Chapter Five
After watching Luke and Sophia drive away, Ruby sat thinking for a few seconds. What her brother had said got to her. He basically told her to be with the one she wanted, but it wasn't that easy. Ruby knew that once she was found by the pack, they would force her to once again leave John possibly harming him. No she couldn't go if not to protect John, but to protect herself from Tyler. But Luke had gone and mated with a skinwalker that everyone thought unworthy of being alive.
Ruby had millions of reasons running around in her head, trying to help her decide which way she should go. One direction led back to the forest and her life as a wolf, the other to John. John. The more she thought about the possibility of being with him, the more she wanted it. Ruby couldn't help but feel like she wouldn't be able to live without him. So she ran. The closer she got to John's cabin the faster she ran. Once she started she knew she couldn't or wouldn't stop. This was it; there was no turning back now.
Ruby ran for forty-five minutes before reaching the cabin on the other side of Wolf Lake. Her heart was pounding as she came to a stop in the bushes, not only from her running but also from the anticipation she felt at seeing John again.
She could smell him inside the small log cabin and knew this was the best chance she would ever get. She was just about to walk forward out of the bushes when the door to the cabin opened and he stepped out. John paused on the front porch and looked around into the trees and bushes. He slowly scanned the foliage and then abruptly stopped. It was then that Ruby realized he stood staring at the exact spot where she was hiding. She couldn't help but have the feeling that John knew that she was in the bushes only ten feet away.
John had been thinking about Ruby all day. The incident with Professor Van Halen had made him think about all of his priorities and about whether he wanted to continue his search for Ruby. He had been sitting there weighing out his options when he heard it. The birds all around his cabin had stopped chirping. He couldn't hear any of the annoyingly noisy birds that seemed to constantly make noise right outside his bedroom. The next thing he knew, he heard a rustling in the bushes and somehow knew there was an animal outside somewhere.
It seemed crazy to get up just because of rustling that happened all the time, but for some reason he felt something different. He stepped out onto the porch and slowly scanned the tree line that surrounded the cabin. He was beginning to think he had been hearing things when he saw the bushes off to his right move. As John stopped, and stared, he didn't know how, but he could tell there was something there. Two seconds later John was shocked to see the white wolf he had let free two days before walk slowly out of the bushes.
She stood before the steps and John watched as she sat down on her haunches. Before he knew it he was turning around and walking back through the doorway. He was going to do the sensible thing and ignore her but thought what the heck why not. John walked back outside and said directly to the wolf, "Are you coming in?" He was even more amazed when the wolf got up and trotted up the steps.
John followed the wolf into his cabin and sat down across from her on the couch. He watched her to see what she would do and was surprised when she sat down on her haunches directly facing him. What was stranger was the fact that she seemed to look at him and nowhere else. "I think there must be something special about you." He said and watched to see how she would react. She hardly moved but John saw how her facial muscles twitched a bit as though she was smiling. "I think you must know more than your average wolf does. What do you know about this freaky town?" He asked and looked to see what would happen.
Ruby wanted so badly to jump up and explain who she was, but knew if she did she would run the chance of scaring John off.
"You know there are a lot of weird things happening in this town. The name Wolf Lake first of all, that Van Halen guy coming here searching for werewolves and pumping me full of your blood, and one other thing I just noticed. Your eyes, they look just like Ruby's. You wouldn't by chance have something you're not telling me, would you?" John asked and took a sip of his beer. "This is stupid. I'm talking to a wolf, that is sitting in my living room, like she is my missing girlfriend. It can't get any crazier than that."
"Wanna bet. Hi John." Ruby said as she watched him take a swig of his beer. She ha been listening to him talk as she sat in his living room and noticed two things. John didn't look that surprised to see her, and it seemed he maybe knew more about Wolf Lake than she realized.
John had his beer resting on his lips for a few seconds before actually anything. "You aren't real. You're just a hallucination left over from Sherman's medicine."
"No I'm not John. I'm right here." Ruby gently assured him.
"Ruby!" John asked afraid that she was not real. "Oh my god! Where have you been? I can't believe I found you. Are you ok? Why are you naked?" John spouted out question after question as he jumped up to embrace Ruby.
"John please sit down, there are things I need to explain to you. Things about myself, and things you need to know about Wolf Lake." Ruby said trying to get him to calm down.
"Whatever it is, I don't care. Now that I have you back, I don't ever want to let you go. You don't need to tell me anything. I love you no matter what." John assured her kissing her hands and wrapping her up in a blanket that was lying on the couch.
"I love you too John, but you need to sit down. I have things I really need to talk to you about. Please." Ruby pleaded and only continued when he had resumed his place on the couch. "This won't be easy for you to accept or understand. How well do you fell you know me John?"
"Ruby why would you as me that? I know you almost as well as I know myself. I know you love chop-suey but only if there are water chestnuts in it. I know you would like to color your hair, but are to chicken to try. You pretend to hate the TV show Friends, but really love it and don't want to admit it. And I know you always steal the covers at night." John finished and laughed at all of the memories their conversation was bringing up.
"I do not steal the covers!" Ruby shouted and tried to look stern for a few seconds before giving in. "Anyway, John what about the town? What have you found out about Wolf Lake while you have been here?"
"Well that's another story." He said and sighed. "No offense Ruby, but you live in a crazy mixed up town. I don't know if it's the way everyone is so secretive, or how the teenagers get away with anything. Plus there's the large population of wolves roaming around in the forest you hear all the time." He said and suddenly started looking around. "Hey! Where did the wolf go, the white one?"
"I'm right here."
"What?"
"The reason Wolf Lake is named the way it is, is because of the people. John most of the people who live in Wolf Lake are skinwalkers. We can change ourselves into wolves once we reach a certain age, and are members of a pack." Ruby gently explained. "John I am the white wolf."
"Ruby….. What?" He stammered out. "What you are saying is, is…"
"Crazy? Yeah, I figured that was what you would say."
"Ruby, I don't know what kind of cult your family has you mixed up in, but you're talking crazy."
"You said it yourself John, the members of the town are all really secretive and there is a surplus of wolves, all you have to do is put two and two together."
"Ruby you can't be serious."
"I am John." She answered him calmly. "Why don't I show you?"
The next thing John knew, his girlfriend was completely illuminated in white light and five seconds later the beautiful white wolf was standing in front of him. He stared at it for a few seconds and then the light was there again. This time though Ruby was standing in front of him. "This can't be happening." John said and sank back onto the couch.
"John? Please say something."
"I mean this can't be real can it?" It's probably a leftover hallucination from Sherman's stuff. I saw you then and of course I saw my parents to, but they told me I was adopted and then there was the pan and bread flying past me. But ever since then I there have been those annoying animals that wont shut up, and everything looks and smells different…"
"John what did you say?" Ruby asked as she listened to his mumbling.
"What? The part where Sherman drugged me? Yeah! He gave me some of his special chicken soup and I think he put LSD in it."
"No John. Did you say everything smells different?" Ruby slowly asked and looked at John's eyes.
"Yeah Sherman's special medicine made me see all these weird things, and now I'm starting to notice these weird smells that I don't know where they come from."
"John, your eyes." Ruby slowly said and walked over to take a closer look.
"What?" What's wrong with them?" John asked and walked to the mirror that hung over the dresser in his bedroom. As he looked at his reflection, the gold that had been steadily glowing for the past five minutes slowly faded away. "Ruby what was that?"
"Your eyes were glowing. John, sit down I need to ask you something." Ruby waited while John sat on the edge of the bed and then asked the things that she knew would hit John hard. "Ok so you said you saw your parents and they said you were adopted. You never told me you were adopted."
"I didn't know I was. I mean it all makes sense now, my parents were so much older than everyone else' growing up. But why wouldn't they tell me?"
"Maybe they were trying to spare you any hurt feelings you might have experienced from the truth." Ruby offered as John snorted in disgust. "John is it possible that you came from Wolf Lake?"
"What! Why do you ask?"
"Because…" Ruby hesitated. "The only time I have ever seen eyes glow like yours did was before skinwalkers were getting ready to flip."
"You can't be serious. I am not a skinjumper or whatever you call it!"
"Skinwalker. You have all the signs. You said you hear and smell things you have not heard and seen before, and most importantly your eyes were glowing." John snorted again in disbelief and buried his face in his hands. "You know having heightened senses really isn't that bad, it's actually pretty cool. You can use them to your advantage, and if you flip you would become a member of the pack. You and I would be free to be together."
"What?"
"Because I am a white wolf, I am very special to the pack. I will be the next alpha and am free to choose whoever I want from the pack to be my mate." She informed John and stepped up to stand in between his legs. She placed her hands on either side of his face and gently placed a kiss on his forehead.
"Ruby, what about Tyler Creed? I ran into him at the dry cleaners where he was picking up a wedding dress."
Ruby looked at the ground and tried to avoid John's questioning look. "A few weeks ago my father got really sick and had a stroke. It looked as though Tyler would be the most logical man to be the next alpha, so my father made sure I married him before he died."
"So you're a married woman?"
"Not necessarily. The marriage laws of the pack are different than normal. If we do not or refuse to lay with our mate, the marriage is not legal. I swear John I never let him touch me."
"Never?"
"Well there was that time I tried to kill him, but that didn't work out so well." Ruby cringed as she thought about how she had tried to get Tyler into her bed so that she could gut him with the knife she had hidden away. The memory of his lips and hands on her body made her shudder every time she thought about it.
"Ruby! Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" John exclaimed as he heard the woman he thought he knew so well talk openly about murder.
"Anyway, with me being the white wolf, I can choose whoever I want to be with."
"Well I don't know what to say, except... I'm really happy to see you again." He said and pulled Ruby's face to his own. The effect of the stolen kiss was instantaneous. All of the longing and pent up emotions that were stuck in a place where they could not be let out, came bursting forth in that first second. Ruby and John grasped at each other, afraid to let go and be torn apart once again. Their tender embraces lasted for an hour before they lay gasping for the air that had escaped their lungs.
Then John felt it, a sudden sharp pain that permeated from his chest all through his body. The next thing that happened was the sensation of needles coursing all over his body. "Ruby, what's happening?" He managed to gasp through the pain.
"John, oh my god! You're starting to go through the change. It will be all right just try and relax."
"Oh god Ruby, it hurts so much!"
"I know John, I know." Ruby tried to console him and wiped at the tears that were now streaming down her face. "You will be all right, just let it happen. If you give in the pain won't be as bad."
"I can't." John screamed as he thrashed about in anguish.
"You have to. Please John, I can't loose you again." Then it happened. John let out a cry that rang all through the cabin and was bathed in the white light that immersed every skinwalker when they changed. Five seconds later it was over and a black wolf lay next to Ruby. He was the color of pure obsidian all over except for the two white spots on his front paws. Then just as long as it had taken John to become the wolf, it took him to become the man.
"Ruby..."
"Shh John you're all right, you made it through." She confirmed and kissed him on the forehead repeatedly to assure him that she was there for him. "You will be just fine. Now rest, you need to get you strength back, I'll talk to you soon." Ruby promised him and smiled as he fell asleep. She lay down next to him and whispered "I love you" before drifting of to dreamland herself.
John woke three hours later delighted to once again have Ruby lying next to him. Her gentle breathing and slowly moving body were such a wonderful sight to behold, he didn't think anything could ruin the perfect moment he was currently living in. Ruby moaned in her sleep and gently rolled over from her stomach to her back. She opened her eyes but immediately shut them when the light from the sunset hit her from the bedroom window. "Oh, what time is it?" She groaned and rubbed her hands across her eyes to wipe the sleep from them.
"It's just about seven; we've been asleep for only about three hours. Good Morning." John answered and gently kissed her.
"Good morning." She said back with a smile as she ran her hand across John's forehead and through his hair. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. A little sore, but I will be fine." He assured her. "Ruby, I've been thinking."
"Yeah, about what?"
"Well lots of things. What's going to happen with me and you now? What's it going to feel like when I change? What's Tyler going to do when he finds out what happened?"
"He'll probably have a fit, but I don't care. I am with you now; we are each other's mates." Ruby assured him and raised her head up to kiss him. Then they heard it, a car pulling to a stop outside of the isolated cabin. Two seconds later Ruby heard the one person she hated most in the world ordering his cronies around. "Tyler." Ruby said and buried her face in John's shoulder.
"All right let's go get this over with." John surprised Ruby and got up out of the bed where they lay entwined.
"John wait, you can't go out there! You just flipped and don't know what being a skinwalker means!"
"All I know is you and I won't be happy until he stops pursuing you." He said to her as he put his jeans on and out of habit grabbed his gun off of the dresser. "If I have to fight him for that to happen, then so be it."
"Wait let me talk to him first. Tyler may be a cold hearted son of a bitch, but I don't believe he would actually hurt me." Ruby said and grabbed one of John's shirts from the floor.
"Ruby..."
"John please trust me." She pleaded and cupped his cheek for a second before striding over to the front door and pushing it open. Tyler was standing in the clearing with one of his "servants" on either side like bodyguards protecting a famous celebrity. "What do you want Tyler?"
"Hello darling, I am happy to see you are all right. I was afraid you would get injured when you ran away from me." Tyler said with a smile plastered on his face that hid the worry he was starting to feel.
"Cut the crap Tyler. I'll ask you again, what do you want?"
"I came to bring you home dear. You know your present company is not exactly warranted."
"No Tyler, I am right where I belong. I'm not leaving." Ruby said standing firm.
"Ruby... You know you can't stay here. Now don't make me do something I might regret." Tyler warned, his voice starting to grow deeper, all trace of politeness gone. He had just started to walk up the stairs when he saw Kanin.
John had been standing in the doorway listening to the conversation when he heard Tyler start to move. That was when he had had enough. John walked out the doorway and stood in front of Ruby. "Stay where you are Creed, you don't need to come any further." He said all the while staring at the man he so thoroughly despised.
Tyler was floored. He had seen the difference in Kanin immediately, not quite believing what was plain as day. Somehow John Kanin had become a skinwalker. There was no denying it. He had the look, smell, and glowing eyes of a male that was ready to defend his mate. Tyler couldn't comprehend how it had happened; all he knew was his fight for Ruby was just beginning.