Thanks for the comment Marlies - I try to update this fic every 3 days to give you Chelly content - which is coming soon promise!

The Chemistry In Darkness

Chapter Six

Tuesday 10th December 2019

Elly followed Raven around the back of the cabin to a small clearing where Abby was lying out on some sun chairs with a guy. Elly assumed he could only be her partner and the guy who supposedly rescued her from the wolf whom had attacked her the previous night, bringing her back here to live with his family – Romulus.

Romulus was gruff looking, early to mid-50's, a scruffy short beard, grey flecks through his hair that was shoulder length. He looked like he had a million and one stories he could tell her.

As Elly walked over to them with their daughter, Raven, Elly could've sworn Romulus put his nose up in the air, sniffing, before looking over to her, "You're shorter than I recall from last night."

"I'd say it's good to see you again but I don't remember you at all and to be honest I'm not sure if I should thank you for saving me last night when you've taken me from my family. Not to mention your family trying to sell me on this crock that you're all a bunch of werewolves!" Elly couldn't help but snap.

Abby raised her eyebrow, before tilting her head at one of the chairs indicating for Elly to sit down, then at a huge platter of food on a bench next to the chair, "None of us believed at first, Elly, but you will come to accept what you are."

Elly sat down, unable to resist digging into a sandwich, "Sure, I will."

Raven laid down on another seat, "Elly's best friend just got married without her being there and she was trying to figure out from a photo of her if she was her mate."

Elly glared at Raven, "I didn't tell you all that so you could blurt it out to everyone."

"We don't keep secrets in this family, Elly," Romulus told her, his voice filled with authority, and Elly quickly felt like she knew that betraying him was against everything she could ever do.

"I'm over Chloe and I'm straight. She was the only woman I had a fling with just to clear that up for you. If you want me to stay here 'til tomorrow night when nothing will happen when the moon begins to rise then I want you to at least get a message to my family that I'm fine," Elly requested, even though she wasn't sure she believed anything she had said about being over Chloe.

"We can't risk anyone finding us out here," Romulus told her gruffly, "Especially not this close to the full moon starting tomorrow night for three nights. If we were to be forced to run now, you'll be putting other lives on the line. My family and I stay out here away from people for their own good. It's not just your own family at risk. Got it?"

"Got it," Elly replied meekly, "Can I call them on the weekend...?" then off Romulus's glare, "I'll take that as a no."

"Your life has changed, Elly, as you'll see for yourself tomorrow night. We're not saying you'll never be able to go back to your family, you will and you'll be able to move back to them to live with the understanding you will need to return to us each month the full moon cycle begins. But you can't do so until you can control the beast within. 'Til you can, our family will help you and your baby settle into a new life," Abby informed Elly.

Elly finished off her sandwich, unable to resist taking a second one, "I can't stay away from my family for very long. I have a baby on the way, he or she will need my family in their life."

"You will be able to go back to them, Elly, but for now you need to stay with us," Romulus told her, his voice firm yet Elly didn't feel any malice in him.

"Let me guess," Lexa interrupted them all, "Fresh Meat still doesn't believe us and wants to run back to her family?"

"I told you not to call me that," Elly snapped at the woman.

The blonde standing next to Lexa, holding her hand, Elly could only assume was Raven's sister and Lexa's girlfriend, Clarke, "Leave her alone, babe. You struggled to adapt being in our Pack as a human let alone when I finally turned you."

"Whatever. I still don't see the need to have another member to our family. She's a stranger, set Fresh Meat free or send her off to the other Pack's tribe since it's their fault their wolfie went out to attack people," Lexa complained as she sat down on one of the chairs, wrapping the blonde into her arms.

They look so comfortable together…Chloe and I could be like that…in a world where Chloe didn't marry Pierce and you know how you feel about her…

"Enough, Lexa. Elly stays with us. I'm not sending her out to hurt people or reveal our secret to the world. Our Pack is stronger when we're united. It's always been the downfall of other Packs. I won't let that happen to us," Romulus ordered sternly.

Raven raised her eyes to the couple, "Didn't think we'd see either of you two 'til tomorrow evening."

Lexa rolled her eyes once more, something Elly was beginning to get used to, "Clarke wanted to meet Fresh Meat. You know me, my girl always gets what she wants."

Elly pursed her lips at Lexa's continual use of the nick name she'd been given by the tattooed brunette but stayed silent as she eyed the way the couple cuddled up to one another.

I want that…

"Ignore her," Clarke voiced to Elly.

The way Lexa's sliding her hand up and down your lower back in comfort…? Oh, right…the nick name…

"I'm Clarke," Clarke introduced herself to Elly, "Raven's slightly older sister, Lexa's girl. It's good to have another member of the Pack with us. We really are your friends here, Elly."

"I'd like to believe that but right now…there hasn't been a single thing any of you have been able to prove to me that would make me think any of you are werewolves…let alone myself. And when I get back to my family, they are gonna find out what you're really up to out here," Elly declared.

The family all stared at one another, knowing it wouldn't be long before Elly believed them.

"Eat up, Elly, hang out here to get to know us all, get a good nights' rest tonight, take it easy tomorrow…then tomorrow night…you'll finally see why we need you to stay with us," Abby told Elly calmly.

"Maybe give Fresh Meat 'til the following morning considering it takes a year or so to build up the mental capacity to remember everything that happens once we transform," Lexa reminded Abby.

Abby nodded at Elly, "Lexa's right, you won't remember what will happen to you when the full moon has risen tomorrow night…but you'll know you've transformed by the time the sun rises in its place."

Elly eyed the family suspiciously, wondering if there was any chance, they could be telling her the truth…

The following afternoon with less than half an hour before sunset, Elly was standing with Abby and Clarke, "You seriously want to lock me in this cage and then leave me...a woman two weeks away from giving birth to her first child...all night long whilst your whole family...just disappears for the night?"

"We're not disappearing, Elly...we're turning into werewolves and spending the night roaming free because we're capable of remembering every moment that we're wolves. For you it'll be like you're missing time...you'll change into a werewolf then it'll be tomorrow morning. It'll take you a year or so before you get to that point. We don't have anyone else to watch you. Even if we do remember our time being wolves, we couldn't do anything to look out for you...so we leave you here...and we'll be back in the morning to help you deal with your feelings about this," Clarke told Elly calmly.

"There are two spare sets of clothes for you, one hanging out here which you can reach from inside the cage and a pair inside if you don't damage them whilst in wolf-mode," Abby informed Elly as she pointed at them.

"Why do I need spare clothes...? Oh, don't tell me you were serious that I have to be all...naked, nobody needs to see that when I'm heavily pregnant!" Elly screeched.

"Nobody is going to see, Elly. We'll call out before we come back down to the bunker in the morning to make sure you've changed into the spare clothes. If you need help, don't be ashamed, I am a doctor, Elly, and I had two children, I've seen it all before," Abby reassured her.

Elly stared at the steel bars that lined half the bunker, the door that had been created and that the entire cage with the steel bars welded professionally had been specially made and fit out in the bunker. Elly assumed Romulus had created it, wondering if it would hold a werewolf from escaping, then shaking her head at the thought that the supernatural even existed, "How am I to trust you will even come back for me and won't lock me in here for my baby and I to die of dehydration and starvation?"

"Do we look like the type of monsters that would do that to you?" Clarke raised her eyebrow.

"You're asking me to believe in monsters, how am I to know what you'd do to me and my baby?" Elly worried.

"Werewolves aren't monsters, Elly, we're just…creatures of the full moon cycle. There are those of our kind who want to hurt people like the one whom attacked you but not us. We sacrifice a lot to live how we live. The key to the cage door," Abby then held up a key, gently testing it on the cage door to lock and unlock it in front of Elly, before walking over to the set of clothes hanging on a hook just outside the cage within reach of Elly and placing the key in the pocket of the pants, turning back to Elly, pleading softly, "Please…trust us."

Elly thought for a moment, trusting that having the key to the cage to unlock it if she needed made her feel less worried, they would never return for her, before stepping inside the cage and locking the door behind her, "Better not dash off with that key now."

Abby escorted Clarke out of the bunker, turning back to Elly, "I'll be back as soon as I can in the morning. I wish I could sit here with you to be here whilst you change but that wouldn't do either of us any good as our wolves might clash with one another. Stay calm…and let the change happen, Elly."

Elly placed her hands against the steel bars, watching Abby and Clarke exit the bunker, shaking her head, "Nothing is going to happen tonight."

Half an hour later, Elly was pacing the bunker's cage with her hand on her pregnant belly, wishing she had asked for a chair to sit on as she didn't want to sit on the floor and not have anyone be able to help her get up 'til the morning. Deciding to give it another ten minutes before she let herself out, Elly looked out a window in the cage that was clearly stationed on the ground outside as the bunker was half bedded into the ground. It had steel bars on it on either side, seemingly impossible to break out of.

Elly watched as it looked like the sun was going down and she wondered how long it would be for the moon to rise so she could leave the cage when nothing happened.

But a few moments later, Elly felt a pain shoot through her back, "Ow, what the hell was that?"

Elly groaned as the pain shifted to the rest of her body. Holding out her right hand in front of her face, her left hand resting on her belly, Elly's eyes glanced back out of the window as she saw the sun had gone down as slowly darkness was filling its void.

Elly's eyes widened more than they ever had in her life as she watched the hand before her contort and change as her fingernails extended until they were more like claws, then fur seemed to grow from it, covering her entire hand.

"What the absolute fuck?" was all the mum-to-be could utter, as she held up her other hand to find it was the same.

Before Elly could react any further, she found herself leaning backwards, then falling to the floor, landing not on her hands and feet. Elly landed on four paws instead.

Elly arched her back upwards, like her body had completely forgotten she was heavily pregnant, she felt the dress she was wearing tearing at the seams.

Then like magic, the rest of Elly's body transformed.

Elly's shoulder-length brunette hair disappeared, replaced by fur all over her body and face. Her nose protruded outwards into a snout. A tail appeared out of nowhere behind her. Her pregnancy belly vanished but Elly didn't have time to worry if her baby had been hurt as her thoughts were no longer understandable to even herself.

Elly growled loudly as she could no longer talk.

Elly was no longer standing alone in a cage.

A werewolf was standing on all fours in her place.

WolfElly shook off the remains of the dress, bra and underwear Elly had been wearing, before howling loudly at the moon now visible in the window and launching herself at the door and walls of the cage, wanting nothing less but to escape and spend the night roaming free with the other werewolves she could hear howling in the distance.

WolfElly spent the next couple hours pacing the cage, throwing her newly formed wolf body at all the walls and door of the cage, howling out in frustration at being trapped. Finally, WolfElly curled up on the floor, falling asleep for the rest of the night.

Hours later, Elly awoke suddenly, blinking her eyes, feeling like her whole body was throbbing in a weird pain yet it was almost like she couldn't feel it. Elly groaned then blushed heavily as she quickly realized she was curled up on the floor of the cage naked.

Elly struggled for a moment before managing to haul her pregnant body up from the floor, then leaning against the steel bars, she dragged the clothes hanging outside of the cage down to her, but the key fell out of the pants pocket to the floor.

Least it landed on my side of the steel bars, I'll pick it up in a minute.

Elly took her time dragging the maternity wear pants up her legs, balancing against the steel bars. Dragging the sweatshirt top over her head was easier but it still felt weird to be wearing clothes that weren't hers and that she might have to tell the Pack dresses were easier for her to change into.

Elly leant down to pick up the key from the floor but before she knew it, she was exhausted and instead curled back down on the floor, hoping help would come her way to release her from the cage and back to the house.

Elly shivered as she laid on the floor, having changed into the clothes provided for her. She was breathing deeply, her entire body agitated, after her experience, all she could do was lay there, wondering what her future held for her and her baby.

Elly looked up from where she laid as she heard the bunker door open and Abby stepped down the steps.

Abby looked Elly over, calmly asking, "Believe us now?"

Yes…I'm a werewolf…what the hell does this mean for the rest of my life?

Next time - Time has passed and Elly makes her return to Erinsborough - will it be the reunion with her family and friends she's been dreaming of?