The Wild

-23- Confrontations and Interventions

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

I scrambled back from the ledge, practically falling in the process of standing up, his voice ringing in my ears as he shouted my name in a furious rampage. His words merged into a sound edged with a growl, his persistence heightening the second I moved away from the ledge, and I heard him racing around the side of the house.

The tree.

There was no way for me to get down the tree and away from him in time, or away from him at all. The minute I would jump from the rooftop, I'd most certainly sustain a sprained ankle, and him? Not a scratch. My mind was running a million miles an hour, and the best I could manage at such a rate was rushing up to the chimney nearing the height of the rooftop.

He swung himself onto the deck.

He started climbing the tree, spitting curses all the way.

The front door slammed open, and I practically screamed when both Tyler and John came into view on two sides of me. One look at Tyler and I knew he was almost too gone for me to handle on my own, so I took off straight down the rooftop with him shouting after me words I couldn't process.

John instantly caught onto what I was planning, or lack thereof, and backed up far enough with his arms outstretched for me to leap into, Tyler's fingers just mere inches from grasping the back of my shirt.

I was flying, and the impact of John's arms was something I wouldn't ever take back. It hurt like a bitch, but I felt infinitely better the minute he put himself between Tyler and I. At that point, I saw Mary standing on the porch, looking mad out of her mind with her hands clasped over her mouth. I wondered what it must have looked like to suddenly see me plummeting from the sky with a half-human half-wolf right on my heels.

Tyler landed with a threatening thud! on the ground directly in front of John, and rose up to bare his sharpened teeth in our direction. John took a step back, bracing himself for whatever Tyler threw at him, but all the man could manage was an infuriated snarl.

"Tyler," John started, seemingly cautious as to not upset him any further, "you must calm down. Don't lose control in front of Lily."

I couldn't even look at Tyler when he heaved, but I imagined foam oozing from his mouth as his eyes flashed all different colors of the night. All the while my entire being was convulsing between shivers of utter terror and the beat of one's heart that was only constituted by crossing paths with a man like Tyler.

Devastatingly handsome when he wasn't like this.

He seethed between clenched teeth and hissed, "You have no right to say that. If you hurt her I swear-" He never even finished his threat before it already seemed to be in motion. I huddled myself against John's back and tried my best not to tear up. My whole entire body felt like it was vibrating endlessly, and in the middle of it all, I couldn't even manage to fight or flight.

I didn't know what was happening until I heard Mary scrambling down from the porch, like a mother coming to the aid of her child who fell and scraped his knee. I peered out from behind John, who took the brief initiative to pull me farther away from Tyler, but remained within range as Mary bundled her hands around Tyler's, making every attempt to calm him down.

At first he resisted, looking more panicked than anything by the fact that he actually had a mom. After a brief moment of holding her off at arm's length, she stepped her way cautiously towards him and all the fur that had risen on his arms, and the teeth that cut into his lips. He looked like he'd grown twice his size, and his shirt was hugging tighter than normal now.