When Lim awoke, the first thing her mind registered was the prickle of leaves and twigs on the left side of her face. Rolling over, she saw the stick that had knocked her out lying to her side. With a groan she sat up and rubbed her head ruefully. Although the bump that should have been there was gone, there was dried blood on the side of her face.
When she’d stumbled on Aidan and Lauren it had been night. Now a soft morning light was streaming in through the trees and birds were chirping merrily on the branches. They must have taken Lauren hours ago. God, how long had she been knocked out?
Lim looked around and saw Lauren’s phone lying a few metres away. She picked it up and saw that the screen had been cracked and badly damaged. Apart from the cellphone there was nothing else to show that Aidan or Lauren or any of the hooded guys had stood there some time ago. She stood to her feet and shuffled forward, gripping a nearby tree as a wave of vertigo hit her.
“Damn,” she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut “Damn, damn, damn! Get yourself together, Lim!”
She needed to alert Beth and the rest of her pack about everything that had happened. Leaning against the tree trunk, she took several steadying breaths, then braced herself and took unsure steps again, this time more stable on her feet. Going in wolf-form would be faster, she thought. With that thought in mind she Changed: one minute a girl with choppy black and blue hair, the next a big black werewolf with blue streaks in its fur. She started with a steady trot, then raced swifty and determinedly in the direction of Lauren and Beth’s house.
☆
“She’s not picking her damn phone!” Beth said, pacing the living room and tapping at her phone screen. She let out a string of profanities as Lauren’s number, once more, went to voice mail.
“I’m sure-I’m sure she’s fine. Lauren can take care of herself. She’s a werewolf! If that isn’t a consolation, I don’t know what is.” Axel said and tried to hold Beth down, but she deftly slipped through his fingers.
“She’s a werewolf! The exact reason she could be in danger! Seriously, am I the only one worried here?” She glared at Axel and turned to Mike with a pleading look.
Mike looked up from the corner where he sat in silence and caught the look on her face. “I-I don’t know.” He uttered. “There’s really nothing we can do. Dr Makovsky could as well have her now.”
“Don’t say that!” Beth snapped “That’s absurd. You’re not even trying to think about saving her. Even if you don’t believe it now, you’re her father in more ways than Dr Makovsky could ever be. You stayed with her for twelve years even though she wasn’t yours to take care of! You-”
“Yeah, and what use is that?” Mike yelled back, the pain in his eyes raw and evident “Did you see the look she gave me after I told her the truth, before she ran out that back door? She-she hates me! She detests me for biting her and changing her life forever. How could I ever live that down?”
“Guys!” Axel stepped in between them “We’re all tense, I know that. Can we all just take a moment to calm down before we run ourselves mad? We’ll plan better if we’re not trying to tear each other apart. Now, what if she isn’t even in the Doctor’s clutches? She could still be in the woods, crying her heart out or something.”
“That’s highly-” Beth started but stopped suddenly and looked towards the door. A noise was coming from it, a frantic scratching and panting. Axel moved swiftly and Beth followed, opening the door. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of the person on the other side.
“What the-” He breathed.
“Lim?” Beth called, surprised.
☆
The large wolf bounded into the living room and stopped in the middle, regarding Mike with a baleful look. She waited for Axek and Beth to reach her and Changed back into her human form, a small curvy girl standing in their middle.
“Lim, is everything okay? What happened? Is-Is this about Lauren?” Beth asked.
“She was in the woods with Aidan, I saw them. They were talking, and then they were kissing, and then they were surrounded by some hooded guys. And then-” She looked at each of them in turn. Beth and Axel were looking af her eagerly and Mike was sitting forward in his seat.
“And then-And-” She stammered, hands twisting the hem of her oversize T-shirt.
“What in the heck happened, girl?” Axel urged her.
“I climbed a nearby tree to watch them, and Aidan sort of told the hooded guys to attack her. He said a bunch of things about how she wasn’t special and how he could barely stand her presence these past few days, about a werewolf pack and someone named Dr Makovsky.” Lim said and Beth covered her mouth in horror.
“So I jumped down from the tree and knocked Aidan, hitting him on a tree. I thought we were winning the battle and I would save Lauren, but he sneaked up on me from the back and hit me here,” she touched the left side of her head “With a stick.”
“That confirms it.” Mike cut in “Dr Makovsky has taken Lauren.”
Lim spared Mike another baleful look “Who’s he?”
“Lauren’s-” Axel started but stopped at the pained look on Mike’s face. He averted his eyes and continued.
“Then we have to rescue her. But we’re going to need help. Mike was able to escape from the facility once, but he could only have done it because he is a werewolf.”
“Lauren can do that, right?” Said Mike “She should be able to escape. If she Changes-”
“Mike, remember when you escaped it was under entirely different circumstances.” Beth cut in, remembering that night that she had Turned Mike at the facility “We never expected you to run wild, and security at the lab wasn’t very strong that night. But now Dr Makovsky has more guards and from what I heard, a lot of werewolves too. It will be harder for her to escape this time.”
“So we would need more of us. More shapeshifters.” Lim finished for him. She dug her hands into the pocket of her cargo pants “We need to reach Alpha Jacob for help.”
Mike sat up “Who’s Alpha Jacob?”
Beth turned to him, a hard expression on her face. “Come on, Mike.” She said “It’s time you met some other werewolves.”
☆
Katherine looked up with a start as the metal grates of her prison clanged open. Unlike the last time she’d had a visitor, she was in an unkempt state. Her hair was in a disarray and there were dried tear streaks on her cheeks. Her hands trembled and she clasped them together, trying to calm her frayed nerves.
“Frank,” she called out feebly “Is that you?”
“It’s me, Katherine dear. And I’ve got a visitor for you.” Dr Makovsky said, his halting English echoing through the metal walls.
He slowly stepped into her room, two people following closely behind him. It was a guard, holding a girl tightly in his arms. She whimpered as the guard let her go at a cue from Dr Makovsky, and he turned to her.
“I brought someone to brighten your day. I do love a good reunion, don’t you?” With a flick of his wrists he pulled back the girl’s deep brown hair and caressed her face, his smile cold as frost as she flinched instinctively. “She looks like us, doesn’t she? Though more like you, I’d say. Same soft brown hair, same deep brown eyes. The perfect replica. But then she has my jaw, my nose. She’s perfect for us.”
Katherine gripped her bed for support. She was in a state of emotional turmoil, though she tried to keep a calm, unfazed face. “You are so messed up, Frank. Why did you bring her here? I begged you.”
“Because,” he widened his arms “I want my family back together. Back to the way it used to be twenty years ago. Just me and you, with the beautiful addition of a baby we made together.”
“Frank, stop this.” She said in a quivering voice “This battle is between you and I. Leave her out of this, please.”
“Oh, Kat sweetheart. Ths battle is more than just between you and I. This battle is between me and the rest of this world. Remember when I told you dark times are near? Yes. We are going to build an army together, with I at the helm, and you by my side.” He moved closer to Katherine, dragging Lauren with him and releasing her at the foot of Katherine’s bed, then turned and left the room.
Lauren collapsed to the ground after Dr Makovsky left them. On her wrist was a glowing blue metal collar, and in her eyes were tears shed and unshed. Slowly she looked up at the figure on the bed, the person who looked so much like her, and the tears dropped from her eyes.
“Mom.”