Part 4

Six months later, Saga and I turned seventeen and we had a huge party down at the Point. The four of us, Gunnar, Saga, Kari and I always went everywhere together. We ate lunch together at school, had the same circle of friends and went to the same parties. Saga kept my secrets and I kept hers.

We arrived at the Point, an hour late to our party. We liked to make an entrance. Gunnar and Kari drove behind me and Saga and parked next to me. Saga had her own car but for some reason she preferred to ride with me most of the time. She would drive herself only when she wanted to be alone, which didn’t happen very often.

We got out of our cars and joined our friends on the beach. Some of them were already half drunk. I shook my head as Kari took my hand and I smiled at her as we headed toward the keg to get our own drinks. I’ve loved her for as long as I could remember. I knew how things worked, we would finish high school, go to college, get married and live happily ever after.

Gunnar was fiercely in love with Saga, but she didn’t seem to be interested. She told him she only wanted to be friends but Gunnar hoped that when it was her turn to shift that they would imprint. He was basically wolf-locked and Saga treated him like she treated me, like a brother. Kari was hoping for the same thing, so that our foursome would remain intact and we’d all stay together.

Gunnar was my voice of reason. He tried to keep me out of trouble, much like our dads had been. He loved to read and he played killer guitar. When the den was empty, we would use it to have jam sessions. He was better than me with the guitar but I didn’t completely suck and even Kiran had complimented us the one day as he sat and watched us.

We were standing around the bonfire when Kyle brushed past me and I froze. I saw us in the thicket of trees and I was beating the living daylights out of him. I snapped back to reality and I felt my skin crawl. Why would I do that? He wasn’t a close friend although he was part of our circle. I tried to ignore that image in my head and smiled at Kari as she walked toward me.

“Having fun?” she asked me with a smile.

“I’d have more fun if we were alone,” I said.

She took my hand and we walked down the beach towards Angels Rest. We crossed the street and darted into the large cluster of trees that stood on the other side of Beach Drive. Within seconds I had Kari up against one of the trees as we kissed, our hands roaming all over each other. I’d already shifted at sixteen and for me it was worse than it was for her. My hormones were in overdrive and the pull of the moon seemed to make it worse, especially around her.

Kari stopped kissing me and looked at me. “If we carry on like this, I’ll be planning your funeral.”

I chuckled and leaned my forehead against hers. I didn’t know who would be the angriest if I did to Kari what I wanted to do, her father or my mother. I heard cars drive away as the party drew to an end and people started leaving. It was close to three a.m. already.

“They won’t really kill me, just halfway and then I’ll heal,” I said and started kissing her again.

She started unbuttoning my jeans and maybe I should’ve stopped there but I couldn’t, not that I wanted to stop. She took her underwear off and I lifted her up as she wrapped her legs around me. It wasn’t how I planned our first time to be, but I got caught up in the moment.

It was the single most awesome moment of my life when Kari finally gave her whole self to me. I pushed into her slowly until she told me to move. The thoughts that went through my mind made even me blush and I felt closer to Kari than ever before.

I leaned against Kari with her back still pressed against the tree, our breaths ragged and our hearts beating wildly. I kissed her again, softly this time. “I love you, Kari.”

I waited while Kari put her underwear back on and we walked back toward Beach Drive when I froze and let go of her hand. I started running in the opposite direction, deeper into the cluster of trees where we’d just been.

“Saga!” I yelled as I heard her muffled cries.

I saw Pete and Kyle holding her arms down as she struggled with Greg on top of her. Her shirt was torn open and her jeans were lying in a heap next to her. Greg was moving on top of her and it took me a second to realize that he was raping my sister.

I came at him from the side and broke my hand as I hit him so hard his jaw broke and he toppled from Saga and lay unconscious next to her. I heard Gunnar growling behind me and he jumped on Pete and started biting him at will. 

Kyle stood frozen in place and everything felt like slow motion to me. I was hitting him at will with both hands as he held his arms up trying to protect himself. I heard Kari talking to Gunnar and then he was behind me, trying to pull him off as I screamed out my rage. I stopped hitting him when Gunnar yelled at me that Kyle was dead and I turned toward Saga.

She had curled herself into a little ball and I took my t-shirt off and pulled it over head and pulled her arms through the holes while holding her. I was crying and she was crying but I kept holding her. I picked her up and carried her to the Jeep where Gunnar opened the door and I put her down on the back seat. I drove home like a maniac as the realization hit me that I had just killed someone.

“Saga, I’ve got you,” I said as she kept crying. Gunnar and Kari were in the car behind me. I parked my Jeep as close to the front door as I could and I picked my sister up again. Gunnar parked his car and ran ahead to open the door.

Kiran sat at the counter and his face visibly paled when he saw me carrying Saga. I had blood spatters on my face and my hands were bloody too. Gunnar’s face had blood on it from when he’d bitten Pete in his wolf form and Saga was wearing my blood-soaked t-shirt.

Kiran took Saga from me and went upstairs as he called out to my mother. “Adara!”

“They’re all dead,” Gunnar said as we stood in the kitchen and he called his father.

Uncle James arrived twenty minutes later, just as Kiran came back downstairs, his eyes murderous as he sat us down and demanded to know the whole story. James was holding Kari and I could sense his relief that she was alright and then his guilt that Saga wasn’t.