Slender Man Chronicles (Matched Collectors)

Chapter 14

We were out near FountainRockPark. There was an old lime kiln there, and I remembered going out there for one of Sean's birthday parties when we were kids. There were old train tracks out there, and they still ran the train by it, since it was the one that carried the lime out. Sean had a party on the train when we were kids. He had a lot of neat birthday parties.

Anyway, the old house that he'd seen in his visions was one that had been lived in by people working at the kiln, and abandoned long ago. Emily stopped several times to see if she could track the slender man. She put her hand to the ground and concentrated, and reported finally that she saw him, and he was headed the way we were walking. That was a relief.

When we got closer, we saw Charles. He was standing with a couple of people, and they all looked normal. I wasn't totally sure what I was expecting, I mean all the werewolves in the movies were normal looking people. They just got hairy once a month. At least, I thought that was how it worked, I never asked.

"They can shift any time," Emily whispered. "It's just easier for them during the full moon."

"Do you know either of them?" I whispered back.

"No," she shook her head. "We've never met werewolves, just a couple of vampires."

"Dad usually protects us from this stuff," Sean told me.

"There they are," Charles said. "Since we don't know if we'll find this thing tonight, they're going to shift, just in case." He turned to some of the men that were with him. "This is Austin Houser and his son, Cody. Austin is the Mid-Atlantic alpha, and just happens to be based here."

Austin was not what I expected to see. He was wearing a white polo that had a logo for an IT firm sewn on it and a pair of black slacks. Both he and his son had dark brown hair and brown eyes. Cody seemed to be about my age, and his eyes were traveling all over Emily. Asshole.

"She's Matched," I practically growled.

"I can still look," Cody grinned at me. "Lucky guy."

I pulled Emily behind me. We were there to work, not for people to ogle my girlfriend. Man, I felt territorial at that moment and wanted to pretty much mark my territory. Luckily, Charles and Austin had been distracted during this exchange.

"We think she's in the house," Charles said to Emily. "Let them shift, and then you can go in."

"Ok," Emily smiled at her father.

Charles should have warned us how free the wolves were with nudity. Holy shit, I didn't want to see that. I did notice that Cody was still leering at Emily, like he was trying to make sure she was looking at him, which she wasn't. We'd seen each other naked now, and the way I was feeling right now over how Cody was looking at her, I was going to be making sure she saw me later.

"You need to rein it in," Brody said. "You're going to be all pissy in there and do something stupid."

"He's looking at my girl," my teeth were clenched.

"She's your girl, remember that," Brody said. "Dude. If you zap Cody Houser, you'll start a war that we don't need. The wolves want to work with you, help you. You zap the Mid-Atlantic alpha's son, who is also an alpha," he shook his head. "Just don't, because we'll never hear the end of it from Odin." I looked at Emily, and she smiled at me. Her face was showing nothing but love. "See? She doesn't give a shit who is looking at her, or what they're thinking. As long as you walk this earth, you're all she wants."

"I know, it's just maddening to know what he's thinking about my girl, because trust me, I'm thinking about it too," I grumbled.

"I'm going in," Emily pointed to the door of the house. One of the wolves was standing with her, I think it was Austin. At least, I hoped it was Austin.