The intimidating guy that scared me to death was the first person to talk, “We, all of us, are in the Night Shade Pack—a Shape Shifter Pack.”
I couldn’t help but have a laugh escape my lips, and once that one shot through, I couldn’t control the flows of laughter after it.
I glanced up to expect everyone else laughing at the joke, but there were only stone angry faces staring back at me.
My laughing came to an immediate stop and I looked back at each of them,
“Wait—you’re serious.” I said, half in amusement.
I turned to Claire. “You believe them?”
“Well, think bout it, El. It explains things. It makes sense.”
“No it doesn’t. This is crazy—”
“Elana, I shot fire out of my hands today. I caught the school on fire with my hands. How else would you explain that?”
I scoffed. “Not with a dumb excuse like Werewolves.”
I stopped when I heard a low growl come from the leader.
Did he really just growl?
“We don’t have time for this.” He mumbled. “Nathan. Trysten. Take them before everyone notices they’re gone.”
Nobody moved at the command.
“Now!” he said with more authority in his voice.
Wait—take us where?
The blonde guy that, uh, healed my leg before argued. “But, Stephan, don’t you think they should know?”
The leader—Stephan—looked at him sternly. “Now, Trysten.”
He glanced over at the boy who saved me earlier. “You, too, Nathan. Unless you have any other objections.”
Nathan locked his eyes with mine and I just sat there, absorbed in his beautiful dark eyes. After a pause, he responded without breaking his gaze with mine, but it sounded so far away.
“Yes, Alpha.”
I continued to stare at his melting chocolate circles.
I tried to pull my eyes away from him, but I couldn’t do it. I just kept staring at him like he did to me.
I felt like I was in a trance.
The other strange part, I didn’t want to break the intimate contact. It felt like when I looked at him, I was safe and I knew nothing was going to happen that I can’t handle.
He almost made me want to believe this whole Werewolf scam.
Almost.
I didn’t look away until a slight hold came across my arm. I looked up to find Claire with her still worried glance.
She mouthed ‘are you okay?’
I just nodded and returned to my gaze to my safe haven. I looked back to find that Nathan was no longer there.
Instead, there was a huge furry wolf about the size of a small horse.
I felt my body jerk back in fear and my hands start to sweat. I looked around and there were many others, but the people who were there before were no longer there.
Did we get attacked and I didn’t notice? But then wouldn’t there be blood?
I glanced at Claire and she was already climbing on the back of one of the furry over-sized wolves.
I glanced at her worriedly and sprinted at her and started to tug at her arm.
“What are you doing? For all we know it could me a mutation of some kind of wolf.”
“Uh, did you not just see them change? You were staring at that guy and he transformed right in front of you.”
“Nathan did not just transform. He, uh…” the truth was, I didn’t know what happened to him.
I was watching him the whole time and knew he didn’t move, but could he really transform into a wolf?
I felt my hand get wet and cool. I looked down to find one of the wolves with beautiful dark brown eyes.
The same color as Nathan’s.
This had to be a dream.
Maybe this is another metaphorical dream like the fire. I was about to wake up from this horrible nightmare with my sanity intact.
But everything felt so real.
I could feel the light breeze and the wet nose press against my palm again. Maybe this is real?
One look in Nathan’s eyes told me so. I had only seen those eyes on one person, and I knew they couldn’t be duplicated.
These people turned into wolves.
And Claire could too—once she figured out how.
Once I got over my internal conflict and believed what was right in front of me, I looked up to tell Claire something, but she wasn’t there.
Only Nathan was, and he was now dressed in a pair of sweats and gray t-shirt. But he was walking around with his back was to me. I took a second to admire the muscles on his back and his incredible physique, even through the thin layer of his clothes.
His dark hair was cropped close to his head, but still long enough to touch the top of his shirt. I noticed the size of his arms and how proportionate they were to the rest of his muscular body.
I shook the clouds from my mind. Stop staring at him! I mean, yeah, he’s gorgeous, but get a grip of yourself.
“What do we do now?”
“You have to stay away from your friend for a little bit,” his baritone voice rumbled.
“What!?”
Nathan stopped abruptly with his back still turned to me. He turned his head slightly to the side, but I still couldn’t see all of his face.
He sighed, then responded, “It’s for your own good.”
“What do you mean?” I countered, my voice went squeaky and you can sense the hysteria in it, but I wanted to get answers.
This time, he turned his body all the way around and faced me. His eyes were hollow, holding no emotion.
He answered gently as if he would scare me. “I guess the disadvantage of having a best friend is you have to know all their problems and secrets. In this case, your friend has told you too much. With the knowledge you have now, we have enemies that could use that information, and if they get to you… well, we just can’t let that happen. So you and your friend are stuck with us until you get all of your abilities under control.”
“You know, my friend and I have names. And we’re not property just to be taken. You can’t do this. Sooner or later, you’ll have to tell me where I am and let me go.”
“No, you don’t get it. This society has been hidden for over hundreds of years. There’s no way a couple of little brats are going to ruin it. Now, either come with us, or sit out here in the middle of nowhere and starve.”
I guess it was an easy decision, but I still didn't like it. We started off.
-
Nathan had changed back into his wolf form so he could get us out of the forest quicker.Even as a wolf he was beautiful. He had slick, jet black fur covering his entire body.He jerked his chin to his back, and I guessed he wanted me to get on in a similar manner that Claire got onto the other wolf. His pelt was soft to the touch, and I could feel the hard muscles under his thick coat.Maybe all wolves are really big and I just don't know because I never met one, but I barley made it onto his back.I clung to his thick fur as he sped up in every step. His radiating w
I must have slept for quite a while after our tense talk, because the next time I opened my eyes, we were already on a windy road up the mountain.However, I was more uncomfortable than when I fell asleep. I looked down to find myself lying on an old torn quilted seat. Confused, I sat up and noticed I was in the back seat of an old pickup truck.“Finally. I thought you would never wake up,” Nathan startled me.He must have heard me rustling around.I glanced to the driver’s seat to look at him and noticed it was dark outside. The nearly-full moon acc
Just as I thought he might shoot, Nathan's shoulders relaxed and he pointed the gun to the floor, un-latching the top, and shoved the gun back down the backside of his sweats.“What the heck, Hyene? You know there's a front door!”The door swung open even more as Hyene came out, her perfect profile coming next to mine.The gorgeous girl from the forest stood tall before me. Her caramel skin seemed to glow even more and her dark hair swayed down to her mid-back.“Sorry. Stephan wanted me to come here and help out the new girl. Said to help her into Cl
“Then who was it?”Without another word, Nathan stormed out of my room, coming back a few seconds later with his phone clenched in his enormous hand so hard, I thought it might break.My body was visibly shaking, but he either didn't notice or didn't care, because he was talking on the phone, almost yelling. I didn't even try to pay attention to the words he was shouting into the phone.The door swung open and a familiar gorgeous body sauntered in.“What on earth are you two doing in here? I can't sleep with all this racket,” Hyene sleepily dro
An awkward silence rang through the room.“Who never told me what?”If even possible, the silence seemed to thicken.“Where is your mother?”“Excuse me?”Nathan gave another low grumble, but this time I heard the warning he gave his leader, “Don't.”He ignored him again. “Your mother. Where is she?”
I smiled softly back and stood, only to remember I lost my flip-flops while running out here.“Umm, I kinda...”I didn't need to finish my sentence before Hyene grabbed a pair of tennis shoes from behind the rocks with some socks in the heels and thrust them in my direction.“How—” she cut me off.“My ability is mind reading. It's how I knew where you were and what you needed.”My mind spun.
After all the introductions were through, Stephan continued on to explain the 'plan of action', as he put it.He was going to send Claire and I back to school, along with the rest of the other Shape Shifters who needed to complete their education. In the meanwhile, he said we would both be put to the test, maximizing and exercising our abilities.Because I have used my ability for a while, I pretty much know how it works. However, they all insisted I learn more and try to do more to bring out all of my possible abilities.Claire, however, will be gone for about a week before I get to see her. The full moon’s tomorrow night, and that would be her
The rest of the day went by smoothly, consisting of mainly me asking the 'pack' a lot of questions.Apparently, Dr. Jackson was a scientist who has been after the supernatural population for years. He's part of a group called the Keepers. He got a hold of whomever he could, making them experiments and his own personal slaves, bent on only doing his work.Only few actually survived through the experiments to become his slaves, though. Unfortunately, there was a whole society of these people called Keepers, but Dr. Jackson was the most well-known.The two men who were after me were trying to get Claire for the Keeper's experiments. They didn't recognize