Chapter 15: The Long Night (part 2)

Sophia heard Lucas's dreaded words, "We are on our own." Never had any words filled her with such fear before. She could also feel the tension surrounding the lodge outside and the predators focusing their energy on their target. Then there was also the worry for Sarah and what could possibly be happening to her at this moment. Everyone was hurrying around her, blockading all possible entries and bracing the barricades with their bodies. Lucas strode from room to room making sure all knew what to do.

Randy came up to Lucas and said, "Lucas? This is a hunting lodge. Think there might be some guns?" Lucas looked at Randy like he was a genius.

"Why didn't I think of that!" Lucas slapped Randy's arm. "Gun cabinet in the basement. Stairs are in the pantry." Randy took off towards the kitchen. Lucas looked towards Sophia who was standing in the middle of the main room, looking frightened. He walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms. "We'll find a way to get out of this baby."

"I'm so worried about Sarah. Do you think she's … alive?" Sophia asked.

"Yeah, I do. They want females for mates, not to kill," he explained as he petted the back of her head. "Try to link up with her Sophia. She can't be that far away yet."

Lucas put his hands on her shoulders and sent his energy into Sophia to help her link with Sarah. Sophia closed her eyes and focused on Sarah. She had spoken on a mental link with Sarah many times before and so the path was a familiar one.

Sarah? Sarah? Can you hear me? It's Sophia. Sarah?

Sophia?

Sophia was relieved to get a response, though Sarah sounded scared.

Sarah? Are you o.k.? Are you hurt?

I'm o.k. for now. Oh God, Sophia, I think those others killed Sean. I can't link with him!

No! Sean's here. He's hurt but he's alive.

Sophia felt Sarah's immense relief at this news.

It happened so fast. We went out into the woods, to be alone and a group of them just came out of nowhere. We didn't even sense them. Two of them leapt on me and lay on top, holding me down while they fought with Sean. Sean took off and they chased him and I was sure that they got him. I was so scared for him.

What about you? Where are you? What's going on?

They forced me to go into a hollowed out tree and two wolves are standing guard right outside the hole. We are just east of the lodge, can you help me? I'm scared Sophia.

I know you are. But we are surrounded by them right now. Hang tight, o.k.

O.K. Be careful.

Sophia lost the mind link as Lucas moved off to the approaching Randy. Randy had found three shotguns and a box of bullets. They hardly began to load them when the Silver Lake wolves began their attack. The pounding on the doors and the breaking of glass was heard all around the house and the teens were busy trying to hold on to their barricades. The assault of wolf after wolf came, each time banging with more force. In the bedrooms, the sounds of wolves snarling as they tore at the mattresses through the broken windows could be heard. Lucas looked over at Sophia, "Sophia, help us load these."

Sophia ran up and began loading a shotgun. She knew how to do this and how to use one as well. Even though she only shot at targets with her father at the shooting range, she knew that now she may have to actually kill someone. This thought flew through her mind and she was oddly surprised at how willing she was to kill. This was survival and she knew she would help her pack in any way she could.

"Lucas!" came a shout from a bedroom. Lucas ran into the room and saw that a wolf had managed to squeeze most of his body through the side of the mattress. He took aim and fired, just as the wolf made it through the barricade. Another immediately took it's place and this time Lucas did not hesitate to shoot it in the head before it got too far.

Sophia and Randy had the other two guns and ran up behind Lucas. "Check on all the other rooms," he ordered. They ran off to see where they were needed. Sophia looked behind her shoulder and noticed that Lucas had now stuck his gun through the space left by the invading wolves and was aiming at any others he saw. She decided she would do the same and ran into the main room, sticking her gun between the sofa and the window frame. But when she looked for a target, she noticed that there were none to be found. She looked around and listened. It seemed that the attack had stopped and now all was quiet. The Silver Lake wolves had retreated into the tree line.

Lucas came striding into the main room.

"They are still out there," said Adam. "I can sense them sitting just in the tree line."

"I know," said Lucas. "They didn't count on the guns. They are probably rethinking their strategy."

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Sherman Blackstone was feeling well satisfied after a little midnight rendezvous with the Widow Hallis. Often, on full moon nights, they ended up relieving some pent up energy with each other. He smiled at her sleeping figure laying next to him and sighed contentedly. "Another satisfied customer," he laughed to himself.

Thinking of mating, brought him to thoughts of his meeting with Lucas Cates. Lucas had stopped by his cabin before heading over to Sophia's house this evening. Sherman was wondering if Cates had gotten Sophia to hold the disk. He chuckled to himself thinking about all the trouble that little disk might be stirring up right now. What if all the other teens got a hold of it as well? Oh boy, he thought, I wish I was a fly on the wall over at that lodge tonight!

This thought gave him yet another idea. None of the pack were aware of all of Sherman's abilities, especially his ability to know things that happened in which he wasn't present for. They didn't know about his ability to spirit travel. This ability wasn't unheard of in the world. Humans had labeled it astral traveling or the out-of-body experience.

Sherman decided he would satisfy his curiosity about the teens tonight. With a last glance at the sleeping widow, he shut his eyes and relaxed his body, willing it to fall asleep while keeping his mind alert and aware. He was very adept at this and soon found his spirit lifting through the physical mass of his body and up through the ceiling of the widow's house. Into the night sky he soared. He could have willed himself there instantly, but he rather enjoyed the feeling of flight and soon shot out past the outskirts of town into the night, towards the Cates hunting lodge.

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Presley came into the main room, abandoning her post in the kitchen. "Lucas? What do we do now? They are not attacking anymore."

As she spoke, another sound was heard. There were foot steps approaching the lodge outside the front. They all grew quiet as they heard someone coming up the porch steps and sitting on the hanging swing. The creaking sound of the swinging chain began.

Adam glanced through a crack in the barricaded window. "It's Nathan."

Come out and speak with me Cates.

Lucas heard Nathan's voice in his head and looked around at the others in the room. Randy now came into the room with his gun.

"I'm going out to talk, shoot anything else that moves around us," Lucas said, knowing that Nathan could hear him and would not order an ambush.

Lucas handed his gun to Stephen and stepped out onto the porch. He glared at Nathan who sat gently rocking himself on the swing as if he were on a holiday.

"Nice place you have here Lucas," he began.

"Three of your wolves are dead and you are next if you don't return Sarah to us safely and get the hell out of our territory," Lucas said in a deadly voice.

"Ah now there's the rub. The pretty little Sarah, you say she is called, is now ours. Here's the deal I have for you. Give us five more of the females you have inside there and we will let the rest of you live."

Lucas gave a wicked glare, "Just how stupid are you? If you take any of our females, whether you kill us or not, do you think the rest of our pack will do nothing about it? They will over run Silver Lake and slay every last one of you. You may have us outnumbered at this lodge, but there is no way you can outnumber the whole Wolf Lake pack."

Nathan sat in silence for a moment, a smirk on his face. Then he said, "Your mother is alpha?"

"For now," said Lucas.

"We see that as a big weakness. I'm sure there are others in your pack that feel that way too. If we kill you tonight, all will see that their female leader has no successor. Perhaps others will be convinced of my father's leadership when this happens."

"Dream on, back woods boy. That will never happen. Now give us Sarah back and I may be able to convince the pack not to retaliate for this trespassing you have done."

The sound of the shotgun hitting the side of the window pane, caught Nathan's attention. "You would shoot me during negotiations? You have no honor."

"Oh and abducting females is an honorable thing to do?" Lucas glared.

"Fighting for mates is a very old custom. But your pack has forgotten it's roots with all the mingling with humans that you do. Your females will be happy when they are finally with real males. Ones that can give them what they really crave and keep their bellies full of pups."

Lucas felt his anger cresting and clenched his fists hard as he said, "Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged," smiled Nathan.

"Then let's settle this now, just me and you. If I win, you give Sarah back and never step foot again on Wolf Lake territory," Lucas offered through clenched teeth.

Nathan's eyes gleamed at the possibilities. "And if I win?"

Lucas was caught. What could he possibly promise? He couldn't give up the females. "Then this battle continues, without me, cause my pack will never give you females willingly."

Nathan laughed. "That does not sound like a very fair deal. But getting rid of you would definitely lower the spirits of the other males." Nathan sat still, thinking it over. "It's a deal. I must confer with my pack. We will meet out here in ten minutes."

Nathan stood and walked down the porch steps. Lucas waited a few moments and then turned to go back into the house.

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Sherman awoke suddenly from his spirit travel. He sat up quickly in bed swinging his legs over the side and heading for the telephone on the nightstand. The widow opened her eyes and said, "What is it? Why did you jump up like that?"

"Trouble," was all he said as he dialed Vivian's number.

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Matt was driving around the corner on his way to a call from the bowling alley. Some drunk was making trouble for everyone. He was pulling up in the parking lot of the bowling alley when a signal went off in his mind. It was a distress signal, a strong one, and then he heard Vivian's voice asking for all able bodied skin walkers to meet outside the church immediately, the teens were under attack.

Matt felt his stomach do a summersault as he flipped on the ignition switch and tore out of the parking lot. The bowling alley manager would just have to deal with the drunk himself, he thought. Sophia is in danger! He wanted to head out at full speed towards the lodge where the teens were, but he knew the logic of arriving as a pack. Together they were strong, together they had a chance. He prayed that they would be on time to stop anything bad from happening.

"Oh god, Sophia. Please be alright!"

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Lucas had just walked back in to find Presley flying at him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "Oh Lucas, please don't go out there again," she sobbed. Lucas stiffly hugged her back and then took her arms away from his waist. He nodded at Randy who quickly put his arm around the sobbing Presley and led her to a corner to sit down.

He looked across the room and saw Sophia watching him with a look of despair. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her on the forehead. Then he turned to everyone in the room. "I need you all to listen carefully." They had already heard everything that went on outside and now they stood in fear of what may happen to Lucas.

"I don't know if they'll hold up their end of the bargain. They may not. All I need to do is kill Nathan and that will dishearten their Alpha. I want all of you to be ready for anything. Protect yourselves at all costs."

"Why risk yourself if they won't keep the bargain anyway?" asked Stephen.

"Because they just may keep it and we may get Sarah back without anymore blood being spilled, besides Nathan's that is."

Lucas then looked at Sophia and took her hand. He led her back into the bathroom, the only room without anyone in it. She was trembling at the thought of Lucas going out into a death match. Nathan was older than Lucas, but Lucas was strong for his age. She did not know what would come of it.

Tears started rolling down Sophia's cheek as Lucas stood studying her face. "Lucas…" she sobbed.

"Shhh…" he said as he put one finger gently on her lips. "I need to tell you something." She looked at him and waited. "I want you to know that I'm falling in love with you Sophia Donner."

Tears now fell freely from her eyes as she rushed into his embrace, holding him tightly, taking in the smell of his unique scent, moving her hands along his back to feel him. She wanted to memorize every detail of Lucas and keep this moment implanted in her soul forever. She could hear his heart hammering in his chest and she raised her face to look up into his eyes. His intense gaze bore down into her eyes and their lips quickly melded together, taking all that the other had to offer.

Sophia felt a passion building inside of her and a conviction. She broke the kiss and grabbed Lucas's face between her two hands.

"You must win, Lucas Cates! You have to win! Win for me, for us, for the life that can be ours!" she said desperately. She looked deep into his eyes and sent whatever energy she could muster. She poured her faith and love into him and saw Lucas start to glow with a power that she never witnessed before. He drunk in the energy she was sending him and he started to feel invincible, even his body seemed to fill out with an unnatural power.

Then he spoke to her in a voice that seemed to echo with power, "I will win. And when I do, you will be mine forever." Sophia felt the conviction of his words, words so powerful that seemed to seep into the very bones of her body. It felt like that little bathroom would explode with the amount of energy it had to contain in there right now.

She went with an instinct and pulled her hair to one side, closing her eyes she bent her neck sideways. Then she felt his vise-like grip come around her whole body as he sank his teeth into her tender flesh. She gasp with the pain-pleasure she felt as her body melted into his. She belonged to him and nothing felt more true to her at that moment. He lapped at the blood he drew, reveling in the taste of Sophia.

Lucas gave Sophia's bite one last closing lick and stepped back to gaze at her one more time. She straightened herself and stood tall, staring back at him with confidence. He knew in his heart that Sophia was his mate and he needed no disk to tell him that.

He heard the others in the main room saying that Nathan had returned and stood waiting for Lucas. With a last smile at Sophia he said, "I will return," and he turned and strode into the main room.

All the others watched with wonder as Lucas walked into their midst. Power emanated from his every pour and he looked every inch the Alpha. Suddenly they were filled with a new hope and a confidence that their leader could win.

Lucas stood gazing at each of them, feeling their fear turn to hope. This fueled his confidence and energy level even more and he transformed easily into his wolf. Randy put his hand on the door knob, his breath coming quickly in anticipation of the battle to come. He opened the door and watched with pride as his leader went to meet the enemy.

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To be continued…

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