The Mermaid Who Cried Wolf

Chapter Eight: Mutations

"Alpha!" Julia Kitchings ran through the mansion searching for her nephew.

"Stanley!" She called, she found him inside the library.

"Go away Aunt Jules, I'm busy." He said, throwing away a book labelled 'The Unkillable Kind'.

"Alpha, we found a newly morphed wolf in the woods, she's in human form now, we think you might wanna look at this one." 

Stanley looked at her. "It had better not be who I think it is." He said.

"She keeps on saying that she betrayed them." Julia said to Stanley as they walked to the west wing: The Hospital.

"Betrayed who?" He asked.

"She won't say. But, 'them'  seems pretty special to her." 

They came to the door. "I can leave if you want, she wanted to be left alone." 

"Go, Julia, I can handle this." 

Julia nodded and left down the hallway.

He opened the door.

"You little twerp!" 

Something cold and metal collided with Stanley’s face, he fell.

Pearl was on her feet, she had on a white dress. Her hair wild and full of sticks and leaves, mud all over her face.

"If it weren't for you I'd be me! I'd me normal! Now look at me! Look at me you little..."

Stanley stood up and grasped her by the collar. "This was never my intention."

Pearl laughed. "What was your intention? I'm a mutt, even worse than being human! How do you think this is for me! Hey? Think about it! My home is in the water, a wolf is a land animal! And on top of it, I'm angry at everything!" 

Suddenly Stanley was on the floor and Pearl was sitting on the bed, her head cupped in her hands.

"What am I going to do?" She sobbed.

Stanley looked at her. "As Alpha, it is against the law for me to reject you from our tribe if you were changed on our land." 

Pearl looked up. "Great, now I'm in a werewolf tribe." She sobbed harder.

"It's your choice to either accept it or not." Stanley finished.

Pearl looked at him.

Things were racing through her head, different scents, smells, sights… she thought about everything… everything was overly active, scared. She sensed that. She knew everything.

And now, she could sense sorrow in Stanley’s voice.

Moron or not, she knew now that he had softened to the point that anything was possible.

“I accept.” She said, but then got up. “But you had better do something about this, Alpha or not I swear I will have your head.”

Harold was the brother of the wolf who was killed the night of the mermaid attacks.

His mother was going crazy and his younger brother hadn't come home in a week.

He sat in his room stuffing possessions into his ruck sac. 

No more. He thought. No more.

Ever since the attacks, people had expected him to hate the mermaids, to want to kill them. But he didn't.

He hated the looks he had gotten when the alpha mentioned the death of his brother, like he should want revenge.

Harold was not a hater or a fighter. He wasn't a lover as well, he just wanted to be himself.

His brother was his closest friend, a teacher and a father.

His father had been killed at a vampire attack years ago.

He stood at the door, ready to leave. His mother was sobbing in the next room.

He would become a rogue, be mistreated, and probably killed.

But he didn't care.

He coughed.

Strange, he thought, werewolves don't usually get sick.

He coughed again, this time with more force.

"AARRGGHH!" This time he was thrown back, his chest heaving in pain.

"Mother!" He wheezed. "H-help..." 

A trickle of blood came out of his mouth, he coughed again and his eyes closed.

Dead.

“Harold?” His mother came into the room and screamed at the sight of him, running to his side, cradling his head in her hands.

“No, no, no…” Tears drifted down her cheeks as she wiped the blood from his lip.

“Help!” She cried, rocking his head back and forth, as if it might stir him from the dead… “Help me! Someone! Help!”