Thanks for your reviews Kelly & EC Brenway! Always makes my day seeing them!

Kelly - Will Chelly ever get a chance to talk about their future!?

EC - Haha as much as I love Yashvi, the police are never around when you need them! Elly hurt? Chloe caught in the crossfire? Certainly hope not...

TheChemistry In Darkness

Chapter Fifty-Five

Monday 16th December 2024 – The Night After The Full Moon

As Pierce, Rene and Roman headed out of 24, ready to go hunting down the stray wolf, Pierce was surprised to see Chloe coming through the door.

Pierce immediately signaled for Rene to hide the shotgun he was carrying, "Chloe, what have you been up to this evenin-? What the hell happened to you?"

Chloe sighed as she looked down at her tattered clothes, forgetting to come up with an excuse for her state, not able to tell her husband the truth that Elly had stripped her clothes from her body before they made love to one another, "I was just at the Kennedy's, hanging out with Bea and Yashvi…we got bored…decided we'd have fun…re-creating clothes from our teen years…where ripped up clothes were…the in thing."

Pierce eyed his wife suspiciously, "Right…looks like you had…fun."

Fun…or the most perfect experience of my life…

"Fun was had," Chloe agreed.

Pierce cleared his throat, "Were Elly and Aster there?"

Elly was between my legs pleasuring me for longer than I've ever experienced…I can't say that…

Chloe shook her head, "No. Elly was…I dunno where she was. Aster was with Karl and Suze for the night," then changing the subject, "Sorry, I missed dinner. I got caught up with the girls but I'm hungry now if you want to sit down and eat…" then looking at Rene and Roman, "Hey guys, you…all going out tonight?"

Rene nodded, "Yeah, we were just heading out to get a drink together. You alright to have dinner on your own or do you want your husb-?"

Chloe waved her hands, interrupting the chef, "All good. You three have a good night. I'll be fine."

Sitting here alone with all my thoughts…and no husband hanging off me, making me feel hundreds of times guiltier than I already am…

With Pierce desperate to go off and hunt down the wolf, he reluctantly decided against staying home with his wife, as he stepped forwards to Chloe, glad when she let him take her in his arms, "We won't be long. Hour, maybe two. This isn't one of our typical whiskey drinking nights where we're gone half the night."

Chloe leaned up and pecked Pierce on the cheek, "I'll see you when you get home."

Within minutes, Pierce and the two men had left the house, with Chloe none the wiser over the shotgun and hand guns they had on them or what they were up to.

Chloe found herself curling up on the couch alone. She was so confused over what had happened between herself and Elly the past few days, what she'd let happen between them that afternoon and now she was festering over why Elly had disappeared.

Disappeared, leaving her clothes behind, on one of the streets up the road from Ramsay Street. Where the dog from the previous few nights had appeared not far from the abandoned clothes. The way Elly had appeared out of nowhere the previous morning in her bed, in the exact position where the dog had been when she'd fallen asleep the night before.

Why does this dog keep showing up where Elly used to be? And why does Pierce keep insisting that it's a wolf? Is my mind playing tricks on me in what I'm seeing just because I'm so busy being tangled up in my feelings for Elly that I can't think straight? What is going on with me…and why do I have this feeling in my gut that I need to go after the dog right now to protect it?

Chloe stood back up, heading to her bedroom to get changed into clothes that were not as torn as the ones she'd put back on after Elly had gotten her way by tearing them from her body. Within minutes, Chloe was wondering away from Ramsay Street without knowing she was headed in the same direction that Pierce and his mates had taken.

Also, out in Erinsborough during the evening was Dipi after closing up Harold's Café for the night. Dipi walked along the boardwalk of the complex, about to head home when something caught her eye padding through the complex past Harold's Café and wandered through the walkway between the Waterhole and the complex's building where the real estate agency was.

Dipi raised her eyes suspiciously at the wolf, who looked like it was just wandering around the neighbourhood looking for a place to stay.

Dipi was soon interrupted by Pierce and two other men, one she'd seen visit Pierce's house and could only assume was the personal chef that was responsible for Chloe never eating or drinking her food when she visited Dipi's café. The other, she'd never seen before.

As Pierce walked over to Dipi, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the personal chef shift a shotgun to behind his back. Dipi sensed that the men were set to cause trouble but didn't feel it had anything to do with herself or she was at risk of their trouble.

Dipi's feeling was confirmed when Pierce asked her, "Hey Dipi, bit of a random question but we're chasing down a wolf that has been hanging around the Erinsborough area the past few nights. Animal control don't seem to believe there's a wolf but I've seen it the last two nights and again this evening. You haven't by chance seen the thing, have you?"

Dipi saw no point in completely lying to Pierce, yet didn't trust the man for a single second with the information he wanted from her, "I did, actually see a wolf, walking past here just a moment ago. Threw me for a minute as I don't think I've ever seen a wild animal like that but it didn't exactly look like it was out to hurt anybody. It went in the direction past the Waterhole towards the hotel then past the hotel."

Pierce fell for Dipi's misdirection of where the wolf had taken off to, turning to his buddies, "Let's go. Thanks, Dipi."

Dipi turned around to watch the three men take off, trudging past the walkway the wolf had gone down as the men headed towards the hotel instead.

Pursing her lips, Dipi whispered to herself before she headed home, "I knew you were one of us and part of our community, Elly…but a werewolf…? I didn't see that coming. Last thing we need is any humans discovering what you are, Elly. Stay safe out there."

WolfElly wandered the Lassisters complex. She knew it wasn't the safest place in the world to be out at a place that people were still hanging around at night but most patrons of the Waterhole were inside the venue and most at the Lassiters hotel were at one of the hotel's restaurants for a late dinner, if not already tucked up in bed.

WolfElly wasn't scared to be around humans, mostly because she knew she could outrun them if she needed to and they were mostly confused to see a wolf in the wild. And truthfully, she was desperate to stay connected to what she still called her own kind, even though she knew she wasn't a human and hadn't been in years.

About an hour after WolfElly had wandered past Harold's Café, she found herself by the lake. WolfElly laid down by the lake, wondering if there would be any chance Chloe would allow her to sleep by her side again, then shook her snout at the mere thought. Chloe was already suspicious about what was going on with her, and Elly was not yet prepared for Chloe to learn the truth.

WolfElly twitched her head as she sensed footsteps approaching her. If WolfElly could've smiled as wide as she could in her human formation, she would've when she spotted Chloe approaching her.

How is it that Chloe found me? Is it because we truly are connected to one another, no matter what?

"Hey, you, why do we keep running into one another…stray?" Chloe asked.

WolfElly's elation at seeing Chloe and having her talking to her was marred seconds later when the smell of Pierce wafted through her nose buds. Pierce and two men rushed over to them.

"Chloe, get away from the wolf," Pierce demanded.

Chloe turned to her husband, "Not this crap again. It's a dog, Pierce, and she's not going to hurt anyone."

"The hell it's not," Pierce shouted, then as he reached Chloe, he looked as the wolf slowly rouse to her feet.

WolfElly arched her back, feeling immediately threatened by Pierce and his cronies but more importantly, she felt protective of Chloe. Chloe was more important to her than herself. As much as she loved Chloe, Elly struggled to deal with that thought as anyone being more important to herself should only be Aster.

"Pierce, go home, I'll come with you," Chloe offered, sensing she needed to get Pierce away from the animal in case something did go wrong.

"We're not going anywhere whilst this wolf is hanging around our neighbourhood and could endanger lives," Pierce argued.

"Then, we'll call animal control now. We've all spotted the animal, they can come and ensure she finds herself a new home if she doesn't already have one," Chloe argued back.

"I don't think so, Chloe. I'm not letting that thing out of my sight. Get it, boys," Pierce then directed his fellow mates.

Chloe's eyes widened in shock as Rene pulled out his shotgun then Roman lifted his handgun at the animal, "What the hell are you doing? You can't shoot it, that's inhumane."

"It's a dangerous animal, Chloe, it's not human," Pierce told her, then held Chloe's arm back to stop her from trying to help the wolf.

WolfElly glared at the three men surrounding her, feeling threatened by them and worrying ever more for Chloe if anything happened to either of them. WolfElly bared her fangs, hoping to scare the men away but instead it seemed to spur them on.

"Do it, shoot her," Pierce directed at Rene, pulling Chloe back so he was standing in front of her, with the belief he was protecting his wife.

Rene pointed the shotgun at Elly, cocking it to remove the safety trigger, his finger on the trigger about to pull it.

Before WolfElly knew it, without any run up, she launched herself at Pierce.

But almost as soon as she left the ground, WolfElly realized how big a mistake she was making.

WolfElly couldn't attack Pierce.

If WolfElly bit him or clawed him in any way, then her life as she knew it would be screwed.

Pierce Greyson would become a werewolf.

And though Elly hadn't been incumbent to the werewolf who had turned her because he had been an omega, a betrayer to his alpha wolf and his pack, if Elly turned Pierce into a werewolf, then she would be responsible for everything he did and showing him the ways of their kind.

That was not something Elly was ever prepared to put herself through. Teaching her mate's husband how to be a werewolf. That he could live forever as a werewolf like her.

And what if Pierce's mate turned out to be Chloe? Would Chloe's bond with her be conflicted with that of a stronger one to her husband?

All those realizations hit Elly in the mere two seconds it took her to leap up at Pierce and she refused to allow herself to become the monster that turned Pierce Greyson into a monster like her.

WolfElly pulled up shorter than she originally intended at leaping at Pierce. Pierce had leapt forwards in order to protect Chloe more than he already was.

As WolfElly was relieved that the other two had failed to fire their guns at her, she failed to see the knife Pierce brandished out of nowhere at her.

Landing in front of Pierce instead of on top of her foe, WolfElly whimpered as she copped the knife Pierce was wielding in her side, falling to the ground onto her side, the knife luckily pulling out from the wound to the grass, her legs crumpling beneath her.

Okay, yep, that hurts like a literal knife to the ribs!

Chloe's eyes widened in shock at witnessing her husband stabbing the dog even though it was clear that the animal had changed its mind about attacking him. Seeing the animal whimpering in severe pain, Chloe yelled at Pierce, "What the hell did you just do? You could've just killed her! She may die!"

Chloe didn't listen to Pierce as he tried to reason with her, instead she was too focused staring down at the animal as it whimpered heavily, lying alone on the ground, blood seeping out of its side. Chloe tilted her head as she watched the animal's eyes blink several times, trying desperately not to close them and pass out.

Why are those eyes so familiar…? Wait…how could that even be possible…? It can't be…Elly?

Next time - Will WolfElly survive Pierce's attack? How does Chloe react to what her husband has done?