Chapter 8 – Bone Chilling

Paul ran through the trees as top speed just trying to get all of his anger and frustration out. He had to get it all out before he went back and let Nyla chew his ass. He deserved it and she deserved to yell and scream at him as much as she wanted to. It was long overdue. She was right he let Jason rule his relationship with the only person he wanted to be with for the rest of his life.

He could feel all her emotions. Every single one of them; anger, pain, sadness, he could've sworn he felt disappointment in there as well. Hell maybe she was disappointed that he let someone else ruin their happiness. He risked three years of his life away from the love of his life. He knew she had to leave. He had been so close to just going to her mother's house three years ago and begging her to forgive him for being so stupid.

But he didn't go. And now he was starting to realize he should have.

Nyla sat in the sand as her eyes were glued to the fire as it flickered. She couldn't bring herself to look away from the fire; it was almost as if it kept her in a trance. All she could think about was Paul. She was pissed, she wanted Paul to stay but she knew his temper was rocketing out of control, so she knew he had to leave before it became too dangerous for everyone that was at bonfire.

Kim walked over and sat down next to Nyla. "He'll be back ya know." Naturally it was her turn to point out the obvious since Nyla was usually doing that to her.

Nyla shook her head. "I know. I'm just pissed off and upset and hurt all at the same damn time. And you know what really sucks? The guys have a way to get all their frustrations out when they phase and us? We get to sit here and stew until they come back and then they start apologizing and suddenly you're falling at their feet and forgetting why you pissed off to begin with and they get let off the hook the easy way."

Kim cringed, she'd never seen Nyla this pissed off since they'd all become friends years ago. Kim watched as Nyla sighed heavily as she stood and walked towards the trees.

She just needed to get away from everyone for a minute. She needed to breathe different air and calm herself. She wrapped her arms around herself as she walked into the tree line. She wasn't going to go far, her brothers would freak and Paul would too.

The only problem with taking a walk through trees in the middle of the night would be, duh, no light. So you can't exactly see where you're walking, unless you're a wolf with perfect vision and Nyla was not a wolf. She couldn't help but keep walking. She didn't care if she could barely see two feet in front of her, the moonlight was trying to seep through the trees and help guide her.

Nyla bumped into a fallen tree trunk and when she went to step over it her foot must've been landed in mud because suddenly she slipped and she braced herself for a hard fall, but instead it was a wet soggy fall. When she put her hand down to push herself back up to a standing position her hand connected with something soft and covered in material.

She moved around a little more, still attempting to push herself up and could feel the cold liquid from the mud seeping through her pants and t-shirt. She suddenly realized she was completely surrounded by a foul stench and she couldn't make it out. Rag weed maybe growing in the mud or something, but it was pretty bad.

She finally got into a vertical stance and started to walk again, but this time her foot got hooked on something and she fell completely forward face planting, her face ended up going into a mud puddle, clearly more puddle then mud since it ran down her face. She was in a desperate need of a shower and soon. She her hands felt around as she started crawling on her hands and knees and made it back the short distance to the fallen log again. She figured she might as well go back the way she came. She had wiped her face as best she could to try to get rid of the mud on her. She was going to look like an absolute mess when she made it back to the bonfire.

Curiosity was getting the better of her and she needed to know what her foot had gotten hooked on since it didn't feel like a root. Most roots were stable and didn't give much, but that root was soft, which was oddly strange to her.

She suddenly remembered she had a small keychain flash light in her hand, it was no bigger than her pinkie but it would be enough so she could see what really tripped her and then help her get back to the bonfire. She pushed the button on the little metal cylinder as she light bulb at the end lit up. A breath stuck in her throat as she looked around frantically.

There had to of been 15 to 20 bodies laid out under her feet. They were all VERY much dead as well. She could feel her breathing become labored as she began shaking from head to toe. Her eyes were searching around to see if she could see any familiar faces, namely her mother. Her mom had still been missing and nothing was still being done.

The worst part was what she thought was mud that she'd had all over her, wasn't actually mud at all. It was blood and she looked as though she'd taken a bath in it. It was even caked in her hair. She brought her hand up and could see the thick red liquid as it began to slide from the tips of her fingers down. She was completely horrified.

Suddenly the scream that had been lodged in her throat made its way up and past her lips. It was blood curdling and terrifying. It was a scream that if you heard it once you could and would never forget how truly terrified the person sounded.

Paul had made it back to the bonfire and was searching through the guys and imprints to find Nyla. Paul walked up to Calvin and nudged him, as Calvin turned his gaze to Paul scowled, "Where the hell is Nyla? Did she leave?"

Calvin shook his head. "No she was waiting for you to come back over by the bonfire. Ask Kim, they were talking."

Paul walked over to Jared who had Kim fastened to his side with his arm around his waist. "Where is she Kim?"

Kim frowned. "She went for a walk to blow off some steam. I've never seen her as mad or upset as she was. She put your temper to shame Paul. She said she'd be back in a while."

Paul sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I realize she probably didn't go far, but I wish she wouldn't go off in the woods by herself it's just not safe right now."

Kim went to say something when the shrillest scream came from the trees. It gave everyone at the bonfire chills because of the sound of it. It literally went through the skin and went straight to chill the bones of anyone who heard it.

Paul growled audible he could feel inside it was Nyla. He started to pick up her scent and followed it into the tree line. The stench of blood and rotting flesh filled Paul's nose the closer he got to Nyla's scent. This would be the one time he was happy to be a damn wolf, one of the perks was great night vision. He came to a fallen tree and his head snapped to the right when he heard shaky breathing. Nyla was rolled in a ball against a tree shivering and shaking from head to do. He walked over and knelt down suddenly aware she was caked in something. His nose told him it was blood.

Paul squatted down as he gently touched the back of her head when her face snapped up and the moonlight hit the opening in the trees she saw it was Paul. She threw her arms around her neck and he held on to her for dear life. He'd never felt someone shake that much just from being afraid. At this point it was a win for him since she wasn't afraid of him at this point, but whenever she'd seen in the dark really had her shaken up.

Paul carefully picked Nyla up into his arms, when he stood he looked over by the fallen tree and saw what had Nyla so freaked out. Bodies…Dead bodies there had to be at least 15 or more. Which would explain where the blood came from; she had to of stumbled into the pit of bodies. Paul turned to go back to the bonfire when Sam, Collin, Brady, Leah, Seth and Calvin all skidded to a stop all of them wrinkling their noses at the stench.

Calvin frowned. "What the fuck is all over her?"

Paul's frown matched Calvin's. "It's blood." Paul's eyes met Sam's as he quirked his head to the side. "The answer to the mental question you're asking about the stench; is over there. This will explain why she's covered in head to toe in blood. You're definitely going to need to call Charlie Swan. He's gonna have to call the coroner and get a few body bags out here and try to identify them. I'm taking Nyla back to my place and putting her in a warm bath and help relax her if it's even possible right now."

Sam nodded as they watched Paul walk off towards the beach parking lot where his truck was parked.