No one said anything else for the longest time. That theory seemed too bizarre to possibly be true. “Say that’s true,” allowed Simon finally. “Who is it that would know that you didn’t like Laurel?”
My stomach clenched uncomfortably as I processed what they were saying. “You think the wolf killed Laurel because it thinks I didn’t like her?”
“Well, you didn’t.”
“I didn’t dislike her!” But Simon’s pointed look was reason to see he didn’t believe me. “Fine, but that doesn’t mean I wanted her to die!”
“The wolf doesn’t know that,” said Erik reasonably. “If the theory that killing her would get you back to the hotel isn’t true, it means that it killed her because it knew you didn’t like her. Either way, it killed her because of you.” Erik spoke as if this wasn’t something utterly traumatizing to hear.
“There has to be another theory!” I was getting too emotional regarding the thought of Laurel dying because of me. Technically, it wouldn’t be exactly my fault, but if the wolf killed her because of me like Erik was saying, then in a way, it was my doing that caused her death.
“Who knew that you didn’t like her?” asked Simon quietly. It was getting close to dusk, and we still hadn’t booby trapped the house. I took a deep breath, trying hard to ignore the painful idea that it was my fault Laurel was dead.
“Besides you and Miranda?” I thought hard. Even though I had gotten along best with Darren, I had never said anything to him regarding disliking Laurel. But there were definitely people who could see that Laurel really didn’t like me. I didn’t show that the feeling was reciprocated, but that was beside the point. The many times Laurel and Jonna had come to the conference center to deliver packages after my transfer, their dirty looks were evident that they weren’t my biggest fans.
Twice it had happened in front of members of the pack. Once it had happened in front of Bobby and Nico, another time it had happened in front of…
“Cale and Matt,” I said in wonder. About two weeks ago, we had been in the room working. Cale had been hooking up HDMI cables to a large projector. I had been finishing putting chairs down while Matt was looking over a banquet event order for another room. As usual, we all ignored each other as best as we could. Cale and Matt would occasionally converse, but they didn’t like to speak in front of me. Laurel and Jonna had a package to deliver for Perry. Laurel had poked her head into the room to ask where Perry’s office was. When she spotted me, a very nasty look crossed her face. I remembered the moment specifically because Cale had turned to see what she was looking at before he muttered the word “bitch” under his breath. I had thought he had been talking about Matt because he had just insulted Cale’s hair color just a moment earlier. I hadn’t taken his mumbled word seriously because Cale was a jerk who insulted everyone. But maybe he hadn’t been referencing Matt with that jibe.
After explaining this all to Erik and Simon, the latter looked to me in surprise.
“So the same werewolf that killed Mr. Thompson is the one that knew you and Laurel didn’t like each other,” said Simon with furrowed brows. I knew how he felt; this was getting more confusing by the day.
“So what does this mean?”
“It means,” started Erik before biting into his sandwich yet again, “that this Cale guy killed Laurel to most likely get you to come back to work at the hotel. Or,” he mumbled as he swallowed his mouthful, “he did it to please you.”
CHAPTER 17
Even a few days later, I didn’t like the working theory that Cale solely killed Laurel to please me. That seemed more disturbing than the hypothesis that he killed her in a bizarre attempt to lure me back to the hotel. The days passed by quickly. Booby trapping the house and the yard involved putting wire along the perimeter of the house. It was an electrified wire, one that would shock the hell out of something if it dared cross it. At least, that was what Simon and I learned when Erik purposely touched the wire to test it after losing a rock-paper-scissors toss with my brother.
The boys’ plan was to tie the wire to trees. Maybe, if a werewolf ran into the wire at night, it would either be spooked enough to leave or it would shock the hell out of it enough for the wolf to give a warning sound. That way, we could predict if it was near. Personally, I felt shocking the creature was most likely going to anger it more than anything else.
But another dead animal—this one a badger—appeared under my window. It was the left same as the deer, split open, revealing guts and blood, but completely uneaten. This meant the wolf wasn’t stopping; it was still watching our house. If we didn’t do something to stop it, no one else was going to.
Simon and I also got new locks for the house, as well as weapons. We bought hunting knives, baseball bats, a small flame thrower. We wanted to be prepared in case something were to happen. It was hurting the small ration of funds I had saved up while working, but we knew we needed to be prepared.
Something that Simon and I also did was go to the humane society to look at adopting a large dog. Our theory was that a dog would be able to smell or sense if the werewolf was near.
But tragedy struck when we went to the small shelter that only had a handful of dogs available. Five were incredibly too small to be taken seriously as a guard dog, and the other three were far too aggressive. The full-grown Rottweiler, German Shepherd, and husky all growled, howled, or barked at Simon and me, getting us to see it probably wouldn’t be smart to take home a large dog that didn’t like us. We already had a pack of werewolves to worry about.
For the few days we spent preparing, I didn’t think about Cale’s ulterior motives for killing Laurel. It wasn’t until I got a phone call from my old manager Tim that I thought of that redheaded devil. Tim explained to me that he had heard from Perry that I was interested in coming back to the shipping department. I most definitely wasn’t, but this was clearly manipulated by Perry to get me back to the hotel. I had planned to politely tell Tim that I had already found another job before he revealed to me something that made me drop the phone in a stunned shock. Jonna was no longer working in the shipping department.
Immediately, I felt Tim was about to explain to me that the same grisly fate had fallen upon Jonna as it did Laurel. That would make two ex-coworkers gone in the course of a week. But according to my old manager, it wasn’t a dark reasoning for her not being there anymore. Jonna simply sent a text message to Tim saying she was quitting her job.
Tim was desperate for me to come back to the hotel even for a week. He didn’t have anyone else to hire except one J1 student who could barely speak English. The kid also didn’t have a drivers’ license so that would make the college student’s job rather difficult considering he would have to drive the delivery van around the resort. Before contemplating whether or not it would be wise to go back to the hotel considering that was exactly what the werewolves wanted, I agreed on the terms that it would only be a few days. That would provide Tim a bit of time to come up with a new group of employees.
I pulled into the employee parking lot of the conference center at eight the next morning. The shipping department was one building over, right behind one of the outdoor water parks. My shift in shipping didn’t start until nine, but I came an hour early because I knew Matt was scheduled to work that morning. Set-up department gave their employees schedules two weeks in advance, so that gave me an advantage to know when Matt would be here and others wouldn’t be. Perry’s car was in the parking lot, as well as cars belonging to people who worked in neighboring departments of the conference center.
I entered the building through the front entrance, the strong smell of fresh paint and bad air freshener quickly filling my nose. It was a very pretty building. After just a few days away, I had forgotten how beautiful the golden chandeliers of the conference center lobby went perfectly with the dull blue paint of the walls.
I made a beeline for the employee lounge, knowing Matt would be there, as he was probably just arriving for the day. I ignored the girl at
guest services and carefully avoided running into any servers or kitchen staff. When I rounded the corner and pushed open the door to the employee lounge, I found Matt was hanging his small drawstring bag into a locker. His back was to the door. “Everly,” he said without ever turning to see who it was that entered the room. That was creepy. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Now it was my turn to close the door behind me and lock it to avoid entry to others similar to how he had previously done to me. Common sense told me to be afraid to confront Matt. He wasn’t quite human; I had to remember that. But anger and fear told me I couldn’t avoid confronting him any longer. I was having trouble sleeping come bedtime; nightmares were now keeping me awake. I was once a solid sleeper. Nowadays I was haunted by thoughts of blood and gore. I dreamed of the large reddish brown wolf howling in the night as it stalked me.
“Laurel was killed as a way to manipulate me to go back to the hotel, wasn’t she?”
My words were barely a breath of a whisper; my fear was taking over, quieting me down. Matt turned a careful eye to me.
“Hello. What’s new, how ya been, it’s been awhile. No pleasantries, huh?” I didn’t respond to his playful banter. Matt could see I was in no mood to verbally spar with him. He sighed. “I guarantee she was.”
“You’re not even going to deny it?”
“What would be the point?” he said sardonically. “I don’t like to lie.”
“So, who did it?”
“I honestly don’t know.” He motioned for me to move closer. I didn’t; it was a silent refusal. Matt slowly approached me, seeming to not want to scare me by moving too fast. “The pack has been talking about you for a while. We took a vote. A few of us were outnumbered; they want you in.”
My bottom lip trembled. I suppose subconsciously I figured as much. It wasn’t exactly a coincidence to encounter both Cale and Perry this last week as they gave subtle threats. “You’re not one of the ones who want me in,” I recalled, not being able to look away from him. I could dimly remember the night of the party; Matt had been one of the few who didn’t want me to join. It was what he and Cale had in common.
“No. You deserve more than what we have to offer you.”
My head was already hurting so early in the day. “I don’t want to be a…a…member.” That was my best phrasing. I didn’t want to say the words that were behind my tongue. I didn’t want to say werewolf or, worse, monster. Because even though he was one of them, I was having a very difficult time picturing Matt ever hurting me. It was thinking of him as someone I trusted and not as a werewolf that got me talking.
“What about Simon and Miranda? Will they be hurt?”
“I can’t imagine anyone will want to harm your siblings,” said Matt softly. I must have looked doubtful, for he continued. “Counterproductive, is it not? Harming them is just going to make you angry.”
All I could do was stare at him. “And killing Laurel was just…what? Going to make me happy?”
“Provide you a way to come back to the resort,” said Matt quietly, now avoiding eye contact. “You liked that department and would have stayed if not for those girls.”
Evidently Erik had been right in his theory.
I was about to argue. I was about to point out the utter ridiculousness of that logic before my words became trapped in my mouth. “Girls,” I said slowly. That wasn’t singular. “Tim said that Jonna quit her job. She…she didn’t quit, did she?” My thoughts suddenly went somewhere very dark. All I could now picture was nothing left upon Jonna’s departure minus a few scraps of bloody clothing.
“A nice note to her roommate was left explaining that she was leaving town for a while,” said Matt softly, his eyes holding nothing but pity as he watched me. “It’ll give us time to make up another reason for her sudden disappearance.”
My hands went to my mouth to cover it. This was more than I cared to know. Tears pricked at my eyes as I realized the grim truth. My original thought hearing that Jonna had left the shipping department had been quite accurate. She was killed by a werewolf. I wanted to know why. I wanted to know what poor Jonna’s family was going to be told when they started looking for her. But I also didn’t want to know. I wanted out of this real-life horror story. I wanted to leave this hotel and never come back. I turned to hurry away before Matt gently grabbed my arm. He used the pad of his thumb to rub the fabric of my jacket. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. You shouldn’t be a part of this.”
“Who’s doing this?”
“I honestly don’t know. At this point, it could be anyone in the pack who wants you to stay.”
Tears pricked at my eyes as I let my arm remain in his grasp. “Who’s the wolf leaving the dead bodies outside my house?”
Matt released a low breath. He watched me carefully, almost as if he felt he didn’t want to reveal too much to me. He seemed to relent. “Just like with a group of simple wolves, our pack has an alpha.” The way Matt said this made it so his voice was laced with venom.
“What does that even mean?”
“It means that just like a pack of real wolves, our pack needs an alpha. It’s a type of leadership. Our kind fares better in packs than being alone. Our alpha keeps us in check, makes sure that not too much human blood is ever shed. We do what we need to survive and that’s it.”
“You eat hearts to be immortal.” My voice was numb as I said this.
“Yes,” agreed Matt bitterly. “Hearts keep us immortal. Whether it’s human or animal is irrelevant. We don’t need a diet of human flesh to survive. We can live off animal carcasses as well as typical food.”
I was already near tears courtesy of the reveal of Jonna. Curiosity caught up to me as I dabbed my eyes with my hand. “How does someone turn into a werewolf?”
Matt stared at me as if the answers were what I should already know. “How you would typically assume, like any other disease. A bite. Blood to blood contact, sexual intercourse, swallowing saliva or blood.”
“That’s it?”
Matt gave a hollow chuckle. “For the first full moon, you need to ingest a heart in order for the change to happen. After that’s done, the transition is complete.”
“You don’t need a full moon to change,” I whispered, thinking back on my first encounter with a werewolf. It hadn’t been a full moon.
“No. We can change at any time, but only at night. But the change is impossible to avoid come nights of a full moon. We have no control over the change then.”
My head was buzzing. I had far too many questions and probably not enough time to ask them. But the most important question had yet to be asked. “Who is your alpha?”
That was my lingering thought as I helped Simon hang crucifixes up throughout our house the day before. I thought the same thing when he and Erik had gone to the nearest Catholic Church to have their squirt guns blessed by a priest. I really wanted to believe the precautions we took were making a difference. But as nice as it was to believe there were simple remedies to combat the werewolves, if they really wanted me, Simon, or Miranda harmed, they wouldn’t have any problems.
“It’s not my place to say.”
I shrugged my grip out of Matt’s soft grasp. “Not your place?” I wanted to sound mean; my voice still sounded frightened.
“My alpha will reveal himself to you when he feels like it.”
My eyes widened as I took in the strange way Matt referred to this mysterious alpha. It was sickening, almost as if he respected his authority and wouldn’t tell me anything too personal because of that respect. “I didn’t peg you as a follower.”
Matt’s teeth snapped together. If he was hurt by my comment, he didn’t show it. “We cannot go against an alpha’s command. It’s in our minds; it’s in our code.” He looked angered that out of anything I could have said, I called him a follower. “We are bound to him and his desires. I’m going against him right now just speaking to you. Every time I speak to you, every time I’m near you, it causes problems within the pack.”
>
I was perplexed. “What are you talking about? Why can’t you talk to me?”
Matt looked desperate to say something while at the same time looking limited to being able to do so. His face was green; he looked ill. It actually felt like his talking to me was making him physically sick, as if he really was bound to remain secretive and telling me even the smallest of information was harming him. Maybe that was what being bound was all about. Maybe cheesy teen fiction and Hollywood had been on to something; you really couldn’t go against the command of the alpha.
“In theory, if you kill an alpha, the others will return human,” I said slowly. “Does that mean you would return to your normal human self prior to being changed or would you die, too?”
Matt cracked a dark smile. “If you’re thinking of killing one of us, you’re going to have difficulty.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Why do you care if we return human? Or die?” Matt’s eyes were burning as he looked at me. “What’s it to you if any of us regain humanity or even if we die?” He stepped closer. “God knows we don’t deserve sympathy or compassion.”
“Not them. You,” I muttered, unable to hold eye contact with him any longer. I looked to the floor. I didn’t actually find myself caring about any of the others with the idea of killing the alpha werewolf. I didn’t lose sleep thinking of them. But there was someone I cared about losing. I cared enough that I thought of not killing the alpha just to keep this particular someone breathing. “I care if something happens to you,” I clarified, my cheeks burning in a blush.
I had caught Matt off guard. Our postures had been angry, accusing. It was just more of our back and forth dislike, but it was obvious my saying this was something he wasn’t expecting. Matt watched me with unblinking eyes before putting a distance between us by walking away.
“You should go,” he finally said. His expression wasn’t hardened, only pitying.
“I’m not going to be threatened into staying at this hotel.”
The Wisconsin Werewolf Page 13
