laughing as Marie hit me several times with the pillow, looking like a zombie because she just woke up.

  “Gosh, I’m sorry,” I said between giggles.

  “It’s just you should have seen the look on your face. It was hilarious.”

  I breathed out, feeling my stomach ache because of how much I laughed as she hit me one last time.

  “Haha, yes, very funny, immo. You know what, you should be a prankster because you love to mess with people, or a clown because you’re a joker,” she said as she walked to her closet and into the bathroom, but before she closed the door, she stuck out her tongue.

  

  An hour later, I was all dressed up ready to start my day. My mind would occasionally drift off to the dream I had but wouldn’t over think it. My mind was mostly set on confronting Aiden.

  I skipped down the stairs as I hummed a tune. You know that annoying feeling you get when you know a part of a song but forgot from where it was or how it goes? Yeah, that’s what I was feeling.

  I walked into the kitchen humming, and I grabbed a box of cereal and poured it into a bowl then added milk. As I sat down, Liam came in yawning with lazy eyes. It looked like he didn’t even wash his face.

  I scrunched my nose at the thought as I stared at him pour his own cereal with only one eye open.

  “How are you eating if you’re barely awake?” I asked with my mouth full.

  He sat down in front of me glancing at me then back at his bowl.

  “Food is my number one priority in the morning,” he said lazily.

  I rolled my eyes. I don’t get how he isn’t fat with the way he eats.

  Once I was done with my breakfast, I put the bowl in the sink and headed to Aiden’s office. With every step I took, I felt my heart beat faster. I was anxious about what Aiden was going to say.

  A couple seconds later, I was standing in front of his door thinking if this was a good idea.

  Haha, yeah...maybe it isn’t.

  I stepped back and was about to turn around and leave when the door to his office opened.

  Shit.

  “Stella.” Aiden sounded surprised.

  When I looked at his face, I gasped softly. He looked horrible, as if he hasn’t slept in days. He had black bags under his red eyes and wrinkles on his forehead that made him look much older than he really was. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in days with the hair on his face.

  “Uh, um, hi,” I said.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

  I sighed knowing we had to talk.

  “Can we talk?” I asked.

  He nodded his head eagerly as he opened the door wider for me to come in. I walked into his office and sat on one of the chairs in front of his desk, while Aiden sat in his seat.

  “What do you want to talk about?” he asked.

  “Well, you remember the day you marked me?” I asked.

  My question made him cringe. I could tell he was regretting doing it without my permission.

  He nodded his head.

  “Well, before Nate and I went to the bar, we decided to go to your office so we could go have dinner together.”

  I paused. Aiden nodded his head telling me to continue.

  “So we were walking toward your office when we saw Kayla coming out of it, and she looked pretty messy like…Well, you know what I mean,” I said quickly.

  He looked at me with a confused expression.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, and I got angry.

  Is he denying what he did?

  “You know what I’m talking about, Aiden. You really expect me to sit around while you have fun with other women?” I said as my voice rose.

  When I said that, he seemed to understand what I meant earlier.

  “Oh, ugh, God, Stella, you misunderstood. Nothing happened between Kayla and me,” he said as he ran his hands through his messy hair.

  “She just came to my office to ask if we could go out, but I declined her offer saying I was going out with you, and she left. That’s it,” he said, but I could see his mouth twitch upward.

  I sighed in relief.

  Wait, why is he looking at me like that?

  “What?” I asked.

  “You were jealous, weren’t you?” he asked.

  My face turned red as a tomato, but I tried to keep my calm.

  “Me? Pft, no, I just saw it as a sign of disrespect, that’s all,” I said, but I heard it come out softer than I wanted.

  He raised an eyebrow and gave me a boyish smirk.

  “Sure. Let’s go with that if it helps you sleep at night.”

  Gosh, why does he have to be so annoying?

  Chapter 23

  This was the day my parents were finally coming back. I was really excited to see them. It had been about a month since they left to go check on my mom’s uncle after his attack. He had been doing well. His injuries healed fast, but it was his mental health that was the problem. At first, he was broken because of his dead friend, and I understood how he felt.

  He was going through the guilt of
not being able to save his friend’s life. Going through so much sorrow and grief. Blaming himself for everything. Wishing he could have gone back in time and change fate.

  Of course, he wasn’t healed completely. No one can heal that fast from a tragic past. It takes time for a broken heart to be stitched back together.

  My parents tried to stay as long as they could, which was about a month. But that was all they can do. They couldn’t stay longer than that. It hurt them so much to watch a close friend suffer the loss of another friend.

  You see the irony.

  One person’s tragedy is another person’s sorrow, which can affect everyone around them. For when you truly have a pure heart, you start to focus on everyone else and not just yourself. Which means if your loved ones are happy, then you’ll be happy as well. However, if tragedy strikes—even when it has nothing to do with you but with the ones you love—seeing them grieve every day is a nightmare.

  Yes, they would still stay in touch as Uncle Robert attended therapy. I wish I could have gone to see him, but I couldn’t even step one foot out of the pack house without Aiden hovering all over me.

  Speaking of Aiden, things between him and me were now calm. We weren’t fighting or arguing anymore. From time to time, he would try to apologize for what he did, but I would brush it off. I wasn’t planning on forgetting about what he did. I was taking it slow so he could go through the days regretting what he did.

  After we talked in his office, he begged me to sleep in his room. Literally, he got on his knees saying he couldn’t sleep without me by his side. Okay, fine, maybe I was exaggerating. It wasn’t that much, but he was pleading with sad eyes. This was, of course, what I was looking for, so I agreed to go back to his room.

  Besides, I didn’t want to bother Marie any longer. Even when she told me she didn’t mind, I still felt like I was intruding. Three nights were enough.

  Also, because I felt bad about the bags under his eyes. But, hey, he was asking for it!

  I was in the kitchen helping some she-wolves with lunch. My parents were going to be there in about ten minutes. Their flight landed hours ago, and Liam and Aiden went to the airport to escort them here. They left around one pm, and it was past three now.

  I was taking the food out of the oven when Marie came into the kitchen.