Shifter Vengeance (Appleton Wolves Book 1), page 10
I looked at the shapeshifter, confused and surprised as hell. I didn’t have the guts in me to answer its question because I was scared at the visual of a shapeshifter's proper form. The shapeshifter shook its head at me and gave me a pathetic smile.
“The answer is…we do have our own form. A short description for you: thin, insect-like dark brown body with long, thin fingers and legs with claws on each. Just a little taste of our look. So how are you going to end my life tonight, little missy? You don’t even know what we truly look like.”
I looked at the shapeshifter with hatred and all the ire in the world.
“You’ll see. Because I don’t give two rats’ asses about what you look like. I just want you dead.”
I raised my blade and waved it in the shapeshifter’s face. The monster didn’t waver. It only smiled even more and gave out a small laugh.
“Well, come on then. Give me your best shot.”
The monster taunted me by raising one of its claws and wagging it at me, telling me to charge at it. The smile on its face lit the fuse of the bomb that was inside me. I exploded and charged at it with my machete.
“Mittent,” I heard the shapeshifter say as it waved its hands and threw me through the air several feet away from it and onto the ground. The impact of landing on the dirt was so hard I lost grip of my machete. I roiled on the ground as I saw the shapeshifter come towards me. My blade was within reach. I reached for it and grabbed it, waiting to strike against the shapeshifter once it came near me.
The shapeshifter came near me and yelled another phrase while springing forth its right hand – rigescunt indutae. All of a sudden, my entire body froze. I couldn’t move on the ground. I was immobile and couldn’t lift a single muscle or part of my body. The shapeshifter bent to the ground and stroked my hair. I was scared beyond any type of measure. I was about to die, frozen in place and thinking that the shapeshifter will end my life then and there.
“You are one tough girl, Ericka Jones. You dare to come into my forest and try to kill me with a puny blade. But at least you showed guts. And now, you’ll die a painful, slow death. Tell your aunt I said hi.”
This phrase that the shifter screamed at me, whether it was Latin, Italian, or whatever, did me in. I wanted to feel anger at the monster for its gibe. I tried to get up and try to kill it. But I wasn’t able to. The shifter flashed its prickled teeth at me and raised its claws, ready to sink them into my heart.
Then, the shifter looked up in awe when it and I heard a very familiar sound – the howling of a wolf.
“Give me a break!” I heard it say.
A combined feeling of relief and surprise overcame me. The shapeshifter had a look on its face as it looked all around for the werewolf. It was then that the wolf came out of the forest and charged at the shapeshifter, ready for a fight. The werewolf pounced on the shifter and tackled it to the ground away from me.
The freeze the shapeshifter put on me was lifted from my body, and I could move again. My entire body shook as I got off the dirt of the forest and was able to move again. I looked at my machete and picked it up immediately, ready to help the wolf with the shapeshifter. I saw the werewolf on top of the shifter biting it in its neck like that night I first saw it.
The monster screamed the same inhumane scream I heard that night. It was in agony as it slashed at the wolf’s sides with its claws. I could tell the wolf, Josh, was in agony as I heard it make small whimpering sounds while he sunk his fangs in the monster’s neck. But Josh wouldn’t budge and instead just pinned his canine teeth into the monster’s neck.
I looked at the fur on Josh’s side and saw blood streaming out, a sight that scared me to death.
“Josh!”
The werewolf finally retracted its claws from the shifter’s neck, and it turned its attention to me. The accidental distraction allowed the shifter to take advantage of the wolf by throwing it off and pouncing on it while it was on the ground. The shifter dug its claws into the wolf’s sides, and I heard the wolf howl in pain. At the same time, the wounds on the shifter’s neck began to self-heal, a sight that frightened me to death.
I took it as my cue to charge at the shifter to get it off the wolf. I slashed at the shifter’s arms and kept cutting at them in blind anger. I wasn’t even thinking about what I was doing. I only thought about the words “Slash, girl, slash!” as I kept cutting at the shapeshifter’s skin. It was at that point I saw steam rising from the shapeshifter’s skin where I gashed it.
Its screaming filled my ears to the point where I was almost deaf. But I know that I gained the satisfaction of causing it pain with each inhumane yelp from the shifter. It didn’t last long, though, as the shifter yelled the word “Mittent!” and sent me through the air to the ground several feet away from it. I looked up and saw the shapeshifter flee into the dense forest at a superhuman speed.
My mind raced to the werewolf as I got up from the ground. Josh was hurt and I had to check on him. Once I got on my feet, I saw nothing in sight. Josh was nowhere to be found. I looked for him immediately. A brief search ended when I heard a male scream in the distance.
“Josh!”
I ran towards the scream as fast as I could. Even though I was mostly out of breath from the run I had earlier and from all the dreadful physical activities that followed, I still ran as fast as I could to follow the sound of Josh’s screaming. I got closer to the bawling and walked carefully towards it. I found the source of the screaming, but it wasn’t Josh.
I found Derek on the ground, slumped against a tree and naked from head to toe. His sides near where his kidneys are were seeping blood. I also saw his fangs start to retract and the wounds on his side from the shapeshifter’s attack begin to self-heal on their own. Once they self-healed fully, Derek’s canine fangs were completely retracted. All that was left was blood where the wounds on his sides were.
It was all the evidence I needed to confirm my instincts as I looked at Derek in horror. He turned his attention to me, and I saw he had the same look of horror on his face when he looked into my eyes once I found out his secret.
“Ericka,” he said as he started to get emotional. “Please –”
“I freakin’ knew it! All along, you’ve been lying to me! There is no ‘childhood friend’ named Josh! It was you the entire time and you lied to my face, you bastard!”
“I can explain, please –”
“Get the hell away from me! I don’t want to see you ever again for as long as I live! You lied to me and you hurt me in the deepest way possible. You lied to me! I can’t believe I trusted you all this time and showed admiration and appreciation towards you!”
“I’m so sorry! Please, if you just wait –”
“I’m done with you! You stay away from me! Forget that you even know me! Erase me from your mind and your life! Lose my number and don’t contact me ever again! I don’t want anything to do with you anymore! You’re a werewolf and I want you to stay away from me!”
I dashed away from Derek as fast as I could. I turned around for a split second and I saw him on his knees crying. I had no sympathy for him. All I thought about at that point was just leaving the forest and never seeing his face for as long as I lived.
12
Well, it happened. My worst fear came true. Ericka now hates my guts and is afraid of me. The cat was out of the bag despite all my attempts to stuff it in there as best as possible. I switched back to wolf form and ran to my cabin as fast as I could. I felt so many tears well up in my eyes that I couldn’t see where I was going. I kept blinking and closing my eyelids to push the tears out, but it didn’t help much.
I ran past the two wolves who were placed on the lookout by my uncle. I just wanted to go inside the cabin and cry my eyes out until tomorrow. I transformed back into human form and I twisted the doorknob so fast before I burst into my cabin and ran into the living room. I laid face down on one of the couches and soaked the pillow's fabric with my tears. I absorbed the warmth of the couch up against my body and I took comfort in it.
I haven’t let myself be vulnerable to anyone in my life, and I certainly haven’t been this close to anyone either. Ever since my dad died at the hands of my uncle, my heart has turned to stone. That was until I gave Ericka the keys to access it. Then the stones melted away from my heart and it grew four sizes. My heart grew for her. She became my weak spot.
I’ve been running away for so long that I’m a stray. Stray wolves are a big no-no in the werewolf race. We either belong in packs or spend the rest of our lives defending ourselves from pack alphas who want to make us a part of them. I don’t want to join a pack more than I don’t want to give up meat.
I want to be a free wolf for the rest of my life because there’s nothing oppressive more than living under the rule of a pureblood alpha. I value my freedom more than any pack on this earth, and I haven’t been part of a pack ever since my dad’s untimely and violent passing. I wanted to make sure it stayed that way.
That’s why my uncle is in Appleton with his wolf pack. I can’t fight against a pack on my own, so I got my uncle to come here from Washington. He wanted a chance to make it up to me, and I needed someone to help me fight off any pack that may force me to join. It was a win-win situation, even though the idea made me sick to my stomach. But I’m desperate. I need all the aid I can get.
I spent so much time on the couch crying over Ericka that I lost track of time. I felt like I’ve been crying for ten minutes, maybe even twenty. Who knows? Time was now frozen in my life. It felt like my life stopped because Ericka was no longer in it. Everything stopped because Ericka was gone. I knew instantly she didn’t want to be associated with a werewolf. She thinks I might kill her or something, even though I wouldn’t lay a hand on her other than to hug her or for a sweet, intimate moment.
How was I going to convince her of that now? She’s probably thinking about so many ways to block me out of her life and cut off all contact with me. What’s even worse is that she might go to the authorities and alert them to a werewolf in Appleton’s forest, and they’ll hunt me down along with the other wolves here. I would have to put up a fight and they would, too. It would be a massacre with bodies and blood everywhere. It would gather national attention and the media would be all over it.
I didn’t give any more thought to these theories. It was all speculation, and I didn’t want to go that far. Maybe Ericka wasn’t like that. Maybe she would want to forget all about me and bury the memories about me so far deep she wouldn’t even speak my name to anyone ever again. But that’s not what I wanted. I have to win her back. I can’t let her slip out of my life. I can’t lose her. I feel a solid connection to her.
But I couldn’t think about how to get Ericka back in my life. I couldn’t even cry anymore. I was startled off the couch when I heard growling and howling outside my cabin. I wiped all the tears on my face and ran outside the door. I saw a wolf I haven’t seen before ambushed and killed the two lookouts.
The wolf was sinking his teeth deep into the heart of one of the wolves when I ran out. He had brownish-red fur. He raised his head and hackles and looked at me with a rage in his eyes. The wolf growled at me and showed me his fangs. I squinted my eyes and turned into my wolf form within a matter of seconds.
Even though I just came back from a fight with the shapeshifter, I was fueled by so much anger and hatred towards being exposed to Ericka for who I was. I saved her from it so she should be thankful for saving her a second time. Maybe she’ll forgive me with time, and I took solace in that. But it was a second-long solace as I charged at the wolf for a fight.
He charged at me and pounced on me, but I jumped underneath the wolf and tackled him to the ground with my claws. I later saw myself on top of the wolf after hearing the loud thud of impact when he hit the ground. I was on top of him with my claws deep into his guts, slashing at him with a furious sequence of movements. I even sunk them deep into the wolf, where I felt some of his insides.
I heard the wolf wail and howl from all the pain, but I couldn’t feel anything except anger and fury. I was blind to those feelings. I didn’t care if the wolf cried or screamed from all the pain I was causing him. All I felt was this pure wrath and all I tasted was the wolf’s throat as I ripped the skin apart and my fangs sinking deeper into his voice box.
It was then that he stopped howling and I heard something else instead. I heard bones breaking, like something detaching from something else. After the fight was over, I didn’t feel any more anger. I could see in front of me again and I was able to see every other color than red. I looked down at the wolf underneath my paws and saw a pool of blood around his dead, decapitated body.
Those are the bones that I heard break. I killed him in such a frenzy that I cringed when I looked down at his corpse and saw the claw marks and cavities I created in his stomach. I backed away from the wolf and turned back into human form. I walked back to the cabin and just left the wolf’s body to rot.
I didn’t go inside. I stayed for a few minutes on the porch and sat down in a chair. All I thought about now was the future as I looked up at the moon. I hoped that Ericka would move on from tonight. I hoped that she would forgive me for lying to her like that. We’re meant to be together. She can’t forget about my kindness to her and the times I saved her from the shapeshifter.
She has to forgive me eventually. She will. I will work hard to ensure she does if it’s the last thing I do on this earth.
13
I didn’t want to wake up. I didn’t feel like opening my eyes and facing the world that I lived in. I could feel the sun radiating outside through my bedroom window. My eyes, though, weren’t ready to open. I struggled to lift my eyelids and wake up. I just wanted to sleep and stay asleep for as long as possible.
All of my slumber eventually left me, and I was able to wake up. I lifted my head off the pillow with squinting eyes after looking at the bright sun. I then gathered the energy and will to get up from my bed and leave my bedroom. I went to the bathroom directly across the hall and splashed water on my crusty face. I brushed the untamed wavy blonde hair I had and returned it to its normal form.
Once I did all my business in the bathroom, I walked back into my bedroom and shut the door. I didn’t feel like leaving my bedroom other than to go to the bathroom if it became necessary. My stomach had too many knots for me to eat or drink anything. I didn’t feel like doing anything except to cover myself all snug and warm underneath the blanket of my bed and stare at the ceiling. All I knew was that my life was going nowhere, and I didn’t even want to attempt to ponder where it would go in the future. Whatever happens next happens.
I hopped back onto the bed and covered myself in my blanket. I stared up at the ceiling and looked at the white space. It was a perfect analogy of my current life right now – just a white space with nothing in it. Nothing has happened in my life, nor will anything happen that’ll make it a good life.
I knew all along that Derek lied to me, but he hid his secret from me in such an intricate way. Even though I believed in my gut that Derek was the werewolf the entire time, I was still naïve and stupid to think that the wolf I saw last night was his nonexistent childhood friend. I screamed out the name Josh when I saw Derek being hurt because of what he put in my head.
I shouldn’t have even entertained the idea in my mind. I should’ve just built a brain guard in my mind or a tinfoil hat to put on my head to block out stupid stories, lies, and half-ass excuses from who I thought was my best friend. I’ve never been this stupid in my life. I can’t believe I let someone like Derek Bentley take advantage of me and take me for a fool. It won’t happen again.
But my mind was conflicted with how good of a guy he was. He was so sweet to me the first time I met him. He helped me train in weapon use and even saved me all those times from the shapeshifter. And yet, he betrayed me. How could such a sweet guy like Derek deceive me and do something like that to me? Was that all an act? I couldn’t just forget all the good things he did for me. Did he lie to me because he was afraid of my reaction to him being a wolf? Was I too rough on him?
I wanted to delve deeper into this, but my train of thought was interrupted by something else while I stared at the ceiling. The idea of the mission to avenge my aunt came to mind. Where do I go now? What do I do now to get justice for my aunt’s death? I was going to work with Derek on killing the shapeshifter using his expertise in the supernatural since I thought he was friends with a monster.
How was I going to find and kill the shapeshifter now? How do I kill it without Derek? I felt more lost than a kid at a Fall festival maze. What complicated things even more was the mission to find Bart Ramsay’s book. How the hell do I even do that now with Derek no longer in my life?
You just have to wing it, girl. Just stab and slash that shapeshifter everywhere in its body. The heart should be right in its chest, right? It has to be!
Without the help of a werewolf or anyone with knowledge about the world of the supernatural, I was just going to have to wing it. Either I find a witch to help me locate the book, or I wing it by finding that shifter and sinking my machete into every fiber and skin of its frame. I couldn’t help but be overcome by my emotions.
I started crying once all of these thoughts ran into my mind. I sat up in my bed and placed my face into the palms of both my hands. I cried because Derek committed a severe offense against me, and I let him do it. I let myself be deceived by him when I should’ve just trusted my guts. I needed evidence that he was lying about being a werewolf, and I got what I wanted.
My eyes feasted last night on the sight of Derek, naked in the forest with his fangs still jutting out inside his mouth while his wounds started to self-heal. Those flash images ran across my mind as I cried heavily. The images represented the lies Derek told me and were a constant reminder of how much he took advantage of me.
