The Wild

-9- Bad Luck

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

She crashed on the couch and was out cold within a few seconds, gently snoring into the checkered fabric of the pillow. I stared ahead at the fireplace and pushed my shoes off and onto the floor before pulling my knees up to my chest. I ignored the growling outside until the sounds of the wolf morphed slowly but surely into a screaming boy terrified of who he was. I tucked my head lower between my knees so my hearing was shielded from it.

The door slammed and heavy footsteps came down the hall, followed by the quick patter of Mary's feet chasing after Bennet. I turned my head cautiously over my shoulder, noticing his shirtless back and the jacket held around his waist. Mary reached for his arm, but he slapped it away and glared down at her.

"Don't touch me," he hissed, his sneer accompanied by sharp, angled teeth too big for his gums and too animalistic to be human. He saw me staring, and almost instantly looked away while I did the same. Assuming from the fading sound of his footsteps, I figured he left the room.

Mary entered the living room and came around to the front side of the couch. I kept my gaze down, arms wrapped around my knees. She sat on the coffee table with a stiff poise and crossed legs.

She called my name softly, urging me to look up at her. She stared between my two eyes before saying, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

I shrugged.

She picked at one of her fingernails awkwardly. The soft roundness of her face was slouched into a heavy frown and furrowed eyebrows. "You overheard our conversation with Bennet," she stated blatantly, and when I didn't respond she continued. "With Bennet's step-brother and his friends in Stillwater, it's causing the men to start to shift. I fear most won't be able to make it through the transformation, and the only way to stop it is to get them to leave Stillwater."

There was a long pause in which we both knew I had a question to ask but wasn't sure if I should say it or not. "Why... would he be the reason men are shifting?" I was reminded of all the customers unable to come to the diner, bedridden with a bug that was being passed around, conveniently, to all the males.

"Well, there's a status to werewolves, and the highest status was given to my ex-husband," she explained. "They're called Alphas, and they're dangerous to large populations of people, so most stick to the countryside. They trigger the transformation, and depending on their age and experience, the radius in which males are affected can be large or small. Our... son is more powerful than I expected, so I can only assume he's taken over my ex-husband's roll as Alpha."

Damn Twilight wolves, I muttered in my head. I was almost tempted to fall asleep like Amaya and hope to wake up in my room back at home.

"And what about Bennet? And John? Why doesn't it affect you or me?" I asked. She pursed her lips and scratched at the back of her head.

"John is the second highest status, and given certain circumstances he could have taken on the Alpha roll. Bennet's transformation went so smoothly because of that," she told me, glancing over my shoulder. Her eyes didn't return to me, so I figured Bennet had entered the room again. I looked back at him where he stood awkwardly in the archway of the living room.

His face was dark, and his eyes were bloodshot and red around the edges. His teeth had receded dramatically, leaving only a pair of pointed canines poking holes into his lips.

"Yes, I'm just so lucky, aren't I?" he sneered sarcastically, folding his arms over his chest as he sat himself down into the rocking chair. He lowered himself into it slowly, though, and appeared to be in more pain than he was letting on.