Jasmine
Thenextday,Saturday,I worked the early shift and got out of work at one thirty. It had dipped below freezing, and snow flurries were falling from the sky. As I walked past the sub shop toward where I was parked, I noticed two familiar faces inside. Luke and Lucy were seated across from each other, Luke’s hands on top of Lucy’s on the table between them. I stared, the two of them lost in their own world and completely oblivious to the fact that I was gawking at them through a huge window.
A person sitting directly in front of the window looked up at me, clearly wondering why I was staring creepily into the restaurant. I turned away and continued walking. Once again, I wondered what it would be like to have this as the rest of my life—forever competing for Luke’s attention with my former best friend and mother of his first born.
I drove home to an empty house. My parents had gone out. I went upstairs and turned on my laptop to check the grades on my latest assignments. I cringed. Ugh, I was completely disgusted with myself. I had completely slipped in school, being so affected by my mate situation. Every time I opened my textbooks, I could barely concentrate. When I did my assignments, I rushed through them. I couldn’t even be bothered to study for any of my exams. I’d be lucky if I got away with Bs this semester. For a normal person, this would be perfectly okay, but I had never even received an A minus in my life.
I fell into my bed, feeling completely defeated. I tried to nap, throwing on some headphones to listen to music, but found it was no use. I was too anxious. I knew I’d have to do something physical to get it all out.
After spending around an hour trying to relax, I finally ran downstairs and stepped outside. The air was crisp and perfect for going for a run in my wolf form. I stepped into the woods and found a place to leave all my clothes, sheltered from the snow flurries. I stripped naked and quickly shifted. It was therapeutic allowing my brain to succumb to my animal side, and the frozen leaves crunched under my paws. I sprinted north, eager to explore the forested area beyond our pack territory.
As I ran, I dodged different trees, taking in my surroundings. The skies were gray, and the branches of the trees were bare. Around three miles outside the border, I sprinted around a huge rock, and that was when I realized that this was a bad idea. I found myself face-to-face with two huge wolves. I was close enough that their scents filled my nostrils—the scent of an unfamiliar pack. I knew it wasn’t from any neighboring pack because I had never smelled it before. I was about to run away in another direction when one of them pounced toward me. My reflexes were fast, and I was able to dodge the attack. I could probably fight off one wolf if I had to, but in this case, I was outnumbered. They both growled and bared their teeth at me. Fear overtaking me, I mindlinked the first person that came to mind.
“Blake, help!”
Blake
I was in the middle of eating soup that Connie had made that day for lunch when I heard the mindlink come through. Jasmine. I felt all the hairs on my body stand up. The way she mindlinked me, it was pure, primal fear. I tried to force a link back to her, to try to get more information, but it was blocked. She must have been too busy concentrating on whatever scared her to accept the mindlink back. The fact she could mindlink me made it clear she was in her wolf form, a hint to her whereabouts.
I instantly shot up and ran outside, mindlinking the seniors that were normally on duty at this hour, having almost memorized the schedule by now.“Did anyone see a young pack female wolf pass through the border recently?”
I didn’t know how much time I’d have, so I ran outside and ripped the clothes off my body, heading toward the northern border, that being my best bet based on recent events. As I ran, I mindlinked Luke,“Northern border, now. Jasmine’s in trouble.”
As I ran, Mike mindlinked me back,“Yes, one of the juniors saw a wolf pass through our patrol area not too long ago.”Perfect.
I replied,“Stand by.”I sprinted as fast as my paws would take me, stomping hard against the frozen soil. I ran to the northern border, where one of the juniors on patrol pointed me toward where he had seen Jasmine run.
I ran straight past him and instantly picked up her scent, following it to a large rock. I continued to follow it around the rock when I spotted her. Bloody, but, goddamn, she was a fucking fighter. The two wolves would have easily overpowered her in brute force, but I knew her technique was what kept her alive. I knew how good she was at dodging and landing attacks.
And she was tough. They’d clearly gotten a good many bites and scratches in, the white parts of her fur now stained red, but she was still fucking going.
I immediately pounced, bringing the bigger of the two wolves down, taking him by surprise and getting in a huge gash down the entirety of his back. He got up and pushed me off him, spraying blood as he shook. He lunged back at me, and I caught one of his legs between my teeth, tearing into it and savoring the taste of blood as it filled my mouth. Before my teeth hit bone, he finally kicked me off.
Just then, Luke arrived and went after the other wolf that was left battling Jasmine. I looked over to see that she had been knocked over, distracting me, a protective feeling taking over seeing her like that. In that split second, the wolf I was fighting grabbed hold of my neck with his mouth, ready to kill me. I used my front paws to stop him before he could behead me.
Fuck, I should have had the patrol team follow me. That was reckless to try to play hero. I couldn’t even mindlink now, needing all of my concentration to fight off these wolves.
With my paws in the wolf’s mouth, I used my strength to pry it open far enough so that it snapped, breaking his jaw. I heard bones crack—music to my ears. The sadistic part of me woke up. I quickly looked over to where Luke had the other wolf pinned down, currently attempting to injure him—so he’d be forced to shift back to his human form—and then I turned back to my target.
I began shoving my claws deep into his body, dragging them, enjoying the vision of blood as it spilled out of the ripped seams of his body. He fought back, scratching me across the face. And then he lunged for my throat with his claws. I dodged the attack and bit down on his neck. I did not intend to kill him, but I couldn’t stop myself as I felt my teeth break through his skin and snap his neck in half, pulling his throat out with my mouth. I spit it out onto him as I saw his lifeless body on the ground, shifted back into his human form. Damn it. We still had one left that we could interrogate, at least.
I pulled my attention from the lifeless man to where Luke was fighting the other werewolf. Jasmine was standing by as backup. She was so injured that I was surprised she hadn’t shifted back into her human form yet—her fur matted with blood and deep cuts along her face.
I was running over to help Luke when that wolf dodged Luke’s attack, throwing him back, and went straight for Jasmine, pushing her over and snapping one of her back legs against a rock, a clean break. We watched in horror as her howl turned into a shriek as she finally shifted into her human form. Anguish ignited within me at the sound. All I could see was red as both Luke and I leaped on him. Luke went for his head, and I went for his spine as we completely annihilated him, Luke beheading him and me pulling his vertebrae out of his body with my claws, feeling gratified as his limp body fell to the ground.
And now he was dead too. Fuck! The pack they were from would remain a mystery, although the scent was still familiar. Why couldn’t I place it?
Luke and I both shifted into our human forms as we ran over to Jasmine lying naked on the ground, completely bruised and covered in blood. Luke put his head to her chest. “She’s still breathing.” Then he looked at me pointedly and said, “Would you mind at least pretending to avert your eyes?” I turned my head away as he picked her up and said, “I’ll run her to the clinic.”
“Ok, I’ll get these bodies burned,” I replied. We ran back toward Mike’s post. They had clothing waiting for us once we arrived, clearly having been mindlinked by Luke. He quickly threw some shorts on himself and a large T-shirt on top of Jasmine. Mike drove them to the clinic.
I also pulled on a pair of shorts and had a few of juniors follow me into the woods. We dragged the dead bodies back to the patrol station where we threw them into a large firepit, throwing wood and pouring gasoline over the bodies. I lit a match, tossing it into the firepit, and watched them burn, the smell of burning flesh and gasoline filling our noses. I was used to it by now, having burned dozens of dead bodies over the years.
As the flames blazed, I walked away, removing the shorts I was wearing and shifting to run back to the packhouse. Once I entered, I ran upstairs to take a shower. The injuries I had sustained were fairly minor for a werewolf. After I got out of the shower, I looked in the mirror to see that the scratch across my face and the bite marks on my neck were healing. I dressed myself and went downstairs where I saw Luke had planted himself on the couch.
“Your mom was working. She’s taking care of her,” he said. I nodded. Luke got up and went into the kitchen.
That gave me the opportunity to sneak out. The clinic was not far from the packhouse. I was desperate to see her for myself, and I would easily have a way since my mom was working.