Time Mends

Timber Wolves: Book 2

by Tammy Blackwell

Published in

the United States

Copyright © 2012

All rights held by the author.

Just in case the boys turning into wild
animals under the light of the full moon didn’t make it obvious,
this is a work of fiction. All characters and events exist only in
the mind of the writer. Any resemblance to real life is a figment
of your imagination.

Cover Design: Victoria Faye
(www.victoriafaye.com)

Cataloging Information

Blackwell, Tammy

Time Mends/ Tammy Blackwell. - Smashwords
ed.

Timber Wolves: Book 2

Summary : After a tragic accident leaves her
battered, heartbroken, and alone, Scout Donovan would rather hide
in dreams than face reality. But things are changing quickly in
Scout’s life. Soon she’s pulled back into the world of Shifters and
Seers, with her best friend’s fate depending on Scout’s ability to
protect her. Can Scout pull it together in time to save Talley, or
is the past too much to overcome?

[1. Werewolves - Fiction. 2. Kentucky -
Fiction. 3. Supernatural. 4. Grief.]

This book is

dedicated to my mom,

the single most awesome

person to have ever lived.

“
Tony Stark over Bruce
Wayne, but Batman trumps Iron Man.”

Alex looked at me as if I suggested the Pope
was Atheist. “There is no way Batman could take on Iron Man. What
is he going to do? Throw one of those little bat-thingies at
him?”

“
They’re called batarangs,
and they’re awesome, just like Batman.”

It was one of those perfect spring days
where the sun warmed your skin as the wind tossed strands of hair
into your face. The smell of honeysuckle hung heavy in the air. The
woods surrounding the lake displayed a kaleidoscope of colors, and
the grass formed a soft green carpet.

Sadly, we weren’t sitting on the grass.

I shifted, attempting to find a spot where
there wouldn’t be a rock jabbing into my butt. Misinterpreting my
movement, Alex’s arms tightened around my waist as his head fell to
my shoulder. “I don’t want to you to go.”

“
Then I won’t,” I said,
leaning back against his chest. “I vote we stay here
forever.”

“
And I’m selfish enough to
want to second that,” he muttered against into neck. His chest rose
against my back with a deep breath as if he was taking in my scent,
and then his arms fell away and his head lifted. “It’s getting
late. You have to get ready.”

“
No.” A familiar panic
bubbled in my chest. The sun vanished instantly. The nearly full
moon hung heavy in the sky, illuminating the blood stains on the
front of my shirt.

“
Things are Changing,”
Alex said from where he now stood in front of me. “It’s graduation
day.”

And then the boy I loved was gone and in his
place stood a beautiful gray wolf with human eyes.

“
I want to stay here,” I
begged through the tears.”Don’t make me leave. Please. Let me stay
this time, Alex. Please.”

You have to wake up, Scout, his voice echoed
in my mind.

I shook my head, eyes fixed on his.
“No.”

“
Wake up,
Scout.”

“
No!”

“
Scout, wake
up!”

***

There was always an adjustment period after
one of my dreams. In those moments between sleep and opening my
eyes, I teetered on the edge of happiness. Then, it would hit me.
Some traitorous part of my brain would tell me, “Alex is dead,” and
it would all come rushing back. A moonlit date in the woods. An
attack. Alex falling off a cliff. His body growing cold and still
in my arms. Waking up in the hospital, knowing he was gone.

I opened my eyes when the pain hit. It was
never long after The Moment of Truth. Maybe it was because I also
remembered what happened to me on that night, or perhaps it was
because all the quick, shallow breathing pulled at the fifty-one
stitches in my stomach.

“
Hey there, Sweetie,” my
mother said from the side of the bed. “It’s time to get
ready.”

Blond curls bounced in agreement. “You get
to wear the dress we ordered. Remember? The one you let me help you
pick out? You know, it’s like this.” Angel stood on the bed beside
me to reveal her blue linen sundress. “We’ll be twins, only yours
is green because it looks better with your skin tone.”

For the past month I had heard a lot about
skin tones. And color palettes. And other extremely scary TLC-esque
things. The crazy thing was, I really didn’t mind too much. Since
the accident, my entertainment options were limited. At least when
I was with my little sister I wasn’t obsessively scouring the
Internet, trying to uncover the nonexistent history of a dead
boy.

“
Scout, if you don’t get
up now you won’t have time for a shower,” Mom said.

I pulled the covers over my head at the
mention of the s-word. I’m normally opposed to personal hygiene,
but when you’ve got four lacerations across your midriff and a cast
to deal with, bathing becomes a rather complicated chore.

“
I can help.” Angel pulled
the covers down. “I can wash your hair for you in the sink again.
That’ll be better, right?”

“
Yes, that would be
better.” My voice was thick and slow. I didn’t know if it was the
drugs or the depression making it so. “Thanks.”

Mom moved away from the bed and began
unhooking the tubes connecting me to the IV pole, confident Angel
had me well in hand. “Let me know when you’re ready for me to put
on new bandages.”

I nodded as I started the slow, arduous
process of getting out of bed. You don’t realize how much you rely
on your stomach muscles until a few of them get torn apart. In the
month since the accident the gashes had healed very little. The
small cut on my shoulder was already closed up and beginning to
scar over, and the doctor planned on taking off my cast next week,
but the wounds on my stomach were as deep and painful as the day I
woke up in the hospital, thanks to a seemingly impossible to
identify and kill infection. My very own team of doctors and
specialists agreed such a thing was to be expected when you were
attacked by a coyote and then rolled around in the woods until you
nearly bled to death.

“
Good girl,” Angel said
once I was sitting on the side of the bed. I thought about being
annoyed at being talked to as if I was a labrador, but decided on
apathy instead. Apathy was great in that it required very little
effort on my part.

Angel pulled the walker over to my bed,
causing the apathy to be replaced by two of my new favorite
emotions: dread and bitterness.

“
I’ve changed my mind. I’m
not going.”

“
Scout, it’s your high
school graduation. You have to go. Everyone is expecting you to be
there,” she said, speaking literally. Timber is a small town which
sees very little in the way of excitement. The accident had been
the biggest thing to hit Lake County since an ice storm came
through two years ago. I was the lead story on the local news for
over a week. My injuries had been too severe to return to school,
and I hadn’t ventured any further than the doctor’s office since
Alex’s funeral. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the county showed
up for graduation just so they could gawk at the girl who survived
being mauled by a wild animal.

“
I don’t feel good. I just
want to stay in bed.”

Angel put her hands on her hips, a look of
determination on her face. “You can’t stay in bed forever.”

“
Why not? It’s warm. And
comfy. And it’s got all these great pillows.” And it was the place
where I could sleep, where I could dream.

Angel pulled herself up to her full three
and a half feet. “Harper Lee Donovan, get up. I mean it.”

I threw a blanked over my face. Angel pulled
it back down. “You have to take a shower. Your hair is getting
yucky again.”

I ran a hand over my head and discovered she
was right. When was the last time I washed it?

I still wasn’t sold on the idea of attending
graduation, but I was in dire need of a shower, or at least a
sponge bath. The tiny part of me that still cared about such things
was appalled.

I bit my lip as I pulled myself up, too
stubborn and embarrassed to scream out. The room swayed, but I
managed to stay upright.

Three hours later I was deeply regretting my
decision to get out of bed.

The gymnasium, which is fairly massive for a
small town thanks to our obsession with basketball, was packed.
Either the air conditioner couldn’t compete with that many bodies
crammed together, or it wasn’t functioning. Either way, I was
melting inside of the gaudy blue gown I was forced to wear over my
dress. The sound system was turned up way too loud, amplifying
Senator Harper’s voice to the point I feared my eardrums would
burst. And I’m not sure who it was, possibly the entire senior
class as a whole, but someone forgot to put on deodorant.

Why couldn’t we have graduation outside like
one of those normal schools they show on TV?

“
This is painful,” said
the person to my left. I turned my head to meet a pair of brilliant
green eyes. A tingly pain-like sensation ran across my abdomen as
my heart battered itself against my ribcage. “At least you got a
new car out of the deal. The rest of us have to withstand this
torture without any sort of compensation.”

I could have explained how the car was most
likely a political payoff from the Toyota plant in Scott County to
Senator Harper, who just happened to be my grandfather. I could
have theorized that he only pawned it off as a graduation gift
because he personally wouldn’t ever be seen in anything less than a
Mercedes. I could have even pointed out it wasn’t like I would be
driving it in the foreseeable future. But all that would require
actually talking to Jase, something I hadn’t done in almost a
month.

For the first few weeks he tried, begged
even, but eventually gave up. We lived in the same house, a mere
wall separating our bedrooms, but he lived his life in the real
world while I was confined to the protection of my bed. I wasn’t
sure why he was talking to me now. Maybe he banked on the
sentimentality of the day to make me forget how he shredded my
stomach and assisted in the murder of my boyfriend.

I turned back to the stage just as Senator
Harper completed his assault on good sense by promising we could
live the American dream and change the world simply by the fact
we’d completed our secondary education. I could only assume
everyone was clapping out of sheer relief that he’d finally quit
talking.

When the applause faded out a new person was
positioned behind the mike. She looked a bit like Snow White -
dark, bouncy hair spilling down her back in shiny waves; porcelain
skin fortunate enough to never see a blemish in its eighteen years;
deep blue eyes sparkling with kindness. She stood awkwardly,
attempting to conceal her short, curvaceous body with her arms.

“
As most of you know, I’m
not really supposed to be here.” Talley’s voice shook as she
addressed the room full of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,
and fellow graduates. “The position of Valedictorian is reserved
for the person with the highest GPA. It’s given in recognition of
twelve years of hard work, of excelling academically. While I did
work hard for twelve years and did pretty well in all of my
classes, there was someone who worked harder, did better. This
isn’t my speech to make, so it’s not my speech I’m going to give.”
My best friend looked at me and gave a nervous smile. “I hope you
don’t mind.”

She began reading from the sheet of paper
clutched in her hands. “People will tell you tonight is a
beginning, the start of a new life. I don’t believe that. Your life
is what it is, it’s going to continue down the same path you’ve
been ambling along since you were born. Tonight isn’t a beginning,
it’s just a change.

“
Grown-ups like to say the
only certain things in this world are death and taxes. Well, no
disrespect, but that’s a bunch of crap. There is only one certainty
in this world and that is change.

“
Life is
change.

“
When you wake up in the
morning, you won’t be the same person you are today. You’ll be the
the girl who danced on the table at the post-grad party or the boy
who professed his love to a girl who was only vaguely aware he
existed. You’ll be the person who sat through this speech. You’ll
be a high school graduate. And, of course, you’re expecting that.
But, the thing is, when you wake up on Monday morning, you’ll be a
different person than you were the day before. And it’ll happen
again on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and every single morning until the
biggest change of all comes and you don’t wake up in this world
again.