Pain split my head the next morning. I couldn’t move for what felt like forever. Finally, I dragged myself out of bed. Before my feet even hit the floor, though, I crumpled. My legs were shaking like I had just ran a marathon all day long.
Grabbing the edge of my bed for support, and after several trials, I hoisted myself to my feet. I put one hand to my head, and the other on my nightstand. The cool wood beneath my fingers helped soothe my head a little.
Groping the wall for a light switch, I fumbled with something. It felt like paper. I grabbed the paper, and continued feeling along the wall for the switch. I found it, and had to shut my eyes because of the bright light that suddenly came on. I opened my eyes a crack, and let my retina get used to the light for a bit.
Once my eyes were completely open and I could see, I looked at the paper in my hand. It was a color drawing; a sketch of a tall tree. A strange symbol was etched into the bark of the trunk. A triangle facing down, with a little line extension at the left corner:
I stared at the symbol for a while, but couldn’t figure out what it was. I looked around at the exposed roots lapping over each other like waves, and saw glowing eyes among the twisted bark. Blue eyes, two pairs of them, glowed from opposite sides. Amber eyes, on the right side, glowed with anger, right beside the blues. Brown, gray, and green eyes shone from the left, near the other pair of blue. The brown’s showed fear, and the gray’s showed apprehension. The blue’s shone with anger and hate. The green’s, though, shone with wisdom and love, with a bit of anger.
I looked up from the detailed picture when I heard my phone buzz. I picked up the phone from the bed, and looked at the screen. It showed a black wolf with blue eyes: Ben’s cover photo. I clicked the message Ben had sent me.
Hey. U up? U ok?
I was tempted to send back that I hated him and to stop texting me, but something inside of me said no. I thought of my pounding head, and the weakness in my body. I sent back a reply.
Yea. Im ok. U?
After a minute, I got a reply.
U little liar. Yr heads hurting just like mine. Mind if I come over and talk?
I laughed at the first part, because Ben knew me way too well. I took a minute to decide on the second part. Did I want a killer in my house? Would he try to kill again? But, then I thought of the halos around us last night. The black and red halos. Halos that were so rare, and so hard to survive...
I heard a knock on my door a little while later, and realized that I had drifted into a semi-unconscious state. I unfolded my legs from beneath me, and stood to walk to the door. My legs wobbled, but I stayed upright. I opened the door when a second knock came, and found myself staring into blue eyes.
Whitney smiled, and said,”Hey, Lex. Your friend’s here. A boy named Ben? He says he needs to talk. Can he come in?” Without waiting for my answer, Whitney gestured behind her, and Ben appeared as if from nowhere. He stepped around me into my room, his hand just barely touching my hip where he had left bruises the night before.
Whitney smiled at him, but her eyes were steel. A kind of angry fire burned in her blue irises, something like hate. I smelled anger on her, mixed with the worry smell of blooming flowers. A tangy smell also joined the previous ones when she looked at me again, something like salt.
But before I could determine what the smell was, Whitney smiled at me and left. I closed the door, and turned around to face Ben. He was sitting by my bay window, staring at me. His face was bruised a little, near his jaw, and his throat had scratches on it. Except for that, Ben’s face was the same as ever. Perfectly cool and calm, with his mind blocked from my power.
I growled at him,”Why come here, Ben? After you tried to kill me, you knew you wouldn’t be welcome here.” Ben’s face didn’t shift, but his scent did. It spiked with anger, then faded into resolve. “I came here to help. There’s someone out there, Lex, who knows our secret. We can’t let them win. If they divulge that the four of us are wolves, we’ll be taken away and experimented on. Maybe killed.”
I laughed harshly. “And you think that you’ll be welcome in my pack? After you tried to kill me? Are you stupid or just crazy?” Ben had me pinned against the wall so fast I barely saw a flicker of movement. “You know that what happened last night was more than it appeared, Alexis. We summoned aura wolves. Aura wolves, Alexis! Do you know what that means?” Ben’s breath was hot against my cheek. I growled, and shoved him away.
“Do you?” Ben almost yelled. “Yes, Ben! I know what aura wolves are! I’ve drawn them, and I’ve seen them. And I know this: You. Aren’t. Mine.” I snarled the last three words in his face. Ben growled, long and low. “We are. Our souls don’t lie.” I shrieked,”But they kill, don’t they? You, Benjamin, are a killer. I’ve seen your thoughts and your memories. I know what you’ve done, and what you’ve set out to do. You won’t kill me like your father wants!”
Ben’s eyes widened, and he stumbled back. I snarled,”Yes, Ben. I’ve seen that far into your memories. I know that your father, the Black Alpha, has set you on a quest to kill me. But you won’t kill me. I won’t let you.” Ben’s eyes narrowed, and he said quietly,”You won’t let me? More like I can’t. I literally can’t kill you. I-I.” Ben stammered. I glared at him.
Ben took a deep breath. The scratches on his neck expanded and contracted and his throat moved. Involuntarily, I sat down next to him on my bed, and took his scraped jaw in my hand. He didn’t protest when I turned his head to the side to examine the scratches. There were four long ones, stretching from the back of his neck to the front. They were an angry red, unlike the lighter ones near his ear and collar. I reached a hand forward to touch one of the long scars, but Ben flinched back. I noticed a quick, small flash of black around him as he pulled away. His eyes, momentarily, turned as black as night, then went back to normal.
Ben’s eyes reflected as quick flash of red, a flash as quick as a lightning strike. I gasped, and looked at Ben in the eyes. His eyes showed fear, but also something else. The tangy, salty scent came to my nose once more. It stayed longer this time, but was gone just a moment before I could decide what it was.
I muttered,”It happened again, didn’t it? The aura wolf thing?” Ben nodded, then did something surprising. He took my chin, and brought my face towards his. He kissed me, lightly, on the cheek, then got up. Before I could say anything, yell at him or scream, he faded into shadow right before my eyes. He melted into blackness, and I could no longer see him. Only his eyes, as bright as sapphires, were solid, and they blinked at me from my windowsill, then they, too, disappeared.
I sighed as I basked in the warm evening sun setting on the horizon. Jon and Quince were running around below me, playing tag in their wolf forms. Ben hadn’t showed up to our hideout when we texted him. I had a feeling it was because of our conversation.
“Got you!” A playful yip sounded below me. I laughed, and rolled onto my stomach, and peered over the edge of the hill. Jon, who had just tagged Quincey, was dancing around like he had fire ants in his pelt. Quincey was huffing, but still tackled Jon when he came too close. I laughed again, and called down to the wrestling duo,”Hey! Have you guys seen Ben today?”
Both wolves shouted no, then proceed to wrestle more. They were getting sticks and leaves in their pelts, so much so that they almost blended into the ground below them. I giggled at the two wolves, and watched them play for a while. Thoughts of Ben plagued my mind, even when I pushed them away.
I felt a presence beside me. Without looking, I muttered,”Finally decided to show up, huh? Took you long enough.” The scent of oranges reached my nose, along with the pine and sweat smell of Ben. I looked to my right, and saw Ben lying beside me, watching Jon and Quincey play.
Instead of answering me, he said,”They’re getting stronger. They’ll be fine hunters. With Quincey’s eyes, he could see a flicker of breath from a hidden rabbit. And Jon’s ears could hear the slightest flutter of feathers. And your nose could track any animal from here to Canada.” Ben smiled at me, and I was caught off guard, thinking that he should be acting different. Like he had when we had our conversation earlier that day.
Testing the waters, I said,”So. You don’t want to talk to me? About what happened this morning?” Ben looked confused, then said,”Yeah. About that. Nothing happened. Nothing major. Right?” I thought a kiss was pretty major, even if it was on the cheek. Thinking of something, I asked,”Ben. What’s my last name?”
Ben looked startled, then perplexed. “What kind of random question is that, Lex?” “Answer me,” I said,”What’s my last name?” Ben looked frightened now, and said hesitantly,”Shin? Alexis Shin?” Surprise rolled through me, then anger. I grabbed Ben’s throat, and pinned him to the earth. Ben yelped, and struggled under my grasp of steel.
Two wolf scents washed over me, along with surprise and confusion. The combined scents of coke and bananas almost overwhelmed me, but I kept Ben pinned. I growled,”No, Ben. I never told you my last name. I don’t have one. Now, who are you, and why are you pretending to be my friend?”
The person pretending to be Ben laughed, which surprised me. The person said,”By the new moon tonight, Alexis. Your pack won’t live through the fire of the song. See you later, daughter of fire and fox.” With that, the person dissolved, turning into shadow. I was gripping a pile of dirt instead of a throat.
A rustle of branches and a growl behind me made me turn. Jon and Quince were on top of a shape, but I couldn’t see any defining features of it. “Off.” I snap. Jonathan and Quincey pull off of the figure, but kept their teeth bared in warning. The figure sat up, and I recognized Ben’s face. I saw the worry and surprise in his eyes, and I touched his mind, just to make sure.
Ben’s mental walls went up immediately, but I had touched enough of his mind to know he was the real Ben. Without realizing what I was doing, I tackled Ben, and we rolled down the hill. Ben’s arms were locked around my waist tightly, but I didn’t care. When we stopped at the base of an oak, I buried my head in his shoulder, and started murmuring,”They’ve found us, Ben. There’s another like you. They’ve found us.”
I could sense Ben tense when I said that there was another like him, but he didn’t stop my constant murmuring to him. But, strangely, Ben didn’t retracted his arms from my waist, either. He was holding me close to him, close enough to hurt me before Jon and Quince arrived. He could break my neck in two seconds if he wanted, to complete his mission, but that didn’t scare me, either. The only thing that scared me right now was the knowledge that there was another person like Ben, another wolf. A wolf that could dissolve into shadows, could listen to any and every conversation we ever had, and never be seen. There was another spy, another killer, out there.
And they were after me.
“So,” Ben said, his voice echoing in the silent cave,”there’s another shadow wolf out there. Probably a killer.” A shadow wolf, for those of you who are reading this, is a wolf like Ben: they can dissolve into shadows, pass through objects, and can only be detected by wolves. Very rare. Only one in about three generations is ever born. At least, that’s what Ben told us.
“Yeah. Perfect killer. Lurking in the shadows, and watching their victims sleep. Nothing can go wrong with that,” I muttered. Jon looked at me quizzically, but Ben sighed and said,”That wasn’t supposed to happen, Lex. I already told you that.” “Which one, first or second? The second seems likely to happen. Probably by choice, not order,” I growl.
Ben huffed, then looked at Quincey. He was tapping away at his computer, which somehow got Internet in the middle of nowhere. He was searching for a picture of the weird triangle in the middle of my drawing. “Anything?” Ben asked, and his voice held a note of impatience.
Quincey simply shook his head, his eyes glued to the screen. Jon was examining the picture I drew, his eyebrows knit together. I muttered,”Ben. This’ll take some time. We need to talk.” My tone held no argument, and I climbed out of the hole, onto the tree. Ben followed. We leapt to the ground, and I led the way into the woods.
When I thought we were out of Jon’s hearing range, I turned to Ben. He was looking at a leaf on the ground, avoiding my eyes. I said,”Ben. We can’t avoid this conversation for forever.” Ben huffed,”Why not? It’s in the past. I’m not gonna kill you.” “Right,” I muttered,”because you can’t. For some reason you won’t tell me”
Ben looked up at me then, and something in his eyes caught me off guard. Sorrow held his blue eyes in a firm grasp. His voice was heavy as he said,”Some things I can’t tell you, Alexis. Mainly because I don’t know what they are.” The tangy, salty scent reached my nose again, and this time I could identify it before it disappeared. Love. Ben was feeling love.
For me.
Ben’s arms were wrapped around me before I could say anything. I realized that I was crying, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then, the answer came to me, as if from a bolt of lightning. The three pups in my vision, they were mine and Ben’s. We would became a family in that future.
Unless the pack was destroyed by the song.
I pulled away from Ben’s warmth. Some strange tug in my gut warned me to stay away from him. Some melody, a weird, lilting tune, was playing in my head as the sensation in my gut grew. I looked up at Ben, and his eyes were moist. He murmured,”Alexis. Stop humming. It will only bring danger.” I said,”I’m not humming.” Ben looked at me as if I was crazy, and maybe I was.
Ben said,”Lex. The song you were humming, um...Did the shadow wolf say anything about a song?” I stepped back, startled by his sudden question. I nodded hesitantly. Ben sighed, and leaned against a nearby pine. “What did the shadow say about a song?” Ben asked wearily; I detected fear on him, but I didn’t know from what.
I answered slowly,”The shadow said that ‘Your pack won’t live through the fire of the song’. What’s that mean, Ben?” Ben’s eyes grew heavy, and he sighed again, this time sinking to the ground. I sat down beside him, and listened to him as he told me a poem:
Emeralds burn bright in the heat of the light,
Shadows dance upon the walls.
Storms are coming,
And the oaks will fall,
All under the fire of the song.
A heart of steel and eyes of gold,
Shine under the heat of the moon.
When lightning strikes the tallest spire,
The nameless shall know themselves,
And the voiceless shall speak again soon.
All under the fire of the song.
Emerald, tiger’s eye, moonstone, and azurite shall band,
To defeat the alpha that rules the land.
The daughter of fire and fox,
Shall rule under the Moon of Knox.
All under the fire of the song
“Wow,” I breathe as Ben finished. As he told me the poem, something in my heart started to sing along, as if I knew the poem already, but hadn’t realized it. Ben looked at my face for a long time, then took my hand. I looked at his face, into his electric eyes. But instead of eyes, I saw gems. Two bright, blue gems with dark green and gold swirls. I blinked, and the gems were gone. Somehow, I knew that the gems I had seen were azurite.
Ben looked at me, then leaned forward. The kiss on my cheek was light, but I could sense something behind it. I saw another flash of black around Ben, and knew a red flash had appeared around me. Ben leaned back, and looked me in the eyes. Even without touching his mind, I knew that Ben was thinking the same as I: we summoned aura wolves three times, even when we’re not fighting. That was a sure sign we were destined mates. Even if we didn’t want to be.
But something inside of me, deep inside my heart, said that I wanted to be.