by Stacey Mewse
Shaking her head to dispel these thoughts she continued to follow his trail for a while, finally stopping about three miles from the barn and glancing back. There was no sign of Tobias, which was a welcome surprise for her.
Bending forward she carefully removed her shoes and put them to one side, then quickly slipped out of her clothes and folded them up beside her cast off footwear. Finally she reached around her back and unsnapped her bra dropping it onto the growing pile of clothing before stepping out of a matching pair of lace knickers. For a brief moment she stood naked in the sparse woodland of the greenbelt that backed onto the barn Varulv had chosen. She enjoyed the feel of the cool breeze on her naked skin and a smile warmed her usually cold features. She did not allow herself to dawdle for long though.
Bending down Audra carefully folded up her underwear and shoes inside her outerwear and then slowly lay down in the grass beside them. Closing her eyes she cleared her mind and called her inner lupine self, letting the wild side of her free… Giving it permission to take her over and force a transformation. It needed no second bidding.
All of a sudden the desire to change surged forward and filled her whole conscious mind, filling up every cell in her body with the desire to transform. She rolled slowly onto her side and allowed the prickling heat that signalled the beginning of the change to take over her naked and vulnerable body. Pain began to spark into her limbs until she was so overcome with it that she couldn’t think straight, and yet she somehow managed to remain silent. Her limbs bulged and stretched and fur began to sprout from her sweat slicked skin as she writhed in silent agony. Her transformation was mercifully quick after years of having honed the skill, but that did not make it any less painful for her.
When her physical form had finally totally shifted, Audra lurched to her paws and shook herself vigorously. One of the pitfalls of the change was that the sweat caused by it became trapped beneath the thick lupine pelt, with no ability to sweat as a wolf it would then remain trapped there and become incredibly itchy and uncomfortable. Shaking would help to dislodge some of it but she still found herself stopping to scratch frequently, sometimes up to an hour after the transformation.
Lowering her chocolate-furred head Audra sniffed at her clothing and mused what to do with it. In the end deciding that she could not leave it so near to the scene of the crime in case it were found and assumed to belong to a victim. Or even worse that it could be found and was known to be hers; which would implicate her in a crime she had nothing to do with. Hiding them was also out of the question, as she suspected that they might still be found. After some deliberation she finally decided the best option would be to take them with her.
Scooping up the parcel of clothing in her mouth she turned tail and began trotting down the trail that Varulv had left in his wake. Soon she broke into a run, moving with the steady lope which carried lupine kind hundreds of miles a day with minimal effort in the wild. Pleased with herself that she had evaded discovery by Tobias and was on the trail of Varulv alone.
*****
At the barn Tobias had spent a good half an hour carefully examining the area and mentally storing all the information it was revealing to him. He had carefully inspected the apparatus that Varulv had erected to torture his victim, as well as the surrounding area. Due to the water which had washed over the floor he had been unable to determine exactly the manner in which she had died. Though he could clearly smell the spot where she had spent her final moments, it reeked of death.
He had examined this area closely until he finally gave in and admitted that there was not much he could learn from it than he already knew. He had known Varulv was the killer, and who the victim was, that she had been brutally murdered… The site told him only those details and revealed to him the obvious emotions of the killer and his victim. Lust, anger, fear and pain.
Turning away with a sigh Tobias walked slowly back to the barn entrance and stepped out into the sunlight. Shielding his eyes against the glare with one hand he looked around in search of his pack mate. He could see neither hide nor hair of her.
Frowning deeply he looked about more broadly, his torso performing a neat sweeping action as he looked from far left to far right. Still nothing. Beginning to grow angry that he could neither see nor hear her, Tobias sniffed tentatively at the air. The wind was blowing the wrong way but he could see her heel prints in the earth and so he followed them around to the rear side of the barn. Seeing what she had, the disturbances in the undergrowth; he followed the trail that both Varulv and Audra had travelled away from the barn.
Snarling to himself he stared at the ground as he traced her steps, wondering what the hell she thought she was playing at. In reality he knew full well. She had never worked or played well with others, and he had no doubt that she had made off to track Varulv alone in an attempt to gain glory and raise up the ranks. His suspicions were confirmed when he came across the evidence of her transformation. He growled angrily at the sight of her paw prints heading away from the patch of flattened grass where she had shifted forms. How dare she?!
Turning on his heels and racing back to the car he berated himself for not making sure he had a phone. Throwing open the drivers side door he jumped into the seat and snapped his seatbelt into place. The engine roared into life and he sped backward down the dirt track that led to the barn. He knew chasing her alone would be useless; chances being that she would just avoid him and round back to the pack house to inform her father of how well she had done and how incompetent he was. No. He would not give her the opportunity. Instead he would see Alfred himself and inform him of what she had done. That she had once again gone off alone in defiance of pack wishes. She needed that omega spot as far as he was concerned, or to be kicked out.
Chapter 25
Eve Tore down the country roads in the same car she had used to visit Hunter earlier that day, her mind focussed on finding her pack mates before it was too late. If they had moved on before she arrived they could end up in some serious trouble. They needed Audra for once. If Hunter’s solicitor had been found to have gone AWOL it would look incredibly suspicious. They did not need doubt cast upon his innocence.
She had left the house without delay but something in her insisted something was not right. Her subconscious prickled at her ‘you’re too late’.
‘I’ll make it’ she whispered under her breath. Insistent even though there was no one to reassure but herself.
But then in one inescapable moment it became blindingly clear that she was. A bulky 4X4 rounded the bend she was speeding towards; it was huge and she had no chance of avoiding it. In that moment time seemed to move in slow motion. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wished she had not had the radio on full blast and the windows rolled up. Maybe she might have heard it coming.
She watched the oncoming car grow closer and closer and slammed on the breaks too late. She saw it skid and felt her own vehicle do the same. Her car turned in a broad circle as the tires screamed, unable to get any purchase upon the unkempt back road. She felt the collision before she saw it. She had been trying to focus on keeping her car on the road when the 4X4 slammed into its side. They collided side to side like drunken dancers, skidding around each other with the force of the collision throwing both vehicles off the road.
Though kept from being flung from the wreckage by her seatbelt, Eve was slung about in the car and smashed her head into the roof as it rolled into the ditch at the roadside. Blood shot out of her nose and she flopped forward over the steering wheel as the car settled onto the edges of its wheels. Perched precariously at a 45 degree angle the vehicle creaked and groaned. Luckily it was wedged and could not move any further, not that this was much comfort when she was already so battered and bruised.
With her head swimming she tried to shift backwards in her seat and found herself unable to do so. Something yanked at her scalp and she winced, gently pushing her fingers into the mass of dreadlocks that topped her head in an attempt to find the problem. Her
head was pounding and her vision swam but she knew she had to get out of the car fast in case of a fire. Hurried exploration with tender fingertips revealed her problem to be the gearstick entangled in her hair. Beginning to panic she freed herself quickly, pulling out a clump of hair as she did so and almost screaming at the pain of ripping out an entire dreadlock. She could feel blood beginning to seep from her scalp in its absence, but she didn’t have time to stop and stem the flow.
Scrambling to undo her seatbelt she tried to push her way out of the drivers side door. When the buckle released she flopped against the cold metal innards of the vehicle with a dull thud. In her panic and disoriented from the blow to her head she did not realise that the car had turned full circle, and the door was wedged against the muddy earth of the ditch. After a moment of struggling she realised she had to try the door on the far side of the car, and pushed herself towards it on bruised and bleeding legs. A sharp pain shot into her left thigh from her foot and she suddenly realised it was broken. She must have been thrown into the steering wheel with more force than she had realised. The broken limb crumpled beneath her as she pushed against the door with her feet and she slumped back with a wince and a small outcry of pain. Squashing her legs beneath her she felt tears begin to well in her eyes as the pain spiked, and she realised to that get out she would have to use the broken limb whether it would cause her pain or not. Taking in a deep breath she grabbed at the passenger seat and dragged her body up it, scrabbling at the door handle with one hand and throwing it awkwardly upwards. It bounced straight back down and dropped painfully onto her outstretched hand, but she ignored this fresh bout of pain and continued to squirm upwards.
Everything was a blur of pain and confusion as she clambered out of the car; luckily the door did not fall back once she pushed it roughly open for a second time. Dragging herself slowly from the remains of the vehicle she clambered up the mud slicked slope that was the ditch’s innards. Pulling herself onto the roadside she lay exhausted, puffing and panting with tears streaming freely from her closed eyes. It was a matter of second before a veil of blackness came down upon her and she lay totally still.
On the far side of the road, unbeknownst to Eve, the other car had come out of the collision in significantly better shape. Though thrown to and fro in the skid, Tobias had avoided anything more than superficial injuries. He had a small cut to his forehead and had busted his nose but those were very minor injuries for a creature with the healing capabilities of a werewolf.
Unbuckling his belt the male beta quickly assessed his situation and determined that it would be easiest for him to exit through the driver’s side door, though it was blocked by a fallen tree branch. Demonstrating an extraordinary bout of strength he pushed hard and managed to splinter the branch into a million tiny splinters with the outside of the door. Wiping away the blood that was seeping from his ruined nose onto his lips, he scrabbled out of the vehicle and clambered up the ditch and onto the roadside.
What he saw stopped him dead in his tracks.
On the far side of the road was the prone body of the last person he had expected to see. It was Eve, and she looked in a very bad way. He ran across the road without bothering to look to check for traffic, sprinting to her and skidding down to his knees on the muddy ground. She wasn’t breathing.
Grasping her shoulders he turned her over and laid her gently on her back. Werewolves do not have quite the same level of concern about internal injuries as their systems heal quicker, so to him not moving her would have been the wrong thing to do. Gently he laid her down onto her back, not noticing that her left leg was jutting awkwardly to one side. He held a hand over her mouth and nose to test her breathing and his fears were confirmed. There was nothing.
Gripped with panic he pulled her hair from her face and laid her down against the ground. Tilting back her head he opened her mouth gently and pressed his lips to hers. Breathing deeply into her he pumped his palms against her chest and watched for any signs of life. Still nothing. He repeated the sequence and watched again, then repeated it again and again. Finally, just as all hope was beginning to fade she gasped for air.
Coughing and spluttering she fluttered open her eyes and looked blearily up at her rescuer.
‘Tobias?’ She asked.
‘Yes’ He answered ‘Yeah it’s me, what the fuck happened there Evie?’ He used an old pet name he had taunted her with when they were young.
Trying to sit up she grimaced in pain and slumped back against the ground. ‘Urgh. Ouch, for fucks sake…! I don’t know Tobi, I have no fucking clue, all I know is one minute I was driving the next I was in the fucking ditch.’
‘That’s a lot of swearing that’s using up a lot of valuable air. You stopped breathing for a second there Eve.’
Eve looked stunned ‘What?’
Tobias carefully helped her to sit up and tried to reassure her feebly ‘you’re breathing again now aren’t you. You’re fine, you’ll heal in no time.’
Eve allowed herself to be propped upright and rubbed gingerly at the sore patch on her scalp here she had ripped out a chunk of hair. ‘You know what? I’ve got a bloody bald spot too. Dreads take forever to grow back in. Fuck.’
Tobias answered slowly having looked down and caught sight of the ruined mess of her leg. ‘I don’t think that’s your biggest worry right now Eve…’
Hearing his tone change to one of shock, Eve twisted herself to get a look at the leg he was blocking her from being able to see. It was not good. Not good at all. A whimper escaped her lips as she looked down at her bottom half. Her left leg was not just broken, it was snapped. The bones of her shin poked awkwardly out of a gory wound that seeped blood onto the ground beneath her. They looked so white and clean in amongst the sea of bright pink and red fibrous tissue. Suddenly she felt nauseous.
‘Oh my god…’ She muttered, her voice stolen from her by the shock and the pain of the wound beginning to hit her.
Tobias took her head in his hands and turned it towards him forcefully but carefully and looked her in the eyes. ‘You’ll be fine Eve. It’s going to be ok. You know it will heal, it just looks bad right now.’
For a moment he silently waited for her to reply, she nodded dumbly, her body shaking with the pain.
Tobias continued to talk, his voice taking on a tone of authority he usually reserved only for lower ranking pack members. ‘You’re going to have to force the change Eve. There’s a chance that you’ll heal faster in that form, and even if you don’t there’s the possibility that you’ll change back with a healed limb. Either way the change will stop your limb from being able to set badly before we can get back to the pack house.’
Eve looked up at him wearily, the pain draining her energy as she listened. ‘I need to tell you why I was heading your way first Tobias. There was a story on the radio, Varulv has killed another woman. The timeframe puts Hunter in the clear… I was coming to collect Audra before you both got too far away in case her absence affects his case. ‘
Tobias shook his head sadly ‘I was on my way back because Audra’s struck out alone Eve… She’s a fucking liability!’ A snarl creased his handsome features.
Eve Sighed and slumped back against the ground. ‘Leave me be a moment please? I need to change now if I’m going to be able to do it at all.’
Tobias shook his head firmly. ‘Not here. We’re far to exposed, I’ll have to carry you out into the woods.’
Eve snarled ‘don’t you dare Tobias!’
But he had already climbed to his feet and was in the process of scooping her up into his arms. She winced and gasped in pain as her leg left the support of the ground and hung limp and useless in the air. He carried her as carefully as he could and hoped that her leg was not being damaged any further as it swung loosely to and fro. He put her down about a quarter of a mile away from the roadside, luckily the trees in that part of the woodlands were dense and they were well hidden despite their close proximity to the road.
Eve bit her lip
hard to prevent a scream escaping her as she was lowered back to the floor. She knew from the level of pain that she had likely splintered some of the bones in her lower leg but she dared not ask for confirmation of this from him.
Tobias awkwardly hovered over her for a moment, asking uncertainly after a moment. ‘Would you… Perhaps it would be an idea for me to watch whilst you change, just in case there are problems?’
Eve looked up at him in disbelief and shook her head with as much firmness as she could manage whilst moving as little as possible. ‘No. Whether you are here or not if there’s an issue you won’t be able to help so what’s the point? Stop worrying you wet eared little pup, I’ll be fine.’
