They had won me.
Fear gripped my soul as I realized that I had just substituted three wolves for three more. I pressed myself tightly against the tree and moaned, shaking my head as the wolves turned towards me. They panted because of the vigor of battle and slowly turned their beady gazes upon me. Breath caught in my throat and I wasn’t sure what to think when suddenly I locked eyes with the white wolf. I knew those eyes.
They were golden.
Chapter Eight
I didn’t understand how it was possible at the time, but those eyes were the same eyes as I had seen when I had awoken during the ride away from the bar. I thought that it had been a simple trick of the mind, and even at this moment I was still convinced that something was wrong. After all, I was exhausted and flooded with fear. My mind was in complete disarray. Then it happened. I’m not even sure how to describe it. The wolves stepped towards me and I thought they were going to take me as their prey, that this had all been some battle over a piece of flesh and I was going to be their dinner. My heart shifted from hope to despair and I believed that whatever respite I had been given it was only a temporary one, but then the air shimmered around the wolves. Their bodies started to shift. Fur receded and they reared back on their hind legs. Their faces flattened and took on human features. The whole process looked as though it must have hurt, but the men bore it with a stoic quality and then, by some miracle, there were no longer three wolves standing before me, but three men. Jack, Buck, and Matt.
I blinked and rubbed my eyes, but that was the moment when I started to believe in the impossible.
*
I’d barely had a chance to process the information when Jack stormed forward and tugged me up.
“I told you not to run away! Do you have any idea what they would have done to you?” he raged. His face was like thunder and he glared at me. His hand was rough again. He held me like he owned me.
“Don’t treat her like that! She’s been through a lot. You should be gentler,” Matt said, rushing in to my defense, even though I had hurt him.
“Oh don’t get me started, Matt,” Jack turned and scowled, not letting go of me. “This wouldn’t have happened if you had just listened to me. I told you to keep her inside. We almost lost everything because of you.” Matt was silenced.
“This whole thing is trouble. I told you from the beginning. There’s no way the Hunters were going to let us get away with this. We should have attacked them from the outset, reminded them who’s boss,” Buck folded his arms and didn’t seem to care about me at all. He barely looked in my direction and seemed more concerned with facing into the distance, towards the direction in which these Hunters had run. While the three bickered I wondered if I was ever going to get a chance to speak. I wrestled my arm away from Jack’s grip, which would only make it bruise even more, and pulled myself away.
Jack looked shocked that I would even dare try to escape.
“Whatever they would have done to me wouldn’t have been any worse than what you’re doing,” I said sullenly.
Jack laughed, but it was a laugh that was completely devoid of humor. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he spat.
“No, I don’t, because you won’t tell me anything,” I shot back, glaring at him. My emotions ran wild and my entire body bristled with manic energy. I trembled with anguish, angry that I had been so close to escaping only to have the chance snatched away from me. At least I knew how they had tracked me though. With the nose of a wolf it would have been easy to track my path. God, when I looked at them I could barely believe they had just transformed from wolves. What the hell was I doing? I was certain that I had to have been hallucinating, but everything else seemed entirely real and I could do nothing but go with the flow and hope that somehow this would all end up making sense.
“We should tell her Jack. It’s not going to do any good keeping the truth from her, not now that she’s seen this. She was going to find out anyway. Maybe once she knows she’ll understand better,” Matt said.
Jack turned away and breathed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment as he tried to calm the energy within.
“What you’re about to learn has been a secret for a long time, for generations in fact. I would have preferred to wait for you to learn about our story, but I suppose it cannot be helped now. You should sit down. This may take some time,” he began. I glanced towards Matt, who looked away from me. Buck scanned the horizon to ensure that nothing disturbed us. I did as Jack asked and sank to the ground, eager to finally hear his tale and shed some light on what the hell was going on.
*
“It all started a long time ago,” Jack began. “I tried to tell you last night that there are greater forces in the world, but you wouldn’t listen. I needed you to have more of an open mind before I told you all of this, but now I have no choice, so I hope that you take everything I say in good faith. Nobody quite knows how werewolves came into existence, but the fact is we have been a part of the world for a long time, as long as humans. But there have always been few of us. We have kept track of the bloodlines through the years to ensure that our brood remains pure. Our packs require excellent breeding to remain strong and for years the system was flawless. But then the world began to change. There were more opportunities calling to people, seducing people. The world became a bigger place and suddenly members of the pack wanted to leave to pursue other things. The numbers dwindled and the fear is that we’d start to lose our way of life. The fewer of us there are, the harder it is to repopulate. The werewolf gene is recessive. If we were to mate with a human it would be lost. We need someone borne of a wolf bloodline to breed with,” he said.
“But that…that doesn’t make any sense. I’m not of a wolf bloodline. I’m just a regular girl.”
“No, you’re not. Your father was a wolf,” Jack said.
I gulped. “No. how do you know?”
“He was one of us, but he died. The wolves that found you are called the Hunters. They have been our rivals for a number of years now and will do anything to stop us. They killed him. One by one they have been hunting us over the years, trying to take our place as the most powerful pack. They have been hunting you too, trying to keep you from us. Trust me, they would have done far worse things to you,” Jack said.
My mind reeled. I could barely believe what he was saying.
“No…no…this doesn’t make sense. This is all too much. It’s just crazy.”
Jack sighed and turned to the others. “I told you she wasn’t ready. What’s the point in telling her when she’s not ready to believe?”
“She will believe, she just needs time,” Matt said.
“She’ll only try and escape again. We need to keep her chained up this time,” Buck snarled.