Chapter 5

Sam-

Running up to Lily’s room I start pounding on the door. My lungs ache from running into the house so fast that I was now winded. I knock again, harder this time. I hear a deep yell come from the woods. I throw open the door and turn the light on.

“What the hell Sam!” Lily grabs the blanket to cover her head.

“Liam! Caleb… he followed it… it’s in the woods.” I barely was able to spit the sentence out, but it was enough for Liam to jump right out of bed and grab his clothes.

“How many were there?!” Liam pauses getting dressed momentarily, as he tried to fish for more information from me. “How many Sam?! Focus!”

I stammer racking my brain for the words. “One. I think there was only one?”

Liam reaches for his phone. “Fuck! It’s the rogue again. Stay inside and do not call the police. I will be right back just stay here.” 

Lily pulls the blankets down and I could finally see the scared look on her face. “Babe where are you going?!” her words tugged at my heart. Where was he going? What’s a rogue? What in the hell is that and why did Caleb go after it?

I sat down by Lily, pulling her into my arms to comfort her. Liam ran out the door and not much longer I heard the front door close. My mind was spinning, and I was so completely confused.

“Is this real?” I asked Lily. I could feel her shaking and wondered if this might just all be a dream.

“I don’t know what’s going on” Lily whispered back. I could hear the fear in her voice.

After a few minutes, I could hear banging on the front door. I got up to go answer it and there stood Caleb and Liam. Liam was holding Caleb up with Caleb’s arm around his neck. I froze. Caleb was covered in blood. He had a huge gash above his left eye and some scrapes around his face and neck. His shirt and pants were torn to shreds and he seemed almost lifeless.

Liam looked up at me, the sound of his deep voice snapping me too. “Kitchen table, med kit, and some towels.” 

“What happened to him,” I grabbed Caleb’s other arm and put it around my neck. He was much too big for me to make much of a difference, but I had to at least try.

We brought Caleb into the kitchen and laid him across the floor, Lily ran in with towels and the med kit. I grabbed the towels and took them to the kitchen sink. Once they were wet enough, I returned to Caleb and started cleaning the wound above his eye.

“Liam, what the fuck happened out there?” I looked right at Liam, and I could hear my own voice crack.

Liam just looked back up at me and for once I could only see fear in his eyes.

“It’s a rogue werewolf, Sam.” Liam looked back to Caleb, cleaning his face I could hear him fighting the fear inside of him. “Wolves like Caleb and I have a pack. Rogues like that one kill their pack to be Alpha.”

I dropped everything in my hands and sat back. Liam and Caleb wolves? Rogues? Packs? I must be crazy; I’m dreaming or something. This cannot be real. My head started spinning and before I knew it, I passed out.

Snapping awake I look around, it’s dark and I realize someone is lying next to me. I jump off the bed to the floor and look around. Realizing it’s my room I try to gather my wits. Who is in my room? Who’s in my bed? I slowly peek over the side of the bed to see Caleb sleeping peacefully. The cut above his eye is now stitched shut and his face is battered and bruised.

What’s he doing in my bed and how did I even get in my bed? I start replaying the last things I remember. Caleb pulls up in his truck, the animal, Liam, wolves. I brush it off as a miscommunication and look back at the pitiful soul in my bed.

His hair was a disaster and not tidy like it normally is, his chiseled jaw relaxed in a way that lets his mouth, just barely open, and he has no shirt on. The blanket is pulled up to just under his neck and I start to wonder if he had anything else on outside of that blanket. Snap out of it twerp.

I slowly gather myself and crawl my way back onto the bed facing Caleb. I never really looked at him, he was beautiful. Even though he was a royal ass, he was the definition of perfection when he slept.

“Stop staring at me creep.” Caleb’s low voice snapped me out of analyzing him. I rolled over to face the window. It was still dark outside, and I couldn’t tell what time it was.

I felt Caleb roll towards me. “Look who’s being creepy now?” it was barely a whisper, but it was enough to get a response from him.

“You smell amazing.” He whispered back.

I roll back over to look him in the face. His eyes were back to normal brown, he looked confused. “Well, you smell like a wet dog.” I snapped back at him.

I let out a small giggle at the way he was looking at me. “What, wolf? You see something you like?” wow that was a weird statement. Werewolves? That had to be a joke, right?

He let out his deep laugh and looked back at me. “I’m trying to figure you out, human. You’re far too calm right now after everything from last night.”

“You expect me to believe you’re really a werewolf, that you belong to a pack, and that Liam, freaking Liam is a dog too?” I laugh a little. Sounded absurd to me.

“You don’t believe me?” he glared back at me.

“I believe you might be on crack, that’s what I believe.” I sat up on the bed with my back facing him. Looking out the window again I started to wonder if maybe he was telling the truth. What if there was more out there than what I lived to believe? What if werewolves really did exist? It would explain the animal I saw when I was in my car. The idea of Caleb with a tail made me smile a little bit.

Caleb stood up and walked around the bed to sit next to me. His hand was so close to my hand that it started to vibrate my skin again. How does he have this effect on me? I looked over at him, his face only inches away.

He sat there looking out the window, lost in time. The confused look he had changed into something of wonder.

Caleb stood up and put his hand out. “I’ll show you.” I looked at his hand and back to him. Should I? If I touch his hand then I’m submitting, I don’t submit. I stood up and looked up at him. He had a good head size over me.

“Show me then.” I spat out at him. With that, he turned to my bedroom door, and I followed him out. When I was following him through the house and out the front door, I realized that he had pants on, but he was still lacking a shirt. I swear the gods themselves created his body.

I followed Caleb into the forest, we came across a clearing that sat in what I would believe to be the middle between my house and the office. He turned around to face me so fast that I ran into him. He grabbed my waist to keep me from falling over. His body was so close to mine that everything in my soul shook. He leaned his face closer to mine and my body started screaming at me.

“What is that.” He whispered, his breath brushing my lips.

“What are you talking about?” I was confused but could care less, I was fighting a battle that I could not submit to. I refused to let him win this ego tug-of-war. I took a couple of steps back and glared at him.

“You don’t feel that?” he sounded confused as well.

I sighed, “feel what?”

Right as I said that I watched Caleb’s eyes turn orange again. He started looking around us as if there was a Ghost or something.

Caleb put his hand up, “get down.” His eyes darted around the area we stood in. I crouched down starting my own adventure of the lookout. I started to speak but Caleb shook his hand at me. What was he looking for? All I could hear were birds chirping and the wind through the leaves.

Caleb turned around and started smelling the air. I couldn’t tell what he was smelling for because everything around us smelt like him. “What is it?”

Right then he flipped around, fear covering his face. “don’t move.” His voice was low as he spoke. He walked over to stand beside me.

I could hear it now. Something moving just past the trees, and an awful smell invaded my nose. Almost like death and rot. I could hear growling coming from the distance.

Caleb kneeled next to me; he took a football tackle pose while watching where the noise came from. It was getting closer now.

In the blink of an eye, Caleb swooped me up in one arm and started running to the forest. He raced through the woods, half holding me like a child, half holding me like a football. I didn’t know what direction we were going.

Suddenly he stopped and laid me back on the ground. Turning around I watched as his skin shed to black fur, his ears turned into pointy patches on his head and his face stretched into a snout. His jeans still on him were now starting to rip as his legs inverted and fur sprouted on them as well.

A howl came from the direction we were just running from. It made my skin crawl, the smell started to attack my nose again. I couldn’t see anything yet, but I could hear something running in the woods headed right for us.