Episode 2

Bound

The sound of skin ripping, and bones crunching wasn’t something you would expect. It hurt my ears to listen, and I could have sworn someone was dying, it sounded that painful. But the noises were drowned out by snarls and animalistic sounds as the two giant wolves tried facing it off with each other.

I just stood their frozen, a state of shock. My body was screaming, telling me to get the hell out of there, but I stared blankly at the sight before me. The place where Tristan had been now stood a giant black wolf, its lips pulled back from its teeth, baring them menacingly. The other wolf was obviously just the same size, but a brown that was sun stained making it look blonde in the filtered light of the trees.

That’s when the brown wolf lunged at the black one, aiming for its throat. My eyes had a hard time trying to follow the pattern and placing of teeth and claws as the two animals collided. The movements were smooth and lethal, and I was sure that one of would lose, and soon. My eyes closed tightly, trying to block out the mental image of this.

There was a whimper, and a snarl, and my eyes shot open in surprise, to see the black wolf’s fur around its lips stained a light red, the other’s leg bit in the upper thigh. I stepped back, my vision going slightly hazy at the sight of blood, the scent would have surely made me pass out if it weren’t for the fear as both wolves turned towards me. I had stepped on a twig, and the snap was clearly audible, even against the snarls.

If a wolf could’ve grinned, I swear the brown one would be smiling evilly from ear to ear. They both jumped to me, and I shrieked, falling backwards into a path of grass in the dirt. I shielded my eyes with my arm, waiting for the powerful paws and claws of theirs to tear through my skin and bones.

But it didn’t happen; the snarls and growls weren’t directed towards me anymore. Something brushed my leg, and I quickly opened my eyes. The black wolf stood protectively before me, in a crouch that was totally shielding me from the view of the brown one.

The last snarl that came out of the black wolf’s mouth ripped through the afternoon, clearly if not human telling the other to back off, and in a parting glare aimed towards me, the brown one disappeared into the confines of the forest, disappearing further into the darkness.

I released my breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding, and shivers erupted over my skin. But I wasn’t out of trouble yet, I barely registered as the black wolf looked back towards me. Its eyes captured mine. Silver reflections, ones that had captured my attention all day.

It couldn’t be possible, he couldn’t be it. My mind fought with common sense, an inner turmoil that had my head aching, but for some reason I knew those were his eyes. But how could it possibly be? The wolf turned around and was about to run off like the other when a whisper left my lips, “T…Tristan?”

It froze, and slowly turned back towards me. It was him; I saw the defeat in his eyes. I would have smirked in confidence, if it hadn’t already been shattered with the fact that there was no logical way for him to be a wolf.

In a much quieter transition, the wolf quickly morphed back into the shaggy black haired, silver eyed, boy that I had been puzzling over. His mouth was tipped down in a frown as he studied my face, which I was sure looked terrible. My teeth were chattering, and my hands clenched tightly on the blades of grass in the ground, tearing them up one by one. He seemed just as tense, but not afraid more angry.

“You know…” he muttered, a snarl so similar to the animalistic ones that had been made minutes ago. He swerved around fast, and his fist cracked against the bark of a nearby tree as he punched it in anger. My eyes widened, sure he had just shattered all the bones in his hand, but it came away perfectly clean, if not scraped a little, the tree had more damage to it.

I scrambled up to my feet, backing up slowly until I reached a tree; I braced my back against it. What had I gotten myself into? I moaned in terror inside my mind. I had never been one to be afraid of much, except bad grades and blood, and sometimes change, change was the worst. This, this was a terrible change.

He was still facing the tree, his eyes closed from what I could see. Inching to the side, I made a split second decision and started running back towards the road. It couldn’t be that far, but before I had even made it through the first layer of cascading branches, a hand wrapped firmly around my wrist, yanking me back. I gasped, as I was pulled in the opposite direction.

That gesture took the fear and replaced it with anger, “Let. Me. Go” I growled, pulling with all my might against his hold, I wasn’t going to be taken without a fight. The hand constricted harder on my arm, making we wince as pain lanced up my arm.

“You have gotten to far into this,” he muttered, and roughly pulled me so I was now in front of him, and both hands of his clamped down on my shoulders, pushing more than guiding me towards where he wanted to go.

“Too far into what?” I demanded, but I knew that I had crossed some unspoken boundary by walking into that fight. It was hard for me to picture the man walking behind me, the wolf that had blood on its mouth, how these warm hands could be the same paws that had powerfully tried to tear apart its competitor. How that silky smooth, velvet baritone voice could be the same wolf that had bared its teeth.

I blushed furiously for thinking thoughts that made me think he was handsome, for all I knew there was a… a werewolf kidnapping me. That word seemed to fit. Werewolf. Those were fantasy, a myth, like vampires or fairies. The blush disappeared as my face blanched at the thought that if werewolves existed, then so did all the rest of the fairytales. All this just fed into my fury. “Too far into what?” I snarled again, I noticed how my snarl sounded not nearly as frightening as his did, almost to the point of dainty and cute.

“Why were you here?” he demanded with a steel voice, his vice grip on my shoulders digging in to my collarbones.

I answered without thinking, “I was following the sounds, and I heard you,” I muttered, now realizing at this point that I had heard his voice, and somehow I had been drawn to it.

He groaned, “Great…I’m going to have to take you back to my pa…err…family,”

I noticed that he was a good head and a half taller than me, and even when I tried to straighten taller than I was currently in, I came no where near his height. For some reason that bothered me, I was always as tall as or close to most of the guys I knew, it was strange being by somebody who happened to be towering over me so much. At 5’10” I was practically Godzilla over all the other girls in my grade, or school.

“Stop fidgeting, and just walk,” he ordered, and my movements fell silence. I usually never listened to anyone, and I found myself confused in the mere fact that I was submit able to his orders, but that was the least I was worried about as fear slowly leaked back in.

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, refusing to let my voice get more emotional than a flat line. I managed to get my ankle tangled in a root by a tree, and grunted as I tripped. His hands pulled my shoulders back upright before I could make a face plant. Was it weird to feel safe, yet totally afraid to be with a person at the same time?

“I told you I’m taking you back,” he said gruffly.

“Just let me go home…I…I won’t breathe a word,” I protested, trying with the reasoning part of my conscience.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

We walked in silence, I was slumped in defeat, and his hands slowly loosened on my shoulders to only a mild gesture. His hands were covering my whole shoulder, and for the first time in a long time I felt dainty.

Gulping again we walked further, deeper into the woods. “Are we going to run into that other wolf?” I whispered quietly. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, “No, I don’t think he is coming back,” he said, and I could have sworn he said a mutter of “yet,”

Slowly the woods began to thin, and I wondered if we had somehow managed to reach the other end of the of the forest, could it really be so small? I heard the padding of paws and looked around frantically, “Relax,” Tristan hissed in my ear, and I ended up doing the exact opposite, tensing up like a board.

Bounding out of the woods came three wolves all the brown color that seemed to camouflage with the background. They stopped in front of us, and seemed to look back and forth between me and Tristan. He looked at them intently, and the one closest emitted a low growl, rumbling from its throat.

I seemed to be missing a large part of the conversation, being it all of it. My breathing started to pick up, and he shoved me forward with a snort. I broke through the barrier of thicker trees, to come out into a clearing. I blinked at the sudden intrusion of bright light that wasn’t filtered harshly through the leaves. I looked up and the bright blue sky gazed down at me, I almost prayed to it to get me out of here safe and whole. It was a village by the looks of it, small houses that looked like log cabins that looked to be lined up in an arc. I could barely see the blue lake behind the whole camp, which was the only word I could come up with to express what this place felt like, a camp. A permanent camp.

“Move,” Tristan said shoving me again, turning colder and more distant. We made it all the way to the largest house further back from the rest of the cabins; it was hidden further from the clearing, secluded off. The door swung open before he even had a chance to reach around me to open it. We met a stern faced man, looking the same size as Tristan but with dark brown hair and silver eyes that shot daggers at both of us.

“Just let me in, Wes,” Tristan growled, and giving me one last disgusted look, stepped out of our way. Startled I dug my heels into the dirt, “No, I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” I screeched, and bucked my back trying once again to work my way out of his grasp. My body screamed danger, ever since I took my first step into the clearing.

Another pair of hands shot forward and grasped me roughly, but I was tugged away by Tristan before Wes even got a hold of me. “I’ve got it,” Tristan muttered pushing me through the doorway. My heels had no grasp on the wooden floors, in fact my sneaker squeaked against its smooth surface and I was dragged further in. I didn’t bother to look around the place, instead closing my eyes tightly, willing this all to be a dream, and I would wake up again tomorrow with no recollection of the fact. My teeth bit into my lip harshly but I ignored the metallic taste, as long as I didn’t smell or see it, I was fine.

A rush of cold air conditioning that seemed off season sent shivers up my arms, and I was glad that they were free for the moment, and grasped them together. I could smell the aroma of something coming from a kitchen of sorts, but I didn’t dare open my eyes, maybe it was just my mom making breakfast for me before school.

The hands disappeared off my shoulders, and I noticed I was sitting on something soft, plush. My hands trailed down the velvet seat, and for a moment I almost visioned it as my kitchen seats. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was alone in a room, looking very similar to a library. A desk sat in the middle of the room, its oak surface shining in reflection to the sunlight streaming in the window. Behind it stood floor to ceiling book cases that were stuffed stock full of books, all shapes and sizes. A few pictures of smiling couples and adorable children were placed on a side table to my left, in front of the window, with a small vase of roses.

A mutter had me turning back around, noticing that I hadn’t been alone; Tristan was standing to my right, leaning against the wall his eyes looking at me intently. I fidgeted under his gaze, and anger flared up again in me, “What do you think you have…” I started to say, when the door was opened.

Another man came in his blonde hair standing on end, as if he had just woken up. But his eyes were alert as he quickly assessed the situation, his gaze flickering over me, before looking back at Tristan, who now stood alert. “Tristan, what is the all the worry…I had to be woken up after being out all last night?” he said, casually rubbing the back of his neck like it was sore.

“I fear I have made a grave mistake,” Tristan said, clearing his throat again. “This girl—human girl,” he indicated towards me and my eyebrows furrowed together in a mixture of fury and confusion, “She followed me and the Beta of Red Bark into a fight,”

I couldn’t help it; I snickered at the name of Red Bark. For a werewolf pack, which I still had a hard time grasping; having its name containing ‘bark’ was quite ironic. Both of the men looked at me blankly, and I clamped a hand over my mouth, immediately shutting up, I guess it was the hysteria getting to me finally. Well I had jumped off the deep end of crazy; I was in a room with a freaking werewolf.

“She’s human?” the man asked, and with a moment’s hesitation, Tristan nodded.

“I thought that she would immediately be needed to be brought here…” he trailed off, staring at the blonde man who was eyeing me, as if he was trying to pry my mind of something valuable.

“You were right—she will have to be taken care of,” the way the man said it I immediately caught the tone in his voice that meant it would be a permanent kind of “taken care of”.

“I won’t say a word,” I slipped up, my voice almost pleading.

Silence filled the room, and I regretted my words the moment they left my lips. I most likely wasn’t helping my situation, but I had to do my best to get me out of whatever situation that might be. “I didn’t see all that much,” I lied quickly, the falseness tasting stale on my tongue.

“She is already lying; I don’t think we will be able to trust her, Tristan. Call the other members of the pack so we can decide what can be done with her without the human population immediately noticing.” The man said coldly, but firmly.

I stood up, getting to my feet and about to get in his face, yelling, “Now here…” but I was interrupted by Tristan shoving me back into the couch, hard.

He turned towards the man, his body angled subtly between mine and the other guys, “Alpha Rayne, I will take full responsibility for this mishap, but I don’t want her to suffer too much from it.” He stressed.

The alpha regarded him curiously, “Then you will make sure she stays out of all trouble, and not breaths a word,” he said amused.

“Yes.” Tristan stated firmly, accenting it with a nod of the head.

“Fine then.” Then the alpha turned to me and pointed sternly, “But one mishap and I will personally make sure that your body won’t be found with any reasonable recognition of your former self,”

I nodded mutely, what had I gotten myself into?

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***