To Dance With Wolves ▪Liam Dunbar▪

✓ | 03. Creatures of the Night

I didn't know what kind of animal had made the noise, but I knew I needed to get away from it as soon as possible, so I spun on my heel and took off back in the direction that I had come and away from whatever I had just heard. In no time I was sprinting faster then I had in quite possibly my entire life, because I had never needed to fly across the ground like I was in that moment. A few low hanging branches slapped into my arms, but I hardly felt anything; the adrenaline pumping through my body made me immune to anything that would slow me down in what my mind and body perceived to be a life or death situation. I kept running until my heart almost gave out, never looking back once, and didn't stop until I tripped over a protruding root and crashed into the ground.

The growling got louder and louder as I scrambled to my feet, but before I could take off again, I heard shouting. I turned around, momentarily confused, because animals didn't shout, and in the dim light I could see two human figures about thirty feet from where I was standing, but no wild animal. Then I realized something that made my blood run cold: the roaring was coming from one of the people. The same person who's eyes were glowing a bright golden yellow. 

Then I heard two words the made my heart freeze.

"Liam stop!"

I didn't recognize the first voice, but there was no denying that the words that came next were Liam's.

"What did you do to me? This is your fault! This is all your fault!"

I watched, frozen in horror as the boy I thought was just an attractive jerk pushed the other person down and raised a clawed hand above his head, before something whizzed into the tree above him and burst into light. If I had any doubts about what was happening before my eyes, they were whisked away when I saw Liam's almost unrecognizable face illuminated by the unknown light source before he cried out in pain and ran back into the darkness of the woods.

I looked up to where the flying object had come from and saw the silhouette of a man with a crossbow. I considered running away when he started walking in my direction, until I realized that he hadn't seen me and was actually walking towards the person on the ground. I inched closer so I could hear what they were saying. 

After eavesdropping for a solid minute I knew that the guy on the ground was named Scott and that Liam was his beta, whatever that meant. Before I got a chance to learn anything else, a loud cry of pain echoed through the woods from somewhere far behind me. Without thinking, and against all my instincts, I took off running towards the sound and used it's volume to cover the sound of my feet pounding against the forest floor. The shouting grew louder as I got closer and it mixed with a high pitched whining sound. Then I saw what I assumed was Liam crouched down clutching his head inside a circle of metal rods that flashed bright blue every time they emitted the noise that seemed to be crippling him. I ran off to the the side and crouched behind a group of bushes just in time to see Scott emerge into the clearing.

Scott held his hand up and did something that silenced the metal rods that were sticking out of the ground. Liam's cries of pain subsided but he stayed crumpled on the ground as Scott slowly approached him. Only when he was inches away did Liam look up and ask in a surprisingly fragile voice, "What's happening to me?"

Scott paused for a moment before replying, "The same thing that happened to me."

I sucked my breath in, whatever nightmare creature Liam was, Scott was as well.

Scott knelt down in front of Liam and there was a moment of silence before either of them spoke again.

"They can't know about this," Liam cried softly, "My mom, my step-dad, I can't do this to them again."

I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to figure out what he meant by that.

Apparently Scott had the same problem, "Again?" he asked.

"I got kicked out of school, and I deserved it. The way they looked at me when they saw what I did to that car . . ." 

I heard him choke out a sob, and in spite of my fear I couldn't help but feel my heart break a little. I knew what it felt like to be as broken as he sounded, and a small part of me wished that I could comfort him even though I was completely terrified.

"They can't see my like this," he continued, "like -" another sob cut through his words and I could see his shoulders shaking.

When it became clear that Liam wasn't going to say anything else, Scott finished the sentence for him.

"Like a monster."

I hung my head a bit, slightly ashamed of feeling exactly that. When I realized that it wasn't a wild animal chasing me through the woods, but something with a human form, monster was the only word I could come up with for what I saw. But now, seeing him crumpled to the ground and crying, I couldn't help but consider the possibility that monster wasn't quite the right word.

My thoughts faded away as Scott slowly stood up and started to speak, "You're not a monster, you're a werewolf. Like me." Then his eyes flashed red in the darkness and my legs almost gave out underneath me.

An hour ago the worst thing I though could happen was having to deal with a bunch of drunk kids, now I was faced with accepting the fact that everything I had just seen was real. The fact that werewolves were real, and that there were two right in front of me. Everything I knew about the world was wrong: humans weren't the only monsters around me. I thought I might throw up.

In the next few moments, all I knew was that I needed to get away from where I was. I needed to get back to the party and find Mason so I could go home and try to figure out what the hell had just happened. So without thinking about anything else, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me back towards the lake house and away from the creatures of the night.