Werewolf Prologue

Prologue

I kiss him softly on the lips and press my body against his, feeling us sink into the couch as our kissing becomes more passionate. I rub my hands over his chest, taking in the fact that he’s all mine. I break our kiss to nibble at his ear.

“Lucas, you promised you weren’t going to follow me.” I whisper to him with a gentle voice.

“I know, Charlie, I know. I just missed you so much. You seem to hardly ever have time for me anymore.” He kisses just below my ear and nuzzles against my neck.

I pull away from him slightly and cup his face in my hands, staring into his gorgeous green eyes.

“Lucas, I know you miss me, but sometimes I need to distance myself to protect you. What would you have done if Blake hadn’t just punched you? What if he would’ve had a knife on him or if he had changed?” I pull my boyfriend to my chest and wrap my arms tightly around him. I close my eyes, attempting to get all those horrific images out of mind. “I’m trying to protect you, but sometimes you make it so hard for me to do that.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.” He leans his head farther into me and tightens his grip around my waist. I take a deep breath to relax a little, but can’t seem to calm my nerves. Something just doesn’t feel right. He whispers in my ear, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I smile and rest my head against his.

A few seconds later, I hear a couple soft thuds, almost like footsteps, from another room. I lift my head and look down the hallway, but don’t see anything in the darkness. Every one of my senses is on high alert as my eyes scan wildly, looking for any sign that someone else might be in this house with us. Unsatisfied with my view from the couch, I get up and strain my ears to hear something. I turn my head slightly to one side and try to focus on every little noise I hear. There’s the fridge running, a car driving by on the street, the neighbor’s dog barking, a low hum from the box fan in the window, but nothing that should be sending me into high alert like this.

“What is it?” Lucas leans forward on the edge of the couch and reaches an arm around my waist. “What’s wrong, babe?

“I don’t know. I have a weird feeling. Something isn’t right.” I glance around one more time before bending down to kiss him, pressing him into the soft cushions of the couch again. I feel him smile as I leave trail of kisses along his jawline.

I hear three more thuds, this time closer and a little louder. I sit up and take a scan of the room, but still don’t see anything out of place. I stand up and cautiously walk into the dining room, being very careful to not set foot on any squeaky boards. I stop next to my mother's china cabinet and listen again. More thuds, but I still can’t tell where they’re coming from.

“Babe, what is it?” Lucas leans over the arm of the couch to see me, but I hold a hand up, telling him to stay there. I raise one finger to my lips, motioning for him to be quiet.

I walk around in the dining room a little more and see a shadow disappear down the hall. I take a few quick steps to follow. Once I’m out in our main hallway, my eyes flit around, searching for any direction the mysterious shadowy figure could’ve gone. The hall breaks off into the dining room, the living room, the staircase, and at the back of the house, the kitchen. I just came from the dining room, Lucas is still in the living room, and I don’t hear anything from the kitchen so I start towards the stairs, which seems to be the only option left.

“Charlie!” Panic rises in Lucas’s voice and all the horrible nightmares I’ve imagined about dangerous situations he could be in because of me come flooding into my mind.

I shake my head, willing them to go away, and bolt back to the living room where I’d left him on the couch.

A beautiful red-headed woman sits beside him, stroking a long filed nail down the side of his face. Lucas turns his head away from her, trembling and wringing his hands.

I swallow hard, bracing myself to confront this demon from my past, a demon I wish I didn’t have to remember. I know to handle this situation gently; this woman is a killing machine and the situation could very easily turn deadly.

“Kris. Long time, no see.” My voice waivers slightly, but I try my hardest to not sound weak or pathetic. Like my dad always says, your enemies feed on your weaknesses, and I do not want her to know how truly terrified I am to be facing her alone, without any help from the pack.

“Hello Charlie.” She barely glances my direction before turning her attention back to Lucas. “This boyfriend of yours really is a pretty little thing. Aren’t you, sweetheart?” She purrs into his ear. Lucas tries to pull away from her, but she pulls him back in.

“What do you want, Kris?” I snarl at her.

“I just thought I’d drop by and see the one everyone’s been talking about so much.” She traces her hand down the side of Lucas’s face to his neck, digging her nails into his skin. He groans softly as her nails leave deep imprints on his neck.

“You are not welcome here.” I growl.  “It would be best if you leave now.”

“He really is adorable, Charlie, too bad he isn’t one of us. It’s truly a shame.” She continues as if she hadn’t even heard me. She grabs his face, wrapping her hand hard around his jaw. Her nails dig so hard into his cheek that he starts to bleed. Lucas violently shakes his head, trying to get her to let go but she only holds on tighter. “He knows all about us though, doesn’t he? He knows our little secret. But he’s not part of the pack, which means you broke one of our laws and your little ‘boyfriend’ has to die.”

Lucas opens his jaw and sinks his top teeth into Kris’s hand. She yelps in pain and lets go so she can hold her injured hand. He gets up, but as quickly as she let go before, Kris grabs him by the hair and yanks him back onto the couch. He cries out in pain as she shoves him into the couch with all her strength. She positions her hands on his head so with a slight turn on her wrists she can break his neck and kill him instantly. “I thought I was going to hate killing you, but not anymore, you little b*****d.”

Without thinking, I rush toward them. “Back off, Kris. It isn’t your place to decide who lives or dies.”

“One more step, Charlier and I will snap his neck.” She readies her hands and starts to turn his head; I step back quickly and hate myself for being so helpless right now. The woman I hate most of all is moments from taking away the man I love most in this world, and I have no way of stopping her. She has the upper hand and I literally have nothing.

This situation is exactly what I’ve been trying to avoid for the past year. I feel my anger start to bubble and swell inside. It grows with every second she still has her hands in a position to take him away from me. All this time, I thought I was protecting him, but I’ve failed. Kris just waltzed her way back into my life, literally into my house, with full intention of hurting me and the people I love. My nails dig into my palms as my hands ball into fists out of anger. My entire body feels hot and my face gets red and flushed.

Before I entirely know what I’m doing, I take a few running steps and launch myself at her, transforming into the beast I am in midair.

My forelegs crash into her shoulders and send her flying off the couch. Luckily, I caught her off guard so I have a bit of an advantage. I jump on her, in her changed form, and use every ounce of anger and energy I have to attack her.

Claws and teeth snap as we each fight for the upper hand. I sink my teeth into the spot where her shoulder meets her neck and latch myself on. She violently twists and turns, trying to throw me off, but only manages to injure herself more as I claw at her body with every turn she takes. She stops twisting and tries to shove me off with her forelegs, but I brace my back feet against her body letting my nails leave long open cuts from her chest to her waist. I suddenly open my jaw and kick hard with my back legs to get her away from me; she flies into the bookshelf behind her, completely destroying it.

The fight’s over and she lays injured in the ruined shelf, begging me for mercy. I change back to my human form and grab her by the scruff of the neck. I drag her heavy werewolf a*s to the front door and throw her outside. As she changes back to human form and limps away, I yell to her from the doorway.

“If you ever touch him again, if you ever threaten or hurt him, I will hunt you down and kill you, Kris.” With that, I slam the door shut and head back to the living room.

Lucas is laying with his head on the arm of the couch. There’s a deep bite mark on the side of his neck and blood is flowing from the open wound. Kris must’ve done it before I’d gotten her away from him.

I fall to his side and press my hand against his neck to stop the bleeding. The blood seeps over my fingers, covering my hand. I rip a small piece of fabric off the bottom of my shirt and press it against the wound, but that doesn’t help much either.

“Lucas? Lucas, please talk to me.” With my clean hand, I hold his face up and try to get him to open his eyes. He doesn’t respond and I start to panic. “Please. Please open your eyes. I’m so sorry this happened. Please, please, please be okay.”

I shake his body, but he still doesn’t open his eyes.

Not knowing what else to do, I call Blake.

“Hello?” He answers.

“Blake, it’s Charlie. How long will it take you to get to my house?” I ask urgently, trying to keep my voice steady enough for him to understand.

“About 10 minutes. Why? Did something happen?”

“Yes, Kris happened.”

“I’m on my way.”

After I hang up, I turn back to Lucas. He starts whimpering and shaking, so I at least know he isn’t dead. I pull his body against me and stand up, lifting him into my arms to bring him upstairs to my room. I lay him on the bed and sit next to him, still keeping pressure on the bite mark.

As soon as Blake gets here, we rush up to my room where Lucas is writhing on the bed and crying out in pain. Blake kicks me out so he can work on healing him. I head downstairs and sit on the couch while I wait for him to come back for me.

This is so typical. Blake is the healer of our pack, which basically means he’s a doctor with less certification. He can treat just about any illness or wound, but he always has to be alone with the person he’s healing. He says it’s so he can focus all the energy on that person instead of on the friends or family members that are with them, but honestly I think he just gets overwhelmed by people. He’s one of the leaders of the pack, but strangely he’s introverted and can’t really handle being around people for very long, especially when he has to concentrate on something.

I turn and survey the damage done to the living room from my fight with Kris. The bookshelf is in pieces and my parents’ books are scattered all over the floor. There’s blood on the couch and randomly spotted throughout the room. I sigh deeply. Well now I know what I’m doing all night, I think to myself.

I head to the kitchen to get some cleaning supplies and get to work on putting our living room back together while I wait for Blake.

An hour or so later, Blakes slowly comes down the stairs, wiping blood off his hands with a towel. He sees me sitting on the couch and comes over to sit next to me. From the way he sits so silently, I can tell he’s about to tell me something I don’t want to hear.

“Charlie,” he begins cautiously, “I have some bad news.”

Reviews

[Conjurer]

I have to admit I'm not much of a werewolf stories reader, but your writing really flows.
Blake seems like an interesting guy.
Near the end, I think it'd make more sense to make Charlie more worried about her boyfriend's condition, rather than about cleaning. It will also increase the tension towards the ominous ending.
Good luck!

[Trouble]

Really good, a good way to build the anticipation! Well done, I will definitely keep reading!

[Lyanth]

Nice writing style, very to the point and packed with action, but leaves a lot to the readers imagination.
A bit more description would be nice. Just a bit, you can also overdo it. (I tend to sometimes.) Thank you for sharing.

[Onlyme]

A flawless read and very believable to boot. Looking forward to reading the next chapter.

[barleygirl]

As Conjurer mentions (below), I'm also not much of a reader of this type of fantasy story. You have lots of dynamic action & attitude, but I'm a person who dislikes violence intensely. I would not pick up such a book to read & I cannot promise to finish your book or write anything useful as a review. But as far as I've gone in reading this, your writing is top-notch. It's hardly the kind of work I usually see here at the cafe, so I'm not finding any place to sink in my teeth (I always try to find at least SOME kind of suggestion!) Alas, your story reads like a professional storyteller with a mastery of the mechanics of writing . . . Fondly, Margie

[Naomi Wicks]

I really enjoyed this! You've got a great writing style, and while do I agree with another comment - that Charlie may be worried about her boyfriend instead of cleaning - I do think when people are helpless they find something to occupy themselves with. So perhaps the "Blake kicks me out so he can work on healing him." can involve a bit more of a protest on Charlie's part? Perhaps she can argue, realise the delay could kill Lucas, leaves defeated and then cleans to keep herself from storming back in on Blake and demanding to know how things are. Certainly she ought to be feeling tortured she's not allowed to interfere and this could reflect in the way she cleans. Is she angry cleaning? Tearful? Does she have moments where she actually wants to trash more of the room in heartache because Lucas could die?
I ask these things because I genuinely think Charlie sounds like a compelling and interesting character - I'm definitely moving onto your next chapter!

[Graham Plantagenet]

Nice :)
You write very well

[wordman]

this is a great story,i enjoyed it