Chapter 21

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Isabella
There was hardly any sun when I woke up, the dark blue curtains were set aside to reveal the somber weather that fell over Eastsound. It took me a second to panic, not that it was hard, lying on an unfamiliar bed, almost completely stripped of everything that I had been wearing. I lifted the sheets to breath out a sigh of relief at the realization that my bralette and underwear were still on. I sat up, my vision fully re-emerging and through a pounding headache, I was able to recognize that this was the bedroom inside of Caleb's home. He, however, was nowhere to be found. On the nightstand to my right-a glass of water with ice cubes that haven't melted, and two Advil pills. I swallowed them in a hurry, with desperation to moisten my parched throat. Subtle sounds of droplets hitting a hard surface made me wonder if there was a bathroom inside of his room. I still haven't figured out how, out of all places, I had ended up here?

"Hello?" I called out and quickly realized that I was alone. I forced my legs to move and learned that the dripping noises were coming from my bleeding ankles. They stained the navy sheets and poured over the wooden baseboards. I winced at the pain and limped towards the other side of the bed in each of my phone. I eventually stumbled out into the small hallway and used the railing on the stairs to slowly guide me downstairs. The kitchen Island homed my charging cellphone but the living room was just as empty. I hurried to my phone to discover dozens of texts, missed calls and voice mails. Some from my parents, some from Holden, most of them however and to my surprise were from Matt.

'This is Kyla, I'm using Matt's phone because I can't find mine, where the hell are you? Im going to call the police!'

Memories of last night flooded my ponder, my bestfriend and boyfriend's betrayal, tossing her phone into the toilet bowl and running off, the three boys in the alley and then, the three wolves...a fourth one that seemed to save me....once again. I suddenly wondered if I was beginning to lose it.
I read over Holden's messages and realized that neither him nor Kyla were aware that I knew.
I used my phone to search the news, I scanned through dozens of articles in hopes of finding something about the half-wolf creatures from last night. There was nothing written nor reported about any wolf for a matter of a fact, anywhere near Eastsound or the entirety of Washington. I searched under Half-wolf, half Monster in Washington, Wolf attack in Eastsound, Beach-haven wolf attack, but came up short every time. Somehow, I ended up stumbling upon the blog again from the girl in Vermont that claimed that the Waru's were shapeshifters. If I was naive enough then I could convince myself that the puzzle fit perfectly.

Caleb has the same scar that the beast has...his clothes all over the soil but somehow he survived. He'd been covering up for the beast's existence, there was no doubt about it....the full moon, the cabin in the woods, the slaughtered lamb and deer....the wolf attack in Vermont...there had been three men that tried to attack me last night, they disappeared and in their place were three wolves instead.

If I had shifted on time, Caleb had said one time. It was in the classroom of the science room right after our kiss.
Realization hit me like ten pounds of bricks. I felt the sudden urge to throw up.

The front door burst open and in walked in Caleb carrying a tray of coffee and a white plastic bag. He seemed surprised that I was out of bed. His gaze dropped to study the rest of me briefly. I immediately abandoned my newly thoughts and tossed my phone aside. I  blushed red and hid behind the counter. How could I have forgotten that I was practically clothless?
Caleb set the stuff down in front of me," you're up."

I swallowed as an attempt to lessen my parch ,"How did I end up here?"

"I found you, passed out in an alley in Beach-Haven."

"You found me?" I could not help my accusing tone.

Caleb could not meet my eye, he came around the kitchen counter and placed the contents on the island. I shuffled further away to hide from him.

"I have some extra pjs upstairs if you need-"

"I don't need the pjs," my tone was firm.

He raised his eyebrows," oh?"

I felt my cheeks grow hotter than before," I don't mean it like that, I mean- I know you didn't find me passed out."

"What do you think happened then?"

He was just inches away from me, it was almost as if the sensory of his skin being so close to mine stole every breath and thought that I could muster. It was infuriating how much I craved him.

"There were three guys there, they tried to take me with them-"

I felt him stiffen as if this angered him.

"Then all of the sudden, they were gone and instead there were wolves, like the one I seen here-"

"There were no wolves, Isabella."

"There were! Half-wolf half-monsters, and then a fourth one shows up, the same one from here, it had the same scar on its chest, the same exact one as yours!"

Caleb chuckled and reached for his coffee," you hit your head, you need to eat something, I brought you a bagel-"

"I don't need food, Caleb, I need answers!"

"Fine," he slammed the coffee cup down with enough force to make it spill," what's your real question?"

I swallowed again," the wolf with the scar, I counted a total of 9 teeth marks on his chest, how many teeth marks do you have?"

Caleb didn't answer. He didn't stop me when I walked closer to him and kept his eyes on me while I pulled up his shirt forcefully to reveal the identical scar.

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8...9."

I pulled his shirt down and we stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"The night that I saw the beast, it was a full moon. Your clothes were all over the ground and don't tell me they were out drying, I'm not an idiot. In the alley, those three guys, they turned to wolves also...you were following me were you? It was you that I saw here, that's why you let me go, and you followed me to beach haven just like you followed me to my house the first night that I came over here. You knew that because of you, those guys would want to hurt me, you knew that they were bound to find me-"

"Izzy, stop!"

He had placed his hands on my shoulders. I hadn't realized that I was sobbing whilst talking until I was silenced by him.

"What do you want?" he suddenly asked.

"The truth...who are you?"

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