by Jessica Swan
She whirled around, and only fifty feet in front of her was her worst nightmare; the man who had attacked her and killed all those innocent people. The first thing that came to mind was, how the hell did he find her out here? “What do you want from me?”
“Like I said before, you were supposed to die. You escaped death twice. You’re not getting away alive this time.”
“What is your name?” She tried to delay the imminent fight by asking him some questions. She slowly inched toward him, away from the cliff’s edge.
“My name? Now you want to know my name?”
“Yes, for when I report your death to my boyfriend, who is an NYPD detective.”
He laughed; it was a cold and cruel laugh, one that sent shivers down her spine. “Well, my name is Brian, but it is not my death that’ll be reported. It’ll be yours.”
He charged at her, and when he was within inches of her, she moved, dodging the attack. Before she could perform a counterattack, he was on his feet again. He tried to punch her, but she grabbed his arm, twisted it around so far that she heard a painful crack, and he yelled in pain. Then she slammed her palm upward against his nose with all her force, sending him flying backwards to the very edge of the cliff. For a split second, she thought he would go a little further and fall to his death, but he stopped just in time. She knew not to attack him when he was so close to the edge; he would most likely try to throw her over the edge. She waited until he got up and charged at her again. He tried to shove her down to the ground, but she caught both his arms this time, gripping his wrists hard as she forced his arms out to his sides and kneed him in the groin. He fell to his knees, yelling in pain. She kicked him in the face, sending him flying backwards again. Then she lunged at him, changing to wolf form in midair, and landed on his chest. Before he could react, she brutally sank her teeth into his throat and tore his flesh open, blood instantly pouring from the wound.
He stared at her, wide-eyed in panic and shock, as he held his throat. He knew he was going to die.
“Now, you’ll never hurt or kill anyone ever again,” she said with a growl. She stared into his eyes until they went blank, and he became still and lifeless.
She sighed and fell to her knees, in complete shock at what she had just done. She had just fought and killed the man who had murdered so many people and almost killed her twice. Not only that, but she didn’t have a single scratch on her. The realization that she had taken someone’s life hit her hard. Yes, he was cruel and heartless, but still, she had never killed anyone before and had no idea what it would feel like until now. At that moment, she realized exactly how cruel and heartless this beast must have been; to take so many lives and get some kind of sick, twisted enjoyment out of it. He was evil, pure evil, and she was glad he was dead. The world was better off without a man like that.
She got to her feet again, and as she turned away from him to go back to the tent, only twenty feet away from her stood Sam, the man the Black Wolf Agency captured, thinking was the killer, but turned out to be someone who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Sam? What are you doing here?” asked Selene.
“Well, I heard all the noise and wanted to see what was going on,” he said innocently, but his eyes suggested otherwise.
In her short time as a werewolf, Selene was learning to read people well. Sam wasn’t here because he was concerned. There was another reason. She suspected he was somehow involved in this. “How did you get all the way out here, though?”
“I followed you.” He slowly stepped closer to her, and with each step he took; she absentmindedly took a small step backwards.
“But, why?”
“I’m infatuated with you, Selene. First, you escape death and become one of us. Then, you escape death once again that night when Brian attacked you. Now, you’re able to kill him without even a single scratch? I want to know how you did it.”
“I don’t think that’s any of your concern.”
“Oh, yes, it is. You see, I trained Brian. He’s one of the best fighters out there. Don’t you realize, if you beat him, you are quite possibly the most powerful werewolf in New York City? Maybe even the world?”
Selene had no idea what Sam was getting at. However, the look in his eyes frightened her, even more than the evil look Brian had in his eyes when he was trying to kill her. “I highly doubt that.”
“I don’t. That night, when I bit you, I had no idea you would become this. You were supposed to die, like all the rest. I’ve created many werewolves during my life, but you are certainly unique.”
Finally, the truth comes out. He was the one who attacked her. She knew it the instant she had first looked into his eyes when he was detained at the agency. “You were the one who bit me after all. You were the one who killed all those people.”
“I’ve done lots of things I shouldn’t be too proud of, but think about it for a minute. If I hadn’t attacked you that night, you wouldn’t be the powerful creature you are today. You would still be a frail human. You never would have met Marcus.”
“Leave Marcus out of this!” she growled.
“Oh, no, you see, Marcus was a part of this all along. Back when I was a young werewolf, only about fifteen or so, I started wandering away from my pack. I would go out at night and stalk people and lure them into the woods. At first, it was just a game. My pack warned me to stop.
“Then, one day, I lured a little boy into the woods and bit him. One of my pack members saw me. I ran off, abandoning the boy deep in the forest. I lied to them; told them it never happened and that my pack member was making up stories. But they chose to believe him over me. Because I had violated the werewolf pact by biting a human against their will, they condemned me to death.
“The night before my execution date, I was able to escape. I went to live in the city, and have been there ever since, scavenging for any food I could find, converting anyone who was willing and teaching them to fight. Most of them abandoned me, saying that what I was doing was wrong. After a while, all but one left me: Brian. He stayed loyal to me all this time.”
Selene couldn’t believe what he had just told her. Everything made sense. Sam was the werewolf that converted both her and Marcus. That explained the emotional link between them; they were converted by the same werewolf, which technically made them blood-related in a way. Not in a sense that suggested they shouldn’t be mates, though. She was glad about that. No, because she and Marcus shared a similar fate, they were bonded in a way that very few others were. It was a gift.
As Selene stared into Sam’s cold, dark eyes, she realized she was faced with a threat unlike any other. She needed help, and fast. Keeping her eyes on her enemy, she let her mind wander away from her present state for a moment, concentrating on Marcus, calling him in her mind.
“I have an offer for you,” said Sam, breaking the silence and Selene’s concentration.
“What?” she growled, never taking her eyes off him.
“Come with me, join me in my quest. If you do that, I’ll let you live. Not only that, but I’ll take care of you and treat you as a queen would be treated. You can be my queen.”
“I’d rather die than become your mate!”
“Fine, as you wish,” he said one last time before he changed to his brown wolf form and snarled viciously at her.
Startled, she jumped backwards a little, finding herself dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. She slipped and almost lost her balance, falling forward to her knees as Sam lunged at her.
Then, out of nowhere, a streak of black whooshed by, knocking Sam through the air. Then, standing before her was the wolf form of Marcus, firmly standing his ground between her and their enemy.
Sam sprung up, snarled, and charged at Marcus. Marcus snarled in return. Then, just as Sam lunged at him, Marcus reared up on his hind legs and met his opponent with a sharp bite to the shoulder. Sam yelped as he snapped repeatedly at Marcus’ ear, missing every time. Marcus shoved Sam to the ground, re
leasing his grip a bit in the process. Sam slipped from his jaw’s grasp and sank his teeth into Marcus’ leg. Marcus then bit into the scruff of his neck, rolled them both over, and shoved him off.
Marcus sprung up in a hurry as to not be vulnerable to attack. But it wasn’t soon enough. Sam leapt at him, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him, intending on killing him.
Then, Sam felt a hard blow to his shoulder as he was sent flying off Marcus, landing several feet away. Selene, now in her white wolf form, raced toward him, and as he rolled over to get up, she landed on his back and sank her teeth into the back of his neck. He cowered just in time so her jaw couldn’t grasp onto his spine, instead only tearing into his fur.
Sam tried to shake her off, but was unsuccessful. Then, in a final attempt to get her off, eyeing the edge of the cliff just a couple feet away, he rolled and threw her off of his back in that direction. She skidded across the ground and her back feet went off the edge. She changed back to her human form just in time and her hand gripped a small tree on the very edge of the cliff before she was sent all the way off the edge.
She got a glimpse of Sam coming toward her just before he was knocked to the ground by Marcus. Selene pulled herself back up onto stable ground quickly and with ease and looked up to see Sam brutally shove Marcus, sending him flying through the air, in the opposite direction as her. Then, in a rage, he charged at Selene, snarling. She changed back to wolf form, prepared to fight, but as he leapt through the air toward her, she realized there was only one thing she could do to defeat him, once and for all. She rolled onto her side just in time to meet his impact, grabbing him with her paws as she rolled over all the way, toward the edge of the cliff. As she felt her body leave the ground, she let go of Sam, throwing him off the edge of the cliff as well.
As she realized that she was also going to fall, she changed back to human form, reaching up and trying to grasp at anything she could. A hand reached down and grabbed hers during her desperate attempt to stay alive.
“Hold on, Selene!” shouted Marcus, as he grabbed her other hand and pulled her up to safety.
She took a moment to recover from the adrenaline rush from her near-death experience and then got to her knees, looking into the eyes of her lover. She grabbed his face and kissed him in a way she had never kissed him before; the passion in her kiss was filled with overwhelming feelings of love and gratitude.
“You saved me again,” she whispered.
“And I’ll continue to save you until my heart stops beating,” he whispered back. He smiled, gazing into her eyes.
They both carefully peered over the edge of the cliff and saw Sam’s contorted body lying on the rocks below. The back of his head had impacted on the sharp edge of one of the rocks and blood poured from the wound. Selene could just barely make out the sight of his lifeless eyes staring upward. Everything came crashing on her all at once.
She got up, running away from the edge of the cliff to safer ground. She fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands as she began to cry.
“Don’t cry, Selene. It’s all over. He’s dead. He won’t ever hurt you or anyone else ever again,” he assured her, as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
She cried on his shoulder for a moment. Then, looking up at him, she said, “Let’s go home, Marcus.”
~ Chapter Fifteen ~
On their way back to the city, Marcus called everyone in the agency to hold a meeting for 5pm. Naturally, no one seemed happy about the random Sunday meeting, but they knew it was for something important, so they didn’t object.
Getting back in the city wasn’t too bad. It usually never was on Sundays. They went to Selene’s apartment first. By the time they made it there, it was around noon. The place was still a mess from that night when Brian had attacked her and then jumped through the window to escape, shattering the glass. Everything was still exactly the way they left it. Luckily there wasn’t any bad weather in the time she had been gone, so the worst thing about the broken window was that it let in some chilly air from outside, which didn’t bother Selene anyway, now that she was a werewolf. She didn’t used to like early spring weather like this, but she was enjoying it now. She dreaded the thought of the hot summer weather in the city.
Selene took a quick shower, and once she was out, Marcus took his turn. While he was showering, she picked up where he left off, straightening the apartment. By the time he was finished in the shower, she had just picked up the last piece of furniture that had gotten knocked over during her fight with Brian.
They stared at the window for a moment, wondering what they were going to do with it.
Then Selene shrugged carelessly and said, “Well, I guess I won’t worry about the window. I’ll put a board over it when I come back later.”
“No need to worry about it. You can move in with me if you want.”
Selene looked up at him and grinned. Of course, the thought had crossed her mind. They were practically living together since the day they met. Why shouldn’t they move in together?
“What? Why not? Why are you just grinning at me?” he asked.
“Why shouldn’t I?” she corrected him, still grinning.
“So, that’s a yes?”
“Of course it is, silly.”
They looked at each other and smiled at the thought of officially moving in together.
Selene and Marcus showed up at the agency around 4:45pm, settled in, and took a seat at the meeting table at 4:55, just when people were beginning to arrive.
“What’s this about, Marcus?” asked Yvonne. This time, she and Lucius were last to arrive, though they still arrived on time.
“We have great news!” he announced with a smile.
“You’re getting married,” Lin joked.
“Actually, no,” said Marcus, as he thought, ‘Though, marrying Selene sounds wonderful.’ He could sense Selene’s rise in excitement also after Lin’s remark. He pushed that thought from his mind for the time being and continued addressing the group. “We no longer have to worry about the murderer.”
“What?! Really?!” asked Yvonne, in awe. “What happened?”
“Well, it all happened on a camping trip Marcus took me on last night,” Selene began, explaining every little detail, starting with her encounter with Brian, and how she came out of the fight with him unscathed. Then she told them about Sam’s appearance and how it turned out that he was the murderer after all. She went over the details of the fight, and how she had almost died when she threw Sam off the cliff, but Marcus rescued her.
“Wow, that was close!” said Charlie. The story had him on the edge of his seat. He loved stories of action and adventure, especially when they ended well. He missed his own adventures he had had with Yvonne and others from the agency in the past, but those days were behind him. He was looking forward to a calm retirement with his wife, Mary.
“It sure was,” said Marcus. “In that split second, when Selene went off the cliff, it felt like my heart had stopped beating. I was so worried I was going to lose her.”
“But you were there to save me, once again,” said Selene, kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
“I told you, you don’t have to thank me. I love you and I’ll always protect you.”
“Aww, that’s sweet,” said Kate.
“Yvonne and I got together and started making plans for the new facility up north,” said Charlie. “We’d love your input, Marcus.”
“Sure, I’ll be glad to help.”
“Have you decided whether or not you’re moving yet?” asked Yvonne.
“No, not yet. I’m sorry.”
“Take your time. We’re still in the planning stages. We’ll need an answer in a couple weeks, at the latest. We should be finished drawing up the blue prints by then.”
“Okay, I’ll definitely tell you my decision by then.”
~ Chapter Sixteen ~
*Three Weeks Later*
Thi
ngs were quiet in the city once again, now that Sam and Brian were gone. Marcus had put in his resignation to the NYPD that Monday, the morning after the murder streak was officially over. He knew they’d miss him there, but after spending that short amount of time at Black Wolf Agency, he knew he was needed there. Not only that, but he truly fit in at the agency. He suspected his partner knew he had something to do with the murder streak finally being over, but a word was never spoken about it.
For that whole week after the deaths of Sam and Brian, Selene was plagued by nightmares of them returning. Each dream ended the same way; with one of them killing her. Every time, she woke, sweating and panting, her heart racing. And each time, Marcus was there to comfort her and assure her it was only a dream; that they were gone and would never harm anyone ever again.
Finally, one evening just before sunset, in an attempt to help her, Marcus brought Selene to the cemetery.
“What are we doing here, Marcus?” she asked, holding his hand tight and staying close by his side. Cemeteries always gave her the creeps, ever since she was a child and the older kids told her stories of bodies rising from their graves.
“Giving you closure.”
They stopped right in front of one of the graves. Upon its stone read: Sarah Lynn Anderson. Marcus’ cousin. She was only twenty-five years old when her life was brutally taken from her.
“Because of you, no more innocent lives like Sarah’s will be lost,” he told her. “Because of what you did, the city is now at peace. You are a hero.”
As Selene stared at Sarah’s grave, her eyes filled with tears and gently spilled over, leaving trails down her cheeks.
“I’m proud of you,” he said, gently lifting her chin with his finger to look into her eyes. “You’re the bravest person I know. I’ve never seen anyone face danger the way you did.”
Selene smiled and blushed. “You’re brave, too. You faced the same danger that I did.”
“But I’ve been a werewolf for almost my entire life. I’ve been a cop for years. My job is to protect people.”
