Pack Member

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Howl

The silence of the night pressed all around as Raph turned in his sleep, the dark clouds had shrouded the moon and its company of stars in a black viel, letting only a few peek from behind thier ink streaked forms.

From the grove of oak trees on the grass below the house, seven pairs of eyes watched. Six of them glinting a pale emerald green in the scarce light of the moon, pupils coracting and dilating as light shifted across the undergrowth. The seventh pair of eyes moved not once, they're slitted gaze fixed on the house. Cold, calculated storm grey eyes hid their emotions from the world, showing only the raw power that prowled through their owners body, waiting for a chance to release itself and strike, like water on rock or fire to parched leaves, then to curl up and once again sleep; until it was needed... and raised from its slumber...

Suddenly there was a flash of ivory white in the moonlight as the creature in the bushes threw back its head, no sound came but the leaves of the low canopy trembled as its breath stroked them. Then it lowered its muzzle and silently left the grove, followed closely by 6 flickering shadows moving softly in the pale moonlight...

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A sound cut through Raphael's ears like a knife blade and his vision exploded into dark colours as he sat up, dark shadows crossed and re-crossed his minds eye, drawing closer until... The noise shut itself off and the silence of the sharp night air descended again. Raph sat on his bed rubbing his ear; it was the second time that had happened. First the school bell, now this noise that had woken him up in the dead of night.

A sort of howling it had been, mingled with words in a tongue Raphael could not make out, he knew only that the words had not been English, or Welsh from what he had heard of it...

A soft knock came from his door "Raph? Lickle brother? Are you OK? I heard noises."

"Oh... yeah Hailey I'm fine."

"I'm coming in, you'd better have pyjamas on."

The bottom of the door grated slightly against the wooden floor as it swung open to reveal Hailey in her Shaun the sheep onesie. Luckily it had been a cold night so he was in fact wearing Pyjamas. "Hailey!" he whispered as loud as he dared, making it sound like the hissing of a serpent in the stillness of the quiet house. "You can't just come into peoples rooms like that!"

"Your my brother, i'll do what i want."

"But.."

"I don't like this house." Hailey suddenly completely changed the subject, an annoyance that she had a habit of doing, often mid-sentence if she felt like it. The Jones family had become accustomed to having to follow the line of Hailey's conversation and had all become skilled in following exactly what she said.

"Well that's OK then." She looked rather confused and turned a quizzical look on him "I heard mum and dad talking about selling it, or at least renting it out."

"Why, i thought mum was loving renovating this old place? Why would either of them want to sell it?" she said, then as an after-thought "Where are we going to live?" Raph rolled his eyes and shrugged, he had no idea. The snippets of conversation he had heard echoing up from the kitchen to the bathroom had been only just audible. "Dunno, i think its just a bit to much for her. She's been stressed lately; and i dont know where we'll live if they do decide to sell it. Probably in the old gate house." Hailey nodded, she also had noticed the faint smudges under their mum's eyes recently.