Wolf Girl (Book 2)

Chapter 5: Carys

Carys' POV

Jana and I run through the forest and over the mountains, she wants to wolf out to go faster, but after what happened to my mum, I don't think it's a good idea to transform where there might be hunters. I know now that it was Kincaid who shot her, but you can't be too careful. After all, Jana was shot by hunters once.

"Ceri says I'm in shock," I tell my girlfriend, "I guess I've sort of been in a state of shock since what happened to my dad, but it got really bad when I was in that cave. It was kind of like a  panic attack, not so much the main symptoms, but how it comes out of nowhere," I explain everything that had happened; using Eolas and Anceon. But I don't tell her about hearing my mum's voice, I don't really see where that would get me.

"And it wasn't the Morwal?"

I shake my head, "No, it was nothing like that, it was something that came from within me, I don't know how to explain it."

"Well, you've been through a lot, it's not surprising that it all built up like that," she holds my hand, "It was probably overdue."

"I guess things are still going to be hard for a while, but hopefully when I'm sixteen, and I can go back to being tame again and we can live together, everything will get better. For now, I'll have to roll with the punches."

"Promise me you'll tell me if you feel like that again?" I nod my head. "You're amazing," she smiles at me, "I mean, sure you have your moments of weakness, we all do, but you always pick yourself up again," she kisses my cheek.

Her words mean everything to me, just knowing that she has that confidence in me is enough to keep me going, even if I'm not convinced that I'll get through it.

We stop to sit down and drink some water, I still feel a little weird and sad but being with Jana is helping. After our rest, we continue the trek.

We stand at the top of a mountain in the Welsh countryside, looking over the deep valleys and high mountains.

We ran most of the way here, now we just need to get to the city  and take a train from Caerphilly to Cardiff Central Station. After that, a five-hour train ride to Northumbria with one change and finally, two buses to Stoneybridge.

We've recently discovered that Jana hates trains, she doesn't like how fast they go so she can't sit near a window or go backwards without getting dizzy. And now we have to get on two more, for five hours. We won't get to Stoneybridge until the evening, so it's going to be a long day.

Her legs bounce up and down in her seat, but I place my hands on hers and tell her to focus on me, we talk about how nice it'll be to see Maddy, Rhydian, Tom and Shan and she starts to relax. We saw them before the pack relocated, we had agreed to meet today in the village centre.

Time flies by, and before we know it, we're getting onto the next train. Jana's relaxed enough that she falls asleep, I curl up next to her and snooze for a while too, until we hear the robotic voice announcement that tells us we're almost at our stop. Two minutes later we're getting on our bus, another twenty minutes and we're getting in the next one. The second bus is a longer journey, it takes over an hour to get to our destination.

When we finally arrive in Stoneybridge, we see a very familiar blonde tuft of hair poking out from behind a bush. Even if we couldn't see Rhydian, we'd know they were all there waiting to surprise us. We caught their scent the second the bus pulled into the only road that goes in or out of the village.

"SURPRISE!" Rhydian, Maddy, Tom and Shan all pop up from behind the bush with party poppers and the girls are holding a big banner that reads 'Welcome Back!' in brightly coloured lettering. They all look so happy to see us.

I get a bit emotional, telling them how much I've missed them and the human world. We all greet each other and head to the Kafe. I walk ahead for a moment because I'm still feeling a little bit overwhelmed from the Anceon incident. I haven't had a moment to myself since. Even when I am alone for a split second, I'm not really. My mother's voice comes back.

'Back where it began then, Cherub?'

I ignore the voice, and we walk into the Kafe. Luckily, it's Katrina's day off so the K's are nowhere to be seen; those three are one thing I definitely don't miss.

Everyone else is chatting away, but all I can think about is Ava. I'm sure Rhydian is thinking about her too. He's looking at me, the same pensive look on his face as mine. It's like he knows what I'm thinking, and it freaks me out.

Jana notices how zoned-out I am, she grabs my hand, "Hey, Carys. What's on your mind?"

"Why does the universe insist on ruining my life?" I huff.

"It'll be okay," she sighs, knowing how difficult this will be.

Rhydian blows out a breath, "Right," he puts his hands down in the table, "So our sister—that we didn't know existed—has turned up out of nowhere demanding some kind of relationship with us," He comes straight out with it. "What do we do?"

"I guess, you have to let her in, give her a chance," Maddy says, "She doesn't have to be part of the pack or anything, but you could agree to meet with her every now and then, both of you," Maddy says.

The others can tell I'm not a fan of the idea, "I don't have a problem with her, it's just that she chose the worst possible time to show up," I sigh, "She says she wants to get to know us, but I don't get how she expects that to work if I'm in the wild, because there's no way in hell she's joining the pack."

"Well maybe now you two can come back," Shannon says, "And she could move to the village, you could stay with her."

It's a fine idea in theory, but I don't trust Ava. Instincts.

"Maybe the two of you should just talk this out with Ava alone, explain things in more detail. She's older, she might have some ideas or something. She might be able to help you out when we do return to the human world," Jana says.

Rhydian and I look at each other and shrug. I don't want her help, I want to make my own way in the world, with Jana and my friends. I could come up with a million excuses not to let Ava be a part of my life, the truth is I don't want her here. I don't need family, I have my pack.

"I know she came here because something terrible happened, but you should look at this as a good thing, she's your sister, she's family. If anything, she should bring this pack closer together," Jana puts her arm around me.

I let out a big sigh, "Fine," I turn to Rhydian, "Let's go talk to her, I guess everyone deserves a chance."