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Author's Note: Here's Ch.15, something I like to call the beginning of the end. I used the wolf pic here because she's in wolf form about the same amount of time she's in human form so I figured that it worked here. I'd like to djkauf for the editing and the fans for continuing to read this story and the others in the DRU.

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Ch.15

I started out for the Harpers after school the next day. I wanted a fresh start to things. Besides, it took me that long to build up the courage to do it. I wasn’t quite ready to run into Chris again. It was bad enough seeing him at school but going back to his house was another story. Over our month of dating, I got pretty close to him and his sister. His aunt Cecily and her daughters were pretty accommodating as well. Like my own father, Chris’ Uncle Patrick was a busy guy. But unlike Dad, he seemed to actually care for his family.

I thought about driving to the Harpers but riding my bike was much easier. Besides, I wanted to get as much bike riding in as I could before the snow started to fall. Not that riding was the smartest thing in the world, especially going from our house to theirs. They were on the absolute opposite side of the town, not as far from it as us but far enough. It was strange how the rich liked to distance themselves. The Stiles and the Cordays lived on either sides of the town too, so the four big families took up north, south, east and west rather nicely. The only ones who didn’t were the McClintocks.

Mr. McC’s family wasn’t all that wealthy any more, actually. They had a lot of prestige at one time but most of their wealth was gone.

Mr. McC was actually one of the only ones left in the town. I had to wonder if that meant there weren’t many Were Foxes around either.

The Harper estate was large but nowhere as big as ours of course. I don’t think there were too many places bigger than ours---in fact besides the college, our house was the biggest building in all of Ravencrest. Like my house, this one was surrounded by a wall with a gate. I rode my bike up to the rod iron bars, tapping the intercom. It buzzed and opened for me. I’m sure it was someone who thought I was here for Chris. After all, I spent quite a bit of time here when we were dating.

I rode on through, following the drive up to the large white house. I rested my bike against one of the columns before walking up to the porch. I knocked gently on the door before it opened. Clarissa and Mary Jane---two of Chris’ cousins---were standing there. They were dressed to play tennis, holding rackets. The Harpers had a private court around back.

“Hey Trace” said Clarissa, giving me a big, welcoming smile.

“Hi guys,” I said, smiling back.

“I thought you and Chris were done?” asked Mary Jane, giving me a look.

I nodded. “We are, I’m not here to see Chris. I’m actually here to see your Dad.”

They looked at one another then back at me. “You’re here about…well…that thing….”

“The hearing?” They nodded. I thought they might have been there but I wasn’t sure. “I’m hoping to find someone to help me prove my Dad’s innocence.”

Mary Jane sniffed the air. “I knew there was something wrong with you, you know. You didn’t smell normal.”

I groaned. Mary Jane was like that with anyone but mainly girls. She was extremely competitive with girls she thought were prettier or as pretty as she was. I guess I felt kind of flattered. “You smell about the same to me,” I said, waving off her remark.

She grumbled. “Whoa down girl,” said her sister, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the house. “Dad’s in the main room, Trace.”

The two sisters left so I walked slowly into the house. The Harpers didn’t like to show their wealth as much as my father did. Whereas everything in our house was fancy and expensive, everything here felt like it belonged. Even the main foyer was a little more down to earth, especially without a crystal chandelier swinging over my head. I tried not to scrutinize things too much as I made the short walk into the main room. I found Patrick Harper sitting in one of the armchairs, reading the paper.

“Hello, Tracy” he said, before folding his paper and setting it on the coffee table in front of him.

I couldn’t help but wonder if he smelled me too.

“Hello Mr. Harper” I said as I walked a little further into the room.

“You’re here about your father aren’t you?” I nodded, he pointed to one of the other chairs. “Why don’t you and I talk about it then?”

Patrick Harper was a tall man with rugged good looks. He had a buff physique, dark blonde hair and warm gray eyes. He had a warm welcoming smile too, making him about as far from my father as possible. He was about ten years younger than Dad, too, and more active. There was always something in the paper about him participating in charity bike races and marathons. Dad usually just threw a lot of money at those things but Mr. Harper was an active member in our community. It was easy to see how he always seemed to have ladies swooning over him. I sat in the chair across from him like he instructed.

“So what do you want to know?”

I cleared my throat. “You and my father were partners on his development deal?”

He laughed. “You were talking to Burton weren’t you?”

“Uncle Burt might have mentioned it.”

Mr. Harper sighed. “Yes, your father and I were in on it together. I bet Burton told you that we had a falling out, probably mentioned there was some bad blood between us.” All I could do was nod. Mr. Harper laughed again. “Burt likes to stir things up.”

“But you’re no longer partners right?”

“It’s true, but there’s no bad blood. Your father and I parted ways on good terms. When he couldn’t secure the site I pulled out, didn’t want to be wrapped up in something that might take a few years to get off the ground. I won’t lie to you and say I was happy about how things ended. I was pretty annoyed with it but sometimes that’s how these things go.”

“So no grudge then?”

He laughed. “Burt really told you that?”

I shrugged. “He didn’t say there wasn’t one.”

“He likes to gossip, makes him feel bigger than he already is. He likes to spread rumors too.”

I sighed. So Uncle Burt was sending me on a wild goose chase then.

Mr. Harper smiled. “Your father is a good man. If it’s any consolation, when the Council voted to remove him, I was against it. Your Dad might be a bit of an ass but he gets the job done. I’m not sure what happened to those poor people but you can be certain that your Dad wasn’t behind it.”

“You have any idea who might have been?”

“I’m a reporter, I don’t make idle guesses. I’m only after the truth” He looked around and leaned in closer. “If I were you,” he said in a whisper. “I’d look for that wolf you mentioned. You’re on the inside of things; you’re bound to find something that might shed some light on the whole thing.”

I smiled. “Thanks Mr. Harper.”

I said my goodbyes and left after that. So another dead end. Sadly, he didn’t tell me anything that I already didn’t know myself. Concerning the black and gray wolf, it could have been anyone. Last night when I got home, I called my uncle and asked him how many Wolf families were actually in Ravencrest. According to him there were six main families, all connected to us by blood. I tried to think of how many cousins I actually knew, I was only able to count my immediate ones and a few others. The rest were so distant that we didn’t even get Christmas cards from them. It boggled my mind though to know that there were so many Werewolves in the town.

It floored me even more to know that I was the only girl among them.

Thinking about that, got me thinking about my own predicament. I meant to ask Mrs. Crawford for an update but I completely forgot. It was bothersome to know that there was still no answer for what was wrong with me. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was even trying. After all, she never liked me before and now she seemed to partially tolerate me. I wasn’t a boy anymore, so there was no need to protect her granddaughter from me.

I pulled out my cell as I made for the foyer. I was dialing Mary’s number and not paying attention. I bumped into some one, our shoulders slamming roughly. I looked up and apologizing, seeing Cindy standing there. She was the girl I saw sparring with Chris that first time, a distant cousin of his from Boston who recently lost her parents. She was living with Chris now. She looked different today, partially because I usually saw her in the dojo all sweaty and stuff. Today she was dressed in normal clothes, her long hair free---I usually saw it in that braid.

“Tracy?” she said, surprised.

“Hi” I said, as the two of us rubbed our shoulders.

“You here for Chris, because he’s at the dojo. I was just on my way there actually” She shook her duffle.

I shook my head. “I was talking to your uncle. I needed to ask him about my Dad.”

She nodded. “So you’re a Wolf huh?”

“Last time I checked.”

We both laughed. I think this was the first time I’d heard her laugh. At the dojo, Cindy always seem so tense and driven. Now she was normal, like a girl I guess. It was strange because in the dojo she seemed so different, like a whole other person almost. Looking at her now, I couldn’t help but feel as if she was putting up a front for me. I scrutinized her a bit more than usual. She looked a lot like Chris, more so than his other cousins actually. If I didn’t know any better I could swear they were sisters. But I knew Chris only had one sister and his twin brother Craig was in Japan now.

“You want to go to the dojo with me?” she asked.

I shook my head. “It’s too weird now. What with us no longer dating and things. Besides I’m a bit weirded out by the whole Coyote thing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong with the whole coyote thing?”

“Nothing” I said with a laugh. “It’s just kind of strange, us being Weres and dating. We were pretty close for a month and neither one of us knew it. I guess I need some time to process all of that.”

“I guess it’s a little freaky,” she said with a smile.

I nodded. “I’ve had enough freaky to last two lifetimes.”

Literally in fact.

She laughed. “Me too.”

I followed her out the door after that. We parted at my bike, she went off. where-ever. I think she was going to run into town---God I wish I had her determination. Instead, I climbed onto my bike. I rode a while lost in my thoughts. I was about halfway home when I got that strange feeling of being followed. I stopped once or twice to look behind me but there was no one there. I sniffed the air but couldn’t smell anything. Maybe it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. Every time I started riding after stopping though, the feeling came back. It never went away the whole ride. It was kind of creepy actually. When I got home, I didn’t feel safe until I was fully into the house. Even then, I made sure the doors were locked and the security system was on.

Then I decided to head to my room to shower. I wanted to wash the day from me. What with school earlier and finding out nothing from Mr. Harper, I hoped to lose myself in the water. When I got to my room, Boomer was sleeping on the bed. I crept around slowly, shedding my clothes as I did so. I moved quietly in hopes of not waking him. I walked naked into the bathroom. I turned on the shower, climbed in and let the water wash over me.

Back to square one, I guess.

I stayed in the shower for twenty minutes. When I finally got out my cell was ringing. I rushed across the room and answered it, not surprised to see it was Mary.

“Hey Nancy” she said with a laugh. “How’d it go?”

“Another dead end” I said with a groan, dropping my wet naked self on my bed.

“You get the run around again?”

“Mr. Harper says there’s no bad blood between him and my Dad. He seems to think that Uncle Burt was just selling me some gossip or something.”

“And you believe him?”

I shrugged, even though I knew she couldn’t see it. “He has no real reason to lie to me.”

Mary groaned. “I’m taking back the Nancy Drew thing. You’re an idiot. For all you know he could have been lying.”

“He has nothing to win or lose by lying.”

“Ok, clearly you don’t read detective novels. Tomorrow after school, you and I are going to do things my way. Seeing as you’ve botched both the Corday and Harper interviews, I’m taking front on the next one.”

“The next one?”

“Mr. McC, dummy” she said with a groan. “He’s the only one that we haven’t talked to yet.”

That wasn’t entirely true but both of us were going to avoid Damien like the plague. Mary filled me in on her plan which was basically to ambush the poor unsuspecting man as he was leaving for the day, possibly even in the parking lot. She seemed to think catching someone off guard was the best way to catch them in a lie. I listened to her go on about it for a bit before I had to let her go. I toweled myself off, got dressed in some comfy sweats and proceeded to do my homework. The whole time I was doing it, I was distracted. I couldn’t help but think about what Mr. Harper said, about finding the mysterious wolf. Here I was so hell bent on trying to prove my father didn’t do it that I hadn’t even bothered to seek out the real culprit.

The grey and black wolf was out there somewhere and if finding him proved Dad’s innocence then that’s what I was going to have to do.

Nature calling woke me up. It’s one of those things I was never going to get used to as a girl---a tiny bladder. I sat up and looked around the room, finding the clock. Two thirty in the morning, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been up that late. I slid out of bed, my bare feet padding across the floor as I quickly made my way into the bathroom. One thing I was never going to get used to about this girl thing was sleeping without pants. The first week or two I tried it Constance’s way---wearing this sheer nightgown she bought me. It was really silky smooth and nice but it was too nice. So I switched to some pajamas but I didn’t really like those. Eventually I asked Mary what she wore to bed and was surprised by the answer.

So here, I was now, mimicking my best friend who wore an oversized t-shirt and panties. It was both masculine and feminine---something that I pointed out to Mary when she told me. I don’t think she liked me poking fun at her femininity or lack thereof. She threatened to turn me into something unnatural and we both had a laugh about it.

I finished peeing and flushed, sighing heavily. Then went to the mirror to wash my hands. As I was doing so, my stomach grumbled. From one ladylike thing to something not so much. I hated it when my stomach decided things for me. I tried to ignore it but in the end, I just couldn’t. I left the bathroom, slipped on my slippers and made my way across the room. Boomer was sleeping near the door and perked his up when I slowly opened it.

“Where Lady going?” he asked, yawning.

“I’m getting a snack.”

“Boomer come too?”

I shook my head. “Boomer stay here. I’ll be right back.”

I didn’t wait for his response. Instead, I closed the door as quickly as I could. Then I moved even faster down the hall. At this time of night, I didn’t want to wake anyone. So I moved with stealth as I meandered the hallways, making my way finally down the stairs. After some more twists and turns, I found myself in the kitchen. Gloria always kept some baked goods in the fridge; stuff left over from dinner desert. I raided it now, looking for those Chocolate Bacon cookies she made---they were like heaven earlier. I found the plate wrapped in plastic, took it out and ate at the counter. It was disgusting to think about, mixing chocolate with bacon but my new taste buds loved every bit of it.

I scarfed three cookies before I decided that was more than enough. MY stomach groaned in protest but I rewrapped the plate and put them back. I felt good about myself after that---empowered in fact. After that, I decided to take myself back upstairs, sadly, it was a school night. I made my way out of the kitchen and decided to take the long way around. I went through two halls without a problem but when I got to the third I stopped at the end of it: there was a light coming from under one of the doors. I almost ignored it but I couldn’t get over the fact that someone was up this late. I thought it might be Tommy and I could bust him for doing something stupid. More than likely it was probably one of my parents, most likely Dad.

I crept down the hall, making sure this time I wasn’t close enough to get caught. I stopped about five feet from the door, in hopes that I might at least catch something of what was going on inside. To my luck, there was talking, two people: my father and Constance.

“It’s getting too much,” said Dad, there was an edge to his voice.

“There has to be something else you can do?”

Dad sighed. “You know what happened the other day; I can’t have her around anymore.”

Her? Was he talking about me? Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear the rest of the conversation. My heart started to pound a bit in my chest and as much as I wanted to leave, I just couldn’t. They were talking about the other day too, that had to be when he caught me spying on them.

“She’s doing so good here. She’s got new friends and she’s starting to adjust to life.”

Dad groaned. “Damn it Connie, I can’t have her around.”

It was like someone slapped me in the face hard. They were talking about me and what was worse, my father had said the words I was dreading: he wanted to get rid of me. I tried to fight back the tears but couldn’t. My whole body seized up and I couldn’t breathe. I nearly passed out but I managed to brace myself against the wall. They were talking about getting rid of me. I was his daughter, the only one he had. I knew he hated me but not even to care about me, that was low. I knew he could get pissed and I knew he was angry about me being like this but I never thought that he’d try to get rid of me.

“I’ve made some arrangements in New York, the first thing tomorrow morning I want you to put her in a car and take her to the airstrip. I’m going to end this the only way I know how.”

I shook my head, tears flowing down my cheeks. Goddamn motherfucker. I wanted to scream; instead, I turned and ran down the hall. I couldn’t hear anymore. I ran as hard and as fast as I could. My feet didn’t carry me back toward my room though; instead, they carried me right for the front door. I grabbed the doorknob, yanking it open. I didn’t give a damn about the alarm as it started to blare. Instead, I took off across the lawn. Halfway to the wall, I felt my shirt split open as I dropped to all fours and put all my strength into. I jumped in the air, my clothes tearing completely off me as I went. When I landed on the other side, I was in full wolf mode. I didn’t even feel the change happen. I didn’t care either as I continued to run. I didn’t even care where I was going I just knew I needed to get as far away as I could. If my father wanted to get rid of me so damn much than I was going to make it easy for him.

I didn’t have a destination in mind as I ran. I was partially fueled by anger, partially by fear. In the end, I found myself heading toward the woods. It was after all the perfect place to get lost. If they came after me, I hoped it would take them hours to find me. I thought about running around a bit, getting my scent over everything but that seemed a bit drastic. I knew running and hiding from them would fail eventually but for now, it was all I had. Maybe if I got far enough away---put some distance between me and them---I might get far enough away that he didn’t care anymore. I could leave Ravencrest just like he wanted and both of us would win in the end.

When I finally got to the woods, I took a moment to catch my bearings.

I knew this particular bit of woods pretty well because Mary, Greg and I used to play here sometimes as kids. Of course, Constance never liked that idea but we never strayed too far into it. We had this little area that the three of us used to go too, there was even a little wooden fort we built. The good thing about it was we were the only ones who knew about it. It was the perfect destination for the moment. It was some place I knew and someplace I could sit for a while to think things through further. I knew running wasn’t the smartest idea---especially this late at night---but instinct kind of took over in that respect. To go home now seemed kind of pointless though. The same fate would be waiting for me if I turned around now.

No going to the fort was the best answer. From there I could figure things out further. Now that my mind was made up, I started running again.

There was something free and invigorating about running in wolf form. I was almost tempted at this point to say the hell with everything and stay this way. Dad surely didn’t want me and I’d already screwed things up majorly in his life. My life was pretty screwed too. I was a guy turned into a girl with apparently no way to get back to his normal self. I couldn’t even tell other people who I was either---it was insane. There were all these people I was friends with and none of them knew the true me except Mary. I hated lying to everyone, but most important of all I hated lying to myself. I hated kidding myself too. I knew there was no way back and day by day, I didn’t want to go back. Sure if there was a chance I’d take it but being a girl was starting to grow on me.

There were some things I didn’t like of course. I hated being treated like I’m made out of glass and the whole PMS---I wouldn’t wish that on anymore. There were lots of things I liked too. I liked the way my relationships have changed; I’m much closer to Constance and Mary than ever before. I also liked how when I walked into a room, all eyes were on me. I was proud to be pretty even if it meant that guys were falling over themselves to get to me. The pheromones were a bitch but I was starting to get those under control too. Apparently, the knack to them was my state of mind, the more nervous I was, the more that came out. But if I kept calm head, the guys treated me normally. There were still always a few who were dicks---like Mike---but even those guys were getting fewer and fewer each day.

All this back and forth in my head was enough to drive a normal person nuts. First, I hated being a girl, then I liked it. There had to be some way to find a balance to all this craziness. I stopped thinking about it when the fort finally came into sight. I was surprised at how unimpressive it looked now. As a kid, it was by far the coolest thing in the world. We spent a whole summer building, salvaging parts where we could. Most of the wood came from lumber yards, spare scraps they had lying around. The roof was actually this old mattress that Greg’s parents were throwing out. It was off their king size bed so it was huge. The fort didn’t have a door; instead, we hung this blanket door over the entrance. It was pretty cool when we were ten. Looking at it now, this dilapidated thing I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad. The coolest thing in the world to me for a whole summer was kind of a piece of crap.

Nevertheless it was the perfect place to think.

I stopped running when I got closer to it. We used to place these trip wires all around it, tied to soup cans and empty Coke cans. It was our security system. It was kind of cool for three ten year olds to cook up. No one was allowed to approach our sanctuary for fear of bombardment. Which meant if anyone set off the trip wire we used to jump out and bomb them with water balloons. We never got to throw any of course because no one knew we were out there. It was a fun summer that year and the next summer it was completely forgotten. I tried to remember the last time we were here and couldn’t remember. It was one of things that kids just seem to forget about. It was cool while it lasted though.

I walked closer to the fort, I would have run right inside but something stopped me. No not something, some smell. It was a familiar odor, something that I shouldn’t be smelling out here. It was all around me too, closing in fast. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I started to growl. As I did so, a long tan shape slipped slowly out of the fort. It was a cougar, a good sized one too. More than that though, it was a cougar I’d seen and smelled before: Damien. What the hell was he doing here?

As if he could read my thoughts, the large feline transformed back into the man that I knew him to be. It’s funny but his nakedness barely registered anymore. “Little Tracy Locke, out for a nice morning run?”

I took a step back. I smelled three others as well. There were behind me, hiding in the bushes. The intent was clear, I ran, they pounced. I was boxed in and there was no chance of fighting my way out of it. So I did the only thing I could do, I closed my eyes and concentrated. A second later, I opened them, standing human before this ass.

“What the hell do you want?” I asked, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

“This place is fantastic,” he said, waving his arms around. He bent down and pulled the blanket from the fort. He gave it a big sniff. “Your smell is all over it.”

My smell. What the hell was he talking about?

“You know,” he said, dropping the blanket. “After the other day I couldn’t get you out of my mind. There was something about you that just didn’t add up so I did some poking around. I was a bit surprised to find that you don’t exist, at least not before your so called sixteenth birthday.”

He took a step toward me, I took one back. I didn’t want to back up too much because I knew his slimy goons were somewhere behind me. I instinctively slipped into a defensive pose though. There might be more of them but if he tried anything, I was going to kick his ass. Hopefully it would be enough of a distraction to go wolf again and escape. If not, I wouldn’t have much to worry about because they’d rip me to shreds.

He was almost on top of me again. I flinched, waiting for him to use the Gaze on me. Instead, though, he grabbed my hair like before and sniffed it. “Same smell” he said softly, his eyes slightly twinkling.

I shuddered at his touch.

“What I want to know is, how is it that someone who has never lived in Ravencrest before has her smell all over it.” He waved his hand. “This place is pretty old, that little fort over there, I can smell the age on it. I can smell you all over it too.”

Did I smell the same as both Trevor and Tracy?

“I think you’re reading too much into things,” I said, thinking quickly. “Mary brought me out here the other day. She and my brother used to play here as kids. My smell probably rubbed off then.”

He laughed. “You would think so but it doesn’t really work that way. You see odors linger. I know what you smell like now, its fresh and sweet.” He picked up the blanket, rubbing his nose in it. “This is old, rank, even. The same smell but different times. Why is that, I wonder?”

He rubbed my cheek with the back of my hand. Then he leaned in close, his mouth near my ear. “You’re little Trevor Locke aren’t you?”

I shuddered, a tear rolling down my cheek. I felt a tingle and knew he’d used it on me. I tried to move but couldn’t. It must have happened when he touched me.

Shit, I didn’t know they could transfer it that way. He took a step back and had the biggest smile on his face.

“This is so fantastic. I’m not sure how you did it and frankly I don’t give a damn” He dropped the blanket again. “You see this is so much better than before.”

“So you know the truth” I managed to stammer. There was no point hiding it. “What are you going to do now?”

“Well originally me and the boys were going to have our way with you. Have a fun ride fucking the only little Wolfie with an innie instead of an outie. We would have fucked and then feasted; I would have made your death as quick as possible.”

Oh God. I tried to move but my entire body was frozen. The only thing I could do was cry.

He wiped a tear from my cheek. “Don’t cry precious, I said that was the original plan but now I’ve got something much better.” When he smiled, I saw all of his teeth, it was creepy. “It’s only a matter of time before the Coven and the rest of the Council decides I’m not suited to run anything. I had another plan in play when that happened but this one is much better. You see my father and yours were planning a union anyways, marrying off you to my little sister. That’s not going to work anymore now, even with little sis’s abnormality.”

He had a sister. I tried to think if I knew any Cross’s at school but none rang any bells. Unless she was younger than me. I didn’t know any freshman. If she was older, that might be a little weird. Not that I wouldn’t have gone for an older woman as Trevor but now, there was something kind of off about it. The idea of being forced into a “union” with anyone was horrible to think about. It pissed me off that my father had even thought about it. Making me marry some girl I didn’t even know and for what, some political Were thing.

“So now everything works out for the best” he continued. “You and I will make the union. Our two families will be joined by marriage. I’ll become the Alpha of two families and get control of the Council the proper way. Everything works out for the best.”

This guy was nuts. There was no way he’d ever pull it off.

He looked beyond me. “You three come over here and hold her.”

There was some rustling behind me and then his goons came over in human form. I felt strong hands on my shoulders and one of them on my butt.

“Don’t manhandle my future bride like that” snapped Damien. Then he looked at me, smiling. “Sweetie, if I unfreeze you, do you promise not to run?”

Of course, I couldn’t answer. He grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes. As soon as he did, I felt a tingling again. I realized I could move now, wiggling my fingers first then my toes. Damien smiled then let go of my arms, turning slightly. I took at opportunity to strike. I drove the flat of my palm into the side of his head, slamming it as hard as I could into his ear. He screamed out in pain, staggering away. I twisted in the grip of his stunned cronies, using their shock to my advantage. I kneed one where he didn’t want to be kneed, elbowed the second in the throat and the third---the one who was touching my butt earlier---I grabbed his wrist and twisted. I swung him around and smashed him into his two friends.

With my attackers temporarily immobilized I ran.

Halfway through my run I went wolf. My heart was pounding just as much as my feet as I ran as hard and as fast as I could. It didn’t take long for them to start chasing me either. I could hear them gaining, running a lot faster than I thought. I cursed, wondering if they were in fact faster than I thought. I tried not to think about it as I ran. If I could double back on them, make it back toward the house things would be all right. I’d deal with all my father’s shit later, right now all I cared about was surviving. To think that that scumbag actually thought I was going to marry him, it made me sick. For all I knew he could have been the bastard that set up my father, in fact I was pretty damn certain he was. Why he thought marrying me was going to make every ok was beyond me.

I should have known something was up that day at the bistro, I should have told someone. The way he acted around me, the way he invaded my personal space like that. I thought he was being an asshole, showing some kind of display of dominance. But it wasn’t a dominance thing, well not in the sense I thought. He was trying to mark me as his own. He and his friends probably would have dragged me back to his truck, had their way with me, killed me like he said they were going to do and then dumped me somewhere. The only thing I didn’t know was why. Why go through all the trouble with me? Was he really that twisted? If he was in fact responsible for everything then he had what he wanted, the Council was his.

I was nothing to him.

Something thudded into the tree above me. I cursed and caught a glimpse of tan, running through the treetops, keeping pace with me. The bastards were in the trees too. There were two on the ground giving chase as well; where the fourth one was, I don’t know. Maybe I broke that guy’s arm and he couldn’t run? It didn’t really matter just as long as I could outrun the ones on my trail. If I could do that and get out of the woods, I might have a fighting chance. If I got back home, after all of this I wouldn’t fight anything. Dad could send me away---hell he could ship me to Siberia if he wanted---anything to get out of this town at the moment. Damien wasn’t going to stop. He impressed me as a guy who saw something he wanted and never quit until he got it.

I’m not sure what that was yesterday but today it was me. I hoped that whatever it was that he wanted tomorrow was not stupid enough to go running into the woods alone.

The one in the trees was in front of me now. I heard him crash into the tree ahead of me. I cursed, they were going to pin me in. I changed directions, running to the left. I heard my ground chasers in hot pursuit, keeping pace. The one in the trees changed too but he was behind me again. Now I was on the right path, I think. It was hard to keep track of things when I was being chased. I think I was going toward home but as far as I knew, I could have been running in circles. I tried not think about that though. I just needed to get away as fast and as far as I could. Where I ended up, I just hoped it was well away from all these bastards.

The tree runner got ahead of me again. I cursed. There was no changing direction though so the only thing I could do was hope that he didn’t get the drop on me. Unfortunately, things weren’t in my favor today. The cougar dropped down in front of me, chasing me to nearly fly over the top of him. I slid to a halt, my paws digging into the dirt. The cougar let out a hiss. I spun to avoid him only to have one of my pursuers slam into me full force. The impact sent me sprawling, the cougar on top of me. He sunk his teeth into my arm, wrenching it about. I yelped in pain. One of the others bit into my leg, which only caused me to yelp more. I kicked and squirmed but couldn’t break free. They had me. The tree running cougar transformed back into Damien. He stood over me, shaking his head. His left side was red and starting to swell, I at least not that hit in so it wasn’t all bad.

“You should have taken the deal you little bitch,” he said with a sneer. Then he looked at his friends. “I don’t want anything left of her.”

Damien turned back into the cougar and disappeared into the brush.

I watched him go and then the pain started again. The two cougars started to tug and pull on me from different directions, their teeth like knives. I would have screamed if I could, instead I yelped. The yelping was met by the loudest howl I’d ever heard. I had closed my eyes in that brief moment but when I heard the howl, I snapped them back open. As soon as I did, I saw a large wolf leap into the clearing. It slammed into one of the cougars, biting onto the back of its neck. The two of them rolled, the wolf got the advantage. It spun the cougar and threw it into the tree. It did it with its mouth; I’d never seen anything like it. When the cougar hit the tree, it didn’t get back up.

The other cougar let out a hiss. Instead of attacking, it turned tail and ran. The wolf turned to me just as the pain started to get the better of me.

Everything started to go fuzzy as it walked over and nudged me with its nose, whimpering slightly. It was right before I blacked out that I noticed the color of its fur:

Grey and Black.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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