Lone Girl (The Wolfling Saga) (17 page)

“There was a man holding a sign with my name on it and everythin..”

“There can’t have been.”

“But there was. And they knew my name – and where I was going.”

“It wasn’t the company I arranged to pick you up, Rose.”

I turned on the spot to look at Anna, who was smiling dolefully at her son as he peeled the wallpaper from the walls.

“Who the hell did I get into a car with?” I breathed into the cell phone.

“Rose, where are you?”

“I’m at some shitty hotel-.” I heard a click and the line went quiet.
“Dad?”

Nothing.

“
Dad
?”

“Reception is quite awful in this building,” said Anna, who had appeared next to me. She smiled, showing crooked, yellow teeth.

“Where am I? And who the hell brought me here?”

“You are in the right place, Wolfling.”

I tensed. “What did you call me?”

“Wolfling. That’s what you are.
An adolescent werewolf.”

“I’m of age,” I retorted.

“You are of age, yes. But your wolf is not.”

Anna spoke of the monster as though it was another entity entirely.

“How long ago were you turned?” She asked, circling me. She sniffed me. “Seven, eight years ago?”

“Nine years,” I said stiffly, moving away from her.
“How could you tell? You’re – you’re like me?” I inhaled deeply and recognized a faint scent, but it was different to Tom’s smell. It somehow reminded me of home, a long time ago.

She
shook her head slowly and from behind her long, black skirt, the small child peered at me.

“This
is George,” said Anna. “My son. He is the Wolfling you can smell.”

The small black haired boy stepped out from behind his mother’s legs
and gave me a sheepish smile. I instantly associated the boy’s scent with newborn pups. When I was a child my family had a dog that birthed a litter of four mutts. The newborn smell had been very distinctive and lingered until they were 8 weeks old. But this familiar smell was not what alarmed me.

“
Your son was turned?” I felt my stomach churn.

Anna shook her head. “No, of course not. George is a natural
Wolfling – not created like you.”

“Natural?”

“He was born this way. It’s genetic.”

“So, his father is a werewolf?”

“Was a werewolf, yes. He died shortly after George’s birth. He challenged the Alpha and lost.”

I gaped at her. Were these werewolves as bloodthirsty as their wolf cousins? Did they really kill anyone who challenged authority?

“So you knew? You knew he was a werewolf before you fell pregnant?”

“Of course.”

I wanted to ask why Anna would even consider reproducing with a werewolf if it meant passing on this curse. She’d inflicted this horrid condition on to her child – willingly.

Anna gave a soft chuckle.
“You seem confused, darling. Why don’t you come in to the dining room and I’ll explain everything to you.”

Anna sat me down in the dining room and brought me a strong cup of coffee.

“It must be awfully confusing, I know,” she said, taking a seat opposite me. “But you must understand that we have ways of finding … others like us.”

“How did you know I would be here? That driver, Martin – he is a werewolf too?”

“No, Martin is not like us. He was born to a human mother
and a werewolf father, but the genetic mutation did not pass on to him. So, he knows about their world but cannot join it. Therefore he works for them – finding others.”

“And how did he find me? He turned up at the airport with my name on a sign-”

Anna smiled, her blue eyes twinkling. “The code word,
Silver Moon
. There is no such place, of course. When your father arranged the car to pick you up from the airport, he told them you were going to Silver Moon. Well, the only people who ask to be taken there are … like them. Martin intercepted the original driver to determine whether you were in fact a werewolf and, well, here you are.” Anna looked at the untouched mug of coffee in my hands. “Drink up.”

“So … is this it?” I asked, bringing the mug to my lips. “Is this the headquarters or something?”

“
Oh no. This hotel is merely a decoy. Sometimes regular people come looking for us …
believers
, you know? Most people think werewolves are nothing but fairy-tale – but there are some out there who hunt us. They usually wind up here and we’re able to turn them away. You can always sense another werewolf.”

“I’m still learning,” I said,
smacking my lips. The coffee tasted strange.

“I knew what you were the moment you walked in. I could smell it.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “So if this hotel is the decoy … where is the real pack?”

Anna smiled wistfully. “That is a secret.
They can’t let
anyone
walk into the pack.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to be part of this pack any more. Anna and her son were strangely unnerving, as though there was something not-quite-right about them.

“It’s my job to meet with potential pack members. And you, Rose Goldman, have been a lone wolf for a very long time.”

“I didn’t know there were many others.”

“I’ve seen your picture on the news. I’ve heard your story.”

I felt my cheeks burn pink
and the question I’d wanted to ask since I’d walked in spilled from my mouth. “Has Tom been here? Thomas Stone? Have you seen him?”

Anna’s heavy lidded eyes locked with mine. “
I can’t tell you, I’m sorry.”

Disappointment stung my chest
and I immediately began to feel drowsy. I looked down at the coffee that Anna had given me and realization dawned upon me.

“What have you put in this?” I asked.

She smiled politely. “Well, they can’t have you knowing the location of the pack. I do apologize, but I must transport you there without revealing the exact location.”

“You’re shitting me, right?” I said, pushing the coffee away and standing. “
I didn’t even say I
wanted
to be taken to the pack!”

“It’s what must be done,” said Anna who had remained sitting.

Kicking my chair to the side I staggered backwards. My head began to spin and I knew I had to get out of that hotel before I was transported somewhere against my will.

“I didn’t even – I didn’t
ask
you to take me there,” I said, my words beginning to slur together.

The black-haired child appeared, grinning, showing two rows of pointed teeth.

“What the hell-” I managed to mutter before collapsing face-first against the dirt encrusted carpet.

~

I wasn’t sure how long I was out. All I knew was I was moving. The engine of a car vibrated around me and I heard talking.

Opening my eyes
made no difference to visibility. Someone had placed a hood over my head. I tried to move my hands, but they were tied together.

I began to struggle, which was noticed immediately by my travelling companions.

“Oh, look who’s up,”
came Anna’s voice from the front seat.

“Where am I?” I muttered,
breathing heavily into the foul smelling sack. “Take this thing off my head and untie me!”

“George, untie her, will you?
We’re almost there,” said Anna. I felt the child’s tiny hands fumbling with the restraints. Once free I pulled the hood off my head.

“Almost where?” I demanded.  I took my seatbelt off and leaned forwards, my head spinning.

“Your new home,” she replied. “I’m sure you’ll love it there. We’ve been driving for almost four hours.”

“You kidnapped me,” I said, anger beginning to bubble.

“Oh, no – not kidnapped per say.”

“Well what do you call it when you drug someone and relocate them against their will?
I’m not some stray dog you can catch and rehome.”

“Isn’t this why you were searching for Silver Moon? To find other’s like
you? Don’t worry. You’ll be glad I did it soon enough.”

I looked around for my suitcase and backpack. “Where are my things?” I instantly rummaged around in my pockets for my cell phone. It wasn’t there.

“Your things are in the trunk,” said Anna. 

“Where’s my phone?” I demanded.

“Oh, that? That’s right here,” she said, holding up my cell. I lunged forwards to grab it, but George – who was sitting in the front passenger seat – sank his pointed teeth into my forearm.

“Argh! Little shit!” I pulled my arm away to inspect the damage. Tiny puncture marks lined my arm.

“Please don’t use that kind of language in front of my son,” said Anna, putting the phone into the console.

“He just bit me!” I gasped, holding my arm as blood began to
seep from the wounds.

“Yes, he does that sometime.” Her tone was nonchalant.
“It’s not like you can get infected again.”

“Fucking hell-”

“What did I just say? Please do not swear in front of my son.”

I fell into silence and looked out of the window. I had no idea where I was. Forestry whizzed past the window with nothing indistinguishable in sight. I didn’t even know if I was still in Alaska.

“And what if I want to leave once we get there?” I asked, rubbing my arm.

“I’ll take you home.
Blindfolded, of course.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I told you it wasn’t kidnapping. We just can’t have a stranger know the whereabouts of the pack. They have a lot of enemies, you know?”

I felt uneasy. Part of me was curious and wanted to see this wolf-pack for myself. I’d never been around other werewolves before – apart from Tom.

My chest stung. I tried not to think about him.

“You make it sound like some kind of secret organisation … or cult.” I watched her closely to see what kind of reaction that statement would get.

Anna smiled. “They are a community.”

“And you don’t live in this community with your son?” I asked.

Anna’s posture stiffened. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I am not permitted to live with the pack.”

“Why?” I pressed.

“Because I am not one of them,” she said, slight bitterness in her voice.

Something told me that this was a touchy subject to be breaching with someone I didn’t know; who had kidnapped me no less.  Of course, I wasn’t exactly known for making the cleverest of decisions.

“Do you want to be a werewolf?”

It took Anna several seconds to answer. “They won’t allow it.”

“Who won’t? The community? But your son- can’t you just get him to bite you or something?”

“Natural Werewolves cannot infect others. Anyway, it’s too dangerous for a human to live there and they refuse to turn me. However, since we know too much about the community we are used as gatekeepers.”

“Why wouldn’t they turn you?”

Anna looked at me seriously. “Do you remember what it was like when you were turned?”

Of course I
remembered. I couldn’t forget. It was the single most terrifying night of my life. Well … waking up to find a decapitated foot was rather scarring, too.

“
The wolf is a primal creature and aims for the jugular, killing within seconds. Most victims of a werewolf attack die instantly. The werewolf cannot control its actions. They run on animal-instinct and blood-lust. Victims lucky enough to escape usually die within twelve hours from blood loss or other injuries. But surviving the attack isn’t enough; you need to live through the first transformation, too. The first full moon kills most new Wolflings. The conversion rate from human to werewolf is less than two percent.”

“Two percent?” I repeated aghast. I’d always known I’d been lucky to survive the attack, but I hadn’t
realized
how
lucky.

Anna nodded. “So you see why they refused to turn me.”

“But it’s what you wanted?”

“I wanted to be the same as my husband and child.”

It seemed Anna was growing tiresome of the conversation. She turned the radio up and ignored me for the remainder of the drive. However, forty-five minutes later we turned onto a winding dirt road that slowly rose uphill.

Soon the road wound its way through dense forest
until I couldn’t see between the trees. It was dark now and the car’s feeble headlights barely illuminated twenty feet ahead.

“You’re sure you know the way?” I asked as the dirt road twisted through the forest. I wasn’t sure which way was north or if any other roads forked from our route.