Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

11 - Monster

"Was that your stomach or did you just growl?"

The cute, sweet moment we just had swiftly transformed into a weird one. Our crying ended about five minutes ago, and we chose to keep slow dancing with each other, too caught up in our hidden emotions and the feeling of being in each other's arms.

I used the back of my hand to wipe away the few remaining tear streaks on my cheeks before I couldn't hold back the giggle that bubbled up out of my throat anymore. His strange question took me by surprise. My head pulled away from his shoulder to lean back enough to meet his confused gaze with my own look. "What?" I chuckled in response. "Did you seriously just ask me if I growled? When have you ever heard me growl before?"

Stiles' confusion quickly switched to worry. "If it wasn't you then..."

Something clicked in my head once I realized what that could mean. In unison, Stiles and I craned our heads to the right, sucking in a deep breath when we saw Liam was very much awake and growling lowly. Liam climbed to his feet. His eyes were glowing, hair sprouted from his face with fangs coming out of his mouth, and his nails were transformed into claws. My hands fell from Stiles' neck as I used my left one to push him behind me, knowing Liam was under full control of the full moon and would  try to attack one of us if we got close enough.

Liam roughly yanked on the chains that we used to secure him to the boathouse. His loud growls filled the emptiness of the boathouse, surely signaling Scott that we needed him right now. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

Stiles moved closer to my back, his voice a low whisper when he asked, "Are those chains going to hold him?"

"Uh, yeah..." I answered with my voice full of doubt. I flinched at the loud clanging noise of the chains as Liam movements became more aggressive. My arm flew backwards until I grabbed a hold of Stiles' hand out of surprise. "He, uh- He can't be that strong-- Okay, maybe he is." I corrected myself when Liam broke the chains on his right arm.

The look of shock grew on my face from his strength. How is Liam that strong already? Within seconds, Liam completely broke free from the chains we fastened on him before. With a terrifying growl, he sprints past the two of us and dives right through the window on the wall. Glass shattered in every direction. Stiles and I reacted quickly by covering our eyes with our arms, afraid to be cut by any pieces of glass.

I raced over to the window. The blood drained from my face as I watched Liam take off through the woods surrounding the lakehouse. This was exactly something I was afraid would happen tonight.

Stiles walked up from behind me, his sneakers crunching down on the glass beneath where stepped. "We need to call Scott."

"Something's telling me he already knows." I muttered when another growl from Liam filled the night air. I took a step toward the window.

Stiles' hand latched around my wrist. "Chloe, you shouldn't go by yourself."

I partially turned my body toward his. I slid my wrist up in his hold until my hand rested in his. "Stiles, you have to trust me."

A silence fell upon us. Stiles nodded and dropped his hand back to his side. Without another word, I jumped through the window, like Liam did, and broke into a fast run, determined to catch the young wolf before he could put himself out in the public.

Trees and bushes blurred together as I ran in the direction Liam took off in. For a few seconds, I was able to chase his figure through the trees, until he disappeared from my vision. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders from behind and used the force of how fast I was running with their strength, to aggressively throw me to the ground. I rolled to a stop on the ground, dirt covered my clothes.