The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1)

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  “It may just be ignorance talking, but yes. I can’t begin to imagine how awesome it would be to have those abilities and to practically live forever. You four must have the most amazing and interesting stories. I can’t wait to hear them.”

  Logan shook his head, growing impatient. “It is your ignorance talking. This life is anything but cool or awesome. It’s a heavy responsibility. I have to watch what I do, what I say all the time. I have to monitor my body, my emotions, everything. It’s a never-ending job to be a loup-garou… And living forever has its downsides.” A shadow passed over his face that made Katey grow concerned.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I may have some interesting stories to tell, but they come with a price… I’ve lost many friends over the last century… Our lives are full of death and tragedy that I can’t begin to do justice to.”

  Katey’s heart bled for him, seeing the sorrow in his eyes. She wondered whose faces crossed his mind that he knew and were no longer alive. “I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t change me right away then. Darren was right to say I needed time to think it over…” Katey’s voice trailed off as she began to really analyze the pros and cons of becoming what Logan was.

  He glanced down to her and grimaced, hoping he hadn’t scared her away from a favorable decision. “Are you at least considering it?”

  “Would you bite me if I decided to do it?”

  The two exchanged looks and Logan shook his head. “I want to, but the others don’t think it’d be a safe idea. I’ve never done it before and I’m not in full control of myself just yet. Darren and Dustin are the only ones experienced enough to change anyone.”

  Katey bit her lip as a thought crossed through her mind. “Why do you want to bite me yourself?”

  “Because…”

  “Why?” she asked, meeting his gaze.

  He gave her a wicked half smile. “Because, because.”

  Katey teasingly elbowed him again and Logan snickered.

  “I’m serious. Tell me why?”

  He gazed out over the park’s green lawn and shook his head. “Not sure I can tell you that just yet.”

  Katey searched his eyes for the answer to her question, but found none.

  “Why not? You gonna keep more secrets from me?”

  “I don’t intend to, but everything has its own time and place.”

  She gazed into his eyes a little longer and smiled. “Can you do that thing again?”

  “What thing?”

  “That eye thing you and the guys did earlier?”

  Logan blinked back his mild shock. “Didn’t that scare you?”

  “It did,” Katey admitted, “but I want to see them again.”

  Logan glanced around them to make sure there would be no witnesses besides the geese. He looked down to Katey and let his eyes shift.

  The piercing blue she had come to love and melt over seemed to spiral into his pupils, leaving the wolfish gold hue in its wake.

  As she drowned in the mystery and morbid beauty of his eyes, Katey found herself smiling. She raised her hand and gently stroked her thumb underneath his eye, letting her palm rest against his rough cheek.

  “They’re beautiful,” she whispered. She wasn’t able to truly admire them before from a distance. Up close, they were mesmerizing and breathtaking.

  Logan reached up and covered her hand with his own and held it there, savoring the moment. He had never shown his loup-garou eyes to a girl before, let alone a human girl. He was always afraid of the reaction, the rejection it would bring.

  Katey lowered her head back to his shoulder and closed her eyes with a happy sigh. Logan squeezed her hand in his and lowered it to rest just next to her face on his chest. Katey could feel the dull thumping of his powerful heart beneath her fingertips. She wondered if he could hear her heart beating just as hard.

  He blinked and let his eyes change back to their normal shade of blue and watched her, enraptured by how calm she could be after such a difficult day. Whether she realized it or not, Katey was a pillar of strength and calm for him.

  “Getting sleepy?” he asked. Katey mumbled a bit and he grinned. “I think you need to be headed home now,” he said rather remorsefully.

  Katey shook her head and scooted in as close as she could, their bodies flush against one another. “But I want to stay with you,” she muttered.

  Feeling her warmth against him was something he didn’t want to end either. “I can stay with you like I did the other night if you wish.”

  Katey inhaled deeply and sat up, shaking her head. “No, I don’t want you to get into more trouble with Darren.”

  Logan let her hand slip through his fingers as she stretched her arms out in front of her. Katey didn’t realize how fatigued she really was.

  “Are you going to be ok by yourself?” Logan asked, wishing she would let him spend the night just one more time. Yet, there was wisdom in her reasons to decline. From the way that Darren laid into him that morning about disappearing the way he did, another screw up would spell an altercation he was not willing to face just yet.

  Katey smiled to him and nodded. “Yeah, I think I can do without my loup-garou body guard for a night.”

  Logan chuckled and nodded. “Alright, you win.” He helped her to her feet and walked Katey to her jeep that was parked not too far away. His motorcycle was parked next to her as well.

  They hesitated when they reached the driver side door of her jeep. She anxiously fiddled with her keys between her fingers. Katey didn’t want to be alone tonight. No matter what Logan was, she knew that the empty hole in her was filled when she was with him.

  She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t scared anymore. She felt deep down that she really did accept him for what he was. It seemed odd for her to feel, but it was almost like she knew that she wasn’t the only lost soul in the universe anymore.

  “You have my number in case you need anything,” Logan reminded, sticking his thumbs in his pockets and looking down upon her with soft, limpid eyes. “Are you sure you’ll be ok?”

  Katey nodded again, but didn’t look up to him. She felt if she met his eyes just once she would melt and beg him to follow her home.

  “Your heart’s beating fast,” Logan stated, concern laced in his voice.

  Katey couldn’t help but laugh a little. “I’m not going to be able to keep much from you, am I?”

  Logan chuckled in reply and shook his head ruefully. “No, not really.”

  She took a deep breath and turned her face up to him. “I’ll be fine. If I need you, I’ll call. I promise.” She gave him a convincing smile, and then quickly hopped into her jeep.

  Katey constantly watched her rearview mirror to see if Logan would turn around or even look back as he made his way to his bike and turned off onto the road, headed in the opposite way as she. But he didn’t and she tried not to be crestfallen about it. They both had a rough day and plenty to think about before the following morning.

  ***

  Katey went inside the house and threw her school bag onto the couch as usual. She wasn’t really that hungry, but felt a little lightheaded regardless.

  While she pulled out a frozen pizza from the freezer in the garage, Katey started to list the pros and cons of becoming a loup-garou in her head. By the yearning look in Logan’s eyes when they talked on the subject, she knew he would want an answer from her sooner than later.

  She admitted that she would have loved to have the abilities that came with being a loup-garou, but Logan made a very valid point about the nearly immortal part. Her mind swam with the idea of seeing centuries pass by while she hardly grew old. Would the years make her wiser or cynical, she wondered.

  Katey stuck the frozen pizza into the oven when it was done preheating and thought longer.

  She pondered if she would be able to keep their secret, her secret. She felt very privileged to have the guys trust her so explicitly like they did. The thought tugged at the corner of her mind as to how many lou
ps-garous she unwittingly knew, but didn’t even realize what they were.

  She thought of all the men in her life that she had encountered, testing their looks and behavior against what she now knew about loups-garous. Katey reasoned that she would probably never know how many she had actually come into acquaintance with, but she had the feeling that many more would now that she was iassociated with Logan and the teachers.

  She leaned against the counter and stared blankly out the kitchen window, letting the silence ring in her ears.

  If she became a loup-garou, would that mean that she would be a part of Logan’s pack? Did that mean she would be a part of his family? Katey lingered on the idea of having a family like that. They would understand her, help her, and be there for her when she truly needed it. The thought brought feelings of warmth and envy to her heart and she caught herself smiling and wishing that it could be a reality.

  A gentle knock at her door made her jump as she pulled the pizza out of the oven. Who could possibly be calling on her this late in the evening?

  Katey rushed to the door, flicked on the porch light and opened it to see Logan standing there, looking rather sheepish. She couldn’t help but smile and be glad for the unexpected visit.

  “I thought I told you I wouldn’t need a body guard tonight?” she said, leaning against the doorframe.

  “But what if I need a body to guard?”

  She giggled and moved aside to let him in. He stepped over the threshold and quietly shut the door behind him as she returned to the kitchen.

  “Nobody’s changing tonight so you’re bored?” she asked for lack of anything else better or more clever to say. It didn’t occur to her until to late that her question might have seemed condescending.

  “No, just bored in general. Eating pizza?”

  Katey took out the pizza cutter and sliced through it. “Yeah, can you eat any of that?”

  Logan shook his head. “Not really. Last time I tried to eat cheese I had diarrhea for a weeks.”

  Katey grimaced and slid a couple of slices on a plate for herself. “That sucks.”

  “More than you know.” Logan began slowly walking into the living room and glanced at the DVD case on the coffee table. It was the movie she had pulled out to watch that evening. “Beauty and the Beast?”

  She felt slightly embarrassed. It wasn’t popular to like Disney at her age, but she loved them, despite the romantic themes that she was so cynical about.

  Katey came back to the living room with her plate and flushed as she saw him rotate the case in his hands and read the back. There was a look of intrigue on his face.

  “Yeah, I’m a bit of a geek for Disney,” Katey said.

  Logan gave her a toothy grin and she finally noticed his sharp canine teeth. They brought back memories of when Dustin had smiled at her the other day.

  “It’s alright,” he said. “I am too. I remember when Snow White first came to theaters.”

  Katey smiled and felt comforted in the fact that she wasn’t alone in her interests. “That must have been cool.”

  “Back then it was a huge deal.” Logan popped the case open and walked to the DVD player on top of the TV. “Movies were the only thing I could go and do and feel normal sometimes. I saw almost every one of Walt’s films the first day they were released. I even went to see this for the first time.”

  Katey swooned at the thought of sitting on one of those grand old movie theaters back in the fifties. “I would have love to do that,” she remarked as she sat down on her sofa and watched him navigate through the DVD menu.

  “Is this your favorite?” he asked, glancing back to her.

  “I don’t really have a favorite. They’re all good to me. What about you?”

  “This may sound a bit morbid, but Bambi.” Katey couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of his answer. “But,” he continued, “not for why you may think.”

  “It doesn’t make you hungry after watching it?” she teased.

  He sat down next to her as the narration of the prologue began. Katey loved the montage of stained glass window scenes to tell the story.

  Logan chuckled and shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. I identify with Bambi, if you can believe it.”

  She began to think about it for a moment and did see some similarities between the two, especially the fact that they both lost their mothers. She took a bite of her pizza and glanced at the digital clock.

  “Do the guys know that you’re here?” she asked.

  Logan gave her a wicked grin. “No, they don’t.”

  “Won’t you get in trouble?”

  Logan shrugged. “Probably. Normally, they’re pretty fine about me doing my own thing as long as it’s not my time to change.”

  “When is that anyway?” she wondered.

  “If my math is right, it should be on the twenty-third of this month. It also happens to be my birthday.”

  Katey grinned and nodded. “I’ll have to remember that… By the way, where do you live?” It was something Katey had been wondering for a while, but never got around to asking. The movie played on without them hardly noticing.

  “I live with Dustin and Ben in a house outside of town. It’s in the middle of the woods on a hundred acres so we have plenty of privacy. Darren rents a house here in town, just down the road from you actually.”

  “Yeah, I see him jogging around the block in the mornings sometimes.”

  “He stays in that house during the week and stays with us on the weekends, unless it’s his time to change. Then, he’ll come stay with us for the night and come back in the morning for work.”

  Katey took a few more bites of her pizza while she watched the movie. After a few moments of them watching, Logan casually draped his arm along the back of the sofa just behind Katey. She blushed a bit and scooted closer to him, wondering if this was officially their second date.

  Just as she was finishing her pizza slices and the beast was screaming at Belle in the movie for her to come to dinner, Logan’s phone vibrated in his pocket. Katey reached over and respectfully paused the movie for him.

  He took one look at the caller ID and grimaced. Katey assumed it must have been one of the teachers. He pushed the talk button on the phone to answer it.

  “Yeah… I’m with Katey at her place watching a movie. Why?...” Logan sighed in frustration. “But why?... Fine.” Logan hung up and shoved the phone back in his pocket, then stood up. Katey could see the agitation all over him.

  “What was that about?” she asked as he began walking towards the door in a fury.

  “That was Darren. Says he wants me home right now.” Logan turned back to her with repentant eyes. “He says he doesn’t want us to be alone for too long without supervision.”

  Katey jerked her chin in confusion. “Where did that come from?”

  Logan shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know. But it honestly pisses me off. Like they don’t trust me after this many years.”

  She stood up and joined him at the front door, wishing that he could have stayed longer. Now, more than ever, she didn’t want to be alone. “I’m sorry he’s being that way… I’m sure he has a good reason.” She wondered if it had to do with the fact that they were two young people alone or if it was because of Logan’s desire to change her.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Logan sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Katey gave him a smile and nodded as she opened the door. “Not going to skip town on us?”

  Katey laughed at the irony that the thought had crossed her mind just that morning. “No, I promise I’ll be at school tomorrow morning.”

  Logan stepped out on the porch and stared back at her. “And you’re sure you’re going to be alright alone here. I could ask Darren if Ben can come over and stay to keep you company.”

  Katey laughed. “As tempting as it would be to have an ex-Confederate soldier in my house, I’ll be ok. If anything happens, I promise I will call you.”

  Logan bowed his head and smiled. “Very well�
� Goodnight then.”

  There was a shifting of his gaze down to her lips that sent Katey’s heart fluttering. Perhaps now, she could have that goodnight kiss.

  But, it wasn’t to be.

  Logan gave her nothing more than a sincere smile and then turned to hurry down to the curb where his motorcycle was parked.

  Katey lingered in the doorway, watching him slip his helmet on and speed away out of the sight, wishing with all her might that he could have stayed. But she did want something more, and that was for Logan to get along with his pack. Like she had told Logan once before, she would have hated to be the cause of strife between him and his family.

  Chapter 15

  The next morning, Katey had a tiny grin plastered on her face. Even though she was tired and felt somewhat sleep deprived, she was happy. Joyful even. Standing in the kitchen with the TV on in the background, she poured some milk into her bowl of cereal and caught herself humming as she remembered the events of the evening before.

  Sitting down on the sofa, she cradled her cereal bowl in one hand while changing the channel with the other. Through her skimming, she found a documentary about the Titanic and tossed the remote onto the couch cushion.

  It was just any other Thursday morning. The sudden revelation that werewolves, loups-garous, were real didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. She knew deep down that Logan must have cared for her even a little bit. Katey even let herself feel like she had her own crew of bodyguards that could rip her attacker to shreds if they wanted to. She wasn’t afraid of the concept anymore.

  Hindsight gave her the understanding that she wasn’t afraid of them from the beginning. It was the feeling that her mind was slowly coming undone with paranoia that terrified her.

  But something in her soul, if she were to get poetic, whispered intelligible assurances that everything was going to be ok, just like the woman in white said in her dream. That nightmare felt like a lifetime ago, back when things were simple and werewolves only existed in fairy stories. It felt as if Katey had stepped out of her childhood like a snake shedding its skin, and emerged into adulthood filled with secrets, decisions and feelings that somehow she could handle better now than she could a few days ago.