I followed the smell to a dank alley. It was stronger and fresher.
Okay. You already know what you're going to see. It's going to be another body of some sort.
I crept down the dark alley but stopped when I heard a strange noise. It sounded primal. A slurping, grunting, growling sound.
What the hell...
I tip-toed along a dumpster and peered around the side of it. Clapping my hand to my mouth, I tried to stifle a scream. A strange, pale, bipedal creature stooped over top a body, eating it.
Is it eating? Drinking? What the hell?
It turned to look at me. The eyes were red, and the mouth. Oh, my Goddess the mouth. Razor-sharp teeth barred while it let out a high-pitched guttural scream at me as blood dribbled down its chin. The ears were pointed and it seemed there was no hair on them. It raised a hand with sharp claws into the air and looked like it might attack.
My heart pounded in my chest, I was positive the creature could hear it. My inner wolf wanted out and I wasn't about to stop her. My bones cracked and shifted as my muscles stretched and contorted, shifting my body into the large silver wolf. Fur sprouted all over my body in a thick, protective coat.
I felt as though I was pushed to the back as the primal wolf took control. We let out a howl while the creature screeched at us. My wolf bared fang as the creature ran toward us. It bared the mouth of razor-sharp teeth before stopping. We whipped our head around to see Ashley running toward us.
I low growled at her as a warning to stay back as I heard the sound of the creature's claws scrapping on the ground.
My wolf wanted to charge at it and attack. I overruled that decision and we backed up. She fought me but relented. The creature screeched at us again before scrambling down a drain.
"Ellie? Ellie! Are you okay?"
I nodded my furry head as I shifted back to human.
"Did you see it? Did you see that? What was that?" I screamed, scrambling to my feet, realizing I was stark naked with no clothes.
"I...I....don't know?" Ashley pulled off her sweater and handed it to me.
"The...creature. Whatever it was?" I pulled the sweater as more people arrived.
"What did it look like?" someone else asked.
"Hairless. It was so white. A mouth full of razor teeth. Covered in blood."
"What?" a man in a police uniform asked approaching us. "Is that a body?"
I nodded.
"Are they alive?" he asked running to them.
"I-I don't know. There was something eating them."
"There's no flesh missing," he said. "There is a wound on the stomach though."
"What was that? Why did it look like that? Why was it eating them?" I scream cried.
"Call your dad."
I grabbed my cell phone from my tattered pants and called.
"Ellie?" he asked.
"Dad! There was another attack. I saw it. I saw the creature. I don't know what it is. It-it climbed into the drain!"
"Where?"
"Silver Peak." Tears streamed down my face.
"I'm on my way."
I put my phone away as the police officer stood up.
"Who did you call?" he asked.
"My dad. Beta Kenrick from Moon Mist. He's been investigating these attacks."
"I'm Chief Wayne."
"Ellie," I told him. "I'm Ellie. It went down the drain."
"The drain?"
"Yeah. It just, like, dove into the drain."
"Why would it go into the drain?" he pondered.
"It wanted to get away?" I asked.
"Did it say anything?"
I shook my head. "No. It just screamed. Like this high-pitched guttural scream."
"Interesting," he muttered, kneeling beside the drain, shining a flashlight into it. "Holy shit!"
He stumbled back as the scream echoed up.
"It's there!" I yelled.
"Was. It ran into the drainage system. What the hell was that."
"Should we chase it?" Ashley asked.
"I don't think we're prepared for that. I don't know what it is."
"What if it attacks again?"
He just stood there staring at the drain. "I honestly don't know. I just...I don't know."
"Can we please get out of this alley?" I asked. "I need clothes."
"You girls go. Go to the station and tell them to send the coroner. We'll get the body to the morgue for your dad."
"He's coming with an entire team."
"That's fine. Hopefully, they have more of an idea of what we're dealing with. What other packs are affected?" he asked.
"So far? Moon Mist, Misty Pines, and now you guys."
"What about Deer Creek?"
"We haven't been there yet," Ashley said.
"I'll put a call into them." He ran his hands through his hair before rubbing his face. "This is too much."
Ashley and I turned from him and ran to the police station.
"Hey! Hello! We need help!"
"What's wrong?" a young officer asked.
"Um, Chief Wayne needs the coroner."
"Coroner? What?"
"There's a body, down the alley across the street," I said.
"A body?"
"Yes!" Ashley yelled. "Are you not comprehending?"
He stood and pulled out his radio. "Uh, we have a code 009."
"009? Are you sure?"
"I think. Chief needs help across the street. There''s a DOA."
"What? Here?"
"That's what I was told. Send someone to help him."
The Chief ran into the station, pushing the door shut behind him. "There's more."
"What?" I asked, spinning around.
"There's more. I pulled the manhole cover-up that is in the alley, there were three of those things just lurking in the drainage system."
"Does the drainage system connect all of the packs?" I questioned.
He shrugged his shoulders, staring out the doors. "I don't know."
"Who would know?" Ashley asked.
"Um, the water department. They have the town plans and work down there all the time."
"Where is the water department?"
"Town hall."
"Okay, Ashley and I will head there. My dad should be here in a few hours."
"You're not leaving here."
"If they're staying in the drainage system, we should be okay up here."
"I'm sure Charlie thought the same thing."
"Charlie?" another officer asked. "What's wrong with Chaerlie?"
"He's dead. In the alley."
"Shit," a few of the officers said.
"He was in the alley. We won't go down any alleys. Right to the town hall."
"I'll walk them," a tall, dark-haired man said emerging from one of the rooms.
"Oh," Ashley muttered.
I looked at her and she was staring. The man stared at her, moving through the throng of officers right up to her.
"Uh, what's going on?"
"I'm Alastair."
"Ashley," she said dreamily.
"Ash?"
He let out a low, soft growl at her. She repeated the sound.
"You have got to be kidding me. Now?" I asked.
"Mine," he said.
"Mine," she repeated.
"Can we do this later? Dead body? Strange creatures. I have no clothes."
"Beta?" Chief Wayne asked.
"And a Beta?"
"What?" Ashley asked.
"Your mate, he's the Beta here," I whispered.
"Oh." She stared into his emerald green eyes while he stared into her amber ones.
I'm wasn't even sure she heard me.
"Hello? Dead body? Strange creature? Drainage system?"
I shook my head and headed for the door.
"Ellie, should you go alone?"
"I don't care about that right now. I need to look at the city plans."
"Right," Beta Alastair said, pulling himself out of his love coma. "Let's go."
He led me to a closet and dug around before handing me a pair of work pants and boots. I hurriedly pulled them on and followed him.
It was so weird. Seeing how instant the attraction was and how magnetic.
He held Ashley's hand tight as we left the building. Outside seemed so normal. People continued walking about, shopping as if there weren't some strange wolf-eating creatures lurking beneath their feet at this very moment.