Werewolf Chapter 2

A Story by RayLynn

Chapter 2

I wake the next morning feeling… well, honestly, the only word that comes to my mind to describe this feeling is giddy. As quirky and weird as that sounds, it somehow fits perfectly with my mood this morning.

I get out of bed to get dressed. As I start rifling through my closet, my eyes catch a glimpse of something bold and bright: a striped yellow shirt I haven’t worn in at least a year. Yellow seems giddy, so I throw it on with my favorite pair of jeans. I stand in front of my mirror and keep doing and redoing my hair. I can’t decide how I should wear it today. Just as I decide on a high ponytail and start pulling the stray strands up, my mom knocks on my bedroom door and pokes her head in.

“Charlie, don’t forget, council meeting today. I’m picking you up from school at noon.”

I groan loudly. I had forgotten all about the counsel meeting and honestly, I really didn’t want to miss half a school day, especially not today. “Do I have to go?”

Mom steps into my room. “Yes, you have to go. You’re part of this family and this pack, and you need to be there.” She walks over to me and straightens the ponytail on top of my head. “Now, hurry up and finish getting ready, or you’ll be late for school.”

*******

In my morning classes, time seems to slowly crawl by until finally it’s noon and I can go to the main office to be picked up. Today was the worst day of the week so far, granted it’s only Wednesday, but still. The first bad thing, Lucas wasn’t at school today. He’s in band and they had a field trip today so they left before first hour even started. They had an ensemble thing going on at a local university so they could be part of an actual college band or a day. He was texting me all morning whenever he had breaks, or at least most of the morning. During fourth hour, the teacher caught me with my phone out and took it from me. So for the last 40 or so minutes, I’d been watching the clock tick down the time until class ended. At the end of class, I went to talk to the teacher and after explaining for the third time that I was leaving school early and needed my phone back, he finally handed it over and I made my way to the main office.

After signing out with the secretary, I head outside to mom’s car and see that my seat has already been taken. Jayden sits in the front seat with his feet propped up on the dash so I climb in the back.

“About time. What took you so long?” Jayden says, turning in his seat and tilting his sunglasses down to look at me.

“Oh, I’m ,princess. Did I keep you waiting?” I say sarcastically, buckling my seatbelt as my mom pulls out of the school driveway and into traffic.

“Yes, you did.” He smiles back at me. “Ready for the counsel meeting today?”

“Hmm, by counsel meeting do you mean ‘useless gathering of old people to discuss irrelevant topics?’”

“Charlie!” My mom scolds as she turns down the road that leads to David’s house.

“What?”

My mom doesn’t answer and instead drives on in silence until we park. The three of us get out and walk up to the front door. Margaret meets us there and greets all of us with warm hugs.

“Please come in, everyone’s here already.” As we walk into the entryway, she gestures to the living room. We take off our shoes and join the circle that’s already formed. I take a seat next to my older brother, Alex, and Jayden sits on my other side.

Looking around the circle, I recognize most of the people from previous meetings and get togethers, but there’s a few I don’t know. I see Blake in his usual place, at the head of the circle, with his wife, Rosa, seated beside him. Continuing to the right, there’s my mom and dad, my other brother Jonathan, David and Margaret, then Jayden, me, Alex, and to our left is Xavier, Nick, two older men I don’t know, and lastly Rick and Amy.

I lean over to Alex. “Hey, where’s Kris?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s busy or sick or something.” He shrugs and focuses his attention to Blake, who’s trying to begin the meeting.

“I’d like to start by thanking all of you for coming out here today and making it to this month’s meeting.” Blake stands as he begins addressing the group. “I’ll get started with the business right away so I don’t waste any more of your time than I have to.”

“In case you haven’t noticed already, Kris is not here and will not be joining us. She is no longer part of our pack.” There are several shocked gasps, including ones from Alex and I. We turn to look at each other, both of us confused. I turn my head back to the circle and notice the majority of the pack is in disbelief.

“She has been banished and no contact with her is permitted for any member of this pack.” A burst of angry protests breaks out as people demand to know what happened and why such harsh conditions have been put in place. Blake raises a single hand to calm the group and we all fall silent.

“She fed on a human last night. She’s broken our code and is no longer welcome here. She is a danger to each of us and our kind; I strongly caution you to be careful if you ever find yourself in her presence, whether you’re with others or alone.”

“That’s a load of s**t, Blake!” Nick stands and points an accusing finger at him. “You know she wouldn’t do that!”

“I never thought she would, but she has.” Blake says with disappointment coating his smooth voice. “Now, onto the next order of business. I’m sending a group out hunting tonight, so I need six of you to volunteer to go.”

Both my brothers’ hands shoot into the air, followed by Amy, Margaret, and then Jayden.

Blake does a quick mental count and notices he’s missing someone. “One more person needs to volunteer.”

I slowly raise my hand and suddenly my plans for the night are a whole lot different than when I walked in the door.

*******

Out in the woods is the one place I actually feel alive. Everything is so real and bright out here. The trees seem to ever expand to the sky, the grass is soft and dewy beneath my feet, the birds sing as they flutter from tree to tree, the setting sun casts strangely disproportionate shadows along the ground. I feel so at peace. Or as peaceful as it can be when half a pack of werewolves is trekking through the woods. Despite the fact that I’m only walking with Amy to get to the meeting place, I can hear the others somewhere near us, being about as subtle as a hurricane. Typical.

“So, are you excited for your first hunt?” Amy asks as we start heading down a steep hill.

“Kind of. I’m not exactly sure what to expect.” I say. That’s actually a lie. I have an entire scene already made up in my mind of how amazing this first hunt will be. I can just picture myself running at full speed to catch up to and take down a doe that’s not quite fast enough to get away. The way my paws dig into the Earth as I can even closer to my prey and how my claws will lash out as my body will crash into hers. Okay, so maybe this is some romanticized version of how the night will go, but I can dream.

“Don’t worry. It’s not so bad. We mostly just go after deer, occasionally it’s bears, but I don’t think that’ll be tonight.” She stops for minute to get a water bottle out of her bag. She takes a long drink then wipes her forehead with the back of her hand. “God, it’s hot out here.”

“Yeah it is.” I say, a little out of breath and thirsty, myself. I grab my own bottle and drink some too. “So if we only hunt deer, why did Blake need six of us?”

Amy shrugs. “We don’t really need six, but this way we can split up into teams of two or three and hunt faster.”

We begin walking again and at the bottom of the hill, we take a right to get to the river. Before we even round the bend the leads to the water, I can hear the others. My brothers’ voices especially stand out as they argue with each other. Amy and I approach the group and go stand near Margaret.

“I should be one of the team leaders, I’m older!” Jonathan says.

“No, I should be because I go to more meetings and I always go on hunts with the group!” Alex argues back.

“How long have they been arguing?” Amy asks Margaret, nodding her head toward my two psychotic brothers.

Margaret glances down at her watch. “It’s been a little more than 15 minutes now. They’ve just been going steady the whole time too, they’re both quite witty.”

I laugh so hard I nearly snort. The idea of either of those two being witty is so beyond me. Once I catch my breath, I ask, “should we tell them they’re both going to be team leaders for tonight?”

“I suppose we probably should.” Margaret sighs as the three of us turn to watch them.

“Are we going to?”

“No.” Margaret laughs for a minute then shakes her head and goes up to my brothers. She pushes them away from each other. “Boys, you’re both leaders tonight, so stop arguing.”

Just then Jayden comes out from the treeline. “Yeah guys, I could hear you from like a mile away.”

“Okay now that everyone’s here, we can split off into teams. Let’s do teams of three.” Margaret says.

“I get to pick first.” Alex exclaims as he pushes Jonathan away. “I choose Margaret.”

“Jayden.” Jonathan chooses.

Alex pauses, looking between me and Amy. He rubs his hands together in front of his face before making his choice. “I’m going to go with Amy.”

“Alright, little sis, I guess you’re with me then.” Jonathan smiles.

“Okay guys, we’re going to meet back here at 9. That gives us an hour and a half for each team to hunt down as many deer as they can, is that enough time for everyone?” Margaret says.

“Let’s do 9:30 instead, that’ll give us just a little more time. Plus then we might be able to make some trips up to the trucks before we meet.” Jonathan says.

“Alright, 9:30 it is. Everyone keep your phones on in case anything happens.” Margaret sets an alarm on her phone. Alex motions for their team to start heading down river and Margaret turns to follow. “Happy hunting.”

“Sounds good, see you guys in a couple hours. Come on, let’s go.” Jonathan turns and leads me and Jayden off into the trees.

*******

Being out here in the woods makes me feel so alive. Running and dodging between the trees has my heart pounding and my breath coming in short gasps.

On my right hand side, Jayden is running at an even pace with me. Occasionally, he trips up on a tree root and falls behind, but for the most part we stay together for the entire run. Once we reach the edge of the treeline, we both slow to a stop and try to catch our breath. I crouch down behind the tall grass and pull him down with me.

“What are you doing?” He asks as he tries to stand back up. “There’s three of them right over there by that pond.”

“Yeah, and they can hear you right now, dipshit.” I pull him down hard so he’s sitting on the muddy ground. “We need a plan before we just run in there, fangs bared.”

I move a couple pieces of the grass out of the way and peak out at the three large does all standing around by the pond. One of them bends her head down to the water to drink and the others roam around, grazing on the last of the summer grass. I survey the surroundings, trying to formulate some kind of plan in my head.

“Alright. Here’s what I think we should do.” I turn to Jayden. “I think one of us should come across from this spot and the other should sneak around through the trees to attack from the side next to the pond. The deer that’s drinking will probably get scared when she hears something in the trees, so she’ll take off in the other direction and right into our trap.”

“Wait, so the plan basically, is to scare the deer away from one area and straight toward the spot the other person is waiting?”

“Yes. It’s easier to work as a team than to randomly try to chase down all three. And while one of us is after the one deer, the other could chase down a different one.”

“You know, if Jonathan had stayed with us, there would have been three of us for three different deer and this wouldn’t be an issue.” Jayden shrugs. “I’m just saying.”

“I know. But Jonathan has his own way of doing things. Trust me, he’s annoying to hunt with.” I peak out at the deer again and see that they’re all relatively in the same spots as before. “Okay, I’ll sneak around through the trees and come across by the pond. Wait here until you see her start to turn and then start running.”

“Alright. Good luck, princess. You got this.” Jayden gives me a fist bump as I make my way past him.

I walk quickly, careful not to run full speed so the deer won’t hear me yet. About halfway around the clearing, I run into a mess of bushes and short plants that make it really difficult to walk through. With the first step in, I feel thorns and something prickly touching my legs. I look down and see that the plants come up close to my knee and wonder how I’m going to get around them. I take my foot back out, deciding it’s a disaster waiting to happen if I keep trekking through them. Off to the right, the bushes continue for a good 30 feet before the landscape changes back to just trees. I don’t really have time to head that far out of my way and loop around. To the left, the bushes extend right up the tree line and stop just before the clearing. I can’t really go that way either and risk being seen or heard by our prey.

I turn back to look behind me and see Jayden crouching down, waiting to run after the deer. Glancing out at the clearing again, I see that the deer have moved a little and the one that was drinking from the pond is now closer to the center of the clearing and a lot closer to where Jayden and I are.

I decide to sneak out of the trees and run quickly through the edge of the clearing to make it around the bushes. I step out into the light from the setting sun and take a few hesitant steps. Two of the deer stop and look up, their ears twitching as they try to listen. I stop moving and stand as still as I possibly can. After a few seconds, they go back to eating and pay no attention to me. I turn back and see Jayden motioning for me to go for the deer from where I am now instead of going all the way around to the pond. I nod to him before walking straight into the clearing.

The deer look up in alarm as I walk quickly toward them. They all take off the direction opposite of where I came from and I start running to catch up. Suddenly, Jayden bolts from the trees and catches them off guard from the side. He takes down one of them and I pick up the pace to catch one of the others. We reach the end of the clearing and they bound off into the trees. I don’t hesitate for a second, racing after them.

One of them slows down a little and I think I have the perfect chance to attack, but as soon as I launch myself toward her, she speeds up and I’m left with a face full of dirt. Frustrated, I growl and pull myself up off the ground. I get a running start and stay close on their tail as we weave our way through the maze of trees. I hear water raging nearby and know they’re probably trying to get across the river to lose me. I feel myself start to get angrier and my blood starts to boil. I growl loudly and push myself to run faster even though I can already feel the muscles in my legs straining. I look down and see that my claws have started to come in and my fingers are elongating.

Oh no, is all I have time to think before I’ve transformed into my full werewolf form and hit the ground running on all fours. The dirt being kicked up under my paws feels so good and the excitement of the chase gives me enough adrenaline to get past my normal running speed. Just before the clearing of the river, I see one of the deer about five feet ahead of me and I know I’m so close to taking her down. I nearly trip on a big slab of rock that seems to come out of nowhere but instead of falling, I run up on top of it and use it to launch myself through the air.

The world seems to stop suddenly and everything's in slow motion. It feels so surreal and dreamlike, the whole picture of this moment. With the deer down on the ground, darting back and forth in a little zigzag pattern, doing her best to outsmart her predator. And myself, stopped midai, claws outstretched to go in for the kill once I land. To someone on the outside, this would be an almost picture perfect moment.

But the moment passes and all the pandemonium of life begins again and my front paws make impact on the deer’s back. My claws dig into flesh and my open jaw goes in for a fatal bite. My teeth sink deep into her pulsating neck and I hold on even as we fall and tumble through the grass. The momentum of our fall keeps us tumbling out into the clearing by the river where I see that the other deer is making her way across.

“Charlie!” I hear Margaret exclaim. I see that we’re getting closer to the river, which I don’t want, but nothing matters in this exact moment except successfully killing my first deer. I bite down harder and feel the pulse starts to slow down and eventually stop. I let go of the deer and drop it on the bank as my body goes through one last tumble and lands me in the river. The icy water pours over me and the pure shock of it is enough to impair any movement of my body. I try to swim but my limbs feel so heavy, I can’t even lift them.

I see Margaret, Amy, and Alex all running toward the river.

“Get here out of there!” Margaret screams as she tries to keep pace with how fast the river is carrying me away.

“Alex! She’s heading for the falls!” Amy jumps into the river and swims across. She gets out on the other side and runs to keep up with me.

“Alex, do something!”

I feel my feet scrape the bottom of the riverbed and do my best to dig my claws into anything that might keep me from travelling farther down river. I know the waterfall is at least a good 200 feet or so from the clearing I was just at and figure they’ll catch me before I make it that far.

I see Alex stop by the bank and whip his jacket off before jumping head first into the river. He swims with the current and it doesn’t take long for him to get closer to me.

I hear water roaring in my ears and can’t tell if it’s just from the river itself or if I’m so close to the falls already that I can hear the water crashing over the rocks and falling off the 1,000 foot drop. I turn my head slightly and see that I’m only a body’s length away from the edge of the falls, and immediately panic spreads through my entire body.

With the amount of fear I’m suddenly feeling, I revert back to my human form and try to jam my feet against the rocks in the river bed to stop myself from drifting any further. The water splashes up around my face, making it difficult to see and breathe.

“Alex!” I scream and I try to reach an arm out to my older brother.

“Hang on, Charlie!” He swims harder and reaches out a hand to me. I try to take it, but my arms are so cold they can hardly move still.

“I can’t move my arms!” I yell over the roaring of the water. Suddenly, my feet aren’t touching the river bottom anymore and I feel my body start to tilt sideways and the water carries me over the edge.

“No!” Alex pushes himself forward and catches me by the collar of my shirt. His other hand wildly reaches out for anything along the bank that might stop us from going over the edge of the waterfall. He successfully gets a hold on a low hanging tree branch and tries to pull us back up.

“I can’t hold on much longer!”

“Alex!” Margaret races up the river bank and ducks under the tree branches. She bends down and reaches a hand out to Alex. “Take my hand!”

“I can’t! If I let go of the branch, we’ll both go over!” He yells.

“Trust me! I’ll pull you both up, but you have to let go of the branch to grab my hand!” Margaret reaches out again and leans a little further over the water.

Alex looks down at me and then back at Margaret before releasing his grip on the branch and reaching wildly for Margaret’s hand. She locks her hand in his and sits back on the river bank, away from the water. She keeps scooting herself back until Alex is partially out of the water and can sit on the bank himself. As soon as he’s sitting safely out of the water, Margaret reaches her hands out to me and helps Alex pull me up. All three of us collapse under the willow tree on the bank and lay there completely breathless.

Warmth starts slowly seeping back into my body now that I’m out of the icy water.

“What in the hell were you thinking, Charlie?”

“I couldn’t let that deer get away, I already chased her all the way across this forest.” I wring the water out of my hair and try to shake myself dry.

“It doesn’t matter if you were about to get a deer. You could’ve died!” Alex stands up and paces back and forth in front of me. “If Margaret hadn’t seen you go into the river, you’d be sitting at the bottom of the falls right now.”

“I’m fine, Alex. You got to me in time and I’m obviously okay. I’m sorry I fell into the river.”

“Charlie. You almost died! What am I supposed to tell mom and dad? That I almost lost you on your first hunt?” Alex turns and looks me in the eye. “Did you even think this through?”

“Alex. That is enough.” Margaret stands and pushes Alex away from the group. “She made a mistake, she apologized, she’s alright now. End of story.”

“Margaret, this is so much more than just a mistake. This was a matter of life and death,-”

“And she’s alive, Alexander. That’s what matters. And now that she’s safe again, why don’t you actually show her how much you care instead of being the a*****e to scold her while she’s still in shock.”

“Marga-”

“No. I won’t hear another excuse come out of your mouth. Now, go over that and make nice with your sister because I’m not hunting with you when you’re acting like you have a superiority complex.” Margaret points over to where I’m sitting.

Alex hangs his head slightly and shuffles his way back over to me.

“Hey Charlie, I’m really sorry for being an a*s to you.” He pushes at one of the tree roots with the toe of his shoe and refuses to make eye contact with me. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Charlie!” I hear someone yell my name from somewhere further down the bank and hear crashing footsteps as the person picks up their pace. Jayden appears from the shadows and comes running up to me. He wraps his arms tightly around me and picks me up off the ground. I put my arms around his neck and lean my head against him.

“God, I thought you were dead! Amy called me to tell me what was happening and I was so worried.” He gives me one last squeeze before setting me back down on the ground. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.” I laugh. “It was really scary, but I’m alright. And I didn’t let that deer get away, she’s lying further up the bank.”

Jayden laughs and wraps one of his arms around my shoulders as we walk back toward the clearing next to the river. “I see I taught you well.”

“Definitely. How much time do we have left?”

Jayden pulls his phone out of his pocket and checks the time. “We have about 45 minutes until we’re supposed to meet here again.”

I turn and smile at him. “Want to hunt down a couple more?”

He smiles back and nods. “Definitely. Let’s just get away from the river first, I don’t want you going for a swim again tonight.”

“Oh my god, it happened once.” I push him away from me and roll my eyes.

“I know, but you smell like wet dog and it’s kind of gross.” Jayden gives me a little push on the shoulder before running off into the trees.

“I do not smell like wet dog!” I laugh and run after him. I catch up right away and the two of us make our way deep into the woods, dodging under low hanging branches and stepping sideways around the trees. We run into the darkness, letting our animal senses guide us where no human could venture, and I wonder vaguely what kind of monsters might be lurking in these shadows.