Chapter 14
Beca's POV
I push Chloe behind me, feeling how much confusion is racing through her mind. When I brought her here, I didn't think about anybody following me. Technically, humans aren't allowed here since they're the ones who rid the world of these places in the first place, but I know Chloe. She would never do anything to harm this place. I know seemed though, like she had see this place before. Pushing down my confusion about how she's somehow already been here, I focus on the wolves barging through the woods.
Luke's big, black wolf form is at the front along with his gang and their many colors. At the back is the biggest one of them all. Jacob. His dark tan fur bristles as he eyes Chloe, who is gripping the back of my shirt. Even though she's taller than me, she seems infinitely small at the moment. I can hear her heart racing and feel the fear coursing through her as the wolves get closer.
"I'm so sorry," I whisper, my voice hoarse all of a sudden. "You weren't supposed to find out this way."
"Find out what?" Chloe's voice shakes as she waits for an answer that never comes. Instead, she screams as soon as she sees all the wolves changing. Suddenly, there are five naked men standing before us, none of them happy. But then again, they never are.
"You know it's against the rules to bring a human here, mutt." Luke's calm voice carries as though he's screaming. That scares me more than if he sounded angry though. It just means a storm is brewing and Chloe is right in the middle of it.
"So? Everybody knows that wolves show their mates anyway."
"Yes, but they don't get caught and you don't have a mate. Just a clueless girl who blindly follows you."
"Hey," Chloe yells, stepping up beside me. "I'm anything but clueless, you dick. So, you want to try and reword that?" Luke chuckles, stepping forward, causing the whole group to do so as they follow him.
"She's got fire. I like that." Chloe makes a retching sound and I smile, but it fades as soon as my protective side kicks in.
"Well back off. She's mine." I growl, a sound that isn't normal for a human. Chloe stares at me with wide eyes and I worry that I made a mistake. I don't care though. She's mine and no one else's.
"Really?" Amusement crosses Luke's face. "I don't see a mark on her. Do you guys?" He turns around, looking at all his friends. They just shake their heads, evil smiles on their faces.
"Oh hell," a bark of laughter shoots out from Luke's throat. "She doesn't even know, does she?"
"Know what?" Chloe's shaky voice is back as she stares at me, waiting for an answer. I bite down, trying to keep the anger at bay. With any other wolf, I would've attacked by now, but this is Luke. If I attacked him and lost, it would mean death for me. If I won...well, that would never actually happen.
"Beca, what don't I know?" Chloe tugs at my sleeve and I look at her, my gaze instantly softening.
"I uh.. I wanted to tell you, I promise. I just wanted to give you time and-"
"Beca, tell me." There's a look in Chloe's eyes that I make out as determination and I know that even if I refuse to show her, there's no going back. So I make a choice. Show her what I am and risk losing her to fear or refuse and risk her walking away. Anyway, it's a fifty-fifty chance.
"It's better if I show you."
"Show me? Wh-" She stops talking when I start stripping. I turn around to set my shirt on the ground when she gasps.
"You're back. It's like…" She trails off and I can see her making the connection already. I continue to strip and when I'm done, I mouth one last sorry to Chloe before shifting. Everytime she lets out a little noise of fear, I cringe. I really wished it didn't have to go this way.
After a minute, I'm done shifting and stand in front of Chloe in my wolf form. She leans down a little, reaching a shaky hand toward me before yanking it back.
"It's you." She's so quiet I almost don't hear her. "How... I don't understand."
I will explain everything to you. I swear.
She nods, her face blank and I know that she's in shock.
"How do you feel Chloe, knowing that your friend is not who you thought she was? That she's a monster? A beast?" Chloe doesn't answer and just looks at the ground before standing straight, meeting Luke's eyes with a glare that would make an Alpha cower.
"I know that I just learned about this, but I want to correct you on something." Confidence flows from Chloe's voice as she stands there, hands resting on her hips. "I may not know the correct terminology here but I know one thing. Beca is not a beast. I'm not so sure about you though." Luke growls and I nudge Chloe.
Go home. I'll meet you there when I can. Chloe starts to protest but I stop her. Just for your safety, please. You don't know what they're capable of.
We stare at each other until she nods reluctantly. Without another word, she takes off running, back the way we came. I run after her, shoving the shifting men out of the way. When we get to the edge of the forest, I stop and face the wolves, ready to fight any that attempt to go after my girl. Bumper comes charging toward me at Luke's command and I dig my feet in the ground, getting prepared for the hit.
He runs into me, full force, knocking me back into a tree. I quickly jump up and retaliate, going for his neck. Bumper turns at the last minute though and I grab his back instead. Biting down, I fling myself back and forth, ripping deeper and deeper into his skin. Suddenly, my tail is grabbed and I'm thrown, a chunk of Bumper's skin ripping away in my mouth. My snout is covered in blood as I spit out the piece of Bumper's back onto the ground.
Several growls sound out at the sight of the brown wolf lying on the ground, whimpering. Tom comes after me, teeth bared and drool dripping from each canine. We go head to head, teeth snapping everywhere, desperate to find hold of something; anything just to get an advantage over the other. From behind me, teeth clamp down on my right hind leg, definitely drawing blood. I let out a howl which Tom sees as an opening. He lunges for my throat but at the last minute I turn, our heads slamming together. The force knocks him to the side a little and I use that to my advantage. I lunge and wrap my teeth around his throat. Almost instantly, everybody stops at the sight. The slightest movement on mine and Tom's part, could kill him. Luke, now in human form, crouches down next to Bumper and yells at whoever has my leg in their hold, to let go. They do, walking around me, revealing that it was Chris who had my leg and I slowly do the same for Tom.
"You'll regret this," Luke yells and I just shake my head, limping away. I keep my back to the forest so that I can watch them as I walk away. Then, as soon as they're out of sight, I run, limping all the way to Chloe's house.
When I get there, I pause, not sure where Chloe stands on this. Yes, she stood up for me but she was also in shock. When she wakes up from that, she may not feel the same way. So for a while, I stand there, thinking about what I should do. Finally, I go up to the door. I promised Chloe I would explain so I should at least give her the chance instead of assuming how she'll act. So far, she's surprised me. Lifting my paw, I scratch at the front door and it almost immediately opens, startling me.
Chloe stands there, staring at me. She pulls me into a hug and I rest my head on her shoulder, feeling her heart rate increase.
"Beca?" Her voice is hesitant, like she believes what happened was just a dream. I nod and she gasps a little.
I'm sorry. I look straight in to her eyes, trying to show her how sincere I am. She nods a little and lets me in.
"Do you want to..um go back to a human or whatever it's called?"
Yes, but I will need clothes. I left mine at the waterfall." Chloe leads me upstairs, not noticing how I hop a little. My leg leaves a little trail of blood which I wince at. When we get to Chloe's room, she goes to her closet and riffles through her bag. Letting out a noise of triumph, she pulls out a small, pink tanktop and some gray sweatpants.
"These are some of my old ones. They should fit you but may still be a little big."
Those are perfect. Thank you.
Chloe mutters a your welcome and leaves the room, shutting the door behind her. I shift back with almost no pain despite all the cuts and bruises which is a relief. Even with my back healed now, it's been difficult to shift, but when I did at the waterfall, it was no problem. Shaking, I get dressed, careful to keep the sweatpants off my still bleeding leg. I sit on the edge of the bathtub in the bathroom located in Chloe's bedroom and inspect my leg.
There are deep teeth marks wrapped around my calf and I wince when I see how close he came to ripping my skin off. Blood is pouring profusely from all around, mainly at the four canine marks which are deeper and I can see bone. Damn, he hung on tight. If this is how I look like, I can only imagine how bad Bumper's back is.
Taking a deep breath, I hobble out of the bathroom and downstairs to the kitchen. Chloe is standing outside the doorway, waiting for me. There's a panicked expression on her face and I can feel fear and worry radiating from her. Guilt consumes me at putting her in the middle of this. She had a normal, human life and I should never have ruined that for her.
"Beca, before you go in there, I need to tell you something." I glance toward the kitchen and inhale deeply, smelling someone else. Her mom is in there. Alone though so I know she didn't call the authorities or anything.
"What's the matter?"
"I um.. Came home and my mom was here. I can't hide anything from her so when she asked me what was wrong I told her everything. I'm so sorry. I know that she won't hurt you unless you give her a reason to."
"Chloe," I say softly and she stops speaking, staring at me with wide eyes. "It's okay. I'm glad you have someone who can help you with this. It's not easy finding out that the supernatural is real." Chloe lets out a heavy breath and pulls me into a hug but quickly lets me go.
"I need an explanation, can't evade it this time." I nod, guilty. "Now, let's go. We have some coffee if you want."
"That would be amazing." We go into the kitchen and Chloe's mom immediately stands up. "Ms. Beale, I'm so sorry for this whole mess."
"It's okay. We'll determine what to do after you give us some answers." Smiling, I step forward, only to be brought back to the pain in my leg. A queasy feeling settles in my stomach from the loss of blood.
"Ms. Beale?" Chloe's mom turns toward me.
"Call me Laura, please."
"Okay," I say shyly. "I know you're a vet, but can you stitch a person up?"
"Of course. I took a small course in college. Why do you ask?" I hop out off the stool and limp to her side.
"Chris got ahold of my leg." Chloe's mom frowns as she looks down at my leg.
"That looks pretty bad. A hospital would be more equipped to deal with this." Chloe walks around gasping when she sees my leg.
"I'm so sorry. I should never have left you to deal with them alone." Her voice is thick with tears and I place a comforting hand on her arm.
"Chloe, if you stayed, they might've killed you. This may look bad but I heal really fast." I turn my attention to her mom. "All I need you to do is stitch it up or stop the bleeding. Once that happens, my body will do the rest."
"Okay. Let me go get the first aid kit." Chloe's mom gets up and rushes from the room, grabbing the kit and running back in. "Sit down on the ground." I sit down on the cold tile, a little shocked when Chloe sits behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist.
"This will probably hurt," Ms. Beale informs me and I just shrug.
"I've had worse." Both of them fall silent and Ms. Beale gets to work on my leg. When she cleans my wound, I suck in a deep breath at the very painful sting. Chloe notices and wraps her arms tighter around me.
"This is incredible," Ms. Beale whispers. "Your leg is already healing." Sure enough, the bone that was showing just a second ago is almost invisible. I can feel my leg patching itself up and figure that it will be healed in just a day or two. Chloe's mom stitches me up and bandages my leg, oohing and awing the whole time.
"Have you guys ever thought about using your DNA to try and heal humans?" I fling backward a little, repulsed at the thought.
"Ms. Be- I mean Laura. If we did that, humans would die." She blanches. "There's something about us that if we bite a human or try to use our blood to save them, they die. We're toxic to you, in more ways than one." I whisper the last part, thinking about how much Chloe's-and her mom's- life is going to change now. Ms. Beale finishes up with my leg and we move back to the stools, Chloe choosing to sit next to her mom, across from me. To hide the hurt, I put my face into its usual stony expression.
"So, what are you exactly?" Ms. Beale asks, her voice calm but I can hear the tremor beneath.
"A werewolf." They both swallow hard, taking it in.
"So um.. Where do you come from?"
"I can't tell you that. All I know is that we've been around long before humans."
"What's your lifespan? If you heal faster, do you age slower?" I chuckle a little but answer the question.
"We age just like humans do. We're just stronger, faster, and have better senses." Chloe's mom sets her chin on her hands, fascinated.
"So you're the gray wolf we helped a while ago, correct?" I nod. "Are you all that big or is it just you?'
"Oh trust me, they're all like that," Chloe laughs but it's void of any humor. "What did those guys want with you? I've seen them at school and they all seem to hate your guts."
"What I told you about my parents was true, but it happened just a little differently. My parents believed that all werewolves were abominations and shouldn't be allowed to walk the Earth. The day they died, something sent them off the edge and they killed multiple werewolves."
"How do you kill a werewolf?" Chloe's mom interrupts.
"It's not easy and we try to keep it a secret, otherwise humans would come after us. Silver, like in the stories, works. It weakens us for some unknown reason. Also, if you know a person is a werewolf, catch them in their human form. From there, you decapitate them. It's the only way unless you can weaken one by hitting it with enough silver to kill it." Like what Luke almost did to me.
"Why are you telling us this?" Chloe stares me down and I stare back.
"I want you two to stay safe and if telling you how to kill my kind does that…." I fall silent, nervous about what I'll end up having to tell her. How she is involved in all of this and what she has to with me..
"What happened to your back?"
"Yeah," Chloe's mom joins in. "It was horrible."
"I disrespected an elder. They punished me for it."
"That's how they usually punish wolves?" Chloe frowns and I can feel conflicting emotions raging through her.
"No, but that's how they punish me. Since my parents killed the Alpha's wife, I get worse than everybody else, apparently."
"That's so unfair." I just shrug.
"What's an elder?" Chloe's mom asks.
"They're older wolves who look over this town and future generations of wolves. The elders supposedly all come from a line of the first werewolves ever. They're treated like royalty and we have to give them the utmost respect. If we don't, we have a punishment for people who do that. It's usually multiple lashes on the back from an elder's claw."
"What was yours?" Chloe's voice is small like she's almost too afraid to ask.
"Lashes on the back with a whip laced with silver." They both gasp. "That's why it was so bad and I'll probably have scars forever." We all fall silent until Chloe speaks up, asking the one question I didn't want her too. The one that will lead me somewhere I'm not sure she's ready to go yet. She just learned that werewolves exist and now I'll have to tell her what she has to do with me.
"Why did you disrespect the elder?"