— • 🔐 Lucas 🔐 • —

Back at camp, I was pulled to the side by my mum and Dad. Daisy and Charlie.

"Lucas a word?" My Dad says to me, totally ignoring the fact I have Bella curled up in my arms.

"Can it just wait like 5 minutes Dad? I should take Bella back to her tent." I say and march off towards her tent.

Pulling back the door flap I shrink inside the tent. Bella's mother, Juliana sat in her chair in the corner of the room, she's holding some sort of coloured stones in her hands and muttering things under her breath. All whilst having her eyes shut.

I lay Bella down in her bed and cover her with the blanket.

It's as if Juliana finally senses I'm here because she jumps up and hides the stones behind the cushion, before loudly exclaiming "Lucas, I didn't notice you came in. What happened this time?"

Yeah right, well you were too caught up in your meditating spell shit.

"Nothing happened, she just fell asleep so I thought I'd bring her home." I simply say.

"Oh right okay." She said. Almost like she didn't believe me. What the heck is this woman hiding?

I just nod my head at her in respects and walk out of the tent.

The sun beams down and I have to squint my eyes to see. Scanning the camp for my father, I spot him near one of the boulders at the edge of the camp.

When he sees me, his eyes light up and what I thought to be the beginnings of a smile but whatever I saw was replaced with a harsh frown and dark eyes. "Finally." He growls at me.

"Sorry, Dad." I say.

"Alpha, or Charlie, you don't have the right to call me Dad." He almost spits the word at me. Wow okay, he reached a whole new level of low now.

I just grumble. "Yes, Alpha."

He must have been satisfied because his glowering expression fades.

"Now, I want to talk to you about Bella." He says much more lightly than previously. Bipolar much?

"What about her?" I question.

"You two are getting quite close, I would say, closer than just friends." He states.

"Yeah, isn't that what a best friend is?" I say sarcastically.

"You and I both know that's not what I mean." He says. His voice dropping dangerously low. You can tell why he's a good alpha, he's my dad and he scares the shit out of me just by a sudden voice change.

"Well, is it a problem?" I ask. Knowing full well what the answer is anyway. So why'd I ask? Cause I'm an idiot.

"Yes, it's a goddamn problem!" He shouts, a growl forming at the back of his throat.

"You know I'm gonna be with her anyway. It's not like I have a choice!" I shout back.

"Don't raise your voice at me!" He barks. Shit, I've done it now. He closes his eyes and I'm expecting him to lose control but instead, he takes deep breaths and relaxes his muscles.

When he opens his eyes, they are his normal brown colour.

"Just be careful, don't catch feelings cause it just makes it harder." A pained emotion flashes in his eyes but disappears just as quickly.

"I will." I reply. But I already know my brain is infatuated with Bella, I know I've already caught feelings, and I'm falling fast.

"Oh and Dad?" I ask.

"Yeah?" He didn't even bother telling me to call him Alpha Charlie.

"When I and Bella were in the woods, there was this being. It smelled faintly of a wolf but didn't look anything like one, and the smell was so overwhelmingly disgusting, it was hard to make out at first. Maybe send out patrol but tell them to be careful."

He frowns and then smiles and a look of fear crosses his eyes. "You'll make a good Alpha one day. Don't worry about it, I'll get it sorted, just try to avoid going in the woods unless you absolutely have to. Understood?" He says.

"Understood."

"Good." He says and walks away.

Well, that was a very interesting conversation, to say the least.

I see Paige sat fiddling with something, so I go over to have a look.

"Hey, Paige." I say as I sit down beside her.

"Hi, Lucas." She says, still covering whatever is in her hands.

"Whatcha got?" I ask her.

She doesn't respond but instead opens her hands carefully to reveal the most beautiful butterfly I have ever seen. It was different shades of blue with swirls of purple and gold. Wow. It almost doesn't look real. I would say magical almost.

"Wow Paige, it's beautiful." I say softly.

"I know." She replies but then shifts the butterfly so it's laying in one hand and points to a broken wing with another.

"Yeah, so it has a tear in its wing, which isn't really fixable, but if you still want to help it. Get it something sweet, nectar preferably." I say to her.

Paige just nods her head enthusiastically. Hands the butterfly over to me and sprints away towards a cluster of flowers.

I wonder what Bella would do. She's great with animals and things like this. I hope I did the right thing. I normally don't care much for insects and things like butterflies but there's something special about this butterfly. I just don't know what.

Urghhh! Stop. Thinking. About. Bella!

Paige comes running over, a little pile of pollen in her left hand. How did she get so much, so fast?

"I got some!" She exclaims, crouching down next to me. I nudge the butterfly, towards her hand and it slowly crawls over.

Paige looks up at me and then back down at the butterfly. It's now drinking up the nectar and Paige almost drops the butterfly in excitement. She stares back up at me, her eyes shining happily.

After a few minutes, the butterfly starts to flap its wings again. The tear has disappeared which is impossible but I don't question it. My brain is overloaded from today already.

After a couple of beats, it takes off and flies off towards a nearby flower.

Paige turns to me. "We saved it! We saved the butterfly!" She starts jumping up and down in excitement.

"Yeah, we did." I say. I don't know how though.

— • 🔐 • —

After a few hours, it starts to get dark, so everyone collects around the fire pit. There are conversations swimming about in the air, some about food, training, some are just jokey and light-hearted conversation and some are people talking about the creatures from the forest.

I tune my brain out, it's hard to think with that many sentences and questions floating around. My mind eventually falls back to Bella.

Deep in thought, I didn't even realise someone was speaking to me.

"Lucas, what do you think?" A stern voice says. I know exactly who it is. None other than my wonderful father.

I don't even know what they're talking about. Shit! Swear he picks on me cause he knows I'm listening. In fact, that's exactly why he does it.

"Well?" He asks. His face looking even sharper with all the hard lines.

"Umm..." I say quickly, scrambling my brain for some sort of believable excuse as to why I wasn't listening.

"You need to pay attention to these meetings, they're important and one day it will be your job. Now if you have nothing better to do than waste my time you might as well leave!" He barks.

I just stand up, raising my head to meet his blazing eyes, in challenge. A flash of disbelief crosses them but he covers it with his hard glare.

Ha! He knows I'm not afraid of him.

I turn and walk away, leaving everyone at the fire in shock. No one stands up to Charlie and gets away with it, but here I am, walking away, unharmed.

I decide to go visit Bella, I mean I might as well, got nothing better to do. I head towards her tent, the lights are out so she's probably sleeping.

But when I sleep inside, it feels cold. The air is dry and it's quiet, I can't even hear her breathing. I hope she's okay.

I walk over to her bed and pull back the covers to see if she's okay. But she's not there.

Where the fuck is she? It's dark out as well, and with those monsters out. Oh no, what if they got her? What if she's hurt?

Breathe Lucas, deep breaths.

I inhale a deep breath and when I do I know instantly where she is.

I can smell her track leads back out of the tent and to the right, out towards the woods.

Fuck!

I dive out of the tent and sprint towards the forest.

I need to find Bella.

I run faster. My breath turns short and rugged.

I leap over logs, kicking up clouds of dirt.

As I jump, I shift into my wolf, my skin tears from the inside to the out, burning raw as it turns on itself. The muscles twisting and ripping, bones scraping and snapping, I let out a pained yelp that morphs into a deep growl. The fangs grow through as with the claws, piercing and drawing blood. It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, but changing from a human into a wolf isn't exactly a smooth transition.

Landing on all four paws, I let out a loud howl to alert the other pack members, calling out to tell Bella I'm coming for her.

I'm gonna save you, Bella, I'm gonna save my girl.

I guess now would be a good time to explain what just happened, with the whole morphing into a wolf kinda thing. I'm a werewolf, shifting between man and wolf bodies. Well, the modern term is lycan or lycanthrope. The myth of a normal werewolf is we shift on a full moon, turning into a huge, bloody thirsty monster. But as a lycan we hunt solely to survive, take what we need and leave nature to do the rest, it helps that we are part human as well-meaning we don't hunt as often as you would think.

As I run, I hear a voice behind me call out, telling me to stop, slow down, but it only makes me speed up faster, clawing at the mud beneath my paws as I run.

I sprint further into the woods, my wolf growing restless in the search for her. He knows she's not mine, she won't ever be mine but I can't lose her. Not now, I'm not prepared.

I inhale deeply, picking up the scent, my eyes grow wide, licking my lips washing the scent around my muzzle to get a better focus. Bella. But she's not alone, the vile scent of those creatures. It's a concoction of disturbing smells that make my nostrils coil in disgust. A mixture of rotten flesh, decaying wood, death itself.

Charging forwards, I follow her trail, crashing through the undergrowth, watching as the little animals that weren't already hiding from the repulsive smell, dive into their burrows as I run straight through their path. I run and run until the trail comes to an abrupt stop. Fuck!

Running further into the dense woods, I'm getting closer, Bellas smell is getting stronger and so is the smell of those hideous monsters.

I'm starting to lose focus, the smell becoming too overpowering. I start to get dizzy, feel sick like I'm going to puke at any moment, but I need to keep going. I need to find Bella. There isn't an option to not.

Come on wolfie. Where are you when I need you, help me out here bud.

I just get a growl in response.

Great.

I let out another howl, desperately wanting to hear a howl back from her, her sweet melody, calling out to me, telling me she's alive. But I know that won't happen, she's not like us, like me.

And that sends a shiver through me which causes my wolf to whimper.

My pack howl in reply to my panic-stricken cries. They're a distance away but they're coming. My pack are coming, we will find Bella.

I feel trapped as the trees suffocate me, desperately trying to stop my aid of rescuing Bell. Almost like the forest is turning against me. I trip over roots and scrape my flank on brambles, banging my head a few times on low hanging branches.

Growling in frustration I slow down a little to try to manoeuvre the dense forest, weaving my way through the trees, I notice how they thin out, spacing out and I trot forwards happily, no longer having to duck and squeeze. The rich mud rolls into soft grass as I reach the clearing. The boulder in the middle seems almost out of place.

My nostrils flare, the smells so overpowering it's almost blinding. They are here, but where? I can smell the rancid creatures, but the smells are so mixed up in my mind, scrambled together in a mess of scents.

Creeping towards the boulder, my paws give way underneath me. I've been running for ages and I'm exhausted. Moving towards the boulder in the hope to receive a few minutes of rest, before I continue on my search for Bella. There's no point continuing on when I'm this exhausted, it would just slow me down and make it even harder to find her.

The shade that falls just below the boulder looks so inviting for my aching muscles.

As I creep closer I notice it move. Wait... boulders can't move, unless... that's not a boulder, that's when I realise. I've been crawling towards a mountain of those vile beasts. No wonder I've felt worse since I arrived here. The smell is so foul to my sensitive scent receptors, it's overloading my body with a sick and drained feeling.

These creatures, they're up to something, what are they hiding, no creature on earth willingly sleeps like that. The ones at the bottom must be crushed. Wait... I'm being stupid, of course, they're not sleeping. They're too smart for that.

I stalk forward, wanting to know what they're hiding and pounce. I collide with one of them and I dig my claws deep into its back. Hanging on my teeth and claws it rolls around vigorously as it tries to shake me off. It opens its wings and beat them together, clapping me between them. The unexpectancy of it causes me to fall.

A few of them turn to face me, the rest far too engrossed on whatever it is they have. They're ready to fight. I let out a loud howl, signalling to my pack mates I need help. Baring my teeth, hackles raised I stand tall, growling in challenge. They in response make some distorted howling noise and show their teeth. Saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths.

Spreading their wings to look larger, an attempt to scare me. They line up and face me, snarling. Eyeing me, waiting for me to make the first move, but it never comes. I stand my ground and wait, I'm not an idiot, I know I could hold them off for a while but I'm outnumbered and it's like a murder waiting to happen.

One by one, they all lift their terrifying heads and look beyond my shoulder. I don't even need to turn around to know who it is. My pack. My pack are here.

Charging into the clearing, they growl in unison, ready to fight. Intimidated and outnumbered, the vile beasts fly into the sky. I stare them down as they ascend. My challenge still stands should they choose to accept it. But they don't, none of them do.

Silhouetted against the moon like an ink smudge that just won't leave, I let out a deep howl, thanking my pack and reminding those monsters to stay away.

Lavender.

It's Bella, she's here.

I run forward to the curled up piece of dead animal the monsters were crowding around.

Except it's not a dead animal, it's Bella.

Shit.

I dive to her side. Her clothes are torn and there are scratches on her arms and legs, a massive claw mark down her chest, it looks too deep, there's blood crusted around the wound but some fresh blood still seeping out, I lick it and the metallic taste makes my wolf bark happily. On her neck, there is a swollen bite mark, the colours of the rainbow swirling around on her skin, purple, blue, green, orange and yellow.

What were those creatures? The wolf in me sniffs at her neck and I recoil in disgust, it smells worse than the creatures themselves.

I mind link the alpha. "Alpha, it's Bella, she's been bitten by those monsters, come look, I think it's poison." Whilst bowing my head in respect.

He walks and stands next to me, crouching down beside her, he too, sniffs her neck. He lifts his head and mind links. "Antonio, alert the pack, we need to leave now, the poison is still warm in her blood, I... I can't find a pulse. Hurry."

The alpha swings his head round to face me, whining in apology.

She can't die. I won't let her.

Shifting back into my human form, I take her up into my arm. She's limp, like a dead weight, and she's getting colder. I touch her neck carefully, and then her wrist. There is no pulse.

"Alpha since you're the largest wolf, can you take us home?" He seems to know that I'm hinting at the fact she needs someone to hold her as she can't hold on herself, being half-dead an all, because he nods his head and crouches down.

His paws tucked underneath him and his belly nearly touching the ground. I climb on.

The alpha let's put a loud howl and we turn, sprinting home as fast as we can. I just hope Bella is going to be okay, she has to be. I can't lose her.

— • 🔐 • —

"Is she going to make it?" I say, nervously shuffling my feet.

Davis turns to me and places a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. "She's strong. She'll pull through. Just have faith."

Faith, that's the one thing I struggle to have when life hanging in the balance.

"Yeah, I guess." I look away, up at the full moon that watches us like a staring eye. Whispering silent prayers that she will be okay. Hoping that someone, somewhere will hear and answer me.

Word count [3154]

So know you know the secret... did anyone guess it from the chapters before?

And any takes on what those creatures are?

- Bri xox