Verity (22 page)

When we got to her house, something bugged me, but I couldn’t figure out what. As she fiddled with the key, I realised what it was—no dog running out to greet us. Any time I had been at the house, either King or Cúchulain had been the first to welcome me.

I followed Amelia inside and bumped into her when she skidded to a stop. Her face paled, and she pointed ahead. The floor was covered in drops of blood.

“King?” she called, sounding scared and unsure. I backed out, pulling her after me and heard a vicious growl as I swiftly slammed the door behind us. Something crashed against it, scaring the hell out of me.

“We have to go, hurry,” I shouted at her, but she wouldn’t run. “Come on, Amelia!”

“But King, was that King?”

I pulled her arm and urged her on. “No, it wasn’t King. Drop your bag and run. Faster. There’s no time to explain everything. There are werewolves after me.”

“It’s okay. We shut the door,” she said, dumbly.

“Newsflash! Werewolf! Can turn into a man and open the poxy door!”

She seemed to get a grip then and ran even faster than me. I fished my mobile out of my pocket and rang Nathan’s phone, getting his voicemail. I huffed out a shaky message.

“Nathan! Something’s happened. We’re running to my place; they were in your house. I think they... Amelia, no!” I dropped the phone in my haste. Amelia ran away from me, toward the woods.

“Shortcut!” she shouted.

“No, stay on the path. Amelia! Stop!”

I swore as she ran straight into the trees. I glanced around, didn’t see any wolves—not that I expected them to run down the road in full view—and followed her, hoping they would leave us alone.

I ran through the trees, ignoring the goose bumps on my arms and the hair rising on the back of my neck. I could barely see a thing in the thick patch of trees. Why on earth had Amelia chosen the woods to hide in? I tried to run but kept tripping up over rocks and roots.

Panting, I caled Amelia but heard no reply. My heart pounded; things were spiraling out of control. I thought the werewolves were after me, so why had they been in Amelia’s home—waiting for her?

A scream startled me. I wasn’t sure where it came from but heard another, this time clear enough for me to get a general direction. I ran as fast as I could until I found Amelia.

A huge reddish brown wolf prowled in front of her, growling and snarling as it stalked her. I looked around for something to hit it with but only saw a piece of rock that wasn’t very heavy. Without thinking, I hurled it at the wolf with every bit of strength I had in me. It hit the animal in the side. The wolf yelped, more from surprise than pain, and sprang around to face me instead.

“Run, Amelia!” I screamed.

She hesitated then sprinted away. The wolf was terrifying. Its eyes were yelow and wild, and its snarl, inhuman. I gulped with apprehension as it approached me. It sniffed the air eagerly. I knew it could sense my fear.

I stepped backward slowly as the wolf leaned low, ready to spring. Tripping, I fel awkwardly. The wolf lurched forward, its lips curled back to reveal huge sharp teeth. I squeezed my eyes shut, too scared to watch. I tensed up, but nothing happened. I opened one eye cautiously, only to see the wolf feint another attack. He was taunting me. I gulped, too frozen with fear to move or even scream. I was sure I was about to die as I looked into those wild amber eyes. I recognised them and knew for sure it was the red-haired man; werewolves had been folowing us al along. They knew the truth about us way before I did. But how?

“You,” I gasped, unable to help myself. “Why are you doing this?”

He cocked his head to the side. An intense shudder ran through his entire body.

For a second I thought he was going to let me live, but then he crouched, about to launch himself at me, and the world slowed down. A huge black blur flung itself at the red wolf. He roled over, shaking himself free, and leapt to his feet. He looked from me to the black wolf, hesitating before running away.

The black blur looked around at me with the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen. His black coat shone with health. There was nothing scary in his expression, and I felt a pang of something inside.

“Nathan?” I whispered, in complete awe of him. I moved slowly toward him with my hand out. “You’re beautiful.” I managed to lightly touch his coat with my fingers before he ran off. Being near him worked, we were going to be okay. Snapping out of the trance I had falen into, I scrambled to my feet and hurried in the direction Amelia had headed toward, caling her name as loud as I dared. She scared the life out of me by grabbing my hand from behind a tree.

“Oh, my God! You’re okay.”

“Yeah, Nathan’s here.”

Her eyes darted about wildly. Her face was slick with sweat; her hair stuck to her face. She grabbed my arm, her fingertips pinching me in her urgency. She gulped repeatedly, unable to fuly catch her breath. I had to stop her hyperventilating. I had to get us out of the woods.

I held her face stil and forced her to look at me. “Listen to me. Just listen. We’re going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay. I’m here, I’l take care of you. But I need you to calm down for me.”

I held her close to me and shushed her until her breathing became almost regular again.

“No talking now, Amelia,” I warned when I finaly stopped her sobbing. “Listen to me, we have to get out of here as quietly as possible. We’re going to head to my house. We’l be safe there, do you understand? There are lots of people; it’s public. They won’t come after us.” I had no idea if we’d be safe there. I knew she was in danger—I was too—but we had to keep moving no matter what.

Her entire body shook visibly. If she could only ground herself, she might keep it together long enough to make it to safety. I was determined not to let my own doubts show.

“Concentrate on getting out of here. Don’t think about werewolves, just watch your step.” She gulped a couple of times and nodded, focusing.

She was terrified. I had never seen her look so young. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew we had to get ourselves out of the middle of it. I held her arm tightly and led her slowly onwards. I had a rough idea of where we were, and I knew the area better than Amelia, but it was easy to get turned around when you were being chased by a mythical creature. Amelia had turned into a blubbering mess, so I had to take control and not think about the red wolf—or anything else that might be in the woods.

I concentrated on moving, one step at a time, keeping Amelia with me. I felt stronger for looking after her, but rivulets of sweat ran down my back nonetheless. I couldn’t let myself lose it when I had to make sure she was safe. One thought in my mind kept me going. Nathan. Before he came along, I would have probably lost the plot just like Amelia, but now he was my strength. I pushed on because of him, for him.

We ran as fast as we could, but exposed tree roots, growing darkness and complete panic slowed us down. After what seemed like an eternity, I realised we had to be close to the edge of the woods. Just when I thought we would be okay, a nasty snarl from behind us proved we clearly weren’t. We were in a much less dense area of the woods, so it was easy to see that two growling wolves were behind us, closing in.

One was almost blonde in colour with ice blue eyes that were as cold as they were ferocious. I guessed it was the angry blonde woman. But it was the bigger wolf who realy scared me. I could see him more clearly this time. Mostly grey with dark streaks of black, he looked completely feral. His mouth curled back in an aggressive snarl, saliva and foam dripping down his chin. I knew he was a werewolf, but he didn’t seem like he could be human at al.

Nathan’s eyes had remained soft when he changed, this wolf had manic eyes. He moved toward us, inching ahead of the other wolf. I could see his focus was on Amelia, so I pushed her behind me hoping to distract him. She clung to the back of my jacket, terrified.

The wolf paused and looked at me, sniffing the air. He lifted his head and barked harshly, stil heading straight for us. The blonde wolf lined up beside him, soon joined by the third wolf. I backed up, not sure what to do next. I knew they would kil us just as surely as I knew they were al werewolves.

I was wondering how far we could run before being caught when two black wolves burst through the trees snarling in anger. Amelia gave a little shriek of alarm. I grabbed her arm and forced her backward. I recognised Nathan and assumed the larger, shaggier one was Byron. I hadn’t gotten a good look at him before. Now I saw he was fierce and magnificent, but not as beautiful as Nathan in wolf form.

The blonde and red wolves both turned to face Nathan and Byron automaticaly, but the grey one ignored them and continued to focus on us—more specificaly, Amelia. He barely looked around when two more wolves and some wolfhounds joined the scene. It wasn’t until they surrounded him, snapping and snarling that he turned his body away from us. I swalowed a scream. He stil seemed reluctant to lose sight of Amelia.

I wasn’t sure if there were more werewolves around, so I was afraid to run. I’d heard that running entices an animal’s hunting instinct, but I had no idea if that stil applied. I didn’t have a clue what to do. Life hadn’t exactly prepared me for kiler werewolves.

I already knew the large white wolf was Jakob Evans, and I guessed the smaler silvery grey wolf was Lia. They weren’t as intimidating as Byron, but they stood their ground. The wolfhounds backed off as one, as if they had been commanded. They surrounded Amelia and myself. Amelia clung to Cúchulain, sobbing loudly. I was afraid she was drawing attention to herself. The wild looking grey wolf was obviously distracted by the sounds she made; his body shuddered every time she let out a sob. I gripped her shoulder tightly, silently urging her to calm down.

Al of the werewolves faced each other for a few tense moments. I was terrified for Nathan. He was the least experienced wolf being so young. As far as I could tel an immature werewolf had no chance against a ful grown, experienced werewolf.

My blood ran cold at the thoughts of him fighting against an adult wolf. For the first time, it truly dawned on me how much danger we were al in. Although his family outnumbered the others, they weren’t used to these kinds of confrontations. The other werewolves gave me the impression they had done this before. Particularly when they snarled and snapped threateningly.

For one tense moment, nobody made a move. The grey wolf’s body trembled constantly, like he was trying to restrain himself. He seemed more than eager to fight.

As if one, al three of the wolves unknown to me attacked.

The large grey one went straight for Lia. He had her throat before Jakob could respond. She fought back fiercely, squirming to get away, her nostrils flaring. Jakob jumped onto the wolf’s back, forcing him to let go. The three of them roled around together. It was immediately obvious the elderly couple were no match for the younger, stronger, wilder wolf.

Byron seemed to be getting the upper hand on the red wolf, but I was distracted by something else. The blonde wolf had thrown herself at Nathan who roled backward and struck his head off a tree stump. For a moment he lay there, stunned and motionless. Those few seconds felt like an eternity to me. The wolf took advantage and attacked him, sinking her teeth into his neck, to my horror. I glanced back at the others and saw the grey wolf had gripped Lia in a similar way. Blood spurted onto his face. I had to make a choice.

Something inside me unleashed itself. As though a switch flipped, I thought of Nathan as my mate; I couldn’t let anything happen to him. I didn’t think about what to do next, I simply reacted.

I ran straight over to the blonde wolf, half climbing onto her back. I reached around and sank my fingers into her eyes with one hand, using the other to tear at her coat relentlessly, desperate to pul her away. One lone focus in my mind, to help Nathan. She yelped loudly in pain as I puled at her; she let go of Nathan abruptly. I fel backward, puling her after me with a burst of adrenalin that gave me strength I never had before.

She landed heavily on top of me, almost crushing me with her weight. I was sure I heard one of my ribs crack, but I didn’t let go of her fur. She growled in my ear and struggled to twist her body around. I moaned in pain from her weight as she shifted herself in preparation to destroy me. I flinched in anticipation, but Nathan recovered in time. He sank his jaws around her flank and puled her from me unable to control his fury. She snapped at empty air instead of my throat.

Seeing her hurt me had changed something inside of Nathan too, I could tel. He was freeing his mind of al human thought. I could sense his rage and felt a strange sort of pride as he snarled even more ferociously than her. I knew with certainty he wouldn’t let her near me again. He was fierce and wild, and I realised I had to get out of the way because he was letting his animal instincts take over.

I scrambled to my feet, side-stepping out of the way as they both tumbled toward me again. Gasping with pain, I ran back to the wolfhounds who were howling with disapproval. They had been commanded to stay with Amelia, but they wanted to protect me too.

Amelia’s face was stained from a mixture of black eyeliner and steady tears. I ignored her, irrationaly angry at her weakness. I touched Cúchulain on the head reassuringly; he was the one most agitated by the fight. He licked my hand and tried to nudge me back toward Amelia, but I was too busy looking for a large stick I could pick up.

A sharp pain in my side almost doubled me over when I lifted a branch, but I ignored it as best I could. Both Nathan and Byron were covered in blood, but I was pretty sure most of it was not theirs. The blonde wolf in particular was panting heavily, her coat matted dark red in places.

It was Lia and Jakob I worried about. The big grey wolf was strong, stronger than any of the others, and he had done something bad to Lia Evans while I had been trying to help Nathan. She lay on the ground, curled up in a bal, taking shalow breaths that somehow sounded wet. A sickening amount of blood flowed freely from an open wound at the base of her throat.