1All I saw was black. Was I dead? Was my time for life up? No, I could feel something that raged through my head like a stampede of wildebeests. Was it pain? Yeah, yeah it was. So I wasn't dead, but I couldn't be sure. Could you feel pain in heaven or hell or wherever I was? "This was your entire fault!" Shae? I knew for sure she wasn't dead, so I wasn't either, "If you wouldn't have showed up, this wouldn't have happened!" She snarled. Rarely was Shae ever truly pissed off, but now she sounded completely ragingly furious. "Don't blame me!" It was a familiar voice, but I couldn't place it even though I felt like I should know, "Harper sent us there!"
Who was Harper?
"Was he trying to force a reaction?" it was Spencer, "'Cause he got it."
"I don't know," the guy responded
"Where are they?" Carli asked. Why were all these people here? It couldn't have been because of me could it?
"Who?" Someone else asked.
"Harper and Anna, dumbass," Carli snapped.
"I don't know," Another someone responded.
Their voices were muffled through the walls, but I could still hear them perfectly. I took a long, deep breath which was probably a mistake. My lungs were on fire. In reaction, my eyes snapped open and I shot up instantly and a series of nasty coughs came after that and hurt my lungs and throat even worse. The voices stopped talking amongst each other, but I paid little attention to them as I let my eyes wander. I was in a pale blue room with a twin sized bed that I was laying on, and a mirror hung on the adjacent wall. I got up against my body's will and went to the mirror to see how bad I looked. Ugh, my fears were true. My hair was in disarray, and I looked like a raccoon. I always knew I wore too much eyeliner. My gray cardigan and silver heels were nowhere to be seen. Leaving me barefoot and exposed in my halter dress, but I wasn't cold. On the contrary, I couldn't really feel too much of anything except for the dizzying pain I felt in my head.
Someone was approaching the room as his or her footsteps echoed in my ears.
The door opened slowly and cautiously. "Emily?" It was Shae, "I…we heard you coughing downstairs." I heard them that clearly from an upper floor? Who were they? "Yeah," my voice was rough and scratchy, and it came out in a hoarse whisper. "I'm sorry that you passed out," Shae apologized while letting her head droop sullenly. "Why are you sorry?" I asked while beginning to stretch, but I pulled back when my cramped muscles ached even more, "it wasn't your fault. It was just my brain or something. Maybe just too many drinks." But I didn't have a hangover. I'll just leave that part out.
"You weren't drunk or buzzed; you weren't even tipsy." Shae grumbled. She seemed to be fighting herself because she wouldn't look at me. She bit her lip and squeezed her small hands into fists so tight that her knuckles turned white.
What she said didn't make sense. I definitely had more than one drink, so I should've been incapacitated in some way or another.
"I –" she hesitated and released her fists only to squeeze them into little balls again; "I have to tell you something. Something… important." The way she looked at me with her big green eyes didn't make sense at all. She looked scared. No, more than scared; she looked terrified and nervous. "Well… what is it?" I asked. My heart was racing and the adrenaline was pumping. Whatever she was going to tell me wasn't going to be good news, so I automatically assumed the worst. My parents are dead; I have cancer, or something like I was so inhumanely drunk that I couldn't remember anything that could've happened to me despite what Shae said about me not being drunk. My irrational fears must have shown on my face because Shae's eyes grew wider, and she trembled a little. "I know you've been feeling weird lately," Shae finally said after taking a long, shaky breath, "your senses have been…enhanced for as long as you can remember, and you've been feeling more…well…hostile and fidgety and frankly irritable to the point where no one can stand you." How could she pinpoint this? "How do you know it's not some sort of monthly problem?" I forced myself to laugh pitifully.
Shae did too, although it was a dry sort of laugh that didn't put my mind to ease. I hated seeing her so solemn and sad. "It's nothing like that," she hesitantly continued. "Than what is it?" I asked slowly and cautiously wondering if I even wanted to know the answer.
She hesitated again, this time a more obvious hesitation. Her mouth opened as she sucked in a breath and then closed it all too quickly. "There are a lot of things you don't understand about the world today, Emily," She said still not looking at me, "There are a lot of things that basically everyone doesn't know. There are far too many secrets nowadays." She was beginning to babble and as she kept talking, I couldn't quite keep up with what she was saying. "– my point is," She sighed after she was done digressing from the situation, "you aren't – "she cleared her throat, "you aren't – "She stopped midsentence with a look of relief on her face.
"Shae," a rough man's voice at the door startled me, but not Shae, "I'll take over."
She still had that look of relief on her face when she got up, and gave me one last apologetic look before leaving the room into some unknown hallway. I was still confused with a thousand questions left unasked and the one's I did ask were left unanswered. I hesitated before I looked up to meet the man's face.
He towered over me with a look of genuineness on his face even though his features were sharp and rough. He couldn't have been older than twenty-six due to his flawless face and full head of thick bronze hair. Bright amber eyes seemed to glow menacingly as he looked at me with an eloquent look on his face. It wasn't his large, almost scary demeanor that frightened me; it was the face that I wanted to challenge him more than I wanted to cower away in fear. I felt the need to be superior, to be stronger. As big as his muscles where, he could probably break me in half in less than two seconds.
"You don't need to feel threatened," he said regally, and he raised his hands in a sort of truce-like behavior even though I had no previous unpleasant encounter with this man, "I don't wish to challenge you." For some reason, this made me relax. It was almost like my subconscious had decided to take over and put my mind on edge or at ease. The sincerity in his voice was also soothing.
"My name is Harper Abrams," he introduced himself with a soft smile. "Emily Schriever," I responded. He raised an eyebrow, "it that your name now is it?" "Of course it's my name," my mouth tightened in a thin line and my eyebrows furrowed together, "who are you to tell me it's not." my voice sounded uncharacteristically menacing. "Look, Emily," His voice instantly went soft again, "I'm not going to beat around the bush. You are what you are, and you can't change that." This guy was seriously insane. "What the hell do you mean? Are you psychotic?" I asked like an idiot, "I am exactly what I am, a normal person!" Harper shook his head. His pertinacity was getting on my last nerve. I was a normal person, wasn't I? Now wasn't the time to doubt myself, though. "That's not true," Harper said with a confusing smile, "it's what you were raised to believe, but it's not true." "I-I don't know what you're talking about," his confusing repetition of the same words frazzled my mind and caused me to babble, "You have the wrong girl here. I have no idea what you're trying to say to me." I got up quickly, too quickly, and came face to face with the white carpet. Harper did nothing to help me or even acknowledge that I fell. He seemed to be entranced in his own little memory or thought. "You're overwhelmed," he stated wryly with a slight laugh in his voice. "Overwhelmed?" I grunted and pushed myself up, "I don't feel anything."
"Your inner self," he clarified.
"My inner self," I repeated in disbelief, "that's ridiculous." My voice was hard and angry.
"It's anything but ridiculous," Harper responded somberly, "your inner self can be described more or less as your subconscious; your natural instincts so to speak." I wasn't following what he was saying, but then again, I didn't understand anything and no one was explaining it clearly. I stopped trying to get up and tried to interpret what he was saying to me. So much for not beating around the bush.
My inner self? I always just thought I was different, but what could he be trying to tell me? The way he said it made me sound like a freak. "Emily," he said after I didn't say anything, "you are not human."
That is when my mental capacity reached its limit of overpowering information.
Not human, what could he possibly mean by that? I tried to ask, but no words would come out of my mouth. "Then –" I whispered. Harper leaned a little closer, "then what?" "Then what have I been for all these years?" I practically shouted. "Let me clarify," he quickly defended himself, "you are originally human, but you're also something else, something extravagant. While you still keep human form and behavior, you also gain special abilities and primal instincts given to us from the moon herself." My body shook as I tried to understand. Sighing, he helped me back onto the bed and sat next to me. "My apologies," he paused for a second, "I can show you better than I can explain it."
I almost screamed.
It was all so fast, but it looked so painful and heart-wrenching.
The way Harper looked through it made me feel like he felt nothing at all.
His skin fell away and disintegrated before it hit the floor; it was replaced by a soft, cloud-like white pelt. What stood before me wasn't what it was a second ago. The human that stood before me wasn't there anymore. Harper's face was replaced with a muzzle and huge, sharp fangs placed in a vice grip jaw that looked simply terrifying.
I screamed and jumped towards the wall without meaning to.
Harper winced at my sudden shriek, but he didn't move. "What the hell is this?" I screamed, and tried to run out of the room, and this time it worked. I didn't know where to turn in the long, unfamiliar hallway, so I took a stab in the dark and ran in some odd direction to the left of where the room was. I saw a light and stairs at the end of the hallway that was full of just doors that led to who-knows-where. Light and stairs generally meant a good thing right?
Eliminating all sense of rational judgment from my mind, I ran down those stairs and waited to face whatever lied ahead of me.
That strong scent came back; hitting me like a brick wall. The living room where I ended up was the source of this strange primitive odor. I couldn't move as soon as I stepped into the crowded room. It felt like a few hundred pound weights sat on my chest, and my head instantly began to throb mercilessly as it had before.
"Emily!" it was Shae, but I didn't respond. All of their eyes were on me; all thirteen pairs. There were nine boys and four girls. All of them around the same early to late teen age; they were young just like me. Harper came down the stairs, but this time without the fur. Instantly, I backed away.
"Emily," Harper said softly, "just calm down." My breathing quickened and soft charcoal fuzz shrouded the outside of my vision. "She looks like she's going to pass out," someone chortled to someone else. I didn't care that much though, I probably did look like an utter moron just standing there hyperventilating and nearly having a heart attack. "Where's Anna when you need her?" I heard someone else grumble. "Where is she?" I think it might've been Shae who had asked, but I couldn't truly be sure.
"I'm right here," The smooth voice came from the front door entryway. The sound was soothing and motherly; it made me relax and calm down a bit, but as soon as I realized I was surrounded by all these people I didn't know, I stiffened again. Who were they all? Why were they so enthralled with me? Surely I can't be that special. The woman – Anna – who approached me was beautiful and made me feel incredibly insignificant. Her dark hair cascaded down her back in beautiful ebony curls that shined in the dim light and her chocolate brown gaze that had that motherly spark made me feel at ease again.
"You must be Emily," she said sweetly and offered her hand, "I'm Anna Abrams." I just stared at the small hand she held out to me. She dropped it to her side without any sort of discomfort tracing her face, "We're so glad to have you here." She sounded enthusiastic for some reason. "I don't – "I started, "What's going on?" My questing came out in a sob before I realized it. I was scared and confused and I just wanted to go home to my family. "Come on, honey," Anna cooed, "let's go to the back patio." She touched my bare arm with burning hot fingers, and I slunk away from the fiery touch not expecting such heat.
Anna instantly retracted her hand and gave a look to Harper. He nodded and quickly left the living room with the rest following like lost puppies. Anna glided across the room and sat on the couch. She looked so effortless in the way she moved. "I'm very sorry for the boys' behavior," she apologized as I sat down next to her, "they shouldn't have tried to force the change. Maybe they decided to take it upon themselves, but I can guarantee that I will have a discussion with Harper." I gave her a quizzical look. The heat radiated off her body and warmed mine which made me feel relaxed and calm in a way. "I don't understand any of this," I said as calmly as I could without screaming, "the stress of everyone around was too much for me to handle. What does it mean?"
"I know Harper showed you what we are," Anna smiled, "you're one of us, Emily. Even though you don't remember your childhood, you have a story. A remarkable story. We need you here; a special kind of power runs with the blood in your veins. Without you, our pack is incomplete, and we cannot be in synch with each other if we are not together."
My brows came together in confusion.
"You don't have to understand now," Anna sighed exhaustedly, "we will tell you your story soon enough, but we can only tell you when you're completely one of us body and mind. And as one of us, you will live here – the den as what most of us call it. The Shriever's know what you are; they have for a long time. I can't and won't make you comprehend this right now as I said, but you can't escape who you are." I nodded. Why did she want me here so badly? I wasn't scared of the face they were werewolves. I was scared of myself. I watch movies, read, and what-have-you. I know how people went through supernatural changes and how painful and hazardous it could be. It was more probable that fiction was more dangerous that reality, but I couldn't convincingly tell myself that.
"Shae brought your clothes and other personal items here," Anna said, "we have a room made up for you." I started to protest, but Anna cut me off, "we have more than enough space. It's no burden." "Does everyone live here?" I asked curiously. Anna shook her head, "only a few. The rest live with their families nearby. Wolves don't wander far from their den." A sly smile crawled across her lips, but it faded when we heard something. Anna was gone before I could register what it was, and she was back when I finally did.
It was crying.
But not like full blown sobbing; it was a baby's cry.
Anna held a small bundle of blankets in her arms; it didn't take me long to understand that she was a real mother, and not just the maternal figure I assumed she had to be. "This is Kaylie," she sang while gently rocking the bundle back and forth, "my daughter." Kaylie had a round, innocent face with her father's golden eyes and Anna's dark curls. She slept peacefully with a light snore, making her seem more innocent and adorable. Seeing her sleep caused a wave of exhaustion to spread over me. I yawned shortly after Kaylie did; Anna noticed. "I'll show you to your room," Anna whispered, being careful as to not stir the baby. I didn't object. She led me upstairs where there was that one corridor with all the doors. I dragged my feet lazily across the door at the end of the hallway. "Get some rest," Anna said and left back down the corridor.
The room was small but cozy. The walls were painted a pastel blue and a full sized bed was pushed all the way into the corner. A window brought in the bright moonlight form the wall the bed was pushed on. The closet was opposite of the bed and the sliding oak doors took up the entire wall. After analyzing the room, I took off my dress and changed into a pair of sweats and oversized t-shirt. The bed was wonderfully comfortable and it had that smell the whole house had. I must've gotten used to it because it didn't burn anymore. I buried my face into the mattress and tried not to think of home. My parents had known all along and they never told me. It was hard to not be angry with them at least a little bit even though I knew deep inside that they did it for a good reason.
I knew what Harper and Anna were, and I've even come to terms with what Shae was. But I wasn't quite as convinced that I was one of them too. The whole thing was far too massive for me to understand right away like Anna had said. Hard as I tried, I couldn't think of myself that way. The weight of these thoughts drove my eyelids downwards and I willingly crept into the dream world.