"Do not listen to him! Daniel Evans, I swear, you say one more word..." Marie warned, while tossing her partially eaten fry his way. The offending object did nothing for her cause as he effortlessly caught it with his mouth and chewed it triumphantly. A smug grin answered her lousy attempts at threatening him.
A half-humored, half-frustrated grunt escaped her lips before she reached across the middle console to clap her hand over his mouth instead. His continued mumblings beneath her palm pulled at the corners of her mouth and scrunched her nose in exasperation. She knew he wouldn't give up that easily.
"You say one more word and you'll be sleeping under the stars," she promised. Not a typical punishment, but it applied well knowing they were on their way to a camping site for the weekend; a cold weekend. The flurries outside promised a chilling forest floor.
"Without my snuggable body heat, you'll be an icicle by morning with no one to mourn you."
Daniel laughed and reached up to curl his fingers around her wrist, pulling her hand down into his lap. He took hostage of it there with the threading of their fingers so the story could be continued without threat of another fry attack.
"Headlights flooded her room." He chuckled mid-sentence when she tried to wiggle her hand free. "She insisted that it was just a passing car but I could have sworn I heard car doors shutting. I was ready to call it quits right there but then, man, she took off that robe and you will not believe what she was wearing."
"Nothing!" Joseph exclaimed from the back amongst a mouthful of chewed burger that spewed out in a disgusting display of debris. Much to the horror of his backseat companion, Christine, who scooted further away from him and the propulsion. Even in the midst of his most pleasing activity - eating - Joseph was never one to pass on the opportunity to instigate given the window to do so.
Daniel found himself preoccupied again with fighting Marie's squirming hand. A struggle that threw her elbow against the steering wheel, pushing it sharply to the left.
"Hey!" Joseph yelled as his fries sprinkled the floor when the SUV lurched to one side then back again when Daniel's quick reflexes corrected their course. "Careful, I'm eating back here." The near accident was frightening enough to push Marie back in her seat, relenting to his hold on her hand. Last thing she wanted was her childish play to cause an accident.
"Yes, don't mess with his food, he gets very angry. Never mind about the fact that you're risking our lives." Sarcasm laced Christine's voice who, up until that point, remained happily focused on the passing scenery and dodging food bits. Better that, than watching Joseph eat like a starved cow. "Concentrate on your driving, I'd like to get there with all limbs attached if you don't mind."
A glare was directed at the back of Daniels head while she secured the lid on her drink. The flimsy piece of plastic popped off when they had swerved and she had squeezed the cup between her thighs to hold it.
"And let Daniel finish the story," she insisted as she reached forward to flick the back of Marie's head. "You know he'd tell Joseph and you'd tell me, so might as well just tell us both now. Besides, I know what you were wearing. I talked you into buying it since it worked so well on Joseph." Dark blue eyes peeked at her boyfriend from over the lid of her drink as she sipped the spilled droplets from the rim. She was ready to ward off his attack but all she got was a stern look and the shake of a fry in her direction.
"You're lucky I don't want to waste anymore of my food."
"Oh puh-lease, you'll eat the ones that fell on the floor when you've emptied the carton and realize you're still hungry." Joseph looked as if he were about to deny it but then shrugged and took another large bite out of his burger.
"Yeah, probably," he mumbled around the half-chewed food. Christine wrinkled her nose in disgust for a moment wondering what the hell she ever saw in him. One look at his face and the toned muscle hinted below his t-shirt was a good reminder. Eh...not like it was forever, a shrug lifted her shoulders before she returned to her own burger, brow rising when she caught a determined pair of dark brown eyes peering at her from the front. Uh oh...
Marie hooked her chin over the top of the seat, trying desperately to change the subject. "No no...do go on Christine. I'm sure Daniel will love to know how well it worked on Joseph." Yes, she would tell Christine eventually. But that was a much different situation for the sharing of stories. With Joseph in the car, it just felt weird. He was like a brother to her.
"I already know," Daniel quipped happily, receiving the stink eye from his girlfriend soon followed by her famous pout. "Don't give me that look. Just give up. I'm going to tell them the story. Christine's right. They'd find out from us sooner or later. You know how they are. They'd annoy us to the bitter end until we coughed up the details."
"Hey!" Joseph and Christine chimed in together. Both knowing it was true but couldn't help defending their bad habit.
Marie and Daniel laughed in tune, an exchanged kiss following soon afterwards. She couldn't help it. She loved the man. Most of the time. Staying mad at him just wasn't an option.
"Look Out!" Joseph and Christine screamed together, their tones much different than before. Daniel's attention snapped forward just in time to see the flash of fur before they collided with it. Within seconds, the SUV was reduced to crushed metal. The front of their SUV crumbled like paper around the fluff of fur that impossibly stopped it. The force of it sent a vibration through the vehicle that blew out the windows and warped the metal frame sending it into a seemingly unending roll. Food and drink flew everywhere but nobody cared this time.
Marie's body jolted forward, cracking her forehead against the shattered windshield. Lights exploded and time seemed to slow around her. The lack of seat belt allowing her body to be thrown about as if gravity escaped the small collapsing cabin quickly losing its shape to the stone jagged earth. The last flip knocked the remaining breath from her lungs and laid her to rest on her back, feeling the cool grass against her flesh where the windshield used to be. It was a miracle the car didn't toss her from it.
The first few breaths forced into her lungs were harsh and hissed through slightly parted lips. She didn't want to move but the eerie silence within the car urged the shuffle of her shoulders, trying to pull her body around enough to find her friends. A groan of pain quickly following as her body opposed the movement.
They had to be alright...please god.
The first one she saw was Daniel who hung suspended from his seatbelt, both arms resting limply on the SUVs crushed ceiling. He was so pale, already covered in blood. Her shaking fingers reached out, only just brushing his when the darkness that ebbed at the corners of her consciousness overflowed and pulled her down into it.
~~~~~~~~~
Animals...Marie faintly heard the growls through the haze of her fogged mind. She was afraid, yet felt an unforeseen tug that wanted her to wake. Slowly, the shock and half-conscious state cleared to such a blinding pain that she screamed and dared not move.
"Help!" Her voice was broken and weak. Her forced concentration sought the desired help she hoped to be outside but instead found the blurred image of a long brown snout with a white line down the nose as it reached through her broken window, sniffing at her hair.
If there'd been strength for another scream she would have admitted it willingly in fear from the gigantic wolf as its teeth clamped a hold of her hoodie and started to pull her free. The direction of the pull allowed her one last glance at the driver's seat, Daniel was gone. Before her mind could even process it, she felt her consciousness slipping away again.
YOU ARE READING
Would Be Hunter - Completed
Werewolf"It is unfortunate that you had to come to me under these circumstances. I have been looking for you, for a long time." The kiss that followed was unexpected and made her stiffen in his hold; yet, she somehow wanted to melt against him at the same t...
