Daniel's phone sat on the kitchen top. It pinged -a message had come through. Daniel put down his cup of coffee, leant over and picked it up. Rhydian. How strange. He read the message.
LIAM VIDEOED US LAST NIGHT. THE SECRET IS OUT. MADDY, JANA AND I ARE ON THE RUN. WE WILL MEET YOU AT JANA'S PACK. UP NORTH.
At first Daniel thought it was some kind of prank, but the sinking in his heart told him otherwise. He stood up, wobbling the table and nearly knocking over his chair. The coffee cup teetered, spilling its contents everywhere, and Daniel snatched his phone out of the way just in time. He was reeling – he could feel his eyes going yellow.
"Emma!" he yelled, running outside, where Emma was picking a few flowers. "Emma!" Emma looked up and immediately ran to Daniel.
"What?" She asked, "Daniel, what?"
He showed her the message, and she went white, dropping her fistful of flowers, her hand going to her mouth.
"What if Liam comes here?" she asked, panicking.
"I don't know, but Rhydian wants us to go to Jana's pack-"
"And how exactly do we know where they are? Wild packs like that, they roam, never settling down in one place-"
"Eolas?" Daniel asked hopefully.
"I'm not using Eolas." Emma's voice was final. Daniel winced, then put his head in his hands, thinking. He got out his phone, messaging Rhydian.
"I'm asking him where the pack is now." He explained. Daniel's initial panic was settling down, replacing itself with a heavy, leaden feeling. A few minutes passed.
"He says the pack's in a wood up north called Blue Forest."
"Well, that's helpful." Emma said, her voice laced with sarcasm. "What're we supposed to do, search the whole wood?"
"It can't be that big. If we take the car, we'd get there quicker." Daniel ran his hand through his hair.
"What about our pups? I don't want to leave them-"
"We're better off in small groups. They've got Jana, they'll be fine. Emma, they can look after themselves. Stop worrying."
He winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Emma's eyebrows shot up.
"Stop worrying?!" She spat furiously. "Do you even realise the danger we're in? Our pups are in?"
Daniel held up his hands defensively.
"I shouldn't have said that." Daniel said hastily. "But we don't even know where Maddy is. Or the others. We'd be better off following their instructions."
Emma groaned and put her head in her hands.
"I suppose we'd better go." She said finally, her panic dissipated. "I'll pack a few bags, you get the car ready."
She got up and walked over to the house. Sighing, Daniel made his way to where the car was parked.
Mr Jeffries was not having good day. He was, in fact, having a bad day. No, scrap that. What with the Werewolf Video, Maddy, Rhydian and Jana disappearing and now two more students running off into the woods, the word bad was the understatement of the century. And he was a history teacher. He should know. Bad didn't even begin to cover it. It was no wonder his nerves felt as though they had been stretched past the thinness of paper.
Jeffries drummed his fingers against the side of the bus, counting the students clambering on to make sure that there was no-one left behind -excepting the five who had disappeared. He was going to lose his job. His entire career, life ambitions. Everything. The school would be held responsible, parents would pull their kids out, police, investigators-
Mr Jeffries really needed that cup of coffee.
And those idiotic kids back.
They'd probably get expelled.
Why on earth Liam and his gang had to send the video of his classmates turning into werewolves to the entire year group was beyond him. Sure, Shannon (who now turned out to be the not so weird weirdo Mr Jeffries had thought her to be and was instead protecting her friends) had been obsessed with "The Beast", but when she realised it was actually her friends, she had the good sense to keep her mouth shut.
"Those silly kids." Miss. Graham said behind Tim, making him jump. "Running off into the woods like that. What were they thinking?"
Tim shrugged. Miss. Graham had seen the Werewolf Video as well, but her shock had worn off relatively quickly. It had been replaced with a heated discussion on the need to get the remaining students back to Stoneybridge.
Tim forced himself to stop drumming on the side of the bus.
"Werewolves." He said. "Werewolves."
"It's quite the surprise."
Jeffries snorted.
"You realise we're going to have to tell the police about this." He said. Miss. Graham folded her arms and told the last of the students to hop on the bus and quit fooling around. She turned to Tim.
"We'll just say that it's some photography trick. That's what I thought at first. If Sam and Jimi hadn't been so insistent…" A frown deepened her forehead. "We'll have to tell the parents about the disappearances. They won't like that."
It was like a nightmare, the kind of nightmare that gave Tim headaches and brought panic attacks. Only it was real-life, the kind you can't wake up from. He stuck his head in his hands for a few moments before climbing onto the bus. The students were all whispering excitedly. It was a good thing Mr. Jeffries had taken their phones off them, even if it meant that they grumbled and complained. Better than that video going viral. Their annoyance wasn't going to be anything like the Head's, or the parents. Their parents would pick them up when they got back to school, and that meant yelling and screaming and questions as to why the bus had come back three days early or why and how five students had abruptly disappeared into the woods-
Yes, Mr. Jeffries really needed that cup of coffee.
A/N: Considering I now have a lot of time on my hands and NO HOMEWORK I will be working on this story nonstop. With luck I'll have finished at least two more chapters by the next full moon (14th of October 2019) and the rest of the story by the end of the year. While this chapter was kind of boring, next chapter I plan to follow Liam and co. a bit more -I've already planned to incorporate some old friends (and enemies - think poppies).
I'll update hopefully early next week, possibly around Monday or Tuesday (Australian Time).
ALSO! There has been 250 views to this story and I'm really happy! Thanks to all those who read this, and GO WOLFBLOOD!
ALSO ALSO! I plan to incorporate Maddian into this story in the near future because it would be impossible not to.
Thankyou and please review! :P
