At some point mid-run she morphed into wolf, a terrified chestnut-coloured beast running through the forest like the wind. Somewhere in the corner of her mind that wasn't populated by fear she worried about what was happening at her cabin, if Aidan was fine. They were very similar emotions, worry and fear, and she soon she found herself scared that something would happen to him.Within minutes she found herself at the site of the funeral. She looked around frantically, but everyone was gone. The funeral seemed to have ended. The chairs had been packed and the black decorative drapes had been folded and put away. She snorted in frustration and turned her back on the funeral site, running towards her house on all fours.She got to the back lawn of her house that connected the house to the woods and stopped in front of the hedges for a moment. She looked behind her at the depth of the forest, it seemed to be full of suspicious, eerie movements. She shuddered, shaking her large brown wolf
Lauren felt herself being roughly shoved aside as the others reached her. She slipped to the damp grass, numb and unable to speak. A rushing noise had invaded her ears and she felt arms grab her and pull her close, but she barely noticed. All that was in her head was a recurring and frightful thought.Not Eric. Not Eric, please."Oh, God!" Beth said, her hands covering her mouth in shock.Mike stared into the distance, at the depths of the surrounding forest "Whoever did this couldn't have gone far. We'll go after him." He muttered and tapped Lia, indicating that she should follow him. They both ran into the forest in pursuit, morphing into wolves midway.Axel rushed to Eric's unmoving body and held him, cradling the boy's head in his hands. Lauren watched as his dreadlocks swept the grassy floor. His eyes were staring at the sky eerily, and his skin looked pale and bloodless. Axel placed an ear to the boy's chest and listened for a few seconds. Then he raised his head and looked at
Lauren staggered back in alarm, her hand grabbing the bedposts. "Do something." She yelled "Beth, fucking do something!" Beth rushed to Eric's side and bent over him, then after a few seconds, straightened up.Lauren stumbled forward with tears in her eyes, grabbing Beth's clothes "He's gonna die if you don't do something!""I'm not gonna die." Eric's voice came from the bed "Calm your horses, Sommers."Lauren turned so fast she was surprised she didn't keel over. "Eric? Eric!" She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, tears of gratitude falling from her eyes. "Ow! That's alright, Lauren. If this wound doesn't kill me, you will." "Shut up." Lauren said, releasing him and drying her tears."How do you feel? Hurt?""Yeah, duh." Eric replied. He blinked a couple of times and looked around "My glasses. Have you seen them?" He croaked.Beth hastily passed him his glasses which were cracked at the lens. He put them on and looked into Lauren's eyes, seeing the questions that lay
"I think you should go to bed now, Lauren. You've done enough." Beth told Lauren hastily as she and Axel lifted up the bleeding boy and placed him back on the bed.Lauren, with tears in her eyes, shook her head. "No! I'm not going anywhere!" She protested. She hovered around the door way till Aidan reached out and grabbed her shoulders, drawing her back. "Let's go to your room, Lauren." Aidan whispered in her ear. "Come on now. Beth and Axel will fix him up, I promise.""No!" Lauren screamed and freed herself from Aidan's grip. She ran forward and collapsed on the bed beside an unconscious Eric."Lauren!" Beth yelled at her, her eyes full of alarm. "Go to your room, now!"Aidan dragged her out of the room as she sobbed in despair. He led her to her room, opened the door and took her inside.Immediately they got there she collapsed on her bed and sobbed, her tears wetting the bed sheets."I know you feel like you're a terrible person but you're not. All of this isn't your fault, Laure
Mike walked into the kitchen, closely followed by Lia. The both of them settled down with a sigh on the kitchen chairs and closed their eyes. One could see the fatigue clearly etched on their faces.Beth, Axel, Aidan and Katherine waited patiently for them to regain their strength. After a few long minutes, Mike opened his eyes suddenly and looked around. "Where is Lauren?""Well..." Beth started, then looked around at the others for support. "She's asleep.""Okay." Mike said, eyeing all of them suspiciously. "You said you have news?" Axel prompted him. "We also have news but perhaps yours should come first.""Okay." Mike agreed, then sat up. "After we left Lauren and the half-dead boy on the lawn, we ran after the killer, right? We went into the woods and tried to sniff him out for a while. The night was moonless so it was quite harder than we thought. At a point I was ready to give up and turn back but Lia here kept me going." Lia opened her eyes, a little startled as her name was c
Aidan woke the next morning with a faceful of hair. He spluttered and gasped, trying to get it out of his mouth. It took him a full minute to realise that he was in a comfy bed, with easy warmth around him.A whole minute to pull his thoughts together. That was a first for him.He wasn't used to sleeping this peacefully. In fact, he hadn't had a full night of sleep in so many years. Usually he was up from bed the moment he opened his eyes. No time to laze around in bed. His sleep in the past few weeks after his father's death had been troubled, to say the least. He would go to bed and few minutes into his sleep, the nightmares would start . Several recurring images of his father dying, of Lauren almost getting killed by her father, of the whole battle scene at the laboratory. The bodies of several Lycans littering the parkng lot of the laboratory. The images played over and over in his head like a faulty video player: a few more minutes into it and the screams and cold sweat would s
The two teenagers clambered down the staircase of Beth's house, the enticing smell of the pancakes drawing them closer to the kitchen. Lauren laughed as she got to the door of the kitchen first and Aidan pulled her back by the collar of her shirt."Good morning! Where are the pancakes?" He announced as he got to the kitchen, Lauren walking in behind him.Lia was sitting at the kitchen table, her feet propped up on the tabletop. She was reclining lazily on the chair, its front legs up in the air. She silently waved an empty platter in Aidan's face. "It's all gone." The girl said, smacking her lips.The smile on Aidan's face faded into a scowl as he came to the table and sat as far away from Lia as physically possible. "I knew you'd do this. I never liked you anyway." He muttered under his breath, but Lia's quick wolf ears had picked it."I never liked you either." She replied, loud enough for him to hear.Lauren could feel the tension, as tightly woven as an intricate mat, between her
Lia watched Aidan's retreating back through the transparent kitchen door, then snorted. "Good riddance."The whole room was suspended in awkward silence, Beth and Katherine exchanging worried glances and Lauren staring daggers at her friend, who was avoiding her eyes, still staring at the closed kitchen door. Lauren stood up from her chair with a creak and turned towards the door. "I'm going to see if Eric's awake." She muttered and walked out of the kitchen, then climbed the staircase.Lauren understood Lia's anger, but she wasn't ready to condone it. The girl had probably done worse than any of them with the words she had said earlier. Perhaps if her friend knew the reason behind Aidan's actions, she'd be led to forgive him.She wondered if Aidan would come back to the house after finding the other men, and she doubted it. She had seen firsthand how he had quite literally put miles between them, because he had felt guilty for betraying her. Lauren knew he would do much worse this ti
Eric's heart skipped a beat at Doctor Makovsky's words. Lure Lauren and her mother here? "What do you plan to do with them?" He asked, his voice betraying a hint of defiance. "Why drag them into this? You already did that, didn't you? You used Aidan to kidnap Lauren so she could be with you. And it didn't work."Doctor Makovsky's smile widened, breaking through his poker face. "Sure, it didn't work the first time, because neither of them wanted to be with me. But this time...""...Things will be different." Eric echoed. He looked up at Doctor Makovsky slowly. "This time, you're using a bait. Me.""I want my family to witness firsthand the extent of my power and influence." The doctor continued. "They have defied me for far too long, thinking they could escape my grasp. But they will soon realize that no one can escape the fate I have designed for them. Katherine...she's a strong woman. And I know she loves her cop husband. But ultimately, she belongs to me, and so does Lauren. They're
Eric stayed awake throughout the truck drive to Perkins, his mind amok with several thoughts. A part of his heart was still in Beacontown, with Lauren and all the memories they had shared. How he terribly wished things could go back to that period of time, those moments that seemed alive only in his mind. He wondered if Lauren still thought about him, if at all. It seemed that the only part of her heart that wasn't populated by thoughts of her villainous father was taken over by that overbearing Aidan boy.Eric sighed and closed his eyes as the truck flashed past the large sign that declared that they were now in the town of Perkins. He wished he'd told Lauren more about how he felt before leaving Beacontown. Right now, with the prospect of death before him, he wished his words had been enough.He'd had a crush on her ever since he'd seen twelve-year old her in the playground with those bullies. She'd looked small and inconsequential, and yet her dark eyes had blazed with a fierceness
Eric's heart raced as he ventured deeper into the dense forest. He still had no idea where he was headed, but the pull in him was getting stronger. As he walked, he thought of Lauren, his mind consumed with thoughts of her safety. Every step he took was guided by an unexplainable force, a magnet pulling him towards something unknown. It was as though the attack from those rabid wolves had somehow tied him to them, forced his will under theirs and made him do things that an otherwise sane Eric would have objected to.The weight of the responsibility Lia had placed on him pressed heavily, but he was determined to protect Lauren from her vicious father, no matter the cost. He stopped and stared through the canopy of leaves and branches above. The sun was beginning to rise already, painting where he stood a brilliant mix of orange and yellows. Hikers and other nature-loving people would soon come out for their rounds: perhaps a quick rest wouldn't be so bad anyway. He would rest for some
Eric trudged through the forest that surrounded Beacontown. Twigs snapped under his feet, echoing eerily through the trees around. He was scared shitless, and yet he couldn't stop himself from walking into the thickness of the woods. Every fibre of his being wanted to bolt out of there, but it was as though there was an invisible energy pulling him deeper and deeper into the forest.He paused and looked around, realising that he was severely lost. If he took a detour left, he might come out to Beth's backyard in about twenty minutes. His mouth went dry as he thought of Lauren, only a few minutes away from him. How he missed her, how he wished things could go back to the way they used to be, before....well, everything had happened, but he knew that everything was past wishing for at this point. He still was getting used to the idea that his best friend was a werewolf.He'd left his house last night, and now it was almost night again. He'd been walking aimlessly around for a whole day,
It was a hot summer night in July. The people of Perkins were either outside their homes, trying to catch a stray breeze or populating any of the clubs and bars downtown. It was a sleepy little town, but it came alive on days like these, when there was little else to do than to watch the twinkling stars outside or party till sunrise.Clyde Roberts was behind his counter, having a busy night as customers came and went. This was his favourite time of the year, when everyone suddenly needed a cold bottle of beer to try and wash away the sweltering heat of summer. He was all smiles as he cleaned a glass with a dust rag, a glowing cigar bouncing in his mouth.Things had been very heated up in the town some few weeks back, when the Russian laboratory in the nearby woods had suddenly gone derelict. The Russian scientist who had made the laboratory his abode for more than two decades had mysteriously disappeared, and so had the people working for him. Cops and other authorities usually ignore
On the night that Eric was taken back to his home, it was raining very heavily. Lauren had stayed behind in Beth's house; only Beth and a disgruntled Lia had accompanied him.Beth parked the car in front of Eric's house and turned to him. "Do you know what to say to your mother yet?""Yes, yes." Eric replied, his face blank. "I was kidnapped.""Alright." Beth eyed him warily. "Eric, how are you? Like, really. How have you been doing?""Don't know." He replied morosely. "The past few days have been a lot."Beth nodded, a knot of fear forming in her stomach. She was worried for him, more so with the way he sounded. She'd seen the worst of Dr Makovsky and the results of his experiments, had endured it for many years. But how would it look to someone who had never seen any of it before?"Lia will be checking on you from time to time. Is that okay?" Beth asked."Of course," Eric murmured and opened the car's door."Bye, kid." Lia called."Bye, werewolf." Eric answered, then stepped down an
The bus that took Mike from Beacontown back to Perkins smelled just as bad as the one that had brought him. Mike hated buses: the acrid stench of other people's sweat pressing against his nose, the smell of takeout food and gasoline that seemed to hang like a cloud over everyone's heads, the _bump bump_ of the bus on speed bumps that left him sick to his stomach when he got down.He'd had no choice but to take the bus. Beth had vehemently refused when he wanted to morph into his wolf form and run all the way to Perkins.Mike was still assessing his relationship with Beth. Theirs was a strained one at best, and he could not look at her without remembering the way she'd smiled down at him when he was strapped to the experiment table, the headlight above her turning her deep red hair golden. The feeling of immense hatred that had coursed through his veins alongside the werewolf Serum, that had changed his life forever.She'd turned him to the monster he was, and there was no moving away
Aidan walked forward to meet them. Lauren's hand was still gripped in his, so she was dragged along. She could sense from the stiffness of his back, from the way he gripped her hand almost for dear life, that he was very nervous."It's a pleasure." He said, offering his other hand to the men. Alpha Lyall, the man in the middle, gripped Aidan's hand in a strong handshake."Why don't we continue this meeting somewhere more... private?" Alpha Lyall offered. Lauren did not miss how the alpha had completely ignored her."No." Aidan refused. Lauren watched as he tightened his jaw. She wondered just how much effort it took him to not bolt out of the pack's lair. She could see just how tense and anxious he was."No?" Alpha Lyall repeated. His eyes narrowed a notch and he waited, as though to give Aidan a chance to take back his words."I think we should have the meeting here, should we not?" Aidan continued. "I mean, everything you'll be discussing with me will have something to do with the n
Aidan grabbed Lauren's hand and pulled her out the front door. Together they both walked into the woods that bordered Beth's house, towards the general direction of Lauren's cabin and the pack's lair."Have you ever met the Council of Alphas?" Aidan asked after some thought."Oh, yes." Lauren replied. Then she added. "At your father's funeral.""And what were they like to you?"Lauren grimaced. "Oh, they're the worst. For some reason, they think humans are not worth their time in general." When Aidan raised an eyebrow, she continued. "During the funeral, they walked up to me. I guessed they thought I was something very special because I am Dr Makovsky's daughter. They were probably pissed too that I had invited humans like Axel and Beth to a strict werewolf ceremony. When Beth stood up to shake their hands, the bastards ignored her."Aidan raised both eyebrows in surprise. "Oh!""I'd never disliked anyone as terribly as those men." Lauren shook her head. "Why do we need a Council of A