Shadow Falls: A Sensual Werewolf Romance (The Wolves of Shadow Falls) (4 page)

Almost two years passed and we had not heard from Storm or Despina. The pack abated in the absence of their leader and reverted to hunting the local wildlife. It was safe to walk the streets again and the tragedy of the stolen babies had faded into the past. The families that were affected moved away and the numbers of the towns’ people declined further. Shadow Falls was reverting to the isolated venue it once was. With the scorching midday sun high in the sky casting a beam so bright that it burned the flower beds, summer brought nothing but baroness and sorrow. The Mayor’s call to burn the forest met with rejection from his superiors and he was faced with having to come up with an alternative method of wiping us out. He went quiet for quite some time, puffing his campaign with solutions to other pertinent issues affecting the town such as the dwindling population and slow economic growth. I had not abandoned my quest to find Storm. I had to track him down and figure out a way to free the others, but I was afraid that he could not be trusted. I could not ignore the threat to the safety of my children. Especially since I had witnessed firsthand the evil that was Despina and what she was capable of. I could only imagine what she would want with my children. Aislen was worried about the children; she had noticed that it had been almost two years and neither of them showed signs that they were wolves. I assumed that they would not show signs until they were in their teens but my mother confirmed Aislen suspicion that revealing to me that even as a child I spontaneous changed into a pup. I just had no memory of it. Aislen too had mentioned that she was able to change from birth since she was born as a pup and not human.

The phone rings, the number unknown, I hesitate then answer, a woman asks for Connor Carter. Her voice was heavy like she had smoked one too many cigarettes in her lifetime. She cleared her throat after each sentence.

“This is Margaret, calling from Shadow Falls Hospital. We have a patient here, a Mr. Storm, no last name. He’s been in an accident and he’s been asking for you since we admitted him two days ago”
she says.

After almost two years of searching, he just shows up again and now he’s in the hospital. I decided against bringing Aislen with me, for the sake of the kids, it was better that she stayed at home with them while I pursued Storm. When I arrived at hospital I was still trying to formulate the questions I needed to ask. I did not have time to beat about the bush. The wolves were in danger and I was about to meet the one person that could help me. The nurse informed me that Storm had been shot, the doctors removed the bullet but his condition did not improve. The prognosis was grim and I knew I had little time to get what I needed. His limb body laid sprawled on the bed, beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead and his black hair stuck to his head. He looked like an animal just as it is about to die. The plaster covering the wound had turned a brownish red, soaked with stale blood and perhaps pus. His veins were visibly raised and a slivery grey color filled with the deadly poison from the silver bullet. His eyes were heavy and his face sagged, his lips were severely chapped as though he had been starved of water.

“
It looks worse than it actually is
” he said groggily, he was still coming down from the anesthesia.

It was a relief to hear his voice, I did not need to ask what happened, it was obvious that he was shot, but by who and why, were the questions that needed to be answered.

“The babies never made it”
he says before passing out and walking up again. “
Despina’s children…they died,”
he continued.

What children was he talking about? Could he be talking about Aislen’s sisters and their babies? But why would he refer to them as Despina’s children.

“I need to shift”
he went on to say, but it was impossible for him to do it in the hospital, risking being seen by people.

I knew why he wanted to shift, if was a wolf he would heal faster and communication would be much faster if I changed too. I had to get him out of there.

“Do you think you can walk?”
I inquired of him and he nodded.

I wrapped by black parka around his shoulders and we snuck out of the hospital. Fresh blood seeped from his plaster soaking the cotton drape the hospital gave him for clothing. The walking had aggravated the wound and Storm collapsed in my arms before I could get him into the car. I slapped his face to snap him back into consciously and he almost came to, still groggy rolling his head slowly from side to side. In the car ride home, he cradled his chest, he was in tremendous pain. I tried to reassure him, letting him know that we were almost home.

The road had so many twists and turns that his body shifted from side to side as the car turned each corner. I was certain that he would die before we got to the house but I kept my focus. A sudden shower broke down making the road slippery. The rain was heavy and white, which made it difficult to see through the frosted window. The windscreen wipers sang as they flew back and forth to clear the screen as the heavy drops crashed into the glass. Storm was drifting back into unconsciousness again and his clothes were drenched in blood. Lighting flashed and struck a pine tree, on the side of the road mere meters in front of us causing the giant timber to fall across the road, cutting us off. The car screeched to a halt as I slammed the brakes and spun for several terrifying seconds on the slippery road until the booth of the car careened into the trunk of the tree. I gripped my chest holding my racing heart and took deep long breaths to calm and catch myself. Moments before the car crashed, I saw flashes of my life, of Aislen’s beautiful face and my two children and for a moment I thought it was all going to be taken away from me. I turned to check on Storm and he was gone, his seat was filled with the shards of glass that shattered on impact. Blood that soaked through his clothes had stained the seat below him and I was certain that even if he managed to open the door and toss himself out of the car before we crashed he did not have the strength to continue on. I prepared myself to find his body nearby. The impact caused every nut and bolt in the car to shift and I found myself pinned in the driver seat by the same seatbelts that were designed to save my life. I yanked on the belt breaking the clip that it was fastened into, so that the line freed and I could pull myself out of the car. I came out into the middle of the road, the rain bared down heavily and it stung my skin; it felt like millions of hands slapping me at once. I scanned the area looking for the outline of a body lying in the cold wet street but there was none to be seen. I began to wonder if Storm had indeed freed himself and is alive. I look back towards the car, steam rose from under the hood creating a thick cloud that almost covered it. The red metal almost disappeared completely behind the cloud. In the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of something glowing; two yellow orbs stared at me from across the street at the edge of the woods. I could not see the body they belonged to but I knew it was Storm. He had shifted and probably healed himself and now to him I was just another careless human that wondered in his path. But not for long, I was not going to let myself be killed that easily. This was so much different from that day I saw Aislen as a wolf at the cemetery, she sensed me and she did not regard me as just another ordinary human. Perhaps the poison had made him forget me for a moment.

I stripped myself and collapsed onto the road on my four paws. We were kindred souls now him and I. He immediately caught my sent and pulled back, disappearing deeper into the woods sending me a message to follow him. I chased after him until I caught up and we stopped at a small stream for Storm to drink. As he drank he communicated with me and I saw the heartbreaking images of the dead pups, of Aislen’s sisters giving birth in agonizing pain to still born children and of Despina’s fury; her beautiful glamour falling to show her true self and demon. Storm and I agreed that she had a bigger plan for all of us and that the death of the puppies had set her back. I saw him purposely leaving the paw prints behind in the hospital after the babies were stolen, but I wondered why he would draw such attention to us. He knew then that soon Despina would reject him and as his time of separation came close, her glamour fell and he saw her for the demon she was. Still his actions may have very well put us in greater danger than we already were, I thought. In her rage and grief over the loss of her children, Despina had rejected him, breaking her grip on his mind and he was now free to choose whichever path he wanted. Despina had grown less fond of him over the years and it was time for her to adopt a new companion, so she took Rafe under her wing. Storm had escaped from the mine and sought refuge in the town. An old woman, who was unable to speak, took him in to safety and as powerful as Despina was she could not enter a human house without a spoken invitation. Storm’s experience with her trickery made him impervious to her antics and no matter what she did she could not reach him. But Despina was crafty she used her powers to glamour a young man, causing him to shoot Storm in the chest. Fortunately the bullet missed Storm’s heart. Now I understood the message he had sent me when he called that day. He was genuinely warning me of Despina’s intent to steal the children and use them for her evil plan. But what sinister plan could she have that would involve werewolf pups, I wondered. The information was all too confusing, but one thing was for certain, Aislen and the kids were in danger and I had to get to them fast.

It felt like Storm and I were running forever to get to my house, until finally the windows of the upper deck came into view. The rain had subsided and I could see the leaves that the heavy winds blew sticking to the shingles of the roof. We shifted back to our human form, and two naked men emerged from the forest and onto the street. Mrs. Turner, an elderly woman that lived a few houses down from our house, stood with a green plastic bag wrapped around her hand like a glove waiting for her pet Yorkie to finish his business on her front lawn. She looked up and saw us running towards the house and gasped. I could not blame her for the reaction, if I had seen two naked men running across the street in the middle of the day, I would gasp to. I just prayed in my heart that she did not call the police. Finally we landed on the doorstep huffing like we had just run a marathon. The door was unlocked so we entered. The house seemed empty. I grabbed the nearest parka from the coat rack and covered myself, and then I tossed another coat to Storm. It was Aislen’s bright red trench that she wore whenever it rained. Storm grinned as he tied the fabric around his waist like a sarong and I almost burst into laughter at the sight of him because he looked like a very confused man. He beat me to the punch by laughing at himself. It was the first light moment we had ever shared together since meeting in the mine two years ago. It proved that he had a sense of humor and I was relieved to know his human self was a far cry from his wolf. We stood there laughing at ourselves for several seconds until we remembered the mission that we were so intent on completing.

“Aislen!” I shouted, my voice echoed through the empty house.

“Perhaps we should slip into something less revealing, before you introduce me to your family” Storm said jokingly.

I led him to the bedroom and gave him a couple articles of clothing to change into. I could not help but eye his frame, almost envious about the way his broad chest filled out my white Areopostal T-shirt and how his crotch bulged more than mine ever did in the blue Levi that I lent him. When we were running naked, I was more concerned with hiding my limp wood than to even look at Storm’s. Now that he was wearing my clothes, I could not help but compare our frames in my mind. Storm was quite the catch and I was slightly intimidated by his dashing looks. His eyes were like liquid silver and I was drawn to them because they reminded me of a full moon. I felt the wolf inside me stirring. I wanted to howl at the magnificent globe. I was glad we were human now so the contents of my mind were in accessible and for good reason. We went to the kitchen and I offered him a drink of water. A she slipped away from the glass, it occurred to me that Aislen never answered my call.

“Aislen!” I called out again, walking towards the back door, thinking to myself that she was probably outside with the kids.

The backyard was empty. The ground was soggy from the freak rain storm and was cluttered with blown leaves and small branches that broke off with the heavy winds. The house was empty; Aislen and the kids were nowhere to be found. She must have stepped out with the kids, I thought but then I remembered brushing past our silver Toyota Camry in the driveway as Storm and I made our way into the house. Suddenly it was as if a mirror had been shattered in my mind and behind it was the glaring truth. Something was very strange about the situation. I reached for the cell phone on the counter, it was Aislen’s blackberry. It was getting stranger and stranger by the moment. I few hours ago I had left my mate, our two children and my mother at home and now I returned to an empty house with our car still parked in the driveway and Aislen’s phone on the counter. Storm and I had been too caught up in the strange turn of events that lead us to this point, that we had missed the hankering signs along the way. The first being a sudden lightening storm in the dead heat of summer. Before Storm and I left the hospital there was not a cloud in the sky, then suddenly rain. The second sign was the open door, it had not even occurred to me until just yet that when we arrived the door was ajar. But the house seemed undisturbed when we entered as though Aislen and the kids were out in the back playing or perhaps she was lying with them asleep in the middle of the day. Impossible to think of considering that she left the door open. Aislen could never be that careless. And what of my mother, where was she at this time of the day? Did I miss her on work at the hospital? An impossible thought again, since today was her day off. All of a sudden the reality came crashing down before my eyes and I turned to Storm with the look of pure horror on my face. He read it instantly returning a terrifying glance of his own. I was paralyzed with the revelation that my family was missing. I had failed to do what I promised, which was to protect Aislen and my kids, now they were gone and the culprits were unmistakable.

After two years of virtual non-existence, Despina had resurfaced determined to destroy what I worked so hard to build. I looked back towards Storm; my eyes welled up with tears, unable to hold back the pain surging inside me. I stood at the edge of confusion, unable to comprehend what had just happened and finally I collapsed breaking out into horrible sobs merging from deep within my gut. I had never cried like this before and I am sure the sight of a man breaking down like a little girl was difficult to look at without judging. But then I felt something I never thought I would, I consoling arm around my shoulders, pulling me up to my feet. It was Storm reaching out to comfort me. His mission now was a clear as mine, he would help find and rescue my family. But his motives remained unclear. How could a man who not so long ago seemed meaningless without his master suddenly betray her like this? To distance himself from his master and the rest of the pack like a rouge wolf, now come to help the man he seemed to once despise. Did he feign to distrust me back in the mine to protect his own agenda? Perhaps he was afraid that if he revealed his true intentions to betray his master then, that would in turn betray him.

We had no time to dwell on our indifference. Aislen and the kids were in terrible danger and they had to be rescued. Storm and I shifted to wolves again; we needed the ability to sniff out clues that would lead us to Aislen. Our noses caught unto a scent coming from the basement, it was another wolf and it was close to death. The closer we got to the basement the more familiar the scent got to me and I realized it was my mother. She lay wasted on the cold basement floor, bleeding from a ghastly wound in her neck. It seem like she tried to shift so that she can heal but her efforts were failing her. I could smell death looming over her it was assured by the odor that emanated from her limp frame. Her body had not morphed fully, because she lacked the strength, her upper half was wolf but the lower half had pale human legs extending from her hips.  I could hear the beat of her heart slowly dying as I approached and I knew I was on the verge of being orphaned. I rushed to her side instinctively licking the blood around her neck to clean the wound, but she used her last ounce of strength to send me a message that it was too late. In my mind a scene unfolded. I saw Despina standing outside the front door, disguised as a little girl, she appeared to be injured.

Aislen’s motherly instinct made her reach out to the child inviting her into to tend to her wound, but as the child crossed the threshold she grew tall and Aislen gasped when she realized who she had just invited into the house. Before she could turn to the kids, Despina held her in an unbreakable gaze turning her into a zombie like puppet. By the time my mother got to the door, it was too late, Aislen could not be stopped. My mother tried anyway and her actions angered Despina who spun around, grabbing her throat and squeezing her hands in until the bones collapsed inside her skin forcing her to choke on her own blood. Despina seemed to enjoy the agony that she was putting her through then she bit into my mother’s neck ripping away a large chunk of her flesh before casting her aside to die. My mother crawled into the basement and tried to change so that she could heal, but it was too late. “I love you” her eyes confirmed as the lids slowly closed shut and her heart slowed to a halt. I had been orphaned, first my father died at the hands of a hunter, then my grandmother to a heart attack, now my mother was taken away from my by a mad demon. I struggled to grasp the idea that it was that simple take three people. As I recalled the warning I received two years earlier, part of me expected to see the house in ruins. He said not only was Despina coming, but the pack as well. But the house seemed almost undisturbed except for the open door and the cell phone on the counter. The bitch must have known, I would not be at home, she must have been watching us all this time.

I shifted and knelt beside the cold remains of my mother cradling her paw in my hand and vowed to destroy Despina or die trying. I knew that she had to be destroyed else our suffering would never end. Now she had Aislen and my children and I was determined to save them, but with Storm by my side, it was two against an entire pack of wolves led by a mad queen who for moment seemed indestructible. Without Aislen I felt complete desolation, I had to get her back to safety. I had to rescue my family; there was simply nothing else to live for. Our love was unbreakable, everlasting and would endure through eternity. For the moment my enemy had succeeded in taking her from me, but I was prepared to fight back, with all the strength I had in me. There was simply too much at stake. I had to fight for Aislen, for our children and our future.