Her heart filled with sorrow as she felt his body finally release her and she wriggled out from under him and climbed to her feet, putting her clothes back in order. It was then that she noticed the changes around them. The ground had completely changed. When this had all started, it was relatively flat. Now there were large cracks in the ground that dropped several feet and huge areas where it looked like the ground had formed miniature little mountain ranges all around them.
Tears blurred her vision and she lifted a hand to swipe at her face. She could hear Cole behind her as he put his own clothing back in order. She could see every movement he made in her mind as clearly as if she were watching him with her own eyes.
Amanda began to run while he was distracted. This time she didn’t run toward the town. She didn’t run toward anything. All that mattered was that she had to get away from him. She needed to get as far away from him as possible.
“Amanda, STOP!”
The words slammed through her mind and her steps faltered, but she kept running. Her muscles revolted against her as those two words continued to echo in her mind. They felt as heavy as if an iron ball were bouncing around inside her skull. She fought against it and focused completely on forcing one foot in front of the other.
Some sort of force slammed into her from behind like a brick wall had smashed against her and then wrapped around her body. She couldn’t move. It felt like the air had turned to cement around her and she could hear Cole’s footsteps behind her as he came closer.
Amanda couldn’t stop the tears that streamed down her face and thanks to whatever held her frozen in place, she couldn’t even reach up to wipe them away to hide her weakness from him.
Cole walked around her and came to a halt in front of her. “Amanda?” His brows furrowed and he frowned as he studied her face. He opened his mouth and then closed it again without saying anything. He inhaled deeply and stepped forward, cupping her cheek in his palm. “I am so sorry. I never meant to force this on you and I promise that this is the last time I will ever force anything on you again. Just remember that you will always be able to find me if you need me and if you need me, I will always find you.” His thumbs brushed the tears from her eyes and off of her cheeks. “Don’t forget that.” He kissed her forehead and then stepped back. “You may go.”
The moment those three words left his mouth, Amanda could feel her muscles unlock and it felt like the cement wall that held her in place just melted away. She stared at him for a long moment and then stepped around him and continued walking the way she’d been running.
“Be careful. It’s dangerous for you out there.”
His voice followed her into the woods but she ignored his warning and kept walking. She walked for hours, careful not to lose her bearings in the woods. She needed to make sure that she would be able to find her way back to town.
She came upon what looked like an abandoned hunting cabin somewhere around dusk. A quick look around the area assured her that it hadn’t been used for quite a few years. The scents around the cabin seemed to confirm the fact. There were no tracks leading to or from the building, no vehicle tracks in the mostly overgrown road that lead up to the cabin.
Everything outside went quiet and Amanda leaned back, turning to stare at the door. “It’s awfully quiet out there.”Emma turned as well to stare at the door with a look of concern and hope on her face. “Do you think that’s a good sign or a bad sign?”Amanda shook her head. “I don’t know. I hope it’s a good sign.”Suddenly a howl echoed through the area and Amanda jumped in surprise.Is it over with? Have we won?There was no reply for several moments and Amanda’s fear suddenly kicked up by several notches.Cole? What was the howl—Her question was cut off when a host of other howls joined in with the first. Amanda’s tension relaxed, but only slightly. She offered Emma a slightly nervous smile. “I think that sounds like a good thing.”A moment later, there was the sound of scratching at the door. Amanda nodded to Emma. “Check first, look and see who and what it is. Don’t open it until you’re sure.”Emma nodded and hurried over to the door. She peeked through the window and then she lau
“I guess it was about the next morning when I began to hear thoughts.” She smiled then and shook her head. “They were simple thoughts. So simple. He couldn’t think much at all, but they were the sweetest words I’d ever heard. Things like ‘Pretty’ and ‘Mine’ and ‘Love’. Just short words like that.”Emma took a shaky breath and let it out slowly. “Nobody had ever called me pretty before. Not until Sean. I was just the nerdy science girl that everyone liked to make fun of. Never the pretty girl. Sean not only saved me, but he gave me the one thing I’d never had before. He made me feel beautiful. And he kept me alive. We kept each other alive.”Her voice grew sad and quieter still. “Once Gibson figured out that we were not going to kill each other, and that we were only making each other stronger, he took me away. He locked me in that cage and we were never allowed to see each other again. They began testing on me next. It didn’t matter though. I could still hear Sean’s thoughts. I could
Some metal shelving stretched from the wall out into the center of the room a good way. The shelves were covered in empty beakers and boxes as well as bottles of chemicals and other tools.Amanda looked back over at Emma. “So how did you end up here? Did they catch you when they caught the grey wolf?”Emma shook her head. “No. I—“ She sat on one of the other chairs and fidgeted with the sleeves of the sweater. “I used to work here.” She didn’t lift her head as she said the words and she subtly shifted away from Amanda.“You mean you mated with the grey wolf here? In this place?”Emma nodded.“What happened?”“Gibson brought them in about five years ago. I don’t know where they came from but they were both injured. None of us even thought that they would actually even survive but they did. And when Gibson was sure that they weren’t going to die, he put the stakes in their brains so that he could try to control them and use them.”Amanda waited and watched the woman’s posture and expres
She heard the grey wolf give a little growl at her words and his mate snickered softly.Cole turned his head and fixed a death glare on the grey wolf.Amanda laughed again softly and cupped his cheek with her palm. “Shh. It’s alright. He was just being playful.” She grew somewhat somber then and sighed softly. “I want this place wiped clean. I don’t want to leave one single person alive unless they are victims like these three. We kill all of the bastards that run this place and we sweep the entire area for prisoners. Yes?”Cole bowed his head once and then nuzzled her ear and then he turned his body around and crouched down low to the ground.Amanda climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck. She let out a heavy sigh. She was safe now. He had come to get her and now she was safe.Cole issued a growl to the others and they ran down the hallway to join the rest of the wolves that were still fighting. We’re going to take you and the blonde up to the surface and then we’r
“Oh nothing, we’re just making room. I still have more questions for you though, if you’re still willing to answer them of course.”The man moved forward but he stopped again at those words. “Well? Go on. I’m getting quite tired of standing here.”“Well, you said that Hollywood has it wrong and wolves cannot transmit their ability to shift forms. If it can’t be transmitted in that way, why do you think that the key to their healing abilities lies in something that can even be researched and discovered? I mean, if that were the case, wouldn’t their ability to shift be something that they could transmit through a scratch or a bite or something like that?”Amanda saw the grey wolf’s ear twitch and turn slightly toward the other end of the hall. Amanda still couldn’t hear them but she knew that the wolves must be able to hear them already.The scientist stood there for a moment looking stumped. His brows knit, then rose, then he frowned and his face began to turn a shade of reddish-purple
Something happened earlier when you began to feel the other wolves and move things with your mind? There was some kind of explosion. We felt it all the way out where we were when it happened. It was like some sort of shockwave. They felt it too and they all came.That’s crazy.Yeah. It’s crazy and I’ve never heard anything like it even in our legends which I used to think were mostly old stories the elders made up to try to keep young wolves in line.We’re coming in now.Amanda lifted her shoulders in a careless shrug. “They’re not your pets. They’re people and they are a whole hell of a lot better people than you.”The man scoffed and reached into his lab coat and pulled a gun from a hidden holster. He pointed it at the black wolf. “This gun is loaded with silver bullets. That does kill your kind. One of the few things Hollywood actually did get right.”“It’s a shame you had to go and ruin my pets. They used to do such a good job. They’ve killed hundreds maybe even thousands of their