The Wolf In Me

03 | The Stalking

Ayesha

I knew that it wasn't fair to spy at them, but I followed them anyway.
If they found me, I could only blame it on looking for someone, because that's exactly what I was doing. Kind of.

I made sure to keep enough distance between me and the guys so that they wouldn't suspect I was stalking them.
However, that meant I wouldn't be able to hear what they were talking about.

I had received special training, containing five steps, in how to stalk someone without risking being caught.

1. Stay as far away as possible (helps to avoid getting caught, but unfortunately makes scouting work worse).

2. Be careful not to get distracted (otherwise you can easily lose the prey).

3. Act quickly (otherwise the prey will flee and you will be left empty-handed).

4. The moment of surprise is a must (the prey must not be ready as the risk of it escaping increases).

5. Always carry spray close at hand (to be able to provide a diversionary maneuver while fleeing your way).

These were the basic steps for a wolf to capture their prey without difficulty.
As you can tell, step five was just for me as I wasn't really a werewolf.

At first the guys just seemed to talk as the two normal teenagers they were. But then Hyde started to howl.

That's when my situation became worse. Hyde, always a trouble-maker. That was his spirit.

If he had known what could hear and mistake him for an actual wolf, the situation could escalate to a bloodbath as soon as the real wolf had taken a trip down to look for the wolf—or human in this case—whose howl had been interesting enough to check out.

A few situations of such had appeared for the last two years, and every time it had ended with a bloodbath where either the human was killed or the wolf hunted down and shot to death.

In other words, what Hyde was doing would probably get him or Dylan killed, depending on what happened next.

Dylan seemed to agree with me. He wanted Hyde to stop.

But when Hyde had done that, and I thought the danger was over Dylan started instead. He howled a few times, like he wanted to test something, and that's when my fear became true. A wolf answered Dylan's howl. He would get killed.
But there was something with this whole situation that seemed off. This wasn't natural.

Suddenly everything happened so quickly that I had a hard time registering it all.

I hadn't exactly chosen the best spot for my stalking and now I couldn't really see what happened.

But the wolf—the real one—appeared from the bushes as Dylan had pushed them away.

This was one of the reasons that made me wish that I had become a werewolf. Their supervision.
Of course, that wasn't the only abnormal ability they possessed. And there weren't only good things about the species' powers either. There was a downside. For example, their allergy to iron. Iron was basically the go-to method if you so happened wanted to hurt a werewolf.

I couldn't see in what way, but the wolf hurt Dylan. As the wolf had come out of its hiding spot Dylan became so afraid that he fell. He landed on his back, and the wolf jumped up on him.

I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. So out of reflex, I rushed out from my hiding spot and ran up in front of the guys, so that I stood in between them and the wolf.

What was I thinking?

I noticed how the guys stared at me with wide eyes. They were in as much shock as I was.