I look at the piece of paper and scrawled on it reads -
You’ll find your answers at the Phelan farm in Choctaw Oklahoma.
Great, I have clue number two. Now to figure out how far away from civilization I am, and start heading that direction. I sit in my tent and wait for the first signs of light before I head out. I roll up the sleeping bag with all three cans of ravioli. The bag came with a bag that can be used as a backpack. I’ll leave the tent, in case I can’t figure out how to get out of the woods, and otherwise maybe someone will find an abandoned tent and notify the authorities. They wouldn’t know who they’re looking for, because I can’t leave a note with my name.
Antsy from sitting and waiting, I pace back and forth until the sun starts giving a morning glow. Time to find a road and get out of here.
I walk for hours it seems before stumbling upon a paved road. Worried about morning traffic, I walk along the tree line. Obviously, that wasn’t something to worry about. Exactly four cars traveled this road. They were all headed the same direction I’m going, assuming they’re going somewhere - I must go there too. The license plates are Oklahoma, so I’m a little closer to Choctaw.
It isn’t long before I see a gas station that looks like a barn. The sign says, Big Bob’s Feed & Stuff, I guess I’ll find out where I am soon enough. The dead grass along the path is filled with stickers so I scoot over into the street to get out of the stickers. Before going into the store I sit down on a bench and I pull stickers off my pant legs. Running my fingers through my hair, I walk through the automated doors. From a distance the store looked like an old barn, as I sit here, I get a better look and it was never a barn. Okay, I’m totally thrown off by the interior of the building. Everything looks fresh and new in the state-of-the-art store. The fluorescent lights make the room as bright as it is outside. One side of the store has rifles and fishing poles for sale, as well as feed for farm animals. The other side of the store has a small section for groceries, souvenirs, and stuff. A family with three kids under five is running up and down the aisles screaming and giggling. The parents are trying to scold them but the kids don’t care. They keep running around like little kids. They’ve obviously had too much sugar this morning.
Thankfully, there’s a map with a ‘you are here’ sticker, and it says I’m in Choctaw. I ask the nearest employee (a large man that could very well be Big Bob) if he knows how to get to the Phelan farm, the man says talk to the guy in the coffee shop and points over to a café. The coffee shop is set up like a fifties-styled soda shop. Red and white checkered floors and old fashioned soda bar looks like fun for families to come and have after school snacks. Beyond the soda fountains, is a coffee lover’s haven. The smell of freshly brewed coffee hits me in the face so hard I almost cough.
“Hi, the man over there said you might know where the Phelan farm is,” I say to the young curly hair man. He’s pretty cute, he can’t be more than eighteen, but his eyes show a wisdom and kindness that couldn’t have come at a better time. He tells me his name is Abel and his friend is Oakley. He turns to the heavy-set woman with the name-tag Imogene on and order another coffee.
“I don’t have any cash on me,” I lie. Well, I don’t really lie, I don’t have any cash period.
“It’s on me. I believe on feeding the world a good cup of coffee and the coffee-gods will look down on me and never let me go without the nectar of the gods. Did you drive here? You can follow us if you’d like.”
“No, I walked.”
“No problem, it’s pretty far, you can ride with us to the farm. We’re going there once we load the truck with some supplies. We’re not crazed lunatics or anything.”
I laugh nervously and what could be on the list of dumbest things I’ve ever done, I agreed to get in the truck with them to ride to the farm. Since I don’t know who I really am, I’ve no idea if it is the dumbest thing, but I know it is the only option I have at this moment.
We pull up to the farm and I’m sure that whoever I am has never seen a farm like this one. The enormous house, with its enormous dog, and long driveway, and two hot guys don’t equal up to the type of farm life I’d expect. I don’t know what kind of crops they farm, but they are successful at whatever they do.
Everyone, including myself, is taking this too well. I even show them the note I found in my pocket. After lunch, Abel, Oakley and I talked about me waking up in the woods. I trust them, there’s a sense of belonging that I get from them. I don’t want to sound like a pig, but I’m starving again. As if they read my mind, they raided the fridge for leftovers from lunch. Abel talked to his girlfriend and she’s coming over and bringing me some clothes to wear. Later we’re going to try
to find the location of the tent so they can figure out if any clues were left behind.
Our night ended without any new clues and I was invited to stay at the house overnight. It isn’t as though I have any options. The house is never ending, with several guestrooms for overnight guests. I picked a simple room with a beautiful designer bathroom. After getting ready for bed, I jumped up into the middle of the bed and turn on the TV to see if maybe my picture is up as a missing persons.
The smell of bacon and eggs wake me in the morning. The entire house is alive with chatter and happiness. The vibe throughout the rooms is happy and full of life. Last night, we decided to call me Sam. It was the first thing to come to mind when they asked me what I’d like to be called.
I wonder if anyone is worried about me. Maybe I have a husband, but my finger doesn’t feel empty and it doesn’t have a ring tan-line. I’m sure if I have a husband, he’d be worried about me, or maybe he is why I don’t know who I am. Maybe, my husband is trying to kill me and as a defense mechanism I got amnesia. What if he thinks I left him and feels like I don’t love him? I wonder what love feels like. I’m going to drive myself crazy if I keep going over this insanity.
Oakley and Abel tell me they may have some answers for me and said there will be a demonstration. Everyone is nice, and they have gone above and beyond to help me. If all of the answers are here, as the note suggested, why isn’t anyone telling me the answer?
Abel is acting strange. He’s sitting on the edge of the couch cushion, his leg bouncing up and down frantically. His girlfriend Chrissy is doing her best to calm him down. She’s rubbing his arm and whispering in his ear that everything will be okay. Something is wrong, the air is swirling with nervous energy.
Out of nowhere, Oakley is standing in middle of the room. He’s older than Abel by a few years. I’m guessing he’s in his early twenties. His smile is natural, and when he laughs he has dimples. I don’t think I’m his type. It doesn’t matter anyway, it isn’t as though I’m here to date anyone. My maybe husband wouldn’t like me having sex with anyone else.
The next thing that’s thrown up in the air is a tale about werewolves! Werewolves!! What the hell? I’ve landed myself in the middle of the crazy farm. Oakley starts stripping off his clothes, which I’m not complaining, but it is odd timing. He then turns his back and drops to the ground. What happens next is without a doubt, the CRAZIEST thing I’ve ever seen. He started morphing into what looks like a very mean Siberian Husky. He cocks his head to the side and looks my way.
Hyperventilating. Can’t breath. I’m a lunatic. I need loony farm. They need loony farm. This is the loony farm. Heart pounding. Room spinning. Light headed. Going to fai…….
I open my eyes and I’m on the floor and Abel and Chrissy are staring at me.
“Is she awake?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she remembers?”
The voices are blended together, belonging to no one in particular. Questions I can’t answer are sending me into shock. I can’t breathe.
“Stop talking!” I shout, or it sounded like a shout in my head, but sounded weak to my ears. I turn my head and the wolf is on the floor with his head resting on his front paws. “Th that’s a wolf.”
“Yes, and it is Oakley in wol
f form,” Abel says. “Oakley, why don’t you shift back so we can talk to Sam.”
Over the hour, I hear stories about werewolf lore and how some people are born as one and some are bitten. I can’t be awake, this has to be some strange dream. I saw him turn into a wolf. If I’m hallucinating, wouldn’t everyone try to tell me the wolf isn’t real?
“Sam, you have a bite mark on your side don’t you?” Oakley blurted out. Abel leaned over and nudged him.
“How do you know?” Did they do this to me?
“Wolf smelling, and darlin’ you have a wound on your side. It isn’t healing is it?”
Tears sting the back of my eyes and I answer with a shake of my head. His eyes are understanding and compassionate, two things I don’t feel at the moment.
The four of us go to the kitchen, Chrissy takes the cheesecake Estelle the cook made for dessert tonight. Everything feels better with cheesecake. Instinctively, I know I like cherries on mine.
Oakley takes a sip of his Coca Cola before talking. “Sam, it isn’t all bad. I know that’s easy for me to say since I’ve known this life since I was young. The benefits will outweigh the bad, I promise you. Scent, we can smell anything, especially another wolf. As a pack, we are a brotherhood, family, whatever you want to call us, we will be your family Sam.”
“I have noticed that I can smell things recently. The honeysuckle in the woods was so sweet it made my stomach growl. Chrissy, you don’t smell like they do, are you a wolf?”
She shakes her head no. “I’m not, I am however blessed with a healing ability as well as the ability to talk to animals. Abel and I can carry on complete conversations without ever saying a word.” She’s nervous about telling a new werewolf about her abilities, but Abel coaxed her into telling me.
“Another cool thing is our sense of pleasure. Not to embarrass you, but we have great sex with other wolves. We’re incredibly strong, and some of us have an extra ability to go with our wolfy-side. Sex with a human has to be very gentle or they might think we’re too rough. Just you wait and see.” Oakley is obviously happy with his sexual pleasure. “You’ll look at sex differently too. Until you mate with your forever mate, you’ll have sex for the sex. No strings, just sex. It’s different than the drama that goes on with humans, no one has hurt feelings. We’re more liberal I guess…”
I sit and focus on the crumbs on my plate, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Suddenly, self-conscience of my surroundings, of my stench from the gaping wound on my side, I put a protective wall around me. No more talks of supernatural beings, or sex, or my lack of knowing who I am. I want to go to bed. “Excuse me, I need to go to bed.” I got up with a squeal from my chair against the tiled floor. Everyone bid me a good-night and I went to hide in my room.
This can’t be real, none of it can be real. Why can’t I remember? What is wrong with me?
Chapter 15. Shift
Five days post arrival to the farm.
“Sam, eventually we’re going to have to talk about everything,” Abel says from the other side of my bedroom door.
The last five days I’ve hidden in my room or on the outskirt of the tree-line. I’m no closer to figuring everything out than I was when I arrived. The local news hasn’t said anything about a missing persons. Why no one is looking for me is scary. Maybe I’m a bad person and no one wants to know where I am. I wipe away the tear streaming down my face with the back of my hand.
Everyone has brought trays of food and set them outside of my door. It’s better this way. The less people I influence the less people who are hurt by me. Obviously, I suck as a human.
As quietly as I can, I go to the living room to grab the daily paper. I keep hoping someone would put an advertisement about me missing. Today is different, my legs feel like jell-o as I approach the room. Without warning, my body slumps to the floor. A pain so horrendous I vomit as it ravages my body, I scream in agony. Like echos of voices, I hear them telling me to relax.
“You bastard! Stay away from me or I will KILL you!” I scream through the pain.
Oakley’s voice tells me to relax and to breathe through the pain. “Shut-up you yoga freak! I hate you! I hate all of you! You did this to me!” The last part I’m not sure if I said the words out loud or in my head.
I try to lift my head, it feels so foggy and heavy. Where am I? You’re fucking kidding me! I’m in a cage? With bars? What the hell?
I’m too woozy to stand, so I reposition myself on the giant dog bed to get comfortable. My ass feels so weird, like an extension of my spine or something. What is it? Ohhhhh, my hallucination tail. Someone’s coming, I hear them walking closer.
“Sam?” He says.
I don’t recognize his face, but there’s something familiar about his scent. Have I met him before? I try to focus on him but my eyelids are too heavy to keep open.
Chapter 16. Jail Cell
PARKER
The little wolf’s ears twitched as I approached. The sedative should be wearing off soon. Her coat is silver and white with darker variations on her legs. Her tail is tucked in a scared position, and her eyes are barely open. Something about her hopeless faraway expression in her eyes pulls on my heartstrings.
My wolf is jumpy as he looks at her with me. We both agree she is a pretty wolf but has a wounded heart.
“Hi Sam, I’m the beta of the pack. Well, I was the beta until our alpha was killed last year. We can talk about that stuff later.” Still standing, I kneel so she can see my face. “You don’t have to be scared Sam, I won’t let anything happen to you. Once you shift to human, we will let you out of this holding area. I know, it resembles a jail cell, but that’s because you’re very strong. You have no idea how strong you are, but we do and this cell is made to keep you safe.”
I sit down at the desk and spread out my crackers and methodically spread peanut butter on each one. Sam’s nose starts twitching as she smells the sweet peanut spread. I walk over to the cage and hold up a cracker for her. The little wolf eyes look up at me, hungry and sad.
“It’s okay, come on over Sam. I won’t hurt you. You won’t hurt me either,” I coax her over to me.
Like a baby deer standing on wobbly legs she ventures to stand for the first time. Her spindly legs shake under her weight. I’ve never seen such an unsure wolf before today. No matter how hard she struggles to make it over for the tasty morsel of peanut butter, she collapses on the bed. I slide the plate of premade crackers through to her with the stick we have for sick wolves. She doesn’t raise her head, just her eyes, and I want nothing more than to protect her.
~~~~~~
SAPPHIRE/SAM
I’m either in the worst nightmare I could ever imagine, or I’m really a werewolf, which is still a horrible nightmare. I think human, but I can’t turn human? How will my husband find me if I’m a werewolf?
Someone is coming, I hear their footsteps, another one of the wolves I think. Although he looks rugged, the dark circles under his eyes gives away he’s not sleeping well. He’s older than Abel and Oakley, maybe mid-twenties. He’s agitated, and grumbles under his breath about being a babysitter. I don’t need a damn sitter; I need someone to switch me back. Give me some magic potion and I’ll be happy to relieve you of your babysitting gig asshat.
He introduces himself as the beta of the pack. After a few minutes, his agitation dissolved and his body relaxed. He talks to me a little, but all I’m concerned about is the food he has on his desk. He has peanut butter and crackers! I’ve never been so hungry in my life…at least I don’t think I have. I’m engulfed in the fragrance of his snack and I honestly feel as if I could kill for one of his crackers. Kill as in dead…dead.
“Would you like one?” He asks after noticing me staring at his food.
My head is awkward, the size is huge and it feels like my neck will break it’s so heavy. Standing up proves to be a challenge every time I attempt to stand. My legs, all four of them are like standing on sticks with giant paws. I’m embarrassed for him to see me
so compromised; I fumble around until I’m back on my doggie bed.
I watch him as he puts the crackers on a plate and uses a long spatula looking stick to push it to me. I glance up at him and for the briefest of moments; I feel a pang of desire for this man.
I’ve no idea how long I’ve been here, time escapes me. I count the bars that surround me, the bars that define my prison.
Beta is back today, his gorgeous eyes are watching me, and I can see the wheels spinning in his mind. It’s as though he’s piercing through my wolf and reaching in for the human.
“Who are you Sam?”
I answer by lifting my eyes. I don’t know.
He gets up from his chair and kneels down on the ground, able to get a good visual of his face I decide I like his rugged look. He’s wearing a tight-fitting black polo and a pair of trendy jeans. His shoes are perfect, no scuffs or signs of wear. Interesting, for a guy that works on a farm.
“I’ve kept an eye open for any news about you missing, and I haven’t seen any. What are the chances you’re not from Oklahoma,” he says with a hint of concern in his voice.
I learned how to stand and walk today. I wanted to reply.
He shook his head and smiled. “You’re a conundrum like no other I’ve run across.”
At least I can stand up and walk now. I reply.
He sat on the floor with his back to the solid wall that made up for the back of my cage. He turns his head and stares me in the eyes. No matter how much I wanted to shift my eyes, something in me forbid me to. I can hardly breathe as I sit here waiting for him talk to me. He’s the only one that comes to check on me that stays and visits me like I’m a human. Desperate to show him my new trick, I stand up quickly.
Sapphire, A Werewolf Love Story Page 9
