by Mia Rose
Noelle slid her phone out of her purse and dialed his number. He picked up on the fourth ring. “Noelle,” he said quietly, “how are you?”
“As well as I can be, I guess,” she responded. “You said that you wanted to speak with me, today.”
“Yes, but I think given the circumstances that it can wait.”
“I’d rather it didn’t, Edmund. I want to get this conversation over with so I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t want to have it looming over my head.”
“Alright,” Edmund agreed. They decided to meet back at the lab at the apartments, in order to talk where no one would overhear them or interrupt them.
Noelle snuck out of the house quietly, not sure what she would tell the others. She decided it was best to simply not tell them anything at all. She got into her car and drove toward the apartments. Once she parked, she climbed out of her car and ran into Declan on the way inside.
“Hey, what are you doing here? I figured you would still be with your family,” he asked.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I know, I should be. But I needed to see Edmund.”
“Oh,” Declan said. “Right, yeah. I’m not sure if he is here, yet.”
“I’ll wait for him,” Noelle said. Declan nodded and started making his way up the stairs.
“Hey, Declan,” Noelle called out.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for everything you’ve done. I really don’t know what I would do without you.” Declan tried to smile, but his heart and mind were in two different states, so he walked away without saying anything.
Noelle felt a pull at her heart —she wanted nothing more than to reach out to him and take his hand in hers, to show him that he was all she wanted right now. She had too much going on to try to make Declan feel better. Right now, her main focus was figuring out what Edmund needed to speak with her about, and then she would be able to return home.
Noelle walked into the lab and was surprised to find Edmund already sitting there waiting for her. “Declan said that you weren’t here yet?” she said by way of greeting him.
“Yes, well Declan isn’t all that great at secretly keeping tabs on me.” Edmund smiled. Noelle didn’t completely understand what he meant by that, but she shrugged it off and sat down across from him.
“So, what do we need to discuss?” she said.
“Noelle, I think by now, you know that I have feelings for you. You are beautiful, smart, and loyal to your family. All endearing qualities,” Edmund said. His tone was off, she noticed, and he spoke as though creating a recipe for a new desert —matter-of-factly, and slightly disinterested.
“This is why you needed to speak with me, Edmund?” Noelle said as her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “Pardon me for being so blunt, but I’m not in the greatest state of mind right now to discuss my relationship status.”
“I understand,” Edmund continued. “And please don’t confuse this with what I asked you here to discuss.”
“Well then, let’s just cut to the chase because I need to get home to be with my family. They will probably be wondering where I am, any minute now.”
“See, Noelle, that’s the thing. You won’t be getting home. You won’t be going anywhere.” Edmund walked up to her and gave her a sad smile. “The reason I wanted you to know how I felt is just so you can know how difficult it is for me to do this.”
“Do what? What are you…” Noelle felt a stabbing pain in her neck where Edmund had jammed a needle. She looked at him and her vision was starting to blur, the edges growing black.
Noelle stood up from her chair and nearly fell backward. She tried to run to the door, but her limbs felt like jelly and she couldn’t move. She fell to the ground and saw Edmund watching her, before her eyes finally shut.
When Noelle woke up, she slowly realized two things. The first thing she knew was that she couldn’t move her wrists or her feet because they were tied to the chair she was sitting in. She tried to scream for help, but she couldn’t because there was a piece of tape covering her mouth. She looked around and slowly realized that she was no longer in the basement.
Edmund turned around in his chair to face her and smiled at her. “Good morning, sunshine,” he said, all too cheerily. Noelle groaned against the piece of tape and Edmund stood up from where he sat and walked over to her. “Promise me you won’t scream,” he said. Noelle nodded reluctantly and Edmund reached down and ripped the tape from her mouth.
“Why are you doing this?” Noelle asked him, unable to cover up the desperation in her voice.
“Well, Noelle, it seems like there is a lot that you don’t know about yourself and your past, and I want to be the one to educate you.”
There was a knock at the door and Edmund announced that they could come in. An older woman and a man walked in, both staring at Noelle as though she was a specimen from the zoo.
“Wow,” the woman said as she breathed, “this is remarkable.”
“No doubt this is her,” the man announced as though confirming something. “Great job, son.”
“Son?” Noelle asked, looking at Edmund. “Your parents are dead.”
“Not quite,” Edmund admitted. “I may have told you a few white lies about myself and my past. But don’t worry, Noelle. This is why you are here so we can get everything all cleared up!”
Noelle’s head was throbbing. She could feel a familiar pressure building up inside and she wanted to scream, but she was afraid that if she did, Edmund would stick another needle into her neck. She needed to figure out an escape plan.
“Your parents are clearly alive,” Noelle said. “So, what else did you lie about?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Edmund laughed. “It’s actually you who has been lying. But don’t worry, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know the truth.”
“What are you talking about?” Noelle asked.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” Edmund suggested. “Way back when your ancestor, Noelise, became a hunter. You believe that happened because she was brought on board by someone named ‘E,’ correct?”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Oh, Sweetie, please try to keep up with me. I know you aren’t that stupid,” Edmund admonished her. “This ‘E’ character was my ancestor whose name was Edmund. See? I was named after him, as I told you. As a matter of fact, all of the men in our family take his name.”
Noelle was not amused at all by Edmund’s attempt at recounting his past and she had no interest in listening to him babble on. She was looking around the room, trying to figure out a way to escape.
Edmund slapped her hard across her face. “Listen to my story!” he yelled at her.
Noelle stared at him and he smiled and continued, “Sorry, it’s just frustrating when you’re trying to tell someone something and they don’t listen.” Edmund let out a small laugh and rubbed Noelle’s cheek where he had just hit her. “So, as I was saying, you believe that Noelise was in love with a man who turned into a werewolf, and then as a test of her loyalty as a hunter, she was forced to kill that man, correct?”
Noelle nodded her head slowly. She was confused by his weirdness. He’d changed since she’d met him.
“Well, that is not the whole story. See, Edmund loved Noelise and he wanted her to be with him, but she was already in love with someone else. It was later that Edmund learned that the man she loved was a werewolf. Noelise was not a hunter at all —that is just how my family twisted the story so that her descendants would continue killing their own kind.”
“Their own kind?” Noelle asked slowly.
“Ah yes, the best part!” Edmund continued, “Noelise became pregnant with the werewolf’s child. Edmund learned of this and out of spite and jealousy, he killed the man using silver. Every one of Noelise’s descendants carry the wolf gene in them, but as it turns out, that gene is dormant in men.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, my dear, that for a man, being a descendant of Noelise means nothi
ng other than passing on the genetics. But for a woman, it’s a whole other ball game. You are the first female descendant of Noelise. And you are exactly what we have been waiting for.”
“You have been waiting for me?” Noelle whispered, feeling overwhelmed by the information Edmund had just shared. “For what?”
“You are the missing piece, Noelle. Don’t you see? Your blood has everything we need to complete the elixir to get rid of the entire werewolf population.”
“You need my blood to make a cure?”
“That’s one way you can look at it.” Edmund smiled down at Noelle as though she were something to eat.
He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Noelle alone with her thoughts. His words were spinning around in her head and she felt like she was going to be sick. She had lived her entire life believing in one simple truth —werewolves were bad and it was their responsibility to kill them. But in one breath she had learned that she did not come from a line of hunters at all. She descended from a woman who had loved a werewolf and brought a hybrid being into the world. A being who was half human and half werewolf. And what was more, Noelle was living proof that hybrids were real.
“She had lived her entire life believing in one simple truth —werewolves were bad and it was their responsibility to kill them.”
Chapter 18
The Cure
“Everything is perfect right now, but you and I both know that perfection never lasts.”
Declan woke up with a sick feeling in his stomach —he felt like something was off, but he could not tell why. He slid out of bed and pulled on his jeans and t-shirt, as usual.
As he walked down to the office, he saw Gabriel in the hallway. “Hey, Gabe,” Declan said. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, man.” Gabriel smiled. “Just taking the time to really enjoy things a bit while I can, you know?”
“What do you mean? Is something wrong?”
“No.” Gabriel shook his head. “Everything is perfect right now, but you and I both know that perfection never lasts. So, while everything is still good, I am just going to soak it all in.”
Declan understood. He wanted to talk to Gabriel about his weird feeling, but he did not want to screw with Gabe’s good mood, so he let him be and continued to the office.
As he pulled open the door, he found Avril already hard at work as per usual. “Good morning, Declan.” She smiled at him. It was clear that nothing was bothering her this morning, either. That was clear from her chipper demeanor.
“Good morning,” Declan said softly. Avril looked at him, her brows pulled together, but she did not say anything. He sighed and continued, “I’m kind of in a weird mood, I guess. I just feel like there’s something off.”
“Well,” Avril said, “maybe you are just nervous.”
“Nervous?” Declan asked. “For what?”
“For the alpha ritual. It’s coming up in only a few days. I know it’s a big deal around here, it’s practically all everyone will talk about, now.”
“Oh, right.” Declan smiled. “Maybe that’s it. I don’t know.”
He thought back to how he felt when Noelle had cried into him —although the circumstances were not great, he still felt a connection to her. One that was more powerful than anything he’d had before. Then he remembered how she sought Edmund yesterday afternoon, and it was as though she’d denied him all over again.
The alpha ritual would be the final missing piece for Declan. He had to believe that there was someone that would complete him. And, in a way that he did not even know he needed. He closed his eyes briefly and tried to conjure up a woman’s face from the pack, but all he could see were the icy blue eyes which belonged to Noelle.
“In other news,” Avril said handing Declan a piece of paper, “we got the review back from the city inspector. We passed in every category!”
Declan smiled, glad to have that issue taken care of. It was one less thing for them to worry about, and plus, the apartments really did seem nicer. Avril went on to fill Declan in on the tours she had scheduled for the day, as well as the financial status of things.
“I have no idea why I didn’t bring in your help earlier.” Declan laughed. “You’ve managed to get us up and running in a matter of days.”
“You know, Declan. A lot of us are pretty skilled in ways that might be useful to the pack. And we don’t all like sitting around waiting for things to happen —we like to feel useful.”
“I know.” Declan nodded in agreement. “You’re right, I should do a better job at making everyone feel integral to the pack. We’ll revisit this after the ritual this weekend, and maybe you and I can work on a plan as to how we can make this happen.” Avril smiled and nodded before turning back to the computer to continue her work.
Declan walked out of the office and slowly made his way across the street to the coffee shop where he used to be a regular customer. As he pulled open the door, he imagined the day when he first saw Noelle. And how her dress hugged her body, accentuating her every curve.
“Hey,” the barista called out from behind the counter, “are you in or out?”
Declan shook the memory from his head as he walked inside of the shop. He looked at the chair where she had sat and the sick feeling rolled over him again.
“You’re new,” Declan said to the barista.
She pulled her eyebrows together and responded, “I’ve been here close to a month, now. I’m not that new.”
“Oh,” Declan said, realizing that it had been a long while since he had last been here. “Right, well I’ll just take my usual.”
“Which is?” the young girl asked, clearly unimpressed with Declan.
He mumbled his order to her and walked to the opposite end of the counter to wait for it. He continued to gaze at the empty chair and he became overwhelmed by a feeling of deep sadness —as if for the rest of his life, he would never see Noelle sitting there again.
Noelle tugged at the rope entrapping her wrists, but they would not budge. She could feel the skin underneath growing raw from the burning and rubbing against her skin. She wanted to cry, but even more than that, she wanted to beat the shit out of Edmund and make him realize that he messed with the wrong woman.
Edmund was a far cry from the doctor that had helped her heal and she wondered what had happened to that man. What could make him become the cruel monster who stood before her? She heard a light knock on the door and she wanted to scream, but she knew that would cause more drama than what it was worth. And she needed to gain their trust to form an escape.
“Hello?” said a female’s voice, not one that Noelle recognized.
The door was pushed open further and a small woman wearing a maid’s outfit entered the room. When she saw Noelle tied up, she dropped her cleaning supplies to the floor with a loud clatter.
“Oh my…”
Edmund came rushing into the room with wild eyes. “Bridgette!” he yelled out. “What are you doing in here?”
“It… it’s Tuesday,” she stammered. “I’m only allowed to clean his office on Tuesday.”
“Get out!” Edmund shouted, and the maid rushed out of the office with tears welling in her eyes.
“It’s going to be pretty difficult to explain to her why there is a tied-up woman here,” Noelle spat at him.
“Don’t worry about her.” Edmund smiled. “It’s unfortunate, but she won’t be an issue any longer.” Noelle saw his eyes crinkle in the corners and she felt sick from the obvious enjoyment he was getting from all of this.
“Edmund,” Noelle said, “I would like to talk to you.”
“So, speak,” Edmund said, leaning against his father’s large oak desk.
“Could you untie me so I can pretend that we are being civil? I’m not going to run,” Noelle said.
“You see? That’s the exact thing the wolf said to me before she bit me and took off running like a coward,” Edmund replied calmly. “I’ve come to learn that with women, when the
y say one thing, they usually mean another.”
“Okay,” Noelle conceded. “Okay, I just wanted to explain to you that although I told my family that I wanted to become a protector, that was never my intention.”
“Oh no?” Edmund smiled. “Noelle, do you think I am stupid?”
“No.” Noelle shook her head. “Quite the opposite, actually, and I want to help you. All you needed to do was tell me the truth and I would have helped you without all of these —theatrics.”
Edmund looked her up and down and she could tell that he was considering what she said.
“Edmund, please, untie me so I can prove myself to you,” Noelle whispered.
“How do you plan on doing that?” Edmund asked.
“Let me show you,” Noelle said, turning on her seductive charm as much as she could. She leaned toward him and Edmund walked up to her, bringing his face inches from hers.
“I’ll let you show me,” he said as he breathed, “but I like you better when you’re tied up.” Noelle struggled to hide her grimace, but she nodded her head slowly and then brought her lips to his.
She kissed him deeply, struggling against her rope. Edmund ran his hands through her hair and pushed her closer to him. He took a step back and looked at Noelle, and for a moment, Noelle thought that he was going to untie her. He lifted her from the chair and loosened the ropes from her wrists, but not enough for her to free herself.
Edmund kissed her wrists gently where her skin was raw and exposed. He turned her around so that she faced the desk and bent her so that her face rested against the cool wood. Noelle could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as he rubbed her back.
“Noelle,” Edmund whispered, “I know that you think I am a monster.” His hands stopped on her lower back and he picked her up from her position. “But I am not this kind of a monster. If you choose me, it will be because you believe in what I am trying to accomplish.”
Noelle stared at him as he left the room, pulling the door behind him. She heard the familiar click of the door locking. Once again, she was left in the office alone.
