Marked (The Pack) (21 page)

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“Then she started telling me I was a werewolf and she had a gene for it but wasn’t one. They’re nuts I tell you. My mom and Aunt Louise have lost it. They want me to believe I’m some kind of werewolf. Have you ever heard anything so bizarre? And I think Louise may have killed that woman a few weeks ago. I found this shirt…” My voice tapered off because the images that had plagued me for the past few weeks flashed in my head again. I had to admit that I might know something about that woman’s death too. But I couldn’t tell them that.

Mr. Branton sat on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. Myles was beside him stretched out with his feet resting on the coffee table as if the whole thing bored him.

“And you think they’re crazy because werewolves don’t exist.”

“Exactly, I’m glad somebody finally understands me.”

The man I trusted to help me clasped his hands together and straightened. “Alexis, I have to be honest with you. They do exist.”

I pushed against the back of the chair, my eyes darting around the room for an escape route. A mistake, I’d made a huge mistake. I should have realized that Louise’s friends might also suffer from the same delusion. Maybe they were the ones taking the drugs.

He leaned toward me, but obviously saw the fear in my eyes and leaned back. “Why do you think we all travel around together and home school our kids together?”

“Because you’re weird.”

Myles groaned and kicked his feet off the table. “No idiot, it’s because we’re a pack. We have a group that goes to school together and we learn things we need to know to function in the world with our inheritance.”

“What inheritance?”

“Our werewolf inheritance.”

I got to my feet. “Something’s wrong here. It’s like I’m in the Twilight Zone.”

Myles dad shook his head. “If you stop long enough to think about what’s gone on the last few weeks, what’s been happening, then you’ll know what we say is true.”

“So, on a full moon you up and turn into what, some half man half dog thing and go around killing people?”

“You’ve watched too many movies. It’s nothing like that at all. We are true werewolves. We inherited the genes to be that way. But we’ve learned self control to use our gifts in a good way.”

“This is crazy. I’m leaving.”

Mr. Branton caught my arm before I could get to the door. “It’s not crazy. You’ve got to accept it and come to terms with it because you’ll have some decisions to make soon.”

“Well at the next full moon, I’ll be looking for all of you to whip into your wolf costume.”

“I told you, it doesn’t work like that. The full moon isn’t necessary. We can control ourselves better than that. I’ll show you.” He glanced at Myles. “You’ll catch her.”

Myles nodded and grinned. “Yep, sure will. But she’s gonna haul butt, and I think she’s faster than any of us realize, including her.”

Mr. Branton stepped away. Myles took a step toward me. The man made a groaning sound and bent double. For some reason my own skin began to crawl and puddle up beads of moisture. My arms and legs ached. Mr. Branton peeled his shirt off and suddenly in a burst, his clothes seemed to disintegrate as his skin was replaced with thick gray fur. A huge gray wolf stood looking at me, his eyes glistening. I leaned closer and then realized I could still see him in the wolf’s eyes. The eyes were still the same, with the green flecks that had always caught my attention. I took two steps back and, as Myles had predicted, hauled butt out of there. Out the door and into the yard, I ran faster than I’d ever gone before and I’d always been extremely fast. Myles footsteps right behind me made me push harder. I hadn’t run like this since I quit track in junior high. My mom had made me quit because I was beating everybody and it was so easy. At the end of the race when others were winded, I’d barely be breathing hard. My coach had said it almost wasn’t natural… My steps faltered. Not natural. Myles’ hand closed on my shoulder and he wrapped his other arm around my waist lifting me off the ground. I kicked and screamed but he ignored me, carrying me along on his side like a sack of dog food back to his house. He climbed the steps to the deck and flung me in a chair.

“You’re really fast. Don’t take off again, okay.”

“What happened in there?’

“He became.”

“He turned into a wolf like those hybrid dogs I’ve been seeing.” I stopped. “They’re not dogs?”

Myles pointed a finger. “Bingo. You’re getting it now.”

“And you, you do that too. Change into a real wolf?”

“I can. I don’t control it as well as he does, but I’m learning. You’ll need to learn to. You’ll have to. Or the things that have been happening will only get worse.”

Every muscle I had went limp. I sat in the chair like a lump of mashed potatoes. Were they crazy? Was I?

“I haven’t done that. That thing he just did, becoming the wolf. I don’t remember ever doing it.”

Myles dropped into a chair in front of me. “You wouldn’t remember, not yet, not until you’ve learned to begin to control it and recognize what you are. It takes time, skills, training. But you have changed. Those times you woke up without your clothes, the weird dreams and sleepwalking.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Because I’ve had it, too. We all have, in the beginning when the changes first start. That’s what happens.”

“And last night. I was really outside, I killed animals?”

He didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he raked his hand through his hair, frowning. “I’m really sorry about that. I said I was learning, I never said I had conquered everything. If I’d had more control of myself maybe I could have stopped you, but I couldn’t. I have to admit, you were pretty wild, very fast and very strong. More than I would have expected.”

I didn’t pay attention to everything Myles was saying, but the main point hit me squarely between the eyes. “You were there? You and I were both wolves?”

“It was a pack of us. It happens sometimes. Like my dad says, the moon doesn’t have total control, but during certain phases it has a greater pull on our inner nature. If we haven’t learned to control it well enough, then we change, without really meaning to. You just really, really, want to.”

Mr. Branton came out of the house and sat at the table with us. I looked from one to the other. If this was a game or some trick to make me think I was crazy it was working, but I didn’t want to be part of it. My mother should never have left me here. If I’d stayed in Chicago maybe none of this would have ever happened. I knew I was different, inside. I had felt it for months, maybe even years. I didn’t want to be different. That’s why I’d been working so desperately hard to fit in with the popular crowd. They were telling me I was a monster, a freak. I didn’t need this.

“I’m leaving now.” I got up and started down the steps.

“Alexis.”

I stopped as Mr. Branton called me.

“You may not like this or want it, but you’ll have to think about it because it’s not going away. It’s who you are.”

My eyes smarted and tears stung, dripping over my lashes. “I’m Alexis Miller, that’s who I am.”

Standing on the deck, Mr. Branton nodded. “Alexis Miller, werewolf of the Lycernian pack. That’s who you are.”

Scrubbing my hand across my face I hurried to the ATV. I was going back to Aunt Louise’s house and get in bed. When I woke up, maybe I’d find this was all one of my horrific nightmares.

Chapter Twenty-One

My first knock was light, but when I didn’t get an answer I banged harder. Where was Aunt Louise in the middle of the night? I heard howling outside and ran down the steps onto the front porch. Retreating against the wall, I listened to growls and barking that reached me from the direction of the lake. There was a high-pitched whine, then everything went quiet. My breath came in gasps and that weird feeling ran through my body again. The moon hung low and round in the sky giving off a milky light. Next to me the front door opened and I pressed myself deeper into the shadows.

“Alexis, are you out here?”

Hurrying, I pushed Louise inside and slammed the door. “I heard wolves down by the lake.”

“Yes.”

I noticed the dirt and grass on her and eyed the robe she held tightly around her. “It was you wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was me.”

“Were you fighting with other werewolves?”

“There are a lot of things you’ll have to learn, Alexis, but not in the middle of the night like this. Why were you up?”

“I felt bad again, like my skin is going to jump off my body. What’s happening to me?”

“It’s the full moon, the time when we are most pulled by our nature to become. It’s not a terrible thing. When controlled becoming can free your most inner self.”

“This is entirely too weird for me. I’m going to bed.”

Louise caught my arm and opened the front door. “You can’t control it yet. It’s going to happen. Why not accept it? I can watch out for you.”

Pulling me onto the porch Louise loosed her robe.

“What are you doing?”

I’m taking off my robe and you’ll drop your pajama’s on the step or else you’ll tear them up.”

“I’m not getting naked out here in front of you.”

“For heaven’s sake, now you’re being modest. Go over next to the shrubbery and relax, don’t fight it.”

I dropped my clothes by the bush. The warm summer air washed over my skin. My legs and arms ached. Suddenly, my head was filled with shooting pain. I couldn’t breathe and started to take a step to get Louise, but everything seemed to spin in front of me. I fell to the ground, rolling from side to side. My mouth opened and I cried out. Groaning sounds exploded from me. I was dying. I had to be. This had all been a trick and now I was going to die. I opened my eyes that I’d kept squeezed shut and saw silky black fur on my arms. Only they weren’t arms any more. They were the front pair of four legs. For the first time I recognized that I was myself, but in a different form. I knew that Myles had been right. Memories from previous times I been like this came flooding in. Some even when I had still been in Chicago. Then other memories from here crowded my brain. I shoved them away, not wanting to think about what I might have done, helped do, helped Louise do.

I realized that the pain had stopped. I felt wonderful, like I could fly. I ran to where I’d left my aunt and saw a beautiful black coated wolf. I wondered if I looked the same and knew if I did, this was probably as beautiful as I’d ever get. Louise in her wolf form loped across the yard. I followed. I couldn’t speak, but it was as though Louise spoke in my head. We ran by the bank of the lake and I splashed in the edge, drinking the lukewarm water.

As I returned to the bank, I found two other huge gray wolves had joined Louise. We raced along biting and chasing. I wasn’t sure who these were, but they were male and very large. The thought of Myles and his dad crossed my mind. I wondered how many of the people I’d met here were werewolves. After several minutes of playing, the gray wolves darted off through the woods and disappeared. I continued to follow Aunt Louise on the lake path until we saw more wolves ahead. Louise stopped short giving a low growl. It was the golden colored wolf with the blue collar. I took a half step forward, but Louise caught my neck in her mouth and pushed me around.

Dragging me along, we made it to the house. She nudged me up the steps and pushed through the partially open kitchen door. I plopped onto the floor, exhausted. The last thing I remembered was Louise, in wolf form, sitting by the kitchen door. Then I slept.

The next morning I poured syrup over my pancakes, and waved a fork at Louise. “Who’s the wolf with the blue collar? Is it someone you know?

“No, I don’t know who it is.”

“In my dreams I’ve run with them before. Why wouldn’t you let me last night?”

“It’s not safe.”

“But why? Are there bad werewolves?” I laughed as I cut chunk out of my stack of pancakes. “That sounds so messed up.”

“There are bad werewolves. We’re of the Lycernian pack, but there’s another pack, the Fenryrians. In ancient times one pack was a friend to man, but the other pack had a leader with a more devious mind. The two packs, throughout history, have grown apart. They have different beliefs than we do and want a different world than us.”

“Is that the whole story?”

Louise smiled as she picked up a piece of sausage. “Not even close to all of it. But you can’t learn the entire history of a people over breakfast. So eat. We still have a day camp to run.”

“About those wolves we saw last night. How come you don’t know them? Don’t they have a scent? Or why can’t you ask them who they are with that talking in the head thing?”

Louise brows narrowed. “What do you mean, talking in the head thing?”

“I could hear you talking to me in my head last night, giving directions. You know, like telepathy.”

My aunt finished pouring syrup over her pancakes, then stared at them for a few seconds. “Not everyone can hear me like you did. Even fewer can answer back. It’s a special skill, a gift really, to be able to communicate telepathically while in wolf form.”