Werewolf Defender

by Marisa Chenery

  Jerrica looked around to see nearby settlers gathering around, but they kept a fair amount of distance. Austin, Mathias and the other workers were among them. She heard whispers of “Werewolf Defender” in a hush, as everyone looked at the wolf with awe.

  She knew the stories of the Werewolf Defender. Everyone did. He was the one who’d turned the tide on the zombies eighty years before. No one knew where he’d come from, only that he could take out the undead far easier than anyone else. He was also immune to their bite, along with seeming to be immortal. Over the years, he’d been categorized as a myth rather than real, since no one Jerrica knew had ever seen him. She couldn’t refute that she sat on the back of a living legend.

  The wolf lowered to the ground, and Jerrica climbed off. She didn’t move away as an almost blinding bright light surrounded him. She held up her hand to shield her eyes but kept her gaze on him. It lasted all of a few seconds. As it died away, she saw the wolf had disappeared, and a boy who looked to be her age had taken its place. She looked into his ice-blue eyes and found him staring directly at her.

  Jerrica guessed him to be around six foot two. His black hair was on the long side and brushed the tops of his shoulders. He was slim but muscular. And there was no denying the fact that he was good looking. Unlike her and the rest of the settlers, he was dressed in clothes from the time before the zombies. He wore blue jeans and a dark gray T-shirt. Her mom had a picture of her father—Jerrica’s grandfather—during that time wearing such an outfit when he’d been a kid.

  “Are you okay?” He continued to look at her.

  She nodded. “Yes, thanks to you.”

  Becca’s father, John—their leader—stepped away from the others and came to stand in front of the Werewolf Defender. “It’s an honor to have you at our settlement. And you couldn’t have come at a better time. The zombie population has recently increased around here.”

  “Then I’ll have to stay for a while to help with that.”

  “We’ll find you a place to stay, Werewolf Defender.”

  “My name is Calan,” he said directly to Jerrica. Calan turned his attention back on John. “A bed to sleep in will be appreciated.”

  “Come. There’s an empty cabin. It hasn’t been lived in for a few years now, but the roof is solid.”

  As Becca’s father led Calan away, Austin came to stand in front of Jerrica. “It was lucky that he showed up when he did. And it’s too bad you lost the buck you brought down. That was a great shot.”

  Jerrica shrugged. “Yeah, it would have been nice having the meat, but at least I can say I’m still alive.” She glanced in Calan’s direction one last time before he disappeared around a corner. She said to Austin, “I should go home. My mom will be worried. I’m sure the news of what happened has spread like wildfire through the settlement.”

  “And half of it will be wrong,” Austin said with a chuckle. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Sure.”

  Jerrica turned to head for the road that would take her to her family’s cabin. As she walked, she thought of how close she’d come to being eaten by zombies. Now that the adrenaline had left her system, she was a little shaky. That had been the first time she’d been in a situation like that. She thought of Calan and how he’d rescued her. Riding on his back while he’d been in his werewolf form had been exhilarating, now that she could calmly think about it. He really was a myth come to life.

  She arrived at her cabin and had no sooner opened the door when her mom hurried toward her then pulled her into a hug. “Thank goodness you’re all right,” she said.

  Jerrica hugged her back before she stepped out of her mother’s embrace. She didn’t miss seeing the tears in her eyes. “I’m fine, Mom.”

  “One of the Tate boys came by and told me what happened in the field, and how the Werewolf Defender came then saved you.”

  “His name is Calan.”

  “You talked to him?”

  “Yes. He let me ride on his back while he was in werewolf form to escape the zombies.”

  “Oh my goodness. Is he planning on staying for a while? It’s said he travels from settlement to settlement, taking out as many zombies as he can find before he moves on again.”

  “Calan is still here. Becca’s dad took him to the empty cabin. He’s going to stay there.”

  The door flew open as Jerrica’s father practically ran inside. The door banged off the wall and shut. “Jerrica!” he said when he saw her. Just as her mother had done, he gathered her into a hug and held her tight.

  “I’m okay, Dad,” she said against his chest. Her father was a big man, tall and strong.

  He released her, then cupped her face in his large hands as he looked her over. “You didn’t get bitten. They said you had been before the Werewolf Defender arrived.”

  Jerrica smiled. “If I had, I wouldn’t be here, would I? You know as well as I do that it only takes less than a minute for someone to turn after a zombie bites them.”

  “Jerrica was telling me about Calan, the Werewolf Defender. He’s staying on at the settlement for a while,” her mom told him.

  Her dad kissed her forehead before he let her go. “You’ll have to tell me how he saved you from being attacked.”

  She explained how she’d taken down the buck, then how the zombies had come rushing from the trees—how she’d been too far from the other workers for them to help her and how she’d accepted that she wasn’t going to get out of the situation she’d found herself in. She also shared how she’d taken out as many zombies with her arrows as she could before Calan had arrived.

  Once Jerrica reached the part about Calan shifting to his human form, her mom asked, “What’s he like? Nobody says much about him, except for that he’s four times the size of a normal wolf.”

  “Oh, he’s big when he’s a wolf. When he stood beside me, his head was still above mine. Even though he’s supposed to have been around for eighty years, he looks my age.”

  “I guess it’s true about him being immortal,” her dad said.

  A loud howl sounded, coming from the front of the cabin. Her father opened the door, then slowly stepped outside. Her mother and she followed. Jerrica sucked in a breath as she walked out onto the cabin’s porch. Calan, in wolf form, stood in the middle of the yard. The buck she’d shot was draped over his back. He turned his large lupine head toward her and met her gaze.

  Jerrica walked off the porch toward Calan. She stopped once she was in front of him. “You went back and got my deer.” He nodded. She looked behind her. “Dad, come and take the buck.”

  Her dad stepped forward as Calan lowered to the ground. Once her father had slipped the buck off him and dragged it a short distance away, there was bright flash of light as Calan shifted.

  Once he was human, Jerrica said, “Thanks for getting the buck.”

  He nodded. “I heard you and the boy discussing it. There was no sense letting it go to waste when there’s no danger to me outside the walls. I figured your family could use it.”

  Calan stared at Jerrica. There was something in his eyes that made her want to go to him. There was loneliness inside them. And even though he looked like a teenager, those ice-blue eyes of his were old, as if he’d seen too much of the world and not all of it good.

  “I have to thank you for the meat and for saving my daughter,” her dad said.

  Calan pulled his gaze away and looked at him. “I’m glad I happened to be there at the time.”

  Her mom came to stand next to her father. “Since you brought us the deer, I’d like to invite you to have dinner with us tonight.”

  “I have to decline. John already asked me to eat with his family, and I’ve accepted. Maybe some other time?” Calan nodded at her mother’s assent then looked at Jerrica again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “You will?”

  “I’ll be out in the field while you and the others work. The settlement can’t afford to lose those vegetables that have ripened. With me there,
none of you will have to worry about being attacked. I can hear and smell zombies long before I see them.”

  “Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” Jerrica said, as she gave Calan a small smile.

  He nodded, his gaze seeming to linger on her longer than necessary. Calan turned and walked away. Once he was on the road, he shifted to his wolf form and took off at a run. Jerrica waited until he disappeared from sight before she headed into the cabin. Those looks he gave her made her heart beat a little faster.

  Chapter Two

  Calan ran all the way to the cabin he’d been given to use. He shifted to his human form once he reached it. He walked inside, taking in the state of the open room. There was no question it’d been empty for quite some time. There was a thick layer of dust on the rough wooden furniture, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling in the corners. It wasn’t one of the worst places he’d stayed, though. John had offered to have his wife and daughter clean it for him, but he’d turned him down. He much preferred to do it himself.

  He searched in the cupboards until he found an old rag. At the wooden basin, he worked the pump. It didn’t take too long to have water flowing. He rinsed the rag, then set to work getting rid of some of the dirt.

  As he cleaned, his thoughts were drawn to the girl he’d saved. It hadn’t taken much to find out her name and where she lived. For the first time in his long life, he wanted to be around someone longer than a few minutes. Jerrica Barnes drew him. He liked the idea of getting to know her better.

  Bringing her the buck she’d shot had been the perfect excuse to see her again. He’d heard Jerrica and a boy talking about it. With his sensitive werewolf hearing, it hadn’t been very hard to overhear what they’d said, even though he’d been nowhere near them.

  Seeing Jerrica once more, he’d taken the time to really look at her. Her dark-blonde hair was long, and she’d pulled back into a ponytail. Her green eyes hadn’t held the usual awe with which most people looked at him. There was curiosity in them, but it didn’t make him feel as if he were a huge freak.

  A knock sounded on the door. Calan crossed opened it to find a girl standing on the other side. It was Becca, the daughter to the leader of the settlement. John had introduced Calan to her when she’d followed them to the cabin. He silently stared at her, waiting to see what she wanted.

  Becca smiled as she appeared to look him up and down. “I thought I’d come to see if you wanted help cleaning the cabin.”

  “I already told your dad that I’d handle it myself.”

  She pushed past him and walked inside. “That’s not necessary. You’re the Werewolf Defender, after all. You shouldn’t be doing something as menial as cleaning.”

  “I don’t mind,” he said, just wishing Becca would leave him alone.

  “Well, I do.” She took him by the arm and led him to the table in the center of the room. She pulled out a chair, took the rag from him, wiped the dust off it then had him sit. “You take a seat, and I’ll have it all cleaned in no time.”

  Becca stroked her hands across Calan’s back as she spoke. It set his nerves on edge. She tried to be nice and seemed as if she really wanted to help, but there was something about her that came across as if she was used to getting her way.

  Short of literally throwing her out of the cabin—Calan didn’t think that would go over well with the other settlers, especially Becca’s father—he forced himself to stay where he was and wait until she finished. She tried to start a conversation, but he only gave her short replies. Thankfully, she eventually gave up.

  Once the cabin was dust free and as clean as it was going to get, Becca left, saying she’d see him later when he came over for dinner. Calan now wished he’d turned John down. He’d already put up with being in Becca’s company long enough for one day.

  Again his thoughts strayed to Jerrica. Even though he’d been alive for a hundred and eighteen years, he’d been frozen in time at the age of eighteen. So it didn’t surprise him that he’d be drawn to a girl that age. Plus, most people found it hard to think of him as anything but a teenager, though he was much older than any of them.

  Calan walked to the only bed. It was a double, the mattress nothing more than a large sack stuffed with straw. There were no sheets on it, only a threadbare wool blanket. It didn’t matter, since he slept in his werewolf form at night. His thick fur kept him warm when it was cold, and he hadn’t been able to sleep in his human form since being turned.

  He once again sat at the table. After he had dinner with John’s family, he’d have to go beyond the walls and hunt. Do what he’d been created for—end the lives of zombies. For the past eighty years, that had been the extent of his life. He still didn’t know why he’d been chosen, but he put the gifts given to him to good use.

  His was a lonely existence. Calan had gotten used to it, though. Being immortal, he’d live forever. As such, he never wanted to stay in any one place for very long. How could he make close relationships with the people around him when their lives were so much shorter than his? And falling in love with a girl then having to watch her grow old and die, wasn’t something he wanted to experience.

  That didn’t stop him from thinking about Jerrica. Before the zombie outbreak, he would have asked her out. He would have taken her to a movie, and if they’d gone to the same high school, he would have walked down the halls holding her hand to let the other boys know she was his girlfriend.

  Those days were gone, and Calan was a relic from the past. The day he’d stopped being a normal teenager was when he’d found out there were supernatural forces in the world that were very much real and that they had the power to drastically change a person’s life.

  * * * *

  Jerrica washed up at the pump at the side of the cabin from helping her father dress the buck. They now had enough meat to last them through the month. Her mom would salt, smoke and make most of it into jerky. For dinner this evening, they’d have a nice venison roast. She could already smell it cooking.

  Her father joined her. Jerrica worked the pump for him. “We can work on tanning the skins tomorrow. I think your mom wants to make a pair of pants for you from it. You’ll need them for the colder months.”

  It was a lot of work to turn a deer skin into leather, but nothing of a kill usually went to waste. And Jerrica did need new pants. The ones she’d worn last cold season had been on the short side.

  “I can help after I finish working in the fields,” she said.

  Her father picked up the rag that lay over a stump next to the pump and dried his hands. “If the Werewolf Defender wasn’t here to watch over you and the rest of the workers, I wouldn’t let you go. Today was too close a call.”

  “Even if Calan wasn’t here, I’d still have to work in the fields. We need all the hands we can get to work it.”

  Their settlement was a small one, with a population of only two hundred. Her father’s great-grandparents had been one of the first families to build it after her great-grandfather and his family had decided to bug out from the city they’d lived in. They’d met others who were willing to take their chances in the thick wilderness far from the populated areas. Over time they built the high walls and homes to live in from the trees they’d cut down.

  “I know, but I’m not going to lie and say that the thought of what could have happened to you doesn’t scare me. You’re my child. I want to keep you out of danger.”

  “I’m eighteen, Dad. I’m considered an adult. I can look after myself. You taught me how to shoot with a bow and arrow, and I rarely miss my target.”

  He smiled. “And you’re even a better shot than I am. You took that buck down with only one arrow.”

  “He suffered because I couldn’t get another into him.”

  “You had to do what you had to do. And thanks to Calan, the meat didn’t go to waste.”

  “I had no idea he heard me talking to Austin.”

  Her dad smiled. “Austin, huh? Isn’t he the boy you’ve been mooning over?”
<
br />   Jerrica felt her cheeks heat. “I don’t moon over boys.”

  “Fine. You like him.”

  She looked down at her feet then back up at her father. “Maybe. I don’t know. Today was the first time Austin even acknowledged I was alive.”

  “Well, if you do like him, I wouldn’t kick him out the door.”

  “Good to know,” she said with a laugh. “Though I doubt he’ll be anywhere near our door for you to kick him out of it.”

  “You never know.”

  Her father walked away and headed for the cabin. Jerrica wasn’t ready to go inside just yet. She went to sit on a log not too far from the pump. Even though she’d been pleased Austin had decided to talk to her today, he wasn’t where her thoughts strayed. Calan filled them, which was silly, really. Considering what he was, how long he’d lived and how he wouldn’t be staying permanently at the settlement, she really shouldn’t be thinking about him at all.

  He’d saved her life, but that was something he would have done for anyone. And bringing the buck to her wasn’t that big of a deal. In this day and age, no one liked to waste anything, especially when it came to food. So, once again, it was something he would have done for anyone.

  “Hey, Jerrica. Anyone home?”

  She pulled her thoughts back to the present and was surprised to see her brother, Hunter, and his wife, Faith, standing in the yard, looking right at her. Jerrica hadn’t heard them arrive. She stood, then joined them.

  “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” she said with a smile.

  “Obviously,” Hunter said. “Mom invited us over for dinner since you bagged a big buck.” His face grew serious. “I also heard what happened in the fields today.”

  Jerrica was sure everyone in the settlement had heard about it—and Calan—by now. In such a small community, rumors and anything new happening spread like wildfire. And they’d be topics of discussion for weeks to come—or until something else came along that held more interest.