FIVE HOURS LATER
(EVIE)
She was already halfway through her first mile when she realized what day it was.
It was Wednesday, and on Wednesday mornings, everyone at the cafè got a day off, and Gina claimed she couldn't run without the promise of her veggie omelet at the end of the run, which meant Evie was left to herself on Wednesdays.
Which was why she chose to exercise her wolf on Wednesday morning. She wasn't really looking forward to shifting, she considered skipping it. " No." She told herself, firmly shaking her head.
" You need consistency." She chided herself.
" If you don't want to remain as pathetic as you are for the rest of your life," she added.
After her first mile, she turned down a dirt trail she only took on Wednesdays.
The trail led through a mini forest, behind the fire station, take a detour of that trail for about fifty paces, and you find yourself in the woods, the perfect place for shifting.
Not only did it keep her well hidden from everyone else, it also had a huge clearing in the middle where her wolf could run and jump and train.
Since there were no other wolves to fight,she had spent weeks building Caricature wolves from fallen tree trunks and wood, and these caricatures served as her opponents. It wasn't much of training , but it was better than nothing.
When she got to the woods, she carefully took off her fanny pack and all her clothes. She folded the clothes and tucked them into a tree branch along with her fanny pack, before getting down on all fours.
Most wolves didn't need to get naked or get on their knees and hands before they could shift, but for someone like her who was only a few steps away from being an omega, a wolf-less werewolf, she had to do all that before she could shift.
She felt the hair on her arms ripple as her wolf prepared to emerge. " No." She screamed a second before her wolf emerged.
She had just smelt another wolf, the scent was faint, like he or she hadn't been there for a while, but they had surely been there.
She couldn't tell if it was in human form or wolf form, but what she was sure of was a wolf, much closer than she would prefer.
She hadn't been this close to a wolf in the past twelve years, she ran before they could come this close.
She had let her guard down, she knew what would happen if she did, but she had anyway. She had felt twelve years was too long to keep searching for her and had decided to let her guard down now. She let people recognize her, she made friends, she made herself part of a community.
She made it easy for them to find her, and they had found her.
It was time to leave, she was going to miss this town and the friends she had made, but it was time to leave.
She wished she could say goodbye, but that would raise too many questions. It was better to let everyone wonder.
That would be safer for her and them as well.
She tried to get her wolf to shift back to human form, but she was having none of it.
The wolf wanted to search for any signs of this intruder, but she wasn't ready to run just yet.
It might be worth it to get better acquainted with this wolf's scent, she thought. That way she could sniff him or her out faster in the future.
She gave in and let her wolf take charge, sniffling around every tree, looking for traces of this elusive wolf.
She kept going deeper and deeper into the woods.
It was a good thing wolves couldn't scream, or she would have screamed like a zombie when she found the long-haired, shiny earring-wearing man from yesterday, leaning against a tree, obviously waiting for her.
Goes to show, she thought.
The first man I fancy myself to be in love with, and he turns out to be an agent of my pack sent here to capture me.
" Foxwick." He snarled in the same voice that nearly had her jumping his bones in the bar yesterday.
" Finally, I get to meet Foxwick," he added.
Evie took a step back in confusion.
What was he talking about? She wondered.
He was one of the pack soldiers, sent after her by her uncle, Alpha Cian or his beta. Surely he had met a Foxwick before.
Unless he wasn't sent by Alpha Cian, a small part of her remarked.
But that was impossible. Who else would be after her, if not the foxwicks, the pack she had run from a dozen years ago?
" Take on your human form, mate, and I might decide to let you live." He said. " I just need you to tell me where the girls are." He added.
Evie took another step back in confusion.
What was he talking about?
What girls?
Was this why he was at the bar last night?
How had he found her?
And how had he managed to keep his wolf hidden from her all through last night?
" Come on man." He said, taking a small shiny gun out of his pocket.
Man? Evie asked herself.
Did he even know who he was talking to?
Had he gotten her missed up with another wolf? She wondered.
Even if he had gotten her mixed up with another wolf, how could he not see that the wolf in front of him was a female?
Maybe he had weak eyes just like her?
Raising the gun to stomach level, he aimed it at her left fore leg. " Shift." He said again.
" There are silver bullets in this gun." He added when Evie remained motionless. " Don't make me waste them on you." He added.
Wondering what the hell was going on, Evie stood on her hind legs and shifted back into human form.