There were no mistakes, laid on the ground in front of our very own eyes, was not a man, let alone the young man I had seen in my vision.
It was a wolf.
Its eyes were closed, and its furry body barely showed any signs of movement as large quantities of blood pooled around its body.
Millions of thoughts were going through my head all at once. How could I have been so wrong? Where was the young man? What happened to this animal?
Selena instinctively stepped in and pulled me back: "Wait Aria!"
"It's injured," I said.
"Can't you see what that is?" She asked, and before I had the chance to answer, she said, "that's a werewolf."
"We are all werewolves." I was confused.
Besides, what did it matter? We didn't have a rule book to say we could only save humans. My vision was right all along, this was still the same young man, only in his shifted wolf form.
"Werewolves run in packs, it's rare for one to be alone." She continued, her suspicions arise.
"Maybe he was cast out by his pack," I said. The ones that tried to challenge my father were cast out. They usually suffered severe injuries, it was a fight to the death.
"We can't bring him back with us. The others will smell its scent and....." Selena shook her head firmly.
...And kill him.
I already knew in my minds what she was about to say. "If we leave him out here he is bound to die too," I said.
"It's not our problem." Selena was rather firm. Their pack saved humans from werewolf attacks, but they have never tried to bring an injured werewolf back to their camp.
Selena was being very stubborn, I've certainly never seen her like this before. She was always eager to please and bubbly, being helpful seemed to be part of her nature. This seemed very odd.
"Why don't we bring him along halfway?" I begged, "I could hide him somewhere nearby and he can leave once he gets better?"
Selena hesitated. She couldn't explain why but she had a bad feeling about this. Not so dissimilar to that night when she left that bar in Paris alone...
I negotiated desperately. "I promise he won't come anywhere near our territory."
I promise I won't tell anyone.....Those were the last words Selena uttered to her attacker before he sank his teeth into her soft flesh. She shook her head as if trying to get rid of those horrible memories. If it weren't for Aria's parents, she wouldn't know where she would be.
"Ok," she finally said, "I'll grab his head and you grab his legs." If this beast tried to bite anyone, she'll be able to handle it.
The journey back home always seemed to be much faster for some bizarre reason. I glanced at the back of the truck and seeing his wolf form lying there, underneath a blanket. It felt a bit surreal also a sense of achievement. No wonder my parents made it their mission to save people. It felt good. It felt elevating, it's as if your soul had been cleansed and purified.
Selena continued her drive with a frown over her face. When they were trying to clean up his wounds, she could see at least 10 areas of cuts where the blood was oozing varying in size and depth. None of which resembled bite marks or claw marks, they looked more like knife wounds. Which made her wonder if the injuries were sustained between the battle of the Alphas?
Our camp was situated in a caravan site in Bernard Castle, on the northeastern edge of Yorkshire Dales National Park. There were plenty of woodlands nearby and with the help of Selena, we found a perfect little hideaway spot about 15minutes walk away. The plan was that we'd leave him out here and I could come back once per day to check on him, bring him food and change his dressings.
Dinner was already underway by the time Selena and I arrived back at the camp. Julien was a culinary arts student at Le Cordon Bleu Paris before his werewolf days and he still had the passion for cooking, which was a blessing in disguise since no one else in our pack knew how to cook. He made wonderful, juicy steaks and chicken roulades. It was a far cry from the typical British students' diet, which seemed to revolve around pasta and a lot of beans on toast.
Selena and I went to the toilets within the camp facilities to wash our hands before joining them and out of the corner of my eyes, I could see her vigorously scrubbing her hands to make sure she scraped off every lasting trace of blood.
I was pretty convinced that she had done a superb job at cleaning her hands, but to my amazement, she brought her hands up to her nose and sniffed a few times, then grimaced and started running her hands underneath the water again.
My senses were nowhere near as good as theirs since I have yet to undergo my transformation. Every month, as the lunar full moon hung in the darkened sky, I would nervously anticipate something to change. I would look at my small, soft human hands and expect to see hairs sprouting out, or at least feel something was happening, but so far, nothing. I was still human.
The others would undergo their transformations under the full moon and roam around in the nearby forest feasting on small animals such as rabbits and foxes. They have never attacked any human beings not only because they had chosen areas where there weren't a lot of people passing through but it was also the rule of our pack, we'd promised to never turn on humans. If anyone tried to cross that line then they would be cast out.
There were altogether 8 of us in our clan. Aside from me, my father Joseph, Selena, Colin, Julien, there was also Elijah, Owen and Hazel. In a rare coincidence, Elijah and Owen were in fact cousins, studying literature at St Andrew's University. They both loved hiking and camping, whilst the former was attacked on the route of the West Highland Way in Scotland, the latter was attacked a year later walking the Camino de Santiago Galicia in northwestern Spain. Hazel was a Biology student from UCL when she was attacked in Oxfordshire. Owen has taken a shine to Hazel and they were a couple.
After Selena must've washed her hands and up to her elbows three or four times. She turned off the water tap in satisfaction. I looked at her red raw hands, surprised that she still had any skin left.
"Ok, we can go eat now." She said, finally satisfied her hands were completely clean. "Let's go, I'm starving."
I too was starting to feel hungry, but in the back of my mind, I was worried that I hadn't washed my hands thoroughly enough. Or maybe I should go change my clothes? Before I had the chance to turn back, I saw my father's tall figure walking towards us.
"Hello," He pushed up his glasses a little over the bridge of his nose. "Where have you guys been?"
Selena was grinning ear to ear at the sight of my father, she looked like a love-struck teenager. Before she had the chance to speak, I jumped in: "Selena and I went to a nearby waterfall."
He smiled: "Very good. Did you guys have fun?"
Selena and I nodded eagerly. Whilst she was speechless around my father, I was eager to avoid further probing. "Yes! It was so much fun. We're going back again tomorrow."
Then I felt myself panicking as I watch him wrinkled up his nose, then sneezed a few times in a row.
"Bless you." Selena repeated each time as he made 'achoo' sounds loudly into his sleeve.
"Thank you, Selena. I might have suddenly come down with a case of hay fever. Strange....." He rubbed his nose and slid up his glasses again. "Did you guys come across any ragweed on your adventures?"
I looked at Selena blankly, she looked back equally blank as if to say: 'what the hell is a ragweed?'
"I don't think so..." I said, choosing my words carefully. "Are you allergic to it or something?"
"Oh no, it's just that the pollen from this invasive plant causes sneezing and itchy eyes. They usually reside in the States but it has been making a steady move to the UK. You usually get them in August due to the warmer weather."
Selena looked at my father with puppy dog adoration eyes, obviously very impressed with his knowledge. But I knew even if he was talking about a plastic shopping bag she would have been equally just as impressed.
"Has everyone eaten?" I asked, trying to change to subject.
He sneezed a few more times before answering: "yes we have, dear, Julien has made his famous Bœuf Bourguignon, it's excellent as usual. We left some for you guys, it's still warm."
"Thanks, Joseph!"
"Thanks, Dad." Selena and I said almost in unison, "see you later."
"Bye Joseph." Selena waved as my father sneezed again and walked back towards his tent.
"Next time, we'll change first," I whispered to her.
She appeared to not have heard me because she was still waving, her cheeks flushed with excitement and her bright blue eyes sparkling.