What Happened in the Forest

Answers

Mara burst into her hotel room, slamming the door behind her as her heart pounded. Her hands shook as she locked the door and immediately began pacing, running her fingers through her hair.

What the hell was going on?

She was supposed to be covering a story. A weird one, but one that would hopefully be her first step to covering others that were important.

And then she met Embry.

From that first moment, she knew something was different. She had run the gamut of relationship experiences, heard her share of lines. Mara knew when she was being played and often erred on the side of caution. But this had been different. Within a couple days, she found that all she could think about was being with him.

She had told him about her father's murder. And then about her secret. And then overhearing him and Sam. The man. The wolves.

Embry turned into a wolf.

Wolves were killing hikers in Forks. The chief and everyone was covering it up. But he had told her that they weren't killing people. However, if they were, that would explain why she sensed murder.

There was the mind of a man inside the wolf.

She stopped pacing and looked at the bottle of whiskey she had picked up on a whim the other day sitting on the table. She stomped over and poured a glass, bringing it to her lips as her hands shook. Some of it missed her mouth as she took a gulp. She sputtered and moved to sit on the bed, gripping the glass tightly as she tried to calm herself down by going over the facts.

Embry wasn't human. Or at least completely human. He turned into a wolf. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it. Even then, she still wasn't sure she could trust herself. She was operating on little sleep.

But he had turned into a fucking wolf in front of her eyes.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," she muttered to herself as she closed her eyes. "What the hell..."

This was not what she had signed up for when she agreed to come to Forks.

A buzzing from the nightstand brought her back to reality. She looked over, then stood and walked over to it, seeing that Katie was calling. Sighing heavily, she answered. She knew there was no way she could tell her best friend what had just happened, but she needed to talk to someone. Anyone.

"Hey, Kates," she said lightly, hoping her best friend wouldn't catch on.

"Oh my god, what's wrong?" Katie asked immediately.

"Nothing. I'm fine," Mara said, grimacing.

"Is it the story? Or something with Embry?" Katie asked.

Mara wrapped her arms around herself, looking towards the door. Embry could come bursting through at any minute.

"It's so much more complicated than that," she admitted.

"Spill. Now," Katie demanded. Mara shook her head.

"It's just... it's crazy," she said, struggling to come up with an explanation that Katie would believe.

Before she could say another word, there was a knock at the door. Mara jumped, her eyes locked on the door.

"Mar? What's going on?"

"Hold on," Mara said.

She creeped over to the door and looked through the peephole, watching as a worried Embry ran his fingers through his hair.

"Kates, I'm going to have to call you back."

"No! Not until you tell me what's going on!" Katie shouted. "Something is wrong!"