WE STARED AT each other for close to a minute. I didn’t move a muscle except for eyes which were blinking.
Then slowly, he backed away from me and I breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down on his hind limbs and bent his ears back.
I glanced on the floor around and saw the torn clothes that he had been putting on before he shifted.
I groaned.
I suddenly heard a howl.
From the tenor, length and strength, it was the howl of an alpha.
But I was just imagining things, we were in the middle of nowhere. A werewolf pack can’t just appear out of – There it was, I heard again.
Jake raised his nose to the moon and gave a deep and long howl.
The howl from the alpha came again and Jake ears perked up. He gave a low whine and shot forward.
I scrambled to pack our stuffs and ran after him.
He didn’t slow down, He just kept the pace until I thought I could not talk it any longer and was prepared for him to leave me when we burst into a very large compound with a big mansion set far back behind the driveway and some trees.
Jake stopped just before we entered the compound.
This was another territory. We could not just go in without being invited, it was rude.
So we stood just outside the boundaries, Jake howled again.
We still couldn’t see any wolf in sight but we received a reply from the alpha in form of another howl.
Jake raced into the territory, I scrambled behind him. The yard was much bigger than I thought. He ran into a thick forest just behind the mansion. I followed his winding path till we came upon an opening with about 2 dozen werewolves.
Jake walked slowly, his head was bowed in respect as he sat down with the others and joined them in howling as led by the Alpha.
I stood in the woods, about 15 feet away, not knowing what do with myself. So I just held my hands behind me and waited.
I didn’t have to wait long though, because they all trooped back after a minute. Jake followed the Alpha, and I followed Jake.
The other wolves dispersed on the way, I guessed it was maybe to shift back to human form and dress up to welcome us as we got to the mansion.
We got to the front doors of the mansion. It was massive from up close.
5 storeys of many windows and doors. It was painted white. It had an aristocratic look and feel, like it was maybe a century old.
A brown tall lady opened the door before we knocked. She was dressed in a bathrobe. I had guessed right, she had just shifted back and had thrown on a bathrobe to welcome us.
“Welcome boys.” She said. Surprisingly, she had a husky voice.
We entered the house. It was even more magnificent from the inside than the outside, if that was any more possible. High ceilings and wide hallways, the lights were so bright, it was like daylight in here.
There were nobody else that I could see.
“You will follow me.” She said.
I nodded. She took us through a massive hallway and into an elevator.
There was an elevator in a house… that was awesome.
We went up and came out into another hallway.
We entered a suite of rooms. Then she turned to Jake and said, “You shift back to human and wash up. I’ll be back for you in 10 minutes.” She walked out closing the door gently behind her.
“Isn’t this awesome?” Jake shrieked
I was startled and jumped. I hadn’t noticed when he shifted back.
“Damn… Don’t do that…”
“Sorry, I’m just so excited.” He jumped into the bathroom to wash up. I heard him yell, “This bath is awesome!!!”
“Hurry up in there.” I yelled back and went exploring the suite we were in. The suite comprised of a bedroom with twin double beds on either side and a built-in wardrobe, a bathroom with an in-toilet, a spare room that was like a surrogate sitting room. It had a fireplace in a corner and a flat screen TV in another corner. There were some couches and sofas facing the TV. The whole suite was bathed in mild and warm colours, cream, beige, chocolate. They were colours soothing to the eyes.
I went to a water dispenser and pure myself a glass of hot water to drink. Then I switched on the TV and flipped through the channels. Nothing interesting was there. I went into the bedroom and looked through the room. I checked the wardrobe, Empty. I found a radio, it was working. I trued finding a musical channel but all I got was static.
There was a quiet knock on the door. It sounded polite.
Was that even possible? For a knock to sound polite?
I opened the door to see a pretty girl there. She was of average height and was obviously a werewolf. She held a change of clothes of both me and Jake. She held them to her chest and I couldn’t help to notice her breasts. They were full.
“Luna asked me to give you this.” She said. She thrust the clothes into my hands and stood there.
“Um. T-thanks.” I stammered. I was annoyed with myself for stammering in front of this beauty. ,”I’ll just go and…” I turned and stumbled over a small table that hadn’t been there before. I swore inwardly and plundered to the bathroom, where Jake was whistling happily.
I entered the bathroom.
“Jason, How’s it going?” Je same through the shower curtains.
“There was a girl just outside… she’s so pretty, the sight of her made me stammer. I think I like her.”
“Of course, you do.” He said in a bored tone. Then he giggled and said, “Well, what did she want?”
I held the clothes up. They were both our sizes. The size difference between me and Jake was hardly noticeable. I selected a pain of brown joggers and a hoodie sweater and passed it through to him.
“She delivered this.” I said.
“Cool… so cool.” He breathed out. “I’m almost done here.”
I walked out of the bathroom and almost had a heart attack when I saw the girl seated on a couch facing the TV.
She turned to me. “Did he like it?”
I glanced at the bathroom and then back at her. I felt a sudden chill when I realised that she would have been hearing every word I said in there, that I called her pretty and that she made me stutter and that I-
“You’re not a wolf, are you?” She asked and got up sharply.
“I-um,” I gulped down when she walked towards me and stopped less than 3 feet away. We were almost chest to breast.
Then she leaned forward and looked right into my eyes. “Hmm…” She seemed to study my face. I started feeling squirmish. I felt like i was microorganism under a microscope and searchlight.
“What are you?” She said, silently, still staring into my eyes.
“I’m nothing.” I gulped again.
“There’s a flash of green in there…” She muttered to herself. She leaned closer still. I could perceive her lavender perfume. We were nose to nose now.
Then Jake came bursting in from the door. We both jumped and looked at him. He saw us in that position and tried going back into the bathroom where we was just coming from.
“Sorry, I’ll just go-” He scrambled at the door handle with his slippery hands.
I cleared my throat. The girl used her fingers to move a stray strand of hair behind her hair. She didn’t look at me in my face again.
There was a knock again on the door. This one was an authoritative knock.
II had just stood up to answer the floor when it was swung open and the tall lady that brought us here walked in with long strides. She took us all in with her eyes. Her eyes glanced from me to my clothes and to Jake and his and lastly to the girl.
“You can go, Ella.” She said to the girl.
“Thank you, Luna.” She said and curtsied a bit before going out.
Else was a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.
“You did not change.” She noted.
“um, I didn’t see any reason for it. My clothes are still okay. Thanks.”
She nodded and told us to follow her.
We walked with her into the corridor and into an elevator. Except this wasn’t really an elevator, it didn’t go up, instead it took us steadily to the left. Like a rail car.
We were going to another wing of the mansion, to see the alpha.
I listened to the boring song of the elevator. Jake looked like he would fall asleep any time now. Infact, he WAS falling asleep.
I kicked him discreetly, he didn’t feel it. I stepped on his foot, he still didn’t budge. I nudged him sharply on his ribs. He started and glared at me.
The Luna turned back to look at us. I gave a smile, Jake stifled a yawn.
The elevator stopped with a ‘ding’ sound and the doors slid open without a sound. And we stepped out.
It was obvious that this was another wing of the mansion. The hallway was wide and high. The walls looked sound proof, the whole place was terribly silent.
We walked briskly and came upon a door, which she opened and invited us in. This was the Alpha suite. It had his office in here too.
She directed us to sit, we obliged then she walked into an inner room and came out with a man. The alpha. We both stood up as they approached. Simple courtesy.
He was not a big man. Not much taller than me. We was lean and sported a little goatee which he constantly stroked.
“Welcome boys.” He said in a surprisingly deep voice. “You may sit.” He gestured us to the sofa and then he sat on an armchair opposite us.
“What are your names?” He asked.
“Jake Morton.”
“Jason Beckham.”
“You’re from the United Kingdom? English boys?”
We both nodded. “London.” I said.
“God… then how the hell did you get here?”
We both looked away and avoided his eyes. They were black. And deep. Soul searching.
He stood up abruptly. “I’m Andrés. Andrés Salvatore. And this is my wife. Gabriella.”
“Where are we?” Jake asked.
“Red moon Pack. Brazil.”
I felt blood rush into my brain and pressure pile up in my head. I felt like fainting. We were in South America!