Fated to the Alpha by Jasmine White

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

I didn’t spare a glance back at the house, or at the confrontation happening out in the village. All my attention was focused on the forest ahead of me. All I could see were those trees, and the freedom they offered.

Within seconds, the open world around me had given way to the shade of trees and foliage. After all that time in that basement, it was like diving into a swimming pool after weeks in the desert. And still I continued to run. The village was always too close behind me; I wanted—no, needed—to put it as far from me as I could. That place had become my prison, and as far as I was concerned at that moment, I wouldn’t have shed a tear if I never saw it again.

So we just ran, until we couldn’t run anymore. We stopped in the middle of a clearing, no longer with any idea of where we were in relation to either village.  We paused a moment to catch our breath—and then I looked up to Jeremy. Simultaneously, we shifted to our two-legged forms.

And then we launched ourselves at each other.

A part of me kept expecting to wake up from this. I thought at any moment all this would crumble away, and I would be back in that basement again. But as my tongue probed Jeremy’s mouth and my hands roamed all over his body, every sense I had told me that this was all completely real. He was really here. I really had him again. 

“Don’t ever go away from me again!” I pleaded with him between kisses.

“I was going to say the same to you,” he said. “All those days I spent hovering around the village, just hoping I might catch a glimpse of you, not knowing where you were or what they were doing to you…”

“You think you had it bad?” I said. “I damn near lost my fucking mind in that basement! I mean, can you imagine, being locked down there with barely any sunlight, surrounded by nothing but four walls, with only a bucket to go in? I couldn’t even keep track of time in there, let alone reality!”

“Here’s reality now, Evie,” Jeremy smirked as he grabbed a handful of my ass and yanked me against his crotch. I yelped and giggled, and kissed him deeply.

After that, I turned and slowly slipped out of his grasp, staring up at the sky with a big smile, holding out my arms and twirling around. “Sky!” I cheered  “I can actually see the sky! I never thought I’d miss the sky!” I inhaled a deep breath through my nose, savoring the good, clean forest air, after spending so long with the only air I had to breathe being stale and suffocating. I twirled around some more, collapsing down in the dirt, and sighing contentedly, wanting to roll around in that dirt, perhaps even to take a bath in it. “Soft ground!” I hummed loudly. “I never knew how much I loved dirt! I want to sleep in this dirt every night! Forever and ever!”

Jeremy smiled, and knelt down over me. “How do you feel about doing it in this dirt every night?”

I grinned from ear to ear. “That’s pretty good too.”

My hand came up to stroke the side of his face, still delighted by the mere feel of his flesh under my fingers. He bent down, bringing his lips down to mine, and my arms arose to wrap around his neck. After all the days I had spent dreaming of this moment, all the nights I had lied awake wishing he were with me again, everything I had longed for was finally here. I had him in my arms, his kiss on my lips. And for once, I knew this was no fantasy.

Especially after someone else came along to confirm it.

“Whoa! Okay! I know I just saw something I’m too young for!”

I lifted my head to see Andrea standing among the trees a few feet from us, dressed in shorts and a tank and shielding her eyes. “Andrea!” I beamed, pushing Jeremy off and scrambling to my feet so I could rush forward and embrace her.

“Ow!” she gasped as soon as I grabbed her. 

I instantly recoiled, suddenly remembering the part of the plan I’d never particularly approved of. “Oh, god, I’m sorry!” I said. “Are you okay?”

Andrea turned and lifted her shirt, showing me the bandage on her back along her side, just below her arm. “Charlene has one hell of a bite,” she said. “But I’ll recover. I agreed to it, anyway.”

I immediately felt terrible for her. “I’m so sorry about this,” I said. “I told Charlene and my mom I didn’t like this plan! I never wanted anyone else to suffer for me!”

“But you’re out of there, aren’t you?” she said. “And all I had to do for it was endure a little bite.”

“Which you just called one hell of a bite,” I reminded.

“The point is, compared to what you’ve been through, I think this is a fair price, don’t you?”

“How did it go with the pack?” Jeremy asked her.

Andrea shrugged. “About like we expected. Tell the truth, it was kind of scary how easy it was to get them riled up. All I did was show them the bite once and they were practically howling for blood. Literally. I thought they were gonna trample Ricardo to death when he tried to get them to calm down and think this out. But we got the kind of attack party we were going for without too much trouble.”

“How did you find us here?” I asked her. “I kind of thought we were running pretty aimlessly… in fact, I don’t even know where we are now.”

“I followed your scent from your village,” she shrugged.

“So you did go along with the attack party?” Jeremy asked. “I thought we agreed that was a dangerous idea?”

“Oh, I didn’t go along with them. Exactly. I mean my dad wouldn’t let me go with them anyway. So I just snuck away after them once they got me bandaged up. I went as fast as I could walk on two legs—which, I gotta say, I never knew how much traveling on only two legs sucks. But I can’t shift form without tearing my bandage off. But I got to the Caldour village just in time to find the two of you sneaking away, so I just kind of snuck after you. Which, again, would’ve been a lot easier if I could’ve shifted form. That’s the worst part about this whole deal,” she continued, lifting her shirt again to look down her back at her bandage. “For the next few days I’m stuck with two legs. But I guess after what you’ve been through I can’t complain.”

“Wait,” I said. “If you saw us, and you could follow us, couldn’t somebody else?”

“I don’t think so,” Andrea said, turning her eyes up in thought. “I was the only one looking for you. Everyone else was too busy yelling at each other.

“Her father will be looking for us,” Jeremy pointed out. “If you could track us, you can be damn sure he will.”

I frowned. Jeremy was absolutely right. “We’ve gotta keep moving,” I said. “Find a stream somewhere we can lose our scent trails.”

“I think I know where to find one,” Andrea said. “This way.”

We followed her for a short distance, clambering over logs and brush, before coming to a trickling stream where Jeremy and I ducked and began washing ourselves. We then waded upstream, letting it carry our scents away, getting a good distance from where we’d gone in before we stepped out and wandered aimlessly away.

Once I was confident that no one who was looking for us would be able to track us, we relaxed against the base of a tree, where I curled up against Jeremy once more. “Can you find your way back home from here?” Jeremy asked Andrea.

Andrea scoffed. “Please. These woods are my playground. I could find my way back with a bag over my head!”

“Glad to hear it,” I deadpanned. “You should get back there before you’re too badly missed.”

She nodded, becoming more serious. “I’ll make my appearance. But as soon as it’s clear, I should meet up with Charlene to touch base. You two should lay low in the meantime.”

I nodded. “Yeah.  We’ll wait here for you.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t stay in one place,” Jeremy suggested. “Last time we tried that, we woke up to find someone dragging you away.”

“Okay,” Andrea said, turning her head down in thought. “What about… that little grove south of the Morgandorf village. Remember the one, Evelyn?  We used to sneak away there to gossip in private.”

“I remember it,” I said. “But don’t the Morgandorfs know about that place?”

“The Morgandorfs aren’t looking for us,” Jeremy pointed out. “It’s only the Caldours we’re worried about right now, and even if they did manage to track us there, I doubt they’d want to come that close to the Morgandorf village unless they were looking for trouble.”

“Knowing my dad, I don’t think that would stop him,” I muttered.

“You go ahead back,” Jeremy said to Andrea. “We’ll find our way there. Later.”

Andrea’s mouth turned up in a smirk. “Yeah. I’m guessing there’s only so much longer you guys can keep it PG-13.”

Damn. The kid needed to stop talking; she was giving me ideas!

She started heading off then. “I’ll give you two your privacy now. I’ll catch you later.”

As she scurried away into the brush, I turned my attention to Jeremy, who was sporting a pretty heavy look, aimed off into the distance. “What are you thinking?” I asked.

“I’m thinking, we got you out of there, you’re finally free, and we can do what we want and go where we want again. But I’m just wondering what that’ll be. Do we run away like we were talking about before? Do we keep trying to make peace? Do we dare take any kind of chance that they might catch us again? And even if we do run, who’s to say we’ll ever be safe?”

I climbed onto his lap, taking hold of his face. “Hey. We can worry about that later. We’re here now. We’re together.”

“We let our guard down before,” he said. “Look what happened.”

I yanked his face to look me in the eye. “Jeremy, listen. I’m free. I finally have you again. I don’t want to think about our problems right now, not after I spent over a week with nothing to do but think about them. So can we please just worry about this later?”

“Evelyn, if we get complacent—”

“Jeremy, please! Just shut up and fuck me!”

When I pulled him to my waiting lips, he stopped trying to fight me. My tongue reached for his, finding it not quite matching the hunger mine had. At least, not at first. After a minute or two, he started to get with it, and I started to feel how much he had missed me.

And he had missed me. A lot.

His arms engulfed me, trapping me in his constricting grasp. Even if I wanted to, I would be going nowhere. I gasped as he began kissing my neck, pressing my chest against him as my fingers stirred about through his hair. With my crotch grinding against his lap, it didn’t take long before I started to feel him swelling to full hardness, his shaft rising up to press into my mound.

I very slowly began to lean backward as he took my tits into his mouth. His head rotated about, his tongue making lazy patterns around my nipple, making me moan loudly. God, I had missed this. So many times in that basement I had dreamed about being back with him, feeling him pleasuring me like this. Sometimes I had even let myself believe I really was with him again, imagining it almost as vividly as if it were really happening. But nothing could ever compare to what I was feeling now. No fantasy could come close to replacing Jeremy’s actual lips on my breast.

Or, for that matter, his lips on my clit, once he finally laid me down on my back and got his head between my legs. He slowly lowered me down, bathing my belly in his kisses, until I was flat on my back, squirming on the ground and clawing at dirt and leaves around me as he expertly tongued my sopping pussy.

When he brought me to orgasm, it was like suddenly tasting a favorite meal again after a yearlong fast. I honestly couldn’t believe how much I needed that. He paused in his ministrations after I stopped screaming and thrashing, and I just lay there panting for a moment, staring up at the sky—that beautiful blue sky, not a ceiling, see through that rustling canopy of vibrant green leaves bathed in golden sunlight…

Life was truly wonderful!

I determined to make life wonderful for Jeremy too, by sitting up and taking hold of his cock, giving it a few strokes before I ducked my head and took him into my mouth. Good god, I even missed this! I never knew how much I loved sucking Jeremy’s cock until I’d been denied it for so long! I found myself involuntarily moaning happily around that big thing filling my mouth, running my tongue languidly around the spongy crown, savoring it as if it were a favorite treat. And for all intents and purposes, it was.

He lifted my head to look up at him, and then lowered me back down again as he knelt above me, positioning himself between my legs. My whole body quivered, panting with arousal. “Put it in me!” I pleaded.  “Please! I need it now!”

Thankfully, he didn’t keep me waiting another second. The feeling of his cockhead parting my wet lips, pushing into me and steadily sliding inside was the greatest relief I could have imagined. At that moment, I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d managed to not kill myself in that basement, being forced to go without this for so long. I felt like I wanted to live the rest of my life with him inside of me. Why did I never know until now just how unbelievably wonderful sex with Jeremy was—and we’d barely gotten started!

I reached my hands up to wrap around his shoulders as he leaned down over me, meeting my eyes with his own. Those big, beautiful eyes of his. My hands stroked along the muscles of his arms, feeling the curves of his biceps, and then went up again to feel the tones of his back… there was literally nothing about him that I wasn’t in love with.

He thrust into me deeply, eliciting a loud grunt from me. He lowered himself atop me, letting me wrap my arms around him fully, digging my fingers into his back. I started moaning loudly as he built up a rhythm, fucking me slow and steady, nestling his face into the crook of my neck. My legs came up along his sides, hooking themselves over his thighs.

I had always loved being fucked by Jeremy. That much was certain. He’d always been the best I’d ever had. I had never had any illusions otherwise.

But this… it almost felt like the first time. I could swear, in all the times we’d been together, sex with him had never been this good. I was practically coming already. Maybe it was because I was just that excited about finally being with him again after I’d spent all that time not sure if I ever would, but it really didn’t matter. All that was important was that I had him.

And good god, did he have me.

I grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head up so that I could start raining frantic little kisses all over his face. I honestly had never felt this strongly for anyone before. I got excited enough that I aggressively lunged upward, and ended up rolling us over, while I continued bathing his face in my kisses. “I love you,” I whispered in between rapid-fire kisses. “I love you. I love you.” I continued to repeat that again and again. “I love you so much, Jeremy.”

He didn’t answer verbally, at least not at first.  He finally took hold of my face in his hands, holding me steady and stopping my rain of kisses. And then he just looked at me. And even without him saying it, I could see him thinking the same thing. It was all over his face. It was clearly written in his eyes.

And it was definitely spelled out in his kiss, when he brought my head down to his lips.

I sat upright and started to grind my hips on his lap. I could gaze down at his face, and see his expression of love staring back up at me, while my hands could feel up those wonderful, rock-hard pectorals of his. His strong hands held me by my hips, and slid up and down my sides, feeling up the shape of my figure like a clay sculptor working with his pottery on a turntable. I took hold of his wrists and brought his hands up to grasp my bouncing breasts, and rolled my head back with a moan when he palmed my nipples and began to knead the flesh of my tits.

Jeremy sat up, his hands pressing onto my back as he kissed me deeply, and my arms wrapped around his neck to accept him while my hips continued to move on his lap. We remained like that for a while, sitting up together while making out and steadily fucking, both sets of my lips securely fastened to him.

We only broke that position when he grew too tired to continue sitting up. So in order to keep my mouth attached to his, I had to follow him down, now laying atop him again, my breasts rubbing back and forth on his chest with my humping motions.

He eventually rolled us over again, seeming now like he was trying to devour my whole mouth as he thrust down into me. I found myself caught between being driven to roll my head back to let out a pleasured moan, and yet not wanting to disengage from his lips. So I was left to fill his mouth with the sounds of my pleasure.

I don’t know how long we continued to roll around in the dirt like that. We must have switched between who was on top at least a dozen times. And I think I came almost as many times. But what I did know for sure was that if I’d had my way about it, we never would have stopped.

But all the same, the climax I had right around the time he finally fired off inside was worth having to let it end. I suppose.

Trying to catch my breath while his weight was lying on top of me probably wasn’t the brightest idea, but I wouldn’t have traded the feeling for anything. For a long while, the only sound to be heard, apart from the chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves around us, was the sound of our heavy breathing.

The silence was finally broken by Jeremy softly saying, “You know, we are trying to avoid being found. You probably alerted everyone around for miles where we are with the way you screamed.”

I blushed, putting my hands up to my face as I started to laugh. He probably had a point, in all seriousness; there was a good chance that anyone who might have been looking for us might have heard us after all that.  But still, the way he said it was just funny. In a humiliating but also endearing sort of way.

“Seriously, we should probably get moving before someone finds us,” he grunted, as he finally started to peel himself away from my sweaty body.

“Okay,” I sighed. “But let’s not tire ourselves out too much getting wherever we go.”

“Why not?” he asked.

I replied with a raised eyebrow and a mischievous smirk.  “’Cause you’re gonna need more energy for what I’m gonna do to you later, big guy!”

*

I know I’m continuing to beat a dead horse about this point, but there’s really nothing like an extended confinement to make you appreciate the things you usually take for granted. Especially the things that have always made you feel the freest.

When we shifted to our four-legged forms and ran off into the forest, it was like I had almost forgotten what running felt like. Yes, we’d run when we escaped from the Caldour village, but that was just to get away. There wasn’t time then to really appreciate it.

But I sure as hell appreciated it this time. The feel of the wind rushing through my fur, the ground beneath my paws, the world flying by me as I propelled myself forward…

This was what I lived for.

I mean, besides the wolf running beside me. He was the other thing I lived for.

The wind soon brought the scent of a deer to our noses. We immediately changed direction, moving to catch our newly discovered prey. We weaved through trees and brush, catching sight of the docile herbivore moments before it sensed our approach. We were within five feet of it when it finally broke out into a run, racing to escape us. So we had a chase given to us and we responded like the wolves we were.

Rock, tree, rose bush, whatever it may have been that barred our path was paid no mind. We pursued our quarry with single-minded determination. Nothing else mattered but our pursuit.

And like a two-pronged instrument of death, we closed in on the animal, Jeremy leaping at it from the right, catching its throat in his jaws, while I lunged forward from the left, biting into its side. It came down hard, as we stood triumphant over it, and Jeremy squeezed with his jaws on its neck once more, choking the last bit of life from our prey.

For the first time in however long I had been locked away, I ate with pride. I feasted happily on our kill, relishing in the feel of living like a wolf again, instead of like a prisoner. I recalled all the meals that Dad had brought me in that basement that I had simply ignored or pushed away, or even thrown at him. Or if I had eaten at all, it was usually with disinterest and lethargy. It was only when I’d gotten to the point of being so famished that I was ready to eat the house down—which, I kid not, was an idea that had crossed my mind a couple times while I was down there—that I really dug into the food that Dad would bring me.

So now, with the taste of fresh-killed meat in my mouth and the love of my life by my side, I felt like nothing in the world could go wrong again.

Of course, my head knew better, but I allowed myself this moment of elation. I’d had so few of them lately.

After we’d eaten our fill, we rested for a while, and then navigated the forest back to that grove we’d agreed on with Andrea. No one was there when we arrived, so we decided to just chill for a while. We shifted to our two-legged forms and curled up together under a tree.

“So is this what we’re gonna call home for the foreseeable future?” Jeremy asked in a soft voice.

“I could get used to it,” I said. “After living trapped in a basement, anyplace with open air and sky above me will do.”

“Better hope it doesn’t rain,” he remarked.

I chuckled softly. “If it started raining right now, you know what I’d do?”

“Tell me.”

“I’d get up and start dancing in it. Hell, I might even go all Gene Kelly and burst into song.”

Now it was Jeremy’s turn to laugh. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sing before.”

“Well, you’re not missing much.”

“But if it started to rain you’d assail me with it?  What crime could I have committed?”

I playfully smacked him on the chest, laughing merrily as I jumped up onto his chest. “You jerk hole!”

He laughed back, and then we kissed.

“Point is, I’d love a little rain,” I said. “Feeling raindrops falling on my skin… right now, I think that’d be wonderful!”

“And once the pneumonia set in, what then?”

“Then you can carry me in your big strong arms to the big, beautiful house you’ve built for us with your own two hands, and nurse me back to health. Lots of mouth-to-mouth required, of course.”

“Of course,” he said—right before swatting me on the ass.

My mouth dropped open in a scandalized “O”, even as I laughed.

We continued to banter for a while longer, and eventually dozed off under the tree, my head pillowed on his chest.

*

The next thing I remember was waking up slowly, finding the sky beginning to darken. And then finding the faces of Andrea and Charlene looking down at us with adoring little smiles on their faces.

I suddenly sat up, inadvertently waking Jeremy in the process. “Hey, uh… there you are… how long have you two been there?”

“About five minutes maybe,” Charlene shrugged.

“Five minutes?” I gasped. “Why didn’t you wake us?”

“How could we disturb you when you looked so happy there?” Andrea teased. “Besides, you guys are so cute together!”

“Great,” Jeremy muttered. “Just what I was going for.”

“So what’s going on back home?” I asked.

“Well, your mother managed to keep everyone from ripping each other to pieces,” Charlene said. “At least long enough to convince the Morgandorfs to leave before anyone got hurt. So that was a plus. But that was before the word got out that you were gone. Of course, most of the pack seems to be under some kind of impression that a Morgandorf kidnapped you from your dad’s basement while they were all distracted. A lot of them were saying they should never have let the Morgandorfs walk away, and some of them want to go march over to their village to find out where they have you. Apparently, the idea that you might have voluntarily left is a bit too much for some of them to grasp.”

“Well, my pack was a little more calm,” Andrea said  “At least as far as the Caldours were concerned. I had some explaining to do.”

“About what?” Jeremy asked.

“About where I went,” she moaned. “I got back right after everyone else did. So, yeah, they did kinda notice I was gone.”

“How’d that go over?” I asked.

Andrea sighed. “Well, Dad got me with that whole ‘answer me now, girly’ stare that he does. You remember, you’ve seen him do that.”

“You mean like that time you weren’t at the howl because you were off making out with Pete in your dad’s bedroom?”

Andrea grimaced. “Yeah.  Like that. Anyway, he started grilling me, and I decided to give him at least part of the true story. I mean nothing about you or Jeremy or Charlene or anything, but I told him that I followed the attack party to the village. Which, you know, my dad considers enough to ground me for twenty years to life. But I couldn’t come up with anything convincing to cover with.”

“How did he take it?” Jeremy asked.

She frowned. “I’m confined to my room for the next three days. Which, technically means I’m breaking parole right now. You’re lucky I’m a trained master of sneaking out.”

“At least it looks like we’re in the clear,” I offered. “That’s something.” Then I took a look at Charlene, and saw the bandages on her, covering her upper arm and shoulder. I cringed. “Damn, Jeremy, that’s what you did to her?”

“Like I said, my idea,” Charlene said, reaching a hand to her shoulder. “Doesn’t even hurt that bad anymore. Really, I’m okay. We all are.” She looked around at us as she said this. “You know, can I just say something?”

I blinked, raising an eyebrow. “You’ve never needed my permission before,” I said. “This should be interesting.”

Charlene paused. “I was a bitch. To all of you. I was brought up to hate Morgandorfs. I never stopped to question it. And I let it come between you and me, Evie.  When you found someone to love, I should have been happy for you, but I could never see past the Morgandorf label. So I said things to you that… I’m sorry. That’s really all I can say. I’m sorry for what I said to you… and you, Jeremy. The things I called you because of where you came from… were wrong. There’s so much I shouldn’t have said. And I know nothing I’ve done now can make up for any of that…”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said, rising to my feet and stepping toward her. “You’ve done more than I could’ve ever asked for. Literally, I didn’t ask you to take a bite for me,” I added, deadpan. “But you helped get me out of there, and got me back to Jeremy. No amount of words can diminish that.”

Charlene smiled, and I saw a tiny little teardrop falling from her eye. I stepped forward and embraced her, and felt her embrace me back.

“What changed your mind?” Jeremy asked. “Am I that charming?” he added with a smirk.

Charlene chuckled a little. “No, actually, it wasn’t you. It was her,” she said, looking to Andrea.

“Me?”

“However charming Jeremy was, I could always still imagine the face of the conniving, deceitful Morgandorfs I’d always heard about hiding in him somewhere. I was always sure he had some ugly motive behind whatever he was doing, just because it was what I’d been told the Morgandorfs did. But Andrea… this bright-eyed Morgandorf pup who didn’t have a hateful bone in her body… I could just tell that nothing I’d been told about your pack was true about her.”

Andrea smiled, and stepped up to join us, forming a three-way hug. “Oh, okay, now this is happening,” Charlene said.

I finally pulled away when Jeremy came up behind me, placing his hand on my shoulder. I backed into his arms, and let Charlene and Andrea continue embracing—although I could see Charlene starting to feel a bit awkward about it. But as she was learning, an object of Andrea’s affections would not easily get away.

“Aww, isn’t this touching,” said a voice.

We all suddenly turned around to find an uninvited guest standing about ten feet away, looking at us with a cruel grin, surrounded by four wolves in their four-legged forms. We’d all been so worried about either Leon or my dad coming to find us here, none of us had stopped to worry about this one.

“Lucius!” I gasped. It didn’t take much to identify the wolves flanking him as his backup party of Brock, Regan, Riley and Ennis.

“What are you doing here?” Andrea demanded.

“Funny, I was about to ask you the same question. Unless I’m completely fucktarded, I thought I heard your dad tell you you were grounded for running off when he told you not to. I kinda wanted to know where you were running to… and it looks like I found out.”

Lucius began advancing on us, focused on Andrea. “Somebody’s been a very, very bad girl!” he said, before grabbing her by the wrist, eliciting a shriek from her. “I think your daddy’s gonna be interested to hear how you’ve been sneaking out to go palling around with Caldours! Two of them!”

“Let me go!” Andrea protested, struggling against him.

“You heard her!” Jeremy barked. “Get your hands off her!”

“You keep out of this, Caldour-lover!” Lucius snapped. “You’re not part of this pack anymore, or did you forget that part?”

Charlene lunged forward, roughly shoving Lucius away from Andrea, while growing out her teeth and turning her eyes a lupine yellow. “Back off, shithead!” she growled.

Lucius’s sly look turned one of rage, appalled at what had just happened. “No Caldour touches me and lives to talk about it!” he threatened. The wolves backing him up started to growl menacingly.

“You want a piece of me?” Charlene countered.

“Charlene, no!” I warned.

But Lucius made no reaction to me, focusing his fury on Charlene. “No,” he said, his teeth growing out and his voice deepening. “I don’t want a piece of you.  I want lots of pieces!”

Andrea rushed in front of him, holding up her hands to stop him. “Lucius, don’t!”  But he only shoved her aside, pushing her down onto the ground to clear his path. He marched forward, lowering down to the ground as he shifted to his four-legged form.

Charlene seemed fully willing to back up her bravado, even against the wall of not one but five sets of teeth bearing down on her.  And in fact she was already beginning to remove her clothes and trying to shift form. But as soon as her flesh and muscles started to change shape, the wound she had received from Jeremy to sell our story reasserted itself, and she stopped to grab her bandaged shoulder.

Given more time, I don’t doubt she could have still fought through the pain and changed shape; I’d seen her shift form with a fresh wound plenty of times. But Lucius was rushing at her, and he was rushing fast.

There wasn’t time for me to think about what I was doing. It all just happened in a flash. Before I knew what was happening, I had leapt forward, shifting form in mid-air, catching Lucius seconds before his teeth would have reached Charlene.

I didn’t even realize I’d bitten into him until I tasted blood in my mouth.

And it wasn’t until I was standing over him, with him lying on the ground looking up at me, that I realized I’d bitten into his throat.

I raised my head, blood dripping from my fangs, to look at Lucius’s entourage, who had stopped dead in their tracks. Below my paws, Lucius was squirming, gasping for breath as blood pooled around his neck. When I looked at the wound I’d given him, I could see he was beyond any hope of recovery. 

All I could do was finish him off.

In all my life, I had never killed another wolf before. I had never had any wish to.  And I had no wish to now. But the heavy reality before me was inescapable; there was no backing out of this now.

So I brought my head down and clamped my teeth onto his throat again, making a sharp jerking motion to squeeze out his last breath.

When I looked up again, Lucius’s followers were hurrying away, disappearing into the brush, making their way back to the Morgandorf village.

I sat back on my haunches, staring down at the bloody body of Lucius before me. Jeremy, Andrea and Charlene all stood around me, looking down at me wide-eyed in shock. “Evie…” Charlene breathed.

“What did you do?” Andrea quivered.

I slowly began backing away, shifting to my two-legged form and rising to my feet as I backed into Jeremy’s arms.  My hand came up to cover my mouth, which I found still wet, and I spit out the blood still on my lips. “I… I didn’t want… I was just trying…”

“He would’ve killed us,” Jeremy tried to reassure me. “You know that. You did what you had to do.”

He was probably right. Lucius definitely had murder in his eyes. My case wasn’t hard to argue here.

That didn’t make me feel any less sick.

“Oh my god, they’re gonna tell everyone in the pack what happened here! They’re all gonna be looking for us now! They’re gonna find us, and they’re gonna… what are they gonna do?”

“Not all of us,” I choked. “Just me.  They’re gonna be hunting me. Everyone’s gonna be looking for me now!”

Jeremy breathed hard. “She’s right.  We can’t stay here.”

“Well, I can’t go back!” Andrea cried, visibly panicking. “Not now! Not after this! They’re gonna tell everyone I was here with you guys! They’re gonna know I was here for this, and my dad… I can’t even think about what he’s gonna do to me!”

“No!” I said, rushing forward to take hold of her shoulders. “This isn’t on you! Not for a second! This is all me! You didn’t have anything to do with this! Your dad will understand that! I mean, he’s your dad! What can he do to you?”

“Your dad locked you in a basement,” she pointed out.

I couldn’t argue with that.

“Andrea,” Jeremy said, stepping toward her, “you’re fourteen.  You’re too young to run away. You need a pack. And… regardless of what just happened here, you still have one. Ricardo won’t send you away or do anything to hurt you. You’re still his only daughter.”

“It’s bad enough they’re gonna be hunting me for what I just did,” I said. “We don’t need him hunting you, too. And if you run away with us, Ricardo will move Heaven and Earth to find you.”

Andrea looked all kinds of distressed. I could see her teenage mind struggling to grasp what to do. I knew because it was exactly how I felt.

“But they’re gonna want to know where you are,” Andrea said. “They’re gonna want me to tell ‘em!”

I nodded. She was absolutely right. “So you can’t know,” I said. “We have to disappear. We can’t ever come back.”

Those words felt like stones in my chest. This was never how I wanted things to go. I wanted to make peace between our packs. I wanted my family to be able to interact with Jeremy’s without them trying to kill each other. I wanted to have a life with him that my friends and family could still be part of.

I could no longer see any hope of that. The only way for us to have any semblance of a life now was to sever all previous ties; to disappear into the woods and never look back.

Andrea looked on the verge of collapse. She suddenly came flying at me, enveloping me in her embrace as her tears started to fall freely. “Please don’t make me go back there!” she cried. “If you go, I’ll never see you again!”

“And if you go with us, you’ll never see your family again,” I said. “Is that what you want?”

Her lip quivered, but she shook her head.

“I’m sorry it happened this way,” I said. “I’m gonna miss you so much!”

Andrea hugged me harder, wetting my belly with her tears.

Charlene came up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, Andie,” she said. “We should get back where we each belong.”

Andrea let go of me briefly, before she latched onto Jeremy, hugging the hell out of him for a moment. And then she finally turned away, her face positively streaked with her tears.  And then she let Charlene guide her away by the shoulder, looking back at us right up until she disappeared into the woods. Then I was left alone with Jeremy again. Him and the body of Lucius.

At which point I finally let go of the bile I’d been holding back. I dropped to my knees, doubled over and puked.