Derek's POV

I came walking back out after not finding Chloe. I thought Tori might know since she had been inside. As I came walking up, Simon and Tori had jumped up from their seats.

"What is that?" Tori exclaimed.

There was the sound of something fighting back behind the property. It sounded nasty.

"That might be Chloe," I said.

"What do we do?" Simon panicked.

"Stay here," I told them and started walking out there.

Simon grabbed my arm.

"You're not going out there."

I pulled my arm from his grip and kept going. When Simon started to follow I growled at him. When I knew Simon would stay I turned and started running towards the fight. One of the animals yelped as they hit something solid. A tree stump most likely. A gray wolf turned and looked at me. He growled at me to back off. Chloe took advantage of his attention on me and charged at him. She tackled him off his feet snarling.

I didn't have time to change. I needed to think rationally here. Or maybe a little rationally irrational. I jumped into the fight and grabbed Chloe. Being the one with opposable thumbs had an advantage. I pulled her off of the other wolf and got her in a makeshift headlock. She snarled and clawed at the back of my calves. I cursed loudly and my grip loosened.

As Chloe backed away I finally got a good look at her face. Her teeth were longer and sharper than any wolf's that I had seen. Her eyes were red and sharp and blood was caked to her face and fur. Was it hers or the other wolf's?

"Chloe," I said. "Stop."

She snarled back, nose fixed on my bleeding leg.

The gray wolf stood defensive, waiting for her to do something again.

I held a hand up to her, "Chloe. It's me. Come back."

The gray wolf shook it's head. Was he trying to tell me there was no reasoning with her?

Eyes glued to my bleeding calf, she lunged forward. The gray wolf rammed into her before she reached me. She tumbled but got back up quickly.

"Chloe." I said more demanding this time. "Stop this."

She ignored me and bit into the gray wolf.

A thought dawned on me. The weird telepathy thing! Could I get through to Chloe with that?

I stepped back and circled the pair. The gray wolf caught on that I was up to something and snarled a warning. I growled back. I starred at Chloe and pictured her, human. Sitting with our friends, laughing and smiling. Happy, having fun, human.

She shook her head. Maybe it was getting through? I kept picturing her happy and human as I circled to get behind her. She took a step back from the gray wolf as I lunged forward. I got on top of her and held her down as best as I could. She flailed and snarled but for the moment I had the upper hand. She was too wounded to fight back at full strength.

"Listen to me." I yelled at her. "I know you're in there Chloe."

I kept trying to 'send' her pictures of happy human her. The gray wolf was obviously confused because I told her to listen and didn't continue talking. But she was contained for the moment so he let me do my thing.

Gradually Chloe stopped trying to fight me off of her. I think it was working, she was fighting for control back. I let go with one hand and softly pet her behind her ear. Sending the pictures of her.

"There she is," I said softly.

"How did you do that?" Nate knelt beside me as he zipped up his jeans.

In my head I was screaming at him. It hadn't connected in my head to figure out who the other wolf was. I was furious with him but all that came out was three words. I knew if I started screaming at him out loud, it could set Chloe off. I needed to stay calm.

"I know her."

"Impressive," Nate nodded.

Chloe twitched a little.

"I don't care what you think," I said.

Nate stood up, "Alright alright."

Chloe started to shiver. I got off of her and lifted her gaze to mine. She wasn't shivering from being cold. She was shivering from fear as reality was hitting her on what had happened.