Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend (14 page)

Reid showed around ten, early for wolves on the
weekend. He knew mum was at work and my heart
fluttered knowing I would now have a chance to ask
him all that had been bothering me throughout the
night.The desire grew and turned into a more hideous
monster every day. I was carnivorous for anything he
could feed me about the wolves and especially ravenous and drooling for information about Sky.

He tapped on the window, I slid the frame open
and we smiled at each other.
“You could have used the door.” I smiled.
Reid wrapped his broad arms around me and we
kissed. Feeling his warm lips, I played the part, but I
was acting. I was going through the motions, numb.
After making out on the bed, I decided I had done
enough to deserve more answers.
I pulled away.“Where’s the rest of the pack today?” I knew they were most likely in bed.
He tried to pull me close again. I resisted.“What’s
Jackson up to?”
“Shit all.”Reid smiled showing a broad white row
of teeth.
I ignored his charm. “How come he’s changed -
and Giny’s not yet? Will Sam or Bianca change her?”
“Probably,” he sighed. “We keep her human as a
sort of cover. Sam’s idea.”
I made sure to praise his narration with my feminine wiles. I stroked my fingers along his arm. “Why
doesn’t she change her? I mean, isn’t she worried
she’ll tell someone?” I thought it was a little hypocritical that Sam forced Reid to change Jackson, but
yet she kept Giny as she was. I knew Giny would
want to be one of them.
“With Giny it’s different.”
“How?” I asked even though I knew why.
He turned his head up in thought.
“Gin wants to be one of us,” he concluded. His
mouth shrugged in sadness. There was more to it
than that. I knew she would likely not get her wish.
“The more we turn the more dangerous it is for us.”
Reid had a way of simplifying things beautifully.
I didn’t yet understand time was irrelevant to them. I
needed more details about the past.
“Did she know what you were at first?”
“No she just hung around Sam and did whatever
she wanted. She was never cool and always wanted to
be. The other girls made fun of her…I think Sam felt
sorry for her.” I doubted that was Sam’s motive, but
I found myself nodding enthusiastically. In my heart
for some reason I felt sorry for Giny.
He ran a hand over my back, I ignored his gesture. “Why do you and Sky call her
Cres
?” (I hid the
pleasure I derived from uttering his name.) I hadn’t
noticed anyone else refer to her so affectionately.
“Sky called her that, before she broke his heart.” I
pretended the words didn’t scrape at me.
My interest was piqued. “Were they in love?”
Again the words caused a strange chemical reaction
inside me, like the blood wanted to drain out of my
feet. I wasn’t sure I could maintain my composure
when I heard the answer. This question had seared in
my mind all night.
“I don’t think so, not really.” He shook his head.
Relief made me almost exhale. I wondered how he
could be so sure.
“What makes you think that?” I was burning
with curiosity, which I tried to play down.
“I don’t know, they were always better friends I
think. He kind of used her to hurt Sam, they were
drawn to each other, and he likes trouble, nearly as
much as you do!” He teased leaning in towards me,
so I could feel the warmth around his body seep
through my clothes.
“He doesn’t look the type,” I said, contemplative.
He looked questioningly at me. “-To be vindictive,” I
added, searching his calm caramel eyes.
“You don’t know how Sam can be to anybody
weak in the mind. He sure got her good though,
when Cresida turned out to be – the hunter she is…”
“It sounds so complicated,” but I knew I didn’t
want it be. He breathed out and rolled onto his back
on the bed.
“It is.” He glanced at me from the corner of his
eye. “Tell me if it’s all too much, okay…are you hungry?” He started to rise.
I shrugged. I guessed I probably was. But I wanted to know more.
“How does Sam
be
to weak-minded people?
What did you mean by that?”
“Persuasive,” he added, for a second I thought he
meant me.
“Aren’t all leaders?” I held his eye.
“Not like her,” he breathed. “So what do you want
to do? Get something or raid the fridge?”
He was changing the subject. “Fridge,” I answered, quietly annoyed.
He helped me up and we walked down the hall
towards the kitchen.
I tried asking a different question, one that intrigued me more. “How did Cresida become a
hunter?” We entered the kitchen, which was illuminated by a large back window, overlooking our
modest courtyard.
“She never became one, she just was and never
realized it. She could have been born in any place
in the world but she happened to be here, where we
were. It’s like there has to be this symbiotic relationship between our kind, the hunters and us. To keep
the universe in check, or something.” He shrugged.
“So what? She’s like your law or something?”
“Our law and punisher, hunters are meant to be
just that. Hunters who kill us track us and take us
out. We were fortunate she takes a liking to us more,
now that she is one of us.” He smiled cheekily. He
opened the fridge and scanned the shelves. I was
glad Sophie had done some shopping recently, and
we were well stocked.
“She’s not meant to be a wolf too?”
“No, her kind is meant to commit suicide, when
that happens-or be taken down by their own-or so
the rumours go. Sandwiches?” he enquired casually,
looking about as though he was thinking of food
more than what he had been saying. He pulled out a
block of cheese and a parcel of ham and placed them
on the bench. He reached for the bread cupboard.
“Someone-a hunter is meant to finish her.”
I noted his closeness with Sky had revealed to
him many secrets about their world. I wondered if he
had asked as many questions as me.
“Like an honour killing? Is that why she keeps a
low profile, now?”
I walked over and handed him a tomato from the
pantry. “Why doesn’t she kill you all and just kill herself?” I looked at him. “For argument’s sake,” I added.
He smirked. “Maybe she’s waiting for them to
come and get her? It’s not as easy as all that, Lila.”
His expression became more serious. “Would you
kill your ex friends, your ex boyfriend and yourself,
or would you live? She has a family you know - a
younger brother and she has had a lot of friends in
school that would be in danger if she died trying to
take us out.” I thought about Bec. Even though we
weren’t close anymore I could never end her life. He
was right. “Mostly, though, she’s waiting,” he added,
opening the drawers with a clank, searching until he
found the right cutlery.
“For what?”
“It will come,” he sang, buttering the bread on the
counter.
“What will?”
He pulled some more bread from the bread cupboard. “The next hunter, it’s just a matter of time, she
knows her number is up.” His voice had an introspective ring.
“What about her parents?” I added. He looked at
me. I had asked as if maybe I knew something, but I
pretended I had just forgotten momentarily that her
aunt was her guardian.
“They’re dead, remember? They made it look like
an accident, whoever did it. The official story goes
they were killed in a car accident.” He looked blank.
“It wasn’t one of us,” he answered defensively, to my
unasked question. He busied himself cutting the
block of cheese.
“But she wasn’t in the car?”
“No.”
He had led me to believe she was. “So the scars?”
“All Sam,” he admitted.
It seemed to me Cres had put up a fight. “There
seem to be a lot of official stories involved in this.” I
raised my eyebrows. “She never was on drugs either
was she?” I wondered how he could put it past Sam
or Lily, not to have killed Cresida’s family. After all,
Lily had tried to hurt me.
“You’re telling me,” he answered with a glint of
wry humour in his eye.
“Who could have done it?”I asked.“Killed them?”
He looked serious again then.
“Maybe the other packs in the territory over,
though it probably was just an accident. She lives
with her aunt and her little brother,” he said reminding me, though I hadn’t forgotten. Reid patted the
bread. I pretended not to notice how tender his action was. I was certain if he lost concentration his
muscular hands could make the bread disintegrate
beneath them.
“Do you know the other pack?”
His answer was a sharp. “No.”
“Why wouldn’t they have killed her as well?” I
thought aloud.
“I don’t know, that’s why it was just an accident, it
doesn’t make sense.”He shrugged, handing me an expertly constructed tomato, cheese and ham sandwich.
I knew he knew more about the other pack than that.
I had a thousand questions but one above all that
haunted me. I opened a cupboard so he couldn’t see
my face. “Does she still love Sky?” I passed him a
plate. Pretending the answer wouldn’t matter.
“I don’t know, all I know is she doesn’t want to
kill him, mostly because he and I saved her life. We
stick close to Sam. Sky thinks if we leave, Cres will
kill her and Bianca and now she’s killed Lily…we
protect our own pack,” he explained gathering the
cheese and ham, placing it back in the refrigerator.
I was confused. “But she only shoots when they
get out of line?” Or so he had been telling me. I
thought of another question then “Does she ever
phase?” I imagined her writhing, fighting the beast
inside herself.
He looked impressed with my use of pack terms,
squashing the two other sandwiches he had made together on his plate. “Only when she has to, or when
it’s necessary.” He leant in and whispered, “You’re
learning to ask the right questions, little student,”
ruffling my hair. I smiled. Reid bit a chunk out of his
sandwich. I thought of what qualified as necessary
for her to phase.
I washed my hands under the kitchen tap and
rubbed them dry with a tea towel. “Did you like her,
Reid, when, - before she was turned and realized
what she was?” I asked tentatively, taking a bite. After
all, they had attended the same high school before all
this, before Sam and Lily and Bianca.
“Yeah,” he thought. “Why - you jealous?” He
teased. “I do like her. It’s just hard when she thinks
she has to murder us you know?” He chuckled with a
bite of bread in his mouth. “Let’s go get some air,” he
mumbled through full cheeks.
Perhaps I was seeking out her appeal. I thought he
looked a little flushed. I followed him out the screen
door, into the daylight. It wasn’t him I was jealous
of, though. All Sky’s history should have turned me
further off and I’d thought satisfying my curiosity
was going to make me less drawn to him. But I even
loved the ugly parts about him. I would have perhaps
drawn a line at mass murder, but anything less only
intrigued me. We sat on the paved steps interspersed
with weeds. I wanted to know everything about him.
The way he saved Cresida from Sam and made sure
Reid looked out for her, warmed my heart. Their
compassion for her was endearing. I wondered why
she still felt the need to hunt them, why didn’t she
just give up. Why did she fight it, now she was one of
them? But that wasn’t the only thing that didn’t make
sense to me. Whilst I had Reid as my loyal boyfriend
I did not think of him when I was alone - guilt and
anxiety ripped through me. Instead it was Sky who
I pined for in the emptiness of my room: the man,
who treated me coldly, and not the boy who loved
me affectionately. Only my pillow knew my torment.
I felt less and less guilt over the fact that I was infatuated with Sky, and I knew then that I was in more
trouble. It crept up on me until the feeling of not being near him made my heart turn in knots. I wanted
the feeling to be reciprocal. We ate in quiet as even
the birds abandoned the trees in Reid’s presence. I
admired the green all around us; the beauty of the
valley had been lost on me during the winter months
when I had arrived. I looked out at the view of the
hills, which encased the valley. Now they meant protection not entrapment, freedom for my beasts to run
and be safe. I thought of Sky out there, licking up
the ice water from the hidden streams which fed the
curving golden Artemis River that ran down through
the centre of the town.
Desperately crazy as it was and I knew it made no
sense, I would have done anything to be near him, to
touch his golden brown hair that he tucked behind
his ears, to hug him in his cardigan and blue-striped
shirt, to smell him and feel his warmth like the sunlight over my skin - and tomorrow I would get my
wish. He was in the team now. I couldn’t break it off
with Reid, doing the right thing had its drawbacks. If
I broke up with Reid I would partly sever my line to
Sky and the pack. But soon I wouldn’t have to wish to
see Sky. I would know like clockwork when I would
see him and feel his presence. My heart fluttered and
my checks pricked with blood just thinking of it.
I should have feared for my life because I was told
angry young wolves were volatile and I knew Sam
had attacked Cresida for doing exactly what it was I
dreamt. I wanted it to happen to me. Unlike Cresida,
I would have become one of them in a heartbeat, no
matter the pain. They had made me have a thirst
for life, woken me up from a daylight slumber to a
more wonderful dream. I wanted to be tied to their
world forever. I wanted to sacrifice my life, this dead
existence, and awake alive as an immortal animal, regardless of everything, my family even Reid, perhaps
even regardless of my feelings for Sky, even regardless
of eternal life. I wanted what Cres had, though she
despised what she was, so much so that she waited for
her time to end, while protecting the humans from
them. Yet Giny was safe and they seemed to keep me
safe from harm - and if they were to eat me maybe I
didn’t care either, as long as it was quick.
Cresida was now my protector so this suicidal
desire of my mine was only a slim possibility, and
from what Reid had told me, she had a sixth sense
for it, for protecting humans, which was only getting stronger. She was made to kill wolves and now
that she was wolf herself, her senses were sharper,
and she was a double threat to their kind. Nothing
was stopping her from taking them out but empathy, which was overridden by her desire to protect
the innocent, as I understood it, the way she had
protected me from Lily. She guarded my fellow fish
from the dolphins’ teeth.
I looked up at the nearest sycamore that overhung
the fence and I knew Cresida could be watching us
through the leaves and maybe it was she who stirred
the birds and made them flee their nests. If Reid
thought she watched us as I had come to suspect,
then he did not fear her.