Wolf #1: The Pack [COMPLETED]

Chapter 11

Media Citation: @sj_nate. Instagram.com : Timber Wolf Photo. i.pinimg.com/564x/3e/31/c2/3e31c280487c91b44d3d1adb5b03df12.jpg.

Chapter 11

The door slams loudly, and my mother flinches. She comes over to me and hugs me tightly. Unlike her, my father is furious with me and has stormed out of the house after lecturing me.

There are numerous reasons for his anger, namely the fact that I didn't stay at home after the hospital and the fact that I had to go to the hospital in the first place. In his opinion, all I had done was conjure up the attack and had been attacked by a stray dog or wild coyote. Despite the policemen who have stated in the report that they had seen a massive wolf attacking me, he refuses to believe any of it. Especially about the man in the house.

It amazes me that someone can be so minded to blatantly ignore the facts.

"He was very worried about you," my mother pulls away. She picks up my bandaged arm and looks it up over for the umpteenth time, "I know how prickly he's been since Steph died, but he's trying his best. He lost a lot of his family in tragic ways like this, Mellie, so this is a lot for him."

I bow my head. What she really meant is that he's trying and I'm not helping at all. I want to snip back at her—I feel like I should—but I can't muster the strength. Instead, I sit quietly and let her make my father a hundred and one excuses for the way he acts around me.

Finally, I look up at her, "Mom...do you believe me?"

"What do you mean?"

"The man—the break-in. The wolf. Steph's death. Do you believe me?"

She's stumped. So much so that she can't find the words to bullshit me anymore.

"Amelia, where are you going?"

She calls out to me, but I continue out to the back yard and down the path to the forest. I'm fill with trepidation going back into the forest after the previous night, but I can't stay in the house either. Out here, I know that at least Steph is out here—she's here and she's watching over me.

I make my way to the puddle from last night. Massive pawprints lead the way, not much bigger than the size of my palm. The wolf from last night was not nearly as large as the ones I have come across in the past, but he was still solidly built and bigger than any wolf I have come across before.

I crouch down and touch the mugwort that grow by the water. They had protected me. It's an insane thought but so is everything that has happened these past months. If a man can become a hellhound, then what is so far-fetched about magical plants?

Taking a deep breath, I pluck a couple leaves from the mugwort and shove them into my pockets. I need to talk to Rachel. She may be able to help me find out more about the herbs that Steph was studying—and if I'm lucky, she will take me to her friend Mallory.

"Amelia."

I turn around but only see a flash of something black disappear behind the trees. My chest tightens. There's someone here, just like the last time I had been in this forest. I bounce on the balls of my feet, itching to run straight back to my house. But I don't feel the same prickly fear I had felt around that man—all I'm full of right now is uncertainty.

"Steph?"

"Over here."

It's another voice, higher and croakier than the last. It comes from the left of me but again, I only see a streak of who used to be there. My entire body is trembling by now, and I brace myself in anticipation. It can't be him—the whispers are coming from women.