Sunlight

Chapter 3: The Parents

My eyes won’t open. I move around a little, but stop because I hear thunder, and something quieter. Voices, I can’t understand what they are saying though, they are muffled. I concentrate on making them clearer.

“It must be my fault, when I rammed her against that tree.” Shay.

“No, Deca found this in her back.” The other voice belonged to Silas. He was my pack doctor, weapon developer, and sometimes the cook. (This was practically an all day job when we didn’t hunt.)

“Is that… No. Are you saying this happened on purpose?”

“Yes, but she will be fine. She is one tough chick.”

I opened my eyes a bit and mumbled, “I heard that.” We were in my room, and I was lying on my bed.

Shay laughed, “Oh. Busted!”

Silas blushed, “oops.” He changed the subject, “looks like the sedative is wearing off. As soon as I run some tests you can leave and do whatever you what.”

I saw a look in Shay’s eyes. “Why? Can’t I just say I feel fine and we can all go?”

Without waiting for Silas to answer, Shay smiled and said, “I have just one test; it will make up for all the others.”

Before I could stop him, Shay slipped his hand under my shirt and let it rest against my hip. My eyes widened and I growled a warning at him. He slowly moved his hand up, but didn’t make it an inch.

Using a small portion of my guardian strength, I punched Shay in the gut. A sharp pain sliced up my wrist for a second. Shay grabbed his stomach, and bent over.

He straightened, hands on his hips, and blew out a deep breath. “Ya. She’s fine. Aw man! I swear you have it out for me!”

Silas rubbed a clear jelly-like ointment on my wrist that soaked up the pain, as I started at Shay. “You? Even for a Guardian you’ve got muscles!”

Smiling, Shay walked out of my room. I realized he had taken it as a compliment, in a way it was.

I turned to Silas, “how long have I been out?”

“About thirty-eight hours. As soon as I am done with you, you can leave. But you will still have to be careful about who you hit because of the meds that will last an hour or so then you will be fine.” In less than five minutes, Silas had done a complete check-up. I was fully recovered so he left and I changed my clothes and was out the front door as fast as I could.

Rain poured down, filling the gutters and rushing downhill to the creeks. Thunder and lightning filled the sky. I phased and trotted towards a distant barking. Once or twice I would see a member of either my pack or Calla’s pack go barreling past me in the opposite direction.

What is going on? I wonder. A huge dark gray wolf ran up from behind me. Dax, a good friend of mine. He was a loner wolf, but he was as close to being in the pack without actually being a member as he could get.

I shifted and looked to my side. There he was, keeping a steady pace with me. Dax was tall with wide shoulders. He ran his finger through his short black hair, making it spike. Don’t even get me started on his muscles. Compared to Dax, Shay was puny.

“Hey. Are you feeling better?” he asked in a deep voice that would make most human girls’ knees shake. It was entertaining to watch him walk in the halls at the high school. Popular cheerleaders, or just plain girls, would say hi. Even just by smiling he could make some want to faint. Once he said “hey” to a cheerleader that waved at him… we had to pour a bucket of ice water on her. A week or so after that she told everybody that they had a ‘connection’.

Not that the rest of the guy Guardians got a reaction like that. It was just for some reason Dax and Shay were the “hottest” or “sexiest” to the human girls at the school. All the girls in Calla’s and my pack were wanted by the teenage boys, including us.

I shrugged, “I’m fine I guess. What’s going on?”

Dax gave me an uneasy smile. “Well, uh, Calla’s parents are here.”

I stopped in my tracks. “What?” I phased, shortly followed by Dax, and we ran towards the ruckus. A tree branch wider than me came crashing through the tree tops. We jump over a newly fallen tree, another sign of the parents. Seconds later, we skidded out into a meadow. It was on our side of the mountain, so there was no danger of humans here.

It was a path of destruction. Whole trees lay on their sides with the roots up, and boulders from who-knows-where were spread out all across the meadow. In the middle of the mess stood a very angry looking wolf the size of a large four-wheeler. Staring at him was an equally angry-looking black haired woman wielding a rock the size of a basketball, but she held it easily. They both had unnatural muscles.

Jacob and Elizabeth are here.

Dax and I phased, and I couldn’t help notice that other than Calla, the rest of our packs’ was hanging around the edges of the meadow. Most crouched low in their wolf form like they would attack if necessary.

“Why don’t you crawl back to that little hole you call a den and that new mate of yours before I hurt you?” Elizabeth yelled, and she spat the words new mate.

Jacob had shifted to his human form, “you hurt me? Please, the last time you tried to beat me it barely counted as a massage!”

I looked around and found Shay, he was still in his human form, but his wolf form hung around him. He was expecting, waiting, for one of them to snap.

I didn’t give them the chance. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Jacob stopped in the middle of whatever threat he was making and a smile broke out on his face.

“Well, well, well. Look who we have here.” He walked over and placed a hand on my shoulder. Calla and I are practically sisters, and Jacob was like the father I didn’t have. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elizabeth snigger. Oh, right. You’re here, is all I could think.

While Jacob was a father to me, Elizabeth was the Devils one and only fear.

She looked Calla and me over then got a look on her face like she was disgusted. “Still mate-less I see. Why is that?”

“Why would you care?” I asked sourly.

“I don’t. It’s just you didn’t have one when I last saw you twelve years ago.”

I sighed, and muttered, “Then it obviously wasn’t enough time for you to just drop it.”

Elizabeth didn’t hear me, so she went on to say something else. “Maybe it’s just you can’t find one. Hmm?”

My teeth ground together, “if I wanted a mate, I would have one right now.”

Elizabeth shrugged and turned to walk away. She murmured something under her breath that I barely caught.

But it was enough.

“What?!” I growled. I switched forms and lunged to attack Elizabeth.