Chapter 14| Monday Morning
"I heard you had a hard day, kiddo. Do you want to talk about it? " I say, sitting down on Talia's bed. She looks up at me before she looks back down at her phone.
My date with Rese had been cut short after Dad had called from his office.
He said that Tali had a hard day and that I should go home and help her because he had no idea how to comfort her. I had apologized to Rese several times as he drove me home, but he said nothing about it. From what I could see, he was half disappointed and half-amused.
"I'm fine," Tali grumbles, noticing that I wasn't leaving her alone, "It's not like someone threatened me or anything, Line. There were just some kids and they were bullying Kara." She explains, and I stay silent, pulling my legs up onto the bed. I glanced over at the door as Salmon comes trotting in with Milo hot on his heels. I pat the bed and Salmon jumps up beside me while Milo stays on the ground, sniffing around the room.
"I can talk to them if–" Tali cut me off, her eyes flying up to meet mine.
"Please don't. You're only going to make it worse–No offense." She says, and I nod hesitantly, still thinking that I could at least talk to the kids' parents about it. They were bullies.
"So how have you been, Tal? I know–I know I haven't really been here recently, and I know that dad's really never here so that leaves you alone. You're doing ok, right?" I ask Talia suddenly, my eyes softening as I stared at my younger sister. She smiled and leaned over to put a hand on my shoulder.
"You don't have to worry about me, Sis. I'm not the one who spends her time at the rich wolf boy's house. If anything I should be worrying about you. Have you experienced any symptoms that relate to vomiting blood?" She asks, and my mouth falls open as I stare at her.
"What?" I ask, and she pulls her hand away, holding up her phone. Lo and behold there was an amateur picture of me as a wolf. Fuck. How could she have gotten those pictures anyway? It's not like I just sauntered throughout the house and–
"You're kind of loud whenever you stumble through the woods, you know. Honestly, I'm not surprised. Mom and I had a talk before she–you know. Anyways, as I was saying, have you experienced any vo–" I cut her off, so confused and so–What the hell?
"No–No! I have not vomited any blood, Talia! When and why did you ever talk to mom about being a wolf!?" I ask, my voice level rising, causing Salmon to look at me curiously.
Talia had this stupid little grin on her face as she stared at me.
"Well, that's good. It means you're not in heat. Mom and I kind of just got into a deep conversation and she confessed about it. Unfortunately, It's only in the firstborn–to lower the populations because apparently, wolves are very active in sexual activities. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have sex with that rich wolf boy, I'm just saying use protection." Talia rambles, laughing as my face morphs into horror with each sentence.
I scrambled off her bed, making Milo jump around my feet as he thought I was playing with him.
"I am not having this talk with my sister! Tali, what the hell!?" I yell, and when Salmon cries at me, rolling over onto his side, I put my face in my hands, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. Salmon hated it when I started to yell.
"It's ok, you know. It doesn't affect me when you don't come home all day," Talia says in a quieter tone, "I get it. You have friends who you hang out with, you have a boyfriend–" I stop her before any more ideas that Rese is my boyfriend continues to circle around in her mind.
"He's not my boyfriend, Talia," I say defensively, pulling my hands away from my face. Talia grins at me before she looks back down at her phone. I watch as her face falls a little bit. "Tali they're bullies." I say, my voice quiet.
"Don't tell me they're bullies, Line. I know that–but what can I do about it?" She says, looking up at me. I hold my hands up, picking Milo up from the ground.
"I know, I know–I'm just saying that maybe your badass sister who's a wolf can scare them," I say, and Talia tries to fight a smile, "I have some friends who live in the forest, Talia." I add, and she breaks into a smile, giving me a skeptical look.
"Friends? What did you kiss a toad, Line?" She asks, giggling. She squeals as I lunge for her, jumping over the bed she was scrambling off of. I begin to laugh as I chase her through the house with Milo in my arms and Salmon following us while barking loudly.
"Screw you! I don't even think we have toads here!" I yell, following her as she runs through the living room. She screams as I tackle her on the couch, pushing her a little before I let go.
We both begin laughing as we look outside, seeing one of our neighbors walking by. He gives us a few confused and judging looks before he continues on with his night walk.
"Could you take me next time you go over to the rich wolf boy's house?" Talia asks, laying down on the couch. I slap her legs away before she can lay them down on me.
"Sure, Kiddo. You'll love it there, I'm sure." I tell her and she grins at me wildly.
We both spend the rest of the night watching some crappy TV show that Talia liked until she had fallen dead asleep laying next to me. As my eyes start to close, they fly open as I hear a quiet crash. My eyes dilate instantly, my wolf side becoming alert as I look around. I gentle get up from the couch, grabbing a fire prod as I pad over to the living room entryway.
"Hello?" I ask softly, slowly tip-toeing across the hallway towards the kitchen. I jump, pressing my back against the wall as there's another crash from inside the kitchen.
I poke my head around the corner and I let loose a scream as I find beady eyes staring at me from the middle of the kitchen. The animal lets out its own scream, trying to scramble out of my sights, but there was really nowhere to go.
I flip the light switch, and I scream once again as I find a whole hoard of raccoons raiding my kitchen. Salmon comes charging around me, barking wildly as he goes for the first raccoon he spots. Milo tries to follow in his giant friend's steps.
"Salmon! Salmon, Milo! Stop!" I yell, dropping the fire prod as I scrambled after the dogs. I didn't want them murdering a raccoon family inside the house. Blood doesn't wash out of anything.
"What the hell is happening!?" I hear Talia ask as I sit down on the ground with Salmon wiggling in my arms, trying to get at one of the raccoons. Milo was still running around, chasing the smaller Raccoons from wall to wall.
"I don't know! There are raccoons in here!" I yell at Talia who stood in the doorway looking frazzled. "Don't just stand there!" I bark at her as she watches Milo cause havoc. But before we can do anything, the doorbell rings furiously. Talia and I look at each other before she books it for the door, flinging it open with a wide-eyed look.
"Mr. and Mrs. Peterson!" She says in a high-pitched, panicked voice, "What a surprise!" She says, glancing back at me. With one look, I'm scrambling off the ground with Salmon, grabbing Milo by his collar. I pull them across the kitchen and far away from the raccoons.
"We were passing by, dear, and we heard a scream. Is everything alright?" Mrs. Peterson, our neighbor, asks, and Talia's response had me shoving both dogs into the bathroom next to the kitchen.
"Yeah, yeah, everything is fine. Caline is just having a few raccoon problems." Talia says, and as Salmon snarls at the raccoons, trying to get past me, I snarl right back at him. He immediately backs down, whining as I shoved him into the bathroom with Milo, slamming the door shut.
"Line? Line, you good?!" Talia yelled, and I snarled again, glaring at the raccoons.
"I am fine! These thieving rats need to get out right now!" I yell back, grabbing the fire prod. The raccoons' hiss at me and I hiss back at them, getting ready to swing as they angle themselves to jump on me from all sides.
But just as they get ready, they suddenly back down, and I lunge for the back door, throwing it open. When they see an open exit, they bolt.
I let out a sound of victory as they all leave and slam the back door shut, locking it just in case.
"You know we can put some electric fence around the yard if you want, Caline. It would do good to keep the animals away." Mr. Peterson says as he stands in the kitchen doorway with an amused look on his face. I drop the fire prod, going red with embarrassment.
"I'll have my dad look into it–thank you." I say quickly, glancing over at the bathroom door as Salmon let out a whine while Milo started to bark and howl, scratching at the door. Mr. Peterson and his wife left me and Tali alone after confirming that we were alright, and that's when I let the dogs back out, giving them glares as they trotted into the living room, jumping onto the couch.
Talia only grumbled as she walked back upstairs, falling asleep as soon as she hit her bed.
I stayed downstairs, curled up with both dogs on the couch, watching the late night news. It was only around three or four in the morning when I finally started to fall asleep, my eyelids fluttering between open and closed for a few minutes. But the sleep vanished as Salmon woke up with a jump, his head popping up. Milo soon followed his actions, both dogs looking alert.
I forced my eyes to stay open as I looked around the living room, feeling goosebumps raise up on my arms and legs–and not from the cold. I grabbed Salmon's collar, scooting closer to him as he started to growl quietly, his lip pulling back into a protective snarl as he looked around slowly.
"What is it, boy?" I ask in a quiet whisper, trying to tap into my wolf senses, but they had fallen asleep after the ordeal with the raccoon and this problem didn't seem too serious to my wolf.
I don't try and stop Salmon as he jumps off the couch, scrambling out of sight. Milo stays right beside me though, whining a little as he curls closer to me. I pet him quietly as I try and listen to see where Salmon was, and what he was doing. But the house was sitting in total silence.
But then all hell broke loose as I heard Salmon let out a horrific sound of pain and terror. I jumped off the couch, disregarding Milo's barks as he chased after me while I flew out the front door. In two steps, I felt my wolf awaken completely, and the shift tore through me. I only cried out for a second as my skin split, but then I snarled defensively, coming to stand in front of Salmon. I raised my hackles and growled at the wolf standing in my yard.
The wolf backed up in complete surprise, it's ears flattening against its skull as I took a step forward, my eyes burning with anger. I could feel my whole body shaking with rage and with the shock of having changed from human to wolf so quickly. It was only the second time too.
I let out a sharp back, making the wolf scramble back towards the road. My right ear twisted to the side as I heard a car coming down the road, and I thought of a plan.
I started to bark at the wolf, snapping my jaws together as I started to walk forwards. The wolf kept backing up until it was in the middle of the road, and I waited. As soon as lights came around the corner, the wolf took off to the other side of the road, disappearing into the darkness of the night. I jumped back into my yard, trotting over to Salmon who whined in fear when he saw me, but I ignored it looking him over. I growled quietly as I saw a bite on his lower leg.
I jumped up, all anger rushing from my body as the car pulled into the driveway and I saw my father looking confused as he sat in his car. With a heartbeat of standing still, I jumped across the yard, crashing into the trees beside the house. I hid behind one of the trees as I watched my father get out of the car, and jog over to Salmon who was crying to him for help.
As father carried Salmon inside the house, I looked up as I felt someone staring at me, and I froze when I saw Talia staring at me with mixed emotions. My eyes flared with color for a second before I turned and ran like hell.
∞∞∞
Miles away from anything was the most beautiful open field I had ever seen. Lupine flowers were everywhere and pine trees bordered the massive field. I sat down in the middle of a flower patch, staring at the mountain as the sun began to rise up slowly, blasting colors across the sky. The stars vanishing with the light were just as beautiful.
My eyes snapped down as someone bounced across the field, and I lowered myself to the ground as I saw a girl sprinting across. I looked over to the tree line as I saw three men standing there, but my senses heightened as I saw them laughing and holding shotguns.
My stomach rolled as I started to crawl across the field to the forest, hiding behind a tree so I could get a better view. I felt my wolf start to take over as they began shooting at the girl. My muscles coiled and tensed as I snuck through the trees towards the men, stalking them.
As I got within feet of them, I froze when I heard the girl scream as she went down to the ground.
That's when I lunged. The men's screams echoed through the field as I snarled angrily, jumping on them all. They didn't even have time to draw their guns on me before I started to rip them apart viciously, my vision swimming with red.
"Please! P-Please!" One man wailed, holding his hands in front of his face, "I have children!" He adds, letting out a sob as I snarled at him, snapping my teeth together sharply. If he had children they didn't deserve this monster as a father. I stopped in front of him, watching him shake. I watched his eyes dart behind me, but it was too late to turn around before something sharp dug into my flank and I screamed inwardly, yowling horribly outwardly. I whipped around, bitting down on the first thing my teeth found, and the man screamed as I ripped his hand clean off. Not minding the man with kids anymore as I started to rip the man apart, the pain fueling my anger.
My claws ripped through his chest while my teeth sank into his skull and with one motion, I crushed his skull between my jaws, bone cracking until my teeth met each other again. Then I let go, jumping off the unrecognizable body and turning towards the last man. I snarled at him with rage, but I stopped as my eyes darted behind him, seeing the girl staring at me with wide eyes.
I turned my attention back to the man, and I snapped my teeth at him before I grabbed him by his ankle, making him scream as I snapped his ankle. I started to pull him with me as I moved towards the girl, limping a little from the sharp knife in my side.
The girl whimpered as I drew closer to her, stopping a few feet away with the wiggling man.
I let go of the man's leg and he immediately tried to scramble away, heading towards the pine trees. I didn't follow him as I stared at the girl who was holding her thigh tightly as crimson flowed between her fingers. I took a tentative step forward.
"Thank you–thank you," She breathed out, her voice hoarse, "thank you." She repeated, and I snorted softly, bobbing my head up and down once. I took a few more steps forward, leaning towards her and sniffing at her wound. I reeled back as the familiar scent of wolfsbane made my nose burn. I looked over my shoulder as the man let out a cry from the tree line. I turned back to look at the girl, only to find her pulling out the bullet by herself. I tilted my head in confusion.
"I am sorry for leading you here. It was just too easy." She says, and I take a few steps back, my hackles raising as she stood up with ease, staring at me. "We've been looking for you for a long time, I have to admit. You're very important, Wolf." She adds, and I curl my lip back into a silent snarl, backing away from her even more.
"This is why you shouldn't interfere with things that happen in the woods, Wolf." She says, smirking a little. Then, without warning, everything went black as something hit me hard.