Chapter 6: Chapter 5

“Luci! What are you doing?” I scramble off my bed and hurry to the window, grabbing onto my friend’s leg as she clambers through. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

She falls to the carpet with a soft thud. “I’m a psycho killer here to kidnap you, what do you think?” She raises a black eyebrow.

“Not funny,” I glare at her.

“Sure it’s not,” she gets up and flops into my bed.

“What did I miss?” A softer voice comes from the window. I roll my eyes. Of course Gabby is here too. Wherever Luci goes, Gabby follows, especially if it’s to come visit me. At midnight.

But I don’t mind. Honestly, I could do with the company.

Gabriella and Lucia are like my triplets from another life. We met in middle school, and I’ll never forget the boring school dance for which we had to dress up in costumes. I spent weeks making my princess dress, but Gabby looked infinitely more elegant and graceful in an angelic gown complete with wings, her golden hair and fair skin suiting the outfit perfectly. Luci went with a dark and seductive look that made me scared to claim her as friend. They were both so stunning, I didn’t know why every boy wasn’t tripping over each other to dance with them. But we three found ourselves by the food table, and have been firm friends ever since. They’re the only friends who never make fun of me.

“What in tarnation is this?!”

Well, almost never.

“Give me that!” I snatch my art book from Luci’s hands and see she’s been gawking at my most recent masterpiece.

“Why are you drawing such hideous creatures? Are you trying to give us all nightmares?” She continued with an angry scowl.

“No, I’m trying to get the nightmares out of my head,” I try explaining but Luci doesn’t buy it. She begins flipping through the other scrapbooks I have on my bookshelf while Gabby inspects my picture.

“Does this have anything to do with your misadventure the other night? Are you still hurt? I heard you nearly drowned.” Her genuine concern for me as she clutches my arm and feels my forehead with the back of her hand is almost funny, as if I have contracted a fever from the cold river.

“I’m fine. But how did you hear about it?” I shouldn’t be surprised that news travels fast in this pack.

“Your dad was telling a group of us at training this afternoon,” Luci explains blandly.

That makes sense. He’s probably using me as an example of what not to do if you want to stay out of trouble. Trust the former Beta to teach some sense into the young and overconfident warriors. Ever since Charles handed over full Beta responsibilities to Benjamin, he’s had more time to spend with Lexi, work in the garden around our home, teach new warriors, and unofficially patrol the northern border near where we live. Though knocked down by a fair share of heartache, you can’t keep a strong Beta down. Our section of the pack is one of the safest, despite my idiocy in wandering over the border and nearly meeting my demise.

“I wanna hear all about it! So spill all the details!” Luci perks up, sitting cross-legged on my bed and pulling me closer. Gabby joins us, clutching my favourite heart shaped pillow to her chest.

“It’s nothing big. I just wandered too close to the river bank and Dad had to rescue me. Moral to the story: never walk aimlessly through the forest at night,” I play it down.

“Unless you’re with a hunky guy to protect you.”

“Luci!” Gabby smacks her arm. There was no denying how boy-crazy the raven-haired beauty was, and I found myself praying she met her mate soon before getting into the wrong kind of trouble.

“But seriously,” Gabby lowers her voice. “That doesn’t explain the picture. You saw him, didn’t you?” Her finger is resting on the wolf with the horns, vicious snarl, and black wings.

“Well, yes,” I twist my fingers together, knowing I could never keep the truth from them for very long. “He’s just a regular wolf who chased me off his territory—“

“You crossed the border!?” Luci gasps.

“Shhh! It was by accident, okay? I would never normally—“

“What was really going on? Did you feel like something was leading you?” Gabby asks gently. They are the only ones who take me and my strange stories kind of seriously.

“In a way. I dreamt about it, I think. But then this wolf shows up…”

“This demon,” Luci corrects, saying what I guessed they must be thinking.

“And you believe in demons?” Gabby raises an eyebrow.

“Let’s not have that discussion again. I say we go exploring and see if we don’t bump into your friend again, hmm Ari? You up for adventure?” The sly smile growing on Luci’s face is infectious, and I feel my heart flutter with excitement. And a small bit of apprehension.

“He nearly killed me last time.”

“No problem. This time it will be three against one.”

“And if he’s got backup?”

“Then the worst that could happen is we get dragged before their Alpha. I heard he’s really hot—“

“No. No, no, and more no. Not happening. I am not going back into that forest just to test the rumours,” I say even as Luci is grabbing my coat and shoes and Gabby looks again at my picture thoughtfully.

“You owe it to yourself to see what happened, Ariella. If what you felt was really some intuition or instinct, it may be important and you can’t ignore it.” Gabby is the voice of reason in our sometimes crazy trio.

“Okay,” I eventually sigh and give in, following them both out the window and down the tree. Neither of us risk the squeaky back door this time.

The moon is brighter tonight, throwing more light on the path ahead of us as we walk silently towards the boundary line. I won’t cross it, but just traverse the edge and see if there’s anything to learn from a distance. The shadows seem to be silent tonight, my heart steady as my wolf rests in the background. Nothing to cause a commotion or raise suspicion.

“I wonder how bad he is.”

“Who?” Gabby asks.

“The new Alpha, who else would I be taking about?” Luci snaps, pushing back a branch and thoughtlessly letting it fling back into Gabby. My sweeter friend holds it for me while Luci plows ahead, the sound of her footsteps disturbing the otherwise silent forest. Not even the crickets are chirping, and perhaps this alone should be a concern but I don’t worry about it.

Gabby and Luci’s chatter more than makes up for the quiet and allows me to keep my thoughts to myself.

A cold breeze blows access my shoulder, making my skin prickle. I listen carefully, hearing nothing but picking up a strange scent. It grows stronger as we near the border, and finally my friends stop talking as they too sense the change in the air currents. Suddenly, up ahead on a bluff, the moonlight shifts from behind a cloud and illuminates a solitary figure.

We each stop in our tracks as we stare across the border. A wave of fear and apprehension engulfs me as I can tell it is a different wolf from the other night, yet there is something decidedly more sinister about this man’s posture. Maybe it has something to do with the black haze that seems to exude from him, or maybe it is just my imagination, as Luci certainly doesn’t notice it.

“Let’s go say hello.”

“Are you insane?” Gabby exclaims in a whisper at the same time I dig my nails into Luci’s arm. Successfully stopped, she huffs angrily but stays in place. After staring for a full three minutes, I decide I’ve had enough of the cold and dread that snakes down my spine, and turn on my heel.

Whoever it is, I don’t think he knew we were watching him, but I know better than to risk a shift in the wind that might give away our presence.

Hurrying back up the path, Luci and Gabby follow more slowly but I’m eager to get home. Luci’s loud whispers annoy me, as she speculates who the man might have been, what the connection is to the wolf the other night—if any— and when next we can go exploring.

“Will you just be quiet?” I growl lowly as I see my house come into view up ahead. My heart is racing, my palms are hot and clammy, and I can’t seem to explain away this uneasy feeling from being out here in the night. The cover of darkness is definitely hiding something, yet I don’t really share Luci’s enthusiasm for finding out what. Maybe if I was brave, but I’m scared. Shivers run up and down my spine and I want nothing more than to be tucked in bed under the covers with my eyes squeezed shut.

But my eyes are definitely open when I see a light glowing from my bedroom window, splashing onto the tree outside. My stomach drops and my feet have turned to lead, as I stand still just inside the tree line.

“Welp! Looks like someone’s busted,” Luci sounds like she couldn’t care less.

“I just knew we shouldn’t have gone out tonight,” Gabby presses a fist to her mouth and grimaces.

“Hey, you pushed me to do it!” I don’t think I will ever understand these girls.

“Sure, and you had fun, right? Good luck with your folks,” and Luci takes off in the opposite direction with a cheery wave.

Gabby rubs my arms reassuringly before disappearing into the night as well, leaving me alone.

I’m in such big trouble. I quickly climb the tree, each branch feeling harder and harder to pull myself up to, and as I crouch before my window, I conclude that this is the hardest thing I’ve had to face in my short life so far. And that I’m the biggest idiot and wimp in existence.

Taking the leap between tree branch and window ledge, I ease myself in then tumble to the floor.

I hastily stand, my cheeks growing redder by the minute, and face my parents, who are both watching me with arms crossed and giving me the look.

I am so dead.