I'd been told Mariah would have changed my bandages the next time I saw her. I assumed that would have been sometime today. She was going to bring me another meal, after all. But I had fled before the ceremony was over. I had no phone, no wallet, no money, and no ID. Trying to find my way down this mountain through the cold, without any traces of the time was hell.
"O-ouch. Shit, shit, shit! That hurts like a bitch." A scoff hurled out of me.
Grimace layered my face as I peeled back the blood drenched bandages from my shoulder. I hadn't realized the blood seeped through until I saw small red spotting on my dress. I guess it happened when I jumped out the window. I must have put too much pressure on my shoulder and ruined the stitches before the scar could properly heal.
Of course, that was just my luck.
Once more, I groaned in pain when a sliver of cold touched the wound. The sun was setting below the clouds. So far, it was a moonless evening. But I knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. The purple and blue starry sky dripped over me with memories of the time I went camping with my friends from high school for the weekend.
I could paint the picture right now. There was a large open clearing in a field that stretched on for miles with four cabins—two of them for sleeping. The large dining cabin was to the left of us. The bathroom cabin was to the right of us. It was probably the scariest part of the trip because it was the furthest. Needless to say, I hadn't used the bathroom all night.
When the sun set, it looked just like this. A beautiful sky over our heads, as we took pictures and walked along a trail of orange lit fireflies. Later on, in the night, our cabins had been plagued by the freezing cool temperatures. However, the massive bonfire we sparked kept us warm enough until it was time to say goodnight.
Those were the last few memories I had of my friends before we drifted away from each other. Nothing bad. People just grow up and go their separate ways. Some even lose touch. I was alone now. I was probably going to die too. Alone. I'd either freeze to death or starve to death. That was if the wolves hadn't found me first and made a feast of me for running away.
A noise gurgled in my stomach. Geez, my insides were growling again. What was this? The fourth time my stomach had growled since I'd stumbled out here? I thought so. I'd lost sense of my path. It all looked the same. The trees, the small critters, the heaps of grass blending into the dirt.
I sighed and gave my wound one last longing look. This was going to be a bitch to walk around with. My eyes clenched shut until I was fully stood. I fixed the sheet around my neck to keep my hood tight. Then, I was off again.
I had to be walking for hours now. If it wasn't hours, it sure felt like it. I took off around twelve noon. The sun usually set early during the fall and winter. It was probably past four now.
The moon was rising and my bones were aching. I heard a crunch, crackle, and pop as I lowered myself to the ground. With quaking arms, I rested my hands on the edge of the grass near the water. The sparkling, clear liquid was something I happened upon while walking. It was the perfect place to collapse until I found my strength again. I felt completely drained.
In the body of water, a gruesome copy of myself reflected back on me. My glasses were crooked on my face. My bottom lip hung open with cracks split down the middle. When I ran my tongue across it, the dried blood melted on the tip. I cringed back and gagged.
"Ugh, I look horrible," I murmured. I brushed my fingers through my curls. The dry black strands curled around my knuckles. I needed some shea butter and water immediately. Just a wash would do too. Maybe if I focused on my hair, I could ignore the migraine pounding at my skull. This was unlike any other migraine I'd ever had.
Compared to the cold caressing my skin, the heat within me made a note to blast at full-capacity. Wait, what was today's date? We were in the middle of October. My life went to shit on the twelfth. Today must have been the seventeenth. Could this have been my menstrual? My cycle had been changing around a lot lately, so I wouldn't have been surprised.
But something was off. There was no excessive cramping. Why the hell was I overheating then? It wasn't normal for me to overheat for anything but my menstrual. I knew the feeling all too well. My throat would close up. The empty contents of my stomach would rise because of the cramps. The heat would push me close to passing out.
However, this wasn't how that felt.
"Ouch, what the hell?" I whispered.
Something poked out from my gums. The instinctive gasp followed my hands to the tip of my teeth—the ones that had been filling out over the last few days. They stuck out like a sore thumb now. The pain in my jaw spread through all thirty-two of my teeth. An ache worse than giving birth, my mom would describe it. That was how she referred to tooth aches.
My hands met the ground as I dug my fingertips into the cold, hard soil. "A-aaie!" A cry formed in my throat. I crouched over, my head touching my knees. I could hear my heart beating in my head. The adrenaline rushing through me caused a spike in its pace. Its soft beats were like bullets piercing through my rib cage. If I moved, the bullets would tear through my flesh and exit my chest. Not literally, but that was how it felt.
I lifted my head and opened my eyes again. Thump, thump, thump, was how the heart beats sounded in my head. There was something different about myself . . . I didn't recognize the gold irises staring back into mine.
"My eyes. . ." I whispered. Now, my pulse was beating against my skin. Not just my heart. From my neck, to my arms. I flashed my teeth unprepared for the even sharper set baring from my gums. And my arms. God, my arms. The bare skin covering them was oozing hair.
"No, no, no." I crawled back. My hands went to my face. My legs. My mouth. Everywhere. Crunch, crackle, and pop. I could hear those dreadful noises again. It was the sound of my bones stretching on the inside. I hadn't even known bones could do that!
"Go away. Go away. Go away," I repeated, covering my ears.
I wanted the noises to stop. I wanted the pain to end. I wasn't ready.
A sharp pain drilled into my spine. My spine hunched, outlining the shape of my back. Was I getting bigger or smaller? I couldn't tell. I had no control. My body wouldn't unwrap itself from fetal position. I resembled a baby in the womb again.
"Let me take control." A hushed, deep voice racked my brain. I knew that voice. I'd once heard that voice somewhere. I couldn't remember. It was . . . calming. And it was in my head. But it made me feel safe. No, it wasn't real. I had to erase those thoughts.
"S-shit!" I let loose a loud whimper at the snap in my back. A sob shook my chest. God, that was fucking painful. I squeezed my eyes shut, inhaling as deep as I could for as long as I could. Through the darkness of my clenched eyelids, I saw the shadows of the moon's light glossing over me. I was like a puppet hanging by a thread.
"Genesis. . . Relax." My eyes cracked opened. I squinted through blurred vision in search of the voice. Except, I didn't see it anywhere. I didn't see anyone. But something called to my attention below, casting off the reflection of the water.
I froze. There wasn't anything else I could do. Jet-black fur, gold eyes, an abnormal size for his kind—he was just as I saw in my dream.
"Don't get scared." The wolf's jaw moved with the words before I could react.
"W-who are y-you?" I whispered in broken stammers. As if the pain wasn't enough. I was going crazy. Vincent hadn't told me losing my mind would be one of the side effects of turning. Could our wolves communicate with us? Was that what this was?
The wolf skipped over my question. "Don't focus on the pain. Focus on the moon. Let it guide your path so I can take control. Remember, just relax." His image faded with the moving water until the only gold I saw, was my own eyes.
There was more cracking. More popping. More hair.
I was becoming a beast. I knew it at the first growl.
* * *
My mind was floating but my body was running.
Everything in my view was hard to adjust to. My consciousness had drifted into a dark space. But I knew I was awake. I couldn't speak but I was thinking and moving.
Birds squawked and took flight from the ground. Small critters jumped out of my path when they saw me approaching full-speed. My gigantic paws had almost crushed them. Loud thuds went off after my paw steps. Something ran ahead in the distance. A brown spot.
Was I chasing it?
I could hear everything. I could see everything.
Yet this wasn't me in control.
My blood was pumping and my jaw twitched as I got closer to what I could now see was a deer. Saliva moistened the inside of my mouth. My mouth was practically watering at the sight of the deer. Was I going to eat it? No, I didn't want to. Please no, I begged internally.
A snap to my right had me halting mid-run. I sniffed the air once. Twice. Three times. No smell in particular lingered in the air. The area was void. That seemed odd. Something was wrong. I didn't know what, but my wolf could sense it. My wolf . . . that was such a weird thing to say. It wasn't normal. None of this was.
The air tightened around me. It was an uneasy feeling. Like eyes watching over me.
There was something. Something hiding behind the trees. Whatever it was, was dark and black. I couldn't see a physical shape. I could only see what my peripheral view would allow me to see. But I hadn't been given a chance to process it. My body jerked back. I was running again. Wait, no. I was running in the opposite direction—back in the direction I came from.
Shit, what was going on!? I couldn't look back. I couldn't do anything but keep running. Something was chasing me. I could feel their presence hovering over me. It was the darkest aura I had ever felt in my life. The kind that guaranteed something bad would happen if it caught up.
Don't look back.
Don't look back.
Don't look back.
Looking back was welcoming death.
Instead, I ran. I ran, and I ran, until I was entering a black hole that I could no longer feel the dark presence in. It swallowed me whole.
* * *
My body ached all over. I lay still, listening to the heavy rainfall. Its smell of musk seeped into the tunnel. My toes twitched at the breeze running over my skin. It swept up my calves, against my bare thighs, and in between my legs. I squeaked under my breath and quickly squeezed my legs tight together.
Oh god, I was naked. Where the hell was my dress and the sheet? Oh fuck, they must've ripped or something. And my glasses!? Sure, my wolf might have had perfect twenty-twenty vision. However, I could barely see without my glasses.
The wind's whistles echoed off the walls of the tunnel. I expected another draft to brush up on my exposed skin. But I realized something had been laying on top of me. I shot upright, clutching onto the green fabric. Tugging the edge, I made sure my chest and lower half was covered to the best of my ability.
There was nothing below my bottom I could have been laying on. I felt the cold, hard ground sticking to my bare ass. Yuck. There were so many germs, bugs, and God knows what else in this tunnel. I didn't even want to think about it.
"You're finally awake."
I tore my eyes away from my body. They danced over the dark figure standing at the entrance. All I could see was green. It was the same dark green washed over the fabric in my hands.
I placed a hand on my chest to calm my racing heart. "Christ, how long have you been standing there?" Sparks to my left caught my attention. The orange flames lit a small portion of the pitch-black tunnel inches away from me. There was hardly any light outside. The full moon had fully rose and the wet trees, leaves, and everything else all looked the same in the dark.
"You might want to put on the cloak before you catch frost bite. You've been passed out for almost an hour," Vincent said.
Oh, so that's what this was. Wait, almost an hour? I swallowed down my panic.
"Thanks," I muttered. I slipped the cloak onto my body and pulled the hood over my curls, hugging my knees to my chest. It rode down to my ankles, the same as his. Dried soil stuck to me like glue partnered with a few strands of grass. I plucked the grass off one by one, refusing to acknowledge him. That wasn't hard since his focus was on the rain.
I cleared my throat. "Um, how did you find me?"
"You weren't very hard to track down. We followed your scent along the trail from the house. It led us to your ripped blood-stained dress, your torn moccasins, and your glasses. Then, we found you passed out here." Vincent spun around. I saw him reach into the pocket of his cloak. When he removed his hand, he tossed something my way. I extended my arms to catch it.
"My glasses?" I looked back up at him.
"You can't see, can you?" He shrugged. "Very unusual for a shifter, if I do say so myself."
"Oh. Well yeah, anyways, um, thanks," I mumbled. As I pushed my glasses onto my face, what he had said soon dawned on me. "Wait, we? Who else did you come with? Did you guys, um, see or look at me or anything else? You know. . ."
When Vincent fully processed the extent of my words, he studied me. Closely. Then, he shook his head, and looked away. "Most wolves are taught discipline and respect at a young age. Anyone who takes advantage of you in this state is a shameful being. . . Bennett and Claudia returned to the pack to inform my parents we may not make it back tonight. It's too dark."
"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked, baffled. This time, I scrambled to my feet. Oh crap. I'd almost forgotten I was barefooted. Even after he just said it. Damn, I actually liked those moccasins too. Well, this just sucked all-around.
"Well, for one you have no clothes. Two, you're weak and running on an empty stomach. Three, we're both exhausted. We spent all afternoon looking for you, however, I can make it back up the mountain on my own. You're an easy target to enemies who may be lurking the area. And I cannot return without you. We'll have to camp here until the storm passes," he said.
"H-how long will that be?" I forced a gulp down my throat.
"I don't know. The storm is supposed to last until the early morning hours. It'll be sunrise by the time we can begin traveling back up the mountain again." He sighed.
Well, this was going to be awkward. I didn't think he'd have been keen on playing nice for the night. If we were going to be stuck here alone together for a while, I needed to know what was going to be done with me. I might as well had asked the question since it was at the top of my head.
"What's going to happen when I get back?" I mumbled.
"I haven't decided yet," he said. "The window you broke is currently being repaired. There's always the option to place you in a room with heavier security. . . Or maybe somewhere where you can't leave out of my sight. Perhaps, by my side."
"Wait, wait, wait! No, you don't have to do that. Why would you do that? I'm perfectly capable of being alone," I defended. Vincent shot me a glare over his shoulder. His eyes were narrowed, an eyebrow raised in question.
"Okay, okay. I get it. Spare me the glare. But in my defense, I was going to shift anyways. Wouldn't that have basically caused the same damage? And think about it rationally. I haven't been able to contact my family. They're probably super worried about me! All I want is a chance to get in touch with them, to at least let them know I'm alright.
"Wouldn't you want the same!? Come on, seriously, I was still a human once, you know? The least you could do is let me make peace with them before I have to be locked away again. Mariah did say your dad would be pissed if humans have to violate your territory again. Well, think of this as me helping you. So? What do you say?"
"Anderson . . . are you trying to bargain with me?" He crossed his arms, taking one stride forward. I took one stride back, laughing nervously.
"Is it working?" I flashed him a small smile. He was not amused.
"You caused panic throughout town," was his simple response.
"What? How!? I did no such thing," I scoffed.
He gritted his teeth. A growl snapped from in between his tight jaw. I watched him close his eyes and take easy breaths. His lips were moving. I could've sworn he was counting to himself. Finally, he let out a breath of air.
"Genesis, there was a reason you were in that room. . . No one in Calamitous knew of your presence."
"What do you mean?" My stomach churned.
"We were keeping a low profile on you. For your safety and to avoid stirring havoc. However, now that you've made a scene, the people know there's been a suspect in Amaury's murder staying in the alpha's home. There will be eyes on you. Targets on your back. Wherever you step foot in town."
"Wait, I don't understand. So, you were also protecting me?"
"I said I was keeping you alive for answers, did I not?" His irises were less flaming than usual. They hadn't had the same fiery he gave when we'd been first introduced. They were cold. Absent. Distant.
"B-but don't you have control over everyone or something? No one would be crazy enough to kill me against your orders, right?"
Vincent went quiet. It was only for a second, but it was enough for me to remember the man who was against him taking the throne during the crowning ceremony. Not everyone was happy to have Vincent as their alpha. While not everyone spoke up, I knew there were others itching to say it. The crowd was too quiet. And the tension was too thick.
Vincent walked forward until the fire shadowed his face. He slipped his hands halfway into his cloak pockets, avoiding my eyes. "I'm sure you're aware a title does not always hold any authority over its people. Especially if some of those people disagree with the choice for who has claimed that title.
"It's unfortunate, however, some do not fear the consequences of their actions. They're willing to risk it all if they think their cause is worth it. There will be people who disobey me, no matter what I say or even do. Not everyone respects their alpha. . . Especially not me," he finished, lowering his voice.
I shut my mouth and moved closer to the fire. I was careful not to get too close though. The warmth of the flames flickered across my palms. My eyes avoided Vincent's. But I could feel his heavy stare on me.
He was outcast by his own people. That was the conclusion his words had driven me to. I was sure I wouldn't ever completely understand why. Not at the rate we were getting to know each other, which was barely. All I knew was, it had something to do with him not belonging.
Had that meant Amaury wasn't his blood brother then? It was strange. Vincent spoke of him like he was the closest sibling he'd ever had. It was probably true too. However, I could only guess that they hadn't come from the same womb.
"How did you find this place?" It took a moment for Vincent's question to process in my brain. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, thinking back on what I could remember.
"I-I . . . I honestly don't know. I was next to a body of water. Then I . . . changed. Um, why?"
His muscles grew tense. "Amaury and I," he began, "we used to play here as children. It was his favorite spot only the two of us knew."
"O-oh. I'm sorry for asking. . ."
"I can't believe you ended up here of all places," was what it sounded like he whispered under his breath. I frowned. I'd admit, this was not a good look on my part. But I had a reason.
"M-my wolf led me here!" I blurted.
"Your wolf?" The arch in his eyebrow rose higher.
"Yes. Vincent, can I ask you something?" He made a gruff noise that I took as an unapproved yes. "Are we supposed to be able to talk to our wolves? Like can they communicate with us?"
"Interesting choice of question. . . We cannot verbally communicate with our wolves. We cannot magically hear our wolf's thoughts in our heads either. All we can do is feel. I can feel my wolf's wants. My wolf's needs.
"When my wolf is trying to express himself. And most importantly, when we need to shift and run freely in the open. It is impossible for your wolf to have a voice. After all, they are the animal half of our human forms. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, uh, nothing. I often read about stuff like this in books. Wolves who could actually talk with their human counterparts, you know? I thought it was kind of cool, I guess." Even I wasn't convinced with my own lie. I wanted to slap myself.
"Don't believe everything you read," he said.
"Right." I chuckled, relieving the stress from my throat.
The rest of the evening went on like that. The rain fell on. The silence thickened. And we didn't speak because we didn't have to. We stuck to our corners of the tunnel and played nice. While I ignored the familiarity, the tunnel gave me.