When not a trace of Dad's dark leather jacket could be seen swaying through the greenery, I turned back to Harry, a worried expression on my face. "Now what?" I asked his chocolate-furred wolf, and immediately he shifted back.
"There's not much blood so they'll be fine. They should heal soon enough, but the main problem will be making up a story believable enough to tell Mum why we were gone," Harry contemplated, a frown crinkling his forehead. In that moment as we waited, both deep in thought, I heard a rustle in the leaves, and turned to see Liam lying on the muddy ground in human form, his chest rising in a soft steady rhythm. "He's just sleeping now," Harry reassured, somewhat distracted.
"Will he wake up soon?" Harry turned to me, a cheeky smile stretching across his face.
"He will if we wake him." I snickered evilly and crept to where Liam's breath was slowly moving a leaf in front of his face. Harry gave me an approving nod and I poked Liam gently in the side to no effect. I poked harder and this time he stirred, mumbling something incomprehensible as his calm face turned to a frown. I sneakily wet my finger with saliva and lowered it until it was just touching Liam's ear.
"AAH!!!" he yelled, jolting up almost immediately and sending Harry and I into a fit of laughter. I literally fell to my knees in front of Liam, holding my stomach and laughing my insides out.
"Your, face," I wheezed out between bouts of laughter. "Wet willy, works every time." I calmed down, but a grin still lingered on my face.
"Wh-what happened?" Liam asked, genuinely concerned at the scene unfolding before his eyes, which widened at the sight of the other boys still passed out in wolf form on the dirty ground. At that moment, Niall shifted back, and we watched him sleeping in silence, forgetting Liam's question. After what felt like hours Niall's eyes flitted open and he pushed himself off the ground, looking around at us with a straight face. In the awkward silence I heard a loud grumble, and I didn't think it was thunder.
"I'm hungry," Niall stated simply, and I couldn't help but smile again at his adorableness. "Where's the nearest Nando's, Sam?" He turned to me, begging for an answer.
"Ummm, about twenty kilometres from here," I replied hesitantly; Nando's wasn't common in our household, so I really had only a vague idea of where the nearest restaurant was. Niall sighed.
"Damn,"
"So, again, since all of you are so kind, what happened?" Liam broke the silence.
"Uh, well, the hunter," I had a feeling he felt bad saying 'Sam's dad', "he, um, shot you all and he was giving me my final farewells, I think, when Sam came barging in on our little escapade. She somehow convinced him to let me go and he kind of just walked away," he summed up the story. I wondered in what order did Dad shoot. "I can't quite remember, but I think he took Lou, then you, Liam, then Niall, then Zayn, but he took his time." Harry answered my question as though he had read my thoughts. "You should really make sure you don't say all your thoughts aloud, Sam," Harry smirked cheekily and Liam and Niall snickered in the background.
By now we had all seated ourselves in the ground and were impatiently waiting for Louis and Zayn to wake up. "Ho long is this going to take?" I stressed with a sigh. On queue Zayn shifted with a crunch of leaves and I knew from experience that he wouldn't be talking any time soon unless we put fog horns in his ears. I crawled, literally, over to his sleeping figure and poked his stomach.
"It's going to take a lot more than that to wake Zayn up, Sam," Niall laughed.
"Fine," I laughed back, and proceeded to shake Zayn by the shoulders. Still nothing but a moan. I doubted the wet willy would have any significant impact, so I went to the next level. Positioning myself next to Zayn's head so I could escape easily, I slapped a palm across his relaxed cheek, making him flinch. I slapped again, effectively making Zayn groan and swat me away lazily. One final slap, this should do it.
"Okay, I'm awake already!" he roared, "God, can't a guy get a good sleep around here?!" He paused, noticing where we were. "Oh god." He put his face in his hands, rubbing his bleary eyes furiously with the base of his palms. "What happened?"
"Oh my God Zayn! WE JUST WENT THROUGH THAT!" I exclaimed irritably, finishing with a sigh of frustration. "The hunter provoked you, shot Lou, Li, Niall and you and was about to go for Harry when I found you and talked him out of it," I rambled.
"Oh," was Zayn's simple response.
"Yes, yes, that's all well and good," Harry piped up again in an orderly way, "but how are we going to convince Mum that nothing happened?"
"Wait," i interrupted, suddenly alarmed. If Louis was the first to be shot. shouldn't he have been the first to wake up, or at least awake by now? "Shouldn't we wait until Louis wakes up, I mean, he hasn't even shifted back yet,"
"I suppose so, but we should still think of ideas while we wait," replied Harry evenly. He was sudenly taking charge, and very effectively if you ask me. But wasn't he worried about Louis?
On queue a pained whimper escaped Louis' lips, but he didn't shift back. Instead, his once even steady breathing became shallow, the rising and falling of his chest decreasing and slowing, and my own breath hitched in my throat. My body went into full panic mode within seconds and I sprung to Louis' side.
"Louis? Louis!" I rubbed his furry face, "Oh my God, Lou, please wake up." Hot salty tears brimmed on my eyelashes, blurring Louis' white fur in front of me.
"Come on Sam, calm down," Zayn gently prised me away from Louis' deteriorating figure, but I could hear his voice wavering with uncertainty. Liam, Niall and Harry took my place around Louis and began inspecting his situation. I curled into a ball in Zayn's firm but kind grip while tears dribble down my flushed cheeks.
"Ssh, ssh, Sam," Zayn cooed, rocking gently back and forth while cuddling me like a teddy, "It'll be okay,"
"Uh...Zayn, can you come over here for a second?" Niall turned worriedly to call Zayn.
Zayn's POV
I prised Sam off me and stood shakily, resting Sam down gently on the scratchy leaves. As I approached the others a sharp pain hit my stomach, the instinct to shift. I knew the others would be fighting the urge too. Even though shifting was a painful experience, if a pack's Alpha shifts it's instinct for the rest of the pack to follow his or her lead.
I crouched beside Liam, pouring more shadow over Louis' snowy fur. "So, what's the problem?"
"Actually we were hoping you could tell us that Zayn," Liam admitted ruefully. I looked down at Louis again. No wound remained and there were no other impairments, so I didn't quite understand why he...
Unless...
But that was impossible...
"But that's the only plausible explanation..." I mumbled, more to myself than the others.
"What, Zayn?" Harry asked, both impatiently and begging woefully.
"It seems that Louis has found his mate, and I think I know who it is,"
Liam's POV
Shock rippled through the air like a slow motion bullet in an action movie. Louis had found his mate, and we all knew who it was. "Sam!" Zayn called her over. This was going to take some explaining. She glided over in such a clumsy manner it looked almost graceful.
"Is he going to be okay? Can you make him shift back?" Zayn sighed.
"I'm sorry Sam, we can't get him to shift back," Sam whimpered and silent tears leaked from her eyes, "but you can."
"Wh-what? What do you mean? How can I help?" Sam stressed excitedly.
"Ummm...it's kind of hard to explain, but...you're the only one who can help because you are Louis' soulmate." I think we all felt like Zayn's words were painted into the air, like they would never go away, always be with us. Much to my surprise, Sam responded quite civilly.
"Oh. So, what do I have to do?"
"Uh, this will seem pretty weird, and I've only read this in a couple of ancient texts, but, um," Zayn trailed off, insure of what to say. I didn't even know what he was going to say; Zayn was the only one who bothered to remember things like this. "Louis has to drink your blood,"
Sam's expression slowly turned over into a confused and scared frown. The silence was deafening; my heart pounded in my chest dramatically. Would Sam say yes? If she didn't everything would go to hell, but I had to admit it was an extremely daunting idea.
"Y-y-yes, I-I'll do it," Sam nodded furiously, staring into Zayn's hazel eyes with all her trust. "So, how do we do this?"
"Uhm...we just have to get a few drops of blood, so..."
"How about a scab? Would that work?" Niall asked impatiently.
"I don't think so; you have to have fresh, untainted blood. From a fresh wound," Zayn was looking extremely worried now, probably knowing how long Louis had left. Harry handed Zayn the pocket knife he always carried; it was the only thing he had from his parents, so it was hard for him to ever use it.
Sam held out her left hand, palm up, and she was visibly shaking. I noticed her gulp in fear as Zayn lowered the knife to her palm. He pressed down and Sam winced in pain; he dragged the blade antagonisingly slow across the skin below her thumb. A thin red line seeped out of the wound, spreading and flooding her hand with red. I rushed forwards to collect some of the dripping crimson liquid on a handkerchief and handed it to Zayn.
Sam's POV
Liam handed Zayn the blood from my now throbbing palm. Zayn turned to Louis and opened his mouth, dabbing the blood along his tongue. He retracted the hand and closed Louis' jaw.
Nothing happened.
Liam handed me the handkerchief to stem the blood flow, and I grabbed it with relief. As the blood stopped leaking out the throbbing stopped, but still Louis hadn't shifted back. "Zayn, is it going to work?" I whispered, not wanting to violently interrupt the tense silence.
"Yeah, it's just taking a while," Zayn assured me with a pat on the back. He jolted back suddenly though, and I was worried for a second until I saw where Zayn was looking and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
There on the brown earth Louis lay in human form, breathing evenly in deep slumber. Tears filled my eyes, and through the translucent sheet of water I noticed that the boys were crying tears of happiness too.
"Should we wake him?" Harry asked, breaking the happy silence. Liam sighed.
"As much as I want to say no and let him rest, Mum and Dad will be getting really worried by now." I crept forwards as far as I could to where Louis was snoring adorably.
"Louis," I cooed, shaking him gently. No response. "Louis, wake up." He stirred under my touch and I felt my heart skip a beat with happiness.
Louis' POV
"Wha...?" I staggered to a sitting position, my head pounding. Five pairs of curious eyes surrounded me, staring expectantly.
Wait, FIVE!?
I was pretty sure the boys only had two eyes each, so - oh, Sam, of course. But why would she be here?
"Boobear!" a feminine voice rushed towards me and I was suddenly lying again, my head spinning and giddy fireworks shooting up and down my spine. "Oh my god you scared me so much Louis!" Sam scolded, but she couldn't help smiling with a relieved sigh and flinging her arms around my neck.
"Don't worry Sam, it's okay now," I laughed kindly, softly caressing her cheek, now upright again. "Now, I'm not going to ask what happened, but I do want to know our plan for explaining this to Mum,"
"Uh, we'll, you see Louis,the thing is," Harry muttered, and I almost said the words without thinking.
"You don't have a plan, do you?"
A/N: hey guys, merry Christmas! Hope you all get what you want; I sure did ;)
So, I'm drafting another chapter, but it might not be ready until the 29th or 30th of December
Seasons greetings to you all!
<3 Norza