Moon Rising: A Wolfland Novel: Four - Book Part Vampire and Wolf series. (The Wolfland Saga)

by E. S Night

  “Well, you're upset that we can't go on our date, so I thought I’d bring the date to you.” He smiled.

  I avoided eye contact with him. “What would you have done if I’d have still been asleep?”

  “This dinner has been on standby since four, your mum just texted me saying you're awake

  and I heated it up.” Grayson laughed.

  I tried to move up the bed. “I’m impressed, thank you. Wait – since four? Mum said you came to see me in the morning.”

  “I've not left since we spoke last night.” He stared at me.

  Mum sighed. “It's true. I didn't want to tell you that so he didn't come across all needy.”

  “Yeah, thanks for that Mrs Lawson.” Grayson grinned.

  “So, you've not showered or anything and you want me to date you.”

  “If you'll have me. Yes.” He smiled making me forget our argument last night. God damn - that he's Irish, that accent gets me every time.

  I nodded giving in to his charm. “So, who helped you cook? Mum?” I turned to her.

  “This is all him Abi.” She said, heading towards the door. “I'll leave you two alone.” She winked closing the door behind her.

  Grayson unveiled all his hard work, serving up a three-course meal. It was apparent that my mum must have influenced his menu choices. Everything he cooked was Italian, my favourite. There were crimson roses and a beautiful champagne flute he’d placed on my side table. I

  couldn’t believe the amount of effort he’d put into this. My ex Jackson’s idea of romance was a pizza on a Friday night, which I had to pay for.

  It appeared that Grayson was popular with the nurses. He’d persuaded them to let us play a few country songs in my room. I could tell by his face it wasn’t his favourite music in the world, but I loved that he’d thought about what I liked. He continued to be a gentleman all-night; attentive and charming, hilarious; I couldn’t stop laughing. The door opened, it was a nurse making her presence known.

  “Hello Abigail, can I bring these through please.” She said, holding four pink, helium balloons in the shape of a love heart.

  “Seriously?” I laughed.

  “It’s our first date. I wanted to leave an impression.” He laughed.

  “Grayson, I think I’m –” He interrupted my confession. He sighed, waiting for the nurse to leave. “Abigail, don't. If you're thinking of saying anything big tonight, I really don’t want this to be how you say it.”

  “I was going to say, I think I’m in love with the food.” I spoke, embarrassed by his honesty.

  “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want – you know what,

  let’s just eat - I’ll shut up.” He continued digging into his food. That’s not what I was going to say at all, I wanted to tell him I was falling for him. Grayson’s reaction confused me and I wondered if he felt like I did? I let my insecurities go for the sake of the evening and tried to enjoy myself. After dessert, he helped the nurses clear the dishes out of the room and spent almost ten minutes thanking them for driving the evening.

  When he came back, there was only one thing on my mind. “Come here.”

  Grayson walked to the side of the bed. “Yes, what can I help you with?” He smiled.

  “Kiss me.” I insisted, leading his lips to meet mine. I stroked the back of his head as we kissed, causing my back to slope down the bed. My ribs were in terrible pain, but I hid it well from him. I hesitated for a second, knowing what I really wanted. “Get on here I want you to hold me.”

  “What if I hurt you?”

  “Please.” I said, holding his hand, gesturing him to get on the bed.

  He kicked his shoes off and climbed around me. “Okay, two minutes and then I get off.”

  Grayson’s arm was beneath my head and his

  other around my waist, I was safe. I could sense myself sinking deeper into a trance like state, my eyes were now feeling much heavier. “Abigail, I’m falling in love with you.” Grayson whispered in my ear.

  He stole my moment and then just blurted it out. I was too tired to yell at him, so I squeezed Grayson’s hand letting him know I’d heard his beautiful admission – he already knew I felt the same.

  I woke up at the sound of the door creaking open. I noticed that Grayson had disappeared. I saw my dad’s silhouette standing in the corridor.

  “Hello Sweet pea.” He mumbled pacing towards me.

  I pulled him into an embrace. “Hi Dad.”

  “I see you’re still clumsy.” Dad whispered, trying to be funny.

  “Yep, I am – you didn’t need to come all this way for me, I’ll have healed in a few weeks.”

  “Wolves couldn’t keep me away Abigail. Mum said you're going through some stuff, do you want to talk about it?” I tried not to think about how strange his choice of words was considering what's happened.

  “No, mum can tell you all about it, I’m

  exhausted.”

  “Okay, I’m staying here tonight; I’ll be on the couch if you need anything.” He said attempting to act how he thinks a dad should. “Abigail, I know I’ve not been around for you and Logan, but I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere.”

  I turned to look at him. “What do you mean? Not going anywhere.”

  “I’ve taken a leave of absence from my job and I’m not leaving you. Not until I'm sure you’re okay.”

  “And then you’ll disappear again and head back to London, yeah?” I turned my head to the side.

  “Abigail, I’m trying here, you don’t –” I interrupted his verbal monologue that would have lasted about an hour.

  “I’m not interested dad, I need rest – you can talk AT me tomorrow.” I said unsympathetic to his stupid life decisions.

  Dad must have taken the hint because he took his duffel bag off my bed and made himself comfortable on the leather couch at the back of the room. My dad’s place was with his family regardless of his and mum’s childish arguments and I wished that he could see that.

  The five weeks in hospital, flew past. It ended up being a five-week stay because there was a complication with my back, nothing serious, but it took a bit longer for me to feel normal again. Grayson came to visit me every single day as did mum, Konrad and dad and with no shortage of arguments from either of them. Logan came most days after school and told me all about Ella. I continued to help him with his homework from my hospital bed, mum's not good at that kind of stuff and he out-right refused to ask dad for any help.

  Even Anna dropped by once a week to give me a two-hour session on my coursework. I was given a lengthy extension due to my accident. Four weeks into my stay, Anna offered to hand my last assignment in for me. That was it, the last of my college essays. I was officially an adult, an adult with no university choices or job prospects, but an adult nonetheless. Everything was happening so fast, I’d forgotten all about applying for any universities. Claire, my tutor, stopped me from applying with the rest of my classmates; she thought it was better to hold off until I got my extra credit work in. She was right; it would have improved my chances of getting

  into a better school although I’m sure she didn’t mean to wait this long.

  If I’m honest with myself it’s no one’s fault but mine, I don’t know when it happened but I think over these past few weeks I’ve prepared myself for taking a year off. I’d help my mum with the bed-and-breakfast and look at universities in the spring of next year. I don’t feel like I can leave my family yet and on top of that, there’s Grayson. I might as well address the elephant in the room, something strange is happening and I want to find out what it is.

  It surprised me that nothing out of the ordinary happened while I was away from home.

  The doctors were about to release me and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I feel bad about all the grief I gave my mum. I hated staying in hospital, but now I’m afraid to leave. Nothing has happened here, what if I go back to my normal life and it starts again? No! You know what - I’ve had enough of feeling s
orry for myself. I want to think positive, the person doing this probably thought they’d gone too far when I got hurt, perhaps this was the end of it. Maybe things were looking up after all.

  Chapter Twelve

  Two Sides of a Coin

  ​

  Mum had at last agreed to take me home. The first thing I wanted to do when I got back was to take a long nap in my bed, I could hear it calling my name. Dad drove us all home from the hospital, well – all of us except Konrad that is. My uncle refused to go anywhere with him and, besides that, Konrad had his own life to live; he wasn’t even living at our house any more. I didn't realise how deep my uncle’s hatred for my dad went, but when I think about it, Konrad was the one who had to pick up the pieces after my parent’s marriage went south.

  Dad was doing everything in his power to make me feel comfortable, I think he was still nursing his own guilt for the way he had treated us the last few years. I could see that he was trying his best, but no number of magazines or cookie dough ice cream would change our relationship overnight.

  I’d just walked through the door when the phone rang. “Henry, can you get that please?” Mum asked him whilst carrying my bags to the

  kitchen table.

  “Hello?” I could see the frustration on his face. Dad sighed. “Abigail, it’s for you, now remember what the doctor said don’t push yourself too hard, he said not that much excitement.”

  Don’t excite myself - what was he on about? I reached for the phone out of my dad’s hand and still he was hell-bent on staring me down. “Hello?”

  “Abigail?” A voice said all wound up. I squealed like a brainless kid, screaming at an ear-splitting pitch.

  “Riley!” I yelled down the phone.

  “You okay, blondie?” I couldn’t believe I was hearing her voice.

  “Hey! I thought you were in Tokyo with your dad?”

  “I came back when I heard about your accident; your mum wanted it to be a surprise, but I couldn’t hold my water any longer.” She never could keep a secret for long.

  I laughed. “So where are you now?”

  “I’m waiting for the air bus to take me to our God forsaken island.” Riley sniggered.

  “Oh, my God, so you’re like - an hour away?”

  I screeched in excitement.

  “Yep, so can you tell that handsome uncle of yours, that I could do with a ride once I’ve landed please?”

  “Konrad’s at his house, but my dad’s here though, he can come and get you. I can’t wait to see you!” I expressed hanging up the phone. “Dad - can you please pick up Riley from the air bus terminal?” I tried to be as polite as possible.

  He smiled. “When did I become your taxi service? What time? Now?” I looked up the times of the air-bus using my phone and saw that the next ride over to the island was in fifteen minutes.

  “She’ll be about an hour and a half if the planes on time, but she’ll ring me when it lands.”

  “Okay, I'll be there.” Dad said, attempting to prove his newfound reliability.

  I turned to the kitchen trying to catch mum’s attention. “Mum, I can’t believe you kept this from me? You sneaky –”

  “Erm watch the next word out of your mouth, I wanted it to be a surprise for you, but I should have known Riles couldn’t keep it to herself.” She grinned.

  “I’m glad she told me, thank you for

  organising it, I’ve missed her.” I was getting quite upset. Mum came over to hug me.

  “It’s okay, you know I understand – why don’t you take a little nap before she gets here so you’re not too tired, I bet you hardly slept last night.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, I didn’t sleep. Can you wake me up in like an hour?” I asked, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

  She touched my shoulder hinting me to go upstairs. “Yes, now go on.”

  I entered my bedroom, still in fear that someone had it in for me. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary – maybe I had it right before, perhaps this was it. I’d reached my limit of feeling scared all the time; I no longer cared who it was. I had a new boyfriend and now my best friend was coming back to the island. I lifted the blanket from the top of my chair and wrapped it around my shoulders, getting into bed. My ribs had healed in hospital, but I was still cautious about wearing my body out, afraid of damaging it again. I fell right to sleep, my mind still exhausted from my stay in hospital.

  “Wake up Tabbie!” A voice uttered from over my head.

  I opened my eyes to see Riley smiling above me. I reached out, grabbing her waist and ended up pulling her onto the bed, ignoring my back pain. I couldn’t believe she was here; obviously telling my mum to wake me was ignored. At that point, I was too overwhelmed to even care! Riley has been my best friend forever. I know people throw that term around all the time at my age, but she was, we are meant to be friends for life.

  My mum and dad were born on the Isles, they grew up together being childhood sweethearts and Riley’s parents were the same. The four of them caused quite a stir on the island, back when they were teenagers. I remember listening to my parent’s memories and thinking how romantic it all sounded – the four of them against the world. Their close friendship continued into their late twenties and both families had grown roots of their own, settling on the same street as each other. Our mums ended up getting pregnant about the same time, Riley is in fact six months older than me and she doesn’t like me to forget it either. Riley still calls me Tabbie because when we were babies Riley couldn’t say Abi, so she called me Tabbie instead. We are inseparable. I have always been in awe of her. In

  school, everyone wanted to be around Riley. Despite her being popular, I was never jealous – I was just glad she chose to hang out with me.

  It’s difficult to put into words how she makes me feel. When we were in primary school, we had the nickname heads and tales. I always thought of us in that way – she was the opposite of me but we needed each other. My mum always loved to joke when we were little - that every blonde needed a brunette and Riley was mine.

  It wasn’t until the accident that everything changed. Our parents were still close when Riley and I had just turned fourteen. One Friday night, her parents, Tom and Diane, came over to our house to get takeout, so excited about something. They wanted to explain how they had won a free, luxury trip to Scotland for five nights. Riley’s dad was forever entering foolish competitions but this time it seemed to have paid off.

  They saved the most amazing news until last, the trip was for four adults and they were staying at the most beautiful five-star castle in the highlands. I still remember Riley’s mum showing me the brochure. My mum and dad never got to

  go on a honeymoon so they were ecstatic and accepted their grand invitation. My grandma, dad’s mum, who now lives in London took us kids with no questions asked. Gran was just thankful to spend time with Riley and us. On the third night, our parents called to check up on everyone, just as they had the previous two evenings. You'd think we could sense that something bad would happen but none of us did. Logan was even too busy playing with his video game to say goodnight to them. To be fair to him though none of us seemed bothered by their phone call. With hindsight, we should have paid more attention to them.

  They had been to a show that night and were driving back to their hotel. Tom had never been much of a drinker so he was the one who was lumbered with the driving duties all holiday. We were told later that a red van crashed into the left-hand side of their car. The police said Diane hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt and because of this, was thrown out of the car through the windscreen. Tom crawled his way out of the car to where Diane lay and just held her. He managed to make a disoriented phone call to the emergency services before falling unconscious.

  My mum and dad both recall being pulled out of the car by three men before being knocked out by shock.

  When they arrived at the hospital, my parents wanted to thank them for their heroism but the ambulance team reported no one was at t
he crash site when they arrived. Riley’s dad had escaped with a broken arm and a fractured shoulder blade and my parents had suffered only minor injuries in the wreck. Tragically, Diane had already passed away when the paramedics got on the scene; she died wrapped in Tom’s arms. Her last words were of her daughter, 'little dove.' That was her own special name for Riley.

  Still to this day, Tom insists his wife was wearing her seatbelt when they crashed. Riley thinks it's how her dad chose to deal with it, to believe Diane hadn't made a mistake.

  After her death, everything fell apart for a while. Tom became a workaholic and seemed to push everyone away; he hardly talked to my parents for months on end. He sold his house eight months later and moved himself and Riley out of the country to start a new life. I was devastated when they moved, it felt like I’d lost a sister – but at the same time, I understood why she had to

  go. My mum couldn’t bear living on the same street anymore without Diane there after all she was mum’s Riley. That’s about the time when the bed-and-breakfast idea popped into her head and dad wanted to help her get past her grief. My mum never recovered from Diane’s death and continued to push my dad away. She became cold and distant, putting everything she had into her business and dad became her punching bag. Their relationship died along with Diane.

  Riley still travels around the world with her dad’s job. He's a renowned journalist and author. He seems better now from what Riley has said on the phone. She tolerates her dad’s drifting personality but lately when speaking to her on video chat she has become lonely and lost. I hated being so far away from her knowing there was nothing I could do and she was hurting so much. Riley comes to stay with us in the summer for the whole of her six-week vacation. Mum even surprised her last year with her own room decorated in bright bottle green, Riley’s favourite colour. I think mum prefers it when she’s here, Riley is the spitting image of her mother. I bet mum feels closer to Diane when she’s here. I