Fall With Me (UIC 2022)

3 - A Werewolf Walks Into a Bar

It was 2:30 in the morning when Sawyer trudged up the shoddy back steps to her shitty little apartment above the bar. Originally, there were only two apartments, but about ten years ago Harvey decided to chop them in half and charge more money. Two units were rented by college students, one by the bar cook Gogo, and the other by Sawyer.

She unlocked the main door and trudged down the narrow hallway, skirting around two bikes propped up against the wall. After checking her mailbox (nothing but bills), Sawyer entered the apartment, locked the door behind her, and collapsed onto the couch without turning on the lights.

Goddess, she sighed, leaning her head back, eyes closed in exhaustion. For five long years, she tried to forget Caleb, but her heart wouldn't let her. Seeing him again brought about as many painful memories as good ones.

"So—it's true!"

It didn't take much to conjure up the raw fury in Alpha Owen's voice when he found them lying together on the hill, Caleb's hand under her shirt as they kissed.

"Gramps—" Poor Caleb—he had started to get up, but his grandfather backhanded him so hard he crashed to the ground. Sawyer could still see the bright red blood spilling from the cut on his lower lip; watched as his eyelids fluttered as he struggled to remain conscious.

"How long have you been fucking this faerie whore?" Alpha Owen had demanded, stalking towards his grandson with blazing orange eyes.

She had screamed and tried to run towards Caleb, but Alpha Owen reached out and grabbed her by the upper arm, nails painfully piercing her skin.

On the couch, Sawyer winced, heart beating faster as she remembered the exact moment she turned her head and saw that Alpha Owen now towered above her, seven feet of snarling, drooling werewolf. His claws dug deeper into her arm, little rivers of blood rolling down her bicep to splatter on the grass.

"Gramps ..." Caleb had wheezed, levering himself up on one arm. "Let her go ..."

"All faeries do is ruin lives," the alpha had thundered, lifting Sawyer up by her arm. His eyes were two orange suns, lips pulled back from three-inch-long fangs. "I warned the Bloodmoons about bringing this girl into their home, but they wouldn't listen. Now I find that she's seduced my grandson!"

White-hot pain had raced up and down Sawyer's arm. She could feel the claws tearing deep into muscle and closing in on bone. "I love him!" she had screamed.

But that had been the wrong thing to say. Alpha Owen turned the full fury of his orange eyes on her, fangs gleaming in the late spring sun. "You love him?" he had mocked, lupine jaws twisting the words. "You are nothing, girl—nothing! Just a lying, scheming whore. And I will see to it that—"

But he never got to finish his threat. Sawyer had shrieked and lashed out with her free hand, full of pain and terror, zapping the werewolf with all of her electrical defenses. The alpha dropped her and staggered backward, howling, as all of his fur stood on end, subtly smoking.

Clutching her injured arm to her side, Sawyer had summoned her wings and fled the area—soon to flee to the very edge of Hecate City where no one would find her.

Until tonight.

Sawyer heaved a huge, shuddering sigh and brushed at the tears that rolled down her cheeks with the flats of her palms. Goddess.

Why did they have to find her? Why?

Because your life is a shit show, that annoying voice in the back of her mind calmly reminded her.