2

~Thea

"We are going to die..."

I nestle my head between the cushions of June's beaten up old couch, wishing it would completely drown out the sound of her insistent voice.

I had shown up here believing fully that she wouldn't find out about Jessica going missing. She never leaves the damn house-I even have to buy her groceries for her-and I assumed her parents wouldn't tell her either.

"Missing? No one ever goes missing here," she says, sounding so distressed I almost felt sorry for her. Too bad she thinks it is a fictional character that is the cause of the disappearance...

"She hated everyone here," I try to convince her. "It wouldn't surprise me if she just up and left."

June doesn't look convinced. Her fingers fiddle with the bottom of her shirt, which she does when she is nervous. Her face is shadowed, as her back faces the window. It is quite a scene, with the thunderstorm currently raging outside.

It doesn't rain very often. And storms occur so rarely it's considered an event. So with the rain beating down on June's roof, and windows, with thunder rumbling in the background, I am surprised she isn't frightened over that.

"What is she was kidnapped? What if we are next?" she demands, raking her hands through her mass of curls.

In that moment, she looked a lot like Jessica. "June, calm-"

"I live alone...Oh goddess," she cursed, starting to pace in front of me. "I'm next aren't I?"

I jump up, grabbing June's shoulders. I glare at her, holding her tight as she shakes beneath my hands. She is genuinely scared, and I can't really blame her. Something like this has never happened in our peaceful little town.

All of a sudden, the wind howls loudly from outside, and the lights flicker off.

We aren't in complete darkness, but it is enough to have June cry out and dive at the couch, throwing a blanket over herself. The trees outside wave their branches around, the little light from the dark clouds cast strange shadows across the floorboards.

"It's fine...Just wind," I croak. Storms scare me. Always have. The thought of mother nature potential casting a terrible disaster across the Pack is terrifying.

The sound of June's whimpering brings my attention back to her. "We just have to wait for it to pass."

Again, the wind picks up, thrashing the trees around so violently a branch snaps off a near one, skidding across the deck. And then, the door blows open.

The force is so strong, it swings back, and hits the window, smashing it completely. The crash of the glass and June's scream are similar. Glass scatters across the ground, landing at my feet.

"We are going to die!" I hear June faintly through the sound of the wind in my ears. It is deafening, as I fight my way to the door, the force of the wind unnaturally strong. All I could think in my head, is something is wrong, things like this never happen.

I grab the edge of the door, glass crunching under my shoes. Using the strength I developed from carrying plates to customers at work all day, I force the door closed, only satisfied when I heard it click.

Relieved, I collapse to the ground, surrounded by glass.

"Thea? Are you alive?" I hear June ask tentatively, peeking out from under the blanket. We lock gazes.

"No thanks to you," I mutter jokingly, patting my hair down.

I don't want to bring up the fact that the wind was the strangest thing that I have ever had to deal with. How I found the courage to shut the door, I am not sure. It was as if I was being willed to stop it.

"Where is Squiggles?" June ask, finally emerging from the blanket. Wind still billows through the hole in the window, sometimes sending a leaf in. That isn't going to be easy to fix.

"He was in his-" I break off, as my gaze finds the spot where the dog was moments before. June's face instantly pales. Her dog is her life...Everyone in the entire town knows it. So the second it is out of her sight without knowing exactly where she is.

We spend the next five minutes searching June's small cabin for the dog. Under the couch, behind the fridge, around the chairs. Nothing.

"He's out there," June says, her face falling in defeat. She glances at the door, and I know what she is thinking. Instead of being trapped in the small room that was a void of wind and screaming, that dog had escaped and into the forest, most likely.

"When the wind passes, I am sure he will come back," I tell her, but the words completely pass her by. She is already at the door, opening it. Instantly, the room is consumed in deafening wind, blowing the shards of glass toward me.

I push forward, grabbing her by the forearm to stop her from making her thoughts a reality. Visions of last night give me the strength to pull her backward. No way am I letting her walk out there on her own...

"Stay here, I will go out and find him," I promise, warily casting a glance outside. The rain is relentless, and doesn't seem to be ceasing anytime soon. Hopefully the thickness of the forest will be enough shelter.

Despite not wanting to send me out in the storm, June nodded, fueled by the thought of her missing dog.

So mustering as much courage as possible, I ran outside, slamming the door closed behind me. Outside, the rain hits me like bullets. This is the first time I have felt rain on my skin in a long time. The feeling is uncomfortable, as the cold liquid entwined with my hair, and dribbled across my skin.

I head down the same path I had taken last night, the canopy giving decent shelter from the onslaught of rain, but not so much the wind. I fought against it, my hair whipping around my face as I ran.

"Squiggles!" I call out loudly.

My eyes scan everywhere as I go, looking behind tree trunks, and under bushes. He's gone. The feeling of defeat sets in only a few minutes of being in the forest. The further I go, the darker everything seems to get. Am I imagining things, or are shadows seeming to crawl out from behind those trees.

I keep walking, shivering at the feeling of my wet clothes against my skin. Now I am starting to regret walking around for her stupid dog. And it even seems like everything is against me at this point. The wind may have died down from my position in the forest, but the rain stills coats my entire body.

"Squiggles please..." I croak, stumbling over my feet as I walk. The dirt path has mixed into mud, sticking to my feet that I didn't have time to cover with shoes.

Kicking a stick in front of me, I groan in frustration. Not only is June going to kill me for losing her precious dog, I'm probably lost, and the idea of getting hypothermia is become more realistic by the second.

Suddenly, I hear the sound of a man clearing his throat from behind me.

I jump, twisting around at the same time as praying to the Moon Goddess that it isn't a murderer that lurks within the woods. Instead I see nothing. No one. Nada. Instead of seeing another person, I'm stuck staring at tree trunks and a thick mass of leaves. Like an idiot.

Again, I can't help but think about those strange noises in this forest from last night. Someone, or something lives here. And I don't think I'm very welcome.

If whatever is in here doesn't know that I have accidentally accompanied it, then maybe I may just get out of here alive. But it sounded like a very normal person making a very normal noise.

So I stand still, unsure of what to do. But then I see something. A figure. The outline is shadowy-almost fuzzy in a way. I have to strain my eyes to make sure I'm seeing right. Because if I am, I think it's a man standing further down the path, back facing me.

If my eyes don't deceive me, I may have just found someone to take me back the way I came. Because I believe I strayed from the path.

"Hey! Ah...Hello?"

My words carry through the wind, and for a moment, I assume he didn't hear me. But then his head turns.

I can't see see much of him, it's almost as if he's completely consumed by his own shadow. Only the outline can be seen, which shows me that he is very tall, and of a much larger frame than me. Definitely a man. A man that could either help me, or maybe kill me on the spot.

And then, he walks away.

Down the path he goes, strolling away without even acknowledging me.

"Wait! I'm lost," I call out after him. He disappears around a corner. I either stay out here and possibly die from the cold, or I follow him...The latter presents the only option.

Forcing my freezing limbs into action, I jog after him, bushing violent branches out of my way as I fight through the bush.

When the man comes into sight again, tendrils of darkness seeming to chase after him, I decide I might be going crazy. But I still follow. I still follow the path he strolls on.

Despite the pace I chase after him at, he only seems to get further away. The distance between us is agonising, but every slight turn of the man's head keeps me going. Perhaps he wants me to follow him after all. But right now, I don't have time to ask him.

And then suddenly, he vanishes around yet another corner. And when I make it around, I'm back at June's house.

I let out a deep breath in surprise. The quaint, old cabin with the broken window stands in front of me, and I can't help but think I'm hallucinating. The man is gone. Like he had been carried away with the wind. And instead I'm looking at a police car parked in front of June's porch, the rain leaving a slick sheen over the bumper.

Luca. My heart races.

I run up the porch steps, wet feet slapping against the wood. I bang my fist against the door, waiting for June to get me out of this vortex of wind rain. The moment the door opened I stumbled inside, yelling at her to close the door behind me.

Twisting around, a frazzled June presses herself against the door, the wind from the broken window blowing her hair around wildly. But I don't really notice her, despite the mission I just failed being about her dog, I noticed more the man standing in the corner.

I strode over to him, throwing myself into his arms. "I'm sorry."

I was apologising because I know he is going to be mad. Being uptight about safety is his job, and the fact that he is my boyfriend and soon to be forced mate makes it so much worse. He even happens to be in his police uniform as well.

"I can't believe you would do something stupid like that...Putting yourself in danger," he muttered into my hair. I wanted to roll my eyes. This isn't the first time I have heard those exact words come out of his mouth.

I pull away from Luca, glancing over to where June stood. "I couldn't find the dog."

She shrugs. She is visibly calmer now, having had time to cease her worry while I was nearly was lost out in the storm.

"I called Luca, because I thought you weren't going to come back..."

"How long was I gone?" I ask. June and Luca exchange glances.

It gives me a decent amount of time to assess the two. They look similar. Not just because they are born into the same Pack, but because they are first cousins. They share the same hazel coloured eyes-we all do-but his hair is slightly lighter from working in the sun a lot. But there facial structure is very similar, which I at first found weird, but now I am kind of used to it.

"Like, four hours," June said. My eyes widen. Four hours? I swear I was only gone for at least half an hour...I clutch my head in confusion. And the I remember the strange man.

"Someone else was out there," I tell them. "A man."

Luca looks outs the window, probably assessing the weather. No way is it possible for him to go out there and look for him now. And who knows if that man was even real...It could have been from the cold.

Speaking of the cold, I suddenly become aware of the icy feeling crawling under my clothes and across my skin. June seems to notice, rushing across the room to the chest where she keeps all her blankets.

"Dad and I will head out tomorrow to check the area for June's dog, and the man," Luca tells me. He is in business mode. I can spot it a mile away. His shoulder are pushed back, arms tense. His expression is even grim; I hate when he gets like this.

June comes up behind me, wrapping the blanket over my shoulders. I just want this day to end.

And find out who that man was.