House of Wolves

The second I opened my eyes, I wanted him.  As I screamed and frantically kicked at the bed sheets suppressing my sweating body down, I thought of only one face I wanted to come rescue me from the lifeless hands snatching at my flesh in my nightmare.

            “OWEN!” I screamed in between harsh, desperate breaths. “OWEN!”

            “Yes, dear?” the deep, soft voice of serenity was before me much sooner than I could have wished it would be, and the surprise caused me to inhale too sharply, leaving me choking on my tears and gasping for breath in the dark of the foreign bedroom.  “I’m here, Sophia, I’ve been here all along.  Calm down.”

            As I struggled to dissipate the hyperventilation, I realized he must be wary of touching me, afraid I might freak out and mistake his large, warm, strong hands for those of a cold, demonic bloodthief.

            “You were dreaming,” Owen went on calmly and soothingly, as I continued taking large, dramatic gulps of air into my lungs. “Everything’s okay.  Tell me what you saw.”

            “I’m not dreaming, Owen!” I shrieked in defiance. “You know I’m not just dreaming!  They were after me!  They captured me�"they were killing me they wouldn’t let me go!”

            “Shhh,” Owen persisted, his dark silhouette reaching out for me in the darkness at last, but even his entrancing, powerful touch I yearned for was not enough to calm me now.  “You’re fine, Sophia.  You’re safe, don’t worry�"”

            “Don’t leave me,” I sobbed, shaking my head back and forth slowly as I attempted to steady the tears. “Please don’t go, Owen.  Stay with me.”  I earnestly reached up and put my right hand on top of his large hand, which was placed gently on my shaking left shoulder, squeezing hard.  I pinched at his knuckles with my tiny fingers, making sure this hand was real and truly there.

            He was quiet for a moment, and then he sighed in defeat.  The heave of his chest made my bed frame creak slightly, and I could feel his hot breath on my face. “I won’t leave your side.”

            I released my own sigh of relief, but still I squeezed harder on his hand, trying to shake the memory of my nightmare�"hoping, praying that’s all it was.  Just a nightmare.  Not a vision.  Anything but a vision.

             There was silence in the room for several minutes.  The only sound that could be heard was the quick, impatient tempo of my heart beat and the sound of the distant waves crashing along the ocean shore in the distance.

            “You haven’t been well for a while now.” Owen stated.  It wasn’t even a question.  He just knew.

            “No,” I replied quietly, still sitting straight up in bed, gripping the structure of his hand tightly. “I guess not.”

            “I hear you in the middle of the night, sometimes,” He commented, his deep voice low in his usual calm expression.  “I always come in to check on you…but tonight’s the first night you’ve actually woken.”        

            I blushed deeply, at first thankful he could not see it in the darkness, and then remembering he probably could with his keen night vision.

            “I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep…” I mumbled disappointedly at myself.  How embarrassing.  That must mean I was disrupting Mariellen, Isaac, Blaise, Tyler, and Amery’s sleep as well…

            Oh goodness, they couldn’t take me anywhere!

            “Shush, don’t be sorry,” Owen said, flipping his hand over so he could hold mine delicately in his.

            My heart raced.

            “I’m only concerned for you.  It’s no problem at all.  I don’t need as much sleep as you do, dear,” he explained in the same chilled tone.  I said nothing to this, because a simple ‘thank you’ was no where near enough.  He stroked my hand gently with his thumb, and continued his way down my wrist to my forearm.

            That’s when I felt the pain.

            I gasped for breath, realizing just exactly what this meant. I yanked my hand back from him, holding my arm up before me in the sliver of moonlight creeping in through the open window.

            I jumped to my feet straight away, shaking in fright.

            “Look,” I spat out, thrusting my shaking arms before him.  In the blue glistening light of the moon, bruises were roped up and down my arms as though a series of Indian burns were quickly forming there.  “It was real!  It wasn’t just a dream.  It’s real!”

            There was a flash of pain in his own gray, hypnotic eyes, as if he could feel the pain spreading through the trail of bruises at the very sight.  Gingerly, he curled his warm hand around the violet marks of abuse, gently rubbing them as though I were a fragile china doll.

            After several moments where I sat frozen in an upright position on the bed, he maneuvered himself around until he was on my right side, leaning against my bed frame.  He cradled me against his stomach, allowing me to lie down and rest, soaking in the delightful spicy smell he usually possessed.  My breathing slowed steadily as a feeling of security surrounded me, until his warm, toned arm fell against my side, and I could feel his fingertips touching the cold, bare flesh on my exposed hip bone.  The sensation sent butterflies into my stomach.

            “Shh,” he continued soothingly.  “It’s alright.  You’re safe now,” he reminded me patiently with words I heard many times before, although I already knew that I was safe.  Locked within the strong embrace of my Owen, I was safe from even my blackest nightmare.

            Slowly, the rhythm of his gentle strokes against my side caused me to drift off to sleep at last.

 

I could hear birds�"no, not just any birds�"they were sea gulls, and they were calling to one another just outside my window.  A warm breeze blew across my face and exposed arms, though the rest of my body was covered under a silk blanket.  My eyes snapped open at once, remembering where I was, and who was no longer in my company. 

            Owen was clearly no where to be found as I shot up against my bed frame, however there was a note propped up on my nightstand, scribbled in his handwriting.

           

GOOD MORNING. BREAKFAST IS DOWNSTAIRS.

P.S. like I said, you’re safe now.

- OWEN-

 

 

            With a smile, I threw some cut off jean shorts on and a black tank top and hurried downstairs, where I could smell pancakes and syrup traveling up the stairs of the beach house.  In the kitchen, Owen, Isaac, Mariellen, Tyler, Blaise, and Amery were all sitting around eating, well, like a pack of wolves.  Mariellen was standing over the stove, dishing out even more pancakes with a spatula and slapping them on a serving plate.

            “Well, good morning!” She said happily, already looking like a runway model with her beautiful blonde ringlets already peppy and styled, despite the earliness of the morning.

            At once, everyone sitting at the breakfast nook shot their heads up from their plates and muttered a greeting.

            “Go ahead and have a seat, Sophia, I’ll fix you a plate,” Mariellen said with another cheery smile.  I suspected her and Isaac must have had a very good time together the night before.  Amery scooted closer to Tyler at the left end of the bench, making room for me to sit beside him.

            “Here ya go, toots,” he said in between a mouthful of pancakes. “Here’s a seat, right next to your favorite.”

            “Thanks, Ames,” I said with a laugh, sliding in place beside him as he winked a dark chocolate eye at me.

            “Did you sleep ok last night?” Tyler said, right before taking a sip of her orange juice.

            I knew that she already knew the answer, and was simply playing dumb just to be courteous, so I pretended to go along with it.

            “Uh…I slept ok,” I responded as Mariellen slid a stack of golden brown pancakes before me, taking a seat herself on the opposite bench end beside Isaac. “It’s a beautiful room you gave me, I love it,” I added quickly to change the subject.

            Owen coughed out once, like something was stuck in his throat, and I looked up to see him smirking over top the pitcher of orange juice.

            “Could you pass the orange juice please, Owen?” I snapped, setting my lips into a pinched smile. 

He chewed on the mouthful he was consuming while trying to keep from smiling at the same time, but managed to reached out and pick up the pitcher. “Gladly,” he said after swallowing the food in his mouth, the smirk growing even bigger.

There was a silence that followed as everyone continued eating�"werewolves, especially the boys, were ravenous eaters�"until Blaise had enough and pushed his plate away across the table, causing a screech.  Isaac swallowed a burp in his throat, that still managed to make a strange noise, and then, running his fingers through his scruffy, ginger hair, he said, “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”

Everyone at the table stared at each other, looking for an answer, until Tyler spoke up.

“How about the beach?  It’s supposed to be the nicest day of the week,” She suggested, setting her fork down as well.

“Oh, yeah I did see that on The Weather Channel this morning,” Blaise said in his deep voice. “I think the waves are supposed to be really sick too.”

“Going once, going twice…” Isaac said, and then slamming his fist down on the table said, “Sold!”

            Mariellen, Tyler, and I cleaned up the kitchen while the boys packed what would be needed for our day at the beach, including things like sun block, a beach umbrella, Frisbees, beach towels, and a cooler filled with snacks and drinks.

            After this I ran upstairs to my room, so I could quickly change into a swimsuit.  I knew exactly where I had unpacked it; the top little drawer within the armoire.  It was the only bikini I owned, and I hoped it would suffice and would somehow allow my olive toned skin to look decent in the waves.  It was a paisley print, with various shades of violet and plums, as well as canary yellow and turquoise.  There were several bronze charms tied together at the right side of my waist.  Kat was the one who helped me pick this suit out in a little boutique, before we moved to California.  She told me it went well with my complexion and “curves”�" the little that were there, and I really hoped she wasn’t lying.

             I grabbed my aviator shades and slid into my black flip-flops, and met with the others to walk down to the beach.

            Surprisingly, it was fairly empty for how nice of a day it was unfolding to be.  The sun was up high in the sky, and shining down upon the sand and everlasting aqua ocean before us.  The sand was quickly becoming hotter and hotter the longer we walked across it, but I soon realized I was the only one who was affected by the pain of this.

            “I’ll meet you guys closer to the shore,” I said after a few “oh!’s” and “ow!’s” from the scalding temperature smothering each of my feet with every step.

            I heard either Isaac or Amery chuckle, but I wasn’t sure which one did as I tore off, attempting to run my fastest through the scalding soft sand.  Eventually, I made it to the part of the beach where the water had rushed into the shore, and was darker and wetter and cooler than the rest.  I sighed out in relief, and turned back to see that now the entire gang was laughing at me, the little human with no shoes.

            I scowled back at them as they approached, and Blaise started driving the beach umbrella into a spot of sand while Mariellen lay out the giant floral blanket.

            “You’re a funny little thing, you know that?” Blaise muttered, starring at me with a perplex expression.  I scowled again, until Owen scoffed once more like he had at breakfast. Somehow, I had managed to look up right at the same time he was taking his black beater off, revealing that perfectly chiseled chest and set of abs.

            My jaw momentarily dropped open in awe, but I caught myself as his marble like eyes found my own, and I hastily looked away in chagrin.  It would be so much easier for me to control myself and my emotions if he just wasn’t so perfect.

            Feeling my face fill color itself pink as I avoided eye contact with Owen again, I went over to Tyler and helped her unpack a few things, including the beach towels.

            “Isaac, will you help me look for some sea shells?” Mariellen asked in her most girly-ish, pleading voice. “I want a nice, little collection to take back.”    

            “Alright,” Isaac agreed, slabbing a glob of sunblock onto his paper white arms that matched his ginger hair. “As long as ‘little’ isn’t code word for ‘huge’.”

            Mariellen laughed, but didn’t give an answer as she jumped up off her pink polka-dot beach towel, grabbing Isaac’s hand as they took off towards the ocean.

            When I turned back to the blanket, Tyler was already laying out on her towel in her black and white zebra print bikini.

            “Wanna toss the Frisbee, big bro?” Amery asked Blaise, who was just about to sit down next to the tiny gymnast. 

He sort of grunted, then scratching his blonde head said, “Okay,” and brought his muscular figure back up to his feet and walked away with his brother.  Tyler lifted her head up and saw Blaise walking away across the sand, and made a discomforted face, and then lay back down against her towel and slid on her dark shades.

So then it was just Owen and I sitting there on the large floral blanket.

A few seagulls squawked obnoxiously as their shadows flew overhead, and a few shrieking kids ran past our blanket with sopping wet swimsuits, kicking sand on my legs as they went.

            Owen snorted but didn’t say anything.  I looked up at him with a small pout, and he flashed a bright white smile my way, sort of pushing on my shoulder a little in a playful manner.  I was suddenly very conscious of the way I looked in my bikini, since I was apparently sitting next to a god of some sort.

            Seeing that I was not in the mood for playfulness, he pulled his thick hand away and stared off towards the ocean while the sea breeze blew against his dark brown hair.  To my pleasure and surprise, he turned back to me and said, “Do you want to go for a walk, or something?”

            “Sure,” I said right away, embarrassed by my blatant eagerness.  He smirked and brought himself to his feet while I did the same.

            “Thank you for staying with me last night,” I blurted out as we started walking to the shore line.  “I feel terrible�"I must be such a pain with all these stupid visions all the time.”

            “Sophia, you don’t have to apologize,” Owen groaned in mild exasperation. “If you were truly so annoying that we wolves wanted to risk our fate by getting rid of you, we would have done so already.”

            The wet sand squished between my toes, and water rushed in to greet our feet as we walked along adjacently.

            I had nothing to say.

            “It’ll get stronger, you know,” he continued in his husky voice. “Your powers, I mean.  I’ve heard so much about it.  Things we’ll start to…just happen.”

            “Things will start to happen?” I repeated sarcastically with some sort of laugh.  “What, as opposed to the strange things that aren’t happening right now?”

            Owen just gave me a look.  “Trust me; it’ll get a lot more…intense.  You’ll see.”

            I sighed heavily, quickening my footsteps in the sand unconsciously as I chewed on those words.

            Owen wrapped his fingers around my small forearm, tugging me backwards towards him. “But you know I’ll be there for you, every step of the way.”  His piercing sharp, gray eyes were icy yet blazing even hotter than the sun glaring down upon us.

            For a moment, I thought he was going to pull me in even closer.  For a moment, I was hoping for nothing else than him to jerk me into his strong, defined arms and kiss me passionately like he had a few weeks ago in the Andrews’ home on that stormy night.  That’s what the look in his eyes was suggesting to me, at least.

            Just then, I heard another voice cut in and break me from my day dream.

            “Sophia!  Is that you?”

            My heart stopped.  Not in a good way, but more so in utter shock.  Oh no, I thought before I even turned around to see who was there.  Because I already knew.

            “Soph?  Wow, I can’t believe it!”

            Spinning around, I came face to face with none other than thee Brady Palmer, wearing navy blue swim trunks and an orange life preserver strapped over his shoulder.

            I stuttered a few unrecognizable phrases before I managed to croak out an awkward “Hello.”

            Owen dropped hold of my wrist at once.

            “Wow,” Brady said with a nice laugh, and a bright, dimply smile that would probably melt the heart of any other teenaged girl who didn’t know him as well as I did.  He ran his tan fingers through his blonde spiky hair, which was even lighter now due to the sun. “I’m so happy to see you!  How are you?  What brings you down here?”

            I paused for a moment in disbelief, looking from one emerald green eye to the other before I could gather up a response.  Was this a hallucination? “I’m on vacation, remember?”  I said more confidently than I felt.  “Wha-What are you doing here?”

            “I’m working here as a lifeguard,” Brady said right away, raising his dark eyebrows up quickly.  “My aunt lives up here, and she got me the connection, since life guards were desperately needed on this beach.”

            “Oh…” I mumbled, starring at him, sadly embarrassed that the smile on my face was no where as honest or genuine as the grin on his own.  “So I take it you’re feeling better then?  If you’re fit enough to be lifeguarding…”

            “Well…they don’t know I was in the hospital,” Brady admitted, as he kicked at the chilly water rolling in around us. “But I’m perfectly fine.  I bounce back fast.”

            I smiled, feeling more and more uncomfortable while Owen’s stance tightened next to me, as Brady’s eyes finally landed on him.

            “I see you’re still tagging along with your hound dog, here,” Brady commented with certain acidity in his tone.

            Owen’s nostrils flared and a low grumble came from his throat.  His pale blue eyes were no long tender as they were a moment before, and instead were dark and threatening.  Brady’s face was smug.

            “Not so weak and defenseless now, are we Palmer?”  Owen snapped. “Amazing what a hospital release can do to a person’s ego.  Or rather, you’re ego.”

            Brady took a step forward, but I interfered, pressing a hand against each of their firm chests.

            “Stop,” was all I said as I looked back and forth at the two gorgeous faces.

            “It’s okay, Soph.  I’ll be good, I promise,” Brady said, reaching up and touching my hand, which was still holding him back, although his eyes were still locked on Owen’s.  “But hey listen, I’ll be back to school soon, and I won’t have to work as much.  So if you want to hang out, you got my digits.  Just hit me up.”

            I wasn’t sure what would be the proper response to say while Owen was still in my presence, but I said, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

            A look of alarm flashed in Brady’s eyes, and then he said, “You let me know when you finally shake that watch dog of yours, then I can show you a good time.” It sounded like more of a threat than a proposal. “I got to get back to work.  See you later.”

            As he left, and I turned back to face Owen, I noticed he was already storming off in the opposite direction, hands in his black surf trunks pockets.  I raced to catch up with him, this time grabbing his arms and boldly locking mine through his own.

            “Don’t let him get to you,” I said hastily, seeing the stern look upon his face, affecting his beautiful eyes and creasing his eyebrows.

            “Let him get to me?” Owen laughed out loud. “Why would I ever let scum like Brady make me feel bad?  I saved that punk’s a*s last week.  I can’t believe you still even talk to him.”

            “Are you kidding me?  Do you think I actually planned on meeting him here?” I said incredulously. “I was just as surprised to see him as you were.  I thought he’d be in the hospital for a while�"I at least thought he’d be confined to his bed for a few weeks.”

            “Yeah, well.  Looks like that wasn’t the case,” Owen sort of snapped at me.  I starred at him in total disbelief.  It was so hard to have a conversation with him anymore, except for when it was just the two of us in the middle of the night, and he was comforting me from my nightmares.  “And I’m sure you’re just dying to go for the good time he wants to show you.  The last time you did that you almost died, but hey, you seem to enjoy the thrill of it all.”

            “Stop,” I hissed as we approached the beach blanket, where Mariellen and Isaac were now sitting with a bucket full of seashells.

            “Hey guys!” Mariellen said in her usual cheery tone, then noticing both of our distressed expressions, frowned herself, and asked “What’s the matter?”

            I was so frustrated, so disappointed with how the day was turning out.  I was so unbelievably steamed that I let Brady Palmer ruin yet another one of my days.

            “Nothing,” I said, forcing a smile.  I sat down on my blanket for a while, closing my eyes and trying to catch some sun. 

After sitting there silently for a long while, gritting my teeth together as I replayed the event that just occurred again and again in my mind, I lifted myself up on my forearms and said, “I want to go back now.  I’ve had too much sun, I think.”

            Both Isaac and Mariellen exchanged perplexed expressions, and then looked at me.  I noticed Owen look up quickly towards me from the corner of my eye.  I met his glance, which was now concerned and gentle once more.

            “I’ll take her back,” he suggested softly, although he was still looking at me when he said it, instead of directing this towards Mariellen and Isaac.

            “Well…Okay then,” Isaac said from under the rainbow striped beach umbrella. “But take this bucket of shells back with you.  We’ll have enough to carry besides a 40 pound bucket of broken and washed out sea shells.”

            Mariellen pinched her lips at him, and then said, “We’ll meet you guys back there in a little then.  We all can go out to dinner.  How about that?”

            “Alright, sounds good,” I complied, eager to go along with anything that would get me off a beach were Brady and Owen coincided at the same exact time.

            Owen put his black beater back on over his head, took the purple bucket of shells for Isaac, and then we were on our way back across the hot, desert like sand, which unfortunately was even hotter now than it was in the early morning.

            By the time we reached the sidewalk, I probably had about twenty or so blisters, but I tried my best to suck it up, so as to not complain anymore in front of Owen.

            We didn’t talk the rest of the way to the house, or even that much when we made it back inside, and the cool air conditioning formed goose bumps on my bare and damp skin.  Although, he did repeatedly open his mouth again and again like a fish, as though there was something he wanted to say but thought better of it.

            I was waiting expectantly for him to say something as the two of us stood in the bright, open kitchen facing one another from across the island counter.

            He was playing with one of the kitchen knives, and I noticed the grip he held on the sharp blade was becoming stronger and stronger, as he stared fixedly at the stainless steel tea kettle on the stove.

            Suddenly he gasped out, and I looked up to see the blade had dug into his palm, brilliant red blood draining quickly from the wound all over the blade and the white kitchen counter.  His eyes were no longer his brilliant gray/blue, but instead an eerie halcyon gold color, like ember pits with a single small never-ending black hole of a pupil.  His razor sharp canine fangs were exposed and just touching his plump bottom lip, as he squeezed his injured hand and cocked his head back, howling in pain.

            It was funny, but it took me that long to realize I was in the house of wolves.

            I waited a moment, watching him rush to the kitchen sink, stick his hand in the basin and turn on the faucet at full blast, letting the blood drain down the sink.  Moving around the counter, I made a grab for the paper towels, until he snapped “I’ll clean up that mess�"do not touch it.”

            Backing away in understanding, I made my way for the stairs by the front door. “I’m going up to get a shower,” I informed him.  “I’ll be back down in a little while.”  He didn’t really respond, but I took the sound of the continuous running sink water as my cue to leave.

             As I stood in the shower (my bathing suit still on), I could feel the millions of grains of sand sliding off my skin, rinsing down the drain as I continued to scrub with the strawberry potion body wash.  I quickly tried to process why Owen could have been acting so strange.  He had been fine just this morning�"Brady’s presence couldn’t really have been enough to send him so far over the edge…could it have? 

The strawberry aroma quickly filled the tiny bathroom, causing my allergies to perk up.  I sneezed several times in a row, just before I heard the bathroom door click open.

            “Sophia?”

            It was Owen’s voice, sounding very cautious.

            I dropped the heavy container of body wash to the bottom of the tub with a disconcerting thud as my heart beat quickened at the cue of his voice.

            “Uh, yeah?” I said back to his remark.  There was silence on the other side of the shower curtain, and I debated pulling it back slightly so I could peer out to see him, or possibly even just shut the water off.

            He mumbled something I couldn’t hear.

            “What?” My voice shook slightly.

            “I, I need to tell you something.  Real quick.”

            I lifted my jittery hand and shut the water off, so that I was standing, facing the closed curtain with goose-bump covered arms and legs.

            “Yeah?” I repeated with chattering teeth.

            The curtain was pulled back so quickly I didn’t have enough time to blink.  And instead of looking at the inside of the shower curtain, I was now face to face with Owen.

            “Sophia, I… I,” he started speaking before I could even throw a hand to my speeding heart.  His gray/blue eyes were avoiding my own, but he was not staring at my wet, bikini clad body.  “I need you to know something…”

            He casually lifted his arm up to hang over the shower rod, although his voice was anything but casual.  In a way, it seemed as though the tempo of his voice was racing against his mind and how fast he could process the words, like he thought he didn’t have much time left to explain himself.  The anxiety grew within my stomach as well as his deep, fluid voice continued struggling for the words.   I watched as his dark eyebrows, now with the somehow attractive white scar through the edge of it, knitted together uneasily.

            “No matter what happens�"no matter what , I just want you to know that… that I never�"”

            Just then the laughter of Mariellen, Isaac, Tyler, and Blaise entered through the foyer downstairs, announcing their arrival back home.

            Owen pulled away at once, the muscles in his chest flexing as he heaved in immensely, walking backwards out of the room with a discontented look on his angel-like face, closing the door as he went.

            Numb, I stood gawking at the panels on the back of the bathroom door.  What had just happened?  What could he have wanted to tell me that was so secret he couldn’t take the slightest bit of effort to spill it out before the rest of the gang climbed the stairs?  And what a sight would that have been.  To see me standing inside the shower with Owen peeking through the curtain.  No wonder he ran when he could.

            I was beginning to think there was even more of a mystery surrounding Owen and myself than I had originally thought.  And maybe all the clues in the world wouldn’t be able to help me solve the case, this time.

Reviews

[Jess.]

Super good! I can barely wait to read on! :)