A Wolf's Miracle

Chapter 5

The cold air brought with it the sounds of screaming. And as soon as she heard them, her smile disappeared. We started running to the clearing, Harlan and Selene were faster, incredibly fast. I didn't know if it was because I was injured but I had never seen people move that fast before. It was superhuman.

I struggled to keep up with them, I only caught up when they stopped "Harlan" she looked at him with serious eyes. And he seemed extremely upset about something.

"What is going on?" I said as these two kept staring at each other.

"No," he said angrily"No way" he crossed his arms. Her gaze grew colder and colder until that warmness about her disappeared. She looked different without a smile. She looked extremely intimidating. I was taller than Selene but I had never felt smaller. Harlan took a step back and lowered his gaze.

"You dare to disobey me?" her voice was deeper and filled with anger."You will do as I say, there is no time" She looked at me, and I could have sworn I saw a flash of violet in her blue eyes." Harlan will bring you back to the house, I have to go check on everyone," she said calmly.

Harlan grabbed her arm"Be careful" was all he said before he let her go.

"What the hell is going on?" It was quite clear something bad was happening"Is someone hurt?"

"Yes" was all he said before he grabbed my arm and started walking. Selene disappeared to the east, but we kept walking north.

"Where are we going?" I made an unsuccessful attempt at freeing my arm while Harlan didn't even budge."If someone is hurt, I can help, I don't understand why you are being so secretive about this"

He stopped, turned around, and grabbed me by my shoulders " Diana, don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to" His eyes were filled with what others may see as aggression, but I knew better.

"You are scared" His eyes softened as I said that. He looked as though he wanted to say something, but all he did was let me go and kept walking. I followed. It was clear he didn't want to talk about something and after how rude he was earlier, I couldn't care less.

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We didn't walk for long before we reached the back of a very tall structure. We are here. As he opened the door I could see we were back in Selene's house. "We went around the clearing and came through the back door?" I asked and he just nodded.

We entered the house and Harlan closed the door behind us. I looked around to see in which part of the house I was but I had no idea. I followed Harlan trying to take note of all the things I saw, trying to memorize the path. I had a feeling this would be quite useful. We took a left turn and opened the door. Suddenly we were in the room with the gigantic staircase and the main entrance I had used to exit the premises. 

As soon as we entered Harlan stopped in his tracks. I was about to ask why when he brought up his finger to his mouth. "There is someone in the house," My anger turned into fear as he started walking very slowly again. We walked over to the stairway and he stopped at its base "Go to your room and don't come out, no matter what you hear. Bolt the door and don't come close to the windows, they could see you." I had millions of questions, but it was clearly not the time. I had no idea what he intended to do but I had the feeling that if I insisted to stay I would only get in his way.  I nodded and turned around as I went up the grand staircase. 

The stairs were made of wood. They began as one gigantic one and then separated into two sets, one that led to the right side of the second floor, and naturally the other led to the left. As I turned right I knew Harlan had left a while ago, but I had a feeling that if I didn't hurry, I'd regret it. 

I rushed into my room and locked the door then pushed the wooden dresser against it. I panted hard, feeling the adrenaline rush through my body. Something was happening. So far I knew someone had probably been attacked. The fact that there was someone in the house was the biggest indicator. I had no idea how Harlan knew that though. I had been standing very close to him and I didn't notice there had been an intruder. The house was very big for him to have noticed another's presence, the person had to be close. 

I paced around the room anxiously nervously glancing at the doors and windows. They were covered with thick curtains that impeded the sunlight from entering. The only source of light was the fire roaring comfortably in the fireplace and the chandelier on the ceiling. I tried to compose my thoughts but questions I didn't know the answer to started to arise. Who would want to attack these people? Is it the person that harmed me? Have they come back?

The thought petrified me. My life up to this point had been peaceful, with the sole exception of my parent's death. I had never experienced such violence and had no idea why someone would hurt these people.

Are they in the mob? Was that it? I simply couldn't organize my thoughts.

The sound of crashing and wood breaking pulled me out of my thoughts. I was compelled to make sure Harlan was okay but I listened to what he said. I stayed put. Though I had no idea why I was listening to a man I found so incredibly aggravating. I sat on the bed, closing my eyes each time I heard another sound. 

I went to hold on to the covers when I felt Selene's phone laying there on the bed. I could call the police, I had no idea why I didn't think of this sooner and though they probably wouldn't arrive on time I had to try. I picked up the phone and went to dial when my heart dropped. There was no signal. I knew there used to be, I had made a call before. Selene did say the signal here was terrible, but I had feared whoever had come had done something to thwart attempts of calling for help. 

The crashing stopped, that could either be good or terrible. And I wasn't stupid enough to go out and check. This was always how people got ambushed in the movies. I would never be stupid enough to leave somewhere safe just to make sure Harlan was alright. Even though I was beginning to understand the appeal of such an act. Minutes had passed and already the anxiety of not knowing was eating me alive. Why would I care if he was okay? He was an arrogant jerk. Yes, he had saved my life. Twice apparently. But that didn't help the fact he was extremely unpleasant and not even that handsome anyway. I mean, he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, but I don't know a lot of people. 

My internal conflict halted when I heard distant howling. Wolves. I knew there were wolves in these lands. I had seen one. I don't think the lone black wolf was the creature that bit me. It may be foolish of me but those eyes, but those eyes gave me a sensation of peace I had never experienced before. I just knew he wasn't there to hurt me. I couldn't really explain where this feeling came from as I knew it was a clearly irrational one. I also didn't really know why I thought it was a male. But of both of those things, I had no doubt.