Chloe
I was silent as I drove into the parking space, my mind miles away from the music playing on the radio. What had I gotten myself into? I ran a hand through my hair, leaning my head against the steering wheel, trying to make sense of it all.
Vincent's words echoed in my mind: "Choose sides carefully, Chloe… Mark's not the man you think he is. If this company crashes, thousands would be unemployed, and it would all be because of him!"
How could Mark act this way? My eyes pricked with tears as I sat there, my thoughts spiraling out of control. Was Mark even really interested in me? Or was I just another pawn in one of his schemes? My mi
My heart pounded as I stared at Mark, his vague words echoed in my mind, ‘It's not safe for you to know, Chloe.’ But I needed to know, I thought. He couldn't expect me to act like nothing happened and everything was fine, what could he be hiding? My thoughts wandered as I stared at him.“What is it, Mark,” I pressed, my voice shaking lightly. “I deserve to know,” I stared at him, my heart racing.Mark's eyes fixed on mine as he slowly contemplated, I could hear the gears in his mind clicking into place already. He sighed, and a pang of concern hit me, he looked exhausted. “Okay, fine…” Mark’s eyes locked on mine, “I'll tell you.”My breath caught in my throat as he began speaking.“I came back, to find something,&rd
ChloeMy heart raced as Mark leaned in, his lips brushing mine with one delicious contact. His hands reached behind my head, catching fistfuls of my hair and he angled my face, kissing me deeply.“ohh—Mark,” I moaned his name softly as I nibbled at his lips, my hands curled around him as I hugged him tightly. His hands were everywhere as they roamed my body, leaving trails of fire that made me wish for more.My body pressed willingly against him as he took charge, his body leading me on. Mark broke off the kiss and he pressed his forehead against mine, his eyes glowing with a fervent light. “I want you,”
Chloe. My breaths were shaky as I stared at where Pascal had been standing just moments ago. His words still echo in my mind. My body shuddered, Mark's life was in danger. “You should go home,” Mark's face was dark like an impending storm as he spoke. “I have some things to do, I can't take you back,” Mark turned to leave. “Mark, wait,” my breath caught and I clutched his hands, “You shouldn't…” “You have to leave, now,” Mark snapped coldly, as he turned to glare at me, his eyes glowed. “Leave now!” My heart skipped a beat, Mark looked on the brink of lashing out. But I couldn't leave him, not like this. “No,” I shook my head, “I'm not leaving, we have to talk. You…” I gasped as Mark wrenched his hand out of my grasp. “Leave,” His eyes softened for a brief second, regaining their human look before it was gone, replaced by a feral look. “Mark,” I gasped but he was already gone, his body morphing into a werewolf as he disappeared into the trees. Where was he going? My heart thudd
Chloe The heat from the encroaching flames was horrific, I couldn't breathe and my eyes watered as smoke stung my eyes. My mind raced with thoughts as I looked around, looking for a way out. The other lady—Nina, was crouched behind the desk, her face was slick with sweat. “What do we do?” she asked, coughing violently, she covered her nose with the other end of the shawl I'd brought.“I…” My eyes watered as my eyes were stinging from the fumes. I'd been looking around for my cell phone, the fumes obscured my vision. “Look around if you can find my cell phone,” I glanced at Nina as I wheezed, she nodded to show understanding. We split up, with Nina checking one side while I checked the other, the fumes were suffocating. To my relief, the fire didn't seem to be advancing further, if given enough time, it would die out without enough oxygen and flammable things to burn on. We didn't have the luxury of time, my vision blurred for a split second and I staggered almost falling to the flo
Mark. My heart pounded as I stared at the derelict building, the blare of the fire service trucks filled the air. My hands tightened around my cell phone, and the memory of Chloe's words echoed in my mind. My nerves tightened as I watched the firefighters battle it out with the raging flames. I could hear their shouts as they communicated, waves of guilt crashed into me with every lifeless body that was brought out. A mix of guilt and relief when I didn't see Chloe's body brought out. No! She couldn't be dead, I clenched my hands tightly, staring at the building of what was once my company. My eyes reddened as I watched the rescue efforts, I stood there for hours, waiting, hoping. A stab of pain coursed through me as I stared at the building of what was once my company, who could've done this? my eyes narrowed as thoughts swirled in my head. I cursed the fact that I couldn’t transform and storm the building to find Chloe. “Mr. Mark?” one of the firefighters approached me, his clo
Chloe. “What!” I thought I misheard, her words ripped into me and I stared at her with wide eyes. What was she even talking about?“Yes,” Jane nodded, her eyes fixed on me, “It was a murder attempt, Chloe, their target was…” Jane's eyes flashed, as though considering something, “Their target was your father.”My belly tightened into knots as I listened to her and I held my head with my hands, all these years I'd thought bad luck was to blame for the accident, a freak happening of nature. Little did I know, my breath caught in my throat, unknowingly my cheeks were already wet with tears. “Why?” I wiped my eyes, “Why would anyone try that?” My voice shook as a lump formed in my throat. “Do you know who it is?” I looked up from my cup of tea. “I don't know,” Jane's lips trembled, “I wish I did. It all happened so fast.” I shook my head as I listened to her, “Why did you never come back to take me?” I tried and failed to keep the tremor out of my voice. My eyes welled up with tears,
Mark. The air was tense as I glared at Vincent, ready to take action. How dare he? My eyes glowed, my wolf snarling, trying to take the reins. Chloe, waves of rage burst out of me. “You have one last chance, Vincent,” I roared. “I could tell you the same, Mark,” Vincent smiled, but his eyes held a murderous glint. “You're nothing but an illegitimate child trying to bite off more than he can chew,” Vincent spat as he glared at my men in the surroundings. “Is this who all of you are willing to lower your heads too? this… fool?” An outburst burst out amongst the men as they all glared at Vincent, I felt a small joy as I saw their response, these were my men. “Enough talk,” I scoffed, my rage already exceeding my threshold. I snarled, about to change. “Hold it right there,” a voice shouted in our ears, and a piercing pain erupted in my head, I groaned as I stumbled to the ground, clutching my head. Vincent wasn't doing any better, he got down on one knee and held his head as well, his
CHLOEAnxiety and worry filled me like an ever present being, always at the core of my person. My worry for Mackenzie and Rachel amplified by multiple folds. Jane and I drove out of manhattan like two normal people just heading out of town. I couldn’t wait to call Rachel but Jane suggested I waited a little. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, Jane pulled over at a mini mart“We’ll get a burner phone so you can call Rachel, let her know you are okay, but you can’t tell her where you are.”I didn’t even know exactly where we were but I knew we were somewhere on the outskirts of Drewsy, the vast acres of trees that surrounded Drew
MARKThe pure undiluted rage pumping through my veins seemed to overflow and fill my senses. All I could see was red and I was going to make sure Ronald felt that rage.I pounced on him and he braced himself in response as we crashed into the marble table in the center of the room reducing it to a million tiny pieces.Ronald seemed to recover first and made to swipe at my face with bared claws and a maniacal grin on his face. But Pascal intervened, grabbed him from behind, and threw into the wall with sufficient force that made Ronald-shaped cracks in it. Pascal stretched his arm out to help me up which I took. I looked at him a bit quizzically. All the time I’ve known him I had never seen him intervene physically in any conflict in the pack or even in his family apart from the training he gave me and Vincent. The fact he was fighting with me now, especially against someone who actually shared a blood relationship with him made me feel a type of way that was difficu
FANGROOTMARKI sat there and simply processed what I’d been told. Christian Packard had allowed himself to get caught because he would rather we catch him than go back to Ronald’s clutches. Ronald Dennison, the new thorn at my side. He was powerful, undoubtedly so. Testament to his ability was his seamless invasion into my home. Now I know how. Wolves have always been social creatures, from the wolves in the wild to the more advanced kind, we have always been social creatures, and we’ve depended on our senses. A werewolf has a heightened sense of smell and hearing, impeccable vision, and most of all, what we rely on is our ability to sense our immediate environment, the energy around us, and the general life force.But there was a werewolf who could manipulate al
FANGROOT CHLOEAlone. Unaided, that’s how he did it. Ronald had successfully invaded my home and showed me what we all knew now. That we were completely at his mercy. I didn’t know it at the time, but Mark had half a dozen werewolves watching over us when he left the house. He had two monitors outside the gates, another two on the grounds of our property, and two more on patrol. Yet not even one of them smelled his entry, much less saw him enter. He sat in my chair and threatened to end everything I cared about in the world and we don’t even know how. Logically it was almost impossible to avoid the senses of six well developed werewolves on guard. Avoiding just one werewolf’s senses was lucky, avoiding two was considered divine luck. Avoiding three, now that would require divine luck and help from others. Avoiding Six was Ronald. And no one else. I knew Dennisons. I know the feeling of having your existence be threatened by one of them.Mark had left the house ye
MarkThe unusual blend of dread and determination in my wife’s eyes was something I’d never seen before and it made my heart sink. I felt a bit of fear too but the rage mostly overshadowed it.Ronald had managed to get into my house despite the couple of wolves I had put on guard duty to watch my family. What was worse was that he also managed to get Mackenzie to ingest something and neither I nor Chloe knew exactly what it was. We were again at the mercy of one of Vincent’s goons. I could only imagine how distraught that made Chloe feel.The children were asleep now but she refused to take her eyes off them. She sat in their room and watched them as they slept. I, on the other hand, had to figure something out. I can’t sit on my hands while my family remains at Ronald’s mercy. I was so consumed by rage so much that I wanted to go to the Caldor lands myself and rip his head off with my teeth, consequences be damned. Besides I was only raised with the Dennison family
CHLOEMark had gone to meet with his uncle and once again I was left at home with the kids. Mackenzie and Victor were my joy and reasons for living, but It was hard. It always was, sitting and waiting for the men in my life to cause problems and to solve problems, with me, left at home to wonder if they are alright and if we are going to be fine. Ever since Mark left I haven’t been able to take my eyes off my daughter. Always shadowed her, especially when she played with Victor. I hated to think that my daughter could be a danger to my son and herself, the little girl didn’t deserve to be burdened as such if only I had been there to protect her and keep her safe as a good mother should. The teardrops came running along down my face. “Now, Chloe. That just wouldn’t do.”I froze dead in my tracks at the familiar yet unfamiliar voice that invaded the air around me.“Hello, Chloe. I see you standing there doing what you do best. Nothing.”Ronald was sitting in
MARKI could hear Mackenzie’s blissful chatter as she told little Victor stories of how she beat me in a race. All I could think of was going straight to Caldor and detaching Ronald’s head from his shoulders. I didn’t mind stepping over his body to get the Crane Lilies, the only plant known to succeed in reversing the effects of fangroot. “You can’t go alone, Mark. Let me come with you. At least let someone else come with you, Pascal, or anybody Goddamnit!”She yelled now. Causing me to pause in my actions and regard her calmly. My phone rang with urgency as I made to silence it. I looked at the screen and saw it was my uncle calling.Speak of the devil.“Now’s not a good time, uncle. I’m in the middle of something.” I said coldly to my uncle. “This can’t wait. And if you wanna save Mackenzie from the Fangroot that has invaded her body for a year, you’ll get yourself to the Dennison manor and we’ll go on a little drive together.” My uncle finished with
CHLOEIt was the weekend, and as promised, Mark and I decided to begin Mackenzie’s trails. She was to take the first step on the trail today with Mark and me around to guide her through. “I’m ready mummy. This is like when Aunt Sally gave me a tour of the woods at the other house. Uncle Mark raced me!”Mark laughed a laugh that only came out when he played with Mackenzie. A breathless laughter that always sounded unintentional, as though the child in him came out despite his best efforts. It never failed to warm my heart, seeing him be a father to her in a way Vincent never was. “Slow down little wolf.”Mark said, still laughing.“We’ll race alright, but first I have to tell you something. Something about our family and other families who live in Drewsy.”Mackenzie was jumping at this bit already. She’d always liked it when Mark called her his little wolf. But now she was eager to run and Mark wanted to talk. She was beside herself with excitement as sh
MARKChloe was asleep beside me as the affairs of the day played out in my mind. I calmly told my wife that it was all fine and that there was nothing to worry about. If only that was the case. The look on Chloe’s face right before she went to get dinner ready was the scariest I’d ever seen her. Because she meant every word she had said. Chloe and I had been through a lot. Had a lot taken from us, so it was no surprise she was willing to crack heads and spill the blood of whoever was going to try to take the happiness we’ve found together, away from us. I would seek divine retribution for anyone who hurts my family…The fear of losing them loomed bigger than anything I’d ever faced. So I unconsciously said a prayer: Oh God I’m sorry. Please don’t take these beautiful things that I got.Chloe stirred at my side and snuggled up to me. I held her closer as my thoughts ran miles a minute with my fears.I took up my phone and called the only person I thought I could trust. The Pack elders
CHLOE“Wolves are social creatures, they move in families called Packs. And when the moon is full, they howl at the moon.”I could hear Mackenzie’s voice over the sound of the radio as she told her little brother stories about animals. She seemed to have a new obsession with wolves, I’d like to think that was a coincidence. The Drewsy Pack usually kept all information about their true nature from their children till the children turned 10 years of age. The change could be too much for the young wolf to bear. It usually ended up in a catastrophe, traumatizing the child and even causing self-alienation from the Pack.“Mummy, can we please get some Ice cream, please? You promised.”I'd been waiting for her to say that Mackenzie could forget her backpack in the house and settle into the car all ready for school, but she never forgot an ice cream promise.“Of course, baby girl.”I said with laughter in my voice at the pleading look on Mackenzie’s face. She started