Chapter Nineteen: Forbidden

FORBIDDEN

 

BY: J O S H U A  D O N A H U E

Chapter Nineteen

Forbidden

 

There was a deep thud, a piercing crack (quite possibly from his bones), and then some shuffling noise that acted as sound effects for when my fist met his jaw and he stumbled backwards. My face burnt with anger as I felt the heat of the sun slowly fade behind me for sundown.

I was now fully clothed. I had gone home and gotten my cell phone to tell Luke and Derek to meet me in a nearby field as I put on a t-shirt to cover up my chest and shoes for my feet. Then I had headed towards the field, not telling my mom where I was going and leaving my phone behind so I wouldn’t be disturbed by her bothersome calls. It was not too long ago when I had Summer held in my arms.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Derek hollered, blood dripping from the corner of his lip while he was kneeling on the ground, propped on one knee. His hand lightly touched it, examining the damage.

“You know why!” I roared to both he and Luke.

Luke was standing to the side of Derek now, showing that he was on his side -- which he was, after what he had done.

“What’s your damn problem, Evan?” Luke questioned.

“After the stunt you guys pulled, you have no right to ask me that! How the hell could you tell Summer to lie to me and say she never wanted to see me again so I would be pissed at her!? Huh?” My chest began to heave deeply as my intense fury increased. I could sense my muscles were already squeezing into fists ever so tightly as my eyes focused in on my enemies. I was passed anger now.

These guys pretended to be on my side the whole time, and then they go and do something like that?

“We did that for your own good, Evan!” Luke defended.

Derek jumped up from his kneeling position, and he swung at me. His fist clobbered into my cheek, and instant pain swelled up on a tooth as I felt it detach from my gum. I quickly spit the bloody solid onto the ground below me, ready to retaliate.

As I stepped forward, Luke tried to get between Derek and me in order to pry us apart, but I pushed him back out of it. If I could, I would have hit him too; but I could only take one at a time.

I instantly followed my natural instincts by morphing into a wolf. For the first time, when I morphed, my apparel shredded to bits from my body and fell around my wolf form. I had finally hit that growth spurt that made me a true werewolf, instead of a weakling of the pack. No longer was I that small pup still wearing human clothes. I was an adult-sized werewolf with chocolate-amber eyes, thick, golden-chestnut fur, sharp teeth, and finely-pointed claws. I was a subordinate now. I was competition.

Showing no notice to the ripping of my clothes, Derek imitated my actions by morphing himself. Luke stood at the sidelines, trying to show he was neutral when it came down to me or Derek, even though I already knew whose side he was on.

“You really want to do this, Evan?” Derek asked.

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here, would I?” I retorted.

“Very well. Just so you know, even though we are cousins, I won’t hold back. After all, I have more experience than you.”

“Don’t care.”

Then I rushed at him, extending my claws and ready to strike. When I swiped, however, he dodged it easily, proving his vast skills.

“Told you so,” he muttered.

I snorted through my muzzle in response.

I charged again. This time, I got my claws dug deep in his side, and I heard him wail. A part of me knew it was wrong to strike family, but he stopped acting family when he went behind my back!

Instead of running off wounded like I had expected, he instantly retailed with a vicious bite to my tail. I let loose a vociferous roar to expose my pain. It was like being stuck with finely-honed knives in the rear-end, only the pain continued because Derek did not let go.

Then Luke -- who appeared not to be able to handle the view before him -- jumped in as a wolf. He pried Derek’s mouth from my tail and pushed us apart. I tried striking Luke, but he was too good for me -- he dodged every attack.

“Get out of the way, Luke,” I said angrily. Luke was between my opponent and me now.

“Go ahead, Luke. Let him by. Let’s see what he can do,” Derek taunted.

“No,” Luke said firmly.

Derek wanted to get me as much I wanted to get him, I could tell. We both charged at Luke so he would not wish to be squashed by us and move out of the way. Thus, Luke rolled to the side, and Derek and I met head-on. I ended up putting several wounds down the side of his face, extending from his left eye.

Then, just as he was about to get his strike in on me, some fast, too-quick-for-the-eye, dark-colored object jumped on him. I was too caught up with what the object was that I did not realize that a similar object did the same to me, pinning my body to the ground.

I glanced to the side, and I saw that it wasn’t Luke who had us down.

“What do you two think you’re doing?” It was Daryl on top of me.

“Why are you fighting?” Trent was on top of Derek.

“Go ahead, Evan, tell ‘em,” Derek said.

I remained silent.

“Well?” Daryl persisted.

“Evan’s mad because Luke and I followed your orders by telling his trashy girlfriend to stay away from him,” Derek explained to them.

I felt Daryl’s grip loosen a smidge on me. Using my new advantage and allowing my anger to take full control, I suddenly struggled to get loose in order to snap Derek’s neck in half like a Twix; but I only managed to escape Daryl’s strong, iron grip for about a second before he slammed be back to the soil easily. My attempt ended futilely.

“You know it’s forbidden to see her, Evan!” Daryl exclaimed.

“I don’t care. Now, let me go!” I said back.

Daryl seemed to contemplate with the decision for a moment before he obeyed and released me slowly, as did Trent for Derek.

I wanted to attack Derek again for describing Summer as “trashy”, but there was no way I would get through both Trent and Daryl, who were still stronger than I was, regardless of my growth spurt. I was not only infuriated with Derek, but also at Trent and Derek for being the wizards behind the curtain, so to speak. It was all of their faults now. Damn them!

Trying with all my efforts to let it go, I walked over to where my clothes were, which was beside Luke, and morphed back into a human. I quickly put my tore clothes back on -- there remained enough of my shredded jeans to cover me up -- and I started to walk away.

Daryl must have transformed back too, because he then said in a human voice, “Evan, you are not allowed to see her again. Ever! And you will receive punishment for stealing the cure from Michael.”

I turned around to face them.

Derek must not have known I had stolen the cure from his younger brother until now because he tried to get past Trent to get at me. I waited to see if he would get loose, but Trent pinned him down again.

“I. Don’t. Care. I will continue to see her all that I want. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do to stop that. No matter what punishments you give me, I will still see her. So waste your breath all you want. I still don’t care. I will see her.”

Then I turned back around and walked away, leaving one angry wolf being restrained to the ground by another wolf, a human standing in the middle hollering at me like a lunatic while nude, and then another wolf standing on the sidelines watching it all like a show. The scene meant nothing to me now, however, as did the people in it. I could only count on myself, I realized. It was just me. Alone.

*     *     *

“Hey, Evan!” Michelle said as she entered my bedroom.

“Hey. What’s up?” I replied non-cheerfully while sitting on the pane of my open window, gazing out at Hale.

“Nothing much. My parents drug me over here once again. My dad needed to talk to your mom about something or another. Heck, if I know. Dude, you look like crap. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. Just a rough day at the office. Well, more like a rough week at the office. But it’s cool.”

“I see….Wanna talk about it?” she asked me as she sat herself on my bed for comfort.

“Nah. It’s a long story. Plus, you’d probably think I was nuts or something.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she joked.

Just to get in the friendly spirit and to change the subject, I said, “So you up for round two on Mortal Kombat?”

“Of course. But I’m sure I’m gonna kick your butt again.”

“Cocky are we?”

She laughed.

Right after we chose our fighting characters on my television screen, Patrick’s voice called from downstairs, “Michelle! Let’s go!”

“Darn. Well, looks like we’ll just have to reschedule your butt-kicking for another time then,” Michelle said to me.

“Alrighty then. Well, I guess I’ll see you later,” I said as I switched the game console off.

She started for the door, and when she got in the threshold, she turned her head to face me. “You know, if you ever wanna tell me about your ‘rough week at the office’ you can. I mean, all this adjustment and all has got to be hard for you.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Oh, and just for the record, Evan: I already think your nuts.” She smiled a cousinly smile after she spoke. “Well, bye!”

“Bye,” I replied.

Then she was gone, leaving me alone to stare at my television’s blue screen. I was thinking of what she had just said, about me being nuts. Maybe everything I had done was nuts. Maybe I had overreacted a little when I had attacked Derek the other day. Maybe…

Or maybe I was the right one, and they were all wrong.

I was confused right now.  Had I done something incredibly right or terribly wrong?

*     *     *

I received a note Friday (two weeks after I had hit Derek in the face) in school from Luke. This had shocked me for a moment or so because we hadn’t spoken at school for a while. And when I got the note without a spoken word, I found out it wasn’t really a note from Luke at all -- he was just the messenger. It was a note from Otis, in which he was explaining to me all five punishments that he was giving me.

1.      Extra training until told otherwise by Otis. I must stay within eyesight of my fellow werewolves when training, and I must follow every order given to me.

2.      Probation until told otherwise.

3.      No morphing anymore, unless in the presence of another pack member.

4.      A heartfelt apology to Derek.

5.      Stay away from Summer.

I was flabbergasted by such requests. They were, after all, requests to me, not orders, and I was going to treat them as such. Meaning, I would follow through with punishments one and two, but there was no way they were going to force me to remain human unless I had another pack member, and I most certainly was not planning on giving out a deep, heartfelt apology to Derek either. And also, I was not going to stay away from Summer. It was a tedious punishment I had heard so many times that the words appeared to have already gone out of style.

It didn’t matter though, because I was just not going to follow the rules again anyhow. Simple.

Regardless, I had received the note Friday and today was Sunday, and I had just gotten home. It was completely dark outside, because the time was about nine at night. The porch light was on and so was the kitchen’s glow, which meant my mother was still wide awake. When I walked into the door lazily, my mom looked up from her relentless cleaning and had a hint of worry attached to her face. Nevertheless, I looked the opposite way, and she understood that to mean I was not in the mood for her chit-chat at the moment.

I climbed the stairs to my bedroom two at a time and sudden exhaustion hit me. Otis had me going to training with Luke ever since Friday when I got the note. My legs were worn out, and my back ached severely. This was most likely his plan, after all.

I knew what I needed: to see Summer. I hadn’t seen her since I had given her the cure, so I was pretty much desperate to do anything to visit her. I was ready to lie down, of course, but my heart ached to see her face even more.

When I got to my room, I climbed out my window and down the sturdy tree branch that extended from it with such quickness, thanks to my training. I suddenly received such a powerful energy boost at the thought of viewing Summer. It made me so anxious that I couldn’t think straight -- all the way to the point where I scraped my hand across the bark of the tree accidentally. I ignored it, however, allowing my skin to re-stitch itself as I landed on the grass with a soft thud.

I had never snuck out before, but there was always a first time for everything.

Once I got into the backyard where I could go into the forest, I was ready to morph. Seeing as how my clothes were already ruined from training so unremittingly, I went ahead and finished my clothes off by ripping them in to tatters when I transformed. Then I traveled into the woods to find Summer.

When I got to her place, I started to turn back into a human so I could knock and ask for her like every parent would expect of their daughter’s boyfriend; but I figured the girls inside -- whom I could smell from a mile away -- may be a little repulsed by a nude guy on their front porch. Instead, I traveled around the side of the wooden home and found Summer’s window. I peered inside easily with my werewolf vision, but I found it empty.  To my dismay, she was obviously not home.

I went back home while feeling disappointed that I didn’t get to see her. I was ready to crawl into bed after a warm shower and not ponder over my destroyed life that I so happily created.

I climbed back up the tree to my room with ease, and I traveled through my window, shutting the glass and blinds behind me as my human feet landed onto my carpeted floor.

I got in the humid shower seconds later, and, almost instantaneously, I felt rejuvenated by its seemingly mystical properties. It made me feel completely refreshed. Still, my legs began to ache even more after some time of standing under the steamy liquid, so I decided to finally exit the running water. I wrapped a towel around my body as I snatched a bottle of Tylenol from the bathroom cabinet, placing four tablets into my mouth and swallowing them easily. I doubted they would have any effect, however, considering the fact my body healed on its own.

Eventually I found myself in my bed, and the softness of my wondrous bed consumed me.

Summer kept popping up in my head every time I would doze off into dream world, but her face was a blur-like. I wanted to see her face. I needed to see her face. And to have her in front of me, but her face blurred out, was a cruel teaser. So I tried keeping myself awake by listening to my iPod.

While I listened to it, I heard faint knocks nearby. At first, I thought it was part of the beat in the music, but I realized it was real.

I removed the earphones from my ears and listened, waiting for the knock again.

It occurred once more.

This time, I realized the source was at my window. I got up and crept over quietly, and I opened the blinds.

Before me was the girl from my dreams. Except this time, her face was not a total blur anymore. This time, I saw the beauteous Summer I had longed to see.

I stood immobile, just staring at her, not really believing my eyes until she knocked again to snap me back from space. She was on the same branch that I had climbed, so I figured it wasn’t all too comfortable. Consequently, I opened the window and let her in.

When she came in, we didn’t speak, we just embraced one another with a kiss. I kissed as passionately as ever, loving the fact that she was before me; I could feel her returning the same type of kiss.

“I’ve missed you so much,” I said after a minute or so of playing tonsil hockey back and forth.

“Me too. I didn’t know if you got into trouble or what for giving me the cure,” she said.

“Actually, I did. But it wasn’t much. Nothing to worry about,” I said.

“Evan, I don’t want to get you into trouble. I better go,” she said, starting to go for the window.

I pulled her back into my arms.

“It’s a little late for that. Besides, I was in trouble from the moment I first saw you.”

I kissed her more on the lips, and she returned it just as zealously.

We moved to the bed with her below me, and we both were kissing firmly, and yet, lightly as possible.

Some minutes passed, until neither she nor I could breathe anymore because we had done exchanged too much oxygen between one another. Reluctantly, I pulled myself off of her, and I lay down beside her on my bed. We lay stationary, staring up at the ceiling.

Neither one of us said a thing for a moment until she asked randomly: “Where’s your mom?”

“Downstairs, I think. She’s probably doing some last minute cleaning or something.”

“Oh…”

I placed my arm under her head to act as her pillow for comfort, so I could pull her closer to my body. I needed her as close as possible to me -- to know she was actually with me, and not just a hallucination.

“I have a few things that I wanna know about,” I said.

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Back around when I first started Hale High, how did you start appearing in all my classes?” I turned my head to look at her.

“A nymph can be quite persuasive to get in the classes she wants.” She wiggled her eyebrows, and I grinned.

“But then why did you brush me away so easily when I tried to talk to you at lunch?”

“Pretenses. I had to pretend I had no attraction to you whatsoever, otherwise we would have never had a chance because of my friends, except for Autumn. She understands and is okay with it.” Autumn did seem like the optimistic one of her bunch.

“I see. What about when you just mysteriously showed up on my doorstep?” I asked.

“When you were absent, I figured you were sick because you were transforming into what I knew you were meant to be. But I had to be sure, so I found an excuse to come,” she said.

“That clears a lot of things up for me.”

“You doubted my feelings?”

“A little,” I said bluntly.

She leaned her head back to me, kissing me harmoniously.

“What about now?”

I bit my lip. “Just a smidge.”

She planted another kiss on my lips.

“And now?”

“I don’t know…”

She laughed. “Okay. Now you’re just milking it, mister.”

I grinned devilishly.

Then we returned to our silence for more minutes to pass.

 “Tell me about your parents, Summer. You never told me about them,” I said, still gazing at the ceiling, but grasping her firmly in my arms.

“Well, my mom raised me on her own, because after my dad found out what she was and what I would become, he took off. The same thing has happened to Rose and the others. None of their fathers stayed after they found out, so now we all stick together.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…Well, your father has no idea what a wonderful girl he’s missing. Was that your mom that was shouting at me when I came to your place?”

“Yes. She told me about that. I’m sorry. She was just a little frantic and all. Plus, she’s sketchy about werewolves.”

“Why would she be sketchy? It’s not like I bite or anything.” Then I playfully nibbled on her ear, making her giggle.

Afterwards, I planted a kiss on her cheek. When I started to retract, she locked lips with me, and once again, we kissed fervently.

“Evan, what if you get into more trouble for seeing me?” she asked, with worry exposed freely on her face.

“I don’t care, Summer. Do you hear me? I don’t care,” I said firmly and reassuringly.

She seemed a little at ease by that.

“Besides, what more can they do to me, except give me another list of punishments that I won’t follow?” I said more lightly.

“Huh?” she asked.

“I’ll explain later,” I said.

Then she grinned up at me.

All of a sudden, a knock came at my door. Summer instantly rolled from my bed and onto the other side in the floor to hide. Then my mother opened the door, and my breathing quickened.

“Evan, who were you talking to?” she asked while in her pajamas and her hair pulled up into a bun, showing she was obviously in bed or going to bed.

“No one. My iPod. It was too loud, that’s all. I’ll turn it down,” I lied effortlessly, holding up my iPod beside me for proof.

“Oh, okay. Well, get some sleep, honey. I’m off to bed. Goodnight,” she said.

“Night,” I replied.

Then I my breathing resumed to normal after she shut the door. I made it without getting caught. My mom would probably have gone ballistic if she knew I had a girl in my room, on my bed, with me, and in the middle of the night. But nothing serious was going to happen between Summer and I while on my bed, that much I knew. We were just happy to be together to care for anything else.

“Is she gone?” Summer’s voice whispered from below.

I laughed and said, “She’s gone.”

“Good. I was getting the shivers thinking what your mom would do if she found us. Does she know about the whole werewolf-thing?”

“Yeah. But she tries to stay out of it so she won’t worry as much.”

“She loves you, ya know.”

“I know.”

Summer climbed back into the bed beside me, and I wrapped my arms around her as she lay in front of me on her side, facing my bedroom.

“Ah…what are we going to do about us? We can’t keep hiding, you know,” I said while gazing at the girl residing centimeters away from me.

“I know. But it’s our only option. At least, for right now. Especially if we want to be together,” she responded.

“True. But it’s breaking all the rules,” I pointed out. I began to twirl my fingers in her silky hair, catching whiffs of her enticing scent of honeydew. I slowly kissed her neck softly.

Then she turned around to face me. “Rules, schmules,” she said.

I then laughed at how happy she could be, even though our situation was serious.

“It’s still forbidden. I could get into some serious trouble,” I said. I never actually thought about it, but there could possibly be some other hard stuff Otis and his gang could put me through. “I could be in for a rough road.”

Then she kissed me on the lips so tenderly.

“So could I,” she said back.

“But -- ”

She kissed me once again on the lips so sweetly.

“No ‘buts’. Let’s just enjoy it,” she said to me, with a smile spreading across her face. That smile seemed to light up my world; a light I could never live without -- like trying to take away the sun from the human race.

“Fine,” I said.

“The whole ‘forbidden love’ cliché can be tomorrow’s -- ”

I interrupted her with a kiss of my own that pleased both me and her.

“ -- Problem,” she finished.

Then she giggled that gave my heart a jump over the moon. Seeing her so happy, made me so happy. So maybe we could be happy together.

Then, this time, we both leaned in for a kiss towards one another. Our lips met as the full moon hovered out my window, spreading its werewolf powers through me and its luminous light to bright up my room.

Author's Note

This is the final chapter to Evan and Summer's tale of romance. Thanks to EVERYONE who has stuck with Evan through his entire journey with his emotional roller coaster ride with Summer. For those of you wondering, YES THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!
When? I don't know. This novel took me about 1 1/2 years to 2 years to write. So if I do start a sequel, it will take a while. Because if I start posting chapters as I write them, it will get confusing because when I edit, I could wipe out anything and that will makes chapters confusing for readers. But I do have some ideas for a sequel. It may be titled "Controlled" to go along with the theme I have in mind. I'm not sure, however. So don't think this is all facts, except I WILL WRITE A SEQUEL. Also, please please please please PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave reviews telling me what you thought of the book, what your prediction for the end was, what I could have done differently, and anything else you feel is important!
Once again, thank you to all who have reviewed me and my novel! I know it is difficult to sit at a computer and read long chapters such as some of mine. I am much appreciative of your dedication! In return, starting next week, I plan to have Read Requests open once again. HOPEFULLY! Or I may be forced to leave them closed permanently until I get this novel off the ground. Either way, message me for any personal Read Requests! Now I am off to try and take on the publishing world before I start the sequel novel. I will start querying agents in a few days and I will let you guys know what happens!? :) Wow, I am so not ready to say goodbye yet. I just don't want to let my story go and end so easily. But it must. I know it must. I hope you enjoyed it! Please add me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/joshua.donahue3) or on MySpace (www.myspace.com/joshd4752).
This chapter has a befitting name, I think. It was easy to write the first time, but a little difficult to tweak and edit without disrupting their emotional love connection between one another. How did I do? :) All reviews are welcome! Including mistakes, errors, typos, etc.

p.s. Kira I still plan to finish your story and I will message you my review. Hope my last one was helpful! If I haven't reviewed the second part in a week, please clobber me with messages until I do! :) Thanks for your helpful reviews, regardless if I always agree. It's always good to hear various opinions! :)

GOODBYE TO ALL OF MY READERS!!
I will return soon! Thank you.

Reviews

[bbb]

If you're super serious about this novel, you may want to edit more and add more, like I was talking about last chapter. This chapter was pretty good. The only thing I would change is use of the terminology "tonsil hockey." It kind of cheapens the kiss and makes things a bit cheesy. I would take it out and just add better descriptors...just my opinion, but I honestly think a good editor would agree. I do think a sequel could be a lot of fun, too. I will give my final review on the introductory page. Great job with the chapter, everyone (usually) loves a happy ending!

[Kira]

Woah. It's only at the end of this that I realized there's still a lot to go on, should you make a sequel. For some reason, I thought this Michelle chick was going to be like...Evan's Peris, and involved in the whole thing as well. It seems like everything was tied up...so I'm not necessarily thrilled by the thought of a sequel. It would have been pretty awesome if you'd left the evil werewolf pack alive to wreak more havoc, but...

Woah, publishing? Talking to agents? In a few days?? My inner editor screams that you can at least go over this a few times more, but *I* let out an impressed breath and ask you to keep me posted about what's going on!

Congrats for finishing!