by Wilde, Rhea
“Vaughn—Ahhh!”
A wolf jumped in through the window and snarled at the both of us. The silver beast was showing it’s canines, saliva dripping down from its mouth. Another one quickly joined it and together they stared menacingly at us.
“Vaughn—”
“Stay behind me.”
Vaughn pushed me to the back of the room and growled. He shifted before my eyes and just as he did, the two wolves pounced on top of him.
“Vaughn!”
I felt completely helpless as I watched Vaughn try to fend off the two wolves. It was a whirling dervish of fur and wrath. They snarled and snatched with their jaws. Every time they would gain an advantage, Vaughn would push them off of him and swipe with his forefeet. But just as quickly as he would push them off, they were back upon him.
I braced myself against the back of the wall as I watched Vaughn defend himself. I looked around the apartment for something to help him with. But there was nothing. The entire room had been ripped to shreds. Everything had been knocked over. One of the wolves rushed at Vaughn and slammed him into the wall, creating a massive crater on it. The entire building began to shake as the rubble fell down upon the floor. It felt like the room was beginning to cave in on me.
Vaughn managed to fend them off one by one. He bit at the throat of one, clamping his jaw down and emptying the life from him. The other wolf met the same fate as Vaughn was able to hold him down and kill him. Vaughn turned to me and shifted back to a man. Immediately I noticed more injuries upon his face and body.
“Vaughn!”
I rushed up to him as he fell down to one knee on the ground.
“We have to get out of here,” he barely managed to groan.
I used all of my strength to help him off of the ground. When I did, more wolves began to flood into the room. They all gave us the same savage expressions the previous ones did. They snarled and growled, their teeth just as sharp as their predecessors. I looked behind me but there was nothing but a wall. Vaughn and I were trapped with a barrier of wolves in front of us.
I pulled Vaughn up and over my shoulder. One of the wolves leapt at us. Vaughn grabbed it with one of his arms and shoved him to the ground. The other wolves started to bear down upon us.
“Vaughn, I—”
Before I could finish one of them leapt toward us. I closed my eyes and screamed as I turned my back to it. But instead of being pounced upon, I heard the sound of the wind whistling followed by a helpless whimper. I turned back around and all the wolves had turned their attention to the window.
“Come on!” Irvine shouted. “Now!”
One by one he picked them off with his crossbow. They all fell to the ground helplessly before they could get to him. Vaughn managed to muster up the strength to stand on his feet. We quickly made our way out of the room. When I looked down from the second floor of the motel, a sense of dread came over me.
Dozens of wolves were roaming the parking lot. They were streaming in from the corner of every alley. They growled as they leapt up the sides of the buildings to try and get to us.
“Now what?” I panicked.
“Irvine, we need to get to your bike,” Vaughn said to him.
Irvine nodded. His motorcycle was parked to the side of the motel where all of the wolves were running past. The car we had come here in had been stomped upon and destroyed by the wolves that were now trying to get to us.
Irvine continued to load and reload his crossbow as we made our way to the bike. We climbed down the stairs and Irvine and Vaughn did their best to clear the path. More and more of the wolves continued to flood the parking lot of the motel.
Car alarms started to go off. The howling of the wolves was growing louder and louder. We managed to make our way to the bike but they didn’t relent. Irvine hopped on it and started it.
“Ariel, quickly,” Vaughn said to me.
“Vaughn—”
“Go!”
He grabbed and placed me on the bike behind Irvine. I didn’t question him. There wasn’t any time. I gripped Irvine tight around his waist and the bike sped off into the streets. I looked behind me and watched as Vaughn tore his clothes completely and shifted. He raced just behind us and the wolves continued to chase us.
Irvine weaved through the back alleys of the buildings, doing his best to try and lose them. I watched as the wolves gained on Vaughn. They leapt upon him and slowed him down but he still managed to shrug them off. Irvine managed to free one of his hands and pick a few of them off with his crossbow.
The motorcycle’s engine roared and the tires screeched through the night. It was late but the city of New York was still alive. Police sirens started to ring through the air.
I turned around to see the wolves starting to dissipate. There was only one wolf trailing behind us that I could see and it was Vaughn. But despite no longer being in any imminent danger, Irvine didn’t slow down.
The wolves didn’t appear from any direction. When it looked like they were finally gone for good, Irvine pulled the motorcycle to a stop in the back alley behind a convenience store. Vaughn caught up to us but maintained his wolf form. It took me a moment to free my grip from Irvine. I hopped off of the bike while Irvine disappeared down the alley.
“Wait here,” he said.
I turned to Vaughn. He remained silent as he stood next to me. I looked down at all of the blood on his fur.
“Vaughn, are you all right?”
He only growled softly. I ran my hands through the fur on his head. He was ignoring me. He was still on-guard. Just as quickly as the wolves had disappeared, I feared they would return at any moment. Vaughn was ready.
Irvine returned shortly. He handed a plastic bag to me then turned his attention to Vaughn.
“Come on,” Irvine said to him. “This can’t wait.”
Vaughn shifted back to a human. Irvine reached into the bag and grabbed a roll of bandages.
“Is there anything deep?” he asked. “If there is, I’ll have to sew it up.”
“No. It’s nothing serious. Just minor scrapes and bruises.”
“Vaughn, your shoulder…” I pointed at it.
The bandage from the gunshot had been ripped off and the wound had reopened. Blood was beginning to drip out of it.
“I’m fine,” Vaughn said. “It’ll stop on its own. I just need to cover it.”
He looked at Irvine, who nodded to him and proceeded to re-bandage him. I bit my lip as I watched Irvine tend to all of his wounds. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Vaughn looked like a mess. From head to toe, there wasn’t a place on his body without a mark on it. Even Irvine looked like he had been through a lot. There wasn’t any question that he had to fend them off before he got to us.
“Who are they?” I asked. “Was that—”
“The Nakas,” Irvine said. “It’s them.”
“But how? How did they know where we were? How could they have found us?”
“There are thousands of them, Ariel. They’re probably walking the streets as we speak. That’s why they fled. When they finally got the attention of the police, they couldn’t pursue us any longer. Then people would know what’s really going on. We’re the only humans who know, Ariel.”
Irvine managed to wrap up all of Vaughn’s wounds and keep him in one piece. Despite the amount of bandages that now covered him, Vaughn was able to stand firmly upon two feet. Irvine handed Vaughn the bag and Vaughn pulled out some clothes he had purchased for him.
Irvine paced back and forth in front of his bike while Vaughn got dressed. I stood there anxiously and waited for either one of them to decide what to do next. Vaughn stared at me but didn’t say anything. I remembered what we had just spoken about before all of this happened. Now wasn’t the best time to bring it up.
“Fuck!” Irvine muttered as he kicked the ground.
“You should have known,” Vaughn said to him.
“I did know. I just didn’t expect them to find us so quic
kly.”
“So your carelessness led them to us?”
“I wasn’t careless. They were going to find us one way or another. We couldn’t hide from them forever.”
“Well, you should have known! I could smell death on you from a mile away. And you lead us into this trap.”
Irvine stopped pacing. Vaughn walked up to him and got into his face. They stared at one another and I wasn’t sure what to do.
“This is it?” Vaughn said to him. “This is your grand plan? Lead us right into the heart of the lion’s den?”
“We left the motel,” Irvine said. “They’ll have to find us again. We still have time. Listen—”
Vaughn grabbed Irvine by the front of his jacket. He picked him up off of the ground and held him in the air. I took a step back and felt helpless as I watched the two of them argue.
“No, you listen!” Vaughn shouted. “The Nakas own New York. This entire city is going to try and kill us now. You put Ariel in danger.”
“She was already danger before she got here!”
“And you were stupid enough to put her in their sights. If anything happens to her—”
“Nothing is going to happen to her, Vaughn.”
“You’d better hope not. Because you told me that peace was possible. If we don’t even get that chance—”
“Then we’ll all be dead either way. The Agency gave me a task that I had no chance of completing. With your help, now I have a slim chance. Between the two, I’ll take the latter.”
“Guys, please…”
I finally intervened. Watching the two of them fight only confirmed the bad spot we were in. There was a bullseye on all of us. And there didn’t seem to be a solution in sight.
“Please… Vaughn, put him down.”
I pleaded with them to stop. I could feel the tears falling from my eyes. Vaughn looked at me and I could see the anger and frustration on his face. He dropped Irvine back down onto the ground and released him from his grip. Vaughn put his hands upon his hips and sighed while Irvine straightened his jacket.
“Let’s just figure this out,” I said. “We just need to convince the other clans that The Nakas are a threat. The plan hasn’t changed. Right?”
Irvine and Vaughn glanced at one another for a moment before finally agreeing.
“Our time is running out,” Irvine said. “But we can’t continue tonight. You still need your rest, Ms. Everhart. But there isn’t a place in the city that’s safe. I’ll have to contact someone and—”
“No,” I interrupted him.
They both looked at me. I sighed but I knew that it was the best place for us to be at the moment. I couldn’t let my pride affect my better judgment.
“There’s only one place for us to go.”
Chapter 11
Against my better judgment, I knew there was only one place we could go. With the Doras opening their arms to us, we all headed back into the forest to seek their security. At this point, they were the only ones we could depend upon. Truth be told, it was the best option. I was hesitant to return because I felt threatened by Shiva. She wanted to take Vaughn away from me. There wasn’t any doubt about that. Even if it wasn’t the case, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Before we were interrupted, Vaughn had to tell me that I wasn’t thinking straight. But I remembered the way she looked at him. And now we were headed back into their den, essentially going back right where we started.
I wanted to bring it up. I wanted to tell Vaughn that I was sorry I felt the way I did. But it wasn’t important at the moment. Now we just needed to get away from the Nakas and prepare for our next move.
I was tired and exhausted when we showed back up to the Doras’s camp. Some of them turned their heads and noticed we came back. But they quickly became disinterested and returned to their own business. Cyrus was quick to greet us with Shiva just behind him.
“You’ve returned,” he said.
“We were attacked,” Vaughn said. “The Nakas discovered us and we barely made our escape.”
“So you decided to come here?” Shiva intervened.
“If we are to stand against the Nakas, we must stick together,” Vaughn said to her. “They won’t think of looking for us here. Your scent—”
“Is now tainted because of your presence! What’s to stop them from searching for you here?”
Shiva was getting worked-up. She managed to hold herself back until now. She raised her voice at all of us.
“You let her speak for you?” Vaughn asked Cyrus.
The blond man that we had just met seemed reluctant to hold her back. He held a hand up to appease her and echoed the same concern.
“She has a point,” Cyrus said. “The Nakas are looking for you, not us. If they come here—”
“We had an agreement,” Vaughn said. “You would break your vow?”
“No, I suppose not,” he sighed. “But I didn’t expect you to so quickly put my entire clan in danger.”
“Time is running out,” Irvine joined in. “But the Nakas will not be looking for us immediately. They don’t know we’re here. When they do pick up our scent, hopefully, we’ll be ready.”
“It shouldn’t take them that long,” Shiva said.
She slowly walked forward toward me. I stood between Vaughn and Irvine, fearful of what she might do to me. Her eyes were full of disgust. The sneer was tattooed on her face even though I was doing nothing at the moment to upset her.
“You… You don’t belong here, human,” she said to me. “At least this man is a killer and capable of handling himself. But you… You taint our home with your presence. My nostrils are burning from your foul scent. It makes my stomach turn. You… reek…”
“Enough!”
Vaughn shouted and put his hand up to prevent her from getting any closer to me. The angry blonde woman was a model of calm fury as she stared at me. I clenched my teeth, having trouble holding my ground in front of her.
“That’s enough, my queen,” Cyrus said as he pulled his mate back. “They are an odd couple. I’m still skeptical of their intentions. But we made an agreement. If they wish to remain here, then so be it. If their true intentions turn out to be more devious than they admit, then they will pay the price. Come now. Make yourself comfortable. Our home is yours for now.”
“We only need a place to rest until morning,” Irvine said. “If you think your clan is in danger because of us, it will only be for a few more hours.”
Cyrus nodded to all of us. Shiva wrapped her arms around him and pulled him away, her eyes still full of the rage and resentment she had toward me. They disappeared into the forest and out of our sight. When they did, I sighed a deep breath of relief.
“We’ll take a spot away from the rest of them,” Irvine said. “It’s been a long night and we’re far from finished. Come on.”
Vaughn and I followed Irvine through the camp, passing by clusters of men who were splayed out on the grass. Some of them occupied the makeshift cabin, either resting upon the floor or sleeping on the upper levels. Despite Shiva’s ill feelings toward me, the rest of the clan seemed to have a general disinterest. They were too busy and preoccupied with simply enjoying the peace that now resided in this small clearing.
While Irvine gathered another bundle of sticks to build another fire, I sat down next to Vaughn. I turned to Vaughn to make sure that he was all right. I could see the exhaustion on his face. I wanted to make him feel better. But I only knew one way to do that and his fatigue was obvious. Now wasn’t the time for that.
“It’s nice to finally get off of my feet,” I sighed.
“You’ve had a long night,” my boyfriend said to me. “Just relax now.”
I forgot about everything that we were discussing in the motel room. Even Shiva’s attitude didn’t bother me. At this point, I was just happy to be able to relax with Vaughn right next to me. I leaned in close to him and rested my head upon his shoulder as Irvine built the small fire for me. He then took a seat across from us and fi
nally we had a moment to rest.
It was peaceful out here. The rhythm of the flames dancing in front of me made it easier for me to relax despite the circumstances. The sounds of the wilderness were harmless compared to everything we’d been through. My lungs filled with the fresh open air. Finally, I could enjoy the serenity of the night.
Vaughn fell asleep as soon as he hit the ground. I laid down next to him, resting my head upon his chest. Irvine leaned against a tree stump and rested with his head down. Even though I was completely exhausted, I couldn’t fall asleep. I was restless. I didn’t know why. I would close my eyes but it wasn’t enough for me to drift away like I usually did.
Frustrated, I sat up and leaned against the log next to me. I sighed as I listened to the sounds of the men sleeping next to me. I continued to be hypnotized by the flames, trying to somehow tire myself out so that I could get the rest that I needed. But none of it worked.
I slowly stood up and began to pace back and forth. I looked around the camp and everybody was laying around. I envied the peace and sleep they were enjoying at this moment.
Come on, Ariel. Just go to sleep. You have a long day tomorrow.
But I wasn’t sleepy. I decided that it would be best to waste whatever energy I had left by walking around.
“Having trouble sleeping?”
I turned around to see where the voice had come from. The old wolf I had spoken to earlier was there.
“Oh,” I sighed when I saw him. “Hey, Yung.”
“You look surprised.”
“Surprised?”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
“I… I thought you were someone else, yeah. I thought you were… her, here to bite my head off.”
“I’m sure she’s occupied at the moment,” he chuckled. “You should be sleeping now.”
“I could say the same for you.”
