“I used to live down the street from you guys and was kind of friends with your older brother, Matt, as we were in the same age grade.” Duncan started, glancing away briefly when Michael’s eyes hardened a little at the mention of his older brother. “Those days were bad ones for me, and I hate to remember them, but if you’re to know what happened, I’ll need to relive them.” “I’m sorry about that. However, I’m sure reliving those days is going to be much worse for me than it is for you. I can’t remember you, though.” Michael stated somberly. To date, he still remembered his elder brother, who had been ten years old when the incident occurred, but only vaguely. They had been close, and Michael remembered his brother trying to teach him how to ride a bicycle, even though he had only been a child himself, and how they had caught frogs in the pond a few meters from their house back then. He smiled fondly at the memory but was soon brought out of his reverie when Duncan continued his story.

The woods were rife with nocturnal activities, such as the sounds of little animals scurrying around, and other larger animals that Sophia steadfastly refused to think about. She could hear them pausing and continuing their movements, apparently viewing her as no serious threat as she slowly trudged through the bushes. She could not blame them either, after all, this was their time to move around, plus they were in their territory. Sophia had since lost track of time, and all that mattered to her now was getting as far away from the lair as possible, even though she did not know where on earth she was to go, or the dangers that she would meet on the way. She would have loved to think that she had put as much space as possible between herself and the lair, but the truth was that she did not know if that was the case or not. All she knew was that she had to keep going, moving, and never stop, until she keeled over, after which she would recover, stand up, and continue on her way. It wa

Sophia woke up after what must have been hours, to the sound of her mother crying, and sat up with the speed of sunlight, regretting the swift motion when her head began to pound viciously and her vision swam. She paused for a bit to get herself back and then looked around her. It was already daylight, which meant that she had been out for hours. She was alone with her mother, who was still crying profusely and was sitting beside her, but could not do anything more, because of how tightly she was bound with chains.“Oh, thank God, Sophia. I thought that you were dead.” Maria whispered tearfully when her daughter finally focused on her.Sophia was silently studying her mother’s face, rage welling deep within her at the sight of Maria. She had been beaten so much that her two eyes were almost swollen shut, and her arm was hanging at a crooked angle as though it had been broken. The sky blue shirt that she was wearing was soaked with blood, and without anyone telling her, Sophia knew that

Sophia and her mother shrunk back against the wall of the cell, terror engulfing their features. Jonas coming to the cell was bad … very bad. There was no sign of Duncan or the people he would bring along to rescue them, which was probably best for now, since Jonas was here, and would surely kill any would-be rescuers. “Take her,” Jonas commanded with a toss of his head, indicating Maria. He did not even spare a glance at Sophia. “Please, leave my mother alone. She hasn’t done anything wrong. We'll go very far away from here and never return. I swear you'll never hear from us again.” Sophia begged, coming over to grab the sleeve of Jonas’s shirt tightly while staring up at him with a pleading expression. Jonas glanced down at her briefly with curled lips and then flung her away from himself, so that she landed against the cell wall, her head hitting the wall with a sickening thud. “You bastard! You sick bastard! You spineless asshole! What has a mere girl who does not have any speci

Michael walked through the bushes as stealthily as possible, which would not have been a difficult thing to do, had it been he was dealing with humans, but he was dealing with fellow werewolves, so there was every possibility that he would be heard if anyone happened to be close by. How Duncan expected him to find the prison, and the girl who was held in it, when he had never been here before, beat him, but he had to at least try. All of a sudden, he paused, because he could feel his wolf getting antsy and restless … something that hardly ever happened, and he did not for the life of him, understand why it should be happening now. Also, he was fast becoming aware of a scent that he could not quite figure out, and everything in him was pushing him to go find out the source of that scent, despite his best efforts to concentrate on the task at hand. His wolf was struggling to break free and run wild, and it took all of his willpower to stop that from happening. Following the exact direc