Beware The Wolf Inside

Chapter 4

The hallway's warm air hit my face immediately as I opened the bedroom door. It was refreshing in a way, but also meant that there were guests coming over soon.

The air was lined with the scent of good cooking from my mother's kitchen. It was apart of my childhood I could never grow out of. My mother's food always had the potential to make my mouth water and my stomach growl even when I wasn't feeling hungry.

I shook my head when I found myself aching to taste my mom's food once more. I had bigger things to think about, such as my lover whom I had no idea the whereabouts of in this mansion, than to think about my mom's cooking. There was also the thought of having to sit around a table full of family members and possibly the supernatural council to welcome the arrival of the newest addition to the family.

Amelia.

I swallowed harshly as I thought about the grueling way she screamed just moments before I had gone unconscious. It wasn't fair. I couldn't have protected her like I promised I would, and now her life as a normal human being, the only life style she was accustomed to, would be ruined forever.

I balled my fists and slammed them into the nearest wall as I processed this. It was almost too overwhelming to stand as I leaned my body against the steady wall and closed my eyes. Had the room been spinning in reality, I would've fallen to my hands and knees, begging for everything to slow down in the world. But since it was merely the sick feeling I felt from potentially fucking up my fiancé's normal, safe, human life, I had to push myself from the wall and inch myself closer to the stairs.

The light seemed to illuminate brighter than I had seen in years around the bottom of the house. It looked almost as if my mother and father had done a job of decorating with bright headlights from a vehicle when I first entered the room. After five or six minutes, my eyes readjusted to the sudden burst of light and I could easily see people scattered all around the living room, kitchen, and ballroom areas.

Everyone, whom I recognized as members of the pure blood family, stopped to give me a few-second-glance as I passed. I was looking for my parents or even my aunt or brother, Jake. It was hard to scope them out through the large crowd of people chatting amongst themselves in the house, though, so I eventually gave up.

I guess it didn't really help that I felt at any moment I could barf on some of these people from the heat of the place as well as the worry built in the pit of my stomach. I could feel tiny beads of sweat beginning to form under my bangs on my forehead and on the lower sections of my back as I continued to slip through people in the house. It had started to become smoldering in the dining room and ball room, so I slipped into the back kitchen, where I found space to be completely unoccupied.

It felt nice to have the air conditioner hitting my face as I stood beside it in the kitchen. Almost as if it had the power to blow all the stress from my body, I felt relieved to have something so cool hitting the exterior of my skin.

"Carmen," I heard from behind.

"Yes, father?" I asked, recognizing his voice promptly after him speaking.

"Come with me, my daughter."