Wolf Sirens Night Fall: What Rises Must Fall (Wolf Sirens #3) (15 page)

It was pretty
secluded there, normally just snakes and birds, frogs, eels in the
water, crickets and the breeze in the leaves. He found no
footprints and spent the rest of the night scouring the areas
across the river and farmland, though he knew she would be daft to
be there. He considered that she might be new.

She was perhaps
in a house like him; maybe she would come back again? Were there
others with her? Who were they? Who had bitten her, and was she
from the Cult? Why hadn’t she said much?

Despite the
myriad of questions, his stomach growled and he was spent. It
dawned on him that he wouldn’t be welcome at home and he made for
the cabin. It occurred to him as he approached that the She Wolf
may have been with Sam, staying at the cabin. They would have to be
recently arrived; he had been there only yesterday.

When he entered
via the hidden key, the house was silent. He sensed the young bitch
was there though and he inhaled deeply. He hesitated to move for a
moment and then he caught it - a perfume – the female was there and
he decided she wasn’t a threat. He was stronger anyway, so he
pretended not to notice in case she watched, and he hung the key on
the hook in the kitchen by the phone. As usual, he began
micro-waving pop tarts, the only food left in the freezer-thanks to
Reid and the half breed bitch, he thought annoyed. He sniffed the
air, she was near still, and she almost smelt warm. But was she
playing with him?

He noted Reid’s
scent but it was faint and Cresida's odour - older still, damp and
sharp. He needed some sleep and settled on the white leather couch,
feet up on the armrest. He was so incensed he couldn’t sleep, so he
feigned it.

Frustrated,
after several moments he called out, “Come out, come out wherever
you are?” But it was quiet.

He sat up, he
was hot from running all night in the balmy weather, and the
swimming pool was half covered with a blue tarpaulin that was laden
with dirt, bugs and leaves. He dove in and through the cover of
trees she watched him from afar, well hidden in the darkness. He
reminded her of Sky, he had the same manner.

She was both
frightened and intrigued by him. This made her mission all the
easier, all the more pleasurable. Prior to seeing him, thoughts of
contempt had plagued her but had now turned to enthusiasm to know
him. She wanted to bring him into the Cult pack at Key Inlet when
she had finished.

This mission
would be easy, even Narine would be impressed, she thought, with
optimism. And she was going to do it well, and if that meant
following him for a few days first, then so be it. Angele was
almost elated. This boy would be hers if she played her cards
right, and she squashed the feeling of rejection she had felt from
Paws and Sky and the disinterest from Blair. Although Paws had
seemed more interested again lately. She knew in her heart that was
why Narine had transferred her.

She had learnt
a few things and wasn’t above using them. Her complexion was creamy
and blemish free, unlike her memories of being a kid when she had
been pimple faced and stretch mark ridden. She had baked herself in
the sun to cover them. She had selected a dress for the
mission.

Narine hadn’t
asked why, which led Angele to believe she perhaps approved. Though
Narine had ousted her from her spot in the pack and then maimed
her, she had been the only one to show her kindness and affection
since. Angele had had little affection in her life. She knew
Narine’s affections were shallow but she couldn’t help but accept
them.

She had been
saddened that her mother had died of kidney cancer and that her
stepfather was an abuser, and that she had been left in charge of
her step sisters and half-brother; she was just glad to be away
from it. And for her, she was in heaven now, transported away from
it, and she would dance on her stepfather’s grave for a thousand
years after he was dead.

But the pack
had begun to treat her much the same as she had been treated before
she was bitten, before a life with Paws. This mission was her
opportunity to change it. If she did good, Narine would treat her
like she treated the others, and as an aside bonus she would have a
boy to give her the affection she craved, because she couldn’t be
rejected anymore.

In the morning
Jackson awoke, he hadn’t slept well. He had a strange feeling she
was watching him. As the sun rose through the open glass door he
felt more at peace and slept like a lamb, finally relaxed. But he
woke with a start, as though his body sensed her there, but ahead
of him was nothing but the empty cabin. Perhaps she had been there
gazing into his upturned face. He went back to sleep.

He awoke an
hour later, after dreaming of his parents and how he probably
wouldn’t be allowed back anymore as he had pushed his luck and
disobeyed ultimatum after ultimatum. He thought of her face and
recalled waking with a start in the night, where he imagined he had
seen her for a second. He was going to make camp here at the cabin
until she appeared – or didn’t, and perhaps he had hallucinated
her.

There was one
problem now, apart from the mystery of the enchanting, disappearing
She Wolf. His mind then turned to the immediate. He had to eat and
the last of the frozen food was either expired or gone – between
Jackson, Reid and Cresida raiding it regularly. He poked the ice
logged frozen peas on the bottom of the freezer. The cash stash was
dwindling and he found there was only a few hundred dollars in
notes left in a tin under the basement stairs which was kept for
emergencies. Food could always be found and he was a decent hunter,
rabbit was an easy meal in these parts – and free.

He decided if
the girl didn’t show that he was going to head for the Cult soon
anyway – with any luck she would also be there. But it perplexed
him why she had shown herself to him in the backyard – could she
smell his blood? Was she attracted by the familiar wolf smell?
Maybe he would go and ask Cres what she thought or Reid – though he
realized he was pissed with Reid for not being there at all
lately.

And, he didn’t
trust Cres. In the back of his mind he wanted to keep this to
himself, besides Cresida was still part hunter – not to be trusted
and at the same time not enough huntress to shoot him dead. He
pondered as he headed for the deep woods; daylight wasn’t a smart
time to go out hunting, but he was starved and craving protein, and
in particular, warm blood.

Once he had
reached the trees, he listened for danger and transformed lurching
juvenilely, unable to shed his human skin with grace. In the deeper
forest he paused, sure he was being followed by the lone She Wolf –
perhaps she was a spy of sorts. She was not even downwind; her
female scent brushed his nose though he hadn’t so much as sensed
her before, not like now.

He pretended to
not notice the crackle of fallen leaves, he was going to play her
at her own game. This was now a chase. He pretended to take off
after something and suddenly headed fast through the undergrowth
dodging trees. She chased him, but he was too quick. She circled
about looking for any trace of him, and then suddenly he was on
her. He pounced from side on, pushing the wind out of her. She
struggled, but he had her pinned. Growling too loud for day light
hours he pressed his snarl into her neck so she felt his wet teeth
pressing her flesh firmly through her coat.

In surrender
she whined, she had never been a good fighter and her limp impeded
her more psychologically than physically. She had no intention of
fighting him, even just to win. She was by nature a very submissive
bitch, and besides, boys liked that. She took a gasp and phased.
Adrenalin and caution caused him to delay his retreat from atop her
small body; his black grey fur stood on end as he began to ease
off. He stood back, arched, growling over her and then shook,
trembled and phased into a man who now stood leaning over a naked
girl he had never met, except for a few minutes the day before. She
was even lovelier when the curvature of her back was exposed.

She sat up
slowly with her hands across her small breasts, he crouching in
front of her.

“Well, this is
awkward,” he suggested, suppressing an admiring gaze and equally
telling smile as he used his hands to cover his man parts.

She pressed her
lips together and shrugged the same way she had yesterday, only
then her collarbone was modestly covered by the straps of a floral
dress.

“Where’s your
dress?”

She was
impressed he had remembered what she had been wearing.

She swallowed
and said in her bubbly childlike voice, “Way back there,” nodding
in the direction they had come.

He stared at
her again, unsure of what to say, not wanting to leave her in case
she should disappear again.

“I’ll get it,”
she offered, attempting to move.

“No, no, I’ll
get it just…please stay here.” He urged her with one hand, palm
out. It seemed her suitor was keen to impress and not lose her
again. She smiled behind him and stuffed it down.

Jackson got up
and formed as he strode off into the trees retrieving his own
clothes. He hurriedly found her dress hung on a tree; he inhaled
the scent on his way back. He discovered she hadn’t waited but
followed him after he had left, as he stumbled upon her, making his
way back. He handed her the dress and turned in an act of modesty;
he could hear her silent breathy giggle as she slipped it on behind
him but he didn’t turn until she announced, “You can turn around
now.”

“I was scared
you’d phase and take off,” he said, still not facing her.

“Why?”

He turned. “I’d
never see you again.” As he laid eyes on her, he felt a pang as he
became painfully aware his heart was beating rapidly, despite the
fact they were standing still.

“Are you
hungry?” It was the only thing he could think of and it burst from
his lips.

“Sure,” she
said easily, with a playful smile.

He took her
hand in his and they ran on for a bit; then he held his finger to
his lips, phased, and flew out full pelt darting after a rabbit. He
expected her, delicate as she seemed, to wait, but when he realized
she too had phased and was keeping pace with him they bounded after
the rabbit. When he captured it, they each tore at its flesh in
stringy pieces of raw, pink bloody meat, nuzzling inside its
carcass for the bones and licking their muzzles when they were
done.

He was
surprised she seemed to follow him, and all day they chased rabbits
and prey in the underbrush. Angele hadn’t known such gentleness;
the pack she was from was civilized but brutal in its own way; that
was how she saw it anyway. She had been used and abused, hurt for
entertainment and thrown crashing to the bottom of the pack
hierarchy injured. This was her way back to the pack rung, or at
least it would endear her to them and give her an identity
back.

As his avatar,
the awkward embarrassment Jackson felt in human form was
obliterated. They played affectionately, nuzzling each other and
tumbling in the damp summer leaves on the floor of the bush under
the cover of tall trees, bellies full of fresh meat and for a time
they had not a worry in the world. He didn’t remember her from
school; she wasn’t surprised because she had changed - even she
knew it. She was curvier, her skin had cleared and her eyes were
almost a different colour completely.

Narine had
advised she change herself to avoid easy recognition. Due to the
fact that she had become a missing person her hair had been died
brown but now it was bleached blonde. It was all subtle and
designed to make her more appealing, but she didn’t need any of
these enticements. Wolves, especially the She Wolves, were improved
greatly with venom as a survival mechanism and perhaps to invite
prey with little resistance. Her friends Tealy and Monica wouldn’t
have recognized her and had by now probably accepted she was gone.
With no parents to care about finding her, she had simply
disappeared as a statistic to Shade’s strange wheel of tragedy.

Blair, a police
officer at the police station, was now with the Cult. Narine and
Paws didn’t want this news getting out. A spy like Blair in the
plain sight of the community; working for their side squashing
missing persons, losing evidence from murder cases, and under
reporting crime. Narine's plans were not only to infiltrate and
guide the hand of the law in her favour, but also to eventually
pull the political strings of the whole town and silently control
the prey, as well as the enemy and eventually the packs in other
territories. It was a goal she had taken from Paws originally but
she had indeed made it her own. She would push the plan where Paws
hadn’t. Angele was a willing participant, a cog in the machine
doing her bit for the greater good for the survival of her
family.

Angele felt as
though she was a dolled up carcass, and of all the suits she could
have worn, the gods had chosen for her a most appealing shell; the
gift to transform in unearthly tremours into the creature she would
rather be. She would have preferred to have been in that dream - as
the wolf padding through the forest leaves and living in the
organic odours of bark and leaves and dirt, living without thoughts
of worry or human weakness - than to be Angie again, the teenage
girl in pain.

From the dark,
Shell looked through the window she had spied into many a night.
Now though, it was different as she looked at the red headed woman
examining the things in
her
living room. She had veered off
from the hunting group to see him. She couldn’t help disobeying
pack orders. Genna had been called to a shift at the hospital
otherwise Shell would never have managed to get away from the pack.
To see the life she held to, as it slipped further away.