Chapter 10

I waited until just before sunset the next day to make my move. In my room I emptied my book bag and packed it with my dad’s heavy duty flash light, a bottle of water, a small hunting knife my grandpa had given me for my birthday one year, matches, a lighter, a ham sandwich my mom had made for me earlier and a clear zip lock bag that contained the large uncooked steak I’d stolen from the fridge.

I zipped up the bag and proceeded to pull on my boots and a jacket. Satisfied, I took it up, looking around the room again to see if I missed anything. I spotted my phone on my bedside table and darted over to get it, slipping it into my jeans pocket before exiting my room.

When I entered the forest I closed my eyes and sniffed the air, the atmosphere never failed to soothe me. Well it soothed me when I wasn’t lost or fearing for my life anyway. Adjusting my bag on my back I set off.

I was searching for trampled terrain, anything to indicate the path I had followed the day before and thankfully I didn’t have to look for long, I’d been pretty heavy footed last night so I could clearly see the trampled brush and I followed it trying to memorize the path I was taking.

I certainly didn’t want a repeat of yesterday.

I walked until it grew dark and I had to take out the flash light. It didn’t provide as much illumination as I’d hoped it would but it got the job done. As I walked on I noticed forest wasn’t quiet like it had been yesterday, I could hear, the hooting of an owl, the scurrying of rodents and the fluttering of wings are birds settled in for the night. And yes the crickets, the god awful crickets.

As I walked on for what seemed like hours I came to the area where the trail ended, I couldn’t tell if it was the same place the wolf had licked me, because the entire forest looked pretty much the same to me but I took off my bag, dropped it to my feet and began looking around for stray twigs or branches I could snap.

I placed all I collected into a pile and struck the match. In an instant I had fire. This was probably the only time I could say the lessons on camping I’d learned two years ago wasn’t so useless.

‘Please let this be the place.’ I thought to myself.

Now what?

I’d hopefully found the spot from yesterday, I’d brought all the necessary equipment, I’d made a fire so now what? How did I get the wolf?

Wow Laken, way to think this through bro. I guess I’d been so caught up in the getting here I didn’t stop to think what to do when I actually got here.

Well I couldn’t very well stand here doing nothing now could I? Especially since my parents would be expecting me home by ten; they thought I was studying at Lyla’s. I’m a liar, I know. Don’t judge.

“Here wolfie wolfie wolfie.” I called as I walked, flash light in hand, into the forest.

“Here wolfie.” Nothing. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right. Maybe he needed some incentive.

I walked back over to my bag and extracted the bag with the raw steak. I didn’t even stop to think that the smell of raw steak could attract other unwanted predators, or that maybe the wolf wasn’t even in the forest anymore, maybe it went back to wherever it came from.

Nope I didn’t think about any of that important shit I just walked around the forest, waving my raw steak and calling out “wolfie” as I went. This lasted for about fifteen minutes and I turned to go back to the fire when I felt the hunger gnawing at my stomach.

It wasn’t until I sat against the tree eating my ham sandwich that I felt a familiar presence to my left. Turning slowly, my eyes widened at the sight of him, I had forgotten how big he was.

“Hey.” I said. I knew he couldn’t talk but it’s not like I was familiar with wolf etiquette or something. I watched as it came closer, its eyes inspecting the fire briefly, before it came to sit right next to me, eying my sandwich. After a brief pause I looked to the steak at my feet and placed part of the sandwich in my mouth to extract the steak from the wrapping.

What happened next was probably the scariest thing that I’d ever had to chance of experiencing. I kid you not. As I tried to pull the steak from the bag, (keep in mind the sandwich is still trapped between my teeth, with pretty much half of it hanging out of my mouth) before I knew what was going on the wolf was up in my face, literally up in my face, it’s teeth clamping around the other half of my sandwich before pulling back and swallowing.

It happened so fast it took me more than a second to really register what happened, then I was off the ground, steak forgotten and my hand gripping my chest as my heart speed at an unhealthy rate. The wolf just stared at me as if I’d lost my mind.

“What the fuck!” I exclaimed after spitting out the rest I had in my mouth. No matter how friendly it was the sight of a huge ass wolf in your face was bound it scare the shit out of you.

When my heart rate had eased to a decent rate I grabbed my bag, pulled out my water and began washing out my mouth, it hadn’t touched me but it was still disturbing.

“You stupid mutt, you almost gave me a heart attack and the steak was for you!” I glared down at the creature, who snorted.

Snorted, like a human, reminding me instantly, why I was here. My eyes narrowed as I sank back onto the ground. “You’re not a real wolf are you?” I asked.

I watched as he lay flat on the ground, resting his head on his front paws and looking at me.

“Are you like…a different breed of werewolf or something?” I continued my questions. It just stared and I sighed.

“You can tell me.” I said, reaching out to touch its head, its fur was soft to the touch and I patted it like you would a dog.

Still nothing. Why was I sitting here wasting my time, talking to a wolf? It’s not like I knew every specie of wolf in existence, maybe this was just a different breed. Just a normal wolf with intelligent eyes and human tendencies who knew I wanted to get to camp, followed me to Carson’s and practically begged me to come into the forest with him.

Normal my ass.

“Well since we pretty much know each other intimately, I might as well tell you my name.” I was referring to the fact that he almost bit my face off.

“I’m Laken.” When I got no response I shook my head. I felt so stupid.

“So…where are you from?”

Nothing.

“How’d you know I wanted to get back to camp yesterday?”

Nothing.

“What are you?”

Nothing.

I sighed in frustration. What a bloody waste! I risked life and limb to come into the forest to talk to a wolf! Whose only unique character was its eyes. Just a good looking wolf that’s all. Nothing special there. I grabbed up my bag and turned on my flash light. I was going home. “I’m here, you wanted me to follow you last night right? Well I’m here now so what is it?” I tried once more.

I watched in anticipation as the wolf got up and walked over to where it had entered before and nodded its head in that direction. He wanted me to follow.

Finally we were getting somewhere! I turned to go with him then froze when I felt the vibration on my leg, it was just my phone.

“Hello?” I answered when I extracted it from my pocket.

“It’s me.” And of course my heart sped up when I heard his voice.

“Hey Carson, what’s up?” beside me the wolf whimpered.

Shhh! I mouthed then turned away.

“I’m on my way back to camp, just wanted to know if you wanted to go watch a movie with me.” He asked. He’d left early this morning after he’d dropped me to school; he’d mentioned something about an important meeting. I assumed it had something to do with what happened a few weeks ago but I wasn’t sure because he didn’t really tell me much about it.

“Like a movie movie?” I asked in surprise. We’d never gone out together before, like on a date and this certainly sounded like a date.

“Yeah a movie movie.” he answered with a chuckle.

“Yeah definitely!” I said enthused. Finally we were making progress!

“I’ll be there in two hours.” he said then clicked off.

Excitement bubbled up inside me and I found myself almost dancing on the spot. Wait, did he say two hours?! Shit! It took me an hour and a half to get out of this mess of trees yesterday and I’d had help, there was no way I’d make it back so quickly on my own and with one little flashlight!

I looked at the wolf which was still staring at me.

“You have to get me back to camp!” I said, it whimpered and nodded its head towards the trees, I forfot he wanted me to follow him!

His eyes darted back to the trees and I bit my lip. This was probably my chance to figure out what was up with this wolf, I’d been dying to know ever since it had found me yesterday, but at the same time, this was a movie date with Carson! I couldn’t miss that!

“I can’t, just take me back to camp please!” I pleaded with it.

He didn’t budge.

“Please! I’ll come back tomorrow I promise, but I need to get back to camp now.” I was about to go down on my knees, anything I just had to get back before Carson did.

It seemed to glare at me, then it was off, going in the direction I had come. Relieved I ran after him, only falling once.

When I got back to camp it disappeared and this time I didn’t stop to think about it, I just ran to my house, shed my clothes and jumped into the shower. I had twenty minutes to get ready before Carson got here.

……………………….

The night had been absolutely wonderful I’d made up some excuse to my parents then met him at his quarters, we’d kissed, talked all the way to the movies, possibly more than we ever had before and it wasn’t awkward. I wasn’t grappling for words or trying to make small talk, the conversation just flowed like it should, we laughed, we played around. It was just perfect. A turning point in our ‘relationship’ I concluded.

This was the level of comfort I’d wished for with him. I don’t know precisely what had changed between last night and tonight but it made me ecstatic. I don’t even remember what movie we watched I just remember looking at him practically the whole time and thinking this is how it would feel if we were an actual couple, if we were free to be who we were.

We’d actually had to drive to another movie theater in a town close by and even then we kept enough distance between us so that no one would come to the conclusion we were anything but friends. That was the only down side to our night. That and the fact that when we were leaving the movies ,just as I was walking through the door this guy who was standing just outside the door way leading out to the car park touched my arm and said in a deep accented voice;

“Enjoy the rest of your night Laken.” causing me to glance up at him. He was dressed in a full black suit, he had short white-blond hair slicked back from his face, and what a handsome face too but it wasn’t his face that struck me, it was his eyes, familiar eyes which struck me a odd because I knew for a fact I’d never seen that guy before in my life, trust me I’d remember a face like his.

“How do you know my name?” I asked surprised.

“You told me, have you forgotten already?” he smiled, his intelligent eyes appearing amused and just like that he turned on his heels and made his way slowly out of the car park. I could only stare after him in confusion.

“Who’s that?” Carson questioned as we both stared after him, my eyes wide with confusion, Carson’s narrowed in suspicion.

“I don’t know.”

…………………………

It would have been a strange night indeed if something bad didn’t happen to dispel my euphoria. I guess I should have seen it coming, I mean you had to take in the good with the bad right? It was when Carson drove back into camp that the shit hit the fan.

“What the hell?” he said, squinting through the windscreen as he parked his car. The courtyard before his quarters was swarming with pack members; they stood like they would at a meeting, everyone’s attention turned up to the platform where Jessop, Daryl’s dad was speaking.

I had a bad feeling about this and for some reason my heart sped up when I exited the vehicle and slammed the car door, Carson getting out on the other side.

“What’s going on here?” he projected his voice and heads whipped around.

“There he is!” Jessop shouted, pointing at me. I took an involuntary step back and then everybody seemed to be talking at once, they were all staring at me, some in pity, some in anger and others with curiosity. Mostly anger though.

“Laken baby please tell me, this is some mistake!” I heard my mom cry out. I looked at her from where she stood with my father, tears in her eyes.

“I’ll say it again.” Carson said, his voice going dangerously deep; “What’s going on here?”

“I was hosting for the council tonight in my home. Naturally we were on my deck where I always host and who do we see running out of the forest? Him!” he was pointing at me like I was the plague. My heart fell, Carson’s head whipped round to look at me in shock and I took an involuntary step back. Someone had see me? I thought I’d been so careful!

“Despite the number of guards you have posted at the border it’s still possible for an enemy to slip it through, which wouldn’t be much of a problem considering the sheer size of our territory, it would still be difficult for an enemy to find the camp but by going into the forest he could have led an enemy here, he could have put us all in danger!” Jessop shouted once more. He looked pissed and ready to kill.

“How are you so sure it was him you saw?” Carson spoke up, jaw clenched. I could tell he was pissed. No worse than pissed, he was seething with barely contained anger and I trembled at the sight.

“I am no fool, and in any case I wasn’t the only witness, the council can attest to this. What will you do about this Alpha?” he demanded.

I watched as Carson’s fists clenched at his sides and he glared up at Jessop.

There was only one reason Jessop would make such a big deal about this. It had nothing to do with the fact that I’d gone into the forest. It was common knowledge that he wanted the position of Alpha, he had always wanted to rule the pack, his late father and grandfather before him had strived to find every way possible to undermine Carson’s father and now he was set on the son.

Daryl knew that the Alpha always tried to protect me, he’d probably told his father and this was his chance to do some damage. If Carson didn’t do what was expected of him by the pack then as he’d told me last night, the pack would eventually stop taking him seriously. His position would be undermined and they would lose respect for him. Which meant only one thing…this would end badly for me.

He wouldn’t have a choice, I would be punished.

My hands had gone clammy and I could feel the bile rising in my throat. My thoughts were affirmed when Carson turned to me, his eyes glinted in the pale light and his mouth was set in a hard line;

“Then he will stand trial.” he said, voice deadly.

The pack went silent.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

YUP I'M UPLOADING AT 4:12A.M..THE HEIGHTS OF INSOMNIA. LAKEN HAS THE WORST LUCK I SWEAR! I FEEL SO SORRY FOR HIM..BUT THAT'S THE WAY IT'S GOTTA BE..YOU GOTTA STUMBLE AROUND IN THE DARK BEFORE YOU CAN LEARN TO APPRECIATE THE LIGHT. LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK :)

ShOuT oUtS : To Kltw15 and Vertex thanks so much for reading guys! Appreciate yor support

SO THERE YA HAVE IT...ENJOY-DoUbLe.A

-unedited