Be My Escape

Chapter 3: Stalkers

"So you're telling me that soulmates are real?" Mila asked excitedly. The idea of romance had always excited her, and for some reason, green eyes kept on popping up in her mind.

"Yup. As are werewolves," Blue restated, but Mila waved it off like she had the first time Blue had explained it to her.

"Yeah sure, that's cool too. But soulmates." Mila stressed. "That is unbelievably awesome." She said.

"All werewolves have mates, but it's rare when humans have them." Blue said, watching as Mila's face fell.

"Oh." Mila said. "So are you human, then, Olive?"

"Yes, I'm human. But I've lived here my whole life, so the truth was taught to me at a young age. I'm practically a part of the pack." She explained.

"So how do you know if you have a mate?" Mila asked Blue.

"Well, it's less obvious for humans than it is for werewolves. You might chalk it down to a crush at first. You'll be attracted to them, not able to get them off your mind. But after awhile, the closer you get to your mate...the more you'll feel the pull." Blue explained.

"The pull?" Mila asked, confused.

"Yeah, it's like this feeling you get when you're away from your mate. Your heart feels empty, and there's this desire to be as close to your mate as possible." Blue answered.

"So your boyfriend, Luke? Is he your soulmate?" Mila asked.

"Yeah, he is," Blue responded, a big smile on her face.

"That's so cool. I wish I had a soulmate," Mila responded, her mind drifting off. She had the vague memory of her mother reading her a bedtime story. She couldn't remember the details, but it involved a prince and a princess. The prince had ended up saving the princess from the witch, and they had lived happily ever after.

"I'm sure you're going to find a wonderful man," Olive said. "Anyone would be lucky to have you!" Blue nodded in agreement.

"Aww, thanks!" Mila said, her smile lighting up the room. She was so lucky to have found such great people to be her friends.

For the rest of the night, the girls chatted about the other aspects of their life. Olive was expecting a big promotion at her job. She worked at a call center. Blue, on the other hand, was going to college online and was the receptionist at the small doctor's office the town had. She wanted to be a nurse, and then years down the road, hopefully become a doctor.

"That's so cool. I wish I had a dream like that," Mila said, a little sad.

"You don't know what you want to do for the rest of your life?" Olive asked.

"No. I guess I just never really had time to think about it," Mila explained.

"Well, what extracurricular activities did you do in high school?" Blue asked.

"I'm not sure," Mila responded, her voice meek. There was a lull in conversation as the other girls tried to process what she had just said. Mila could feel the weight of the questions they were bound to start asking, so she jumped to a different subject. "I like animals, though. And helping people. Maybe I could be a firefighting veterinarian?" She said, a small smile playing on her lips as she hoped that her comment had postponed the inevitable questions.

Blue and Olive shared a glance. They were curious about her previous comment, but could tell Mila had tried to move past the subject. "Well, since our town is so small, the firefighters work as volunteers and don't get paid. So you definitely could be a veterinarian and a firefighter, since you'd need a main job to pay for your bills." Olive explained. Mila smiled as the awkward moment passed and they were able to continue their previous conversation.

After several hours of talking, the weather started to get cloudy. As the weather changed, so did the mood of the people waiting outside. "Well, this sucks." Adam said, observing the clouds slowly rolling in. "Not only can I not just grab my mate and bring her back to the house with me, but now I'm going to get rained on as well."

"We're both in the same boat, buddy." David said, gruffly. They were sitting about fifty feet from the house, listening to the muted voices inside. Already, Adam could feel the pull to be near his mate. She was so close, but so far. He ran her name inside his head. Mila. He'd never heard a name he liked more.

"Stupid rules." Adam mumbled. Pack rules indicated that, if your mate was a human, you had to keep your distance until accepted by them. If they were werewolves, Adam and David could have already marked their claim.

Hours passed, and finally the clouds opened up and it started to pour. It wasn't long until the two could no longer hear noises from inside the house. The girls must've fallen asleep. Adam stood up quickly and made his way towards the house, getting drenched in the process.

"What are you doing?" David hissed, still in his original position.

"I'm not going to be a baby like you. I want to see my mate again," Adam explained. David sighed from his position back at the trees, where he got a little bit of protection from the rain.

"Stupid boy," David muttered, but got up to follow him. They got near to the house, and Adam turned around to shush him.

"Shhhhhh," he said, unnecessarily. David glared.

"What do you think I'm going to do, stomp around the house? We've been on many security runs together, and you don't trust me?" David said.

"This is more important than security runs," Adam argued.

"Do you think I don't know that?" David whispered back.

Meanwhile, inside the house, Blue's eyes were wide open. She had been awake as soon as she'd heard the footsteps outside and the muted whispering She got up slowly and shook Olive awake. Olive almost made a noise, but Blue put her finger up to her mouth and Olive quieted down. She could hear the whispers too. Blue moved to go wake up Mila, only to find her tossing and turning in bed. It was clear she was having a nightmare. She shook her awake as well, and Mila shot up in bed, silently.

"W-" she almost said, but Blue put her hand over Mila's mouth. Mila looked at her questioningly, before she too heard the noises outside. She pointed towards the kitchen, where two big pots were hanging. Blue looked at them, scrunched up her face, and then shrugged. She needed to get Mila some better weapons to protect herself.

They gingerly grabbed the pots from the kitchen, and tiptoed to the front door. Blue was in front, Olive second, and Mila third. The rain masked the sound of the front door opening, as they moved around the building, crouched. Blue barely showed her face as she peered around the corner. She could see the outline of two men. The first man was big, at least 6'1, if not more. He looked muscular, too. Blue could see the outline of a man with similar height and build beside him. Blue gestured for Mila to go around the other side. If they caught them both by surprise, they might have a chance.

The rain was blowing away any scent the men might have been giving off. Blue couldn't tell if they were werewolves or not. If they were human, she could probably fend them both off. If they were werewolves, well...she didn't have much of a chance against both of them. She was crouched as she inched forward, the men completely oblivious as they continued their hushed argument.

"Well, maybe you should have actually-" Adam was saying, but was quickly cut off as he heard a sick thud and his Beta crashed to the floor, dazed. Adam responded quickly, addressing the threat in front of him as he saw Blue holding the pan. He dropped into a defensive stance, his arms already getting hairier as he growled at the threat.

"Alpha, I'm so sorry!" Blue said, looking horrified as she looked down and noticed that she had knocked the Beta unconscious. Oh no. She was definitely getting kicked out from the pack after this.

Adam quickly realized what was happening, and started to relax. Before he could say anything else, though, he felt something hard hit his head and his eyesight went black. His knees crumpled, and he fell to the ground.

"We did it!" Mila said triumphantly, her frying pan still high up in the air. She suddenly became aware of the horror in both Olive and Blue's eyes. "What?" She asked, confused.