Chapter 42
-Farley-
I couldn't tell how Pax was feeling for the rest of the day. He was quieter than usual and always stared in front of him with a thoughtful expression. Pax being quiet with his eyes wandering was an everyday occurrence, but this time it felt strange.
There was something wrong with that feed, Pax's parents hadn't been seen for years. It was clearly Cedar and Finn talking about Daphne, but there was something suspicious about the two who claimed to be Pax's parents. They did look like the ones in the photographs Caspian showed me, but I couldn't tell if they acted the part.
"Have you seen this?" Pax asked as he poured over Harlow's iPad. "It talks to you." His excited tone made me smile. I think Harlow was able to tell that Pax had a lot on his mind, so he offered his iPad as a distraction. We were sitting in the back garden again, Harlow, Iris, Rowan, and Clementine sat with us, whilst the latter two periodically were called to do some training in the limited space. Our door would be getting fixed today, but for now, we're going to pretend like the door is open for a reason, despite the slight draft.
"It's cool," I responded. "Do you know how to work it though?"
Pax shook his head distractedly. "No, but it's fun." He tapped on the screen, and it read different news articles to him.
"Keep reading things like that and you'll be all up to date with what's happening in the world," Iris commented. Her leg was significantly better than it was the night before, but she still limped a lot.
"Or incredibly stupid and confused," Rowan retaliated with a snort. "You never know what you can believe with news and things like that."
I hummed with a nod. "Yeah, some sources are more trustworthy than others. But I don't think that the Guardian is a bad source."
Rowan shrugged in response. "You never know," he sung. "Is that your phone?"
I opened my mouth to questions that he meant, but then my ringtone came to my ears. "You've been eating carrots, haven't you?" I teased.
Rowan huffed. "Carrots are for eyes," he called after me.
My phone was plugged in and left on the kitchen counter. We usually kept them in the living room but thought that it was best to keep them as close as possible. I narrowed my eyes at the number which wasn't in my contacts before clicking the green icon and placing it to my ear.
I waited for another person to talk, that was regular practice when you didn't recognise the number on the screen. You never know what kind of vocal cues scammers are after.
"Farley?" A very familiar voice asked. "Is that you?"
"Kelsey?" I asked. "What's wrong? You haven't used my number in ages."
"There's someone at the gym," she whispered. "They came looking for you, they didn't like it when I said you weren't here."
My heart dropped. Kelsey's voice was shaking, and her breathing was audible.
"It's alright," I said in an attempt to reassure. "I'll come and-"
"-no, don't come," she interrupted. "They're ransacking the entire gym looking for you. I already pulled the alarm."
I rolled my eyes. The police wouldn't be able to do anything if those who were there decided they had enough of being human and turned into their wolves. "Do you recognise any of them?" I asked as I unplugged my phone and turned towards the window, gesturing for Clementine to come in, naturally everyone followed.
"No," Kelsey answered. "There was a girl with dark hair, and a man with blonde hair."
The information didn't help me at all., especially since the livestream that Rowan shared contained a man with blonde hair, the only one whom I would consider being on the hunt for me.
"Okay, Kelsey, listen to me." I let out a big sigh. "Stay out of their way, I'm not there so they can't do anything to you. Alright?" My gaze darted around the faces in the room, all of them were listening into the conversation. Rowans' fingers twitched, as though to grab his jacket, whilst Iris sat back with a frown. Other expressions were quite similar, tense shoulders and leaning forward in a ready position.
"Farley, who are they?" Kelsey asked.
I resisted the urge to sigh again. I was convincing myself that she was alright because I wasn't there, but the more she talked, the higher the chances are that the wolves would hear that she did know me.
"Don't say my name, okay?" I asked. "I'm not into anything illegal, if that's what you're wondering."
Kelsey laughed weakly. "I know." The line went dead after some rustling.
I put my phone in my pocket and immediately stated, "There are werewolves at the gym."
"Where you work?" Caspian asked, his back straightened.
"No, the one in the sky," Rowan sarcastically replied, but he shrunk backwards when Caspian sent a glare his way.
"To be fair, which one would Kelsey be at?" I asked. "Of course, it's where I work. Apparently, there's a girl with dark hair and a man with blonde hair, trashing the place and looking for me."
"How would they know that you work at the gym?" Karim asked. "You haven't been there in ages, right?"
I nodded my head. Sneaking out to my job when I was being tracked down wasn't at all close to a good idea.
"Of course, I haven't been there since before the tunnels," I stated. "Unless they had someone in on it. Or they used their computer."
Emi sighed. "It all bubbles down to human technology," she said and shook her head. "You know, after the last time, we should've learned to take more note of technology."
"You shouldn't have to," Harlow replied. "But that's besides the point." I had forgotten that Harlow was human. He seemed at ease in a room full of people who could tear him to shreds. "Are we going to the gym?"
"I have another idea," Karim announced. "Harlow, you have good acting skills, yeah?"
We sat in a car and watched the curly haired boy walk into the gym with a bag on his shoulder. Harlow looked apprehensive; I was unsure if that was his acting skills or not. He pushed on the door which said 'Pull' and stumbled inside. We didn't all come, it was only me, Karim, Emi, Harlow, and Clementine. Clementine was here to act as a communicator to the rest of the pack, whilst the others wanted to keep an eye on Harlow. I was there because I was familiar with the place and could identify the enemies.
From the floor-to-ceiling windows, you could tell that there was nobody at reception. The door had been open, true to Kelsey's word, they'd been forced to scatter during opening times. There were four other cars in the lot, I'm assuming that three of them were for other members of staff who were working at the moment. The schedule at the gym hardly ever changed.
"What's back there?" Karim asked and nodded towards the door behind the desk. "It's open."
"That's the staff room," I informed. "It's quite big, and there's other ways in. Not all of the door's lock, but some of them are pretty sturdy."
Karim nodded but didn't say anything else. I was surprised Emi wasn't talking more, she hadn't really been quiet since we left the packhouse, right up until the gym came into view.
"Should we go around the back?" Clementine asked. "Just in case."
Karim tapped the steering wheel a few times before starting to drive around the parking lot. "It's not really the widest opening," he commented. Yet, he continued to slowly drive forward. "Would she be thin enough to fit through the window?"
"Karim," Emi hissed. I looked back at her to see she was glaring daggers at him. "You can't expect her to climb through the window."
Karim stared back at her. "I can, since there's no room to open the door."
"So, you'd make Harlow climb through the window?" Emi retaliated and crossed her arms.
"He'd fit," Karim said and faced the front. The car returned to silence, so much so that we could hear running from inside.
I was so concentrated on the running and the muffled voices that I jumped when a growl came from the front of the car. A slender wolf creeped out of the shadows, glaring at us.
"I dare you to scratch this car," Karim growled. The lighting made his facial scars stand out, adding to the threatening tone. I found myself inching away from him. He stepped on the gas and inched forward. Every time the wolf creeped forward; Karim moved forward as well.
"You're gonna be turned into roadkill buddy," Emi told the wolf. "Just back up and away from the car."
The wolf gave a good attempt at a grin before turning around and darting away, the light escaping the gym as they went through the back door. "That wasn't so smart," I said. "Back up."
Karim did so without complaint, and I got out, entering the gym for myself. The wolf didn't go very far, as it waited for me around the corner of the gym.
It would've been ideal to fight in my wolf form, but I couldn't afford Kelsey seeing me transformed. She wouldn't know it was me, and it'd be a random wild wolf in the middle of the town.
Instead, I kicked the wolf the best I could. It growled and snarled, launching again. I spun and kicked it again. I was strong, but it would take more than a few kicks to remove the threat. They changed tactics and ran through my legs, turning and scratching the back of my knees with their claws.
I sighed and kneed them in the jaw, causing some of their teeth to sink into my knee. Whilst they were down, I punched them in between their eyes. I darted around the corner before they could follow me and raced through the short hallways.
It wasn't hard to find Kelsey on the floor of a dressing room with the door still locked. Her feet were visible in the gap between the floor and the door.
"Kelsey, open the door," I said as I banged my fist against it a few times. "I'll get you out of here."
"Farley, there are wolves," she said shakily. "I heard growling. It was horrible."
I mentally cursed, that sent the idea of her not knowing about wolves out the window.
"It's okay," I replied. "We'll get past them; you just have to open the door."
The door clicked, opening an inch, revealing one of her brown wide eyes with tears pouring down her face.
I didn't wait for the door to open all the way before I pushed it open and grasped her wrist, not hard enough to hurt.
"Where are we going?" she asked. Her expression turned to one of hurt when I shushed her, but that didn't last long as growling became louder.
A bang and a whimper followed the growling, it came from the other side of the staffroom door, probably near the gym equipment.
"We're going to get in so much trouble," Kelsey muttered. This time I didn't shush her, one wolf was injured. Hopefully they were the only two here.
We ran to the source of the noise and found Harlow backed into a corner, a wolf in front of him. "Are you alright?" I asked, still dragging Kelsey behind me. I checked Harlow over for any visible injuries.
"Yeah, I'm fast," Harlow replied. "You're not though."
I looked down to see the blood covering my leg and waved him off. "It's fine."
"Oh my gosh, Farley, you need to go to the hospital," Kelsey fretted. "I knew you were limping."
"I was limping?" I asked. "Huh, I didn't notice. Anyway, I'll go to the hospital after we leave this place." That was a clear lie, I wouldn't be going to any hospital.
"But-" Kelsey started but was interrupted by the door on the other side of the room slamming open. Two more snarling wolves stood in the doorway, ready to lunge.
"Let's go!" I yelled and turned around, heading for the front door.
They were still open, so it didn't take us long to get outside. But every second that we used standing still was a few feet closer for the wolves chasing us. We got outside and I whistled so that Karim could hear we were out.
"Nobody else was on shift, right?" I asked Kelsey, who was now shaking as she got into the car.
"They left," Kelsey replied through heavy breaths. She wasn't unfit, she was probably holding her breath whilst running due to fright. "\Just as I set the alarm."
I was going to comment about how the alarm was no longer ringing, but I got in the car just as the wolves slammed through the windows of the gym.
"My earlier threat still applies," Karim said after swiftly kissing Harlow on the cheek. The wolves paid him no mind as they charged towards the car, claws at the ready. "I warned them," Karim said in mock sadness as he reversed, causing the wolves to scramble backwards.
"Isn't that illegal?" Kelsey squeaked. "They're like...endangered?"
"They will be when I see the damage done to my car," Karim responded.
It appeared to all be too much for Kelsey, as she rested her head against the window and closed her eyes. I didn't know what I could do or say to help her, so I just let her rest.
"They turn in front of her?" Clementine asked with a frown. I'd told her plenty of times about Kelsey, the two of them had even met for a few minutes in a store once. Kelsey was just the kind of person who gets along with everyone, it's hard to have a negative impression of her.
"Well, she definitely saw wolves," I said with a sigh. "We'll have to take her home."
Hello lovelies!!
I hope that you're all doing well!
The question of the chapter is what time do you usually wake up?
For me, it's between six and seven-nearly always. I'm quite shattered today as I was out yesterday, but I woke up at about twenty past five, which was really uncalled for to be honest.