Chapter 4

This is the one that started it all. The first chapter I wrote and the one I'm most proud of. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Jenny sat up with a start.  She wasn’t sure what it was that roused her from sleep, but being a cop for so long you didn’t question your instincts.She slid out of bed, careful not to disturbed the curled up boy next to her.  

They’d arrived at the cabin last night after being chased by heaven knew what.  The boy seemed to be what they were after, she just didn’t know why.  She watched him breath steadily, before slowly opening the door to the bedroom and slipping out.  It had been a wild twenty-four hours that was for sure.  They’d finally found the missing boy, Sam, and had quickly been attacked by the creatures.  In the dark she didn’t quite get a good look at them.  She could tell they’d been large, but not much detail.  The man she’d met when she’d arrived had somehow known how to stay ahead of them.  She’d remembered looking back and seeing the creatures’ eyes shining in the moonlight.

Jenny tipped toed down the hall to the living room.  She parted the curtains and looked out across the drive way of the cabin.  She scanned for a minute or so, but didn’t see any movement.  Maybe it was her imagination, but she didn’t think so.  For the first time she thought about the figure in the chair.  She glanced over only to find a a crumpled up blanket on the floor next to an empty recliner.  Now where was he?
The man she’d met last night at the derelict apartment building where Sam had been held.  She’d almost shot him when he grabbed her from behind.  It was only when the lookout walked by did she understand that he’d saved her life.  He’d also been the one that brought them here.  A cabin in the middle of nowhere.  She passed across the room to the window in the kitchen.  Again she parted the curtains slightly and scanned the area.
There, a movement!  She was sure of it.  She kept her eyes on the spot for a minute.  When nothing else moved she quickly back away from the window and headed back to the room.  As she entered she saw Sam sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.  He stared at her as she crossed the room and retrieved the 9mm from her shoulder holster.
“What’s going on?”  Sam mumbled sleepily.
“Not sure.  Maybe nothing.”  No reason to scare him anymore than he probably was.  It probably was nothing, but she had to be sure.
Jenny crept out into the hall again.  She stopped and began to listen.  Nothing.  She couldn’t hear a thing.  She was probably delusional.  It was probably Xander, isn’t that what he said his name was, he was probably returning with breakfast.
She began to relax when the front door broke in.  She instantly brought up the gun and aimed at the dark figure in the door way.  This definitely wasn’t Xander.
The figure stood a few inches short of five foot.  He stood with the morning sun behind him, keeping Jenny from seeing him clearly.
“Hold it right there!”  Jenny screamed.  The man just chuckled.  He took a step in, giving Jenny a better look.  He wore dark nondescript clothes.  A hip length leather jacket and a pair of dark sunglasses.  He had long shoulder length hair that framed the sides of his square jaw.  Jenny heard him guffaw as he took another step.
“I said to stay where you are!”  She brought the pistol up a bit more for emphasis.
A slow grin spread across the man’s face as he began to slowly walk toward her.  He stopped suddenly and Jenny could feel his gaze shift behind her.
“Get back in the room Sam.”  She heard the boy shuffle and then felt his body pressed up against the back of her thigh.  “Get back in the room Sam!”
When her eye’s shifted down to the boy, she instantly regretted it.  The man moved with uncanny speed.  He quickly shoved past her and reached for the boy.  Jenny shifted her momentum quickly and spun around, slamming the gun into the back of the man’s head.  The man staggered to the right.
Jenny quickly grabbed Sam and shoved him behind her.  As the man turned he was met with the deafening sound of two gunshots.  It was like a scene from a movie.  The stunned man looked down at the two bullet holes in his chest, then back up to Jenny and then crumpled to the ground.
Jenny wasted no time.  She grabbed Sam and ran for the door.  Sam began to sob as Jenny pulled him out the front door toward the car.  Where was Xander?  She scanned the area, but didn’t see anyone else.  If he was close by he would have heard the shots.
She lifted Sam into the front seat and got in herself.  She reached for the ignition, only to find it empty.  The keys!
She turned toward the cabin, remembering the keys on the night stand.  Instantly she forgot about that as she saw the man standing in the doorway.
“What the ---?”  Jenny couldn’t get anymore out as the man began to walk toward the car.  “Lock the doors.” She told Sam as she began to do the same on her side of the car.  She heard the clicks of the locks as Sam complied with the request.
The man stopped at the door to the car and began smiling again.  He grabbed the door handle with his right hand and the frame with his left.  There was no way he was going to try and pull the door off Jenny thought.
Her breath caught as a slow groan began to build in the door.  She could see the door begin to pull away from the frame and the man’s face began to strain.  He was actually doing it, and after being shot!
Jenny slid back into the passenger’s seat with Sam.  She raised her gun toward the opposite door.  He may be able to pull the door off, but he was going to get some more bullets for his effort.
“Sam, unlock the door.”  She could feel the boy turn and the soft click of the lock told her he’d done what she’d ask.  “When I tell you to, run.”
The groaning increased and the man began to step back as the door pulled away from the car.  How?  How was he doing this?  Just as the door was set to come free, the man’s attention shifted.  Jenny peered over the dash as the bushes began to rustle.  She stifled a yelp as, what can only be described as a werewolf, burst through the brush.
What else could she describe it as?  It looked like every werewolf she’d seen in movies.  It was tall, about seven foot at least, and covered in black fur.  Even with the features of a dog, it stood upright like a man.  It’s back feet was elongated, so that it looked like it had a knee link a regular man, and one that bent backwards.  Even though it’s legs looked like a canines, it’s hands were very human, but ended in long sharp claws that glinted in the sun.  It’s long, pointed ears laid back against it’s head as it glared at the man beside the car.
Massive teeth gleamed as the muzzle of the creature pulled back in a snarl.  The great black form bristled and it’s hair stood up on end.  It began to clench and unclenched it’s massive clawed hands as it glared at the man in black.  Jenny glanced at the man to find him completely calm as it looked at the huge beast with it’s gazed locked on him.
The man slowly removed his jacket, never taking his eyes off the monster.  Jenny could hear Sam beginning to sob again behind her.  Jenny wanted to tell him it would be okay, but she wasn’t quite sure herself.
The creatures gold eyes began to narrow as it watched the man remove his glasses and toss them onto his jacket behind him.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’re here.”  The man said in a voice not too different from the creatures throaty growl.  “He told me it was probably you that helped the boy escape.”
The man lifted his shirt over his head, revealing lean sculpted muscle.  He shifted his head from side to side, producing a pop each time.  The man flexed his arms back, pushing out his chest.  Many more pops resulted.  Jenny wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but she thought the man had grown a bit.  Not only in the chest, but taller too.  The man dropped forward onto his hands.  He had dropped into a position much like the beast he faced.  Jenny was sure now.  The man had gotten bigger and had his hair gone gray?
The man looked up toward the wolf across from him.  His eyes had gone black and there was no mistaking the change in his face.  His mouth had pushed out to meet his nose.  Jenny gasped as it continued to become a long, dog-like, muzzle.  Gray hair quickly covered his body.
She heard a yelp from Sam as the man/creature’s bones popped from the change.  Jenny herself was too stunned to make a noise.  She was watching an actual werewolf transformation.
Both the man’s hands and feet lengthened, causing his feet to rip through his black dress shoes.  The man let out a primal scream that ended in a bone chilling howl from a completely transformed werewolf.
Jenny’s eyes began to hurt with holding them wide, but she couldn’t seem to get them to revert back to normal.  What the hell was she seeing?
The two began to circle each other, hackles raised.  The gray bared it’s teeth and snarled.  The black still had it’s teeth bared, but kept it’s gaze between the gray and the car.  Like with Jenny, the gray took advantage when the black looked away.  He cleared the ten feet between the two in a single leap and tackled the black.  The two rolled in the dirt growling and snapping.  Jenny remembered seeing two dogs fight when she was younger.  This was the same, just on a larger scale.
The sound of the gray’s teeth snapping together could be heard in the cabin’s clearing.  The black kept his arm under the gray’s chin, keeping the gray from shredding his face with those massive teeth.  The two rolled back and forth until a sharp yelp from the gray sent him running into the bushes.  In a flash the black was on his feet and after the gray.
Jenny saw the opportunity.  She turned to Sam.  “Get down on the floor.  Stay down.  I’m going to go get the keys.”
She stepped out the door and was suddenly thrown down.  She tried getting up, but her right leg wouldn’t move.  She turned over to find both wolves on top of a crushed in car.  The gray was on top again, snapping at the black.
Jenny panicked.  She began frantically looking through twisted metal to see where Sam was.  She looked up to see the gray looking at her.  It swiped at her, but the swing was stopped short as the black caught his wrist.  The gray’s attention went back to the black as the two continued to struggle on top of the groaning car.
Jenny continued to look.  She caught a glimpse of Sam’s red hair behind the dip of the caved in roof.
“Sam!”
“Yeah?”  She could hear him choking back as he answered.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Stay calm.”
She caught the flash of gray from above and looked up to see the gray flying through the air toward the cabin.  He landed a few feet away on his back.  He quickly flipped over and was tackled by the black.  Jenny caught a flash of metal and noticed that the gray had produced a long dagger.  The wicked blade curved down from the point, before turning in a bit and then back out to continue it’s crescent shape.
Jenny didn’t have time to think about the physics of where a dagger could’ve been produced from as she frantically began trying to pull out her leg.  She could see Sam’s face staring at her between the caved in roof and the floor of the car.
She turned back to the two creatures when the black let out a yelp.  The black had backed off and was holding his side.  Even with the jet black fur Jenny could see the blood oozing through his fingers.
The gray advanced, his lips curling back.  Jenny couldn’t tell if it was a snarl or if the gray was smiling.  The gray swiped at the black with the dagger, stopping with a loud clang as it met a dagger produced by the black.
The black slashed at the gray, keeping him at bay.  He began giving ground as the gray advanced.  The black once again glanced toward the car and, as before, the gray took advantage.  The black ducked underneath the gray’s swing, anticipating the attack.  He brought his own twin bladed dagger, the blade laying parallel to his forearm, across, slashing into the gray’s stomach.
The howl was deafening and the gray quickly fell away from the fight, holding his arm to the significant blood flow from his stomach.  The black kept on the attach.  He lept onto the gray, using his own dagger to swat away the sinister curved blade of the gray.  In the same quick motion the black buried his double bladed dagger into the heart of the gray.
The gray’s eyes went wide in shock and he went limp.  The black began to huff and puff as he stayed on top of the lifeless body.  After a few moments he turned toward the scene at the car.  He climbed off the now lifeless form of the attacker.  He began to amble toward Jenny.  Her breath caught in her throat as the creature stood over her.
Jenny, realizing she still had the 9mm in hand, raised it toward the dark haired creature.  “Try and eat me, mutt.”

The wolf cocked his head and with lightening speed ripped the gun from her hand.  He tossed the gun to the ground out of reach.  He began to bend down.  Jenny, not usually one to show fear, turned away and clenched her eyes shut.

She was shocked when she began to hear the creak, then tearing, of metal.

Jenny turned back to see the ebony monster ripping off the mutilated roof of the car.  He flung the twisted mass off into the woods and began to back off.  Sam popped up from the floor, eyes on the beast a few feet away.

Jenny’s inquiry of “Are you hurt?” pulled him from his stunned state and he ran to her, clenching her tightly.  Jenny held the boy close and looked to the unlikely savior.

She was shocked to see him reduce in size and the hair began to recede.  The beast lay down on his side, as sickening pops filled the air.  It let out a deep groan and it put a hand to it’s face.

Jenny looked down at Sam, who kept his face buried in crook of her shoulder.  Jenny turned back to the scene a few feet away and was shocked.

Xander lay in place of the monster that had occupied the spot a few moments ago.  He looked back at her with a what-can-I-say look on his face.
He crawled over to the man’s jacked that lay close by and wrapped it around his naked frame.  He stood up.  He had the same lean muscled frame as Jenny and Sam’s attacker.  He ran a hand through his dark hair and down his face, rubbing off a sheen of sweat.
“We have to go.  There’ll be more.”  He said in a deep voice.  “Go get what you need, I’ll find something to wear.”
Jenny stood up and took Sam by the hand.  The both sprinted for the cabin.  Jenny passed through the door and down the hall to the bedroom.  She quickly donned her shoes, socks, and shoulder holster.  She grabbed her jacket and turned to find Sam dressed as well.
“Are you okay?”  The boy seemed to be off in his own little world.
“Yes, I think so.”  He murmured.  If he wasn’t in shock, he was taking this quite well.
They returned outside to find Xander dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt.  He was pulling on a pair of boots.  He looked up at the duo coming toward him.  “I always carry a spare.”  He looked around.  “For occasions like this.”
Jenny glared. “Does this happen often?”
“More than you’d think.”  He replied with a smirk.
That agitated Jenny.   “I’m glad you’re amused.  Just who the hell are you?”
Xander moved past her to the pile of shredded clothes where Jenny’s attacker had changed.  “I’ll tell you, but for right now we need to get out of here.”  He produced a set of keys from the pile.  “We have to find his car.”  He said motioning toward the dead body with a nod of his head.
Jenny began to scan the area as Xander moved around the back of the cabin.  She caught a glint of a reflection down the hill.  “Over here!”  She yelled.
Xander quickly joined them and they made their way down to a rather swanky SUV.  Sam climbed in the back as Jenny took the passenger’s seat.

They rode in silence for quite a ways down the road.  Jenny stared out the window at the passing forest.  The tall oaks zipped by in rapid succession as Jenny sorted through what had happened back at the cabin.  She couldn’t seem to wrap her head around it though.  What had her attacker been?  Better yet, who or what was the man that seemed to be controlling where they were going.
She turned and looked at Xander.
“I’m a werewolf.”  He said without taking his eyes off the road.
“Ya think?”  She snapped, her anger bubbling forth.  “Exactly who are you?”
“Xander Mactire.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“No, I don’t suppose it would.”  He took deep breath.
“Who was that back there?  What did he want?”
“His name was Sloan.  He was sent to retrieve the boy.”
“For Killian.”  She said matter-of-factly.
Xander looked at her.  “Yes.”  He was more than a little surprised.  “How do you know Killian?”
She didn’t answer.  She did glance back at Sam, who was watching Xander.  He was taking this oftly well.
“Why does Killian want Sam?”
“Because he believes Sam’s the Alpha.”
“The what?”
“Alpha.  Top dog, in a sense.”
“I know what Alpha means in terms of dogs.  What does that have to do with...”
“My kind?”  Jenny said nothing.  “It’s okay.  I know it’s a lot to take in.”
He went silent as a car approached in the other lane.  He stared at it intently as it approached and watched it in the rear view mirror until it was out of site.
“There is a legend that one will be born that will unite all the lesser packs into one.”  He glanced at her.  “There are many that would like that privilege.”
“Wishful thinking it sounds like.”
“Not really.  Our power can be transferred.  That’s what happened when I killed Sloan.”
“You mean that shimmer in the air?  The heaviness that I felt?  I thought I imagined that?”
“You didn’t.  When one of us is killed by silver his essence is released.  If it’s done by another of us, we gain his Ekkar.  His essence, for lack of a better term.”  He turned right down an intersection in the highway and took another deep breath.  “Killian sent Sloan because he believes that the boy is the Alpha.”
“And he wants his essence.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t he kill him when he had the chance?”
“Because I believe that Killian is working for someone else.  He’s not like the rest of us, he doesn’t have a pack.  He’s kind of like a mercenary to our kind.

“Also Sam just can’t be killed.  It doesn’t work like that.  We are born as what we are, but it doesn’t develop at birth.  There is a rite of passage of sorts.  The boy hasn’t gone through it yet.”

“He was going to force the boy to do it, for whoever wants Sam.”
“Exactly.”  He looked over at her.  “We interrupted him, by taking the boy, before the ritual could happen.”
Jenny sat back.  “This is heavy.”
“More than you know.”  He said watching another passing car.  “Killian, and whoever he works for, will want you dead for interfering.  The Ze’ev will want you dead for what you know.”
“Ze’ev?”
“That is what we call our kind.”  He made another right at an intersection.  “We are very secretive.”
“Grab your torches and pitchforks.”
“Exactly.  You humans aren’t the most understanding or accepting.”
“Does that mean you’re going to kill me?”  She looked back at Sam, who still listened intently.  “And then him?”
He said nothing for a few moments.  He continued to scan the road in front of him.  Jenny grew more worried about the answer as the moments ticked past.
“No.”  He finally said and Jenny exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.  “The boy is to be protected, no matter what.”
“And me?”
“I’ll probably be killed for it, but I won’t be the one to end your life.”
“That’s less reassuring than I’d hoped for.”
“I’m sorry.  I don’t mean to scare you.”
“That moment has long passed.”  She sat back in her seat.  “What are you going to do with Sam?”
“Protect him.  That’s my place in the pack.”
“Your place?”
“Each pack is like a society.  There is an Alpha of each.  He gives everyone their purpose.”
“And yours is to protect?”
“Yes.”
“Sounds very heroic.”
“It’s not.”  His face grew somber.  “It’s the lowest duty our kind can have.  We are the targets.”
“You’re like bodyguards.  That has to attest to your fighting prowess?”
“You’d think so, but our kind believes that we should be warriors....fighters.  If we are given the duty to protect it tells the rest of the pack that we are not aggressors.”  He breathed a sigh.  “We wait for the fight to be brought to us.”
“You’re cowards.”
“Yes.”
“Are you?”  She saw the pain in his eyes when she asked.  She’d struck a nerve.
“A coward?”  He looked at her.  “No.  But I was given this duty as a disgrace.”
“The Ze’ev are punishing you?”
“Not the Ze’ev, just the alpha of my clan.”
“Why?”
“I made him look weak.”  He didn’t elaborate.  Jenny got the sense that he wasn’t going to either.  She looked out the windshield and began to process this new information.  An entire secret organization, no, society of werewolves lived among them.  She reeled with the possibility.  Never in her wildest dreams did she ever believe that anything like this could be out there.
She glanced at a dinner as they passed it.  It seemed vaguely familiar.  Then it struck her.  She’d seen it last night on the way to the cabin!
“Wait!  We’re going back!”  She snapped around to Xander.  “We’re headed back to the city!”
“Yes.”
“Why?  That’s crazy!”  She looked back at Sam again.  He had dozed off in the back seat.  A day filled with not-so-fictional creatures and life threatening situations could do that she supposed.  She lowered her voice.  “Are you daft?  That’s were the bad guys are.  I thought you were supposed to protect him?”
“It’s the last place they’d look.”  She couldn’t disagree with him there.  “There’s no place we could hide for long.  They’ll find us.  It’s best we confront our adversary head on.”  He gripped the wheel harder and turned to stare at her.  His gaze shook her to the core.  “Besides, I’m no coward.”