Chapter 3: Chapter 3:
I smell the coppery scent of blood as it settles throughout the air like a heavy blanket of rust. With this comes the crunching of bones and the slashing of flesh as the wolf ravishes the man. The hunter has become the hunted.
But I do not feel pity for him.
I recall his eyes as he raised the gun to my face, the ever present numbness settling over him as he prepared to take my life. When I saw the black hole of the gun's mouth, I knew the threat of death was imminent. The rain of bullets previously was only the beginning of my relationship with the Grim Reaper.
After my body would have succumbed to the bullet being lodged in my skull, the wolves will smell the decay and come for their meal, ripping my lifeless body limb from limb.
Everything about me would be lost to the world.
That is what bothers me the most--that I would have been left there to die a miserable and lonesome death. To be nothing but the next meal for predators among the land. Mother nature would not have been kind to me. She does not discriminate, nor take sides.
I doubt my family would have come looking for me, which bothers me even more.
I keep hearing the man's voice as he asked me to beg for my life. The memory makes me sick to my stomach. I pant, my breathing coming out in short bursts of air.
Out of energy, I slow to a stop and lean against a tree, a wicked shiver running over my body. It is cold, possibly too much for me to handle.
When I turn my head to look behind me, I hear the howl of a wolf.
I panic and instantly drop to the ground. There is no way I am going to escape this. I most likely was always meant to die here. But I'm not sure if I would have preferred the gun, or the attack of the wolf as my introduction to the pearly gates.
I put my hands over my ears and count, just as Sharon taught me to do as a child. I hadn't listened to her then, and no matter what I did, my hotheadedness never cooled. But for once, that woman's teachings might be useful. I mutter the numbers repeatedly, as if the moment I stop I'll be ripped apart.
I sit there in the snow, counting numbers until my mind falls into darkness.
Surprisingly, I wake up in my bed. I look around the room and see nothing out of order. It even seems as if I had never left the house in the first place. But then I notice my clothes are different, and my suit case is flung open near the open closet. I must have changed my clothes and then went back to sleep.
I look at my phone and find no news of shots fired in the area, and so I finally realize that everything had been all in my head.
"That was a horrible nightmare," I mutter to myself.
*It happened.*
The woman's voice echoes in my mind and I shriek.
"I'm going insane. That has to be it," I nod to myself.
*You were in danger last night, and if it wasn't for that male wolf, we would be dead.*
"I don't understand," I grab my hair and squeeze my blond locks nervously.
*Someone tried to kill you, as in kill us, last night.*
"B-But why...I can't believe I'm talking to myself like this" I laugh and shake my head.
*Hunters, I suppose. But they were awful at their job, so I have no idea, sweetling.*
"You mean to hunt animals?"
*Sort of.*
"Who are you? I mean, what are you?"
*I am you.*
"So I am losing it."
*No, I am you, but not. I'm your...wolf.*
"Wolf?" I chuckle loudly.
*You're a werewolf.*
"So you're saying I have completely lost my marbles."
*You're a smart girl. I suspect you've been guessing you're much different than others.*
I stop at that and realize she might be onto something. I've been wondering all my life why I can hear heartbeats, and smell and see better than the norm. I just thought I had a higher brain frequency than others. I never would have guessed this, ever.
"Aren't werewolves supposed to shift on a full moon? I'm fairly sure I have not gone out and killed livestock in a trance at night," I say.
*You just have to want to shift, and you will.*
"Let's say I believe you. Why have you not spoken until last night?"
She does not answer for some time, and I suspect she's hiding from the confrontation.
*It's a long story.*
"Then paraphrase."
*My past mistakes are not yours to know. I will only tell you that I did not reveal myself for your safety.*
"Well, I sure as Hell am not safe right now," I hiss.
*The past is the past. I have lived many lives, but only yours has troubled me so.*
"And why is that?" I lower myself onto the floor and look around the room nervously. I don't feel safe anymore now.
*Because, you're...*
"I'm what?"
*You're alone. Wolves aren't meant to be by themselves. I have never felt so disconnected from the world.*
That stings.
*I don't mean to hurt you. I know what you're feeling even now. Do not shut me out because I have spoken out of turn.*
"Honestly, you've only spoken the truth. If I react negatively to what you've said, I'll only be like Sharon."
*Then I am glad.*
"What should I call you, anyway?"
*I have had many names.*
"Then what was your favourite one?" I smile softly.
*Sage. I-It was not mine, but a host I cherished dearly.*
I lean back against the side of the bed, my legs spread out on the hardwood floor. "What was she like?"
Before she can continue, I hear the front door slam and I flinch at the sound. It makes me remember the night before, and I can't help but feel that it won't be the last time I'll be hunted down.
I scan the room and realize an important detail, one I should have asked Sage from the start.
"If that wolf saved me, Sage, was he a werewolf too?"
*Yes.*
I take my phone with me towards the window when footsteps make their way to my room. The door opens just as I have one leg out, and I see my dad standing there with a shocked expression over his face.
"You should be dead..."
"E-Excuse me?" I shudder.
He then rushes at me and I'm left shoving myself out the window as I had done the night before.
"You should be dead!" He screams and reaches for me.
In my haste to flee, I fall onto the snow and scramble away from him. My clothes, dampen and I'm reminded of how cold it was when I had escaped into the forest. When I had run for my life.
I hear a monstrous growl and see the male wolf, my savior, walking towards me from within the foliage of the forest entrance. His fur is a beautiful mix of grey, black, and brown, and I can't help but stay entranced at the sight of him.
But the moment I look into his eyes, I see home. I see a place of such familiarity, it's as if I had been feeling lost for years and finally walking back into the comforting warmth of my one and true home. As if I'd been drowning, and he was the raft that would keep me afloat from the suffocating depths beneath me.
We stare at each other, but the wolf turns distracted at the sight of my dad. The growl that releases from the animal's lips makes me shudder in fear, and I freeze in place, afraid to face the wrath of those sharp canines. Home or not, this wolf is dangerous.
"I always knew this would happen. Just take her!" Jack shouts, and the wolf doesn't seem pleased by this.
"Go! Just go!" He grabs my suit case and throws it out the window, most of my clothes falling out onto the snow. I stare at the items, and then back at him, wondering if they're worth the risk.
The wolf flinches and lowers its hackles in a threatening pose. When nothing occurs, my savior moves back towards me, but never turns his head away from Jack in the process.
I warily pick up my stuff and open the suitcase to unzip the compartment where I packed another pair of shoes. There's no way I'm asking Jack to leave my sight. Who knows what he would do in that time frame, or who he would call.
I need to run and never look back. The man is obviously responsible for what happened last night. I'm not sure why, but he is. And deep down, I am not as surprised as I should be. For my whole life, I've felt disturbed in his presence. I had assumed it was his disgusting comments towards me, but it must have been more than that. He is my father by blood, and nothing more from this point on.
But on second thought, why am I a werewolf when my parents aren't? It is obvious they do not share the same traits as I do. I take one last look at my father and cringe at the coldness in those green orbs of his.
There's nothing for me here.
There never was, and never will be.
I move towards the driveway and drag my suitcase behind me in the cold.
And to my utter dismay, the wolf follows.
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