Mike Sommers stared at the gloomy twenty-foot tall Russian facility from the safety of Scott’s car. A ball of sadness and guilt formed in his throat as he wringed the soda can in his hand, his heart aching for his daughter. God, his daughter. Everytime he thought about her he remembered the look of fright on her little face as he had done the irreparable physical damage to her that fateful night. He hadn’t remembered much, in fact he had remembered next to nothing from that first night, but the frightened look on Lauren’s face still followed him around and haunted his waking moments till this day.
“Have you seen enough?” Scott asked from the driver’s seat, his hands on the wheel.
“No. Let’s wait a little more.” Mike replied as he pushed his hair from his eyes and drank deeply from the can in his hand. He’d grown his hair out, from his characteristic policeman crew cut to a fuzzy hipster-like haircut. His previously clean-shaven jaw sported a full beard now. He looked older, leaner, like the lycanthropy running through his veins was slowly taking away his will to live.
Before Scott had found him in the woods that night with a couple of Mike’s old policemen colleagues, he had lived his life fully in wolf-form, in the forest, feeding off rabbits, voles and the occasional deer or goat, vowing to never become a full human again. After their meeting in the woods, Scott had become his closest friend and confidant, helping him regain his sanity and control his beastly side.
“Hey.” Scott urgently tapped him as they saw two security guards approaching their vehicle curiously. Mike sat low and hid his face as Scott maneuvered the car out of the parking lot in front of the lab.
“That old Russian douchebag.” Scott swore “I hope I never see him in a dark alley at night. I would gladly give up my badge to ram a good punch up his groin.”
They had left the lab behind them and were now surrounded with woods on either side. Mike said nothing, just gazed dully out the window.
Scott stared at him “Hey. What’s on your mind?”
“I want to see that slimeball. I want him to come out of his little Russian nest and face me. I want to see him pay for what he did to my family, to me, to my-my–” Tears choked him up.
“Your daughter.” Scott finished “Your wife.”
“Yes,” Mike said, swallowing hard. They were out of the woods that surrounded the lab now, turning left into the main street in Perkins.
“I never saw my wife again. I don’t know if she’s dead or alive. Do you know what he did to me?” Mike asked “Physically. Mentally. He–destroyed me. The physical scars have healed but the mental ones are still there. The pain, it was unbearable. Sometimes I look back at that night and wish I hadn’t gotten so drunk. If I were sober, I would have been able to fight him off.” He gulped down the last of his coke and threw the can out of the window.
Scott did not reply. He glanced at the other man as he mused with his face to the open window. “Do you believe your daughter is still alive?” He asked.
Mike looked at him. “What?”
“Do you believe your daughter is still alive?” He repeated.
“I-sometimes I see her. In my dreams, everytime I close my eyes. She’s grown now.” He chuckled sadly “My Lauren.”
“Don’t you think you need to find her? Give her the chance to be with you again?”
Mike was shaking his head even before Scott finished. “No.” He said, his voice broken with guilt. “No, how do I face her after what I did? How will she ever forgive me? How do I go on living if she never forgives me? I cursed her!”
“Sometimes,” Scott said “A curse can turn out to be the greatest blessing. You need to try. Find your daughter, make amends. The only way you can finally be free from the clutches of that doctor is to be reunited with her, Michael. Find your daughter.”
☆
In the dream, Lauren was a child again, in her house in Perkins, walking down the carpeted hallway to the kitchen, from where the beastly sounds were emanating. This time she held a lamp in her hands, and from its glow could see that instead of hands, she had furry, wolf-like claws.
She could see herself as if from a distance, wearing the Donald Duck pajamas she’d loved so much as a child. Her soft pajama slippers muted her footsteps, and strands of hair clung to the nape of her neck. She was sweating buckets. She knew what she would find at the end of the hallway. This nightmare was so very familiar to her.
As she got to the end and opened the door to the kitchen, the beast snuffled and raised its head from the mess it had created. But instead of the wolf she was familiar with, she found herself staring into Eric’s face. She opened her mouth to scream in terror-
And woke up, gasping, her heart slamming painfully into her ribs. She was in her bed in Beacontown, far away from Perkins and its many monsters. Her heart slowed down as she looked around her room and saw her window open and a dark figure sitting on the windowsill.
Her well-trained eyes revealed the dark figure to be Aidan. He chuckled as she gasped again and clung to her bedcovers.
“Stop doing that.” She gritted her teeth in anger.
“Doing what?” He raised his eyebrows mockingly and stood up from the windowsill. The moonlight bounced cleanly off his skin and set his long black hair on silvery fire. Lauren couldn’t help appreciating just how beautiful he looked with the moonlight all over him. Like a wolf-god, she thought.
“Stalking me.” She replied. “It’s creepy.”
“The view from your bedroom window is magnificent. Also, you drool when you sleep.” He chuckled again as Lauren’s hand flew to her mouth in search of drool.
She groaned “How are you so annoying? It’s not polite to steal into someone’s room in the middle of the night.”
Aidan sighed theatrically and moved towards the open window “Well. I’ll just go then.”
“I didn’t say that.” Lauren said quickly. They both stared at each other from opposite sides of the room the events of the afternoon hanging unspoken between them. Lauren hadn’t had a chance to talk to him after their meeting with Jacob Boris. Aidan had left the pack after the awkward introduction and she’d had to stay behind with the Alpha. Aidan’s dad.
She still found it difficult reconciling Alpha Jacob’s bushy, curly locks and short stocky frame with Aidan’s tall stature and dark looks. They were as unalike as any two people could be.
“We need to talk. About today.” She said.
Aidan sighed again “I was afraid you’d say that.” He moved towards her and sat on the edge of her bed. She pulled the covers more securely around her, conscious of the fact that she wore nothing more than her shortest shorts and a very flimsy singlet.
“My father was a lawyer.” He began. “A very rich, very successful one. My mom on the other hand had me when her health was at its most fragile. She was very sick, and her doctors advised her to get rid of the pregnancy, or it would claim her life. She, however refused to abort me. The pregnancy took a toll on her and when she had me, she was nothing more than a shadow of a woman. She died minutes after birthing me.” He paused.
Lauren stared at him eagerly. All his easy charm seemed to have been stripped off under the memory of the story he was recounting.
“My father loved my mother very much, and he turned away from me after she died. He probably blamed me for taking her life. He never showed me much love, if any at all. He used to hide me away, and very few people knew he had a son. I was sent to a private boarding school, and I rarely came home.
“I used to be a very inquisitive and imaginative child. I loved tales of supernatural beings, werewolves in particular. I was quite obsessed with Shapeshifters. It fascinated me, a world in which these creatures existed in packs. I might have even fancied myself a werewolf once or twice, because I believed I didn’t belong in the normal world of humans. Then one day when I was ten, I happened to be at home.
“It was night when my father came home from work. He was not quite himself. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were bloodshot. I managed to help him to his room and locked the door behind him. Then it happened.”
“What–happened?” Lauren asked quietly.
“The moon came out, and the screams began. He sounded like he was in much agony, and despite knowing-or rather suspecting-what was happening, I went to his room. And he bit me, and left me for dead.” He finished.
Lauren stretched her hand to hold his. In a strange way she felt she had lived his story. She felt she understood him in deeper ways, like they shared the same story.
“I don’t remember much from my own Change.” She murmured “I guess that’s a good thing. Not remembering. The memories can’t tie you down then.”
“The shock I felt when I saw him again, standing before me. Even after all those years, I still recognize him. I’d believed he had been killed off, or maybe that’s what I hoped had happened to him.” Aidan looked up at her.
“But Alpha Jacob-Your dad-he’s a good man. He’s changed. I’ll show you that.” Lauren said, squeezing his hand.
He chuckled bitterly and withdrew his hand “You’re sweet, Lauren, for thinking that. Your Alpha Jacob might be a good man, but my dad wasn’t.”
“But it’s the truth. Believe me.” She said. Her hands and arms sported tiny goosebumps. Aidan noticed this and rubbed a finger along her hand. “You’re cold.” He said.
Beth laughed “That’s a joke, right? I can’t get cold. You know that.”
“No, but let’s pretend you are. I’ll keep you warm.” Swiftly Aidan crossed the bed and snuggled close to her. His knees bumped into her bare one and she felt the goosebumps race all over her body. She’d never been this close to a boy except for Eric, and he didn’t make her heart race from a mere knee bump.
Aidan sighed, closed his eyes and put his arm around her. “This feels good.”
“So about your dad-” She asked.
Aidan tensed. Lauren could feel his side harden and a small shiver of apprehension moved through her body. Had she said the wrong thing?
“Nothing more about him, Lauren please. I’m trying to forget.” He murmured.
Lauren fell silent and watched him. She was aware of his arm around her shoulders, his fingers hanging loosely by her side. His lean muscles melded to hers and his long dark hair was pulled back behind her bedstead. His eyelashes cast dark shadows on his cheekbones and she noticed a circle of reddened skin around his neck. She frowned, wondering what had caused them.
He mimicked her frown, his brows knitting together. “Why are you looking at me?”
Lauren flushed “Sorry.”
“Stop. It’s distracting.” He muttered.
“Well you’re distracting.” She blurted.
Aidan opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. He raised an eyebrow mockingly “Oh, really?”
“I-I mean-that was not what I meant!” She tried to move away from him but his arm would not budge. She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Somehow she was in the circle of his arm, and his mouth found hers in the darkness.
At first she thought he was as surprised by the kiss as she was. His mouth was hard on hers, then he put both arms around her and pulled her against him.
His lips softened. She could hear the rapid beat of his heart, taste the sweetness in his mouth. Oranges, she thought. She twisted her hands into his hair and it curled around her fingers, silky and fine. Her heart was hammering, and there was a rushing sound in her ears, like flowing water. Suddenly Aidan drew away from her with a muffled exclamation and leapt from the bed. His hands went to his neck and the ring of reddened flesh there, his face was shocked and confused.
“What’s wrong?” Lauren asked. She threw the bedcovers aside and came to him, arms beckoning.
“No.” He walked backwards to the open window and climbed the windowsill. “Aidan!” She called, but he had fled from the window, landing neatly on the ground. She ran to her window and watched him run, the lingering taste of their kiss on her lips, as he blended into the darkness outside.