Clara Interrupted

Chapter 1

*****

The panic spread through my body in a sickening flow like electricity through my veins. I was terrified, running as fast as my human legs could carry me, the leaves and branches crunching and snapping beneath my bare feet. I could feel the wind course its way around my body, pulling at my clothes, willing me to run slower, as if I were fighting to run through deep water.

The night sky was a mess of clouds and thunder, the normally brilliant stars seemed so far away… the fear was crippling. I could hear the howls and panting behind me, the brush and tree limbs crashing and crumbling under their vicious weight.

I headed for a clearing, listening for the sounds of water.. although in my human form, I can still use my acute senses to hear, smell and see in this horrid torment of what feels like a true life nightmare. The stench of their bodies is making me queasy and I am gagging as I run, further slowing me down. Rogues always have a terribly pungent smell, making it easy to ascertain the fact that they don’t belong to a pack. The reasons for their banishment or choice to leave the pack are unknown without a face to face conversation, which I wasn’t willing to do under these nefarious circumstances. I can’t shift, for fear of them seeing my true form, though I suspect that is why they are chasing me.

I am not like the other weres, my secret is something that I have been bound to since before I ever shifted for the first time. My parents never explained my gifts (or my curse, as I prefer to call them) fully, whilst they were still alive. Because of this stupid curse, I can’t shift to help me evade whatever evils these monsters plan to put me through.

As I stumble through a rough patch of evergreens with barely room for me to pass though, I can hear the soft trickling of the creek I am after in the distance. The bark is ripping at my clothes, scratching my skin and scraping me as I tear through them. This is bad, because it is leaving a trace of my scent for them to follow, but I don’t care because the water is my escape. By running to the creek I can mask my scent, but where to go from there is my immediate issue. They are yipping and howling in excitement, they are closing in on me. The sounds they are making are making my heart race like a jackhammer in my chest.

I reach the creek and dive in, tumbling on the rocks, knowing full well I’ll be littered with bruises. My body aches from the cold water, my lungs are tight, the water is so cold I’ve lost my breath. I am crawling and kicking my legs in the water to reach the other side. I begin clawing at the bank on the other side, trying to hoist my nearly frozen body onto the tall grass that awaits me above the creek bed. The grass is tearing and I am slipping, so I extend my claws and dig in to gain leverage. I pick my knee up, and shove my other half onto the ground. I look around, breathless, my long dirty blonde hair, actually filthy now and soaking wet is clinging to my face. I see a large clearing of trees ahead, I find the largest tree and decide to climb. I extend my claws again and begin to climb on the backside of the tree, praying they can’t see me. I climb as far as I can while still finding a limb that will hold my body weight and I clutch it for dear life. I am trying to control my breathing, relaxing myself as best I can given the circumstances so they can’t hear my breathing or my heartbeat. The rogues have made it to the creek, I can see them sniffing the air trying to track my scent and figure out where I’ve gone. They must know what I’ve tried to do by masking my scent, and after a few moments I can see them communicating through their mind link…. This is unheard of because usually you have to be a member of a pack in order to mind link. Great. A PACK of rogues are after me. They stop communicating and look towards the creek in determination, swiftly leaping over it with their werewolf strength, all but one who is smaller or less coordinated. He can’t clear it and slams into the rocks on the side of the creek, falling with a thud. I have to stifle a laugh, and therein lies my demise. They hear me and halt. I can hear the sounds of the were that fell, howling and snarling and splashing in the creek, throwing an adult sized, childlike tantrum. The sound of their shifting can be heard in the now nearly silent night, the cracking of bones, heavy breathing and growling echo through the trees to my hiding spot. They begin shouting amongst themselves, now in all of their glory in their human form. Their hair is tattered and greasy, many sporting beards or scruff, clearly as disheveled as their wolf forms, not caring about their personal hygiene in their rogue status. One man, the tallest and broadest of them all stands forward and begins to shout. “Enough, you imbaciles! We are here for one thing, and that is Clara. We MUST bring her in alive, so do not harm her when she is found.” The sniveling wolf that fell in the creek steps forward and begins to complain. “She laughed at me, Magnus! You promised we could have our fun with her… want to see those green eyes wide with terror as I take her like the bitch she is.” The one known as Magnus backhands him with such force he nearly falls over. Magnus shouts, “I said you could have your fun with her, but I didn’t say you could act like a sniveling little shit and annoy me for the rest of the evening, Darian. While you were busy rolling around in the creek, I found our little doll..” His eyes begin traveling up, straight to where I am hiding. “Shit.” I utter breathlessly. Magnus begins giving out commands, “Darian, Bradley and Thomas, get your asses up that tree and retrieve our little hostage by whatever means necessary, just keep her breathing.”

Darian jumps at the chance to redeem himself and act upon his ill wishes and springs for the tree, his rancid mousy shoulder length hair blowing behind him as he races towards me at inhuman speed. He shifts to his hybrid form, with his claws extended, his once muddy brown eyes now a dingy mustard yellow and his canines protruding as he smiles in a sinful and sickeningly twisted way. As he begins to climb I extend my claws, preparing to swipe. Bradley and Thomas settle at the base of the tree as if ready to catch me if I manage to escape, or more than likely fall from the tree. As Darian comes closer to me, I gauge my surroundings, realizing i can reach the next tree if I jump. I crouch in a feral stance and hoist myself up on my hands and push with my back legs as hard as I can to reach the limb I am aiming for. As I am hurling through the air, I can feel Bradleys claws dig into my leg, tearing at my calf, ankle and achilles tendon. The searing pain courses through me and I scream and whimper in a blood curdling manner.

*****

My bedroom door swings open, my grandmother’s face greeting me with a sympathetic, yet terrified look. I sit up, breathless and still reeling in the pain from my leg. I turn the covers over to reveal my leg, which holds no real injuries, save the pink marks on my leg where the injuries would have been if this weren’t a terrible dream.

My grandma Caren begins to speak, new terror in her eyes, “Yo-you were marked this time? Clara, these visions are taking such a toll on you. Why do you refuse to drink my sleep tonic, when you know it will help subside them?” “I can’t, grandma. This one… it was about ME! I need you to tell me about my so called gifts, and why I need to stay hidden! I’ve been eighteen for six months now, and instead of being able to find my mate I have been hiding in this cabin for fear that whatever I am might put them in danger! I have to let the visions come, just in case I can warn the pack or protect myself somehow. I was being hunted, they knew my name. It was a pack of rogues working for someone. I was in woods I didn't recognize... I am terrified, grandma.” Tears spring from my eyes uncontrollably, starting as a trickle and turning to full blown sobs before she can even begin to answer me.

“Clara, I have told you time and time again that you could never and would never hurt your mate. You don’t need to hide from the rest of the pack anymore. We will discuss this vision in detail when you have more energy and clarity of mind.”

“I know no one in the pack is my mate, that was made abundantly clear at my parent’s funeral with all in attendance. That was after my eighteenth birthday, remember?”

I choke out through sobs. “I am hiding from the pack because they all think I’m a freak. They won’t accept me as their Alpha in my father’s place because they think I can’t shift or I’m a weak wolf. They don’t know the truth, that my father forbade me from shifting aside from our private meadow behind the Alpha’s mansion. You know all this. I just NEED to know why no one can see me in my wolf form. I need to know why I would be hunted and why I have to stay in secret. Our pack is suffering under this leadership.”

My grandma looks at me with tears in her eyes, refusing to let them fall. “My dear, I will tell you when the time is right, I promise. The coven has asked me to shield you for as long as we can, for once you know, everything will change.”

“Why does the coven have anything to do with what happens within the pack? I couldn’t take my rightful place as Alpha because I have to hide. You know Carl has no right to step up from Beta, when I have been right here, this entire time, training my entire life to step into that role, save I didn’t mate with someone from another pack. I am stronger, smarter and faster, and a hell of a lot more level headed than he is. Why must I live like this? If you can’t tell me, I will have to start looking for answers somewhere else.” I say in exasperation, while I let my hands drop on my emerald green comforter. I look around the room, analyzing everything around me while my grandmother finds the words to respond. I look at the beautiful hand carved log bed my father made me, the matching nightstands and my wrought iron bedside lamp, my stack of books scattered below it (all with different book covers to hide their true titles from my grandmother.) My bohemian grey and white paisley print rug and the walls bare of any adornment. I chose not to get too comfortable, in the hopes that my stay here would be more temporary. My grandmother clears her throat, clearly seeing that in my anguish I have started to space out around the room. She starts talking, while simultaneously opening my cream colored velvet curtains. “Clara, first of all, watch your language when you are speaking to your grandmother. Secondly, I understand your frustrations, and I will give you what information I can, over breakfast. Get yourself collected and meet me in the kitchen. I love you, dear girl. Please, just meet me downstairs and we will talk. I know you’ve been researching, you really think those book covers hid anything from your grandmother?” She winked her beautiful blue eyes at me, and swept her grey blonde hair from her face with an exasperated but amused look on her face. My grandmother is truly beautiful, all magic and werewolf genes aside. Even if she were human, she would be absolute perfection of a human being, in my eyes. Even through my frustration and my language at her this morning, she is and always has been my favorite person. She radiates joy and kindness, her aura is just this beautiful, genuine soul. I know she believes she is protecting me, I am just too defeated to go on without more answers.

Clara’s POV

I stumbled out of bed, shifting my weight and throwing what was still remaining on my body off to the side. I turn around, out of sheer habit and in near robotic motion, grab my sheets and comforter and smooth them back to where they belong, making my bed. I lean over and fluff my pillows, one by one. Ever since I was little, I was taught not to leave your room without making your bed, or leaving a mess in your wake. I walk to the ensuite bathroom and turn on the lights. This is my favorite part of my room at my grandmothers since moving out of the Alpha mansion. My eyes scan the room, looking at the shower with four directional shower heads, with gorgeous white stone, to my jacuzzi tub finished with river rock, and my bathroom counter, elongated along the entire wall, with a massive mirror matching its length. I don’t consider myself the most girly of women, but I love being able to spread out my things along the counter while I get ready. I opt for a shower over a bath this morning, merely for time. I know my grandmother will be waiting impatiently for me in the kitchen… I genuinely think she cheats and uses magic to get ready before me in the mornings. I feel the warmth of the heated concrete beneath my feet and set my pajamas on the counter. I shower quickly, the smell of my vanilla and cinnamon shampoo now filling the room with the steam from the shower. I wrap myself in a towel and head to my closet to search for clothes for the day. I decide on a white waffle knit long sleeved henley, dark skinny jeans and tan birkenstocks for the day. Before sliding my pants on I look down at my leg and see the pink scars from my horrid night are still present but fading. Thank Luna for my werewolf genes. I apply some mascara and lipgloss in the bathroom, quickly putting them back in the drawer afterwards. I pull my hair down that I’ve had wrapped in the towel while I get ready, throwing it in my hamper as I exit my bathroom. I take one last look in the mirror as I leave, noticing my green eyes appear almost as Emerald as my comforter after crying this morning, but otherwise there is no evidence of my horrid evening. My hair is drying in its natural wave, the dark and light natural highlights accented by the curl in my hair. My amber necklace my grandmother gave me resting on my chest, nestled between my collarbones where it sits permanently. I haven’t taken it off since she gave it to me. She told me that amber is a calming stone and will help to quell my anxiety and give me peace throughout my day. I think of my mother at this moment, remembering my facial features look so similar to hers, but how my coloring is a stark contrast. My green eyes, tan skin and blonde hair look so different from her dark hair and dark eyes with pale skin. Even my father has brown hair and blue eyes and pale skin. I look nothing like them in that sense, even my frame is a completely different build. While my mother was short and lean with hardly any curves and my father was tall with the cliche build of an Alpha. He towered over everyone, and nearly had to turn sideways to walk through a normal door frame with his large shoulders and broad chest. I stand small, at just 5’3”, with a small waist but a larger chest, wide hips and a round bottom. If I didn’t look so similar to my mother in our facial features I would truly assume I was adopted, even as a wolf.

The sound of my grandmother opening and closing cabinets stirs me from my thoughts and I stalk from my bedroom and down the hallway that leads to the kitchen. I open my mouth to speak and she raises a delicate but manicured finger at me and points for me to sit at her beautiful oak dining table. She places my favorite clay coffee mug in front of me, the french roast smell steaming from the top. “Clara, before we speak I want you to drink your coffee and wake up fully. The information I’m going to share with you is sensitive and the coven can’t know about it. I will light my protection candle so they don’t hear us, but you have to promise not to tell anyone what I am about to tell you, not even Rebecca.” Rebecca is my best friend and has been ever since I began training with the warriors. My grandmother knows I confide in Rebecca about nearly everything, even the fact that I am forbidden to shift, not that I am unable to. Because I am unable to shift like the rest of them during certain training sessions, I was forced to learn to fight in my human form against weres. I am powerful, even in my human form, but to what extent, I don’t know. Hopefully I will find out soon, during this conversation. I scan the room around me and look at the beauty that is my grandmother’s cabin. We call it the magic house, for more reasons than just the fact that she is a witch. It is shockingly large and open on the inside compared to how small it appears from outside. We are elevated on stilts near the river with two levels of wrap around decks giving her immense amounts of space to host gatherings. The yard is massive and impeccably landscaped, full of lilac bushes and perennials that thrive in the Pacific Northwest weather here. The house itself is a beautiful deep maroon color with oak trim and accents. The kitchen surrounding me has beautiful wood paneled walls and rustic decorations, herb filled jars on most shelves and surfaces, along with several bookshelves lined around the walls. The bookshelves are filled to the brim with books I am unable to touch. You need a witches permission to touch her books, and grams has never given me such permission. Although the rustic appearances around the cabin are consistent, my grandmother spared no expense on her kitchen appliances. Everything is modern, down to the double ovens and espresso machine. I give her a wink as she begins steaming herself milk for her favorite london fog drink, smiling to myself that she served me my coffee first, even after my outburst this morning.

I appreciate this woman so much. She has always been my savior and has given my grace in circumstances where most others haven’t. Even my parents never understood the turmoil they created for me by keeping these secrets and forbidding me from shifting with the pack. After turning 18 I’ve basically become a parrhia, unable to go on pack runs that I would otherwise be allowed to now that I am of age, and not being able to shift in their presence, also making me a liability because I can’t shift to heal faster as they do. She is my mother’s mother, and I see similarities in her and I in our appearances. My mother even named me after her partially, mixing my grandmother’s name Caren, with the name of the wolf who saved her during a rogue raid, Laura. She begins piling food on a plate to serve me, the smell of bacon, blueberry pancakes and cheesy scrambled eggs wafting into my nose. My stomach begins to grumble in anticipation and grams giggles and she sets down our plates. “Dig in, sweetie. We should eat and then I will light the candle.”

I begin shoveling food into my mouth as if I hadn’t eaten in a week. These dreams or as grams calls them, visions, wipe me out of most of my energy and I feel l am literally drained afterwards, as if i operate at half capacity. The food and coffee starts to refill my metaphorical ability tank and I begin to relax. I look over at my grandmother, eating at her normal pace with a smirk as she watches me inhale my own food.

She reaches out for the protection candle, shooting a light flame from her perfectly manicured pale pink fingernail, and takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly as if for dramatic effect. “Clara, I can only give you some details. I need you to hear me and understand that what I am telling you is forbidden information for your safety, and I cannot give you all of the details just yet. I will give you something to satiate your need for information, but I cannot tell you everything without putting you and everyone in the pack, my coven and my family in danger. Do you understand?” I nod feverently to assure her that I understand the position she is in. She is a werewolf, witch hybrid but is one of the few who possess the power to practice magic and still shift as a wolf. She is incredible and incredibly rare. The pack keeps her employed as a healer and as a records keeper of prophecies and other magical histories. She is also a member of a nearby coven, and is therefore sworn to secrecy from both groups. She is trusted enough that neither the pack nor the coven question her loyalty and allow her to communicate amongst both. She has a mind link to both the pack and coven, and created a treaty amongst them to assure that one would assist the other in times of strife or war.

She looks deeply at me and nods in response. “To begin, I need you to know that you are also a hybrid, Clara.”

“Well, I already knew that, grams, why would you have to swear me to secrecy over something that is common knowledge? You are a witch and a wolf, which means my mother also had those genes and passed them on to me.. What else are you getting at here?”

She shook her head in annoyance and repeated herself,”You are a hybrid from your mother’s side, yes. But… you are also a hybrid on your father’s side.”

“So I am a double werewolf, witch? What is so secret about that?” I asked in an annoyed tone.

“You are not understanding me my dear, I suppose I am still being too cryptic. Your father is a hybrid, yes. But not a werewolf, witch hybrid. He is a hybrid of another sort. Which means you have three different blood lines. You are the only wolf we know personally of your kind. I cannot tell you of your other bloodline. We have suppressed those magics to keep them from finding you. You are safe so long as no one knows about your other bloodline, and due to the nature of that bloodline, you would be hunted severely for your blood and for the magic that stems from it. I can’t explain more about that, but due to your wolf and your subsided magic, you cannot shift outside of the spelled meadow I made. You would be discovered otherwise.”

“Wait… I am so lost.. How could dad have possibly been anything but a were? He never showed any other abilities. This doesn’t make any sense. How could they have kept this from me? Why doesn’t anyone trust me? Can’t you spell me to hide whatever it is that would show my differences in wolf form? I don’t understand, now I am even more confused and angry. I ju-I just don’t understand. This hurts… all my life has been a lie? ”

“Oh my sweet girl, this has been for your own good. You need to be safe. You’ve needed to be safe. You will need to stay in the dark for the time being in order to protect the pack, to protect you, to protect the coven and to hide you from your other bloodline. They will want to claim you. Those genes skip a generation in hybrids, love. I will tell you more when I can. But now is not the time.”

I braced myself to pry for more but as soon as I opened my mouth the mind link from Alpha(Beta) Carl was opened with an all pack emergency announcement. “We are under attack, we need all warriors to report to their stations, all those untrained and all women and children need to get to the barracks in the Alpha mansion.”

I rolled my eyes heavily, knowing that the latest string of attacks were merely because other Alpha’s knew that Alpha (Beta) Carl was weak and unfit to lead this pack. They have been challenging him incessantly to claim my pack for their own. I had yet to challenge him because I was afraid to shift in a rage. I blamed him for my parents death, his complete ineptitude put them in a situation they should never have been in. It was his job to have their backs in battle and he failed them.

Not only was he inept, but now with someone challenging our pack right in the middle of me finally getting answers, he had to go and ruin this for me on top of everything else he’s done to ruin my life. The attacks were becoming so frequent that the pack could get into their assigned places in under four minutes. “If this Alpha doesn’t take the pack, even with my new parrhia like status, I am so painfully close to challenging this prick.”

I muttered. My grams stifled a laugh, quickly covering her mouth and eyeing the protection candle, knowing I only said it aloud because we were safe to speak freely. And with a swish of her hand she extinguished the flame and vanished. I knew she had teleported herself to the pack school to grab the children that weren’t able to run yet and teleport them back to the barracks.

I ran to the porch and opened the chest I had on the porch that was full of weapons, my utility belt equipped with silver daggers and cuffs, and my two pistols and my rifle with vials of wolfsbane attached to my steel plated vest. Due to my inability to shift I had made myself an asset as a marksman and sniper. I am still fully capable of hand to hand combat and can fight wolves without shifting as well; but I have made myself a secret weapon in a sense. Weres like to fight in their wolf form, and don’t generally expect someone like me to creep into battle and obliterate.

I hurried off the porch and ran to my post with hyperspeed, climbing into my snipers post and looking through my sight to see just exactly what we were up against. The warriors were all to their posts around our perimeter. Alpha (Beta) Carl still didn’t have time to finish completing the fence from the last attack two weeks ago. *Mostly from sheer ineptitude so there were warriors doubled up on our exposed areas to accommodate for the lack of barriers.

I could see a flurry of weres coming in fast on our Northeastern border and as I turned I could see them coming in from the West as well. A smart Alpha for their leader diving our efforts to protect ourselves. I look at the warriors from my pack lined up and prepared to fight, seemingly fearless. Through the mindlink I can hear the Betas giving out orders to their units, but I hear no command from Carl. I grit my teeth in fury as he finally exits the mansion in no hurry and begins commanding the Betas to get into their places and instruct their units further. As if they hadn’t already gotten their preparations ready. They begin to shift, unit by unit, showing the sheer power of our warriors. We are the Evergreen Crest pack, one of the largest packs in the country, spanning through a large part of the Cascade mountain range. Many Alphas have come from smaller packs in other corners of Washington, Oregon and even Idaho to attempt to claim our pack for themselves, hearing rumors of the bumbling Beta taking over as Alpha for our pack. From the looks of our attackers, they appear to come from the Hidden Moon pack of the Icicle Ridge portion of the mountain ranges. They are a smaller pack, but not by much. They train every member of their pack as warriors, and it shows. These wolves are massive, primarily black and grey, and far outsize many of our warriors. I have heard rumors myself that the Alpha of this pack, Nolan Lange, while a devastatingly beautiful specimen, is cold, calculated, bloodthirsty and a man to be infinitely feared. They have yet to challenge us, surprisingly, until this moment. They must have been biding their time. Carl’s ego may have put us in a perilous situation, but I refused to think of the potential outcome, only that we needed to win and to protect our pack from the hostile takeover of the dangerous and cold Alpha Nolan of the Hidden Moon pack.

Their warriors shift in waves, one line of hybrid shifting, with claws extending and the men and women still standing on two feet, and the next line alternating with fully shifted wolves. They descend on our pack, tearing through the pathetic fence we have built and I scramble to get a lookout for their leaders in my scope. Carl is not leading the pack as every Alpha should, he is allowing his betas to tale the initial heat while he stays back and allows them to take the first wave of damage. This only further proves his weakness. Our wolves are clashing and tearing into the Hidden Moon pack, desperate to protect our land. There are teeth gnashing, howling, grunting and the sounds of flesh ripping. I begin firing rounds of wolfsbane at any uncompromised Beta targets in their pack. I begin scanning for Alpha Nolan and he is headed straight for Carl, a true hunter. His wolf is more beautiful than any other wolf I have ever seen in my life. I feel my heart racing, I begin to get dizzy and I feel myself losing concentration. I fire wolfsbane and manage to hit the Beta flanking him on the left. I reload and look back through my scope, only to find him staring directly at me through the glass. My heart shuddered and my wolf began to take the reins… I lost control, barely holding it together as I uttered the word, “MATE.”