“Tell Norden if he wants us so damn badly he’s going to have to come and collect us in person. We don’t do underlings.” I state at her angrily.
Thane, Phelan and I fall into line with one another at the heart of our defense line, we let out a sound that is more terrifying than a regular menacing growl. It’s loud and we all do it, automatically and in unison, as if to say, you’ve been warned.
As one of the dreadlocks’ wolves runs up to scoop her up off the ground and help her, drag her back to the car.
We’re out in the open here, on the side of a public highway. By werewolf understandings, and laws pretty much everywhere, we shouldn’t even be displaying claws and fangs. Not when humans can see it on display.
But screw rules, this is personal and Norden and his pack need to know that. After all, he’s made it damn personal, this relentless, anonymous pursuit of us.
The wolves scramble back to their cars and peel out off the highway shoulder quickly, tires squealing and kicking up dust and gravel as other oncoming cars break suddenly to avoid collisions with them. Eight wolves against six and we made them bug out first with one action, I feel damn proud.
No one relaxes until both cars, turn around and disappear from sight the way they came, not the way we are headed.
I straighten up and look across at Phelan. “Nice team work.” I say as we high five one another.
But it is Markus who’s vision I capture over Phelan’s shoulder and see the look of surprise that filters to hurt on his face. As the boys talk amongst themselves walking back to the vehicle, Markus walks over to me.
“Blue eyes, teeth, claws…how?” He says back at me. I forgot, ever since I found out I could partially shape shift, was a Dire wolf and my telepathic ability, I haven’t yet mentioned it to my family.
Paris, Addison and Booker Parish know, and that’s it. Paris and I thought it was best we keep it low key for the moment until I knew more about my abilities or what they meant to me. Markus, is the closest one to me in my family, and I should’ve talked to him. Worse, I could’ve. Markus always listens to me, he’s always there for me and I held this new development back from him, like he didn’t count, shouldn’t know.
“We should talk.” I state feeling my teeth shift back to my regular human teeth. “I recently learnt some stuff about myself, besides all of this.” I state waving a hand around at the car.
“Yeah, we probably should.” Markus agrees as we begin walking back together. I can tell he’s hurt by this revelation. Markus walks up to the passenger side door “We’ll talk later.” Markus says to me somewhat annoyed as I hop back into the back of the car again.
26
We stop to swap over drivers briefly. The tension that was in the car earlier is now none existent. Silence seems to be louder than the background sounds of the car radio. Markus swaps seats with Thane at a driver swap over and Paris moves up to sit with Phelan, allowing Markus and I to sit together, alone.
Markus sighs heavily and turns in his seat to face me, waving his hands at me. “Tell me, all of it.”
Markus and I are a bit like Paris and I, in the sense that we don’t do secrets. Sure we might hold out on the rest of our family, but not with each other. It’s the reason for our closeness because we absorb one another’s secrets, thoughts and feelings.
We offer understanding and confidence to the other one. I guess, in a way, I’ve always treated Markus like he was my twin brother. He’s always been empathetic towards me and everyone around him, but our bond, has always been closer than our other siblings.
“This doctor, a friend of Paris’s she ran some tests on me.” I start not knowing how else to ease into the conversation.
“Wait a minute. What tests? Why was some doctor who isn’t our family doctor, the only doctor who’s allowed to attend to you, running tests on you?” Markus asks me clearly upset with me.
“You were out of state when all this stuff happened, short version of the story is, I got poisoned with wolfs bane.” I see the horror of realisation show on Markus’s face. He’s never been particularly good at hiding his emotions. I guess that’s part of his charm. He’s so damn open.
“What?” His voice is a horse whisper.
I put a hand up as if to placate him. “I didn’t know at the time, no one did, it was in these, pills, we thought they were pain killers. Eventually, we,”
“Who’s we?” Markus asks me.
“Addison and Jules from the Manhattan Maen pack, we figured out the tablets had been pressed with traces of wolfs bane. They weren’t exactly poisoning me, like trying got kill me, they were just inhibiting all my werewolf abilities during lunar week. It was making me sick. My body was trying to fight a force that was locking it down.” I look at Markus and sigh heavily.
“After we figured that out, Paris and I got checked out by his doctor friend,”
“What’s the doctor’s name?” Markus asks pulling out his cell phone. “Megan Marisini, she works with Paris and the New Teme pack, she’s known in the wolf community.” I state back at him as Markus presses a button on his phone and holds it close to his mouth.
“Doctor, Megan Marisini.” He says into the phone before tapping a button again and putting this phone away. “Go on,”
“The tests were just supposed to tell me if there was any wolfs bane still in my system.” I state at him. “But the good doctor took it upon herself to do a bit more than that,” Markus’s frown is deepening as he listens to me. “She did some genealogy tests on my blood work and I found that I’m a Dire wolf and I have some abilities we didn’t know about until the night of the New York storm.”
“What abilities?”
I paused, I knew this was going to hurt him, because Markus should have been one of the first people I spoke to about all of this. “I can do partial shifts at will now, my emphatic ability has gotten stronger since I’ve been around Phelan and I can speak to other wolves, telepathically.”
“The blue eyes, how, does that work?”
“It came when I did the first partial shape shift, turns out my mother had blue eyes, and now it happens when I do a shift.”
“And you’re telepathic?”
“Yeah, before when we were under attack by Norden’s wolves, I was instructing Phelan on what to do telepathically whilst talking to that blonde one. I was telling Paris to get ready too.”
Markus shifts in his seat. “Who else can you talk to like that?”
“I haven’t tried it on many. But Thane, Phelan and I can talk to one another easily. I gather it’s a pack trait that makes it so easy for us when we’re around each other. Outside of the Cavellos I’ve only managed to see it work on Addison, Booker and Paris.”
“Only,” He mutters back at me and I know he’s hurt by this.
“Paris and I have been trying to test out my abilities, to see what works, what doesn’t and on who.” Markus nods his head
“What am I thinking right now?” Markus asks me.
“I’m not psychic. Just telepathic. But it only works if the wolf in question makes a connection to me in the first place. I can’t force myself inside either head, at least, I don’t want to.”
“And once you have this connection, does that mean you can read their thoughts any time you want?” I can see Markus is curious now and probably somewhat concerned also.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t exactly tried to do that. I know that I can connect with the same wolf a lot easier the second time around and that they and I can put up defenses to stop someone getting in their head without permission.” I explain to him.
“So, how do you make the connection with the other werewolf?”
“They uh, focus on me, mentally and reach out to me and I open a part of myself to them, I guess is the easiest way of explaining it.” I’m aware that the rest of the car is deathly silent and that everyone inside the vehicle can hear everything I’m telling Markus. But I guess, they all know bits and pieces of it anyway, depending on their involveme
nt with me. Now I feel like, we’re all on a little bit of even ground, now that Markus is aware of my new found abilities.
We sit silently together for a moment or two. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this, earlier? We used to tell each other everything Bg.”
And there it is. The guilt trip from the hurt I’ve given him. “You haven’t been around lately.” I say glancing over at him. “And I feel like a lot has happened to me recently and we’re just so busy leading our own lives, there’s barely room for one another to be like we used to be, anymore.”
Markus nods his head. “Yeah, I guess it’s different now that we no longer living under the same roof. Leading our lives.” He sighs heavily. “After father’s death, I just had to get away. Needed some time to myself. But now I wonder if I did the right thing. I didn’t mean for you to feel like I’d abandoned you. I would never do that, you have to know that.”
“I do.” I say looking at him softly. It’s hard to think anything bad of Markus, he just doesn’t warrant that kind of thinking because he’s not that type of person. He cares about everyone. And I hate that he feels bad about this, he shouldn’t. I should, and do. I should’ve told him, talked to him in the few chances that I did have when he was around me. I don’t want to lose my relationship with my brother. It’s very important to me.
Markus and I fall into the familiarity of strained silence that the rest of the car has taken on as its ambience. This isn’t like us, we’re not awkward around one another. It feels like something is broken between us, all because I didn’t tell Markus about my new found werewolf abilities.
I decide to do what any rational female would do and avoid thinking about it any further by going into to denial and sleeping for the majority of the car trip, it’s the easiest option.
27
I dream of werewolves. Lots of them. More than a pack, an army of them, looking at me, readying for a fight, a blood bath is what they are after. They want to tear me to pieces, limb from limb.
Werewolves that look like threatening beasts of legends don’t think I’ve ever seen werewolves like this before. They are monsters.
My heart is pounding because this is the end. There will be an outcome and that will be the answer I have been after, but it might not be the one I want.
But I’m not alone, there is someone else there with me, I can feel it. Encircled by these wolves that will kill us. They will rip our flesh apart and eat it all, before crushing our bones till we are dust.
They mean to wipe me out. To take away my existence, to ensure I am never remembered, to make sure there is no one like me, ever again. I feel the presence of another, but cannot see them.
I cannot take my eyes of the werewolves on my half of the circle. One false move and they will flood me and over run me. I don’t stand a chance here, I am fighting an impossibility that is because of me.
The werewolves stomp their feet, so much back and forth as they wait for permission to kill me, that it sounds like thunder on the ground and a land readying for war.
A real werewolf war, not a pissy little ego fight, not a turf war that will end with everyone abiding by someone else’s rules.
These werewolves, pull back their lips and snarl, dripping blood and showing me razor terrifying teeth that are going to puncture every spare space on my body. They’ll take my head, They'll rip my womb from me. They will take everything I am, everything I have.
Markus? My mind whispers trying to reach my brother telepathically. I want him here by my side, with me. I want to know he will miss me when I am gone. I want him to know that I love him and I’m sorry I couldn’t do better than this.
I want the unreserved comfort of true love and feeling that I get from him. I want him to make this nightmare stop. I want him to save me. I want to cry without him, cry until my tears dissolve me into liquid, so that the werewolves before me cannot eat me.
I feel a hand reach around for mine and lace fingers in mine. I wish I could see who it was that is trapped with me. But for the first time in my life I’m utterly terrified beyond belief. My life is going to be dissected in seconds and I cannot do anything about it but die.
They want me to die, they want to feel my life, seep from me, and flow through them as they drink all my blood. So none of it can leak into the earth and remain for anything else to feel my presence.
The ground we stand on, will be burnt till it is renewed upon our death. I somehow know this. This is about ending to begin again and for that to happen, I must die. Not a noble death, maybe if I’m lucky, a quick one.
But these werewolves, all want a piece of me, because somewhere, someone has told them, they can be eternal if they can taste my flesh, and eat my bones.
Sweat drips down my face, into my eyes and I dare not blink. I know the minute I do, I am dead.
I see the werewolves on my side of the circle, arching back, muscles tensing, ears flattening. This is the sign of an animal who is ready to attack its enemy.
I am its enemy. Me and my kind. The fingers tighten in my hand and I know I am so screwed, I don’t know what to do to get out of this, except, wake up. With this knowledge I find my heart beating till it will break out of me.
I feel trapped in here, in this land where I am hated. Where these werewolves will shred my skin from its bone and break every part of me till they are sure, there is no wolf left in my fragrance, and no woman in my scent. They mean to make me extinct.
I turn towards the one holding my hand. If my life is to go, I wish the last thing I look upon to be this person who stands here with me, ready to die with me.
I jerk awake from my sleep, my leg kicking out at the seat in front of me. I’ve slouched right down in my seat. I look around me quickly at the male werewolves in the car.
Paris is on his cell phone talking to someone in a low voice. He looks at me and says “Hold on,” and turns to me “Everything alright?” Paris asks me softly from across the seat back at me as he sits side on, looking back at me.
I nod my head and straighten up in my seat and look out the window, rubbing my eyes hastily. I don’t want to fall back into that dream. I think if I do, I will be captured again and this time, getting out won’t be so damn easy.
28
We stop again, this time in Ontario not far from Quebec. We’re all stupidly hungry and having take-away only lasts so long with a werewolf appetite. We need more than a few handfuls of burgers to keep us all happy.
There is a pile of wrappers littering the car inside and the left over scent on the wrappers is making stomachs gurgle hungrily.
Besides, the atmosphere in the car is weird. Wired and weird. We’re all not coping with being cooped up and out of sorts, for whatever reasons they may be.
We need fresh air, and movement and at a bare minimum, another damn toilet break. I need to stretch, it’s not natural to put werewolves in a confined moving space for such a long period of time.
“Right,” Paris says addressing us all. “Then let’s put it to a damn vote. All those in favor of run and hunt, then lunch?” He says looking around the group.
I put my hand up. The debate is about whether we stop off and get meals somewhere in Ontario, real meals at a restaurant, and keep going till we get to Quebec or whether we do a run in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest first.
Possibly hunting down some game in our wolf forms, and then shift back and get a real meal at a restaurant, before reaching Quebec by nightfall.
Phelan’s hand shoots up, as does Thanes, Paris looks at Markus and Addison, and it’s Addison who slides his hand up. Paris rolls his eyes skywards as Markus shakes his head.
“All right, those who wants to run, will do so as a pack and stay together.” Paris says looking directly at me. I point to my chest and look at him shocked. “You’re running by my side, no if’s no buts. That’s what’s going to happen.” Paris says to me seriously.
I let out a heavy sigh. “Whatever.” I mutter tiredly.
When will all this high
alert behavior around me be over? Will it ever be over? Must I always have a werewolf pack at my back and a body guard by my side? When do I get to be me? When do I get to be free?
When did my life become so crazy? Two years ago it wasn’t anything like this. I was a nobody. Just another werewolf, just a beta werewolf. The most common of the common. I was the werewolf girl who came from the leading Brooklyn werewolf pack’s family but did not out shine her sister. Didn’t cause nearly as much trouble as her older, alpha, sister, Bodil.
Oh how times have changed.
I was in relationship that was one sided, and weak at the best of times. My Ex, Conall never got into truly wild capers like this. We fought over us, and stupid, petty, couple like fights. That was as exciting or out of normal as my life got.
My family was whole. I had a mother, a father and all my siblings. Everything since then has changed, it’s just been twisting, turning, continuously, slowly and shifting me along with it, moving me further and further into the twister that has become my werewolf life now. Kid-napping, being hunted, fights with other werewolves, the list goes on.
“What are you thinking?” Paris asks me breaking into my thoughts as we strip off our clothes in a deep part of the forest that is far away from any hiking trails. “You have a little scowl on your face.”
“I guess I was just thinking, life was never this crazy with Conall, is all.” I say absently pull-ing my jeans off.
I should’ve know that it’s the wrong thing to say. For one, not very tactful, for two, it’s my ex-boyfriend I’m mentioning while I’m getting naked to my beau.
“You want Conall is that it?” Paris asks jealously, marching over to me and pinning me against a tree, bare chest, to chest.
He hates Conall Wakely and Conall hates him. Worse, Paris hates the thought of Conall ever having been with me. He hates that we come from the same damn pack, because it means we are still in one anthers lives, to a degree. I may not hate Conall, but I do know, I don’t want to be with him again.
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